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Most Filipinos prefer to save money than borrow to fund large purchases

FREEPIK

ONLY 21% of Filipinos plan to borrow or use credit to make purchases in the coming months, based on a study from TransUnion Philippines. 

“The decision to avoid the future use of credit is indicative of a conservative financial mindset, where it isn’t always understood and seen as an opportunity for economic mobility,” TransUnion Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Pia Arellano said in a statement.

“This coincides with a longstanding stigma across our nation surrounding credit, as it’s often viewed as a gateway to bad unmanageable debt and financial irresponsibility,” Ms. Arellano added.

Based on TransUnion Philippines’ Credit Perception Index (CPI) study, about 79% of respondents said they considered themselves to have a strong understanding of their finances.

About 72% said they can easily afford their daily necessities. But half (51%) of the respondents often find themselves with limited money at the end of every month.

“In terms of their expectations on how their finances will change in the future, most respondents indicated a desire to save more, as they expect their household incomes to rise,” TransUnion Philippines said.

“However, few respondents had plans to borrow or use credit to make purchases in the future. In fact, 21% reported plans to do so in the next three months, 21% in the next year, and 24% in the next five years,” it added.

Meanwhile, more than half of the respondents (57%) are open to learning more innovative ways of transacting.

About 41% said they are comfortable paying for big purchases either with one-time payments or through installments.   

Most respondents (90%) said they would be open to use more credit-based products in the future if they are informed about how credit influences loan approvals and job applications.

“This presents an opportunity for the formal financial sector to bridge any misperceptions that Filipinos might have about responsible credit use through credit education,” TransUnion Philippines said.

The study also revealed that banks and other financial institutions are not the most preferred sources for credit information among the Gen Z and millennials, even as they are seen to be credible.

Family and friends were the most preferred sources for credit information among the Gen Z (66%) and millennials (69%).

On the other hand, banks and financial institutions were the most preferred source of information of credit products among Gen X (71%) and boomers (79%).

“For younger generations who are just beginning to build wealth, the formal financial sector must focus its efforts on educating Filipinos about how the responsible use of credit can help them achieve their goals in life. Alongside the promotion of good financial habits, the responsible use of credit can help more Filipinos enjoy economic mobility by enabling them to access opportunities for better lives,” Ms. Arellano said.

Across generations, most Filipinos consider themselves lower middle class, TransUnion Philippines said.

The study showed the majority (71%) of respondents consider themselves to be middle class. Most respondents from Gen Z (45%), millennials (49%), Gen X (51%), and boomers (48%) identified themselves part of the lower middle class.

According to TransUnion Philippines, this may be attributed to views on personal wealth, as more than a third of the population (39%) see themselves as having low total wealth. — Keisha B. Ta-asan

Jimmy Kimmel chosen to host Oscars for fourth time

TV host Jimmy Kimmel in a publicity shot for The Oscars in 2017. He will be hosting the awards show for a 4th time in 2024. — IMDB

LOS ANGELES — Comedian Jimmy Kimmel will host the 96th Oscars next year, his fourth time helming the pinnacle event of the Hollywood awards season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on Wednesday.

“I always dreamed of hosting the Oscars exactly four times,” Mr. Kimmel said in the Academy statement.

The 96th Oscars will air on Walt Disney-owned ABC and broadcast outlets around the world on March 10, 2024.

Mr. Kimmel also hosted the 95th Oscars at the Dolby Theater last March and delivered a back-to-basics show that sought to celebrate a moviegoing rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, earning an Emmy nomination for his stint.

The host and executive producer of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live also hosted the Oscars in both 2017 and 2018. — Reuters

Filinvest Land’s bond offering now rendered effective by regulator

LISTED property developer Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) said its shelf registration of debt securities is now rendered effective after its registration statement was cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a stock exchange disclosure on Thursday, FLI said it received the SEC order on Nov. 15 rendering effective the company’s registration statement for the shelf-registered peso-denominated fixed-rate bonds and the corresponding certificate of permit to offer securities for sale for the first tranche.

According to FLI, its bonds have an aggregate total of up to P35 billion, with the P12 billion bond offering being the first tranche consisting of P10 billion with an over-subscription option of up to P2 billion denominated fixed rate bonds.

