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SEC on ‘zero’ physical transaction starting Jan. 13

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it will implement starting Thursday, Jan. 13, a “zero face-to-face transaction” policy to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“All applications for company registration, submissions of reportorial requirements, and other transactions in (the) main office in Pasay City and former headquarters in Mandaluyong City will be processed through (SEC’s) online portals, e-mail, courier, and other remote means,” the commission said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday.

The commission also said that the policy is consistent with the Ease of Doing Business Law, and that it will maintain a skeleton work force and implement other alternative work arrangements to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of services despite the changes.

“For the registration of domestic stock and nonstock corporations and for the recording of partnerships and licenses to do business for foreign corporations, applicants may use the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC),” it noted.

They may also use the One-day Submission and E-registration of Companies under the eSPARC for the registration of domestic stock corporations.

At the same time, the commission reminded companies that they must use the Electronic Filing and Submission Tool (eFAST) to submit their annual financial statements (AFS) and general information sheets (GIS).

It said that eFAST also accepts Sworn Statement for Foundation/Nonstock, Nonprofit Organizations Forms, General Form for Financial Statements, Special Form for Financial Statements, Affidavit of Non-Operation, to be filed with the AFS/GIS, and Affidavit of Non-Holding of Annual Meeting, to be filed with the GIS.

Online and cashless payment options through the commission’s Electronic System for Payment is also available. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Diets: how scientists discovered that one size doesn’t fit all

I YUNMAI/UNSPLASH

IF you ate too much over the festive season, you may well be thinking about a healthy diet plan for 2022. But as anyone who has ever dieted knows, there are countless options out there. Right now, we’re in the midst of a revolutionary time for understanding the human body, and so the question arises: can new science tell us which diet plan is best for losing weight?

Many diets originate in a system for rating foods according to the effect they have on our blood sugar level. This way of characterizing food came from research led by David Jenkins at the University of Toronto back in 1981. They gave each type of food a score according to how much it raised blood sugar levels, with sugar as the benchmark, with a score of 100. Honey scored 87, sweetcorn scored 59, tomato soup 38, and so on. Today, every conceivable edible thing has been analyzed this way and countless diet plans have built on this way of ranking food. Generally, those seeking to lose weight are advised to avoid foods that cause blood sugar levels to spike.

But we’ve all come across someone who seems to stay at a healthy weight no matter how much cake, chocolate, or wine they consume. And this — the differences between us — is where vital advances are now being made, leading us to a new understanding of what the best diet plan really is.

In 2015, Eran Elinav and Eran Segal at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel conducted a fascinating study. They recruited 800 participants, and instead of taking glucose measurements a few times over the course of a few hours, as was done in 1981, every participant’s blood sugar level was measured every five minutes over seven days, using a small sensor developed for people with diabetes. As well as this, each participant answered a detailed medical questionnaire, were subject to a variety of physical assessments, such as measurements of their height and hip circumference, and they all had their stool analyzed for the types of bacteria they contain.

It turned out that glucose levels spiked exactly in accordance with earlier research. But crucially, this was only the case on average. The variation from one person to the next was enormous.

For any given food, some people’s glucose levels would spike dramatically, while others hardly seemed to react at all. This couldn’t be explained away as a random fluctuation because the same person responded similarly each time they ate that particular food. For one middle-aged woman, for example, her blood glucose level spiked every time she ate tomatoes. Another person spiked especially strongly after eating bananas.

Mr. Segal’s wife, Keren, was especially stunned. As a dietitian, she had been trained to provide guidance to countless people about what they should and shouldn’t eat. Now her husband had evidence that her dietary advice might not have always been helpful. The fact that some people’s post-eating sugar levels spiked more in response to rice than ice cream was shocking to her. It dawned on her that she might have even directed some of her patients to a type of food that, though beneficial on average, was wrong for them personally.

A machine-learning algorithm (a type of artificial intelligence) was used to figure out which factors needed to be considered to generate the most accurate forecast of a person’s post-meal glucose response. One factor stood out as the most significant contributor by far: the types of bacteria found in their stool, which reflects their gut microbiome.

