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To keep fighting

Rafael Nadal looked none the worse for wear in the aftermath of his remarkable run in the French Open. He understood the significance of his record-extending 22nd major title, of course; in claiming his unprecedented 14th La Coupe des Mousquetaires, he cemented his status as the greatest clay court player of all time. To argue that he has lived and breathed Roland Garros would be to understate the obvious. Never mind that he headed into the fortnight seeded fifth, or that he continued to suffer from the degenerative Mueller-Weiss syndrome. Forget that he stood to be an old 36, what with a style of play that taxed his body as much as it punished his opponents. When the battlesmoke cleared, he was in his familiar place at the top of the sport.

Considering the relative ease with which Nadal took the championship, it’s significant to note his sobering assessment of his plight. He didn’t want to talk about his ailing left foot throughout the tournament in part because he wanted to focus on the task at hand, and in larger measure out of respect for the competition. Once the trophy was in hand, however, he explained his condition with marked candor. Under the circumstances, he noted, “I can’t and I don’t want to keep going. I’m going to keep working to try to find a solution and an improvement for what’s happening.”

How long Nadal will be able to keep going is subject to speculation. This time last year, he didn’t even make the French Open final; World Number One Novak Djokovic made short work of him in the Round of Four, seemingly an indication that the end was near. As things turned out, he had more — make that much more — in the tank; including the Australian Open crown that came after a long hiatus, he has moved two Grand Slam wins clear of the other members of the Big Three. It’s a decided advantage given their advancing age and increasingly fewer chances of winning.

True, Nadal has been the beneficiary of unforeseen turns of events. Djokovic’s deportation led to smooth sailing at Melbourne Park. He then had a semifinal-round walkover in Paris, avoiding what seemed a surefire five setter; third seed Alexander Zverev had to be carted off in a wheelchair after an unfortunate ankle twist. That said, there can be no discounting the weight of his achievement. And, needless to say, he plans to “keep fighting to try to keep going.”

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

ISIS spokesperson in east Asia killed by Philippine forces 

EXTREMIST group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) alleged spokesperson for east Asia has been killed by security forces in southern Philippines, the military reported on Tuesday.   

The fatality was identified as Abdulfatah Omar Alimuden, who also went by the name Abu Huzaifah, according to a statement from the Western Mindanao Command. 

Huzaifah was also known to be in charge of financial transactions between the ISIS and local terrorist group Daulah Islamiyah, WestMinCom said.   

The ISIS leader was killed in the town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan in Maguindanao on Monday afternoon.   

Meanwhile, five members of the Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap-for-ranson group that has also pledged allegiance to ISIS, surrendered to the military in Sulu on Sunday, WestMinCom said in a separate statement on Tuesday.  

This brings to 44 the total number of the Abu Sayyaf members who have left the group since the start of the year, it said. 

Agricultural damage from Mt. Bulusan eruption at P20.2B 

SORSOGON PIO

DAMAGE to crops due mainly to ashfall from Mt. Bulusan’s eruption on Sunday was estimated at over P20 billion, according to the head of the national disaster response agency.   

Undersecretary Ricardo B. Jalad, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said almost 3,700 hectares of farmland around the mountain volcano in Sorsogon were affected.    

“The Department of Agriculture monitored damage… in 3,698 hectares of crops with a monetary value of about P20.2 billion,” Mr. Jalad said in mixed English and Filipino based on a transcript of a Cabinet meeting with President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday night.   

No further details were discussed. Sorsogon’s major crops are rice, coconut, pili nuts, corn and bananas, based on data from the Agriculture department.  

Meanwhile, clearing operations are continuing in communities that were covered in ash after Mt. Bulusan erupted for 17 minutes on Sunday morning and spewed gray plumes.   

A total of 2,784 families or 13,920 individuals have been affected, Mr. Jalad said. Of these, 75 families composed of 278 individuals have been moved to the evacuation center in the town of Juban.   

The town’s disaster management head, Arvee Ledronio, said some of the evacuated residents might be allowed to return home by Tuesday.   

“It’s possible that some residents would be allowed to go back home today, June 7, as soon as the clearing operations are done,” he said in Filipino in an interview over state television network PTV-4.   

Alert level 1, which means a low level of volcanic unrest, was still up over Mt. Bulusan, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) bulletin on Tuesday.   

