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RJ Barrett scores 30 as NY Knicks defeat LA Lakers to end skid

RJ BARRETT scored 13 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter and the New York Knicks stopped a three-game losing streak by holding on for a 112-108 victory over the host Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night.

Julius Randle led the Knicks with 33 points after shooting 5-of-24 in Saturday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, but it was Mr. Barrett playing the role of closer.

Mr. Barrett was 6 of 12 in the fourth quarter and hit the tiebreaking basket when his layup snapped a 93-93 tie with 9:26 remaining. Mr. Barrett hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 106-96 with 5:01 left, and his basket made it 110-100 with 2:34 left, but it was New York’s final basket and the Knicks survived a dicey finish.

A layup by Dennis Schroder made it 110-108 with 19.3 seconds left, and Josh Hart hit two free throws with five seconds remaining to make it 112-108. After the Lakers called their final timeout, the game ended when D’Angelo Russell missed a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left.

Before Mr. Barrett produced in the fourth, he was 6-of-15 as the Knicks lost an eight-point lead and trailed 86-85 going into the fourth.

The Knicks were without Jalen Brunson (sore left foot) for the second straight game and fourth time in five games since the guard was injured March 3 in Miami. New York improved to 4-4 without Brunson and won for the 10th time in 13 games.

Mr. Russell made six 3-pointers and scored 33 points, but the Lakers saw their three-game winning streak stopped and they missed an opportunity to reach .500 for the first time this season. Mr. Russell was 1-of-5 in the fourth quarter when the Lakers were held to 22 points.

Anthony Davis added a double-double of 17 points and 16 boards but also missed four free throws. The Lakers missed seven foul shots after going 19-for-19 in Friday’s win over Toronto.

Immanuel Quickley started for Mr. Brunson and contributed 15 points for the Knicks, who shot 47.7 percent.

Mr. Randle scored 14 straight New York points as the Knicks erased a seven-point deficit in the second quarter. He capped a 25-point half by hitting a 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds left to give the Knicks a 62-59 lead by halftime. — Reuters

Mask-free Monday comes to Japan as COVID rules loosened

A MAN takes photo of cherry blossoms on the first day of the Japanese government’s relaxation of official guidance on masks as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, in Tokyo, Japan, March 13, 2023. — REUTERS

TOKYO — The smiles and screams at Tokyo Disneyland may be more obvious on Monday as the amusement park and much of Japan relaxes face mask norms that have defined the three-year COVID-19 pandemic.

Disney park operator Oriental Land Co., East Japan Railway Co. and cinema operator Toho Co. among the major companies allowing patrons to go maskless starting Monday, based on revised government guidance announced last month.

But a rapid behavioral change is unlikely, given a long history of mask usage in Japan and a pollen onslaught that has given hay fever sufferers one of the worst spring seasons in years.

“Mask-wearing was part of our culture even before COVID-19,” said Hitoshi Oshitani, a Tohoku University professor who was an architect of Japan’s COVID response. “I think many people will be wearing masks even after the rules are relaxed.”

Japan is one of the last major economies to relax official guidance on the coverings, whose usage has been nearly universal throughout the country even without firm regulations or penalties governing their use.

“Regarding masks, I think it is safer to wear one when riding public transportation to guard against contagion,” Yutaka Izawa, 60, said as he walked around the Ginza shopping district in Tokyo.

South Korea dialed back most requirements on indoor masking in January, while Singapore allowed bare faces on public transport last month. The United States and England halted most mask mandates early last year.

Hanako Kuno, 35, said overseas business trips had gotten her used to mask-free living.

“Personally, I think it’s fine to leave them off, and especially when I’m outside, I don’t see the point in wearing them,” said Ms. Kuno, who runs a human resources firm.

Japan has already eased norms on masks, allowing maskless speeches in parliament and permitting schools to decide whether to require them at commencement ceremonies this month.

Chief government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said last week that masks would no longer be required at Cabinet meetings starting Monday and that decisions on the coverings would be left up to individual workspaces.

“As of today, mask wearing is at the discretion of each individual,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters on Monday. “However, hay fever is also a pretty intense this season, so I think it boils down to the fact that you can wear them for different reasons.”

Japan’s COVID vaccination rate stands at more than 80% and cases have ebbed after an eighth wave of infections that peaked in early January.

Health experts in Japan have pointed to widespread mask use along with an embrace of hygiene and social distancing for the country’s relatively lower death toll from COVID.

Kyoto University professor Hiroshi Nishiura, one of the more conservative voices among Japan’s pandemic response experts, said that voluntary masking on public transport and in other spaces could have a continuing benefit in protecting against infection.

“That could have been incorporated as part of our daily habit,” he said. “The governmental decision in this time spoiled that intent.” — Reuters

North Korea launches missiles from submarine

SEOUL — Nuclear-armed North Korea test-fired two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine on Sunday, state news agency KCNA said on Monday, just as US-South Korea military drills were due to begin.

“Strategic” is typically used to describe weapons that have a nuclear capability.