So, what does this mean? It means that there is no single best diet plan — everything is personal. What constitutes a healthy diet plan depends on who is eating it: their genetics, their lifestyle, their microbiome, perhaps even the state of their immune system, their history of infections and more. Each of which is exquisitely complex on their own terms, and how they interact even more so.

Our understanding of the details — what makes a diet work or not for an individual — is still in its infancy. But in the near future, with the help of computer algorithms and big data analysis, we are surely due a revolution in the science of diet and nutrition.

If it becomes clear that personalized nutrition would have a huge impact on human health, the question will present itself: should analysis of a person’s blood and microbiome to produce a personalized diet plan become part of routine, preventative healthcare, paid for by taxation? Indeed, where would we draw the line between a nutritional product, a dietary plan, and a medicine? As any science matures, new policies must be developed. This will be especially important when it concerns such a vital part of our daily lives: what we eat and drink.

 

Daniel M. Davis is a Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester. He receives research funding from The Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, The Wellcome Trust, GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Continuum Life Sciences. He is the author of three books published by Penguin Random House, most recently The Secret Body.

PATAFA agrees to PSC mediation

Obiena plans of going under the knife to repair meniscus tear

THE Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) will pull out all the stops to resolve its discord with Olympian pole-vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena.

This developed after PATAFA, through a letter signed by its board member Datu Yusoph Mama and sent on Tuesday, formally agreed to a mediation proposed by Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William Ramirez.

“On behalf of the board of trustees of the PATAFA, the PATAFA confirms its participation in the PSC mediation,” said Mr. Mama.

Mr. Mama said PATAFA President Philip Ella Juico, legal counsel Atty. Aldrin Cabiles and Alfonso Sta. Clara would represent their group in the talks.

Mr. Mama also reiterated it will stand by its earlier decision to suspend implementing the recommendations of their fact-finding committee including the expulsion of Mr. Obiena from the national team.

“With all due respect, and as previously communicated in the letter dated January 5, 2022, the PATAFA board has agreed to defer the implementation of the approved recommendations made in the fact-finding report dated December 29, 2021 for a period of two weeks, or until January 19, 2022,” said Mr. Mama.

Mr. Obiena has yet to formally agree, possibly because of his plan of going under the knife to repair a small meniscus tear on his left knee.

If the World No. 6 likewise gave his nod to the truce, he and PATAFA would have to submit to the mediation rules set by the PSC including a social media truce. — Joey Villar

Cebu Pacific accelerates booster rollout for employees

BUDGET carrier Cebu Pacific on Wednesday said it is speeding up the rollout of booster shots among its employees as it intensifies safety drive in response to the rising virus cases affecting its operations.

“Cebu Pacific… steps up its efforts to protect (everyone) amidst the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) surge through the roll out of booster vaccination for its employees,” the budget carrier said in an e-mailed statement.

The low-cost carrier noted that it vaccinated 200 employees on Jan. 11 as part of the Gokongwei group’s booster vaccination program.

“The program will run for several days with 200 employees to be boosted per day.”

Felix Dan S. Lopez, the budget carrier’s vice-president for people department, said the airline has been operating with 100% fully vaccinated active flying crew since October last year.

“As we continue to prioritize the safety of our passengers and crew alike, we are very happy to intensify our efforts amidst this evolving situation,” he added.

On Jan. 11, Cebu Pacific said it was trying to manage the impact of COVID-19 on its work force “with employees who are either sick or under home quarantine.”

“Due to this, flight delays and on-the-spot cancelations remain a possibility given the uncertainty of the situation,” it noted.

NEW ACAP CHAIRMAN
Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced that PAL Express President Bonifacio U. Sam has been elected chairman of the Air Carriers Association of the Philippines (ACAP).

ACAP is composed of PAL, Cebu Pacific, Philippines AirAsia, PAL Express, and Cebgo.

“We are working with members of the aviation industry in discussing with the DoTr (Department of Transportation) and several government authorities ways to sustain vital air transport services for essential travels, repatriation of overseas Filipinos and delivery of urgent goods including lifesaving vaccines,” he said in a statement.