Mr. Jalad said all emergency response agencies, including security forces and local government teams, remain on full alert for a “worst-case scenario” of a violent eruption. — MSJ

Solon renews push for disaster management department following Bulusan eruption 

PHILIPPINE ARMY

A REELECTED solon has renewed his push for the establishment of a department focusing on disaster management following the latest natural calamity to hit the Philippines, a volcanic eruption in his home region Bicol.   

Albay Rep. Jose Maria Clemente S. Salceda, who authored a bill in the previous Congress on the creation of a Department of Disaster Resilience, said 

such an agency is necessary to ensure the national government’s capacity to provide help to local governments that deliver immediate responses.   

“I’m sure Sorsogon can handle it,” he said, referring to the province where Mt. Bulusan, which erupted Sunday and spewed ash, is located.  

“But what matters is we are able to bring back to the national conversation the need for an appropriate institution for national capacity [to respond to disasters] and general welfare,” Mr. Salceda said in a statement released late Monday.  

He noted “that the Philippines has some of the largest number of disaster events in the whole world.”   

The country, located along the Pacific typhoon belt, gets hit by an average of 20 typhoons annually. It is also vulnerable to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes being situated in the so-called Ring of Fire.  

Mr. Salceda said he is optimistic that the proposed law will be passed under the incoming Congress with support from the administration of President-elect Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.    

“It does not need to be a full-fledged department,” he said. 

Under the existing setup, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) serves as the main agency for emergency preparedness and response. It is under the Department of National Defense and is composed of various government and non-government organizations. 

NDRRMC also serves as the overall coordinating agency for all local-level disaster management offices.   

“What matters is, nothing surprises the national government’s capacity to respond to big, sudden emergencies that local government simply cannot handle on its own,” Mr. Salceda said.   

The Department of Disaster Resilience bill was approved by the House of Representatives in the 18th Congress but its counterpart measure did not hurdle the Senate as several legislators questioned its practicality and the funding required for setting up another department. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan 

Bomb detectors

PNP

FORTY-FIVE dogs trained to detect explosives are among the new assets presented on June 7, 2022 by the Philippine National Police in a blessing ceremony at its headquarters. The police recently acquired P764 million worth of new vehicles, night vision devices, and protective vests.

An opportune time to restrategize foreign policy

PHILEMBASSY.NO

The Philippines is at a turning point in its foreign policy and national security agenda. These will be defined by the direction that the Marcos Jr. administration will take. So far, given the President-elect’s recent pronouncements, the outlook seems positive.

Addressing the long-standing concern over the West Philippine Sea (WPS), Mr. Marcos Jr. reassured the public that he would not “allow a single millimeter of our maritime coastal rights to be trampled upon.” Citing the 2016 arbitral ruling, he emphasized that WPS is “already a territorial right” and not a claim.

This is a major shift from the Duterte administration’s failed appeasement policy toward a more Philippine-centered policy agenda.

Having a clear, cohesive, and unequivocal foreign policy and national security agenda cannot be overemphasized. Lessons from the previous administration show that lack of such resulted in delays in economic growth, a slowdown in national development, and the decline of strategic autonomy.

As geopolitics and geoeconomics continue to influence the external environment of the Philippines, Marcos Jr. must set the course of our foreign and security policies to be both adaptive and resilient to potential threats and to be driven by national interests. Beyond policy pronouncements, clear and definitive actions need to be taken.

THE LOW-HANGING FRUITS: REALIZING PHL MARITIME SECURITY POTENTIAL

On May 31, the Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute held a virtual townhall discussion titled, “The Future of Philippine Foreign Policy: On Maritime Security Capability and Strategy.” This public forum witnessed a gathering of experts and thought leaders who provided their own insights on the possible next steps for the Marcos Jr. administration.

The forum highlighted the need to synergize foreign policy with the country’s defense security posture to foster greater capability with regard to external security changes, better cooperation with key partners and allies in the region, and increased trust and confidence in governance capability.

From Duterte’s independent foreign policy, I emphasized that we lost the opportunity to harness our international political capital among countries with shared values, with those who believe in a rules-based international order. To regain our footing, Marcos Jr. will need to divert their attention to crafting a more responsive and strategic foreign policy that would implement a clear, cohesive, and consistent foreign policy direction and develop the country’s comprehensive power according to its military, economic, scientific, and cultural capabilities.

