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Seventeen children among the dead in Indonesian soccer stampede

A man is seen behind an Indonesia’s national flag in Jakarta, Indonesia in this file photo dated April 7, 2019. — REUTERS

MALANG — Seventeen children were among at least 125 people killed in a soccer stampede in Indonesia at the weekend, officials said, as pressure builds on the Southeast Asian nation to explain how one of the world’s worst stadium disasters unfolded.

Violence and hooliganism have long been features of Indonesian football, especially in places such as Jakarta, the capital, but Saturday’s disaster in a small town in Java has thrown a spotlight on the problem.

“My family and I didn’t think it would turn out like this,” said Endah Wahyuni, the elder sister of two boys, Ahmad Cahyo, 15, and Muhammad Farel, 14, who died after being caught in the melee.

“They loved soccer, but never watched Arema live at Kanjuruhan stadium, this was their first time,” she added at her brothers’ funeral on Sunday, referring to the home side they backed.

Indonesia’s chief security minister Mahfud MD said on Monday the government would form an independent fact-finding team which would include academics and soccer experts as well as government officials to probe what happened.

The team will investigate for the next few weeks with the aim of finding who was responsible for the tragedy, he said.

Indonesian daily Koran Tempo ran a black front page on Monday, centered on the words “Our Football Tragedy”, printed in red along with a list of the dead.

Seventeen children were among the dead, with seven others being treated in hospital said Nahar, an official at the women’s empowerment ministry.

Saturday’s deadly crush came as panicking spectators tried to escape the overpacked stadium after police fired tear gas to disperse fans from the losing home side who ran onto the pitch at the end of the match.

Home side Arema FC had lost the match 3-2 to Persebaya Surabaya, though authorities had said tickets were not issued to Persebaya fans over security concerns.

Mahfud said on Sunday the stadium had been filled beyond its capacity. Some 42,000 tickets had been issued for a stadium designed to hold 38,000 people, he said.

The incident was a “dark day for all involved”, said FIFA, the governing body for world soccer, which has asked Indonesian football authorities for a report on the incident.

Its safety regulations say firearms or “crowd control gas” should not be used at matches.

A tearful Arema FC president Gilang Widya Pramana apologized on Monday to the victims of the stampede and said he took full responsibility for the disaster.

“Lives are more precious than soccer,” he told a news conference.

In an address on Sunday, Pope Francis said he had prayed for those who have lost their lives and for the injured from the disaster.

Police and sport officials have been sent to Malang to investigate an incident that ranks among the world’s deadliest stadium disasters.

“All those responsible should be held accountable for this disaster, regardless of their status or position,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Monday. — Reuters

Thousands of mobilized Russians sent home, unfit for military duty

Army soldier figurines are displayed in front of the Ukrainian and Russian flag colors background in this illustration taken, Feb. 13, 2022. — REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION

KYIV — Thousands of Russians mobilized for military service in Ukraine have been sent home and the military commissar in Russia’s Khabarovsk region removed in the latest setback to President Vladimir Putin’s chaotic conscription of 300,000 servicemen. 

On the battlefield, Mr. Putin suffered a stinging setback on Sunday with Ukrainian forces claiming full control of Russia’s eastern logistics hub of Lyman, their most significant gain in weeks. 

Russia’s first mobilization since World War Two, after its forces suffered major battlefield defeats in Ukraine, has led to widespread discontent and forced thousands of men to flee abroad. 

Mikhail Degtyarev, the governor of the Khabarovsk region in Russia’s Far East, said several thousand men had reported for enlistment in 10 days but many were ineligible. 

“About half of them we returned home as they did not meet the selection criteria for entering the military service,” Mr. Degtyarev said in a video post on the Telegram messaging app. 

He said the region’s military commissar was removed but that his dismissal would not affect the mobilization. 

The mobilization was billed as enlisting those with military experience but has often appeared oblivious to service records, health, student status and even age. 

The taking of Lyman by Ukrainian forces sets the stage for further advances aimed at cutting Russia’s supply lines to its battered troops to a single route. 

Days earlier, Mr. Putin proclaimed the annexation of four regions covering nearly a fifth of Ukraine, an area that includes Lyman. Kyiv and the West have condemned the proclamation as an illegitimate farce. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the capture of the town, where Ukrainian flags were raised over civic buildings on Saturday, demonstrated that Ukraine was capable of dislodging Russian forces and showed the impact Ukraine’s deployment of advanced Western weapons was having on the conflict. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the success of the country’s soldiers was not limited to Lyman and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was “very encouraged” by Ukrainian gains. 

Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday it was pulling troops out of the Lyman area “in connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement.” 

It did not mention Lyman in its daily update on Sunday, although it said Russian forces had destroyed seven artillery and missile depots in the Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Donetsk. 

ABSORBING REGIONS
The recapture of Lyman by Ukrainian troops is Russia’s largest battlefield loss since Ukraine’s lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region in September. 

Control over Lyman could prove a “key factor” in helping Ukraine reclaim lost territory in the Luhansk region, its governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said. 

Lyman commands a crossing of the Siverskyi Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defenses, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said. 

“Thanks to the successful operation in Lyman we are moving towards the second north-south route … and that means a second supply line will be disrupted,” said reserve colonel Viktor Kevlyuk at Ukraine’s Centre for Defense Strategies think tank. 

“In that case, the Russian group in Luhansk and Donetsk could only be supplied strictly through (Russia’s) Rostov region,” Mr. Kevlyuk told media outlet Espreso TV. 

Ukraine’s military said early on Monday Russian forces had used missiles, air strikes and artillery in attacks on 35 settlements in the previous 24 hours. Ukraine’s air force had attacked a command post, weapons caches and an anti-aircraft missile complex, as well as bringing down one helicopter, one attack aircraft and eight drones, it said. 

The governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, said Russian forces had attacked Zaporizhzhia city and nearby villages overnight, with at least 10 missiles. 

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports. 

The areas Mr. Putin claimed as annexed just over seven months into Russia’s invasion of its neighbor — Donetsk and Luhansk plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — are equal to about 18% of Ukraine’s total surface land area. 

Russia’s parliament is to consider on Monday bills and ratification treaties to absorb the regions, the speaker of the lower house of parliament said. 

A pomp-filled Kremlin signing ceremony with the regions’ Russian-installed leaders on Friday failed to stem a wave of criticism within Russia of how the military operation is being handled. 

Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s southern Chechnya region, on Saturday called for a change of strategy “right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons.” The United States says it would respond decisively to any use of nuclear weapons. 

Other hawkish Russian figures on Saturday criticized generals and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on social media for overseeing the setbacks but stopped short of attacking Mr. Putin. — Reuters

Brazil election enters runoff as Bolsonaro dashes Lula’s hope of quick win

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — REUTERS

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA — The second round of Brazil’s presidential campaign kicked off Monday after right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro outperformed polling and robbed leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of an outright victory in the first round of voting. 

The unexpectedly strong showing by Mr. Bolsonaro on Sunday dashed hopes for a quick resolution to the deeply polarized election in the world’s fourth-largest democracy. 

With 99.9% of electronic votes counted, Lula had taken 48.4% of votes versus 43.2% for Mr. Bolsonaro. As neither got a majority of support, the race goes to a runoff vote on Oct. 30. 

The race has proven tighter than most surveys suggested, revitalizing Mr. Bolsonaro’s campaign after he insisted that polls could not be trusted. If he pulls off a comeback, it would break with a wave of victories for leftists across the region in recent years, including Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. 

Adding to tensions in Brazil, Mr. Bolsonaro has made baseless attacks on the integrity of Brazil’s electronic voting system and suggested he may not concede if he loses. On Sunday night, he sounded confident victory was within reach and avoided criticism of the voting system. 

“I plan to make the right political alliances to win this election,” he told journalists, pointing to significant advances his party made in Congress in the general election. 

Mr. Bolsonaro’s right-wing allies won 19 of the 27 seats up for grabs in the Senate, and initial returns suggested a strong showing for his base in the lower house. 

The strong showing for Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies, which added to pressure on Lula to tack to the center, led bankers and analysts to expect a boost for Brazilian financial markets on Monday after Sunday’s surprising result. 

Lula put an optimistic spin on the result, saying he was looking forward to another month on the campaign trail and the chance to debate Mr. Bolsonaro head-to-head. 

Inside his campaign, however, there was clear frustration that he had fallen short of the narrow majority forecast in some polls, along with weak results in state races outside of his party’s traditional northeastern stronghold. 

“There was a clear movement of votes in the southeast, beyond what the surveys and even the campaign managed to detect,” a campaign source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. 