KCNA said the launch confirmed the reliability of the system and tested the underwater offensive operations of the submarine units that form part of North Korea’s nuclear deterrent.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the military was on high alert and the country’s intelligence agency was working with its US counterpart to analyze the specifics of the launch.

On Monday, South Korean and American troops were scheduled to begin 11 days of joint drills, dubbed “Freedom Shield 23,” which will be held on a scale not seen since 2017.

The drills will strengthen the allies’ combined defensive posture, the two militaries have said, and will feature field exercises including amphibious landings.

North Korea has long bristled over drills it regards as a rehearsal for invasion. It has conducted a record number of missile tests and drills in the past year in what it says is an effort to boost its nuclear deterrent and make more weapons fully operational.

“It’s very regretful that North Korea is using our regular, defensive drills as a pretext for provocation,” said Koo Byoung-sam, spokesperson for South Korea’s unification ministry handling relations with the North. “I hope North Korea realizes that there is nothing they can earn from escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.”

The submarine launches aimed to show North Korea’s determination to control a situation in which, KCNA said, “the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces are getting evermore undisguised in their anti-DPRK military maneuvers.”

DPRK stands for North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

KCNA said the strategic cruise missiles were fired from the “8.24 Yongung” submarine in the water off the east coast of Korea in the early hours of Sunday.

The missiles traveled some 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) before hitting a target in the sea, the KCNA report said.

A JCS spokesperson said not everything North Korea claimed was accurate, but he did not give further details.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said there was no information that the missile flew toward Japan’s waters or caused any damage.

“If North Korea’s announcement that the missile had a range of more than 1,500 kilometers was true, it would pose threats to the region’s peace and stability — we are concerned,” Mr. Matsuno said.

He said US military deterrence in Asia-Pacific is “essential” in the region, adding the North “may step onto further provocative acts such as a nuclear test.”

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said North Korea could be exaggerating its capability to arm such missiles with nuclear warheads.

“The Kim regime wants to show it can match or surpass military capabilities on display during US-South Korea defense exercises. Yet the reality is North Korean soldiers are poorly fed and are being ordered to help farmers address the country’s food shortage,” Mr. Easley said.

North Korea has a large submarine fleet but the 8.24 Yongung (August 24th Hero) is its only known experimental ballistic missile submarine. Analysts say it plays a critical role in the development of missiles, submarine technology and operational procedures, as well as hands-on training of new submariners.

North Korea has said it is building an operational ballistic missile submarine.

While overseeing a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) launching exercise on Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the military to intensify drills to deter and respond to a “real war” if necessary.

On Sunday state media reported that Mr. Kim led a ruling party meeting to discuss and decide on “important, practical measures” to boost the country’s war deterrence amid stepped-up actions by the United States and South Korea. The report did not provide specifics on the measures. — Reuters

Asia-Pacific travelers return but with different tastes

PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

TRAVELERS are set to come out in fuller force across the Asia-Pacific region this year, though still-high inflation and structural hurdles likely will leave the critical industry still far from pre-COVID levels.

Tourist arrivals across the region should reach about half of their 2019 levels, with a full recovery to pre-pandemic norms pushed back to 2025 or 2026, according to Oxford Economics estimates. That’s a reality check on optimism riding high as outfits like Booking.com celebrate a strong start to 2023, with January the best month for travel reservations since May.

“Globally, we’re registering a very significant recovery from the depths of COVID but in APAC still, it’s behind that curve,” James Lambert, director of economic consulting for Oxford Economics Asia, said during an industry round-table discussion hosted Monday by Booking.com in Singapore.

“The global inflationary environment is a risk in terms of how much people are willing to spend” and for Asia-Pacific economies, there’s still an outsized dependence on Chinese tourists who have been slow to return amid visa processing backlogs and still-crimped flight capacity, he said.

Inflation that’s still running hot worldwide means tighter household budgets. Together with supply-side issues such as under-performing flight capacity, lower hotel and airport manpower, they make for somewhat measured expectations of the industry in 2023.

Tourism typically contributes to about 10% of global economic growth and about twice that in normal times for regional economies like Thailand.

Chinese tourists who made up about a quarter of the region’s tourist arrivals pre-pandemic might also remain a bit hesitant this year to travel to mask-free destinations, said Mr. Lambert.

For Rajit Sukumaran, managing director of Southeast Asia and Korea for IHG Hotels & Resorts, the “pleasant surprise” of China’s reopening at the end of last year has yet to translate to a big surge in arrivals throughout the region, though places like Bali and parts of Vietnam are poised to see greater numbers soon. This year is a good time for hospitality firms to focus on developing in-house talent and catering more to changing customer interests, Rajit Sukumaran said. 

Recent survey data, indeed, point to travelers wanting different things out of their trips than before the Covid era. That in part speaks to traveler preferences for more personalized experiences and for discovering new places they hadn’t considered before, according to Laura Houldsworth, managing director for Asia-Pacific for Booking.com. The company conducted an online survey in August of 24,179 respondents from 32 countries and territories. — Bloomberg

Taiwan says defense spending to focus on reading for ‘total blockade’ by China

REUTERS

TAIPEI — Taiwan’s defense spending this year will focus on preparing weapons and equipment for a “total blockade” by China, including parts for F-16 fighters and replenishing weapons, the military said in a report.