Specifically, on harnessing our maritime security strategy, Admiral Rommel Jude Ong emphasized that retaining agency over its maritime interests in the near future requires the formulation of a whole-of-government strategy, integrating the country’s foreign policy direction, its maritime defense and security posture, and its plans to harness key components of the blue economy.

In line with this is the need to develop our modernization efforts. Dr. Renato de Castro stressed that it is time to shift away from a legislative-based modernization program to one that is based on capability-driven modernization. This entails formulating a new national security strategy based on the 2016 arbitral ruling and refocusing on maritime capabilities emanating from our maritime domain.

Dr. Chester Cabalza also emphasized the need to focus on Territorial Defense Operations rather than Internal Defense Operations, which entails investing more in the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard. He said that these defense agencies, “should maintain sovereignty patrols on the country’s maritime domains, ensuring a surface force to meet the current mission and long-term obligations, including the safeguard of sea control and denial, projecting power, maintaining maritime security, and also performing functions to support its mission other than war.”

At the international level, the Philippines also has various opportunities to not only push its defense and security potential forward but also to maximize and leverage its position in the region. In the Center for a New American Security’s report titled, “Revitalizing the US-Philippines Alliance to Address Strategic Competition in the Indo-Pacific,” the critical importance of the US-Philippines alliance goes beyond maintaining its historical and cultural ties and gears more on maintaining stability within the Indo-Pacific region.

The report emphasized two things. First, the most important aspect of the security alliance is prioritizing existing defense and security cooperation frameworks and elevating it to meet current and emerging threats in the region, including gray zone threats and potential adversarial events within the Philippines’ maritime territory. This also looks into enhancing “allied and partner capabilities and enable collective responses to regional security challenges.”

Second, and the most significantly stated in this report, the “Philippines’ relationships with US allies and partners” forms an empowered and deeper security Indo-Pacific network that supports a rules-based order in the region and encourages “further minilateral defense arrangements” that address the capability and capacity development.

These recommendations and the low-hanging fruit of opportunities cannot be ignored any longer. While the new administration is formulating its next steps, it must be able to integrate these in its policy priorities to ensure a Filipino forward approach and to secure a better roadmap toward national security and development.

 

Victor Andres “Dindo” C. Manhit is the president of the Stratbase ADR Institute.

The state of mass housing

THE LOCAL government of Manila turned over 83 out of 168 units of Tondominium 2 in Vitas, Tondo Manila, early this year. — PHILIPPINE STAR/ RUSSELL A. PALMA

(Part 1)

As the Philippines transitions from a low-middle income country to an upper-middle income country in the next decade or so, it will be increasingly urbanized, with more of the population migrating from the rural areas to the cities. The next and subsequent administrations must ensure that with higher per capita incomes, the country will at the same time provide the lower-income groups with decent and affordable housing. The Philippines cannot become a First World country without addressing the problem of mass housing. We should avoid like the plague the model of some Latin American countries with already high per capita incomes of over $10,000 but with millions of people still living in dehumanizing conditions in squatter areas.

What is the state mass housing today in the Philippines? This article will summarize the study carried out by the Center for Research and Communication (CRC) on mass housing in the Philippines, done in partnership with the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association, Inc. (SHDA), the Organization of Socialized and Economic Housing Developers of the Philippines, Inc. (OSHDP), and the National Real Estate Association, Inc. (NREA). Conducted during the height of the pandemic in 2021 and dated January 2022, the study is entitled “Inclusion of Mass Housing in the Strategic Investment Priorities Plan (SIPP) and for Fiscal Support,” outlining the needed cooperation between the public and private sectors to address the huge backlogs in housing in the Philippines today.

Through the years, it was clear in the minds of those who crafted a Philippine mass housing policy that unlike in Singapore in which the Government was the main provider of mass housing, it has to be the private sector — with some help from the State — that will address the serious shortage of housing for the lower-income households. The study reviewed the housing policy followed in the Philippines over the last three decades.

From the late 1980s until the East Asian Financial crisis of 1997, the government’s direct cross-subsidy scheme extended to private developers under the National Shelter Program (NSP), offering buyers long-term fixed interest rates. With the start of the new millennium, the government assisted programs for certain sectors through fiscal incentives extended to socialized, economic, and low-cost private housing developers, including mandatory contributions to the balanced housing requirement.