Support for distant third- and fourth-place finishers also fell short of recent surveys, suggesting some of their backers may have shifted to Mr. Bolsonaro when it came time to vote. 

Centrist Senator Simone Tebet, who got 4% of votes, and center-left former lawmaker Ciro Gomes, who got 3%, both said on Sunday night they would announce decisions about endorsements in the coming days. 

With the momentum in Mr. Bolsonaro’s favor, Lula may need all the help he can get. 

“Clearly Bolsonarismo was underestimated,” said Senator Humberto Costa, a compatriot of Lula’s Workers Party. — Reuters

Pakistani hospital overwhelmed as water-borne illnesses spread

PUNJAB EMERGENCY SERVICE DEPARTMENT/FACEBOOK

SEHWAN, Pakistan — The emergency ward at the main government hospital in Sehwan, a small town in southern Pakistan, is overwhelmed. 

On a recent visit, Reuters witnessed hundreds of people crammed into rooms and corridors, desperately seeking treatment for malaria and other illnesses that are spreading fast after the country’s worst floods in decades. 

Amid the crush, Naveed Ahmed, a young doctor in the emergency response department of the Abdullah Shah Institute of Health Sciences, is surrounded by five or six people trying to get his attention. 

The 30-year-old keeps his cool as stretched emergency services struggle to cope with thousands of patients arriving from miles around after their homes were submerged under water when heavy rains fell in August and September. 

“We become so overworked at times that I feel like collapsing and going on an intravenous drip,” a smiling Mr. Ahmed told Reuters as he sipped a cup of tea in the hospital’s canteen during a short break. 

“But it’s because of the prayers of these patients that we keep going.” 

Mr. Ahmed is on the frontline of the battle to limit sickness and death across southern Pakistan, where hundreds of towns and villages were cut off by rising waters. The deluge has affected around 33 million people in a country of 220 million. 

Most of the estimated 300–400 patients arriving at his clinic each morning, many of them children, are suffering from malaria and diarrhea, although with winter approaching, Mr. Ahmed fears other illnesses will become more common. 

“I hope people displaced by the floods can get back to their homes before winter; (if not) they will be exposed to respiratory illnesses and pneumonia living in tents,” he said. 

Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis who fled their homes are living in government camps set up to accommodate them, or simply out in the open. 

Stagnant floodwaters, spread over hundreds of square kilometers (miles), may take two to six months to recede in some places, and have already led to widespread cases of skin and eye infections, diarrhea, malaria, typhoid and dengue fever. 

The crisis hits Pakistan at a particularly bad time. With its economy in crisis, propped up by loans from the International Monetary Fund, it does not have the resources to cope with the longer-term effects of the flooding. 

Nearly 1,700 people have been killed in the floods caused by heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers. Pakistan estimates the cost of the damage at $30 billion, and the government and United Nations have blamed the catastrophe on climate change. 

Over 340 people have died of diseases caused by the floods, authorities have said. 

‘SECOND DISASTER’
According to the health department of Sindh province, the worst-affected region, 17,285 cases of malaria have been confirmed since July 1. 

Anticipating the risk of disease outbreaks after the rescue and relief phase of the floods, the Sindh government is trying to hire more than 5,000 health professionals on a temporary basis in districts most at risk. 

“We are short of human resources considering the magnitude of the burden of disease following the unprecedented rains and floods,” Qasim Soomro, provincial lawmaker and parliamentary health secretary of the Sindh government, told Reuters. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised concern about an impending “second disaster” of water-borne diseases spreading across the country, particularly in Sindh. 

In the hospital ward in Sehwan, a young man with a high fever was having fits on a bed outside the main emergency room. His mother ran to Mr. Ahmed, who attended to the patient and asked a male nurse to place cold pads on his forehead. 

The air was heavy with humidity, and there were not enough air conditioners to cool temperatures in overcrowded corridors lined with beds. The wards were filled to capacity and a handful of beds had more than one patient on them. 

Mr. Ahmed, a graduate of a university in China, described the pressure he and other medics were under. 

“With such influx, we … cannot wait for test results for each patient to start the treatment,” he said, adding he begins administering medicine for malaria as soon as he sees some symptoms. 

The institute in Sehwan serves people from neighboring towns and districts, including those living in camps while the waters recede and rebuilding can begin. 

Jagan Shahani’s daughter fell unconscious after getting a fever around a week ago. He used a boat to get out of his flooded village of Bhajara and flagged down a car on the nearby road that took them to Sehwan. 

