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External debt hits $118 billion

United States dollar banknotes and an American flag displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Poland on Dec. 26, 2022. — JAKUB PORZYCKI/NURPHOTO VIA CONNECT

THE PHILIPPINES’ outstanding external debt reached $117.918 billion at end-June as the government diversified its borrowings from other countries and institutions.

Preliminary data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Friday night showed external debt increased by 9.5% to $117.918 billion at end-June from $107.692 billion in the same period a year ago.   

However, it dipped by 0.8% from the record $118.812 billion seen at the end of March.

The BSP in a statement said the annual growth of the external debt stock was driven by net availments of the National Government (NG) worth $7.9 billion.   

It was also due to the change in the scope of the external debt, which now includes nonresidents’ peso-denominated debt securities issued onshore and other prior adjustments.   

“Meanwhile, the transfer of Philippine debt papers issued offshore from nonresidents to residents of $1.3 billion and negative FX (foreign exchange) revaluation of $295 million partially tempered the year-on-year increase in the debt stock,” the BSP said.   

External debt includes all types of borrowings by residents from nonresidents.

“The increase in external/foreign debt was due to some diversification of the country’s borrowing sources other than domestic borrowings, but realistically entail greater FX risks,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

“Higher external debt also ensuring that the foreign commercial borrowing/bond issuance shelves are continuously available and liquid in terms of market trades for foreign investors.”

Mr. Ricafort noted the annual growth in external borrowings was due to official development assistance (ODA) loans from multilateral sources such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, among others.   

The BSP said the quarter-on-quarter decline in the debt level was “due mainly to the impact of the US dollar appreciation against other currencies amid further monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve.”

The peso closed at P55.20 against the dollar on June 30, weakening by 1.5% or 84 centavos from the P54.36 finish on March 31.   

The US Federal Reserve hiked its policy rate to 25 basis points at its meeting in May, bringing the target Fed funds rate to 5-5.25%.   

“The sale of Philippine debt papers by nonresidents to residents also decreased the debt stock by $305 million. These offset prior periods’ adjustments of $264 million and net availments of $110 million,” the central bank said.   

This brought the external debt ratio, or the external debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) to 28.5%, slightly lower than the 29% seen in the previous quarter.   

“Nevertheless, the country’s external debt-to-GDP ratio is still among the lowest compared to other Asian countries, thereby giving the country greater leeway to increase foreign borrowings,” Mr. Ricafort said.    

BSP data also showed the debt service ratio, or principal and interest payments as a fraction of export receipts and primary income, rose to 11% at the end of June from 4.6% a year earlier.

Borrowings by the public sector inched up by 0.9% to $74.5 billion as of end-June from $75.2 billion in the quarter earlier.

“About $67.7 billion (90.9%) of public sector obligations were NG borrowings, while the remaining $6.8 billion pertained to borrowings of government-owned and -controlled corporations, government financial institutions and the BSP,” the central bank said.

Private sector debt also slipped by 0.5% to $43.4 billion as of end-June from $43.6 billion as of end-March.

The Philippines’ top creditor countries were Japan ($13.3 billion), the United States ($4.1 billion), and the United Kingdom ($3.7 billion) as of end-June.

Loans from multilateral ($32 billion) and bilateral sources ($12.6 billion) accounted for 37.9% of all external borrowings.

Other sources were bonds ($40.7 billion or 34.5%) and foreign banks and other financial institutions ($25 billion or 21.2%), while the rest ($7.5 billion or 6.4%) were owed to suppliers and foreign exporters. — Keisha B. Ta-asan

Gross borrowings down 25% in July

The National Government’s borrowings fell to P131.937 billion in July. — PHILIPPINE STAR/WALTER BOLLOZOS

THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT’S (NG) gross borrowings fell by 25% in July amid a decline in domestic debt, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.    

In July, gross borrowings dropped by a fourth to P131.937 billion from P174.951 billion in the same month a year ago.

Month on month, gross borrowings slid by 20.8% from P166.487 billion in June.

Domestic debt accounted for the bulk or 83.75% of total gross borrowings in July.

Gross domestic borrowings fell by 34.2% to P110.498 billion during the month from P167.81 billion a year ago.

Broken down, domestic debt was made up of P108.379 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds and P2.119 billion in Treasury bills.

Meanwhile, external gross borrowings, mostly composed of new project loans, more than tripled to P21.439 billion from P7.141 billion.

For the first seven months of 2023, gross borrowings jumped by 24.8% to P1.55 trillion from P1.25 trillion a year ago.

Gross domestic debt stood at P1.17 trillion in the January-to-July period, up by 28.4% from P909.073 billion a year earlier.

