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Implementation of the Mandanas ruling seen to dampen economic growth

PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

THE IMPLEMENTATION of the Supreme Court ruling expanding the local governments’ share in national taxes next year would lead to a “three percent lower economic growth,” according to Department of Finance (DoF) estimates.

The DoF in a statement on Tuesday said the higher tax allocation for local government units (LGUs) would dampen spending efficiency because the National Government usually spends at double the pace.

Lower spending efficiency refers to the reduced share of productive spending — or funds that go back to the economy by creating jobs or stimulating demand — to total spending.

“Based on our estimates, the implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling will yield lower economic growth because local governments spend less efficiently,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said.

The Supreme Court’s Mandanas ruling is named after Batangas Governor Hermilando I. Mandanas who successfully challenged the government’s previous position that LGUs were entitled to a smaller share of National Government funds.

Starting in 2022, LGUs will get a bigger share of the National Government’s tax collections, alongside the transfer of basic services.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte in June signed Executive Order (EO) 138 which transfers a number of basic services to LGUs by 2024. With this, the government is shifting programs and projects, worth an estimated P234.4 billion, to LGUs.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said there are more policy uncertainties among LGUs when it comes to spending, compared with continuity at the national level.

“LGUs may vary in their management style in terms of handling various government projects — while more standardized at the National Government level — amid some continuity issues as local officials are re-elected every three years,” he said in a Viber message.

Greater funding flexibility for LGUs positively affect those that spend efficiently, he said, but misappropriation and wastage are a drawback for others.

The World Bank has said that funds that the LGUs fail to spend could increase by P155 billion next year, or the equivalent of 0.7% of gross domestic product (GDP), if their capability to enforce projects are not upgraded.

Unspent budgets waste opportunities to bring crucial services to communities that need them most, World Bank economist Kevin Cruz said in June.

World Bank estimates found that tax allotments to LGUs could grow by 55% to 1.08 trillion next year.

To minimize economic scarring from the pandemic and the larger share of LGUs on national taxes, Mr. Dominguez said the Finance department is reviewing a possible fiscal consolidation plan, or policies aimed at reducing the country’s deficit.

“Tax revenue losses from the pandemic-induced economic slump, the rise in debt to fund our COVID-19 response, the looming revenue impact of our economic recovery measures, and lower spending efficiency as a result of the Supreme Court decision to expand the share of LGUs from the national tax allotment (NTA) must be adequately addressed by the next administration’s economic team,” he said.

The DoF flagged revenue losses and financing costs caused by the pandemic-induced economic decline. The department estimates revenue losses stood at P785.64 billion for 2020 and anticipates higher foregone revenues as the country enforces its tax reform programs.

Loans to finance the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response has reached P1.47 trillion, or $28.91 billion, DoF said.

“The outstanding balance or the principal value of the loans is US$22.58 billion or P1.15 trillion, while the projected amount of interest payments until maturity is US$6.32 billion or P320.85 billion,” DoF said. “These loans will mature between 2024 and 2060.”

The DoF plans to focus on debt management, inflation, economic inequality, and climate change as it transitions to the next administration after the national elections in May 2022. Jenina P. Ibañez

Plan to tax the super-rich needs further study, economists say

A Louis Vuitton store is seen in the Makati central business district in this file photo. — REUTERS

By Jenina P. Ibañez, Senior Reporter

THE PLAN to tax the super-rich would need further evaluation to identify wealth and appropriate tax levels after the Finance department suggested the plan could lead to capital flight, economists said.

Cid L. Terosa, a senior economist at the University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics, said empirical studies have shown that taxing more than an “appropriate” level is counterproductive.

“I am not saying that it is a bad idea, but I would like to stress that certain challenges have to be addressed first,” he said in an e-mail.

He said the plan must carefully identify the super-rich by defining and measuring their wealth, and determine the appropriate level of tax that would not lead to negative consequences.

House Bill 10253 or the proposed Super-Rich Tax Act of 2021 seeks to impose a tax of 1-3% for wealth starting at P1 billion and beyond. Under the bill filed by a minority bloc at the House of Representatives, the tax would be used to fund medical assistance, education, employment, social protection and housing for the poor.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III has said that the proposal could trigger aggressive tax avoidance schemes and drive investment out of the country.

The risk of capital flight may depend on how the government uses the tax revenues it collects, Asian Institute of Management economist John Paolo R. Rivera said.

“Taxation is also a game of credibility whether tax revenues will be used to improve the conduct of doing business and improve infrastructure, telecommunications, transportation, technology, among others,” he said in an e-mail.

“Of course, in principle, everyone, even the wealthy, would be privy (to) where their taxes go.”

Mr. Rivera also flagged the need for a way to identify the super-rich because this form of taxation requires wealth declarations.

“Income declaration is already a challenge, what more (with) wealth,” he said. “This policy needs further deep thinking and evaluation.”

Mr. Dominguez earlier said the government can only impose a wealth tax if Congress approves amendments to the Bank Secrecy Law allowing regulators to look into bank deposits. He said the government should also sign information exchange agreements with other countries on the movement of wealth, in the absence of a reliable database identifying the country’s richest.