“Doctors said she had malaria,” he said late last week. “This is our fourth night here. There is nothing here to eat but Allah has been very kind to provide everything,” added Shahani, whose 15-year-old daughter Hameeda is now recovering. 

On the outskirts of town, hundreds of displaced people queued up for rations being distributed at Lal Bagah, a tent settlement where displaced families prepared tea and breakfast on open fires. 

The Indus Highway that runs past Sehwan is dotted with tent camps for displaced people. 

Some are beginning to return home where waters have retreated far enough, but not all are so lucky. 

“There is no one here to help me but Allah. I pray to Allah that the waters recede in my village and I can return to my home,” said Madad Ali Bozdar. 

Mr. Bozdar, 52, is from Bubak, a town located on the north-eastern bank of Manchar Lake. Speaking on Friday, he said his village was still under 10 to 12 feet (3-4 meters) of water. He expected to be able to go back in around two months’ time. — Reuters

15 aspiring women technicians from Don Bosco receive scholarship from Meralco

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE DON BOSCO SCHOLARS. The 15 exceptional recipients of Meralco’s Women Technician Scholarship Program were personally congratulated by Don Bosco-Canlubang Assistant Director for Technical Affairs Erwin Jose R. Go; Meralco Head of Talent Resourcing Ralph Lawrence S. Placido; Don Bosco SDB TVET Director Fr. Paul Michael B. Suarez; Don Bosco Instructor Franklin D. Mitra; Don Bosco Institutional External Relations Coordinator Geraldine P. Falcon; One Meralco Foundation Corporate Social Responsibility Specialist Grace G. Noche; Don Bosco Life Coach Charlene Ann D. Regulacion, Meralco Learning & Development Partner Michelle May I. Earnshaw, and Meralco Head of HR Business Partner for Customer Retail Service Paola Marguerite A. Verayo.

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), through One Meralco Foundation (OMF), has awarded 15 freshmen students from Don Bosco College-Canlubang with a scholarship that will allow them to pursue their dreams of becoming skilled electrical technicians.

The scholarship will cover tuition fees and allowances of students who will undergo the Technical Vocational Education Training Program for the dual NC II Program on Electrical Installation and Maintenance and Mechatronics beginning this month.

The scholarship program also involves a four-month on-the-job training for the students, who will be given the opportunity to join the Meralco workforce afterwards.

This initiative falls under Meralco’s Gender Diversity and Inclusion Program called MBrace that aims to provide inclusive opportunities that empowers women, and eventually increase the ratio of women in the company to 40% by 2030.

MBrace’s aims are aligned with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 5 on Gender Equality and UN SDG 10 on Reduced Inequalities, fortifies Meralco’s commitment to the UN Global Compact’s Principle 6 on Elimination of Discrimination in Employment, and supports the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles and the advocacies of the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment.

 

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Hurricane Ian death toll climbs to 83, officials defend response

Hurricane Ian. — National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

MIAMI — The death toll from Hurricane Ian climbed past 80 on Sunday as embattled residents in Florida and the Carolinas faced a recovery expected to cost tens of billions of dollars, and some officials faced criticism over their response to the storm.

The death toll was expected to keep rising as floodwaters receded and search teams pushed farther into areas initially cut off from the outside world. Hundreds of people have been rescued as emergency workers sifted through homes and buildings inundated with water or completely washed away.

At least 85 storm-related deaths have been confirmed since Ian crashed ashore Florida’s Gulf Coast with catastrophic force on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour.

Florida accounted for all but four of the fatalities, with 42 tallied by the sheriff’s office in coastal Lee County, which bore the brunt of the storm when it made landfall, and 39 other deaths reported by officials in four neighboring counties.

Officials in Lee County, which includes Fort Myers and Cape Coral and is on the Gulf Coast, have faced questions over whether they mandated evacuations in time.

Cecil Pendergrass, chairman of the county’s board of commissioners, said on Sunday that once the county was forecast to be in the cone, or the probable track of the hurricane’s center, evacuation orders were given. Even then, some people chose to ride the storm out, Mr. Pendergrass said.

“I respect their choices,” he said at a press conference. “But I’m sure a lot of them regret it now.”

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., and first lady Jill Biden will see the devastation in Florida firsthand on Wednesday, the White House said in a statement on Saturday. The Bidens will visit Puerto Rico on Monday, where hundreds of thousands of people were still without power two weeks after Hurricane Fiona hit the island.