China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, staged war games around the island in August, firing missiles over Taipei and declaring no-fly and no-sail zones in a simulation of how it would seek to cut Taiwan off in a war.

In a report seeking parliamentary budget approval, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters on Monday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it began reviewing its strategic fuel reserves and repair abilities last year but did not give details.

In “anticipation of a total blockade of the Taiwan Strait,” spending this year would include replenishment of artillery and rocket stocks, and parts for F-16 fighters “to strengthen combat continuity,” the ministry said.

In an update on its threat assessment from China, the ministry said China’s military has been conducting joint force operations with an eye to controlling strategic choke points and denying access to foreign forces.

“Recently, the Communist military’s exercise and training model has been adjusted from a single military type to joint operations of land, sea, air and rocket forces,” it said in the report, issued ahead of Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng’s taking lawmakers’ questions in parliament on Wednesday.

“It is adopting an actual war approach and shifting from training to combat preparation.”

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that China must modernize its military to make it a “Great Wall of Steel”.

Mr. Xi also said that when it came to Taiwan, China must oppose pro-independence and secessionist activities and the interference of external forces.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said China has systematically increased the strength of its “joint combat readiness” actions around Taiwan.

China’s military’s Eastern Theatre Command last year sent more than 1,700 aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. That is more than double the number from a year earlier and poses a “substantial threat” to Taiwan’s defense, the ministry said.

China has been “normalizing” no-navigation zones around the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea and the Taiwan Strait, the ministry added.

China hopes to hone its abilities to fight into the “second island chain”, which includes an area from Japan to the Pacific islands, to “choke and control” the Bashi Channel, the Miyako Strait and Tsushima Strait, it said, three waterways crucial to access to the Pacific and East China Seas.

The ministry said China has also continued to use “grey zone” tactics to test Taiwan’s response, including sending drones, balloons and fishing boats to areas close to Taiwan.

The ministry also said it would include prioritize funding in the budget this year for major US-made weapons, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) mobile rocket launchers. — Reuters

Finding COVID-19’s origins a moral imperative — WHO

GENEVA — Discovering the origins of COVID-19 is a moral imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said, in the clearest indication yet that the U.N. body remains committed to finding how the virus arose.

A US agency was reported by the Wall Street Journal to have assessed the pandemic had likely been caused by an unintended Chinese laboratory leak, raising pressure on the WHO to come up with answers. Beijing denies the assessment which could soon become public after the US House of Representatives voted this week to declassify it.

“Understanding #COVID19’s origins and exploring all hypotheses remains: a scientific imperative, to help us prevent future outbreaks (and) a moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with #LongCOVID,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter late on Saturday.

He was writing to mark three years since the WHO first used the word “pandemic” to describe the global outbreak of COVID-19.

Activists, politicians and academics said in an open letter this weekend that the focus of the anniversary should be on preventing a repeat of the unequal COVID-19 vaccine rollout, saying this led to at least 1.3 million preventable deaths.

In 2021, a WHO-led team spent weeks in and around Wuhan, China where the first human cases were reported and said in a joint report that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, but further research was needed. China has said no more visits are needed.

Since then, the WHO has set up a scientific advisory group on dangerous pathogens but it has not yet reached any conclusions on how the pandemic began, saying key pieces of data are missing. — Reuters

UAE withdraws bid for 2026 World Bank-IMF meetings in favor of Qatar

REUTERS

DOHA — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has withdrawn its bid to host the 2026 World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting and will instead support Qatar as a potential host, the office of Qatar’s emir and the UAE’s state news agency said on Sunday, in the latest sign of warming ties between the Gulf neighbors.

The decision came during a phone call between UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, statements from state news agency WAM and the Amiri Diwan said.

In Sunday’s phone call, Sheikh Mohammed pledged the UAE’s support for Qatar’s bid to host the meetings and “wished the Emir and the people of Qatar every success in hosting this global gathering,” WAM’s statement said. The two leaders also “explored areas for further collaboration,” the statement said.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt in early 2021 ended a 3-1/2 year embargo on ties with Qatar, but relations between Doha and Abu Dhabi had not warmed up at the same pace as those with Riyadh and Cairo, which re-established diplomatic ties with Doha.

The political dispute that had seen Riyadh and its allies sever all ties with Qatar — over its support for Islamist groups that they deem a threat to Gulf dynastic rule and its ties with rivals Iran and Turkey – had shattered the six-nation Gulf bloc.

But relations between Abu Dhabi and Doha have warmed in recent months with Sheikh Mohammed visiting Qatar during the soccer World Cup last December.

Bahrain and Qatar last month held the first round of bilateral talks aimed at repairing relations. Abu Dhabi, like Manama, has not appointed an envoy to Doha, but restored travel and trade links with Qatar. — Reuters

Ocampo & Manalo Law Firm on its 25th year: Technology and productivity

For over twenty-five years, the Ocampo & Manalo Law Firm (OMLAW) has assisted numerous companies and organizations in achieving their business objectives and secure their place in their respective industries.

