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Telco tower firm allots P3.7B for PHL expansion

STOCK PHOTO | Image by David Arrowsmith from Unsplash

By Ashley Erika O. Jose, Reporter

EDOTCO Towers Inc. is allocating P3.7 billion for its network expansion alone in the country, the company’s top local official said, citing the need to increase connectivity in the Philippines.

“In 2024, we have earmarked over P3 billion as investments to build and expand our network,” Suraj Narayanan Kutty, EDOTCO Philippines country manager, told BusinessWorld in an interview on Wednesday.

In total, the company had acquired more than 2,000 towers, Mr. Kutty said, adding that the company had acquired close to 2,000 towers in 2022, which is considered its major activity due to the sale and leaseback, and another 700 towers this year.

In 2022, the company had set its goal of building nearly 500 towers in Luzon to help the government achieve its target of 66,000 new tower builds by 2026.

“Our focus has changed. The rollout targets have shifted mainly because the customer demand has changed,” he said.

Last year, PLDT Inc. said it had received about P57.7 billion from the sale of 4,435 telecom towers — with over 2,000 towers being acquired by EDOTCO Towers.

The company expects increased investment in the Philippines’ telecommunications structure, he said, as the country needs more towers to help improve internet connectivity.

The country’s mobile network operators are using shared towers to help accelerate and eventually lower the cost of digital transformation in the country while also helping improve the state of the Philippines’ internet connectivity.

“Tower sharing is the very key [as it results in] fastest speed and adds to savings,” he added.

TAPPING RENEWABLES
The company is also planning to tap energy companies to power its towers with renewable energy such as solar energy, Mr. Kutty said.

“Typically solar power reduces cost by 20-25%,” he added, citing the rising cost and volatility of diesel generators especially in remote areas.

He said the company is in talks with energy companies for the planned shift, which he said might start by next year.

“Right now, none of our towers are solar powered. The team right now is assessing the towers, the energy requirement of towers,” he added.

EDOTCO Group Sdn. Bhd. owns and operates about 54,000 towers spread across Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines, Myanmar, and Laos.

Last year, Manila Electric Co. announced that it would energize the expansion of EDOTCO Towers.

Times are sweet for Carmen’s Best as it opens a 2nd ice cream parlor

Nationwide expansion in the works

CARMEN’S BEST is riding the ice cream train by opening a second ice cream parlor, this time at the Mall of Asia (MOA) complex in Pasay City. With this comes the teasing of new variants, more stores, and even a nationwide expansion.

The Carmen’s Best ice cream parlor in front of the SMX convention center officially opened on Dec. 1. There they offer all 15 of their flavors (including Salted Caramel, Strawberry, Malted Milk, Dark Chocolate, and Brazilian Coffee, just to name a few), plus three new holiday goodies (Eggnog, S’mores, and Mint Chocolate). A mural on the wall is splashed with some brand elements, and even the ceiling lamps are shaped like scoops of ice cream. As a touch of elegance, the brand’s logo is inl aid in brass on the floor, reminding customers of the ice cream’s premium quality (and price: a pint can cost upwards of P400).

While a just-relaunched e-commerce platform (carmensbest.com) offers ice cream for enjoying at home, there are some store-only exclusives. These include sandwiches, cones, milkshakes, affogato, and ice cream cakes.

“We offer the same menu of ice cream, plus plus. You get a little bit more than the usual pint,” Carmen’s Best Head of Marketing Missy Mediana told BusinessWorld.

Ms. Mediana emphasized the quality of their product, considering the rise of indie ice cream makers in the city. “One hundred percent fresh milk. That’s what we’re made of,” she said. She pointed out that there is a gap in the supply of locally available fresh milk, which is why some ice cream brands resort to using additives in their products. “You’ll see it in the taste,” she said.

A store at the Power Plant mall in Rockwell, Makati opened back in 2018, and the new MOA branch is just their second, but it serves as a signal of things to come since their partnership with Metro Pacific Agro Ventures (MPAV), under Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), last year. “We’re planning more stores in key cities in the metro; at the very least, about one to two a year,” said Ms. Mediana.

They’re also planning to dot the city with smaller scooping stations. This expansion also means reaching out to more cities: Ms. Mediana said that they already have a presence in supermarkets across Luzon, but have yet to maximize their growth in Visayas and Mindanao. “Not so much, because they’re still being air-freighted,” she said about the ice cream’s limited reach in cities down south. “Eventually, we’re also planning to go nationwide. That’s the goal.”

Ms. Mediana also teased a few projects that they are beginning next year. While it had been previously announced that Carmen’s Best would be venturing into other dairy products like cheese, yogurt, and fresh milk, Ms. Mediana gave a timeline for the middle of 2024 for those to hit the market. She also gave hints about the resurrection of certain phased-out flavors, and something to appeal to a more health-conscious segment.