“We are one with the position of the Philippine air transport sector on plans to modify quarantine protocols, based on latest science and in line with international practices, that allow the air sector to maintain these vital services, alleviate any inconvenience for travelers (especially OFWs) and continue to safeguard our personnel and our customers,” he added. — Arjay L. Balinbin

IBM says collaboration a driving force for business growth in 2022

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Senior Reporter

COLLABORATION among businesses in the country is expected to increase this year, requiring a strong technology core, IBM Philippines said.

Partnerships have become more important to more than half, or 58%, of outperforming Filipino chief executive officers (CEOs), according to a recent IBM study.

“Collaboration will be another driving force for business growth in the new year,” Natalie Pia H. Azarcon, managing partner at IBM Consulting, IBM Philippines, told BusinessWorld in an e-mailed reply to questions on Jan. 4.

“This is affirmed by the fact that executives globally also plan to participate in business ecosystems 332% more in 2022 than they did in 2018,” she added.

She noted that for Philippine companies to benefit from ecosystem partnerships, they will need a “strong technology core.”

“They’ll need to reevaluate how they manage their assets, infrastructure, and talent. I believe many executives realize that transformation is a continual process. Rather than working toward a perfect end-state, organizations must focus on making themselves more responsive, more agile.”

Philippine companies must overcome obstacles to find the technology mix that will take them to the next level this year. “Strengthening human-technology collaboration is key to getting the most from digital transformation,” Ms. Azarcon said.

In the next two years, CEOs in the Philippines expect artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technology to increase by nearly 25%, according to the company, noting that 63% of them recognize the role of technology in building resilience and adaptability.

“Filipino CEOs have plans to increasingly apply automation across all business functions, and more importantly big jumps are expected in procurement (2.3x), risk (2.8x), supply chain (2.5x) and R&D (3x),” Ms. Azarcon said.

Recognizing AI’s impact on businesses and industries, the Department of Trade and Industry launched in May last year the country’s AI road map, which “describes the implementation, infrastructure, and investments needed to cover… digitization and infrastructure, research and development, work force development, and regulation.”

The AI road map will help the Philippines “understand the potential consequences and impacts of algorithms to processes and business models,” Ms. Azarcon said.

“Cloud computing, on the other hand, is expected to deliver business results for nearly 79% of companies we surveyed in the Philippines,” she added.

“For this group, workloads being completely portable with no vendor lock-in​ is important or extremely important to the success of their digital initiatives. The majority of Filipino executives surveyed — 86% — said vendor lock-in​ is a significant obstacle to improving business performance in most or all parts of their cloud estate.”

Some 80% of the Philippine companies surveyed by IBM also consider data security being embedded throughout the cloud architecture​ as “extremely important.”

“In 2022, taking a piecemeal approach to technology is no longer enough. Businesses will need to holistically reinvent their operations to realize the full benefits of digital transformation,” Ms. Azarcon said.

Businesses will also need to assess how they use the cloud in terms of adoption, velocity, migration, speed, and cost savings opportunity, she noted.

“They will need to take inventory of the IT environment to successfully determine which workloads and applications will yield the most value in the cloud and which are better suited to stay on-premises.”

In terms of risks, she said 90% of cyber-related incidents nowadays originate in cloud environments.

She added that nearly half (47%) of Filipino CEOs surveyed put higher strategic importance on protecting against cyber risks and data exposures, and 72% of them plan to prioritize cybersecurity in two years.

This year’s Oscars show will go on, with a host

LOS ANGELES — The Academy Awards will have a host for the first time since 2018 and return to their longtime home at the Dolby Theater, broadcaster ABC said on Tuesday.

While other awards shows have been postponed because of a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC said plans remain in place to hold the Oscars, the highest film honors, on March 27 in Los Angeles.

This year’s ceremony will have a host, ABC Entertainment President Craig Erwich said at a Television Critics Association event. He provided no details. “It might be me,” he joked.

The Oscars were handed out by celebrity presenters but had no host in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Ratings for the telecast have fallen in recent years, dropping to a record low of 10.4 million people in the United States in 2021. Viewership of other awards shows also has declined.