Recently, FLI’s bond offering secured the PRS Aaa credit rating, which is the highest rating, as well as a stable outlook from Philippine Rating Services Corp.

The joint lead underwriters and bookrunners of the offering are BDO Capital and Investment Corp., BPI Capital Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., East West Banking Corp., First Metro Investment Corp., PNB Capital and Investment Corp., RCBC Capital Corp., and SB Capital Investment Corp.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Trust and Investments Group will serve as the trustee.

As of September this year, FLI logged a 22% increase in its attributable net income to P2.44 billion while total consolidated revenues and other income rose 11% to P15.72 billion led by growth from its residential and mall business segments.   

On Thursday, shares of FLI fell one centavo or 1.79% to 55 centavos apiece. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Warts and all, international law is still better than no law

FREEPIK

PUNDITS of all stripes are tearing into one another right now about how to interpret international law. Hamas has indubitably broken it in the worst possible ways. But is Israel doing so as well? As political as it is legal, that controversy raises an older question: What is international law, and does it even exist?

There’s no question that Hamas committed heinous war crimes on Oct. 7, when it attacked Israel and sadistically slaughtered about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. It broke additional international laws when it took civilian hostages, and yet more when it started using 2 million Gazan civilians as human shields. All of these acts are illegal in both customary and treaty-based international law.

As for Israel, the victim nation, international law expressly gives it the “right to war” (jus ad bellum) in self-defense. But it also governs how it must fight “in war” (jus in bello). Here, the legal reasoning is clear in theory but slippery in practice. Israel must do its utmost to spare civilians, for example, although legitimate military objectives may justify some civilian deaths, as long as the toll is “proportionate.” Is a Gazan body count of 11,000-and-counting proportionate?

Moreover, international law prohibits collective punishment. Is that what Israel exacted when it turned off water, fuel, and electricity to the entire Gaza Strip? Israel says no. Others say yes, and point to comments like the Israeli defense minister’s, who, in ordering “a complete siege on the Gaza Strip,” added that “we are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ominously cited Deuteronomy 25:19, where God tells the Israelites to “blot out the name of Amalak from under heaven.” Are the Gazans today’s Amalekites?

Ambiguity in international law is one thing; ambiguity about who would even enforce it, and how, is another. That becomes clear in a different context, concerning Russian President Vladimir Putin. He broke a cardinal rule of international law when his troops invaded a sovereign country, Ukraine. But the United Nations has done little — because Russia holds a veto on its Security Council.

Putin’s troops then committed additional atrocities, from maiming, torturing, raping, and murdering Ukrainian soldiers and civilians to abducting their children, which is part of the definition of genocide. For that latter crime, the International Criminal Court in the Hague — established by the Rome Statute of 1998, a crown jewel of international law — has issued an arrest warrant against Putin and another Russian leader.

But neither Russia nor Ukraine is a party to the Rome Statute. (Nor are the US, China, or Israel, for that matter, although Palestine is.) As long as Putin doesn’t set foot in one of the 123 signatory nations, and arguably even if he does, he therefore won’t, in any plausible scenario, get arrested.

The apparent impunity of perpetrators like Putin raises the bigger question hanging over international law: whether it is in fact “law” at all. Thinkers from Thomas Hobbes to Hans Morgenthau stipulated that law only deserves that label when it can be enforced. The enforcer, moreover, needs what the sociologist Max Weber called a monopoly on legitimate violence. Typically that means a national government, which can legally arrest, incarcerate, expropriate, or even kill.

But there is no corresponding world government, and hence no international body with a monopoly on legitimate violence. The global system is therefore said to be an “anarchical society.” To some legal philosophers, international law is thus little more than “positive morality,” a set of norms and suggestions, easily ignored and unenforceable.

Others throughout the ages, however, have felt that something is missing in that analysis. The greatest thinker in that tradition was Hugo Grotius, a 17th century Dutch humanist and polymath who once smuggled himself out of prison by hiding in a bookcase and survived a shipwreck.

Grotius lived during the Thirty Years War, when more than 60% of the population in some parts of Central Europe perished. Europe’s great powers as well as private armies did the slaughtering, and there was nothing to restrain them. As an intellectual — and later as ambassador from one belligerent, Sweden, to another, France — Grotius helped conceive the modern states’ system that would emerge from this bloodbath.