“Next year, it’s another full grid of innovations. Something’s coming that’s a little bit more healthy. For people who don’t like it too much sweet — I won’t say,” she teased.

MPIC is one of three key Philippine units of First Pacific, the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Joseph L. Garcia

Converge, US firm plan AI-powered contact centers

LISTED Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. has tapped a US-based software company for its generative artificial intelligence (AI) contact centers in the Philippines.

In a media release on Wednesday, the company said its partnership with Salesforce, Inc. aims to launch its AI contact center in the second quarter of next year.

“We paved the way for the more meaningful use of AI in our network operations (in our back-end), now we are embedding this into our customer-facing operations. We are committed to innovate in every aspect of our business,” Jesus C. Romero, chief operations officer of Converge said in a statement.

The company said the planned contact center will utilize Salesforce’s service cloud, field service, and other technologies, allowing the telecommunications company to leverage AI, which it said will “transform operational efficiency and enhance digital experience” for its residential and enterprise customers.

“With the new contact center, Converge aims to reduce costs, optimize productivity, and improve the speed and quality of customer service resolution at every touchpoint,” said Sujith Abraham, senior vice-president and general manager of Salesforce.

“We’re excited to work closely with an industry leader like Converge to harness the power of generative AI in one of the first of its kind contact center in the Philippines,” he added.

In October, the company expressed optimism about maintaining its customer count growth after reaching two million residential subscribers.

The company recorded more than two million subscribers and continued to post growth from different market segments, including prepaid and postpaid customers.

At the local bourse on Wednesday, shares in the company climbed eight centavos or 0.99% to end at P8.20 apiece. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

Naks naman!: A groundbreaking new Pinoy restaurant opens with food rarely seen in NYC

LECHON LIEMPO with lechon sarsa (pork liver sauce).

TO OPEN a restaurant anywhere represents a risk, and that goes double in New York’s hypercompetitive market. Double that again when a restaurant serves up a cuisine unfamiliar to said market; and again still, when the tasting menu is priced at $135 per person. But the entrepreneurs behind Naks, the new Filipino fine-dining eatery in New York City’s (NYC) East Village that open Dec. 5, are on a remarkable winning streak that began with the casual Adda, raised the bar with the boundary pushing Dhamaka, and performed a three-peat with Semma, where the menu celebrates the not-seen-enough food of Tamil Nadu. But those restaurants all serve Indian menus. The food of the Philippines is new territory for them.

And at Naks, many of chef Eric Valdez’s dishes require ingredients few restaurants dare to use, much less display on their bill of fare. These include beef blood, bull’s penis and testicles, and most remarkable of all, bovine bile.

Yes, you read that right. Bile, from the gall bladder of cattle, is used in the cuisines of Southeast Asia, where the flavor profile sometimes calls for notes of bitterness. (It is also used in Chinese traditional medicine.) When I asked Valdez to show me some, he brought out a small dish of murky green liquid that smelled slightly pungent, but not enough to make me think of the literal translation of its Naks menu reference, ki aun aka soft stool — the literal translation of ki aun, the Laotian term for the ingredient.

Valdez, native of Makati and alum of the American Hospitality Academy’s culinary school, recognizes that these ingredients might keep some wary diners away — but insists it has to be this way. “My mother uses these ingredients,” he says, simply. “She would be mad at me if I used anything else.”

That’s why Naks’s sisig, the staple of Filipino street food beloved by the late Anthony Bourdain, will feature pig’s brains as well as minced ears, snout, and jowls. “You order sisig at a fine-dining establishment in Manila, and chances are they’re using mayonnaise instead of brains,” says Roni Mazumdar, chief executive officer of the company that is backing Valdez. “Eric would rather not cook it than use substitutes.”

This is consistent with the philosophy Mazumdar and his partner-in-cuisine Chintan Pandya espouse at the other restaurants under their banner of Unapologetic Foods. Valdez was one of their early hires and became a stalwart at Dhamaka. Mazumdar recalls that he was scouting locations earlier this year for their upcoming Indian restaurant, a kebab joint, and also planning to move Adda from Long Island City into Manhattan, when “Chintan called to say, ‘Eric’s ready.’” The other projects were pushed back, and Naks was conceived.

The name is derived from an expression, in the Filipino dialect of Tagalog, of surprise and wonderment — think of it as slang for “awesome.” It’s an accurate description of my own feelings after a recent preview tasting. Valdez’s creations were as surprising as they were wonderful. These included the best roast pork belly I’ve had in years (made with garlic and lemongrass, just the right balance of crispy exterior and soft interior), a brilliant grouper dish with mayo and pickled vegetables that’s nicely tart on the tongue, and a surprisingly tasty salad of bitter gourd, another ingredient that you don’t often see on US menus.

