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Southeast Asian countries may need to ramp up their US purchases

Power plug, shopping cart and miniature car are seen in front of US flag in this illustration taken Dec. 17, 2024. — REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION

MAJOR Southeast Asian economies may need to ramp up purchases from the United States, as they seek relief from steep US tariffs, a DBS Bank report said.

In a report released on Monday, the Singapore-based bank said six Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-countries are facing the steepest tariffs imposed by the US.

“The method behind the flurry of tariff measures announced by the US on April 2 is simple — the more a nation is reliant on US markets, the more tariffs they face,” DBS said.

“From there it should follow that the only way a country can see tariff relief in the future is by buying more from or selling less to the US,” it added.

ASEAN-6, which is comprised of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, is facing potential 27.5% increase in US tariffs on average.

“The region might seek to step up purchases from the US, for instance agricultural inputs, machinery, aircraft, energy and defense, to balance the trade gaps,” DBS said.

The US began implementing a baseline tariff of 10% on imports from most countries on April 5. A higher reciprocal tariff on individual countries will be implemented starting April 9.

The Philippines faces a 17% tariff on its exports to the US.

However, compared to its regional neighbors, the Philippines’ tariffs are among the lowest, only second to Singapore, which faces a baseline rate of 10%. Vietnam bears the steepest tariff at 46%, followed by Thailand (36%), Indonesia (32%), and Malaysia (24%).

ASEAN-6 should strike up agreements to mitigate the impacts of these tighter duties, it said.

“Regional governments are likely to initiate bilateral discussions and seek concessions with the US administration as the scale and scope of reciprocal action become clearer,” it said.

“A broad range of conciliatory options include diplomatic and other economic steps — bilateral trade agreement or critical minerals agreement,” it added.

Even prior to the tariff proposals, the Philippines has been seeking to secure a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. Among ASEAN-6, only Singapore has an FTA with the US.

However, DBS cited the lack of reliability of the United States when it comes to upholding agreements it makes.

“Such gestures may still fall short of providing meaningful relief. The playbook for most Asian economies ought to be to combine remaining open to the US while pushing for greater integration with the rest of the world.”

For the Philippines, DBS said electronic exports are likely to be the most impacted, as they form the bulk of the country’s exports.

In 2024, the Philippines exported $12.14 billion worth of commodities to the US. Of the total, over half or 53% or $6.43 billion were electronic products, including semiconductors.

However, the US exempted semiconductors from the new tariffs.

DBS also cited the potential impact on apparel, footwear and textile products.

“The country aims to push for higher farm exports to the US, seeking to displace countries in the region which have higher rates,” DBS added.

However, DBS said a reduction in tariffs for US goods in the absence of an FTA may be difficult.

“A unilateral reduction in tariffs to accommodate US demands (without an FTA) might be challenging given the need to level the playing field with all the countries under the most-favored nation (MFN) terms,” DBS added.

ASIA OUTLOOK
For the overall Asia region, DBS flagged the potential spillovers from these tariffs, which could weigh on growth and inflation.

“If tariffs stay the way they are for the rest of the year, core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation could readily exceed 3.5%, while household income and consumption will be dented, especially for those at the low end of the income spectrum.”

It also cited the possible downside of 50-100 basis points (bps) to real GDP growth.

“There is another, more adversarial, scenario. If trade war intensifies with additional tariffs and retaliations, and financial market correction worsens, US recession risks will rise considerably.”

“This will especially be the case if the US ratchets up secondary tariffs (penalty on nations for buying goods from countries under US sanctions) and China/EU take aim at the US services exports.”

With this, DBS said there is a 45% probability of “below-trend growth and above-trend inflation” in Asia.

It also flagged the 35% probability to a US recession scenario, which would “drag down the outlook of Asia’s exports-dependent economies.”

“The Fed will face pressure to cut interest rates even if inflation remains well over its target. Global financial stability could also be at stake,” it added. — L.M.J.C. Jocson

Republic Glass Holdings Corp. to hold Annual Stockholders’ Meeting on April 29

 


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NexGen unit secures green-lane perks for P300-B Quezon wind projects

NEXGEN is focused on wind and solar power, with more than 1.5 gigawatts of projects in the pipeline. — INSUNG YOON-UNSPLASH

AIRSTREAM Renewables Corp., a subsidiary of listed NexGen Energy Corp., has secured green-lane certifications for its P300-billion wind power projects in Quezon, making them eligible for expedited permit processing.

The Board of Investments One-Stop Action Center for Strategic Investments has granted green-lane certifications to the 2,000-megawatt (MW) Real Offshore Wind Farm, the 300-MW Mauban Offshore Wind Farm, the 300-MW Silang Maragondon Wind Farm, and the 200-MW Pandan Labayat Wind Farm, the company said in a media release on Monday.