OMLAW recognizes that as the country and the world face new challenges, the environment is ripe for positive growth. Placing capable individuals in key government positions will improve the Philippines standing in the global community. Atty. Carlos T. Ocampo, founding partner of the firm, said that the firm is active in some professional associations whose purpose is legal and economic development. They hold events where they invite government officials from as high as the president to cabinet secretaries seeking to hold healthy exchange of ideas. Atty. Ocampo stated that “there might not be direct involvement on the part of the firm or a formal relationship with the government agencies but we take an active role in making sure that the government is guided accordingly and going in the right direction.”

Managing Partner, Atty. Manolito A. Manalo, stated that “as far as our involvement with the government is concerned we have been identified as stakeholders in certain practice areas and sectors. We would be asked to participate informally in policy formulation and suggest regulatory processes.”

For more that twenty-five years, the Ocampo & Manalo Law Firm has survived challenges and continues to be one of the country’s leading law offices. They share some of their practices.

“Work with consistency, this was what Atty. Ocampo has been telling me since I was a young lawyer,” Litigation Partner, Atty. Juan Victor Valdez, said.

“The firm’s lawyers have proven their trustworthiness – their worth (even) in the most trying of times when we could not see each other (during the pandemic). The firm started with a one day a week work schedule in the office upon our return from lockdown. We surmised that as long as the collective output does not suffer, it will be worth the gamble. We have been proven correct, the team seems to be happier without compromising productivity. Atty. Ocampo noted: “We help each other. Clients do not see what happens behind the scenes. There is checking and re-checking – collaboration.”

OMLAW has a strong mix of veteran and young lawyers in different areas of practice. “Every generation is different and no generation is better than the other. They just have different qualities about them. I attended a conference and the breakout sessions were with young lawyers. It was really refreshing to find out their view point on the practice — on dealing with clients,” Atty. Ocampo said. “If any firm will be successful, it will have to be by bringing together the different generations. Together, it is a potent team because the strengths of one generation will complement the other.

A key improvement in OMLAW operations is digitalization. “We realized the potential in digitizing – not just to store information but to provide solutions with the use of platforms. Things are quicker, more accurate, and nimble. We can utilize information more effectively, while still looking for areas for improvement,” Atty. Ocampo said. “Unlike before where you have rows and rows of folders. To do everything manually would be unheard of nowadays. Now, by just leveraging on technology we can keep up with the best practices abroad. We can keep up with the demands and requirements of our clients abroad.”

Atty. Manalo adds a factor to their firm’s success, “We are just the right size. Over the years that is something that has served us really well, offered us some flexibility to make adjustments when necessary and this was easily met.”

Ocampo & Manalo Law Firm is a full-service law firm celebrating its 25th year of legal service in the Philippines. The firm’s major practice areas are corporate law, commercial litigation, civil law, infrastructure and project development, transportation, project finance, intellectual property, energy, real estate and construction and mining, taxation, labor and employment, immigration, and international trade law.

 

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Women of substance

JCOMP-FREEPIK

When I meet young girls who seem to be looking for mentors and inspiring modern-day idols, I tell them to attend events of women organizations like the Philippine Women’s Economic Network (PhilWen). The coalition is composed of five active women groups involved in business: the Filipina CEO Circle, the NextGen Organization of Women Corporate Directors or NOWCD, SPARK, the Network for Enterprising Women (NEW), and Business and Professional Women (BPW). Because it is Women’s Month, it may be a good time to focus on directing our younger women on career paths and business options.

What are the most important findings a young woman must remember?

1. Women are the biggest consumers around the world. Most purchase decisions are made by women — from cars to make-up. So, having a career in retail or manufacturing of women’s necessities makes for a good option when choosing a path.

2. Women are wired differently. Women are known to be able to multi-task and pay great attention to detail while men are more linear thinkers. So, jobs that need a lot of detail will work best with women on board or at the helm.

3. Women have patience and perseverance because of their many responsibilities at home and at work. If you need someone with “stick-to-itiveness,” hire a woman. While men are macro-planners, women are patient enough to do the micro-management of things.

We must inspire young girls, especially those with intellectual advantage and prowess, to pursue higher learning, chase after rich work experience, and, hopefully, have a work-and-life balance, as the Philippines supports working women with care work at home. These young ladies will be the women corporate leaders of tomorrow.

Young women are best honed in school, with extra-curricular activities in college and maybe a post-graduate course to fine-tune their abilities in critical thinking and resourcefulness. In school, I joined a women’s organization called a sorority where we met inspiring leaders, esteemed alumnae and contemporaries who were campus leaders. The sisterhood extended beyond my stay at the university and happily continues until today. But having joined powerful women thinkers and doers gave me the impetus to dream and pursue even the almost impossible.

Joining an honor society or a college sorority, or in my case a university-wide sorority, is an enriching experience. To this day, 50 years later, I still am in touch with my sisters from far and wide. Many pursued diplomatic careers, jobs in science and technology, arts and architecture, here and abroad. We keep in touch through referrals from other sisters, annual reunions and awarding ceremonies held every five years at our alma mater, the University of the Philippines Diliman. We have an award called Mariang Maya, where sisters who have excelled in their fields are given the honor by the whole congregation with a statuette designed by National Artist Napoleon Abueva and a lot of fanfare along with it. It is inspiring, especially for the young resident sisters, and a good example of what one can become beyond the university.