Unlike most New Yorkers, I’ve had quite a lot of exposure to Filipino cuisine, from visits to Manila in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when I lived in Southeast Asia. But I had never associated it with fine dining. There are now several places in the Philippines that meet that description, along with Kasama in Chicago and Archipelago in Seattle. (Washington, DC’s Bad Saint is, alas, no more.)

There are some pretty decent Filipino restaurants in NYC, but none that would dream of charging $135 for a prix fixe dinner, and having two seatings a night. (Naks also has an a la carte menu, rendering it safe for bile-free diners, that will be walk in only.) You might say the perception of Filipino cuisine in NYC now is where Indian cuisine was, say, a generation ago. (Before, some would argue, the Big Apple’s Indian food became better than London’s.) In taking it upscale, Valdez is trying for the transition that Indian chefs like Vikas Khanna of the modern Indian spot Junoon, and Vijay Kumar, chef-partner at Semma, have pulled off.

And he’s trying to do it without pulling any gastronomic punches, a charge that is sometimes leveled at the only Filipino eatery to have won a Michelin star. Chicago’s Kasama wins kudos for flair and creativity, and has the look and feel of a fine-dining establishment. But the menu there is thin on organs, and there’s no mention of testicles or bile. Nor are diners encouraged, as they are at Naks, to eat kamayan-style, by hand, with many dishes served on banana leaves. (Valdez’s soup course, you’ll be relieved to know, comes with a spoon.)

The Naks opening a la carte menu will have some notable dishes I didn’t get to taste. The most conversation-sparking will be Soup No. 5 made with the aforementioned penis and testicles, as well as sibot spice. The ihaw ihaw, or grilled section, lists options like barbecued pork jowl with banana ketchup and soy sauce, and igat, or eel, flavored with lemon soda and young ginger. The solo dessert is taisan, a steamed, vanilla-infused cake with Filipino cheese.

Fittingly, the Naks space is homey rather than haute, with a bar area that includes a few tables for a la carte diners and a separate, inner sanctum that’s the only place to sample the tasting menu, which comes with the option of an $80 beverage pairing that includes cocktails, wine, and beer. The latter is equipped with two wash-basins. “If we’re asking people to eat with their hands, we should allow them to occasionally rinse those hands between courses,” Valdez explains. Better that, I suppose, than to have every course followed by a finger bowl. There’s a wine and cocktails list, as well as a drinks pairing option. The bottles come mainly from Spain, Japan, and the US: countries that have occupied the Philippines at some point in its history.

What Valdez is going for at Naks is the audacity of authenticity. If that means lots and lots of organs, that is music to my ears and will whet the appetites of fellow members of the Organ Meats Society, a group of New Yorkers that revels in all things offal.

But might dishes with beef bile challenge more squeamish diners? Valdez, Mazumdar, and Pandya are counting on New Yorkers to take some risks of their own. — Bloomberg

‘Eat Bulaga’ trademark win a landmark case for creative copyright — TVJ

THE petitioners who successfully sought the cancellation of the “Eat Bulaga” trademark under its registrant called their win a landmark case for creative copyright.

In a press conference on Wednesday, one of the petitioners Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said the trademark registration of Television and Production Exponents, Inc. (TAPE) “failed to prove that they conceptualized ‘Eat Bulaga’ and EB.”

His comments come in light of the trademark cancellation issued by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) as sought by Tito Sotto, his brother Marvic Valentin “Vic” Sotto, and Jose Maria “Joey” de Leon, who are collectively known as Tito, Vic, and Joey or TVJ.

Tito, Vic, and Joey are the main hosts of “Eat Bulaga,” the long-running noontime variety show.

“It is Joey who coined and created these marks in 1979 in my kitchen, in White Plains. In our petition, we explained the significance of the design and the origin of each word that comprises ‘Eat Bulaga,’” said Mr. Tito Sotto, reading from TVJ’s joint statement.

“The IPOPHL took note and recognized Joey’s great efforts in conceptualizing the words,” he added.

TVJ held the press conference a day after IPOPHL finalized its decision to cancel TAPE’s trademark registration, which was issued on June 14, 2013, and renewed on that same date this year.

“IPOPHL confirms that the petitions for cancellation were granted last Dec. 4, 2023, and the decisions were received by the parties on Dec. 5, 2023,” the trademark office said in its statement.

“You can call it [a landmark issue], but it merely clarifies what was there all along about copyright and trademark, and it’s best that the copyright owner owns the trademark unless they allow otherwise. [This issue] has always been there, and this case will clarify matters, that copyright is in the moment of creation,” Mr. Tito Sotto said.