Since the 1970s, the government-assisted public housing projects have been coursed through the National Housing Authority (NHA). Unfortunately, low budget allocation from the National Government and the multiplication of tasks assigned to it (e.g., relocation of informal settlers affected by government infrastructure projects, provision of housing for households affected by national calamities or along disaster prone areas) has weakened seriously the impact of the NHA on the housing crisis. In contrast, one successful program introduced in the late 1980s was the Community Mortgage Program (CMP). It allowed legally organized associations and their qualified members to acquire land and/or build community housing with concessional long-term loans. The success was short-lived, however, because of perceived association management issues and conflicts among the various stakeholders.

With the passage of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law of 2017, housing policy support has included extending fiscal incentives in the form of income tax holidays and VAT exemptions to socialized subdivision and condominium housing with price ranges from P480,000 to P750,000 and VAT exemption for economic and low-cost housing with price ranges between P750,001 to P1.75 million and to transactions exceeding P3.2 million, respectively.

Given other priority public expenditures of the Government, such as those on education, health, and rural development, addressing the housing backlog in mass housing has been largely left to private developers. Unfortunately, the private sector was not up to the task.

In 2019, OSHDP presented the obstacles facing a marketing-oriented approach to solving the housing shortage. First, there is the limited ability to pay of the low-income and urban poor groups involved. There were the physical and administrative difficulties encountered by the urban poor in accessing credit for housing, coupled with the absence of long-term, low-interest rate financing. On the supply side, the problems were even more numerous: limited access to land and dysfunctional land markets; unclear and highly bureaucratic land administration, management, and conversion processes; inadequate housing subsidies; and limited financing available for low-income and pro-poor housing production.

To make matters worse, the additional strict criteria that the CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) Act, passed during the Duterte administration, for certain segment of mass housing to be eligible for incentives, have made it more difficult for private developers to make socialized housing available to the poor.

Meanwhile, the balanced housing requirement imposed on developers of open- and upper-market subdivision projects under the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA 7279) to put up socialized housing precisely to allocate private sector resources to fill in the housing backlog was expanded under RA 10884 which now covers vertical housing. There were other measures of putting up socialized housing requirement through modes such as joint venture projects with local government units (LGUs), nongovernment organizations (NGOs), private developers’ subsidiaries, and other priority development projects under the Building Adequate, Livable, Affordable, and Inclusive (BALAI) Filipino Communities program.

The bureaucratic maze that made it very difficult to implement mass housing programs in the past has been partly eased by RA 11202 passed in early 2019 which established the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) which is mandated to oversee the national housing program. There used to be a myriad of housing programs and agencies. Now DHSUD merges the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). The Office of the DHSUD Secretary now supervises the NHA, the Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC), the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC).

(To be continued.)

 

Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.

bernardo.villegas@uap.asia

The West must bridge the global divide over Ukraine

UKRANIAN SOLDIERS check out a destroyed bridge in Hostroluchchya, Ukraine. — DEPOSITPHOTOS/OLES_NAVROTSKYI

ONE ASPECT of the war in Ukraine demands much closer attention — the failure of the US and its rich-country friends to build strong partnerships with the developing world. Many governments in Africa, Latin America, and Asia have distanced themselves from the allies’ response to Russia’s aggression. This is helping Moscow and does nothing to discourage other regimes with expansionist ambitions. The neglect that allowed it to happen was a serious error, and putting it right should be a high priority.

When the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to condemn the invasion shortly after it started, 35 countries abstained. It wasn’t just China and fellow dictatorships such as Cuba and Nicaragua, but also India, South Africa, and Senegal. Others, including Ethiopia and Morocco, didn’t vote at all. A combination of Russian arms supplies, Chinese investment, and American inattention persuaded too many governments that their interests weren’t served by aligning with the US.

It’s part of a wider pattern. The Summit of the Americas, taking place this week in Los Angeles, was seen partly as a way to atone for Donald Trump’s refusal to attend the event in 2018. It’s instead become another source of friction, with the region’s leaders balking at US efforts to manage the guest list. President Joe Biden’s administration has little goodwill to fall back on and continues to struggle with basics like appointing ambassadors. Obstructionist senators are partly to blame for that — but the White House doesn’t disguise the fact that it has other priorities.

In May, a US-ASEAN summit in Washington fizzled, ending with just $150 million of new initiatives for Southeast Asia. The Biden administration is now talking up its Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity — an initiative notable for its lack of ambition, which left many of America’s would-be partners distinctly unimpressed. Last year’s promise of a summit with Africa’s leaders to counter China’s triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation gathering has gone nowhere.