At the ceremony held recently to honor eight outstanding Sigma Deltans, no less than economist and Mariang Maya past awardee Solita “Winnie” Monsod was in attendance, together with other past awardees, broadcast personality Ces Drilon, Oceana head and environment advocate Gloria Estenzo-Ramos, and historian Felice Prudente-Sta. Maria.

The current awardees are: Marlene Paje-Rodriguez for Public Administration; Emelyn Lynett Advincula Villariba for Visual Journalism; Ambassador Virginia Honrado-Benavidez for Diplomacy and International Relations; Maria Lourdes Santos for Food Research and Development; Linda Luz Bacungan-Guerrero, President of Social Weather Stations, for Social Research; Annie Gerona Dee for Business and Entrepreneurship; Maria Elizabeth Santiago-Sichon for Human Resource Development; and Frances Rivera, a journalist and news anchor in CNBC, for Broadcast Communications. These women excelled in different fields beyond the campus and went into corporate careers or government service.

This March is another celebration of Women’s Month and another reminder for women (and men) to recognize the role of women in society. Beyond the recognition of biological differences, there is a need to remind everyone that women and men have the same opportunities for careers and paths thought to be “for men only,” like mining, for example. Young women of today must not choose traditional paths but blaze new trails given the advantage of technology as an equalizer, among other democratizing developments such as the internet and fintech, to name a few.

In the corporate and business environment, women must be recognized and included in all levels of management, if a company has to be sustainable. Diversity and Inclusion has been not just an advocacy for some but now a requirement to be a sustainable enterprise. Women and youth must be included in plans for a sustainable future. Diversity must even extend up to the board room where women and youth can play a crucial role in making companies adapt to the new normal.

This month, let us be conscious and celebrate our young girls, our young corporate executives, our women civic leaders to rise up and continue to be noticed as movers of society. This can only happen if we allow them to develop to their full potential in the organization, even during child-bearing years. Many women also have their preferences and choose to not have families because of careers and they must also be respected for their choices. Every woman must be her own self, not a copy of society’s perceived model.

Look around you and find an inspiring woman who can inspire others to become their best versions of themselves, recognizing their own potential and be the exemplar for generations to come.

Happy Women’s Month to all the women out there!

 

Chit U. Juan is a member of the MAP Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, and the MAP Agribusiness Committee. She is president of NOWCD, chair of the Philippine Coffee Board, and councilor of Slow Food for Southeast Asia.

map@map.org.ph

pujuan29@gmail.com

Two case studies of professional sports leagues

Many Filipino boys dream of becoming a Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player. Entry salary in the PBA is P300,000 a month, regardless of whether the fresh recruit is a degree holder or a college dropout. No Philippine sport offers a similar opportunity.

In the last five years, two professional sports leagues have been established. I have my thoughts about their capacity to attain the same stature of the PBA, but like the case-method professor I have been, I will leave it to you reader to draw your own conclusion. Here are the Philippine Football League and the Premier Volleyball League.

PHILIPPINE FOOTBALL LEAGUE
In 2016, the Philippine Football Federation (PFF), the local governing body for football recognized by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), officially announced the formation of the Philippine Football League (PFL) with Ilocos United, Stallion Laguna, JPV Marikina, Kaya FC-Makati, FC Meralco Manila, Ceres Negros, Global Cebu, and Davao Aguilas as the participating clubs. Their rosters can include four foreigners. Games would be played on a home-and-away basis. PFL’s inaugural season would as staged in 2017 with People’s Television Network to cover the games held in Metro Manila.

In April 2017, PFF president Ramon Araneta expressed concerns about the PFL’s operations. He said, “The challenge is really logistics because it is home-and-away. You have to spend for the movement of the players and match officials.” Tony Lazaro, co-owner of the Ilocos United club, observed, “The league is a bit ambitious. Traveling between Vigan and Davao for matches could take 14 hours. It’s probably one of the longest travel times in domestic football all over the world.”

In January 2018, Meralco Manila released this statement: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce that the club will be ceasing operations immediately and will no longer participate in the second season of the league. Circumstances beyond our control have made it difficult for FC Meralco Manila to continue. The board and management have tried to arrange for new investors that could keep the organization running but these efforts have sadly fallen short.”

Ilocos United also withdrew from the league for the same reason. Kaya Makati relocated to Iloilo City that year. At the end of the 2018 season. Davao Aguilas also bade goodbye.

PFL player James Younghusband intimated, “Improvements are still needed including having the needed facilities.” His brother Phil added, “Marketing and organizational improvements have to be addressed.”

Eleven clubs have played in the PFL since its inception in 2017, but only United City (formerly Ceres-Negros), Kaya-Iloilo, and Stallion Laguna of the pioneer clubs are competing in 2023.