This accounted for 75.5% of total gross borrowings in the first seven months.

Domestic debt during the seven-month period was composed of P794.529 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds, P283.763 billion in retail Treasury bonds, and P88.703 billion in Treasury bills.

External debt went up by 15.3% to P387.88 billion as of end-July from P336.477 billion a year ago.

This consisted of P163.607 billion in global bonds, P145.059 billion in program loans, and P79.214 billion in new project loans.

“The decrease in gross borrowings could be attributed to relatively lower amount of maturing government bonds/debt during the month,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

The narrower budget deficit in July reflected higher government revenue collections, which meant less borrowings were needed, he added.

The National Government’s fiscal deficit shrank by 44.89% to P47.8 billion in July. For the first seven months of the year, the budget gap narrowed by 21.22% to P599.5 billion.

Mr. Ricafort said risk factors like elevated inflation and high interest rates could drive up borrowings.

The National Government has set its borrowing program at P2.207 trillion this year, consisting of P1.654 trillion from domestic sources and P553.5 billion from foreign creditors. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson

AI could unlock growth opportunities for PHL

Artificial Intelligence words are seen in this illustration taken March 31, 2023. — REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO

By Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson, Reporter

THE PHILIPPINES should take advantage of the shift to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, which is expected to generate growth opportunities for many industries, analysts said.

Moody’s Investors Service said in a Sept. 6 report that AI and other transformative technologies have the potential to “reshape entire industries” and “drive the emergence of new sectors, possibly in content generation, mobility, education, or healthcare fields.”

New technologies, it said, will boost growth by increasing productivity through task automation, process optimization, and enhanced decision making.

However, Moody’s also noted that AI may displace industries and workers and may increase inequalities due to the potential demand for high-skilled workers.

The Philippines ranked 54th out of 181 countries in a 2022 Government AI Readiness Index by Oxford Insights.

Ria Ysabelle Flora, Aboitiz Data Innovation Lead for Power Solutions, said increased AI adoption would benefit a number of industries and sectors, such as finance, in the Philippines.

“With the help of tech and AI, banks that used to work on decades-old systems now are slowly realizing the importance of overcoming their technical debt,” she said in a Viber message.

Ms. Flora said engineering-centric industries such as energy and manufacturing are also seen to gain through business process optimization brought by AI.

“I see a lot of value potential in AI coming into the energy sector,” she added.

AI is also expected to bring more opportunities for growth in the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry.

IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) President Jack Madrid said that generative AI (GenAI) holds exciting potential for customer service.

Full-scale implementation of GenAI could boost productivity by 50% or even more, he said, citing studies.

“In contrast to traditional AI, which relies on rule-based systems or standard machine learning algorithms, GenAI goes further by understanding context, creating coherent and contextually appropriate responses, and handling customer inquiries more effectively,” he said in an e-mail.

“It can decode complex customer questions, discerning nuanced intent, sentiment, and context, leading to accurate and relevant responses. By leveraging customer data, GenAI provides personalized answers and suggestions, enhancing the customer experience with tailored solutions,” he added.

Mr. Madrid said that GenAI can make the workforce more productive by automating repetitive tasks and allow them to focus on more judgment-sensitive activities.

“GenAI will create demand for people adept at leveraging AI technologies to drive innovation and growth. As the demand for AI applications and customization grows, the need for skilled AI prompt engineers becomes more crucial,” he added.

Mr. Madrid said that it will be crucial for the IT-BPM sector to harness GenAI. “By embracing this cutting-edge technology, we not only propel our IT-BPM industry to new heights of efficiency and innovation but also fortify the nation’s position as a beacon of progress in the digital age.”

OTHER SECTORS
AI is seen to boost Philippine growth by 12% in 2030, equivalent to $92 billion, according to a report by EDBI and Kearney.

Economist Intelligence Unit analyst Laveena Iyer said the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 spurred an intense debate about how AI will affect and benefit businesses and consumers.

“Many companies are already using forms of AI or machine learning for various purposes, from automation of manual processes to predicting and fulfilling customer demand,” Ms. Iyer said in an e-mail.

She said the benefits of leveraging AI would depend on the pace of adoption, a country’s digital infrastructure and regulatory framework.

The consumer goods sector, particularly e-commerce, would also gain from AI technologies, she added.

Ms. Iyer noted that retail companies are using AI for predictive analysis and use geolocation data to refine transparency in their supply chains.

“In the Philippines, online retail sales grew sharply owing to the pandemic, and we expect it to account for more than 9% of total retail sales market by 2027 (from less than 3% of the overall market in the pre-pandemic period). We could expect some of the major market players to adopt AI as they go ahead, if they haven’t already,” she added.