Meanwhile, nongovernment organizations are criticizing claims that a wealth tax would drive out investment.

Lidy B. Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, said the tax could fund urgently needed government services as the country faces multiple crises, noting that the country should prioritize investors that pay their fair share of taxes.

“Rather than help convince the super-rich about this measure that they can very well afford to pay, (Mr. Dominguez) is already taking their side,” she said in an e-mail. “He should apply his expertise in finance to develop transparency and regulatory systems to reduce tax avoidance and capital flight.”

Argentina last year passed a wealth tax that allowed its government to raise $2.4 billion by May 2021. The government plans to use the funds for its pandemic response, including health programs and small business subsidies.

In the Philippines, outstanding government debt ballooned to P10.2 trillion last year from P8.2 trillion in 2019 as the state ran big deficits to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio was 63.1% as of September, the highest in 16 years, government data showed.

Tony Salvador, Freedom from Debt Coalition executive committee member, said in an e-mail that a wealth tax would raise much-needed funds to address the pandemic, as it would provide healthcare and food subsidies for the country’s poorest.

“We believe that it will help the economy in the long run and in fact benefit even the super-rich who are obliged to pay this tax,” he said.

Think tank IBON Foundation said the measure would generate P467.1 billion from 2,919 people who have taxable assets exceeding P1 billion. These super-rich account for 0.003% of the population and control 16% of the country’s wealth, it said.

This estimated revenue could fund P10,000 in emergency aid to 18.6 million poor households, provide subsidies for micro, small and medium enterprises to support a daily wage increase of P100 for three months, and hire additional health workers.

Federal Reserve chief says Omicron adds economic risks, inflation uncertainty

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

US FEDERAL RESERVE Chair Jerome H. Powell, in his first public remarks on the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, said it poses risks to both sides of the central bank’s mandate to achieve stable prices and maximum employment.

“The recent rise in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant pose downside risks to employment and economic activity and increased uncertainty for inflation,” Mr. Powell said in a prepared testimony released on Monday, a day ahead of his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee. “Greater concerns about the virus could reduce people’s willingness to work in person, which would slow progress in the labor market and intensify supply-chain disruptions.”

Mr. Powell, in the relatively brief text, didn’t discuss specific monetary policy actions or the possibility of changing the pace of the tapering of its asset purchases — a key issue that other officials have flagged in recent remarks.

Mr. Powell — who a week ago was selected by President Joseph R. Biden for a second term as central bank chief — will appear before the panel on Tuesday at 10 a.m., together with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in the first of two days of congressional oversight hearings related to pandemic stimulus. The House Financial Services Committee will follow with a separate hearing on Wednesday.

For her part, Ms. Yellen said in prepared remarks to the panel that while she is following news about the Omicron variant, “at this point, I am confident that our recovery remains strong.”

Ms. Yellen also called on the Senate to pass Mr. Biden’s social-spending bill known as Build Back Better, and warned lawmakers they must soon raise the nation’s debt limit. She previously indicated the Treasury could run out of cash potentially after Dec. 15.

“I cannot overstate how critical it is that Congress address this issue,” Ms. Yellen said of the debt limit. “If we do not, we will eviscerate our current recovery.”

The discovery of the new variant of COVID-19 has triggered fresh uncertainty over the economy. Governments around the world stepped up restrictions on travel and the World Health Organization warned that the Omicron strain could fuel a fresh surge in infections.

Despite strong job growth this year, “there is still ground to cover to reach maximum employment for both employment and labor force participation, and we expect progress to continue,” Mr. Powell said, adding that joblessness continues to fall “disproportionately” on Blacks and Hispanics.

Even amid the challenges posed by the pandemic, the US economy is powering ahead. JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists have upgraded their estimate for annualized growth to 7% from 5% for the final three months of the year. The boom has fueled high inflation, with consumer prices in October rising at the fastest pace in 30 years.

“Most forecasters, including at the Fed, continue to expect that inflation will move down significantly over the next year as supply and demand imbalances abate,” Mr. Powell said. “It is difficult to predict the persistence and effects of supply constraints, but it now appears that factors pushing inflation upward will linger well into next year.”    

Fed officials in recent weeks had discussed the possibility of speeding up the pace at which they scale back the central bank’s monthly asset purchases, which would give them the option to raise interest rates sooner than otherwise next year if needed to keep price pressures in check.

“I am very open to accelerating the pace of our slowdown in purchases,” Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, a voter this year on the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, told Fox News in an interview Friday. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, who is also a voter this year and has been a dovish voice on policy, told Yahoo! Finance earlier last week that she would accept a faster pace of tapering if inflation continued to run too high. Ms. Daly’s interview was conducted before the news of Omicron broke.

Fed officials will see reports on CPI and employment for November before their final meeting of the year on Dec. 14-15. — Bloomberg

The MET is now The M

THE Metropolitan Museum of Manila at Bonifacio Global City

AT THE beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila fully transitioned its exhibitions and workshops online. At the same time, the museum was also preparing for another transition — leaving its original home of 45 years along Roxas Boulevard in Manila for a new one at Bonifacio Global City. It is also getting a new nickname.