Cuba is restoring power after Ian knocked out electricity to the whole country of 11 million people, flattened homes and obliterated agricultural fields.

North Carolina authorities said at least four people had been killed there. No deaths were immediately reported in South Carolina, where Ian made another US landfall on Friday.

Chugging over land since then, Ian has diminished into an ever-weakening post-tropical cyclone.

The National Hurricane Center forecast more heavy rainfall was possible across parts of West Virginia and western Maryland into Sunday morning, and “major to record flooding” in central Florida.

WASHED AWAY

As the full scope of devastation became clearer, officials said some of the heaviest damage was inflicted by wind-driven ocean surf that raged into seaside communities and washed buildings away.

Satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showed beach cottages and a motel that lined the shores of Florida’s Sanibel Island had been demolished by storm surges. Although most homes appeared to still be standing, roof damage to all was evident.

Surveys from the ground showed that the barrier island, a popular tourist getaway that was home to some 6,000, was devastated.

“It’s all just completely gone,” Sanibel’s city manager, Dana Souza, said. “Our electric system is pretty much destroyed, our sewer system has been damaged badly and our public water supply is under assessment.”

The island’s link to the mainland was severed by breaches to its causeway bridge, further complicating recovery efforts, Mr. Souza said.

After waning to a tropical storm by the end of its march across Florida to the Atlantic, Ian regained hurricane strength and pummeled coastal South Carolina on Friday, sweeping ashore near Georgetown, north of the historic port city of Charleston.

Numerous roads were flooded and blocked by fallen trees while a number of piers were damaged in that area.

More than 700,000 businesses and homes remained without power on Sunday afternoon in Florida alone, where more than 2 million customers lost electricity the first night of the storm.

Insurers braced for between $28 billion and $47 billion in claims from what could amount to the costliest Florida storm since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, according to US property data and analytics company CoreLogic. — Reuters

Globe Business, Inquiro provide brands with customer insights solutions for in-depth consumer understanding 

Globe Business and Inquiro, a data technology company under AdSpark Holdings Inc. and 917Ventures, partnered up to empower brands with data-driven products that provide in-depth insights into consumer behavior and interests.

Enterprises can have a more profound understanding of their market through an easy-to-use platform developed by Inquiro, which can help them enhance their marketing strategies and ensure that campaigns are relevant to consumers.

Inquiro’s 360° Customer Dashboard + Audience Builder, an intuitive self-service tool, enables enterprises to have a holistic view of consumer behaviors, and segment them based on their interests and purchase intent.

By having a comprehensive understanding of their audience, businesses can come up with products and services hinged on identified interests, as well as discover their strongest audience segments.

Through Inquiro’s dashboard, they can leverage their created customer segments to learn more about their audience base, and to plan more relevant, targeted, and personalized programmatic advertising.

Inquiro assures that while companies are able to utilize consumer insights through its dashboard, it takes data privacy seriously as it will only act as a data processor, not a controller, which will enrich anonymized data already owned by clients.

Inquiro will soon fully implement more solutions such as Acquisition Suite and Market Scan, which will allow businesses to extend beyond their current audience to find new customers and let them view the entire Inquiro base and draw quick insights from a large sample of the Philippine market, respectively.

“Globe Business, through data-centric solutions and insights-driven partners like Inquiro, empower companies to make calculated decisions that result in effective campaigns and quality leads,” said Raymond Policarpio, Vice President for Business Strategy and Marketing for Globe Business, Enterprise Group.

Its alliance with Inquiro, to bring data-driven marketing solutions to businesses, further shows Globe’s expansion in the ICT space.

“Globe proves its reign beyond telco by continuously growing its portfolio companies with the aim of providing customers and enterprises with holistic solutions and seamless digital experiences,” Mr. Policarpio said.

Learn more about Globe Business and Inquiro at www.globe.com.ph/business/enterprise/inquiro.

 

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Philippine peso may slide to an all-time low as trade deficit widens

BW FILE PHOTO

The Philippine peso may extend its record-setting slump against the greenback as billions of dollars of trade deficits weigh on the currency, increasing pressure on the central bank to intervene to slow its descent.

The peso may slide to an all-time low of about 62 against the dollar as early as this year, about 5.4% weaker than Friday’s close, according to ING Groep NV, Bank of the Philippine Islands and eMBM Services. The currency has slumped 13% this year, and is one of the worst-performers in Asia.