Along the way, Grotius also developed the foundational texts of international law, from rules governing ocean navigation (which live on in the UN Convention on the High Seas) to the norms of going to war, and then of waging it — that is, the jus ad bellum and the jus in bello. To Grotius and his heirs, international law was part of natural law, the way things just ought to be.

In the centuries since, a body of customary international law developed, based on precedent and analogous to case law in common-law countries. On top of that are treaties, conventions, and agreements, the equivalent of statutes in national law. Starting in the 19th century and into the 20th, the International Committee of the Red Cross pushed international humanitarian law in particular (a modern synonym for jus in bello) and helped birth the Geneva Conventions and its protocols. The Charter of the United Nations and conventions on everything from trade to labor standards and space exploration round out the system.

International law is thus both ubiquitous and indispensable. It works best during peacetime, when countries feel most bound by reciprocity — I won’t drill for oil on your continental shelf, as long as you don’t drill on mine. But once countries or leaders feel that vital interests are at stake, and especially once they go to war, they often ignore the law, as Putin does. (That said, he did skip a summit in South Africa, which is a signatory to the ICC — perhaps he was nervous about getting arrested after all.)

However imperfect, though, international law makes life for many people less nasty, brutish and short than it would otherwise be — than it was during the Thirty Years War, say. It restrains combatants by separating the why of war from the how — as Charli Carpenter at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst puts it, by distinguishing“between ‘civilized’ violence and outright barbarity.” It gives moderates in every society a language in which to address and temper the bloodthirsty in their own ranks and to hold them individually accountable after the guns fall silent. It maintains norms of humanity.

You may lean Hobbesian or Grotian, realist or idealist. You may doubt international law is even a thing or swear by it. You may think it is failing in the Gaza Strip or preventing even worse suffering. But let us be grateful that international law exists, for the alternative is worse. That’s enough reason to defend it.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Enhanced job-matching for youth expected to raise quality of work, productivity in Asia

Applicants look at job postings at a job fair in Manila. — PHILIPPINE STAR/EDD GUMBAN

ONE key to improving productivity in Asia is to more intensively target the working youth and better match them to higher-quality jobs, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

“The region’s developing economies are home to over 580 million young people ages 15–29 years. Their energy, skills, and expertise are needed to power growth and innovation as economies in the region transform, grow older, and seek to address climate change,” the ADB said in a report.

“Yet over 80% of youth who work in the region do so informally, and one in four young workers are moderately or extremely poor. Working youth are often stuck in precarious, low-quality, low-paid jobs,” it added.

In many Asian countries,  youth unemployment rate is two to three times more than the adult rate, it said.

Better job matching “reduces the time needed for job seekers to identify vacancies and for employers to fill them. It also improves the quality of the match so that young people obtain jobs suited to their capabilities and aspirations, and employers acquire the right talent,” the ADB said.

The matching process can include job preparation and search, as well as skills training, social networking, and post-placement activities.

“When job matching is linked to other services, this tends to help youth with their nonlinear transitions, reach disadvantaged youth cohorts, and strengthen matches for improved job quality,” it said.

Digital technology will also help further access, such as through online job-matching platforms.

“Young job seekers gain remote and convenient access to a larger and more relevant pool of jobs. Complementary support can easily be linked. Employers benefit from reaching more prospective talent as well as other recruitment services. Providers leverage scalability,” it said. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson

SSS taps LANDBANK, DBP as fund managers

PATRICK ROQUE

STATE PENSION FUND Social Security System (SSS) has selected Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to manage P2 billion in funds, it said on Thursday.

LANDBANK’s Trust Banking Group and DBP’s Trust Banking Group received P1 billion in investible funds received in two tranches on Oct. 13 and 17, SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Rolando L. Macasaet said in a statement on Thursday.

“We see that SSS will greatly benefit from tapping external fund managers to manage a portion of our investible funds. We can take advantage of their expertise to help grow the SSS funds and diversify the investment portfolio,” he said.

LANDBANK and DBP will manage the fund for the next three years, SSS said.