The museum’s new location at the Mariano K. Tan Center in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Taguig was arranged and made possible by the Chairman of its Board of Trustees, Joselito Y. Campos, Jr. Mr. Campos leads the museum’s board of trustees which include Doris Magsaysay-Ho, Dr. Jaime Laya, Tina Colayco, Ben Chan, Irene Martel-Francisco, Susanna Madrigal, Maricris Olbes, Paulino Que, Fe Rodriguez, and Luis J.L. Virata.

Continuing its philosophy to bring “art for all,” the museum joins the growing cultural hub in Bonifacio Global City and has rebranded itself as “The M.”

Bambina Olivares Wise, communications consultant of the museum, said in an e-mail to BusinessWorld, that the rebranding is “a parallel development symbolizing our transformation.”

“It’s short, catchy, and easily recognizable, and represents the refreshed dynamism of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila in the 21st century,” Ms. Wise said.

When it opened in 1975, The Metropolitan Museum of Manila was initially a venue for international art exhibitions. It showcased 105 artworks in various media from the Brooklyn Museum and other American museums and galleries.

In 1986, the MET shifted its focus towards local works, offering bilingual exhibition texts, and developing outreach educational programs.

Since 2012, the museum’s partnership with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) — the original museum was located within the BSP compound — refocused its positioning to showcase works by both Filipino and international artists. It’s programs with the BSP include exhibitions of works from the BSP Art Collection which are presented at the MET’s BSP Gallery.

NEW LOCATION
The museum’s move to BGC, Ms. Wise described, “is envisioned to bring in art enthusiasts from all walks of life.”

“The museum will be an integral part of the office and commercial building of the M.K. Tan Center, as well as its outdoor surroundings. The entrance of the museum will be accessed through an open pedestrian walkway that leads to the bustling Bonifacio High Street area of shops and dining places,” Ms. Wise said.

“In this new environment, the museum will continue to offer fresh and energetic contemporary art and design expressions, experiences and learning on multicultural and interdisciplinary platforms,” she added.

Designed by New York-based Filipino architect Carlos Arnaiz, The M covers three floors and occupy over 3,000 square meters at the Mariano K. Tan Center. It will house exhibition spaces and the museum staff’s office.

“With our new environment, we are reinforcing our dedication to modern and contemporary art, with plenty of opportunities to experiment with new digital and onsite exhibition formats, as well as connecting indoor and outdoor art spaces and hybrid programming,” Ms. Wise said.

The museum’s art spaces are currently in their fit-out stage. Its opening activities, focusing on Philippine contemporary art, will be rolled out in phases starting February to March 2022.

Among its upcoming exhibitions will be one on aspects of Philippine abstraction featuring the works by the museum’s founding director and late National Artist for Visual Arts Arturo Luz.

Prior to the pandemic lockdown and the museum’s shift to online exhibitions, the MET’s last onsite exhibits were “Arte Povera: Italian Landscape” and “Cue from Life Itself: Artists Transform the Everyday” which both focused on the art movement of making artworks and installations from found objects.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/metmanila/. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Here’s to the ladies who lunch: One of Sondheim’s greatest achievements was writing complex women

THE most eclectic of music theater composers was not only a gifted wordsmith and lyricist, but also had a truly original compositional voice.

Stephen Sondheim, who died at home on the weekend at 91, had a singular ability to craft narrative in short, poignant moments, with constantly evolving, twisting and turning motifs in melodies and harmonies that signify, place, time, feeling, emotion and sensory experience.

He built a score by taking an idea — either lyrical or musical — turning it upside down and spinning it around to reveal a different view. It is clear Mr. Sondheim enjoyed the play of words, of motifs, of reinventing musical theater to fit the changing perspectives of contemporary life. The audience in a Sondheim show revels in each character’s complexity.

Alongside his storied wordplay, exquisite melodies and complex harmonies, one of Mr. Sondheim’s greatest achievements was his ability to write women characters that actors want to play: complex women, women at the center of a narrative, from Desiree recalibrating at the end of her career in A Little Night Music (1973) to the complicated Mary, her life revealed backwards in Merrily We Roll Along (1981).

Mr. Sondheim’s first big break was as the lyricist on West Side Story (1957), after the book by Arthur Laurents, working with the great Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins. The experience of writing West Side Story for a young lyricist was challenging. The show came to Mr. Sondheim at 25 after meeting Mr. Laurents at the theater, and he was convinced by his great mentor and friend Oscar Hammerstein II to take on the task.

Mr. Sondheim wanted to show his abilities in rhyme on his edits on “I Feel Pretty,” whose original lyric had been written by Mr. Laurents. Some commentators have struggled with the innocent simplicity of the characterization of Maria in this song.

When Mr. Sondheim first heard her version live on stage, he famously realized that the lyricist’s voice was too strong, too self-conscious and the character’s voice was weak.

He asked to change it, but by then the tune had taken off and the die was cast.

Mr. Sondheim’s lyrical and musical output following West Side Story presented complex characters of all types, and his works have singularly elevated the Broadway diva more than any other composer/lyricist in the past 70 years.