Following the decision, TAPE’s legal counsel Maggie Abraham-Garduque has said that TVJ still cannot use “Eat Bulaga” pending an appeal by the company.

According to IPOPHL, the ruling can still be appealed before the director of its Bureau of Legal Affairs within 10 days of its issuance.

However, lawyer Enrique Dela Cruz of Divina Law Office, TVJ’s head legal counsel, told reporters at the press conference that TAPE no longer has any basis for using the “Eat Bulaga” name.

Ang tanging hawak nila kung bakit nila ginagamit ang salitang ‘Eat Bulaga’ ay meron silang trademark registration. Kanselado ngayon yan. Hindi kayo ang may likha. Wala na silang pinanghahawakan, so bakit pa nila gagamitin?,” he said.

(Their only basis for using the “Eat Bulaga” name is their trademark registration. Now that it is canceled and it is proven that they did not create it, they have no more basis, so why should they still use it?)

Mr. Dela Cruz added that a separate copyright infringement and unfair competition case, filed at the Marikina Regional Trial Court in June, has yet to be concluded. There, the court is investigating TAPE’s use of “Eat Bulaga,” including the show’s segments and jingles, to take advantage of TVJ’s popularity and infringe upon their copyright.

TVJ clarified that they are not after money; instead, they would like to put an end to all unauthorized use of “Eat Bulaga.” This is why they filed a petition for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction to halt TAPE and GMA Network, Inc. or GMA7 from using the name, logo, and other related devices.

The trio parted ways with TAPE, which produces the “Eat Bulaga” show for GMA7, on May 31, and started hosting E.A.T. for TV5 channel on July 1. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

Alternergy and Quezon electric utility agree on power delivery

ALTERNERGY Holdings Corp. has partnered with an electric cooperative in Quezon to facilitate the delivery of power from its planned 55-megawatt (MW) wind farm in the province to the electricity grid.

In a stock exchange disclosure on Wednesday, the listed energy company said its unit Alabat Wind Power Corp. (AWPC) had signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Quezon 1 Electric Cooperative, Inc. or Quezelco 1.

AWPC President Knud Hedeager described the cooperation with the power distribution utility as “very crucial” to ensure that the renewable supply from the Alabat wind farm project is delivered within the committed timeline.

The delivery timeline is called for under the second round of the government’s green energy auction program, a competitive process of procuring renewable energy supply by offering capacities to qualified bidders at a set maximum price.

As stipulated in the MoA, AWPC will construct and commission a 37-kilometer, 69-kilovolt transmission line from the wind farm to the Hondugua substation of National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

Quezelco 1 will construct a 10-megavolt-ampere substation and assist in securing the right-of-way for the proposed transmission line to be built.

Alternergy, on the other hand, will assist in securing financing for the proposed substation.

Mr. Hedeager said the group is “working at a very tight timeline and are very delighted” by the support from the electric cooperative and the local government of Quezon “to ensure that we achieve this.”

In a separate disclosure, Alternergy said it had tapped K2 Management A/S (K2M) of Denmark, an independent wind and solar project management and consultancy firm, as the “owner’s engineer” of its two projects.

The two entities executed the owner’s engineer contract following a competitive selection process.

K2M will facilitate the development and construction of two onshore wind power projects — the 86-MW Tanay wind farm in Rizal and the Alabat wind farm. 

The company will support Alternergy in the procurement processes within a multi-contracting arrangement, followed by construction management, design reviews, site management, and quality control measures.

“We look forward to working with K2M as we seek to ensure that this momentum continues. Leveraging insights from an independent advisor, whose expertise has come from established markets globally, was the natural choice for us as we aim to deliver clean and sustainable power,” Mr. Hedeager said.

For the fiscal year ending June 2023, Alternergy registered a consolidated net income of P38 million, reversing its P145.2 million net loss a year earlier.

Alternergy is targeting to develop up to 1,370 MW of renewable energy sources such as onshore and offshore wind, solar, and run-of-river hydropower.

At the local bourse on Wednesday, shares of the company closed unchanged at P0.76 apiece. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

Anatomy of Philippine poverty

PHILIPPINE STAR/EDD GUMBAN

AT THIS modern time of general abundance in the world and, particularly, in our part of the world, we find our country with an incongruous incidence of widespread poverty. It appears inconceivable given that we were not in that bad situation when we gained independence from America 77 years ago.

A great number of our citizens presently live with inadequate access to food and are susceptible to diseases, destining them to have a comparatively shorter life. But more than this, this deplorable condition destroys their feeling of self-esteem and that holds them back and, as a result, they live in desperation. The obvious lack of strong resolve and vigor in providing effective solutions to this huge problem is akin to being inhumane.