Policy makers across Asia’s emerging markets are dipping in to their foreign-exchange stockpiles and ramping up verbal warnings against speculators as rate hikes by the Federal Reserve drive the dollar higher. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has signaled it may need to take stronger measures to stem peso losses, including draining liquidity and boosting borrowing costs.

“The peso is feeling the heat,” said Nicholas Mapa, senior economist at ING in Manila. “Surging imports are boosting demand for dollars and leading to elevated trade deficits. The central bank is likely in the market to smooth out volatility, but you can’t really do much when the Fed comes in hot and heavy.”

The Southeast Asian nation’s monthly trade deficit exceeded $5 billion for four consecutive months through July, as imports climbed. Rising imports prompted officials to increase the forecast for the nation’s current-account gap to a record $20.6 billion this year.

“The peso can hit 60 by early November if US data remain strong and BSP refrains from an off-cycle hike,” said Emilio Neri, lead economist at Bank of the Philippine Islands in Manila, adding that the peso could then go on to test the 62-per-dollar level.

Inflation data due this week will help determine the need for more aggressive interest-rate hikes after the central bank delivered 2.25 percentage points of increases this year. BSP is scheduled to next decide on policy in November.

Foreign selling of Philippine equities as the benchmark sank into bear-market territory is also adding to pressure on the currency. Outflows have reached $1.2 billion this year. — Bloomberg

Pope begs Putin to end ‘spiral of violence and death,’ fears nuclear war

REUTERS

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis for the first time directly begged Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the “spiral of violence and death” in Ukraine, saying on Sunday that the crisis was risking a nuclear escalation with uncontrollable global consequences.

In an address dedicated to Ukraine and made to thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square, Francis also condemned Mr. Putin’s latest annexation of parts of Ukraine as being against international law. He urged Mr. Putin to think of his own people in the event of an escalation.

One Vatican official said the impassioned address was so sombre it was reminiscent of a radio peace appeal by Pope John XXIII in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It was the first time Francis, who has often condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the death and destruction it has caused, had made such a direct personal appeal to Putin.

Saying he was haunted by “rivers of blood and tears that have been spilled in these months,” Francis also called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be open to any “serious peace proposal.”

He was making an urgent appeal “in the name of God” for an end to the conflict and said it was “absurd” that the world was risking a nuclear conflict.

“My appeal goes above all to the president of the Russian Federation, begging him to stop this spiral of violence and death, even out of love for his own people,” Francis said.

“On the other side, pained by the enormous suffering of the Ukrainian population following the aggression it suffered, I address an equally hopeful appeal to the president of Ukraine to be open to a serious peace proposal,” he said.

Francis later tweeted both the appeals to the two leaders in Russian and Ukrainian.

Speaking two days after Mr. Putin proclaimed the annexation of nearly a fifth of Ukraine and placed the regions under Russia’s nuclear umbrella, Francis also emphasized all countries’ right to “sovereign and territorial integrity.”

Kyiv and its Western allies have condemned Mr. Putin’s annexations as illegal, and Mr. Zelenskyy has said his forces will continue their fight to recapture all Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces.

Ukraine on Sunday claimed full control of the eastern logistics hub of Lyman, Kyiv’s most significant battlefield gain in weeks.

“I strongly deplore the grave situation that has been created in the last few days, with more actions that are contrary to the principles of international law,” he said in a clear reference to the annexation.

“This, in fact, increases the risk of a nuclear escalation to the point of fearing uncontrollable and catastrophic consequences on a global level,” he said.

In a reference to ethnic Russians living in Ukraine, Francis said it was also necessary to respect “the rights of minorities and (their) legitimate worries.”

Francis said it was “anguishing” that the world was learning about Ukrainian geography through names of places such as Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Izium, Zaporizhzhia and other places where people had suffered “indescribable suffering and fear.” — Reuters

[B-SIDE Podcast] Deep-skilling vs ‘learning in the flow of work’

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How do we build the bank of the future? In this B-Side episode, Raghav Gupta, managing director of Coursera India and Asia Pacific, talks about the increased demand for digitalization in the banking sector and compares deep-skilling with “learning in the flow of work.”

“We’ve seen a general focus on skills around digitalization, skills around data, and skills around working remotely,” Mr. Gupta tells BusinessWorld reporter Keisha B. Ta-asan. 