Sweeney Todd (1979), largely considered Mr. Sondheim’s epic opus, was inspired by an apocryphal story of a 19th century serial killer.

A melodrama, comic in parts and with very little dialogue, Sweeney Todd is a critique of the class divide in 19th century, Industrial England — personified by a murderous couple who cook their victims into meat pies.

While Sweeney is the man with a plan for revenge, Mrs. Lovett, his accomplice and business partner, is every inch the protagonist along with him. The powerful, complex female lead was a rarity in traditional music theater, where operatic tropes were easily assimilated, such as the virginal naïf, the coquette, the old shrew.

Mr. Sondheim delighted in presenting what we think to be a stereotype and then justifying its subversion. As coarse and pained as Mrs. Lovett is, she is an outlaw hero in this story.

His works championed careers of seasoned performers, creating opportunities for many actors who might have otherwise been seen as “too old” to play the leading lady.

Subsequently, actors lined up to play Sondheim women characters. A wonderful lockdown moment was Christine Baranski, Audra MacDonald, and Meryl Streep singing “Ladies Who Lunch” from Company (1970) — a smirk to their own stage diva personas, the effects of COVID, and a winking celebration of Mr. Sondheim on his 90th birthday.

“I’m Still Here,” from Follies (1971), is Mr. Sondheim’s self-reflexive moment for women in theater: the ultimate female survival mantra in a tough industry.

When it was performed by Elaine Stritch at 85, and delivered in tights and a white shirt, the song revealed so much about Sondheim’s role in placing women at the center of the stage. Mr. Sondheim’s tight, episodic rhyming lyrics, and twisting, arpeggiated, complicated music reveals so many intricacies about the life of a woman, particularly a woman of the theater:

Black sable one day, next day it goes into hock, but I’m here

Top billing Monday, Tuesday, you’re touring in stock, but I’m here

First you’re another sloe-eyed vamp

Then someone’s mother, then you’re camp

Then you career from career to career

I’m almost through my memoirs, and I’m here.

Mr. Sondheim had a difficult relationship with his mother. She reportedly once wrote to him “the only regret I have in life is giving you birth.”

Despite this, he wrote complicated, wise and relatable older women, mothers, and carers. This is exemplified in “Children Will Listen,” sung by the Witch in Into the Woods (1986):

How do you say to your child in the night?

Nothing’s all black, but then nothing’s all white

How do you say it will all be all right

When you know that it mightn’t be true?

What do you do?

“Children Will Listen” reveals an important moral value contained in Into the Woods, yet it is delivered by the female antagonist. This is the complicated, unexpected humanity of a Sondheim character: you think you know the character type in act one, they are revealed to be someone else in act two.

Dichotomy is possible and vital in a complex characterization.

Mr. Sondheim inspired a generation of women to believe complex female characters have a place at the center of the Broadway stage.

With Mr. Sondheim’s genius’ passing on, we look to the next generation of writers and composers to continue his legacy and create an innovative place, smack bang in the center of the stage, for not only women but for the entire range and breadth of humanity.

As Sondheim famously wrote:

Anything you do, let it come from you, then it will be new.

 

Narelle Yeo is a Senior Lecturer in Voice and Stagecraft at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.

As Omicron looms, doctors push vax efforts

PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS 

By Patricia B. Mirasol 

IMMUNIZATION COVERAGE — including pediatric immunization — will help the country stave off the threat of Omicron, the newest coronavirus variant of concern, according to medical experts.  

“We could use this as an opportunity to ramp up our immunization coverage,” said Dr. Nina G. Gloriani, chair of the government’s Vaccine Expert Panel – Technical Working Group for COVID-19 Vaccines, in a Nov. 29 meeting with the National Task Force Against COVID-19. 

Data show that vaccines and boosters help protect individuals from earlier COVID-19 variants, she added in the vernacular.  

In an earlier webinar organized by the Philippine Medical Association, doctors encouraged families to get their jabs as children aged 12 to 17 can receive Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which were granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for this age group.   

“These vaccines have a very good safety profile, but please don’t expect that you won’t experience any side effects. All vaccines give you these reactions,” Dr. Gloriani said at the Nov. 20 webinar. “The benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines outweigh any potential risks.”  

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in September that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were highly effective in preventing COVID-19 hospitalization among persons aged 12–18 years. 

SINOVAC FOR KIDS?
“Sinovac will definitely be applying for an amended EUA for its use for the younger age segment,” Enrique Y. Gonzalez, chairman of vaccine retailer Family Vaccine Specialty Clinics, Inc., said.  

This, he added, will hinge on two components: real-world data across countries that administer Sinovac to youths, as well as the filing of the Phase III data of the pediatric trial Sinovac is undertaking.   

Mr. Gonzalez added that based on the data that is available from countries administering Sinovac on children, its Adverse Effects Following Immunization are low and within the norm of vaccination use.  

The [global] trial’s Phase III data will be available in the first quarter of next year,” he said. “We are confident that — upon the filing of this information — Sinovac will be made available for the younger age group.”  