The state-run lenders join BPI Asset Management and Trust Corp. and Security Bank Corp.’s Trust and Asset Management Group in managing SSS’ pure fixed-income investments.

As of Nov. 16, SSS has awarded the management of seven investment mandates for its pure fixed income, balanced and pure equity funds worth P8 billion to five local fund managers.

SSS began hiring local fund managers as part of its investment strategy since 2016, SSS Executive Vice-President for Investments Sector Rizaldy T. Capulong said.

Under Republic Act No. 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018, the SSS can appoint local or foreign fund managers to handle its Investment Reserve Fund (IRF).

The IRF is a portion of the SSS Reserve Fund allocated for investments whose income will go back directly to the reserve fund to help it grow.

“Tapping more investment-savvy fund managers is a best practice worldwide, particularly with pension funds. This strategy allows pension funds like SSS to access the expertise of fund managers in frontier markets where they do not have a competitive advantage like foreign investments,” SSS Senior Vice-President for Fund Management Group Ernesto D. Francisco, Jr. added. — AMCS

The Crown aims to depict Princess Diana’s final days with dignity

ELIZABETH DEBICKI, portraying Princess Diana, in a scene from The Crown. — IMDB

LOS ANGELES — For Elizabeth Debicki, portraying Princess Diana on The Crown for two seasons created a sense of responsibility to be as authentic as possible for the many people who revere the British royal family.

“There is a profound sense of tragedy that lives in your body when you play that part of the story,” Ms. Debicki told Reuters in an interview. “But having watched it, which I recently did, and while the credits are rolling, I thought this was a really serious thing that we put on the screen.”

The two-part sixth, and final, season of The Crown explores Princess Diana’s final days before she perishes in a car accident in 1997. It premieres on Netflix on Nov. 16.

As a historical drama, the Emmy-winning drama series created by Peter Morgan seeks to tell the story of Queen Elizabeth’s reign against the backdrop of various royal dramas.

Ms. Debicki believes it’s a common experience for The Crown actors to struggle to “let go” and stop “observing” themselves while filming the show.

The pressure of capturing the British royals is intense, especially when depicting the loss of a princess to whom many people still feel connected, she said.

“Yeah, we left all the pieces of ourselves up there on the screen, because it deserves nothing less than that,” Ms. Debicki said.

Similarly, Khalid Abdalla — who portrays Dodi Fayed, Egyptian billionaire Mohamed al-Fayed’s son, who was in a romantic relationship with Princess Diana — viewed his work with Ms. Debicki as a huge responsibility.

“The process of doing it together has been everything that you would wish for in collaboration,” he said, referring to working with Ms. Debicki.

He went into the final season also thinking about how the loss of Princess Diana is still a “cultural trauma” for “millions of people around the world.”

Mr. Abdalla said the sacredness of what The Crown cast was recreating was something to which he wanted to give dignity. — Reuters

Vista Land’s net income increases 70% as real estate segment boosts revenues

VILLAR-LED property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. (VLL) posted a 70% increase in its nine-month net income on the back of higher revenues led by its real state segment.

In a stock exchange disclosure on Thursday, VLL said its net income for the January-September period climbed to P8.2 billion from P4.82 billion.

The company’s consolidated revenue improved 18% to P27.4 billion. Its real estate revenue rose 17% to P12.2 billion. It said rental income hit P11.8 billion, without giving a comparative figure.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization improved 21% to P15.2 billion while core net income, excluding the gain from insurance proceeds, increased 30% to P6.8 billion. 

As of end-September, VLL launched 27 projects valued at about P40 billion.

VLL Chairman Manuel B. Villar, Jr. said the company is anticipating a boost in its commercial centers as well as residential sales amid the approaching holiday season. 

“With the holiday season approaching, we eagerly anticipate welcoming an increased number of customers to our commercial centers as well as our overseas Filipinos coming home during the holidays which bodes well for our residential sales,” Mr. Villar said.

Mr. Villar added that VLL has launched more projects this year, which increased reservation sales by 10% to P53.1 billion for the nine-month period.

“We are delighted with our results, as we remain optimistic with the industry for the rest of the year with the strong gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.9% coupled with sustained growth in overseas Filipino remittance and revenge spending from consumers, all of which contributed to the positive performance of the group,” Mr. Villar said.