There are close to 1.7 million Filipinos who use Coursera, an online learning platform. It counts among its clients Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), which Mr. Gupta uses as an example to illustrate the importance of digital transformation in financial services.

TAKEAWAYS

Traditional banks are competing with fintech startups.

“I think it’s important to call out that a lot of things obviously accelerated through the course of the pandemic,” Mr. Gupta said, adding that the necessary skills for working professionals have changed permanently due to clients becoming more comfortable with digital technology.

According to the latest central bank data, digital payments rose in terms of volume and value in 2021 as consumers and businesses used online channels.

The share of digital payments in the total volume of retail transactions in the country rose to 30.3% in 2021 from 20.1% a year earlier while the value of payments done online represented 44.1% of total retail transactions last year, higher than the 26.8% share in 2020.

In order to cater to the increasing digital demand, employees should have a literacy level skill of understanding cybersecurity and data privacy, he pointed out.

Skills over certifications.

“We’ve seen that many banking companies have adopted a digital-first strategy because the customer is digitally savvy,” said Mr. Gupta. “The currency of conversation starts becoming skills, as opposed to worrying about how many hours of learning happened, or how much course completion happened, or how many certifications happened. … Leaders are focused on how many skills were built.” 

“Not everybody needs to undergo deep-skilling,” he added. While a business analyst might need 100 hours of focused learning to become a data analyst, a data analyst might need a 10-minute video to create pivot tables in an Excel sheet.

“There are many people who are very happy with undergoing what one would call learning in the flow of work,” he said, adding that Coursera offers both.

Open learning has progressed to a skills-first model that delivers business impact. 

“There used to be a world five years ago where the chief learning officer of a bank would say, ‘Let me provide a lot of content to my employees, and they can figure out what they want to learn,’” said Mr. Gupta, who described open learning as “providing 10,000 pieces of content and letting people figure things out.”

This moved to guided learning, or curated content.

Today, the most successful programs are based on “skills-first learning,” said Mr. Gupta. 

“These are programs that are focused on delivering skills that deliver business impact,” he said.

Recorded remotely in September 2022. Produced by Joseph Emmanuel L. Garcia, and Sam L. Marcelo.

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PackPrintPlas Philippines Hybrid Edition returns to SMX Manila

The most comprehensive and anticipated packaging, printing, and plastics trade show in the Philippines and Southeast Asia is staging a big comeback to the trade exhibition arena. PackPrintPlas Philippines returns in hybrid edition from Oct. 6 to 8, 2022 at the SMX Convention Center Manila in Pasay City and online through the VX Events Platform from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

PackPrintPlas Philippines 2022 Hybrid Edition will put the spotlight on different technologies and innovations in the packaging, printing, and plastics industries. It will showcase the latest offerings from the country’s leading suppliers and manufacturers.

Among the products to be showcased are different plastic packaging, granulating and recycling machines, large format printers, plastic and paper containers, resins, rubber rollers, stamping foil, and many more. Some of the leading suppliers and manufacturers will be present in the said expo such as Big Pix Graphics Systems, Inc., Caledonian Int’l. Corp., JG Summit Olefins Corp., Kelin Graphics System Corp., and many more.

PackPrintPlas Philippines 2022 Hybrid Edition also retains the trade show’s credential as the only one of its kind that brings together the leading cross-industry decision-makers. The simultaneous online edition further expands its reach, to cover more cross-industry players across the country and even the region.

Aside from product exhibitions, PackPrintPlas Philippines 2022 Hybrid Edition would also facilitate side-conferences and workshops. The Packaging Institute of the Philippines (PIP) will hold ‘Sustainability Packaging Solutions’ seminar, while the Philippine Center for Print Excellence Foundation (PCPEF) will conduct a learning session about ‘Green & Sustainable Printing.’

This hybrid event is organized by Messe Dusseldorf Asia Pte Ltd and Global-Link MP. The former is a 20-year-old regional trade fair group, while the latter is a Philippine-based events and marketing agency under the umbrella of Singapore’s MP International Pte Ltd (also a part of the Pico Group, an award-winning events and brand activation agency with foothold at 41 cities worldwide).

PackPrintPlas Philippines 2022 Hybrid Edition is also coinciding with the 2nd Hybrid National Convention of the Pambansang Samahan ng Inhenyero Mekanikal (PSIM). With this year’s theme ‘Spearheading Organizational Transformation Towards Members’ Engagement and Advancement,’ this side-event is set to gather mechanical engineers and Mechanical Engineering students from across the country.