Dr. Lulu C. Bravo, who heads a national committee that monitors adverse effects post-immunization, said that all reports they generate on the COVID-19 vaccines are made transparent to the public.  

“We are moving heaven and earth to make sure that what we report will be given due diligence, so we can conquer and restore vaccine confidence among our people,” Dr. Bravo said.   

  


SIDEBAR | What to expect after getting a COVID-19 vaccine  

If a child does experience side effects, they will be similar to those seen in adults, according to Dr. Nina G. Gloriani, chairperson of the government’s Vaccine Expert Panel – Technical Working Group for COVID-19 Vaccines  

  • soreness at the injection site,   
  • fatigue,  
  • headaches,  
  • chills,  
  • muscle aches, and  
  • fever  

These side effects are usually mild to moderate, temporary, and should go away in about 48 hours.   

Adverse effects are rare and include anaphylaxis (or severe allergy) and myocarditis.  

After 2 years of renovation, Ayala Museum and Filipinas Heritage Library to reopen partially

AYALA Museum

THE AYALA Museum and Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL) — which have been closed for renovation since June of 2019 — will have a soft opening on Dec. 4, the Ayala Foundation has announced. Five spaces with new exhibits will be made accessible to the public.

In response to the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, admission must be prebooked, entries will be timed entries, and admissions capacity will be limited. All guests visiting the museum and library, regardless of age, must be fully vaccinated and will have to provide proof of vaccination upon entry for the safety of all visitors and staff. Full protocols, visitation guidelines, and reminders are available on Ayala Museum’s new website: www.ayalamuseum.org/visit.

The refurbished museum will have refreshed exhibition, event, and retail spaces designed by Leandro V. Locsin Partners (LVLP). LVLP also designed the current museum building which opened in 2004. It replaced the original museum, designed by National Artist Leandro Locsin, which was demolished.

The museum boasts of a new lobby “marked by a distinctive Asian sensibility and borrowed landscape, integrating it closer to the Greenbelt complex and its environs,” said a press release.

NEW EXHIBITS
Five new exhibitions will be unveiled at the museum’s soft opening, along with the new Ayala Museum website and the upcoming Ayala Museum app.

Apropos this year’s quincentennial celebration of the circumnavigation of the world, the exhibitionIntertwined: Transpacific, Transcultural Philippines” explores the resulting entangled cultures brought about by man’s ability to circumnavigate the world, with over 240 objects and artworks.

There is now a new gallery dedicated to artist Fernando Zobel who envisioned the Ayala Museum. Its opening exhibit is “Landscape into Painting: Fernando Zobel Serie Blanca.” The Orientations Gallery will have a display of objects from the Ayala Museum collections, which focus on the cultures and peoples of the Philippines’ islands and the nation’s past.

There will also be a Digital Gallery — a first in the Philippines — at the museum’s new lobby. Made up of eight giant screens, “the gallery enables visitors to digitally explore objects from the museum and library collections and engage in interactive and up-close conversations with art and history for free.”

The museum’s Diorama Experience, popular with generations of school children, has also been totally refreshed and be on view for a new generation to enjoy.

The rest of the Ayala Museum galleries will be unveiled by the first half of 2022.

ONLINE AND ON-SITE
The renovated museum “will be networked, multiple channels digitally connected so one can move seamlessly between them, enabling Filipinos here and abroad to readily access Philippine art and culture 24/7, as exemplified by the collections and programming of the museum and library,” said the press release announcing the soft opening.

The upcoming Ayala Museum app will have exclusive online content to support onsite exhibitions.

Meanwhile, on the newly revamped Ayala Museum webpage, guests will be able to book visits to the museum; participate in workshops, conferences, concerts, and performances; access the Ayala Museum collection online; visit new exhibitions; explore learning resources; and, link up with the stand alone Filipinas Heritage Library website.

For more information, visit ayalamuseum.org and filipinaslibrary.org.ph.

Doctor who saw Omicron early says symptoms different from Delta

UNSPLASH

PEOPLE infected by Omicron in South Africa are showing very different symptoms from those suffering from the Delta strain, said the doctor who alerted government scientists to the possibility of a new variant. 

Patients who contracted it complain of fatigue, head and body aches, and occasional sore throats and coughs, said Angelique Coetzee, who is also chairwoman of the South African Medical Association. Delta infections, by comparison, caused elevated pulse rates, resulted in low oxygen levels and a loss of smell and taste, she said. 

After weeks of almost no coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients at her practice in Pretoria, the capital and epicenter of South Africa’s current surge, Dr. Coetzee said she suddenly started seeing patients complain of the symptoms on Nov. 18. She immediately informed the government’s Ministerial Advisory Council on COVID-19, and laboratories the next week identified a new variant, she said. 

“I said these different symptoms can’t be Delta, they are very similar to Beta or it must be a new strain,” she said in an interview on Monday. “I don’t think it will blow over but I think it will be a mild disease hopefully. For now we are confident we can handle it.” 

The World Health Organization is analyzing the new mutation, and has said it’s too early to say how transmissible and severe it is. It’s called on countries to start testing widely for Omicron, saying the divergent design could fuel future surges of COVID-19. 