Fans of British actor Tom Holland have suggested he should host this year’s Oscars after the smash success of his movie Spider-Man: No Way Home, possibly with his co-star Zendaya.

Mr. Holland told The Hollywood Reporter in December that he would “love” to host the awards. “If they ask me to, I would, and it would be very fun,” he said.

Previous hosts have included late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and comedians Chris Rock and Ellen DeGeneres.

ABC said in a statement that the 2022 Oscars will take place again at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Last year, the awards moved to the historic Union Station train station in downtown Los Angeles with a small crowd of nominees and guests to protect against COVID.

Nominations for the Oscars will be announced on Feb. 8. — Reuters

TDF yields drop as central bank pledges to stay accommodative

BW FILE PHOTO

YIELDS on term deposits declined on Wednesday after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) vowed to keep interest rates at record lows to support the economy’s recovery.

Demand for the term deposit facility (TDF) of the BSP amounted to P735.269 billion on Wednesday, going beyond the P470-billion offer as well as the P732.233 billion in bids seen a week earlier.

Broken down, bids for the seven-day term deposits reached P299.46 billion, surpassing the P200 billion auctioned off by the BSP and the P280.344 billion in tenders recorded last week.

Accepted rates for the tenor were from 1.6875% to 1.74%, inching down from the 1.72% to 1.75% margin seen the previous week. With this, the average rate of the one-week papers dropped by 1.39 basis points (bps) to 1.7232% from the 1.7371% quoted in the prior auction.

Meanwhile, the 14-day papers fetched bids amounting to P435.809 billion, higher than the P270-billion offering but failing to beat the P451.889 seen on Jan. 5.

Lenders asked for yields ranging from 1.69% to 1.7693%, lower than the 1.75% to 1.7973% band seen a week ago. This caused the average rate of the two-week deposit to decline by 2.73 bps to 1.7487% from 1.776% quoted previously.

The BSP has not auctioned 28-day term deposits for more than a year to give way to its weekly offerings of securities with the same tenor.

The TDF and the short-term securities are tools used by the central bank to gather excess liquidity in the financial system and to better guide market rates.

“The TDF auction results continue to support the view of normalization in liquidity conditions amid ample supply in the financial system,” BSP Deputy Governor Francisco G. Dakila, Jr. said in a statement.

TDF yields declined as the central bank signaled it will remain accommodative, at least until the first half of this year, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno earlier said the central bank is unlikely to start raising interest rates in the first semester of 2022 as it still needs to assure that economic recovery is entrenched and unemployment is declining.

After the performance in the first two quarters of the year, that’s when we seriously look at whether we will make some adjustments,” Mr. Diokno said in a Bloomberg interview on Tuesday.

Mr. Diokno said they would want to see four to six quarters of steady economic growth and unemployment around 5% first prior to considering a rate hike.

Despite beyond-target inflation, which was attributed to supply issues, benchmark rates were untouched in 2021 as the BSP focused on supporting economic recovery.

The economy grew by 7.1% in the third quarter of 2021, bringing the nine-month average to 4.9%. In 2020, gross domestic product contracted by a record 9.6%, which was the worst in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Ricafort added that TDF yields declined as the country continued to see a rapid increase in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections.

COVID-19 cases rose by 32,246 on Wednesday to 208,164, based on data from the Department of Health. Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III earlier this week said the country is now at critical risk for virus transmission, with the more transmissible Omicron already the dominant variant in the Philippines. — Luz Wendy T. Noble with Bloomberg

Tennis ace Eala returns to action at Manacor, Spain this weekend

ALEX EALA — GLOBE

FILIPINA tennis sensation Alex M. Eala plunges into her first event this year with a home stint in the W25 Manacor at the Rafael Nadal Academy (RNA) in Spain starting this weekend.

A scholar of RNA, Ms. Eala will bank on the familiarity of her own backyard in a twin bid to start 2022 with flying colors and to capture her second professional title.

Ms. Eala last year copped her breakthrough championship in the women’s pro circuit, coincidentally, at the same venue after a stellar run in the W15 Manacor.