For interested visitors, register for FREE at event.packprintplasphilippines.com.

 

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Faster inflation seen in Sept. — poll

Shoppers check out canned goods at a supermarket in Quezon City, Sept. 11. — PHILIPPINE STAR/ MIGUEL DE GUZMAN

By Keisha B. Ta-asan

INFLATION likely quickened in September due to higher electricity rates and food prices as well as the continued depreciation of the Philippine peso, according to analysts.   

A BusinessWorld poll of 13 analysts yielded a median estimate of 6.7% for September inflation, at the low end of the 6.6-7.4% forecast of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). 

If realized, September inflation would be faster than the 6.3% seen in August and the 4.2% last year. It would also mark the highest print in 45 months or since the 6.9% print in October 2018.

Analysts’ September 2022 inflation rate estimates

Inflation in September will also continue to breach the central bank’s 2-4% target for a sixth straight month.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is scheduled to release the latest consumer price index (CPI) data on Oct. 5 (Wednesday).

“Inflation for the month is expected to (have been) driven by the increase in electricity rates and prices of key food commodities, as well as by the depreciation of the peso,” the BSP said in a statement on Friday.   

Customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) saw higher electricity bills in September after the overall rate went up by P0.3907 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to P9.9365 from P9.5458 per kWh in August. This is after the combined reduction of P0.9154 per kWh in the past two months.   

Prices of food have gone up in recent weeks, reflecting the impact of Super Typhoon Karding (international name: Noru) and the weaker peso against the dollar.

“(Higher inflation) could be offset in part by the decline in local fuel prices and lower meat prices,” the BSP said, reiterating that it will continue to closely monitor developments in accordance with its price stability mandate.   

In September alone, oil companies cut pump prices for gasoline by P4.8 per liter, diesel by P9.95 per liter, and kerosene by P9.1 per liter.

“In terms of proportion to the headline reading, the food basket may have contributed approximately 2.8%, utilities by around 1.5%, and transportation by 1.3%, and core (consumer price index) is also projected to have continued its upward trend,” Robert Dan J. Roces, chief economist at Security Bank Corp., said in an e-mail.     

“This means a mix of supply and demand side pressures are driving the inflation narrative as the peso’s depreciation bites unto prices,” Mr. Roces added.   

The peso finished trading at P58.625 per dollar on Friday, gaining 34.5 centavos from its P58.97 close on Thursday, Bankers Association of the Philippines data showed. In September alone, the peso has weakened by P2.48 or 4.4% from its Aug. 31 close of P56.145.

“Several events could have affected inflation in September: continuous weakening of the peso against the dollar, several typhoons that have devastated our agricultural sector especially palay farmers,” De La Salle University economist Mitzie Irene P. Conchada said in an e-mail. 

The damage caused by Typhoon Karding to the agriculture industry is now estimated at P3.1 billion, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

PEAK INFLATION?
Inflation may have peaked in September, UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc. Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion said.

“We think that this may be the peak of headline inflation and the rest of 2022 may see inflation print above 6% (end-2022 at 6.1%),” Mr. Asuncion said, adding that he now sees average inflation at 5.4% this year and 3.6% for 2023.   

“Looking further ahead, Q4 should see a more marked and sustained drop in headline inflation, thanks in large part to a broad-based moderation in non-core (i.e. food and energy) price pressures, as signaled increasingly clearly by global trends,” Pantheon Chief Emerging Asia Economist Miguel Chanco said in an e-mail.   

On the other hand, ING Bank N.V. Manila Senior Economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa said inflation has not peaked yet, which will prompt further tightening from the Philippine central bank.

“Inflation has not peaked and will remain above 7% for at least the next 3 months, prompting at least 100-bp (basis point) worth of rate hikes by the BSP,” Mr. Mapa said.   

The Philippine central bank on Sept. 22 raised its benchmark policy rate by 50 bps to 4.25%. Rates on the overnight deposit and lending facilities also rose by 50 bps to 3.75% and 4.75%.

The Monetary Board has raised rates by 225 bps so far since May.

The central bank also revised its 2022 average inflation forecast to 5.6%. The estimate for next year had also increased to 4.1%. Inflation would likely ease to 3% in 2024.

The Monetary Board will have its next policy-setting meeting on Nov. 17.

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