This condition of widespread poverty currently existing in the country is the most important problem that our government, present and future, must focus on, day-in and day-out, and it must strongly endeavor to reduce such a situation very substantially within a reasonable period of time.

A recent nationwide poll of self-rated poverty indicates that 13.2 million Filipino families describe themselves as poor, or 48% of total families. Using the average number of 4.4 individuals forming one family implicit in related government statistics, it means that about 58 million Filipinos describe themselves as living in poverty. While that total may appear somewhat overstated, it does indicate the huge size of the problem.

On the other hand, the latest officially published poverty incidence rate among Filipino citizens is 23.7%, as estimated in the first semester of 2021, using an annual per capita income threshold of P28,996 or P127,582 per average family of 4.4 individuals as defined above. This official poverty incidence rate translates to 27.5 million Filipino citizens living in poverty (using the estimated population of 116 million Filipinos as of Nov. 16, 2023). This time, the income threshold appears low, and so does the resulting estimate of the total number of Filipinos living in poverty.

There is therefore a wide divergence between those two statistics. It may be reasonable to say that the true level is between 30% and 35% of the individual poverty incidence rate, or between 35 million and 41 million Filipino citizens. That’s a lot!

How did this happen? A thorough historical analysis of such a very unfavorable development may provide very interesting and illuminating information. But it will require a scholarly, thorough, and objective study, assuming that there are sufficient pertinent statistical records available. But engaging in that difficult task may no longer serve any useful purpose.

Instead, it may be more practical to analyze why the current cycle of Philippine poverty persists and does not go down to a reasonable level, say to less than 10% of the poverty incidence rate.

Let’s put to mind a family of five that is within the poverty incidence threshold. Almost certainly, neither of the parents had attended or finished college, and may not even have graduated from high school. As such, the father may be an agricultural worker or a low-skilled trade or industrial worker, working intermittently, not by desire, but by the varying availability of job opportunities commensurate to his skill. The mother may or may not be employed. In raising their three children, they have to send them to school. While primary and secondary education are free, they need to provide the children with meal and transportation allowances. Government subsidies for these school expenses are not widely provided in the Philippine school system, unlike in most other countries whose economies are within the level of the Philippine per capita GDP. The parents also need to pay for the costs of school projects and required school field trips.

Certainly, considering the family’s meager income, the children may not even finish high school, or, if they do, there is a very high probability that their parents cannot afford to enroll them in college.

For those children who are able to finish high school, there is an opportunity for them to enroll in vocational training at the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA. But TESDA training is not entirely free, especially for those whose homes are not near the training centers. They have to incur transportation and meal expenses. But more than this, generally, the cost of vocational training materials and protective gear has to be borne by the trainees, like cloth and other materials for the dressmaking course and protective clothing for the welding course. In addition, the trainee must pay for the cost of a drug test upon entry and a proficiency assessment fee upon course completion, both of which are not cheap. As a result, most high school graduates who are not able to enter college also cannot enroll in TESDA vocational training because the cost of doing so is unaffordable.

Clearly, when these children grow into adulthood and marry and have their own children, they unavoidably get into a similar economic situation as their parents. It is much worse for the children who get stunted because of poor nutrition in the early years of their life, resulting in a detrimental mental development that can no longer be reversed.

As a result, the poverty cycle continues to persist, and seemingly cannot be broken.

Under such circumstances, it is clear and obvious that external intervention is needed to break that ever-continuing poverty cycle. Private party intervention helps, but just to a bare minuscule degree considering the very large size of the problem. Only a whole-scale government intervention can produce an effective and enduring result.

Of all possible government intervention programs, getting the children living in poverty to finish higher education to enable them to obtain high-skilled work and therefore receive a higher wage is key. I realize that there are and have been continuing strong criticism of the poor quality of the current Philippine education system. But that is a separate issue. We cannot wait for the education system to improve; we need to work under present conditions.

There are two schemes that, taken together, will be very effective. One is to provide entirely free primary and high school education and vocational training. This means giving free meals, transportation, and subsidizing additional education and training costs. This scheme has been adopted by many countries.

But that scheme by itself will not reduce poverty substantially in the near term. It must be twinned by a provision for a minimum family income that must be measured by taking into consideration the education and training subsidies mentioned earlier. Or the two schemes may be combined to provide one minimum basic family income. Whether separate or combined, these schemes will replace existing ones that are aimed at serving the same purposes, but with ineffective results. I have written previously about providing a minimum basic income to families living in poverty, and I would no longer dwell on that important government assistance scheme in this present one.

I strongly believe the country can afford the costs of these interventions. We just need to have the political will to reorder our national budget priorities.