Senti AI Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Vincent J. Regalado said that it is “inevitable” that technologies will change the ways people work, regardless of the industry.

“AI is meant to help people and businesses become more efficient and that should translate to better productivity, better output, and of course, increased returns that will reflect on a macroeconomic scale,” he said in a Viber message.

While the Philippines isn’t at the forefront of tech adoption, Mr. Regalado said the government’s push for digital transformation and the private sector’s interest in AI solutions is a “good sign.”

Industries that are customer facing, he said, could also benefit from AI solutions, like conversational AI or data analytics.

“The way I see it, those that would benefit the most from emerging technologies are not sectors, but specific organizations that have identified a use case where they can apply these technologies,” he added.

Adopting AI technologies will ultimately lead to adjustment in business operations and the overall economy, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

This would require “fine-tuning some functions to adapt to AI, a technology that could be further harnessed to further boost efficiency and overall productivity of businesses, education, and other institutions such as government functions,” Mr. Ricafort said.

RISKS
According to Aboitiz Data Innovation’s Ms. Flora, the biggest risk is believing that AI can “solve anything.”

“Technology for technology’s sake is very dangerous because it retrofits solutions to problems that may be deeply entangled with other exogenous factors,” she said.

Ms. Flora said that many firms are eager to utilize ChatGPT and other similar technologies to deploy as chatbots, hoping these would increase sales.

“However, marketers and executives often forget that these models and technologies would only be effective if the rest of their sales pipeline is efficient and ready to accommodate the possible surge of sales leads,” she added.

For his part, IBPAP’s Mr. Madrid said the disruption from GenAI should not be underestimated.

“There is a consensus that it may lead to substantial workforce reductions in certain industries and job roles, necessitating large-scale reskilling initiatives to address changing talent needs,” he said.

Mr. Madrid said that studies suggest that graphic designers, journalists, photographers, social media influencers, authors, educators, and linguists may experience significant changes due to AI.

There is also the risk of displacing low-skilled workers and jobs.

“There could be job displacements, especially if it’s a low-level and repetitive kind of job that can be automated. But again, workers at risk of displacement should be upskilled to take on new jobs created due to AI adoption,” Senti AI’s Mr. Regalado said.

Workers and businesses would need to adjust to these changes.

“Some jobs may be considered obsolete if it can be done by AI, but those displaced workers should be trained to do new jobs created by the changing business landscape,” he added.

Mr. Madrid said that upskilling the workforce will be key to adapting to new roles and meeting evolving demands.

“In this new era, GenAI will not merely automate tasks but also assist in equipping the workforce with new skills,” he added.

Mr. Regalado said that public and private sectors should ensure that the right policies and regulations are in place to be ready for AI adoption.

“Do we have enough regulations in place to make sure our data is secure, and that AI will be used for good? Do we have the infrastructure to support tech adoption? Does our workforce have the digital literacy and skill to keep up with the changing demands of the business landscape? These are the things we have to fix if we want the Philippines to reap the full benefits of AI,” he added.

Data privacy is also at risk with the increased use of AI. “AI relies heavily on data. A lot of it, and most likely, very sensitive as well. Organizations have to make sure that they have very secure data storage to avoid any breaches. Another risk is that the models used may exhibit bias if it was not trained properly, or if it was not fed the right kind of data,” Mr. Regalado said.

He noted organizations should make sure to do a risk assessment before adopting AI.

Terry L. Ridon, a public investment analyst and convenor of think tank InfraWatch PH, said that AI technology cannot fully replace the high-level analytical and custom work of professionals.

“While the disruption that may be caused by AI is concerning, particularly on the prospect of massive job loss, unless it is able to fully replicate the best attributes of employees at all levels of employment, the humans are here to stay,” he said in an e-mail.

Mr. Ridon said that AI models can provide big data confirmation of professional-created analysis at best, but it will still be limited to the breadth of information inputted to the model.

“Corporates, particularly public-facing firms, should also determine the role of AI in managing its customer service experience, as many consumers will still opt to be able to speak or chat with an actual person to immediately resolve their concerns,” he said.

AI models can also make errors, and clients may harbor negative sentiment due to the lack of accountability in the mistakes of AI models, Mr. Ridon said.

“The best attributes (of humans) are not just their capacity to churn out information to end users, it includes the ability to process and analyze complex information, the ability to take responsibility for all decisions and action, and most importantly, the ability to empathize with others,” he added.