BOTSWANA FIRST
South Africa announced the identification of a new variant on Nov. 25, saying a few cases had first been identified in neighboring Botswana and then others had followed in Tshwane, the municipal area in which Pretoria is located. The announcement caused a global panic, roiling markets and resulting in travel bans on southern African nations. 

Scientists advising South Africa’s government told a media briefing on Monday that while Omicron appeared to be more transmissible, cases appeared to be very mild. 

Still, they do appear to be evading vaccines. 

“There have been a number, a significantly large number, of breakthroughs, people who are fully vaccinated being infected,” Barry Schoub, chairman of the government’s COVID council, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Those so far have been mild.” 

Dr. Coetzee’s patients have been relatively young. A vaccinated 66-year-old patient did return a positive test on Monday but was only mildly ill, she said. — Bloomberg 

Moira Dela Torre, Ben&Ben win big at Awit Awards

INSTAGRAM.COM/BENANDBENMUSIC/

SINGER Moira dela Torre and the nine-piece band Ben&Ben took home the night’s biggest awards at the 34th Awit Awards, streamed on the award’s official YouTube page on Nov. 29.

Ms. Dela Torre won Song of the Year for her ballad “Paubaya.” It also received the Most Streamed Song Award.

Ms. Dela Torre also won Best Traditional/Contemporary Folk Recording for “Kita na Kita” and Best Song Written for Movie/TV/Stage Play for “Hanggang Sa Huli” which was the main theme song of the 2020 action-drama series 24/7.

Meanwhile, folk, pop/rock band Ben&Ben won Record of the Year for “Di Ka Sayang.” The song also won as for Best Inspirational Recording. The band also took home the award for Best Ballad Recording for another one of its songs, Sa Susunod na Habang Buhay,” and the Most Streamed Artist Award.

Another of the night’s big winners pop duo Leanne & Naara who won Album of the Year for Daybreak and Best R&B Recording for the song “Too Soon.”

Singer-songwriter Keiko Necesario won Best Performance by a Female Recording Artist for her song “Right Next to You,” while Tawag ng Tanghalan Season 1 first runner-up and YouTube artist Sam Mangubat won Best Performance by a Male Recording Artist for his song “Kulang ang Mundo.

The Awit Awards are given annually by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry to recognize outstanding achievements in the music industry.

The complete list of winners follows:

Album of the Year
Leanne & Naara, Daybreak

Song of the Year
Moira dela Torre and Jason Marvin, “Paubaya”

Record of the Year
Ben&Ben, “Di Ka Sayang”

Best Performance by a Female Recording Artist
Keiko Necesario, “Right Next to You”

Best Performance by a Male Recording Artist
Sam Mangubat, “Kulang ang Mundo”

Best Collaboration Performance
Jr Crown, and Kevin Yadao, “Bestiny”

Best Performance by a Group Recording Artist
IV of Spades, “Sariling Multo (Sa Panaginip)”

Best Instrumental Performance
Four Corners MNL, “Cosmic Cycles”

Best Performance by a New Female Recording Artist
Fana, “Out”

Best Performance by a New Male Recording Artist
Matty Juniosa, “Sayaw ng Mga Tala”

Best New Artist in a Collaboration
JM Bales featuring KVN, “Magandang Dilag”

Best Performance by a New Group Recording Artist
Nameless Kids, “Outlaws”

Best Global Recording
Eric Bellinger, Iñigo Pascual, Sam Concepcion, Moophs, Zee Avi, Vince Nantes, “Rise”

Best Ballad Recording
Ben&Ben, “Sa Susunod na Habang Buhay”

Best Pop Recording
Rico Blanco, “Happy Feelin’”

Best Rock/Alternative Recording
IV of Spades, “Sariling Multo (Sa Panaginip)”

Best Musical Arrangement
The Itchyworms, “Waiting for the End to Start”

Best Vocal Arrangement
Happy Laderas and Almond Volante, “Tala”

Best Engineered Recording
Tim Recia, “Marupok”

Best World Music Recording
High Hello, “Palawan”

Best Novelty Recording
Hannah Precillas, “Sabi Ko Nga Ba”

Best Traditional/Contemporary Folk Recording
Moira dela Torre, “Kita Na Kita”

Best Dance Recording
Zsara Tiblani, “G na G”

Best Inspirational Recording
Ben&Ben, “Di Ka Sayang”

Best Christmas Recording
Arman Ferrer, “Paskong Walang Hanggan”

Best Rap/HipHop Recording
Arvey, “Umaga”

Best Jazz Recording
Nicole Asensio, “Poblacion”

Best R&B Recording
Leanne & Naara, “Too Soon”

Best Regional Recording
Route 83, “Ania Ko”

Best Song Written for Movie/TV/Stage Play
Moira dela Torre, “Hanggang Sa Huli” (from 24/7)

Best Cover Art
Kurt Byron Vale Maligaya and Jason Paul Laxamana, Rico Blanco Songbook

Best Music Video
Zild and Daniel Aguilar, “Dila”

Best Child Recording Artist
Bea C, “The Kokak Song”

Most Streamed Artist
Ben&Ben

Most Streamed Song
Moira dela Torre and Jason Marvin, “Paubaya”

People’s Voice Favorite Female Artist
Elha Nympha

People’s Voice Favorite Male Artist
Anthony Rosaldo

People’s Voice Breakthrough Artist
Shane G.