On two past occasions, in public forums, I raised a question to the economist guest speaker to clarify how the often-repeated statement “if the economy grows enough, it will reduce poverty” works. On both occasions, I did not get an answer that was clear enough for me.

What I now think is that a continuous, deliberate, and substantial government intervention in poverty reduction is absolutely necessary. Such intervention immediately results in increased income for Filipinos living in poverty, which drives increased consumption which, in turn, unleashes a virtuous economic cycle of increasing economic factors resulting in higher economic growth…. and a further reduction of poverty.

Obviously, the Philippine government, if it really wants to solve this huge problem, must do a wholesale intervention to reduce substantially existing, inhumane, widespread Philippine poverty.

Starting now. I believe.

 

Benjamin R. Punongbayan (ben.punongbayan@ph.gt.com) is the founder of Punongbayan & Araullo.

Old brands, new favorites

TWO OLD BRANDS are ramping up their game with new menu items.

YABU
Yabu has just opened store numbers 18 and 19 in just 12 years. The restaurant chain, specializing in tonkatsu (crispy fried pork cutlet, Japanese-style), partnered with Michelin Bib Gourmand chef Kazuya Takeda to create their product. Part of the appeal lies in the farm-to-table cabbage and homemade panko (breadcrumbs).

The store openings (in SM Grand Central and SM Fairview) also served as vehicles to launch two new products: Hokkaido Softcream and the Tornado Omelette Curry. Hokkaiso Softcream is a soft serve ice cream made with milk from the famed Hokkaido dairy farms, while the Tornado Omelette Curry is tornado-style omelette on top of rice, served with signature rich and deep Japanese curry sauce. This can be paired with either Rosu or Chicken Katsu.

“We are not just opening new stores; we are setting a new standard,” said the Yabu management team in a statement. “It’s a celebration of where we’ve been and an exciting glimpse into where we are headed. We invite everyone to join us in this new chapter and experience the pinnacle of tonkatsu dining.”

PAN DE MANILA
Neighborhood favorite Pan de Manila wants to remind the public that not only do they offer pan de sal, but they also have dining outlets. Merienda by Pan de Manila currently has six branches: at Rockwell Ortigas, Rockwell Sheridan, Santolan Town Plaza, Four E-com Center Pasay, SM City Batangas, and Ayala Center Bloc Cebu.

Merienda by Pan de Manila presents timeless classics like crispy beef tapa, palabok espesyal, Lucban longganisa (sausage flavored with garlic), and arrozcaldo (savory porridge) alongside culinary innovations such as lumpiang embutido and lechon belly batchoy. They also have coffee, and hot chocolate, which one can pair with the menu of bibingka and other kakanin (a category of Filipino rice cakes). With classic wood moldings and capiz fixtures, the cafes are equipped to remind one of times spent in familiar houses.

Follow Merienda by Pan de Manila on Instagram @meriendamanila.

​More tools, regulations key to addressing deepfake crimes

PIXABAY

By Miguel Hanz L. Antivola, Reporter

THE CREATION of tools and regulations to address the proliferation of deepfakes is expected to become a priority in the Philippines next year, according to experts.

Deepfakes refer to media that have been digitally manipulated through artificial intelligence to create misrepresentations of people and events.

“Untrained eyes and ears cannot discern what is fake,” Jonathan Dixon, vice-president and managing director at Cloudflare Asia Pacific, Japan, and China, said in an e-mailed statement to reporters on Monday.

“With today’s versions more realistic than ever, trained eyes and ears also fail to identify deepfakes,” he added,

Mr. Dixon said he expects that there will be an increased demand for “the next cutting-edge security technology” targeting the issue of deepfakes in 2024.

Ronald B. Gustilo, national campaigner for Digital Pinoys, likewise said more tools and regulations are needed to address the increase in crimes involving deepfakes.

The Philippines must foster a resilient defense against deepfake threats through technological innovation, legal frameworks, and community education, he said in a Viber message to BusinessWorld.

“Enhancing detection algorithms will empower platforms to identify and mitigate the spread of deceptive content,” Mr. Gustilo noted.

“Simultaneously, enacting and enforcing robust regulations will serve as a deterrent, discouraging malicious actors from engaging in deepfake activities,” he added.

Public education is also equally important “as raising awareness about the existence and potential harm of deepfakes equips individuals to discern authentic content from manipulated media,” Mr. Gustilo said.

Deepfakes have already captured the attention of Congress, with proposed laws and potential investigations under discussion among lawmakers, he said.

“Although specific instances within the Philippines might not have garnered widespread attention, the need for a comprehensive strategy is evident,” Mr. Gustilo said.

“Combating the deepfake dilemma requires a multifaceted approach, incorporating advancements in detection algorithms, the implementation of stringent legislative measures, and proactive public awareness initiatives,” he added.