The brand lives on

SET UP at Rustan’s Criselda: A Journey Through Flower Fields launch event

With Inno Sotto taking over, Criselda Lontok’s brand continues to cater to its original clients while expanding its demographic

DESPITE designer Criselda Lontok’s demise in 2021, her brand in the Rustan’s chain of department stores lives on.

On Sept. 14, Rustan’s threw a small party for Ms. Lontok’s most loyal patrons, namely, mature society women to shop the brand Criselda’s new stock (esteemed fashion designer Inno Sotto has since stepped in as creative director).

The shopping party also served as a preview for a charity auction in Ms. Lontok’s name. Up for grabs are some of her last designs, and some of her jewelry. The lots are on view in an exhibit at Rustan’s Makati flagship until Sept. 20, after which an invitation-only live auction will be held on Sept. 21 at 3 p.m., a day before her Sept. 22 death anniversary. Proceeds from the auction will go towards her favorite charity, Bantay Bata 163.

Ms. Lontok was first a model and a beauty queen in the 1960s, before coming to work with Rustan’s as a merchandising manager in the 1970s. Rustan’s co-founder Gliceria Rustia-Tantoco took her under her wing, and Ms. Lontok started to design her own line in 1983.

Her mentor’s daughter, current chair and CEO of the Rustan Group, Zenaida Rustia Tantoco, spoke about the reasons for keeping the brand intact. “Because of her many patrons. Her customers, her friends, still look for her brand. We decided to continue and we took on another designer,” she said in an interview with BusinessWorld, and she then called Mr. Sotto to join her.

“The brand has been with the store for almost 40 years. To actually kill or let the brand stop isn’t a good sign,” said Mr. Sotto. “The clothes sell. To actually put an end to it suggests other things.”

Ms. Tantoco added, “It would be a disappointment to her customers.” She herself wore an embroidered Criselda coat that day.

The brand basically becomes a lasting legacy; almost as if the lady were still alive herself. Ms. Lontok passed away at 81, an age which her own favored clients are approaching. “Talagang malaki ang kaniyang following (she really has a huge following). Of course, a lot of them, because of a certain age, are gone, like Criselda herself,” said Mr. Sotto. “We are slowly, over the last two years since I’ve been with the brand, discovering a younger brand.”

Mr. Sotto said that the brand is finding new customers with an age range beginning at 45. “They’re beginning to discover the brand. But I have to slowly take it in another direction, without losing the DNA of what the brand is all about — which is mainly printed fabrics and all of that,” he said. “We’re doing less floral; they’re more artsy,” he said about the preferences of the maturing set he’s dressing.

Save for dressing a very select group of women (basically, Manila society’s old guard), what lasting imprint did Ms. Lontok leave in Philippine fashion? Surprisingly, despite dressing what amounts to be a very exclusive club, Ms. Lontok’s designs were inclusive, showing that women can be beautiful, at any size, and at any age.

“These women, they like her clothes because it’s very forgiving. It flatters them,” said Ms. Tantoco.  “It’s a dressed-up type of thing. Kahit na it’s casual, mukhang bihis (even if it’s casual, it looks dressed-up). In her case, pustoriosa  kasi si Criselda eh,” said Mr. Sotto, using an old Filipino/Spanish word that means “glamorous” or “dressed-up.”

“You can tell.”

In an with BusinessWorld back in 2019, we asked Ms. Lontok if she had planned to retire. She said, “No — as long as I’m alive, as long as I’m strong.” Even in death, her brand, at least in name, still works as hard as she did. — Joseph L. Garcia

Likhang Habi bazaar expanding

DUE to the large number of vendors at the 13th edition of the annual Likhang Habi Market Fair, the exhibition will occupy two areas at Glorietta, where they usually hold it, instead of one. The fair will now occupy both the Glorietta and Palm Drive activity centers in Makati on Oct. 13 to 15.

The fair, which showcases creations in Philippine textile, will run under the theme “Web of Woven Wonders” (also reflecting their footprint online). The fair features 72 vendors occupying 100 booths. This is a jump from last year’s 60 vendors. “As we’re growing, they’re growing as well,” said Mia Villanueva, current president of HABI: The Philippine Textile Council. The brands include Abre Linea, Balay ni Atong, Camisa Amana, Ditta Sandico, Gifts & Graces, Kaya Mana, Filip Inna, Helena Alegre, and Natalya Lagdameo.

Fifty-three of the vendors are from Luzon, while nine are from the Visayas, and 10 from Mindanao. “The participation of the Mindanao area has increased greatly this year,” noted Ms. Villanueva. This year, they are also onboarding vendors from the ASEAN region into the fair, with representative brands from Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand.