“The issuance of green-lane certifications gives opportunities for Airstream Renewable Corp. and [NexGen] to have bigger roles in promoting clean energy in the Philippines, thus addressing critical issues such as environmental sustainability, electricity prices, and energy supply sufficiency,” said Eric Peter Y. Roxas, president and chief executive officer of NexGen.

Executive Order No. 18, approved in 2023, established green lanes within government agencies to expedite the process of granting permits and licenses for strategic investments.

NexGen said its subsidiary has conducted technical, environmental, and social studies, as well as wind resource assessments for the wind projects.

“The granting of green lane certifications to Airstream Renewable Corporation’s projects is a testament to the government’s confidence that we are a proactive contributor to sustainable and inclusive national development,” Mr. Roxas said.

“With that being said, the critical task ahead of us is to ensure that these wind farms will start commercial operations soon — thus contributing to [NexGen’s] long-term financial growth and increased shareholder value,” he added.

Asked about the timeline of the projects, Mr. Roxas said that the Silang and Mauban wind power projects are slated for completion by late 2027, while the Pandan and Real wind projects are set to be finished by 2028.

“The project costs will be funded by partial debt and equity. The company has been in talks with several foreign investors who have expressed their interest in participating in these projects,” he said.

NexGen is focused on wind and solar power, with more than 1.5 gigawatts of projects in the pipeline. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

Short films revived at intimate screening-slash-dancefloor

DJ SET by Pepi Dalmacion at the afterparty of the 1F Projects Backroom screening, with short films projected on the ceiling care of film collective Kinoise.

Film collective Kinoise teams up with performance space 1F Projects

FOUR short films and one feature film, all of various genres, will be projected onto a wall (and later, the ceiling) for a screening organized by the film collective Kinoise.

The five independent films, representing drama, Western, sci-fi, experimental, and horror genres, were screened on April 5 at 1F Projects, a space in the La Fuerza Compound in Makati City that usually hosts live music events.

Both Kinoise and 1F Projects are set on making their mark as alternative outlets for film exhibition and live performance.

“For this screening, I wanted to put together different genre films that I think mix well, like a melting pot,” said Jetri Bolintiam, a curator for Kinoise, at the sidelines of the Backroom screening.

In the lineup were the dark drama Cross My Heart and Hope to Die (2023) by Sam Manacsa, the Pinoy Western Shotgun Tuding (2014) by Shireen Seno, the sci-fi action short Spid (2019) by Alejo Barbaza and Mervine Aquino, and the experimental film Buwal na Mga Imahe (2022) by Gerard Bernardo.

Rounding out the night was Dodo Dayao’s dystopian horror film, Midnight in a Perfect World (2020), billed as a “mystery film” in promotional materials. As all five films were shown, the backroom of 1F Projects was packed, around 30 people filling the seats and even standing in the last row.

Starting 10 p.m., the chairs in the makeshift screening area were cleared to make way for a dance floor, with DJ Pepi Dalmacion performing a set. The short films that had just been screened were projected on the ceiling to add a trippy vibe to the afterparty. Film and music lovers, with bottles of beer and cups of gin and tonic in hand, mingled at the 1F Projects bar until way past midnight.

Michael Benedicto, a co-owner of the space, said that the collaboration with Kinoise helped them create another unique option in Metro Manila’s nightlife.

“To be honest, there is no sort of masterplan for this place. We’ve been around the scene as musicians and have hosted several projects,” he told BusinessWorld. “You really have to look for new things that are happening, and it leads to stuff like this.”

CONVERGENCE OF SCENES
The performance venue launched the Backroom film screenings in February, but its bread and butter are actually music events. It was founded by Mr. Benedicto with his artist-architect sister Micaela and her partner, musician Mario Consunji, back in 2023.

“This started because my sister needed an architecture office space. We thought we could take the music studio and make something else out of it, like the makeshift bar. It started on a whim, us doing shows, inviting musicians, and screening movies that we like,” he said.

The space had previously hosted the Fifth Wall dance film festival, various album launches, live gigs, DJ sets, and a mini book fair.

Mr. Benedicto explained that, while film screenings are free, an entrance fee for the afterparties and music performances is needed to keep the place running. The minibar, while quaint, charges a fair amount for various alcoholic drinks to last the night.

The son of music producer Toti Dalmacion, DJ Pepi Dalmacion, who provided the beats and rhythms of the night, is a product of the 1F Projects trio’s network as musicians.

“While we do have our own scene, we’re definitely meeting new people, like Madge [Reyes] for Fifth Wall, and the Kinoise kids for this film screening. We just want to keep going and see where it leads,” Mr. Benedicto said.

Backroom screenings will be taking a break after the recent one, with 1F Projects going back to music events for a bit. Next up for them is a live show with three bands, scheduled for the end of April.