People’s Voice Favorite Song
SB19, “Hanggang sa Huli”

People’s Voice Favorite Group Artist
BGYO

Dangal ng Musikang Pilipino
April Boy Regino

Telco revenue growth seen to stay stable in 2022

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Senior Reporter

CREDIT ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service forecasts that revenue growth for telecommunications companies in the Philippines will “remain stable” in 2022, owing primarily to the increasing data consumption and broadband usage amid the pandemic crisis.

Moody’s expects that telcos’ revenue in the Asia-Pacific region’s emerging markets, including the Philippines, will continue to grow around 5% next year.

“Rising data consumption and broadband usage continue to drive revenue growth and a higher proportion of revenues,” Moody’s Investors Service said in its “Telecommunications — Asia-Pacific 2022 Outlook” released on Tuesday.

“Although partially offset by declines in legacy voice and messaging services, these are becoming a smaller proportion of revenues,” it added.

The credit ratings agency considers the exposure of the telco sector to the coronavirus disruption to be “low,” as it is “an essential service for internet use and telecommuting.”

Sought for comment, Regina Capital Development Corp. Equity Analyst Anna Corenne M. Agravio said that “in the longer scheme of things, investors are still more bullish on telco stocks since their operations are considered pandemic-proof.”

“On top of this, Globe Telecom, Inc. and PLDT, Inc. offer stable dividends at attractive yields.”

“However, this doesn’t mean that the telco stocks are immune to short-term fundamental shocks related to the market as a whole. That’s why when the index plunged last Monday due to the Omicron variant, the telcos were also affected,” she noted.

On Monday, PLDT shares closed 1.12% lower at P1,680 apiece, while Globe Telecom shares declined 3.47%, closing at P3,282 apiece.

Moody’s also expects that emerging market telcos’ spectrum liabilities will increase to more than 16% this year and 2022, from 11.6% in 2020.

PLDT and Globe have been calling for lower spectrum fees.

PLDT has said that “most likely” it would end 2021 with around P2.4-billion expenditure on spectrum user fees.

Moody’s also pointed out that technological disruption and cybersecurity remain major threats to telcos.

“Telcos have to maintain a high level of cyber risk awareness and take mitigating actions to curtail cyber risk,” it said.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.

Telehealth seen as valuable tool in preventing progression of chronic disease

MONITORING the progression of non-communicable diseases has been difficult during the pandemic, and it can be addressed if patients embrace teleconsultation and online channels to maintain a connection with their healthcare providers, said doctors at a conference about healthcare beyond COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019).   

“Routine care for chronic diseases is an ongoing major challenge globally. Diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and hypertension were the most impacted conditions due to reduction in access to care,” said Dr. Helen Ong-Garcia, a cardiologist at St. Luke’s Medical Center.  

Health initiative Kumusta Dok reconnects patients with doctors and raises awareness about symptoms and risk factors of the leading causes of death in the Philippines, like heart disease, cancer, and stroke.  

In 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority recorded 100,000 deaths from heart disease, more than 60,000 from cancer, and nearly 40,000 from diabetes.  

Preventing more of these deaths is the goal of Kumusta Dok, said Dr. Ong-Garcia.  

Richard Lirio, corporate secretary of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines, Inc., added: “We need early consultation to avoid disease progression. That’s why non-COVID-19 patients, especially those suffering from chronic non-communicable diseases, are given options to seek consultation by either virtual or face-to-face.”  

He urged Filipinos to remain cautious about contracting the virus but still open to seeking healthcare for whatever problems they may have.  

At an interactive patient summit on Nov. 26, Kumusta Dok dispensed health tips and answered questions via Facebook Live.  

“This gives us the opportunity to educate and empower our patients,” said Dr. Ong-Garcia. “What we realized is that telemedicine or telehealth gave additional communication lines between patients and doctors.”  

Leyden V. Florido, diabetes nurse educator and trustee of the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations, explained that fear of contracting COVID-19, limited knowledge of technology, and uncertainty on when to seek consult are main reasons why Filipinos don’t connect with their doctors.  

With Kumusta Dok and other awareness campaigns, people can be reassured of the proper avenues to consult, whether virtually or in person, she said.  

Meanwhile, doctors also stand to benefit from better connections with patients, according to Dr. Patrick Gerard L. Moral, a pulmonologist at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital.  

“Doctors face alarming rates of stress, anxiety, insomnia, and depression … They also undergo tremendous physical pressure coupled with excessive workload, which increases mental stress,” he shared.   

The balance between telemedicine (for simple health problems) and face-to-face consultations (for more thorough assessments) can help both doctors and patients carve a safe, health-seeking journey.  