Meanwhile, VLL President and Chief Executive Officer Manuel Paolo A. Villar said the company’s leasing portfolio has already exceeded the pre-pandemic level in terms of foot traffic.

VLL’s portfolio spans over 1.6 million square meters of gross floor area across 45 malls, 56 commercial centers, and seven office buildings.

Mr. Villar added that VLL’s land bank currently spans more than 3,085 hectares across the country.

“The demand for our residential developments, spanning both horizontal and vertical segments, remains robust and sustained, with the strong interest from overseas Filipino buyers, constituting approximately 60% of our total sales,” Mr. Villar said. “Our strategic approach to maximizing prime land is actively underway, with the continuous launch of Vista Estates nationwide.”

“We are consistently enhancing our residential business by offering more vertical and upscale projects, while our leasing sector is maintaining its growth trajectory for the period,” he added. 

VLL is engaged in the residential and commercial property development businesses through six distinct business units consisting of Camella Homes, Communities Philippines, Crown Asia, Brittany, Vista Residences, and Vistamalls.

On Thursday, shares of VLL at the local bourse closed unchanged at P1.62 apiece. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Statement of Saul Hofileña, Jr.

THIS statement concerns the recent news reports about me in relation to the Resolution of the Third Division of the Supreme Court in G.R. No. 215121 dated June 23, 2021.

Almost 18 years ago or on Jan. 5, 2006, the Doctor conducted an arthroscopy operation on my left knee which led to an infection. The infection was exactly in the same site where the arthroscope which was used in the operation was inserted. Twenty-eight days later or on Feb. 2, 2006, the infection was surgically removed by another doctor. Surgical removal was necessary because the infection was already widespread. I then had another operation on June 7, 2006, because of a locked wrist which I suffered because I was using a cane when I am not on my wheelchair. More than one year later, on June 20, 2007, I had yet another operation to remove the scar which formed inside my left knee which resulted from the removal of the infection. This last operation was not included in my complaint because it was performed more than a year after its filing.

I was bound to a wheelchair for almost two years and had to use a cane when I had to walk out of necessity. I also underwent physical rehabilitation for three years. The second, third and fourth operations were performed in St. Luke’s Medical Center, Quezon City, unlike the very first operation which was performed in another hospital. More than a dozen doctors who graduated from the University of the Philippines helped me in my predicament. What they did was nothing short of a miracle because I thought that I will never walk again, and I was only 46 years old at that time and now I am 64 years old. For more than two years, pain was my constant companion. My reward for bearing pain was pain.

I will always be grateful to St. Luke’s Medical Center, to my wife who is also a physician, and the doctors and other medical personnel who helped me during those trying times.

G Summit 2023 empowers businesses in achieving sustainability, resiliency

Globe Business, the arm of Globe Telecom that supports businesses of all sizes, recently held its G Summit 2023 with the theme “Phase: Forward” at the Manila Marriott Grand Ballroom.

G Summit 2023 brought together industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and experts to share best practices and insights on digital transformation, providing re-evaluation of business practices, agile business models, customer-focused decision-making, and long-term business resilience.

Vice President and Head of Globe Business KD Dizon

Recognizing the current state of the Philippine economy and its impact on the average Filipino, KD Dizon, Vice President and Head of Globe Business, rallied the summit attendees to a mission, “This puts the onus on us, business, and policymakers to work together to overcome present-day challenges and capitalize on the opportunities that our country and economy are facing,” adding emphasis on the need to re-evaluate their practices urgently to assure business sustainability and resilience.

Blake Morgan

Speakers during the G Summit included Blake Morgan, Customer Experience Futurist; Josiah Go, Chairman and Chief Innovation strategist of Mansmith & Fielders, Inc.; Ms. Dizon of Globe Business; and Pia Gonzalez-Colby, Chief Marketing Officer of Globe Telecom.

The event kicked off with a CEO Breakfast, where executives had the opportunity to network and discuss key issues in the business and economic landscape.

Ms. Dizon started the plenary sessions with a discussion on the “Re-evaluation Phase: Revisiting Business Practices.” She emphasized the importance of urgently and strategically reviewing business practices to achieve long-term success.