For Cross My Heart director Sam Manacsa and Spid co-director Mervine Aquino, who were in attendance to see how their short films fit into the night’s events, small screenings like this help keep alternative cinema alive.

“If nobody screens them, people won’t remember or learn about it. There are so many short films that kind of die out like that,” said Mr. Aquino. “Especially ones that aren’t aligned with the tastes of festival fare in QCinema and Cinemalaya, so they’re rarely programmed.”

Ms. Manacsa added that independent short films can have “an extended life” if they’re shared with many people. “It’s a way to address the issue of people just not knowing where to watch them,” she said.

One of her next undertakings is to screen student thesis films that haven’t been exhibited in any venue since completion.

WOMEN’S FILMS
Though Mr. Bolintiam said that he programmed Kinoise x Backroom to showcase a blend of genres, BusinessWorld found that the four short films also worked as a belated Women’s Month experience.

Cross My Heart and Hope to Die centers on Mila (played by Jorrybell Agoto), an overworked and underpaid employee whose anonymous love interest is a source of comfort amid unfair working conditions. Shotgun Tuding, playfully described as a “pancit western,” is the 1940s-set tale of Tuding (Chantel Garcia), who travels to a distant town to find the man that got her sister pregnant. Then, there’s Spid, a more low-definition joint which has its female assassin lead (Genevieve Reyes) fight against the ills of a sense-impaired society.

Without spoiling anything, all three tell stories of female characters who are boxed in by the toxic masculine-led structures around them. Both Tuding and the female assassin are even singled out by male characters in their respective films, for being able to dispense violence “despite being women.” Then there’s Mila, an employee who witnesses violence and undergoes a journey that pushes her to the brink of her frustration. Her fate diverges from expectation to collide with a man (in a way that mirrors Tuding’s defiance against men).

The fourth film, Buwal na Mga Imahe (Dead Images), doesn’t fit into this women-centered interpretation of the lineup easily, due to its experimental nature. But its barrage of images explores rotting distortions in modern Philippine culture, akin to the violence of rape, the trigger warning for the overwhelming clash of visuals and sound quite apt as it brings a myriad of societal issues to the forefront.

Finally, there was Midnight in a Perfect World. Though studio-produced and garnering multiple Gawad Urian awards back in 2021, the film doesn’t have a rating from the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB). The Backroom x Kinoise screening hence billed it as a “mystery Dodo Dayao film,” one of the many techniques used by indie curators to get unrated films to the public.

Its representation of the drug war, with stars Jasmine Curtis-Smith and Glaiza de Castro at its center, is as frenetic and horrific as Spid’s. Both films have singular ways of depicting women who must navigate the disorienting darkness of a monstrous systemic death machine.

“I think [the women-centric themes] subconsciously seeped into the rationale of the whole thing,” Mr. Bolintiam said, when asked about our interpretation of the night’s lineup of films. Notably, prior to Backroom, Kinoise and fellow film collective Timog Pelikula led a screening and talk with women filmmakers at the end of March in Las Piñas City.

He concluded that these events represent a “grassroots approach to spreading the love for cinema.” He said, “Our goal is really to see a crowd of people. Some were standing at the back earlier, which was great. We’re just happy to do this.”

What’s next for Kinoise? Mr. Bolintiam revealed that there may be a screening of basketball-related films, given that many filmmakers — and Filipinos in general — love the sport.

For more information on Kinoise or 1F Projects, visit their Facebook and Instagram pages. 1F Projects is located on the second floor of the La Fuerza Compound along Chino Roces Ave. in Makati City. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

Hollywood eyes summer with anticipation, 50 years after Jaws

LAS VEGAS — A half-century ago, in June 1975, Jaws swam into theaters, gave audiences a good scare and rewrote movie history.

The shark thriller became the first summer blockbuster with a playbook that Hollywood studios still follow today.

Jaws was heavily marketed, creating buzz that positioned the movie as a must-see event. It became a runaway hit that changed the career of its young director, 26-year-old Steven Spielberg, and shifted the scheduling of movies.

“Before Jaws, there wasn’t really a well-defined summer movie season,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior movie analyst at Comscore.

“You could have big movies coming out at any time of the year, but there was never a season that encapsulated what young people wanted to do in the summer, which was go to the movie theater,” he added. “It really changed everything.”

Star Wars took the same path in the summer of 1977, hitting screens over the US Memorial Day weekend. Mr. Spielberg debuted his first Indiana Jones movie in June of 1981.

Now, Hollywood packs many of its most ambitious movies into theaters from the first weekend in May through Labor Day in September.

That season accounts for roughly 40% of the annual box office returns in the United States and Canada. In 2024, domestic theaters generated $3.7 billion in ticket sales during that time.

“The summer is what we look forward to in the movie business,” said Doreen Sayegh, owner and operator of the five-screen Cranford Theater in New Jersey. “It’s when some of the hottest movies, the biggest blockbusters come out, and kids are home from school so we see a lot of families.”