A memorandum from the Justice department in October said deepfakes may be categorized as violations of computer-related fraud, computer-related identity theft, or misuse of devices, which are punishable under the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

Meanwhile, House Bill No. 9425 filed last month seeks to define deepfakes and what kinds of deepfakes are deemed harmful and subject to legal consequences.

The bill defines deepfake as “any audio, visual or audio-visual recording created or altered through technical means, such as video recording, motion-picture film, sound recording, electronic image, or photograph, which are so convincing that a reasonable person would mistake it for an authentic representation of an individual’s speech or conduct.”

Meanwhile, it defines “harmful deepfakes” as those created without consent, for no artistic purpose and used for defamation, sexual harassment, the exploitation of children, fraud, deceptive transactions, copyright infringement, election offenses, and terrorism.

“The penalty to be imposed for offenses committed through the use of deepfake technology shall be one degree higher than those prescribed in the Revised Penal Code, as amended, and relevant special laws,” the bill said.

SEC sets fees for REIT fund managers, compliance officers

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued the filing and annual fees to be paid by fund managers of real estate investment trust (REIT) fund managers and their respective compliance officers.

The corporate regulator issued Memorandum Circular No. 22 dated Nov. 28, which mandated that the filing fee upon initial application for a REIT fund manager is P15,000 while a REIT fund manager compliance officer would pay P3,000. 

For the annual fee, the memorandum circular provides that a REIT fund manager would pay 1/2,000 of 1% of the total value of the assets of the REIT under management as of Sept. 30 of the current year as reflected in the quarterly report but not less than P30,000 nor more than P100,000. 

“The annual fee shall be computed for each REIT under management by the fund manager,” the SEC said.

On the other hand, the REIT fund manager compliance officer would pay a P1,500 annual fee.

“The application for payment of the annual fees shall be in accordance with the form prescribed by the commission and to be paid on or before Dec. 31 of each year,” the SEC said.

Failure to pay the annual and filing fees would lead to the suspension or revocation of the registration or license, according to the SEC.   

“Applications for payment of annual fee filed beyond the month on which the annual fee is due shall be subject to a 50% surcharge based on the computed annual fees; and 100% surcharge based on the computed annual fees if filed beyond the succeeding month after the month where the annual fee is due,” the SEC said. 

Under Republic Act No. 9856 or the REIT Act, the SEC is authorized to collect and retain registration fees paid to it relative to the establishment of REITs and registration of their securities.

“In the certificates of registration of REIT fund managers and their respective compliance officers, it was stated that the registration is subject to compliance with the qualifications and monitoring requirements of the commission, including payment of the required annual fee, and the registration remains valid unless suspended, canceled, or revoked for cause or cancelled by the commission or voluntarily surrendered by the registrant,” the SEC said.  Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Addressing the decline in education

SASIN TIPCHAI FROM PIXABAY

An international assessment of global education made public recently reported that less than a quarter of Filipino students reached the minimum level of proficiency in mathematics, reading, and science in 2022. Much like the assessment results for 2018, the Philippines was said to be performing worse than the global average in these three subjects.

Filipino students were among the weakest globally in math, science, and reading last year, according to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA evaluates the literacy of 15-year-olds in formal schooling. The assessment is done periodically. The 2022 evaluation involved 81 countries. PISA is conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In the 2018 PISA ranking, the Philippines was reported to have ranked lowest in reading comprehension and second-lowest in mathematics and science. In 2022, Filipinos were ranked sixth-lowest in mathematics and reading, and third-lowest in science. The 2022 PISA test results showed only 16% of Filipino students have basic or baseline proficiency in mathematics, only 24% have basic reading proficiency, and only 23% have basic proficiency in science.

“In the Philippines, the share of low performers is larger among boys (86%) than among girls (82%) in mathematics,” a news report quoted PISA as also reporting. And, more boys scored lower than girls in reading, with 82% of male students scoring below level-2 proficiency in reading compared to 71% of girls.

These assessments from 2018 and 2022 should be a wake-up call for all those with an interest in improving Philippine education. Whatever reforms have been undertaken to date should be reviewed and reassessed for their effectiveness. Some experts claim that it takes at least a decade to see the positive effects of any major change in curriculum.

In 2018, I took a position against completely removing tuition payments in state colleges and universities. I believed in the argument that this could do more harm than good in the long run, as it would make the entry to state colleges more competitive. And that this competitiveness would benefit the rich and better-educated students more than poorer graduates.

Back then, I wrote that without tuition, states colleges and universities would have limited funding to improve faculty and facilities. Schools would also have to rely more on grants and donations to maintain service quality. These financing concerns have become more alarming given the PISA results in 2018 and 2022.