The council is also holding two competitions during the fair: the 6th annual Lourdes Montinola Piña Weaving Competition and the 2nd Eloisa Hizon Gomez Abaca Weaving Competition. A new book, Piña Futures: Weaving Memories and Innovations written by Panay native Dr. Randy M. Madrid, will also be launched and sold at the fair. — JLG

China is criminalizing clothing ‘hurtful to the spirit and sentiments of the nation’ — could this mean a kimono ban?

IN AUGUST 2022 a young woman wearing a yukata — a simple, summer-weight kimono — was having her photo taken on a street in picturesque Suzhou, China, when she was accosted by a police officer. Following an angry exchange, partly captured on her phone, she was arrested for disturbing the public peace.

The Suzhou Kimono Incident, as it came to be known, sparked an internet debate over the propriety of wearing kimonos and the legality of the policeman’s actions.

This was not the first time wearing a kimono in China had caused a furor, and it would not be the last. Another broke out in March this year, after a visitor to Nanjing, site of an infamous massacre by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937, reported seeing a woman in a white kimono posing amidst the cherry blossoms in a Buddhist temple. He complained to the attendants but they said it was merely a matter of ethics: after all, people were free to wear what they like.

That may soon change. A new draft law on public security published online at the beginning of this month includes a clause criminalizing the wearing of clothes that might be “hurtful to the spirit and sentiments of the nation.” If the law is passed, offenders will face penalties of up to 5,000 yuan (A$1,000) and up to 15 days jail.

Draft laws, routinely posted for comment, rarely attract many responses. The response to this one has been huge, with around 100,000 submissions to date. Legal scholars in China have weighed in, pointing out the fuzziness of this clause and its openness to abuse by local law enforcers.

And as one Beijing lawyer intimated, the legislation seems directly aimed at the kimono.

Half a century ago, the target of sartorial struggle in China was “strange clothing and outlandish dress” — tight pants were the example par excellence in the 1960s, succeeded by flares in the 1970s.

Such clothing was associated with the United States, the Soviet Union, and Hong Kong, all sinkholes of decadence and natural enemies of China under Mao.

Things have changed. Soviet revisionists have morphed into Russian allies; Hong Kong has been swallowed up by the mainland; and with jeans and T-shirts now ubiquitous in China, the US is no longer open to attack on the sartorial front.

Enter Japan, with its spectacular array of distinctive cultural products, strong youth following across East Asia, and a wartime history that since the 1980s has been leveraged to foment nationalism in China.

In 1980, Japanese movie star Nakano Ryoko received a rapturous welcome when she visited China. Over the next few years, Japan inspired and provided training for the first generation of post-Mao fashion designers, who helped lay the foundations for a now-flourishing industry.

In the mid-1980s, a fully accessorized kimono as a symbol of excellence in Japanese design was perfectly acceptable for publication in a Chinese magazine.

Simultaneously, however, a “new remembering” of Japanese wartime atrocities — specifically the Nanjing massacre — was emerging, soon to be endorsed by the ruling Communist Party. By the 1990s, a history that had been buried in the Mao years was being given full play.

All this helps explain the visceral responses to young Chinese women wearing kimonos today.

In April 2009, two high-impact films about the Nanjing massacre were released. Images of Japanese soldiers raping Chinese women were fresh in people’s minds when, in September, young model Ding Beili posted a photo of herself online wearing a kimono. She attracted a storm of criticism.

“With so many countries in the world to pick from,” asked one blogger, “why did she have to pick Japan?”

Why indeed? The answer lies in something else that came to China from Japan: cosplay, popular across East Asia. The girl of the Suzhou Kimono Incident was a cosplayer, performing a role from the Japanese animé Summer Time Rendering. Naturally, cosplayers view Japanese-inspired dress differently from their critics.

Among the great occasions for Chinese cosplay until recently were Japanese-style “summer festivals,” or matsuri. It was for a matsuri in Shanghai that Ding Beili donned a kimono in 2009. Increasingly popular in China in recent years, summer festivals were canceled in at least seven cities in August 2022 under rising anti-Japanese sentiment.

The ultra-nationalist Hu Xijin, former editor of the Global Times, has dismissed the issue of the kimono in China as a matter of no consequence. “Little Japan,” in his view, is just “a lackey of the US.”

The US-Japan alliance undoubtedly exacerbates Chinese hostility towards Japan, a country that like Australia is an easier target for payback than the US. China’s response to the new tripartite agreement between Japan, South Korea, and the US was to slap a ban on Japanese seafood imports, on stated grounds of health security.

The new draft law against “hurtful” dress was posted soon after the implementation of the seafood ban, leaving observers with a distinct impression of China as a place where people can neither eat Japanese fish nor wear Japanese clothes.