Hollywood is counting on this summer to reverse a downward trend. Tickets sales in the United States and Canada are running 11% behind the same point last year, according to Comscore data, and remain below pre-pandemic levels. Cinemas face competition from at-home streaming services such as Netflix.

BIG SUMMER BETS
This week, movie studios previewed their biggest summer bets at CinemaCon, an annual gathering of theater owners in Las Vegas. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer reminded the crowd that Top Gun: Maverick brought in $1.5 billion worldwide in 2022.

“We’re here to tell you that we’re ready to do it again,” Mr. Bruckheimer said, with Warner Bros. action movie F1 starring Brad Pitt as a Formula 1 driver. “We believe this is going to be the cinematic event of the summer.”

F1, scheduled for June, is among the few big-budget original movies in a slate of sequels, reboots and franchises.

Walt Disney’s Marvel Studios previewed Thunderbolts, the story of an irreverent team of superheroes starring Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Thunderbolts will kick off the summer movie season in May, and Marvel will follow-up with The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July.

Warner Bros. touted its new Superman directed by Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn. Actor David Corenswet will don the famous red cape for the first time, part of the studio’s latest attempt to reinvigorate the DC Comics movies.

Comcast’s Universal Pictures promoted a new dinosaur movie, Jurassic World: Rebirth, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey.

One of cinema’s biggest champions, Tom Cruise, teased Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, the film that may be his last in the action franchise.

FAMILY FILMS AND ACTION
Ms. Sayegh said she was optimistic about upcoming family movies including a new Smurfs, a live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon and The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. Family films have been some of the top performers at cineplexes in recent years.

She also was impressed by the trailer for Mission: Impossible. This summer, “there’s a lot at once, a lot of adrenaline. I’m pretty excited over the slate I’ve seen.”

Other cinema operators welcomed the full schedule after disruptions from the pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood strikes, though some complained that studios should space the movies out more. F1, for example, comes out just five days before Jurassic World.

As people weigh their summer entertainment options, Republican US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have sparked fears of a global economic downturn. Any economic uncertainty from federal policies could create a challenge for the movie business, said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of trade organization Cinema United.

“We’re an industry which thrives on people having discretionary income,” O’Leary said. “When there is uncertainty in the economic markets, for any reason, people tend to not use that discretionary income as much as they otherwise would.”

When Hollywood starts to compile this summer’s receipts, a familiar star will return to the big screen. Universal plans to re-release Jaws in theaters in late August to celebrate its 50th anniversary. — Reuters

CEU, PTFC join PSE’s Shari’ah-compliant securities

CORPORATE.PSE.COM.PH

THE Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) has included Centro Escolar University (CEU), an educational institution, and PTFC Redevelopment Corp., a warehouse leasing company, in its list of Shari’ah-compliant securities.

The updated list, issued on April 4, also saw the removal of Figaro Coffee Group, Inc., a food and beverage company, and Nickel Asia Corp., a mining firm.

The revisions were made following the quarterly screening for the period ending March 25, 2025.

The number of compliant companies remained at 53.

The PSE issued the prior list of Shari’ah-compliant securities on January 8, which covered the review period ending December 25, 2024.

Shari’ah is the moral and religious code of Islam that includes rules, regulations, teachings, and values governing the lives of Muslims.

“Shari’ah-compliant investment instruments create a mechanism for listed companies to gain access to potential funding from Islamic investors, including those in countries in the Middle East and other countries with high Muslim populations such as Malaysia and Indonesia,” the PSE said.

Done by Islamic finance information provider IdealRatings, Inc., the quarterly review looks at the compliance of the companies’ business activities and financial ratios to Shari’ah standards.

IdealRatings inspects listed companies in accordance with Shari’ah standards under the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions.

Under the business screening, the income of companies derived from activities such as adult entertainment, alcohol, cinema, defense & weapons, financial services, gambling, gold and silver hedging, interest-bearing investments, music, pork, and tobacco must be less than 5%.

In terms of financial ratio screening, a company’s cash or interest-bearing deposits or investments should not exceed 30% of its market capitalization, while its interest-bearing debt should not go beyond 30% of its market capitalization. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

SMIC unit starts geothermal exploration in Albay

THE PHILIPPINE Geothermal Production Co., Inc. (PGPC), a subsidiary of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), has started exploring new renewable geothermal energy sources in Albay, the company announced on Monday.

The company has commenced operations of its drilling rig as it develops a geothermal steam field at Mt. Malinao, which could generate up to 49 megawatts (MW) of electricity, the company said in a media release.

Mt. Malinao is among the new concession areas being developed by PGPC in various locations across Luzon.

Overall, these new concession sites have the potential to provide up to 300 MW of renewable energy to the Luzon grid.