Chairman and Chief Innovation strategist of Mansmith & Fielders, Inc. Josiah Go

Mr. Go championed the “Revamp Phase: Agile Business Models Powered by Tech Innovations,” leveraging the power of technology to mitigate risks and enable business agility.

Ms. Morgan discussed the need to refine business strategies and decision-making processes through leadership practices that put the customers at the heart of the business in the “Refinement Phase: Grounding Decision-Making to be Customer-Focused.”

Chief Marketing Officer of Globe Telecom Pia Gonzalez-Colby

In the final Resilient Phase of the G Summit. Ms. Gonzalez-Colby shared her insights on the importance of brand resilience and how it can lead companies to a long-term state of commercial success and strong brand identity.

Participants had the chance to have individual consultations with industry experts for personalized guidance and advice on specific business challenges and opportunities.

The summit also featured breakout sessions with industry experts, where participants could delve deeper into specific topics and engage in more in-depth discussions.

Globe has come a long way from being a traditional telco provider to becoming a technology company, or TechCo, as it offers an ecosystem of partners and solutions. Through its annual G Summit, Globe continues to establish itself as the leading partner for digital transformation.

“It’s all about driving that innovation by investing in new technologies, expanding into new markets, and improving operational efficiency. But at the same time, it’s working with the government to help the workforce add more value to organizations while innovation opens opportunities for new jobs. Globe Business stands firm and committed to our goal of uplifting the lives of Filipinos by providing solutions that enable our customers and by responding to the growing needs of our business clients,” Ms. Dizon shared. “When we empower  businesses, we are able to create a significant impact on society.”

To learn more about their transformative solutions, visit their website at https://www.globe.com.ph/business.

 

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Comparative analysis of worker performance

What’s the best way to compare the performance of people doing the same job? I know it’s easy to simply rank employees by the ratings they received in their evaluations. However, my inner voice is telling me there’s more to this. Can you help me? — Long Shot.

You’re right! There’s more to doing a comparative approach in analyzing and ranking employee performance. You must do a ranking to gain insights on which worker to promote when the time comes.

Basically, there are five approaches. One is the ranking system you were referring to, where you list the individual workers’ appraisal ratings from highest to lowest.

Next is forced distribution. This is also known as grading on a curve. The normal curve in statistics places the majority (around 70%) of employees in the middle, or the average group. Generally, this is the group that meets the company’s expectations.

The rest are distributed into either side of curve. The extreme left consists of the 5% that “need much improvement” and the 10% that “need slight improvement.” The extreme right represents the 5% who are deemed “outstanding” and the 10% that “exceed expectations.”

The third approach is called the paired comparison. This requires every line leader, supervisor and manager to compare every employee with every other employee in the work group. An employee is given a score of one point every time another worker considers him as the top performer in the group.

Once all the pairs have been compared, the concerned manager computes the number of times each employee receives a favorable score and totals them all. This becomes the employee’s performance score. After that, they are ranked accordingly. Paired comparison eliminates the managers’ subjectivity and their tendency to play it safe by giving an average rating.

BALANCED SCORECARD
The fourth approach is called the 360-degree feedback system, where an employee receives confidential evaluations of their work performance anonymously from the people who work around them. They include the boss, colleagues and direct reports. For efficiency, this is better done through an online form and measured on a scale similar to the forced distribution system.

This allows the person being rated to accomplish a self-rating questionnaire similar to what the boss, colleagues and direct reports are using.

The last performance approach is the so-called balanced scorecard, a performance management system that focuses on translating the company’s objectives into a set of performance metrics that include financial analysis (profitability and return on investment), customer interaction, internal business analysis and the learning perspective.

I would normally recommend the balanced scorecard as it connects an individual performance to corporate results. In other words, you cannot have people being given an excellent performance rating when the company is losing money. It may sound unfair, but that’s the way it goes. All employee accomplishments must be translated to financial performance.

Somehow, the unfairness can be tempered by evaluating, first and foremost the performance of division and department heads. Mr. Erick Reyes, a human resource (HR) management professional with more than 40 years of experience, says that “individual performance emanates from the corporate results.”