Older people must be reminded of a time half a century ago, when young people wearing “strange clothing and outlandish dress” were attacked on the streets, while seafood was hardly available at all. — The Conversation via Reuters Connect

 

Antonia Finnane is a Professor (honorary) at The University of Melbourne. She has received funding from the Australian Research Council.

Guy Gift list

SOME gifts are more exciting than others, and we’re feeling a bit left out as guys are sure to harvest another crop of socks and ties this coming Christmas. We’re taking a stand and making a list for cool gifts that will definitely be worn by the recipient.

Ray-Ban sunglasses

Dark glasses and race cars? What’s not to like? A new collaboration from Ray-Ban and Ferrari introduces a tough line made with Liteforce (a material used in aeronautics) and carbon fiber which sees classic shapes oozing with racecar-driver style. Next, how often have you had glasses slip off your face? A new line from Ray-Ban sees the lenses flipping over to the other side. The Ray-Ban Reverse switches the lenses from convex to concave, therefore hugging the face even tighter. The Reverse styles are available for the Wayfarer, the Aviator, the Boyfriend, and the Caravan. The new Ray-Ban collection is available in all SM Departments stores and Vision Express branches nationwide.

Tumi bags

Bag brand Tumi is releasing its Alpha X collection for Fall 2023, made with PX6, the brand’s most durable fabric to date (according to them). Tumi is known for crafting bags out of durable ballistic nylon. We’re eyeing the Alpha X Slim Deluxe Portfolio, with room for a tablet and other accessories (P47,990) and Tumi’s classic Product 4, with lots of pockets and enough room for a laptop (P61,990). The Fall 2023 Collection is available now via Tumi.com.

Thom Browne’s Samsung phone

You’ve got a nice phone, but is it from Thom Browne? New York-cool Thom Browne is collaborating with Samsung to dress up the Galaxy Z Fold5. The Galaxy Z Fold5 Thom Browne Edition, launched in limited numbers in the Philippines this month (we’ve been told it’s sold out; but you can try), features Samsung’s latest foldable technology, combined with Thom Browne’s signature design elements. This limited edition also includes two leather pouch cases and a special edition S Pen. Included as well is the Galaxy Watch6, epitomizing timeless style and coming with two leather straps: one with black pebble leather and the other with red, white, and blue striped leather. These colors are also used on the 25W travel adapter, the coin-style watch charger and an exclusive fabric USB-C to USB-C cable. — JLG

UK comedian Russell Brand denies media allegations of sex assaults

Russell Brand in a 2010 appearance on Conan. — IMDB

LONDON — British comedian and actor Russell Brand has denied any criminal wrongdoing as the Sunday Times newspaper reported four women had accused him of sexual assaults, including rape, during a seven-year period when he was at the height of his fame.

Mr. Brand, 48, the former husband of US singer Katy Perry, issued a denial to unspecified “very serious criminal allegations” hours before they were published online by the newspaper on Saturday.

The Sunday Times did not say if any of the women had made complaints to the police. Reuters was unable to reach Brand’s representatives for further response after the paper’s report was published.

The Times, which reported the alleged incidents had taken place between 2006 and 2013, said one woman had made an allegation of rape, while another said Mr. Brand assaulted her when she was 16 and still at school. Two of the accusers reported the incidents occurred in Los Angeles, the paper said.

Channel 4 TV’s documentary show Dispatches, which was due to air further details of the allegations later on Saturday, also broadcast a number of clips of the women on X, formerly known as Twitter, describing the alleged incidents.

In a video message posted on social media, Mr. Brand said the accusations contained “a litany of extremely egregious and aggressive attacks as well as some pretty stupid stuff.

“But amidst this litany of astonishing rather baroque attacks, are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” he said.

“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies. And as I’ve written about extensively in my books, I was very, very promiscuous,” Mr. Brand said.

“Now, during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual.”

The Sunday Times said its report was the result of a joint investigation with Dispatches that began in 2019.

Mr. Brand was once one of Britain’s most-high profile comedians, known for his flamboyant style and appearance, a regular on television and radio, including working for the BBC, during the 2000s while he also starred in a number of films such as Get Him to the Greek.

He married Ms. Perry in a lavish wedding in India in 2010, but filed for divorce just 14 months later. He now mainly focuses on online projects and has a large following for his regular podcasts and shows on social media.

“I don’t mind them using my books and my stand-up to talk about my promiscuous consensual conduct in the past,” he said in his video message. “What I seriously refute are these very, very serious criminal allegations.” — Reuters

SEC warns versus three entities’ investment plans

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned the public against investing in three entities as they are unauthorized to solicit investments.