But it will not be a walk in the park this time with the 16-year-old ace going through the qualifying round first before entering the main draw of the $25,000 tilt.

Ranked No. 527 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), Ms. Eala will be up against a slew of Top-400 players in Manacor led by WTA No. 134 Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia, who is the event’s top seed.

In the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior rankings, Ms. Eala is at No. 8 but she is yet to play there after skipping this year’s Australian Open to focus more on pro events.

Ms. Eala won the 2020 Australian Open with Indonesian pal Priska Madelyn Nugroho before ruling the 2021 French Open with Russian partner Oksana Selekhmeteva to sustain her steady rise in the world tennis scene. — John Bryan Ulanday

Robinsons Retail opens 900th drugstore

ROBINSONS Retail Holdings, Inc. (RRHI) has opened its 900th drugstore with the latest Southstar Drug branch in Sta. Cruz, Laguna.

“With the current climate of rising health concerns among our customers, it is especially important for us now to be able to address their needs for reliable and trusted medicines. We are gaining momentum in growing our geographic footprint in line with this goal with even more store openings lined up for 2022,” said RRHI General Manager Christine O. Tueres in a disclosure on Wednesday.

The store was launched on Jan. 10 as part of Southstar Drug’s expansion into underpenetrated areas in the Luzon area.

RRHI’s drugstore banners are Southstar Drug and Rose Pharmacy, which have a combined store network of 900 stores in the country.

Rose Pharmacy was acquired in October 2020 and is currently one of the leading drugstore players in Visayas and Mindanao. RRHI also operates The Generics Pharmacy, the country’s largest chain of generic drugstores with more than 2,000 stores nationwide.

In the stock exchange on Wednesday, RRHI shares dropped to P56.90 each, which is P1.75 or 2.98% lower than the previous close. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson

Organizations to focus on boosting support for remote workers as pandemic continues

BUSINESSES are expected to focus on offering better support for their remote workers this year as the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shows a complete return to offices is unlikely, technology company ManageEngine said.

“When COVID-19 first caused disruptions, a majority of organizations scrambled to change their operating models and rapidly embraced the cloud to support remote work. The needs have now evolved, resulting in aspects such as AI (artificial intelligence), automation, and analytics assuming more significance than before,” Rajesh Ganesan, vice-president of Products at ManageEngine, told BusinessWorld in an e-mailed reply to questions on Jan. 5.

“Cloud adoption was already on the rise before the pandemic, but now there is a realization that organizations in the Philippines should reprioritize their strategies as hybrid work will continue indefinitely,” he added.

He noted the new working model presents opportunities for local organizations to expand beyond their home territory.

“They stand to gain an advantage by being well-prepared,” he said.

“Organizations would have to reassess their investments and prioritize skill building,” he also pointed out. “Another aspect is that cybersecurity is becoming a basic building block of digital businesses and requires due diligence.”

ManageEngine recently announced its top five predictions in the IT management space for 2022.

The company said organizational insights will become immediately actionable with the rise of contextual analytics.

“When insights are presented directly within a business application, the chances of an organization acting upon them are much higher than when those same insights are presented in standalone business intelligence software.”

It also noted that the cybersecurity mesh model will offer better protection in the hybrid work force era.

“A cybersecurity mesh model, with its central principle of Zero Trust, will gain more traction,” the company said.

“The cybersecurity mesh model is a distributed approach in which smaller, individual security perimeters are built around people or objects acting as access points, thereby offering IT teams better security control.”

At the same time, the company anticipates that IT operating models will continue to evolve to support the hybrid work force.

AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations) and IT automation are also expected to become critical building blocks of enterprise technology architectures.

“AIOps-driven monitoring will play a significant role in forecasting, capacity planning, combating alert fatigue, and maintaining the security posture of an organization.”

A shortage of skilled cybersecurity workers is also anticipated.

“To address their evolving needs, organizations will increasingly use the services of managed security service providers and managed detection and response providers,” the company said.