For sure, many if not most of the students that are part of the 16% with basic proficiency in mathematics, 24% with basic reading proficiency, and 23% with basic proficiency belong to the A-B economic segment — those from wealthier families with access to more expensive schools. So, with even the curriculum seemingly benefiting them more than poor students in public schools, the rich continue to enjoy the edge in competing for access to state-funded colleges and universities.

I also noted previously that free education at the tertiary level pressures the National Government to subsidize public education through higher taxes and fees, at the expense of other public services. And the pressure will go up as the population grows. The cost of education is borne by all taxpayers.

With a system where the sustainability of the “free” education program depends on fiscal balance, then any development with adverse implications on state finances will also have negative consequences on state-sponsored education. A situation can arise where some state colleges will have to limit enrollment if not shut down because the government lacks money.

I have been told that many smaller private schools have closed in recent years, after having lost students and teachers to the public school system. Dwindling enrollment, a cap on tuition increases, and higher taxes have been resulting in more closures. Perhaps soon enough one will have to go to an expensive school that only the rich can afford, or to a public school, or not go to school at all.

The burden of curriculum development is also with the government. And judging from the 2018 and 2022 PISA results, there is little doubt that the current system is not working well. If less than a quarter of students have basic proficiency in reading, math, and science, then obviously there is a problem, and a big one at that.

Addressing concerns with curriculum and financing go hand in hand. Curriculum involves quality, while financing involves access. More important, one without the other still makes the education system deficient. There should be ways to urgently arrest the decline in quality. There is no point in making education more accessible if the system will just churn out poor graduates.

Graduates must be equipped with the basic proficiencies required to secure gainful employment. Otherwise, the school system will just produce graduates that are ill-fitted or insufficiently educated for available jobs. In the end, the public investment in educating them will not pay off.

At this point, we need more data, more research, and more studies that can help policymakers make informed decisions on curriculum development, teacher training, and facilities improvement, among others. We need experts to study the situation and tell us where we should invest and what we should improve. We cannot simply wait another five years for the expected gains, if any, from the K-12 program. At this point, the education system is in dire need of repair.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippine Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

Yields on central bank’s term deposits inch higher

BW FILE PHOTO

TERM DEPOSIT YIELDS inched up on Wednesday even as inflation hit a 20-month low in November, which may prompt the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to keep borrowing costs steady at its meeting next week.

Demand for the BSP’s term deposit facility (TDF) reached P336.436 billion on Wednesday, above the P290 billion auctioned off by the central bank and the P295.971 billion in bids for a P300-billion offering seen last week.

The BSP Auction Committee said in a statement that strong demand was observed for Wednesday’s TDF offer.

“Looking ahead, the BSP’s monetary operations will continue to be guided by its assessment of prevailing liquidity conditions and market developments,” it added. 

Broken down, bids for the one-week term deposits amounted to P178.186 billion, above the P160 billion on the auction block and the P164.686 billion in tenders logged the previous week for a P180-billion offer.

Accepted rates were from 6.65% to 6.72%, narrower than the 6.62% to 6.75% band seen a week ago. This brought the average rate of the seven-day papers to 6.6927%, increasing by 0.52 basis point (bp) from the 6.6875% quoted previously.

Meanwhile, the 14-day papers fetched bids totaling P158.250 billion, surpassing the P130 billion bid out by the central bank and the P131.285 billion for a P120-billion offer recorded on Nov. 29.

Lenders asked for yields ranging from 6.6892% to 6.6550%, higher than the 6.6886% to 6.60% margin logged a week earlier. With this, the average rate of the two-week deposits inched up by 0.06 bp to 6.6892% from 6.6886% in the prior auction.

The central bank has not auctioned off 28-day term deposits for three years to give way to its weekly offering of securities with the same tenor.

The term deposits and the 28-day bills are used by the BSP to mop up excess liquidity in the financial system and to better guide market rates.

TDF yields were higher week on week following the release of data showing slower November inflation, as this could prompt the Monetary Board to keep borrowing costs unchanged at its last monetary policy meeting for the year on Dec. 14, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

Headline inflation eased to 4.1% in November from 4.9% in October and 8% in November 2022. This was the slowest rate in 20 months or since the 4% seen in March 2022.

It was also lower than the median estimate of 4.4% in a BusinessWorld poll of 15 analysts conducted last week and was near the lower end of the 4-4.8% forecast range of the BSP for the month.

In the first eleven months, inflation averaged 6.2%, faster than 5.6% in the same period a year ago and still above the central bank’s 2-4% target and baseline forecast of 6% for 2023.

The BSP last month kept its target reverse repurchase rate at a 16-year high of 6.5%.

The central bank has raised borrowing costs by a total of 450 bps since May 2022 to tame inflation. — K.B. Ta-asan