The PFL is the replacement of the United Football League. In 2009 aficionados of football and former collegiate and commercial league football players linked up to organize Metro Manila-based football clubs into a league. With assistance from the Football Alliance and the United Football Clubs Association, the United Football League (UFL), officially named then as LBC United Football League for sponsorship reasons, and billed as the premier football league in the country by its organizers, held its inaugural season in 2010.

The founding teams were Diliman, Global, Green Archers United, Kaya, Loyola Agila, Mama Africa, Manila All-Japan, Manila Lions, Manila Nomads, Mendiola United, Philippine Air Force, Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, Sunken Garden United, Union International, and United South.

At the end of that first season, the league signed a P150-million five-year contract with AKTV. After the end of that 2011 season, seven new clubs also entered the league.

Beginning the 2013 season, the $1-million artificial pitch football field in McKinley Hill, Bonifacio Global City became the new home field of the league. That year the UFL started charging admission. The league decided to start selling match tickets to give more value to the games.

In October 2016, it was reported that the 2016 season would be the last UFL season. The PFF announced that it prefers to have a nationwide, community-based football league that is at par with the standards set by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation. The UFL could not be considered a national league as all its members were Metro Manila based.

PREMIER VOLLEYBALL LEAGUE
In October 2020, the Games and Amusements Board (GAB), the government body regulating professional sports, issued a directive that players compensated for non-national team play would be considered as professionals, as well as all sporting events organized for profit. At that time, the Premier Volleyball League (PVL), an association composed of women’s volleyball teams, was considered a semi-professional league. As such it was not regulated by the GAB.

The following month, the PVL, confident that it had enough women players, announced that it would turn professional starting with the 2021 season. The league had been considering the move for some time in anticipation of the time when the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) would ban all college players from playing in the PVL. The UAAP had already barred its rookies from playing in commercial leagues starting in the 2018-2019 season.

Six PVL teams — BaliPure, Banko Perlas, Choco Mucho, Creamline, Motolite, and Petro Gazz — agreed to the move of the PVL turning professional. Prior to the start of the 2021 season, five teams from PVL’s rival Philippine Super Liga — Cherry Tiggo, Cignal, F2 Logistics, PLDT, and Sta. Lucia — joined the PVL.

The Philippine Army is a participant in the ongoing All-Filipino Conference. The roster includes Angela Nunag, Christine Agno, Nerissa Bautista, Mary Ann Esguerra, Christine Diane Francisco, Sarah Jane Gonzales, Andrea Marzan, Audrey Kathryn Paran, Ivy Jisel Perez, Lutgarda Maluluan, Royce Tubino, and Jeannette Virginia Villareal. They are known professionals as they all had played for commercial teams before.

I was told by an owner of a PVL club that the average salary of the star players is P100,000 to P120,000 a month. He believes the superstars may be getting as much as P200,000 a month.

There are questions about the compensation of the Army players. Does the payroll of the Philippine Army include salaries for professional volleyball players? Are those salaries in accordance with standards for their military rank? Do the volleyball players have military responsibilities? Do they participate in military exercises? If they are paid by the Club’s sponsor, the energy drink Black Mamba, are they receiving double compensation? If they are paid exclusively by Black Mamba, why do they represent the Philippine Army?

The All-Filipino Conference of the 2023 season is ongoing. Games are staged at the Filoil EcoOil Center in San Juan and PhilSports Arena in Pasig. To accommodate larger numbers of spectators as when contenders or popular teams play, games are held at the Mall of Asia Arena and Smart Arena Coliseum in Quezon City.

The game between sister teams Creamline and Choco Mucho at Smart Araneta on Feb. 14, a Tuesday, drew 19,000 spectators, about the same as the previous Sunday’s game between sister basketball teams Magnolia and Ginebra at the same venue.

One Sport of Cignal TV covers the games. When Philippine Basketball Association games are played at the same time, the PVL games are telecast live and the PBA games are shown on a delayed basis, starting at about 9 p.m.

The PVL had its start in 2004 when Sports Vision Management Group, in cooperation with Shakey’s Pizza, formed the Shakey’s V-League, a league composed of the women’s volleyball teams of schools in Metro Manila. Prior to that, the highest level of volleyball was the UAAP women’s collegiate tournament.

The league from its founding allowed the teams to have a maximum of two reinforcements — termed as “guest players” — on their roster. These guest players ranged from alumnae of their alma mater, other varsity graduates, high school recruits who used the ongoing tournament as preparation for the upcoming collegiate season, and foreign imports.

In 2011, the 2nd Conference was renamed the Shakey’s V-League Open Conference as it was opened to non-school teams — the Philippine Army, Philippine Navy, Philippine Air Force, and Maynilad. The games were aired by GMA TV until 2016. ABS-CBN Sports took over in 2017.

The Shakey’s V-League changed its name to the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) starting the 2017 season as part of a bid to secure more sponsorship for the league.

 

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. is a retired corporate executive, business consultant, and management professor.

Reflecting on gender equality and an inclusive society

FREEPIK

Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March every year. This designated day of commemoration has a long history connected to the context of European and American women workers’ movements in the early 1900s. The United Nations (UN) started celebrating International Women’s Day in 1975. Two years later, the UN adopted a resolution, A/Res/32/142, titled Women’s Participation in the Strengthening of International Peace and Security and in the Struggle against Colonialism, Racism, Racial discrimination, Foreign Aggression and Occupation and all forms of Foreign Domination declaring the yearly commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD).