Last year, PGPC announced it had started the exploration and development of new geothermal energy sources in various parts of Luzon, including the provinces of Kalinga, Benguet, Cagayan, Quezon, Camarines Norte, and Camarines Sur.

In 2023, SMIC said that PGPC was expanding its renewable energy capacity to 600 MW through new exploration projects.

PGPC, which pioneered Southeast Asia’s first commercial geothermal power project in 1971, currently operates the Tiwi field in Albay and the Makiling-Banahaw (Mak-Ban) steam field spanning Laguna and Batangas.

These facilities have been supplying renewable geothermal energy to client power plants since 1979.

The Philippines is the third-largest geothermal producer, after Indonesia and the US.

As of July 2024, the Department of Energy is monitoring 35 geothermal service contracts, 20 of which are in the pre-development stage, and 15 in the development or commercial stage. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera

T-bill yields end mixed as market eyes BSP cut

BW FILE PHOTO

THE GOVERNMENT partially awarded the Treasury bills (T-bills) it offered on Monday as yield movements were mixed, with demand shifting to the higher-yielding longer tenors on expectations of further monetary easing by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised P24.46 billion from the T-bills it auctioned off on Monday, below the P25-billion plan, even as total bids reached P63.33 billion or more than twice the amount on offer. This was also higher than the P45.667 billion in tenders recorded on March 31.

Broken down, the Treasury borrowed just P7.46 billion via the 90-day T-bills, lower than the P8-billion program, even as tenders for the tenor reached P12.96 billion. The three-month paper was quoted at an average rate of 5.393%, rising by 8.6 basis points (bps) from the 5.307% seen at the previous auction. Tenders accepted by the BTr carried yields of 5.325% to 5.449%.

The BTr partially awarded the three-month paper to cap the rise in its average yield, rejecting bids with rates higher than those quoted for the longer tenors auctioned off on Monday, it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the government made a full P8-billion award of the 181-day securities as bids for the paper amounted to P19.03 billion. The average rate of the six-month T-bill was at 5.645%, 0.8 bp lower than the 5.646% fetched last week, with accepted rates ranging from 5.545% to 5.747%.

Lastly, the Treasury raised P9 billion as planned via the 363-day debt papers as demand for the tenor totaled P31.34 billion. The average rate of the one-year debt went down by 2.2 bps to 5.726% from 5.748% previously, with bids accepted having yields of 5.71% to 5.745%.

The T-bill tenors were adjusted as the issue date was pushed back by a day due to a holiday.

At the secondary market before Monday’s auction, the 91-, 182-, and 364-day T-bills were quoted at 5.3454%, 5.6819%, and 5.7735%, respectively, based on PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service (BVAL) Reference Rates data provided by the Treasury.

The government partially awarded its offer as three-month tenor’s average yield rose, a trader said in a text message.

“There is not much demand for the short end at the current levels as the market is anticipating rate cuts from the BSP. Investors are looking to lock in yields from longer tenors given this view,” the trader said.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message that the six-month and one-year T-bills fetched slightly lower average yields as the market expects the BSP to resume its easing cycle this week and possibly implement more rate cuts within the year.

He added that the average T-bill yields fetched on Monday were mostly lower than comparable BVAL rates as well as the BSP’s current policy rate of 5.75%.

The BSP is expected to resume its easing cycle at its meeting on Thursday as easing inflation and a possible economic slowdown due to the United States’ trade policies give it ample room to cut borrowing rates further to support growth.

A BusinessWorld poll showed that all 17 analysts surveyed expect the Monetary Board to reduce its target reverse repurchase rate by 25 bps to 5.5% this week.

This would mark its first easing move since December as the BSP unexpectedly kept benchmark interest rates steady in February in a “prudent” move to assess the potential impact of the Trump administration’s evolving policies on the Philippine economy.

The Monetary Board has brought down borrowing costs by a cumulative 75 bps since it began its rate-cut cycle in August last year.

US President Donald J. Trump last week announced sweeping tariffs on America’s trading partners, imposing a 17% reciprocal tariff on all Philippine goods exported to the US, which will take effect on April 9.

While this was higher than the 10% baseline tariff imposed on most countries, this levy was the second lowest in Southeast Asia after Singapore (10%).

On Tuesday, the BTr will offer P35 billion in reissued 20-year Treasury bonds (T-bonds) with a remaining life of six years and three months.

The Treasury is looking to raise P245 billion from the domestic market this month or P125 billion via T-bills and P120 billion through T-bonds.

The government borrows from local and foreign sources to help fund its budget deficit, which is capped at P1.54 trillion this year. — A.M.C. Sy

National Artists’ works appear on Globe 5G Wi-Fi routers

“BIRDMAN” BY VICENTE MANANSALA

WORKS by four Philippine National Artists — Larry Alcala, Carlos “Botong” Francisco, Abdulmari Imao, and Vicente Manansala — now adorn telecom company Globe’s newly launched 5G Wi-Fi routers.