In three separate advisories, the SEC said that Wealth Wise International Co./The Wealthwise International Management OPC; CCO Media/CCO Media Philippines/Clear Channel Outdoor Asia Corp.; and ALAO/ALAO Investment Platform do not have the necessary license nor authority to solicit, accept, or take investments from the public.

According to the SEC, Wealth Wise International is allegedly offering investment schemes to the public with a minimal amount of P500 to a maximum of P384,000. It has three compensation plans where investors are said to earn up to 15% for 15 days under the “quick” plan, 40% for 14 days under the “smart” plan, and 100% in 28 days under the “wise” plan. 

The corporate regulator added that Wealth Wise International investors are promised to earn a 10% direct referral bonus and a uni-level bonus equivalent to 1% to 10%. 

The SEC said the plans have the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme, where money from new investors is used in paying fake profits to prior investors. It said the scheme is “designed mainly to favor its top recruiters and prior risk takers and is detrimental to subsequent members in case of scarcity of new investors.” 

For CCO Media/CCO Media Philippines/Clear Channel Outdoor Asia Corp., the offerings are investment products via online platforms, the SEC said.

The SEC said the alleged investment scam activities involve the use of the CCO Media Philippines App by offering investment products called original equity funds ranging from P200 to P1 million in exchange for daily returns from 3% up to 50%, depending on the level of investment.

It said US-based outdoor advertising company Clear Channel United States had claimed that CCO Media Philippines/Clear Channel Outdoor Asia Corp. had misappropriated its name, trademark, and intellectual property rights without its authority. 

“Based on verification conducted, the fraudulent “Clear Channel Outdoor Asia Corp.,” is not in any way related to, affiliated or connected with the prominent American outdoor advertising company, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc./Clear Channel Outdoor and its affiliates,” the SEC said.

Meanwhile, the SEC said that ALAO/ALAO Investment Platform is allegedly enticing the public to invest in their projects. The minimum investment is P100 under its basic plan and up to P100,000 for its master plan.

The entity also promises that the investor could earn 2% for five days and 5% for 30 days depending on the project, as well as secure a P6,000 monetary reward for being a senior partner investor that also recruits two new investors as senior partners.

“ALAO/ALAO Investment Platform is not registered as a corporation or partnership and operates without the necessary license and/or authority to solicit, accept or take investments/placements from the public nor to issue investment contracts and other forms of securities defined under Section 3 of the Securities Regulation Code (SRC),” the SEC said. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Colombian artist Fernando Botero, playful depicter of serious subjects, dies at 91

Image from the New Theory Pictures documentary, Botero. — BOTEROFILM.COM

BOGOTA — Colombian artist Fernando Botero, whose sculptures and paintings of playful, rotund subjects in sometimes harrowing situations made him one of the world’s richest artists, has died at 91.

Heralded as South America’s answer to Picasso, Mr. Botero also tackled violence and political topics, including Colombia’s internal conflicts, as well as portraying daily life.

His works have featured in exhibitions across the world. His canvases and sculptures sell for more than $2 million each, according to Sotheby’s.

The artist’s bodacious subjects were portrayed in everyday situations — a corpulent naked woman lounging on a bed or a stout man riding a humorously out-sized horse — but served the artist’s more serious goal of transporting the reader to what he called a “superlative dimension,” where commonplace situations took on exaggerated proportions.

Despite the comic plumpness of many of his creations, the artist never shied away from serious subject matter — his series of paintings about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal generated discussion across the art world.

“Fernando Botero has died, the painter of our traditions and defects, the painter of our virtues. The painter of our violence and of peace,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.

Although widely known for his large subjects, Botero insisted his pieces were not focused on body type.

“I don’t paint fat women,” the artist told Spain’s El Mundo newspaper in 2014, “no one believes me, but it’s true. What I do paint are volumes.”

Mr. Botero’s work sometimes focused on Colombia’s long-running internal conflict — he painted the aftermath of a car bomb and a group of party-goers menaced by men wielding automatic weapons and bloody machetes.

He also created tongue-in-cheek portraits of public figures, including Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group founder Manuel Marulanda.

Botero also paid tribute to classic paintings with witty rehashings — his version of the Mona Lisa is notably bloated compared to Da Vinci’s original.

But it was his Abu Ghraib series which commanded global attention. The paintings, based on victim accounts and photos taken of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers, are explicit and harrowing.

The series was exhibited around the world, drawing tens of thousands of viewers. The New York Times said the paintings, while not masterpieces, “restore the prisoners’ dignity and humanity without diminishing their agony.”

Mr. Botero’s final decades as one of the world’s wealthiest artists were a far cry from his humble beginnings.