In the Philippines, we started celebrating women’s rights and International Peace Day in 1988 by virtue of Proclamation No. 224s, 1988 or Declaring the First Week of March of Every Year as Women’s Week and March 8, 1988, and Every Year Thereafter as Women’s Rights and International Peace Day. Republic Act (RA) 6949 or An Act to Declare March Eight of Every Year as a Working Special Holiday to be Known as National Women’s Day was signed by President Corazon C. Aquino in April 1990.

According to the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), 2023 will be the launch of the new recurring theme on WE for Gender Equality and Inclusive Society until 2028. WE, in this framing, stands for “women and everyone” and “women and empowerment.” For this year, PCW identified the four goals of the Women’s Month celebration. Two of the goals specific to gender equality and inclusive society, are:

• “To inspire women and girls to empower themselves and take on leadership roles, opportunities, and benefits toward maximizing their full potential and enabling them to reap the fruits of gender equality”; and,

• “To promote a society that ensures inclusion, protection of fundamental freedoms, diversity, and social justice and in which every individual, each with rights and responsibilities, is capacitated and encouraged to take an active role to play.”

So where are we at right now in terms of these aspirations?

ON GENDER EQUALITY
According to UN Women, gender equality means “the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys.” In connection with Sustainable Development Goal or SDG Goal 5, gender equality aims to end gender disparities, eliminate violence against women and girls as well as early and forced marriages, secure equal leadership participation and opportunities, and provide universal access to sexual and reproductive rights.

One of the sources of gender equality information is the Global Gender Gap Report, an annual study on illustrating how near (or far) the gap is between women and men in various aspects of their lives. Launched in 2006 by World Economic Forum (WEF), the global gender gap is an index that specifically measures: 1.) economic participation and opportunity or the wage equality between women and men for the same work they do and ratios for female-male labor force participation, estimated income, as well as female-male ratios of legislators, senior officials and managers, and professional and technical workers; 2.) educational attainments or that which measures gaps between females and males in literacy rate as well as primary, secondary, and tertiary-levels enrolment; 3.) health and survival or the ratio between women and men’s healthy life expectancy and sex ratio at birth; and, 4.) political empowerment or gaps in the areas of seats in parliament, ministerial level, and number of years as head of state for women and men.

For years, the Philippines has been in the top 10 countries that had narrower gaps between women and men based on the global gender gap index: 6th (2006, 2007, 2008), 9th (2009, 2010), 8th (2011), 8th (2012), 5th (2013), 9th (2014), 7th (2015, 2016), 10th (2017), and 8th (2018). However, in 2019, the country dropped eight notches in the index. As explained in the Report:

“This downgrade is almost entirely attributable to lower female representation in the cabinet, which declined from 25% to 10% between 2017 and 2019. Female representation in the parliament was also slightly down and stood at 28% at the beginning of 2019.”

The Philippines ranked 16th in 2020, 17th in 2021, and 19th in 2022.

Last year, the Philippines released its updated Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) Plan 2019-2025 which stated “proactively prevent backsliding on the gains so far achieved towards inclusion, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls” as one of its aims. Indeed, there might have been backsliding in the country’s gender equality in the recent years. Therefore, we must work to bring us back where were or forward to where we should be.

ON INCLUSIVE SOCIETY
In 1995, the World Summit on Social Development defined inclusive society as a “society for all in which every individual, each with rights and responsibilities, has an active role to play.” It further noted that such a society “must be based on respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, cultural and religious diversity, social justice and the special needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, democratic participation and the rule of law.” For PCW, an inclusive society is one “that overrides differences in SOGIE, class, ability, generation, status, and culture.”

To a large extent, social policies play a critical role in societal transformation towards this goal. The legislative struggle of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression (SOGIE) bills is a case in point on how inclusive (or not) our society currently is. To date, numerous bills have been filed and re-filed in the Philippine House of Representatives and Senate since the year 2000.

The following bills were filed in the Lower House: House Bill (HB) 634 (2004); HB 51, HB 267, and a consolidated HB 4982 (2016). HB 4982 was first read in 2017, passed the second and third reading, was approved by the House (with a vote of 197-0), and transmitted and received by the Senate. In the 18th Congress, the House had 16 SOGIE filed while in the current 19th Congress, there are nine bills pending at the committee level.

At the Philippine Senate, Senate Bill (SB) 165 was filed in 2004 followed by SB 11 (2007), SB 1559 (2010), SB 1022 (2013). During the 18th Congress, several SOGIE bills were filed by various senators. There are currently five SOGIE-related bills filed in the Senate in the 19th Congress: SBs 139, 245, 442, 708, and 1600. In December 2022, the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality passed the SOGIE anti-discrimination Bill and 19 out of the 24 Senators signed the Committee Report. However, it has been reverted to the committee level after a senator presented letters from religious groups critical of the bill.

Currently, SOGIE has been the longest-running bill in the Philippines, spanning more than two decades and several Congresses. Can we actually concretize an inclusive society without a law that seeks to protect against discrimination on the basis of SOGIE?