“For instance, the increase in remote employees, cloud adoption, and the need to meet compliance regulations make identity and access management (IAM) a tedious process for most organizations. Since many organizations lack the necessary skills and resources to implement an IAM solution, more organizations will turn to Identity as a Service providers to fill this role,” it added. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. asks judge to throw out rape lawsuit

Cuba Gooding Jr. in American Crime Story (2016) — IMDB.COM

NEW YORK — Cuba Gooding Jr. has asked a US judge to dismiss a $6-million civil lawsuit filed by a woman who accused the Oscar-winning actor of raping her twice in 2013, saying she took too long to sue by waiting nearly seven years. The woman, known in court papers by the pseudonym Jane Doe, sued Mr. Gooding in Aug. 2020 for allegedly raping her in Aug. 2013 at a hotel room in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, soon after she met him in a Greenwich Village restaurant and lounge. Mr. Gooding has denied her claims.

In a Monday night filing in federal court in Manhattan, Mr. Gooding’s lawyers said laws allowing rape accusers to sue their alleged perpetrators after many years applied to victims who had suppressed traumatic rapes or did not initially realize they had been raped, and did not apply to Ms. Doe.

They said letting Ms. Doe invoke the seven-year statute of limitations under a New York City law protecting victims of gender-motivated violence violated Mr. Gooding’s due process rights under the US and New York state constitutions.

“No exceptional circumstances forced her to wait,” Ms. Gooding’s lawyers said. “Plaintiff choosing to sue Mr. Gooding, Jr. almost seven years later will not rectify any serious injustice; the opposite is true.”

Ms. Doe’s lawyers have argued the seven-year statute of limitations applies in this case, and have also rejected a defense request that their client reveal her name, saying the case involved “matters of a highly sensitive and personal nature.” Last year, US District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan granted a default judgment on Mr. Gooding’s liability, but both parties later agreed to set that judgment aside because Gooding’s failure to formally respond to Ms. Doe’s accusations was not willful.

Mr. Gooding, 54, won a best supporting actor Oscar in 1997 for Jerry Maguire and portrayed O.J. Simpson in the 2016 television miniseries The People vs O.J. Simpson. — Reuters

Banking sector outlook ‘improving’ on recovery prospects, loan growth

THE OUTLOOK for the country’s banking sector this year is “improving,” supported by the trend of economic recovery and loan growth which is seen in Asia-Pacific emerging markets, according to Fitch Ratings.

In its Global Financial Institution Sector Trends sent to reporters on Wednesday, Fitch said Asia-Pacific markets including the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Thailand have an “improving” outlook in 2022.

For emerging markets in the region, Fitch said there will be improved bank financial performance this year “driven by economic and loan growth despite an uneven path to full recovery.”

Fitch in October said it expects the Philippine economy to grow by 6.8% in 2022, slightly higher than its 6.6% projection given in July but still lower than the 7-9% target by the government.

Meanwhile, bank lending has improved in the latter months of last year after recording annual declines from December 2020 to July 2021. Latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data showed outstanding loans of big banks increased 4% year on year in November, marking the fourth consecutive month of annual growth.

On the other hand, Fitch said impaired loans may rise as support measures are gradually removed, although the debt watcher said that most markets have adequate provisioning.

BSP officials expect the industry-wide non-performing loan ratio will peak at 8.2% this year. Latest data showed the bad loan ratio stood at an eight-month low of 4.35% in November.

The credit watcher also warned that financial institutions in emerging Asia-Pacific economies may face risks caused by monetary policy tightening in the United States and the uncertainties from the ongoing pandemic.

The US Federal Reserve earlier said it will quicken the pace of its tapering of asset purchases. Officials also said they expect up to three rate hikes this year as they try to combat elevated inflation.

At home, BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said they will only start raising rates “when prospects for the economy have materially improved.” He said in a Bloomberg interview on Tuesday that they do not expect a rate hike in the first half of 2022.

In July 2021, Fitch revised its rating outlook on six Philippine banks to “negative” to reflect the same outlook downgrade for the country’s “BBB” assessment. This means a rating downgrade in the next 12 to 18 months could be possible. — Luz Wendy T. Noble