For example, if a Department ABC has exceeded the expectations of top management, a certain percentage is given as a merit increase to those people with an above average rating. On the other hand, if Department XYZ received a poor rating, then it’s almost impossible for anyone in that department to be given even a small monetary or non-monetary recognition.

Of course, that’s assuming that all goals are specifically defined by individual and department Key Performance Areas or Key Performance Indices.

FINANCIAL REWARD
As I’ve said earlier, this becomes necessary if we’re talking of financial reward like merit increases, profit-sharing bonuses or performance bonuses, except the mandated 13th month pay which must be given to all workers regardless of their employment status. Also, there’s a caveat to this — not all jobs can be measured easily.

For a department like HR, measurable objectives can be set for how it manages the recruitment cycle, prevents conflict with the labor union, reduces employee grievances, maintains a suggestion system, administers town hall meetings, conducts the annual morale survey, keeps turnover rates down, etc.

It’s also a good idea for HR to take the lead in implementing a continuous improvement program such as Lean HR, which applies kaizen and lean thinking to the HR function.

In conclusion, nothing is more convincing than creating an approach that suits the company’s culture. Just the same, don’t be afraid to change the system. Even major organizations don’t copy everything from model companies. They adjust things to achieve an ideal process.

 

Bring Rey Elbo’s leadership program called “Superior Subordinate Supervision” to your management. Chat with him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X (Twitter) or e-mail elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.com

St. Luke’s Medical Center pioneers research for health equity in PHL with launch of HERE Foundation

SLMC HERE Foundation logo unveiling with SLMC HERE Foundation’s President and CEO Dr. Arturo S. De La Peña and St. Luke’s Medical Center’s President and CEO Dr. Dennis P. Serrano

St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC), a trailblazer in delivering quality healthcare in the Philippines, marked a pivotal moment on Thursday, Nov. 16, by launching the SLMC Health Equity and Research (HERE) Foundation. The ceremonial launch took place at Shangri La The Fort, Bonifacio Global City, and was attended by business leaders and top researchers from both public and private sectors.

Dr. Arturo De La Peña, president and CEO of St. Luke’s HERE Foundation, said, “While St. Luke’s Medical Center delivers the highest standard of healthcare to individuals, it is imperative that we acknowledge and address the reality of healthcare inequality. Recognizing this disparity is the first step towards fostering a more inclusive and equitable healthcare system, ensuring that quality medical care reaches all segments of our community, irrespective of socio-economic backgrounds.”

SLMC HERE Foundation Vice-President Dr. Antonio Dans concurred highlighting the failure of many policies to bridge the healthcare gap between the affluent and the impoverished.

“For example, PhilHealth benefits are supposed to improve access to healthcare for those with less. However, the National Demographic and Health Survey shows that the poorest Filipinos use PhilHealth three times less frequently than the richest,” Dr. Dans added.

Beyond research, the HERE Foundation will also champion capacity building in health equity research and advocate for relevant policies in collaboration with other institutions.

Dr. Dennis Serrano, president and CEO of St. Luke’s Medical Center, underscored the commitment to equal care, stating, “All this must begin with ourselves. At St. Luke’s, there is no distinction in the level of care provided to social service cases and self-paying patients. They receive equal attention and are not segregated into separate rooms.”

The SLMC HERE Foundation is a non-stock, not-for-profit research foundation with a mission to finance research to enhance healthcare accessibility, particularly for the underprivileged. Research grants under the HERE Foundation will be administered by an independent Governing Council, featuring inaugural members selected for their profound expertise in various health research fields relevant to health equity. Notable members include pediatric infectious disease and pharmacologic researcher Dr. Benjamin G. Co, biostatistician and clinical epidemiologist Dr. Cynthia P. Cordero, clinical epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist Dr. Mary Ann D. Lansang, medical anthropologist and former University of the Philippines Diliman Chancellor Dr. Michael L. Tan, health economist and senior research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies Dr. Valerie G. Ulep, and health technology assessment pioneer and Former Department of Health Undersecretary for Research Development Dr. Madeleine D.R. Valera.

Research grant funding is open to eligible researchers nationwide, and inquiries can be submitted through their dedicated email address at herefoundation@stlukes.com.ph.

 

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