Fernando Botero Angulo, the son of a traveling salesman and a seamstress, was born on April 19, 1932 in Medellin, Colombia.

As an artist, Mr. Botero sought to make his work accessible, donating over 200 works to create the Botero Museum in Bogota, which is free and receives half a million visitors a year.

More than a hundred of the pieces were his own, while others were by masters including Picasso, Dali, and Monet.

He gave another 150 works to a Medellin museum and 23 of his sculptures are installed outside in the Plaza Botero.

Mr. Botero is survived by his wife Sophia Vari, two sons and a daughter. Another son, aged four, was killed in a car crash in 1974.

Even into his eighties, the artist painted for a minimum of eight hours a day.

“I want to die painting,” he told Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper the year he turned 80. — Reuters

Smart wants coordinated response versus scams 

GILLES LAMBERT-UNSPLASH

SMART Communications, Inc. called for an investigation into the misuse of devices as well as a more coordinated response among stakeholders to address online and text scams. 

In a statement over the weekend, Smart Vice-President and Regulatory Affairs Head Roy D. Ibay said that rather than setting a limit to the production or importation of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards, a probe should concentrate on the misuse of devices such as tablets, smartwatches, and electric vehicles.

According to Smart, SIM cards are largely imported and are used in the said devices aside from mobile phones.

“We need to dive deeper into how criminals operate and bring to light the entire cyber scam ecosystem. Instead of obsessing over or focusing on certain parts, all stakeholders should work together on a holistic solution,” Mr. Ibay said.

Smart is the wireless arm of listed telecommunications company PLDT Inc.

Previously, the Department of Information and Communications Technology said that to address text scams, it was considering a limit to the number of SIM cards that a prepaid subscriber could register.

The government is eyeing to limit the number of registered SIM cards to 10 per subscriber.

Meanwhile, Smart said it had blocked more than 24,000 mobile numbers involved in phishing, SMShing, and vishing activities a month after the July 25 deadline for SIM registration.

The telco company also prevented more than six million fraudulent messages from reaching customers in August.

The number of registered SIM cards totaled 118.91 million as of Sept. 3, based on data from the National Telecommunications Commission.

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. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Cargill’s C-Joy expects boost from holiday demand

POULTRY grower Cargill-Joy Poultry Meats Production, Inc. (C-Joy) is banking on increased customer demand during the holiday season to boost its overall performance and sustain its growth. 

Mija Darlene Cachapero, C-Joy country director, said in an interview last week that the company is expecting high demand as the holiday season approaches and with the country’s return to normalcy after the pandemic. 

“The demand remains to be high, especially since the Philippines has returned to normal,” Ms. Cachapero said.

“We are going to the peak season of the food industry, so we will be very busy for the next four months as we try to maximize our capacity,” she added. 

C-Joy, a joint venture between Cargill Philippines, Inc. and listed food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC), operates a processing plant in Sto. Tomas, Batangas. The plant produces raw and marinated chicken products for JFC brands such as Jollibee, Chowking, and Mang Inasal.   

The processing plant currently has an annual capacity of 50 million birds, which is expected to increase gradually in the next two to three years.

In the first half, Ms. Cachapero described C-Joy’s performance as “very stable” and “on target.”

She added that C-Joy had been optimizing its operations to improve its bottom line.

“We also optimize our operations to try and make it as efficient as possible. That will also give us a better bottom line,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Cachapero said one of the challenges that could affect the company’s performance is inflation.

“Inflation has been something that we try to mitigate. It is not just felt by C-Joy, but the entire food industry. It will always be a challenge,” Ms. Cachapero said.

Preliminary government data showed that the country’s inflation rate rose to 5.3% in August from 4.7% in July amid higher prices of rice, vegetables, and fuel.

Ms. Cachapero said that another challenge for C-Joy is the supply of local talent, adding that some are now opting to work in other countries such as Canada, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic. 

“Our talent pool has also been at risk because our skilled workers are being given opportunities to work abroad,” she said. “This is for the industry as a whole, not just Cargill.”

“There is a glut of skilled workers abroad and they are trying to attract Filipinos. We continue to navigate that aspect of our business right now,” she added.

Ms. Cachapero said that Cargill had made efforts to keep and engage local talent in response to the rising number of workers opting to work in other countries.

“We just have to make sure that the ones who are willing to stay [in the Philippines] will be taken care of and we give the best engagement program for them,” she said. 

Cargill Philippines is the local unit of American food company Cargill, which is engaged in areas such as agriculture, animal nutrition, bio-industrials, starches and sweeteners, and texturizers and emulsifiers. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

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