The designs were unveiled by Globe executives at the a:museum of Ayala Malls Manila Bay on April 2, with the goal to make local art more accessible. The routers’ skins show the following artworks: Barangay by Larry Alcala, Pageant of Commerce by Botong Francisco, Marahuyo by Abdulmari Imao (finished by his son Toym Imao), and Birdman by Vicente Manansala.

Darius Delgado, Globe’s chief commercial officer, said at the launch that the new products are a result of studying customer behaviors and trends.

“There’s a niche market in the younger segment — young professionals, married couples, those who choose not to have a big family. When you look at their behaviors, it’s all about vintage and retro,” he explained.

“What better way to address that new passion of the younger generation by immortalizing the best work of our Philippine National Artists in a breakthrough product?” Mr. Delgado said.

For Abigail Cardino, brand management head for Globe AT HOME, the routers were born from the goal of making “every aspect of the experience exceptional.”

“There’s an LED touchscreen at the center that shows diagnostics for when the internet is not working well. It’s a fusion of technology and artistry, having this new feature alongside the works of our Philippine national artists, who are masters of their craft,” she said.

Developed in collaboration with global tech company rainx, the Wi-Fi unit aims to deliver “fiber-like speeds without the need for traditional installation.” Users can also instantly connect by scanning a QR code on the device’s built-in screen.

Mr. Imao, whose father was unable to finish Marahuyo in his lifetime, found that completing the work and allowing it to be one of the four skins of Globe’s 5G Wi-Fi routers, is a way of democratizing art.

At the launch, he talked about the messenger spirit of the Sarimanok, which is the central figure in the work of art.

“In one of our folk tales, it was an ordinary rooster that was all white, just like the basic Wi-Fi router unit. It used to bring letters from a heavenly princess down to an earthly prince. At one point, there was a strong storm, and the chicken lost its way. The heavenly king took pity on the bird and sent a rainbow in order to guide the white rooster home. When it crossed the rainbow, it caught the colors while delivering the message,” Mr. Imao said.

“That’s literally what we’re doing here — a plain white router which has suddenly caught new colors.”

Mr. Delgado added that the days of hiding ugly modems are gone. “You will not see a household taking care of their units, because they’re not aesthetically pleasing. You tend to hide it. This is different because it’s a personal device that you’d want to showcase,” he said.

The new Globe AT HOME 5G Wi-Fi router costs P1,100. Subscription reloads range from P299 to P1,299. — Brontë H. Lacsamana

Megaworld eyes real estate innovations through JLL partnership

THE BELLAGIO PALAWAN

LISTED Megaworld Corp. has partnered with global real estate services company JLL to explore new opportunities, solutions, and innovations.

Under the collaboration, JLL will provide strategic advisory services on the latest international real estate standards to Megaworld, covering research, consulting, and project development.

The services also include areas such as office reinvention, reinvigoration, and reimagination, as well as innovations, project and building management, new property technology solutions, property assessment, and certifications.

JLL will also provide services related to building safety, security, and resilience in accordance with global standards.

“With JLL’s in-depth local and international real estate expertise, we can continue shaping an exciting future for Philippine real estate. We are exploring new opportunities to introduce innovative ideas and solutions across our developments,” Megaworld President Lourdes T. Gutierrez-Alfonso said in a statement on Monday.

“Over the last 30 years in corporate real estate, this type of partnership has never been done before. We offer a new set of services related to technology, sustainability, and health and wellness, all aimed at further boosting the global standards of real estate products, especially for a publicly listed real estate developer like Megaworld,” JLL Philippines Country Head Joey Radovan said.

JLL is a Fortune 200 company with a presence in over 80 countries. It is one of the leading global commercial real estate and investment management companies. The company has helped various clients buy, build, occupy, manage, and invest in various commercial, industrial, hotel, residential, and retail properties.

For 2024, Megaworld recorded an 11.7% jump in attributable net income to P21.67 billion. Revenue climbed by 17.2% to P81.69 billion on higher real estate sales.

Megaworld shares dropped by 2.79% or five centavos to P1.74 per share on Monday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Credit gauges in Asia show the most concern since early in the pandemic

CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS (CDS) in Asia blew out the most since the worsening of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, as a rout in risk assets deepened following US President Donald J. Trump’s doubling down on his global tariff barrage and China’s retaliation.

The cost to insure investment-grade debt of Asian issuers outside Japan widened by 26.5 basis points (bps) on Monday, according to traders, deeper than the 22 bps in earlier trading. If that level holds, it would mark the biggest single-day jump since March 2020, a Markit index shows.