Meanwhile, China’s policy banks have provided more than $130 billion in loan commitments for Latin America and the Caribbean alone between 2009 and 2019. Beijing supplied COVID-19 vaccines to many desperate nations. Russia is a crucial seller of weapons to India and much of Africa, and a main supplier of grain and fertilizer. Neither Moscow nor Beijing asks too many questions about free elections and human rights.

To win better support from developing countries, on Russia and other matters as well, Western governments should, for a start, be less quick to admonish. Appeals to liberal values tend to fall flat with people who remember less principled Western interventions. Also, many see the war in Ukraine as a proxy fight between Moscow and Washington — one where they have little at stake. The remedy is to frame the conflict not as punishing Russia and its autocratic leader, but as aiding Ukraine’s fight for self-determination. A powerful nation started this war by scorning sovereign borders: That’s a threat all can recognize.

Here’s another. A prolonged war will keep food, energy, and fertilizer prices elevated, and this puts poor countries, with fewer resources to buffer the impact, in particular danger. It makes sense for the allies to say so, but their warning will get a better response if combined with prompt and generous support for the countries worst affected and most in need. Looking farther ahead, new efforts to address deeper economic vulnerabilities — for instance, by supporting African agriculture and logistics — would serve the diplomatic purpose and help deliver longer-term prosperity.

Resources aren’t infinite, but supporting closer cooperation with the developing world would be money well spent. Whether it’s weaning countries off Russian weapons, improving food security for the planet’s poorest people, or promoting efforts to address climate change, the benefits would be huge. The Global South’s unnerving tolerance of Putin’s crimes marks a failure on the part of the US and its friends. It needs urgent attention.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Johnson survives as UK PM for now

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson via Chatham House/Flickr

LONDON — British Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson will seek to shore up his position on Tuesday by setting out a raft of new policies to senior ministers after he survived a confidence vote that revealed the scale of the threat to his position.

Mr. Johnson won the vote late on Monday by 211 votes to 148 — enough to avoid having to immediately resign but a larger than anticipated rebellion within his party that leaves him politically wounded and battling to win back the confidence of his colleagues and the general public.

His first challenge will be to convince his most senior allies, some of whom would have likely run to replace him if he had been forced out, that he will be able to move on from questions about his leadership.

Johnson’s office issued a statement saying he would use the meeting to set out his vision for the coming weeks, including new policies to reduce the cost of childcare and to help more people buy their own homes.

“This is a government that delivers on what the people of this country care about most,” Mr. Johnson said in the statement.

“We are on the side of hard-working British people, and we are going to get on with the job.”

Lawmakers in Johnson’s party called the confidence vote after months of scandal over lockdown-breaking parties at the heart of government and criticism of his response to an inflation-fueled surge in the cost of living.

The front pages of British newspapers offered little comfort that the vote was, as Mr. Johnson described it in the aftermath on Monday, a decisive result that allows him to refocus on his political priorities.

The Daily Telegraph called the result a “hollow victory. The Sun tabloid declared “PM survives … Just”

Calling the result a “pyrrhic victory,” the Times leader column said the narrow win left Mr. Johnson’s political authority badly dented and his party even more divided.

“If Mr. Johnson is to avoid leading the Tories (Conservatives) to a calamitous defeat in the next election, he will need to show a degree of grip and focus that has been largely absent so far in his premiership … ,” it said.

The rules of Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party mean he is safe from another confidence vote for the next 12 months, but those rules could technically be changed if there is enough political will to do so.

In 2018, Mr. Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May won a larger percentage of a similar confidence vote only to resign six months later. — Reuters

US official says will respond forcefully if North Korea holds nuclear test

MICHA BRANDLI-UNSPLASH

SEOUL — US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Tuesday there would be a strong and clear response from the United States, South Korea and the world if North Korea were to conduct a nuclear test.

“Any nuclear test would be in complete violation of UN Security Council resolutions (and) there would be a swift and forceful response to such a test … I believe that not only ROK and United States and Japan but the entire world will respond in a strong and clear manner,” she told a news conference after talks with her South Korean counterpart, Cho Hyun-dong, in Seoul. ROK is the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.

“We are prepared and … we will continue our trilateral discussion (with South Korea and Japan) tomorrow,” Ms. Sherman added.

Her remarks come after South Korea and US forces fired eight surface-to-surface missiles early on Monday off South Korea’s east coast in response to a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea on Sunday.