QUICK THOUGHTS
So how should we reflect on gender equality and an inclusive society in the country? Well, for one thing, women must always be vigilant in claiming, advocating, and advancing human rights.

In the case of gender equality, the gains that women have achieved in the past should be thoroughly guarded and defended.

On the issue of passing a SOGIE law, women must push for the recognition of the discriminated and marginalized, defend their dignity and rights, and fight alongside them.

Without these advances, our women’s month celebration may not be as meaningful for those who are affected by these issues, for gender equality and an inclusive society would remain as mere rhetoric rather than reality.

 

Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza, Ph.D. is an associate professor at the Department of Political Science, Ateneo de Manila University. She is also the vice-president of the Philippine Political Science Association (PPSA).

mrallonza@ateneo.edu

Addressing high inflation and tax leakage

In East Asia, only the Philippines and Japan sustained high inflation until January-February this year. Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam have generally trended flat while Thailand, Malaysia, China, South Korea, and Taiwan have declining trends.

This suggests that internal or domestic factors affect our commodities market more than external factors. The main contributors of high inflation in the Philippines, from the fourth quarter 2022 until February 2023 are transport, electricity and fuels, food, and alcohol-tobacco. (See Table 1.)

So, despite the series of interest rate hikes by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from only 2% in May 2022 to 5.5% last December, this demand restriction scheme did not work as expected because the commodities that experience high inflation until today are basic necessities like food and electricity.

The non-monetary measures needed both in short- and long-term would include: 1.) more food production preferably via corporate farming; 2.) more food imports as they are cheaper now — rice, corn, wheat, cooking oil, beef, hogs, etc.; 3.) ending or limiting hyper taxation of alcohol and tobacco as people consume either legal products with high taxes, or smuggled products with zero revenue for the government, and, 4.) more power generation, reducing or cutting taxes on fossil fuels because about 80% of power generation is from coal, gas and oil.

The creation of the Inter-Agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook (IAC-IMO) is justified. The Department of Finance (DoF) may have to bend over backwards on energy taxes in order to tame inflation.

Recall that when the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law of 2017 (RA 10963) was implemented in 2018 — a series of tax hikes on diesel, gasoline, LPG, coal, sugary drinks, etc. — the added costs were immediately passed on to the consumers, as was the inflation expectation for 2019. In 2018, only the Philippines experienced a big jump in inflation, from 2.9% in 2017 to 5.3% in 2018, while most of our neighbors had flat or declining inflation trends. The inflation rates from 2017 to 2018 were as follows: Malaysia 3.8% and 1%, Singapore 0.6% and 0.4%, Indonesia 3.8% and 3.3%.

When diesel taxes and prices go up, the cost of operation of tractors, harvesters, threshers, trucks, irrigation pumps, buses, boats, gensets for off-grid islands, etc. rise 100%. And this cost is passed on to the prices of agriculture and food products, contributing to higher food inflation.

World oil, gas, and coal prices have been declining — they are now lower than they were pre-Russia invasion. Domestic food production will be aided by lower fertilizer prices, supplementary food importation will be aided by cheaper food prices abroad, and electricity generation will be aided by lower coal prices. (See Table 2.)

Non-monetary tools and opportunities to significantly reduce inflation are currently available. Government, especially the economic team, should optimize this window of opportunity.

Aside from high inflation, government must also grapple with high public debt resulting from the huge budget deficit and borrowings yearly from 2020 to 2022. The major policy tools and options should include: 1.) a drastic cut in spending and subsidies, 2.) the large-scale privatization of some government assets and corporations, 3.) imposing tax hikes in some sectors, and avoiding giving tax exemptions (like the lousy but successful lobby to impose zero taxes on electric vehicles), and, 4.) have better tax administration, stronger rule of law, and minimize leakage via smuggling and illicit trade.

On Point 1, key measures should include the Government Rightsizing plan and military and uniformed personnel (MUP) pension reform. On Point 2, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (better known as PAGCOR) and other government enterprises are good candidates because there is no market failure when it comes to running casino and gambling enterprises.

On Point 3, special privileges for renewable energy must be curtailed — they have lots of legalized ways of evading taxes: zero VAT on sales, zero income tax for seven years of operation and after that only 10% corporate income tax, zero income tax for carbon credits, plus Nolco (net operating loss carry-over deduction), and zero VAT on imports of equipment. Plus, there is feed-in tariff (FIT) or a guaranteed high price for 20 years, and priority dispatch in the grid even if its price is higher than that of conventional power sources.

On Point 4, when looking at estimates of smuggling nationwide and non-payment of excise tax, estimates for VAT alone range from P250 billion to P500 billion yearly. Among the biggest illicit trade is that of tobacco products, with estimates of government tax losses ranging from P25 billion to P100 billion yearly. (See Table 3.)

Aiming for a 50% reduction in smuggling will give the government some P13 billion to P50 billion more yearly already. The rule of law should be stronger when it comes to tax enforcement.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. Research Consultancy Services, and Minimal Government Thinkers.

minimalgovernment@gmail.com

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