The moves in credit mirror a sell-off in stocks around the region Monday, with equity gauges from Sydney to Tokyo plunging. The new US tariffs last week also caused global junk bond spreads to widen by the most since 2020 as investors worried that the levies would set off a wave of defaults and push economies, including the US, into recession.

At the open in Europe, gauges for credit risk climbed further from their blowout last week to their highest since late 2023. The Markit iTraxx main index of European investment-grade borrowers rose by 9.25 bps to 86.1 bps. The iTraxx Crossover index — which tracks CDS of European junk debt issuers — rose by another 46.3 bps to 433.2 bps.

“The sell-off is driven by fears of recessions,” said Pauline Chrystal, a fund manager at Kapstream Capital in Sydney. “We still see the sell-off as an opportunity to add risk. However, prolonged uncertainty resulting in lower capex from corporates, significant impact on earnings or a rise in unemployment may change our view.”

US officials have levers they can pull to “rectify” the situation, including walking back some of the tariffs if markets sell off further, or the possibility of Federal Reserve intervention, she said.

Spreads on Asian high-grade bonds widened at least 15 bps on Monday, according to traders, worsening from a minimum 10-bp blowout earlier. That would be the worst widening also since March 2020 if the benchmark closes at that level, a Bloomberg index shows. Hong Kong and Chinese borrowers are among the names leading losses, as the markets there try to catch up after a holiday on Friday, according to traders.

Yield premiums on both investment-grade and junk debt from Asia fared better than US peers last week. Junk bond spreads in the US widened by 93 bps in the two-day period to Friday, more than double that of comparable Asian debt, Bloomberg indexes show.

In broader debt markets, yields on two-year Treasuries, the most policy-sensitive bonds, dropped as much as 22 bps, while the Japanese yen and Swiss franc surged as funds poured into havens.

Still, spreads globally are rising from some of the lowest in decades, and their levels still remain below the highs touched when Silicon Valley Bank failed in March 2023.

“This is an economic stagflationary shock and likely to morph into a structural change if tariffs remain in their current form,” Omar Slim, co-head of Asia fixed income at PineBridge Investments, said. “Credit markets are definitely not insulated, but they tend to respond violently whenever there is a financial shock, which isn’t the case here, at least so far.”

Bond issuers are somewhat shielded from the current upheaval, as balance sheets remain generally healthy, he said.

Mr. Trump, speaking Sunday on Air Force One, dismissed investors’ fears and repeatedly defended the tariff move unveiled last week. He also said he wouldn’t strike deals to cut the highest tariffs unless they’d eliminate the US trade deficit with that country.

Given the backdrop, strategists are bracing for spreads to widen in the short-term. Risks were skewed for investors to demand even higher risk premiums, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. credit strategists led by Lotfi Karoui wrote in a Sunday note.

Henry Loh, head of Asia credit at Aberdeen, echoed the view. “With global credit spreads having traded through historical averages, there’s a lot of room for spreads to move wider,” he said. “The sell-off thus far has been indiscriminate, and while a more cautious near-term approach may be prudent, we expect Asia’s resilience to play out in the longer term.” — Bloomberg

Structured internships in a lifelong learning law

(Last of two parts)

The various miseducation crises of the Philippines identified in the first two-year reports of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) are forms of social cancer that spread insidiously across the body politic in different people, places, and times. They must be viewed in the broad sense of emergencies increasing with risk and decreasing with sense of urgency — to better understand the different interventions in the way people or groups react to crises.

Structured internships (SI) and lifelong learning (LLL) legislation can be designed to lower risks and heighten the sense of urgency in the many aspects of the failed systems behind Philippine miseducation.

Various generations of learners (Baby Boomers, Gens X, Y, Z, Alphans) differ greatly in their sense of urgency, but it is the older professionals and more experienced skilled workers who can reduce risks.

There is a technical sense of urgency affecting all generations: the reaction time to an adverse event announcement compared to the estimated intervention time for bad outcomes to occur (three time points), e.g., AI displacing aspects of human work at first, and, later, wholesale replacement of entire skilled work and professions, etc. These may be viewed differently by younger job-ready Senior High School (SHS) students vs. older college students who also take Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) courses.

NEED FOR BALANCE THROUGH LLL
EDCOM II’s foundational focus on basic education for a future-ready workforce must thus be balanced by LLL for the older people, even with enterprise-based training in need for more soft and hard skills.

They can be supplemented further with corporate university-type teaching and learning, e.g., the IBM set-up at the Asia Pacific College with SM Foundation, as noted in Part I of this piece.* Corporate universities lower the transaction costs across several layers of course preparation unique to the needs of companies, especially the timeliness factors in managerial interventions.

Unfortunately, LLL is the weakest of the reform areas in EDCOM II as the EDCOM II Co-Chair, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, averred in a Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) Annual Meeting in 2024.