US and South Korean government authorities and North Korean experts have been saying for weeks that there are signs of new construction at Punggye-ri, North Korea’s only known nuclear test site, and that Pyongyang could soon test a bomb. The North has not tested a nuclear bomb since 2017.

The International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi on Monday said North Korean building work expanding key facilities at its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon is advancing.

Reclusive North Korea has been suffering from its first-ever outbreak of COVID-19 in the past month, with the country reporting a total 4,198,890 people with fever symptoms as of Monday. North Korea has not confirmed the total number of people testing positive for the coronavirus, with experts saying the announced figures could be under-reported.

So far Pyongyang has refused any help offered by Washington and Seoul, even as the World Health Organization says the COVID-19 situation there is getting worse.

“The ROK and the United States and others have offered humanitarian response that has yet to be accepted but we hope that (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un will be focused on helping his people to meet this challenge of COVID-19 which we have all faced and will return to the negotiating table are rather than taking provocative and dangerous and destabilizing actions,” Ms. Sherman said. — Reuters

Tourism rebounds in Portugal from pandemic slump

ANDRE LERGIER-UNSPLASH

LISBON — Tourism is rebounding more quickly in Portugal than in some parts of Europe, but the number of foreign visitors this year is still expected to lag the pre-pandemic record of 2019, the country’s hotel association AHP said on Monday.

The number of tourists visiting Portugal recovered to 5.9 million in 2021, a year after plunging to 3.9 million, its worst results since the mid-1980s and far off the record 16.4 million in 2019.

The chief executive of Portugal’s hotel association AHP, Cristina Siza Vieira, said demand was set to increase “immensely” during the summer season, with hotels expecting to reach pre-pandemic levels over that period.

Bernardo Trindade, AHP’s president, said recovery of tourism in Portugal was happening faster than in other European countries, mostly thanks to its location, far from the war ravaging Ukraine, and people’s perceptions of it as a safe place to visit.

But when looking at 2022 as a whole, hoteliers are not as optimistic, Ms. Siza Vieira told Reuters.

“Possibly, when we close the year in December, we could get close to 2019 levels but not at the same level yet,” she said.

There are two big challenges the sector is facing: staffing shortages and rampant inflation, Ms. Siza Vieira explained.

According to Portugal’s statistics office INE, hotels and restaurants employed 266,600 people in the first quarter of 2022, 45,200 more than in the same period last year, but 33,200 less than in the first three months of 2019.

Portugal’s tourism sector accounted for almost 15% of gross domestic product before the pandemic and was one of the main drivers of its recovery from the 2010-14 economic and debt crisis. — Reuters

Tourists to Japan must pledge to wear masks or risk expulsion

MARCEL ARDIVAN-UNSPLASH

TOURISTS visiting Japan may be sent home if they fail to abide by rules requiring them to wear masks, sanitize their hands thoroughly and buy private health insurance, according to guidelines set by the government ahead of the cautious, gradual reopening of Japan’s border.

Travel companies will be required to explain the rules and book tours only for customers who have agreed to comply. That will include a warning that the tourists could be asked to leave Japan if they disobey the rules. The guidelines, announced by the government’s tourism agency on Tuesday, are part of an effort to restart inbound tourism after the borders closed in early 2020.

The island nation is set to allow package-tour visitors from June 10. Although the limit on arrivals from overseas will be doubled to 20,000 people per day, that’s just a trickle compared with pre-pandemic visitor levels. While some businesses and lawmakers are calling for the country to end the daily cap, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration has also been keen to project a strict-on-COVID-19 stance ahead of upper house elections in July.

Under the proposed guidelines, tested last month with a limited number of tour groups, visitors will be asked to sit at designated seats in restaurants. Travel agents should plan tours that avoid crowds, keep records of movements and accompany those testing positive for Covid and close contacts to facilities for isolation.

Japan will allow entry from countries and regions where infection levels are low. They will be divided into three categories — red, yellow and blue — depending on their assessed virus risk, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Travelers arriving from the 98 countries or regions on the blue list will be able to bypass quarantine as long as they pass a pre-departure Covid test, according to the Foreign Ministry. Those on the yellow list will also require proof of vaccination to skip quarantine.

Japan has fared relatively well during the pandemic, with the lowest mortality rate per 100,000 among the G-7 countries, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. — Bloomberg

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