MALNUTRITION AND UNLICENSED TEACHERS
Long-term malnutrition stemming from the 1970s must also be studied more carefully for present-day teachers who may have been the victims of past nutrient deficiencies in their first 1,000 days of life and later childhood.

Longitudinal data on malnutrition of teachers themselves may explain their low one-third passing rate in licensure exams today. Normal schools can research this area through their doctoral students in education management.

If indeed the remaining two-thirds of teachers are not even fit for classroom assignments, their relative abilities in other tasks may have been reason enough for school principals to burden them with administrative assignments. Ironically, this is comparative advantage theory in economics put to practice with a vengeance!

Relatively better at non-teaching jobs, these licensure-failed teachers need to be retooled and upgraded both cognitively and affectively with multiple intelligences approach in normal schools.

CASE #1 – PROCESS-INDUCED LEARNING
This is the essence of the Ramon Magsaysay Award-winning Dynamic Learning Program (DLP) of the Central Visayas Institute Foundation (CVIF) of Christopher and the late Marivic Bernido.

In the CVIF-DLP process of classroom management, expert subject teachers are not the sage on the stage; they lecture during only 20% of classroom time for a subject field and move to other sections taking the same course to present the same introduction to the learning matter for the day.

The rest of the class period is managed by another teacher as students work out module exercises. This homeroom teacher nudges students to answer workbook materials developed by the subject expert teacher who moves around the different sections. Technical questions on modules are not answered by the homeroom teacher. That is the responsibility of the expert teacher as he/she returns to the class where students writing in their exercise journals may have questions.

The SI potential of DLP arises in engaging more schools whose subject experts and homeroom teachers have to intern with those who have already embraced the Bernido system. Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has already adopted the CVIF-DLP approach for the Department of Education only weeks after I broached the subject with him and his then yet-to-be formed team. He needs more SI champions for the CVIF-DLP program.

Even less future-ready classroom teachers can be redeployed for complementary roles in producing superior students. Their collaboration abilities in normal schools must be sharpened with good critical, communications and creativity skills (UNESCO 4Cs of 21st Century learning**). This can be a new national SI program by itself — for the AI age, not for the last century which many normal schools are attuned to.

CASE #2 – QUALITY TEACHER TRAINING
Pre-service SI for normal school students can immerse themselves in good universities, e.g., in world-ranked Philippine higher education institutions that have increased in numbers since pandemic-period trainings, like the Commission on Higher Education-Asian Institute of Management (CHED-AIM) Global Academic Leadership Program (GALP).

Several members of congressional and executive bodies participated in the GALP experiential course, alongside presidents and deans from higher education institutions in eight cohorts, with each lasting several months of blended learning.

This SI should not merely be for special education (SPED) teachers who must be re-taught how to use multiple intelligences in an AI age, the classic approach to flexible learning modalities demonstrated in the Sandiwaan Learning Center in Smokey Mountain.

In the same vein, not all universities and colleges are led and managed along the lines of the Philippine Quality Award (PQA) guidelines, the gold standard of organization performance excellence. Based on the US Malcolm Baldrige quality performance standards that have been the basis of a Philippine law (RA 9013), education institutions have won various levels of PQA recognition.

CHED’s responsible office for incorporating the spirit of such PQA quality excellence must motivate more SI across companies and higher education institutions owned by the same families and later branch off to other industries.

CASE #3 – NEW LEARNING THEORY USING AI
New approaches to classroom management in disadvantaged schools, e.g., in Smokey Mountain, is what Fr. Benigno Beltran, SVD, has successfully implemented. He became a Peter Drucker Fellow in Southern California to share his experience in the world-famous revolutionized Manila dumpsite where he lived for more than a quarter century.

Today, Fr. Ben has been illustrating his Convergence Theory of Learning — combining critical thinking, design thinking, and systems thinking — for the education department’s Alternative Learning System (ALS) program by utilizing AI-age devices, like Augmented Visual Reality. His approach has been demonstrated successfully in the US for some disadvantaged communities through a Filipino-American teacher.

Fr. Ben further developed his convergence theory after exchanging views with peers in the GALP Program where he guest-lectured, and networking with students in MS Innovation in Business at AIM which inspired his adoption of AVR tools. A different SI he himself designed, this unique approach is what creative educators must generate.

Talking the Walk: Management people speak of various generations of learners who face different learning emergencies, risks, and urgency. These issues will be raised from their practical experiences at the Management Association of the Philippines-Asia Pacific College Conference/Workshop on SI and LLL Legislation on April 10-11, to build a stronger Philippine workforce.

* https://tinyurl.com/27o8leky/

** Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity

 

Federico “Poch” M. Macaranas, PhD is the chair of the Education Committee of the Management Association of the Philippines. He is also a board member of Bayan Innovation Group, Inc. and St. Paul University Philippines.

map@map.org.ph

fmmacaranas@gmail.com