“We need to get people back to taking charge of their health,” Ms. Florido said. — Brontë H. Lacsamana 

Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, whose work transformed musical theater, 91

PHOTO COURTESY FROM SONDHEIMSOCIETY.COM

BROADWAY composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who helped American musical theater evolve beyond pure entertainment and reach new artistic heights with such works as West Side Story, Into the Woods, and Sweeney Todd, died early Friday at the age of 91, his publicist said.

The musical great died at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, spokesperson Kathryn Zuckerman told Reuters by e-mail, saying she had little additional information. The news was reported earlier by the New York Times.

Mr. Sondheim’s eight Tony Awards for his lyrics and music surpassed the total of any other composer. In 2008 he also won a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

He started early, learning the art of musical theater when he was a teenager from his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II, the legendary lyricist behind The Sound of Music.

Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was in turn mentored by Mr. Sondheim, has called him musical theater’s greatest lyricist.

Mr. Sondheim’s most successful works included Into the Woods, which opened on Broadway in 1987 and used children’s fairy tales to untangle adult obsessions; the 1979 thriller Sweeney Todd, about a murderous barber in London whose victims are served as meat pies; and 1962’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a vaudeville-style comedy set in ancient Rome.

He also wrote the lyrics to Leonard Bernstein’s score for West Side Story, inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and collaborated with fellow composer Jule Styne as lyricist for Gypsy, loosely based on the memoirs of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee.

“I love the theater as much as music, and the whole idea of getting across to an audience and making them laugh, making them cry — just making them feel — is paramount to me,” Mr. Sondheim said in a 2013 interview with National Public Radio.

Several of Mr. Sondheim’s hit musicals were turned into movies, including the 2014 film Into the Woods, starring Meryl Streep, and the 2007 Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp. A new film version of West Side Story, directed by Stephen Spielberg from a screenplay by Tony Kushner, opens next month.

During a guest appearance in September on the CBS Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Mr. Sondheim said he visited the set of Mr. Spielberg’s adaptation, and endorsed the film “as really first rate.”

Mr. Sondheim’s songs were celebrated for their sharp wit and insight into modern life and for giving voice to complex characters, but few of them made the pop charts.

‘CLOWNS’ HIT
He scored a hit, however, and one of three Grammys of his career, with “Send in the Clowns” from his 1973 musical A Little Night Music. It was recorded by Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, and Judy Collins, among others. Mr. Sondheim also earned a best-song Academy Award in 1991 for “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man),” sung by Madonna in the Dick Tracy movie.

In 2015, President Barack Obama presented the lyricist the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony.

One of Mr. Sondheim’s greatest triumphs was the Pulitzer Prize he shared with composure James Lapine for the 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George, about 19th-century French Neo-Impressionist artist Georges Seurat. The two also collaborated on Into the Woods.

Actress Bernadette Peters, who played the roles of Dot and Marie in Sunday in the Park and the witch of Into the Woods, expressed sadness at the loss of a friend, tweeting, Mr. Sondheim “gave me so much to sing about.”

Fellow actress Anna Kendrick, who starred as Cinderella in the film version of Into the Woods, called Mr. Sondheim’s death “a devastating loss.”

“Performing his work has been among the greatest privileges of my career,” she added on Twitter.

As Mr. Sondheim collected accolades, New York City’s Broadway theater industry underwent many changes. It had a key role in American culture through the 1950s, with many Broadway songs making the pop charts, but lost significance as rock music gained a hold on the public starting in the 1960s.

Increasingly, musicals borrowed material from television and movies, instead of the other way around, composer Mark N. Grant wrote in his book The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical.

Mr. Sondheim shared the view that Broadway had experienced decline, expressing it repeatedly in interviews.

“There are so many forms of entertainment, theater is becoming more marginalized,” he told British newspaper The Times in 2012.

But Broadway musicals also became more artistic, and Mr. Sondheim played a key role in their evolution, critics said. He explored such weighty topics as political violence in Assassins, the human need for family and the pull of dysfunctional relationships in Into the Woods, social inequality in Sweeney Todd, and Western imperialism in Pacific Overtures.

He developed new methods for presenting a play as well. Instead of telling a story from beginning to end, he would jump backward and forward in time to explore a single theme. It was called the “concept musical.”

Broadway audiences were introduced to Mr. Sondheim with West Side Story in 1957. The story about a love affair between a Puerto Rican girl, Maria, and a white boy, Tony, in working-class Manhattan was turned into an Oscar-winning film in 1961. The central characters expressed their infatuation in the songs “Maria,” “Somewhere,” and “Tonight.”

CONFLICT WITH MOTHER
Mr. Sondheim was born March 22, 1930, in New York City to affluent Jewish parents who worked in fashion. He described his early childhood as a lonely one, with servants as his main company.

After his parents split up when he was 10 years old, Mr. Sondheim moved with his mother to rural Pennsylvania, where she bought a farm. He later said his mother took out her wrath over the divorce on him. He found a surrogate family in the nearby household of Hammerstein and his wife, Dorothy.

Mr. Hammerstein, who along with composing partner Richard Rodgers created the classic musicals Oklahoma!, South Pacific, and The Sound of Music, taught the teenage Mr. Sondheim how to write musical theater.

After Mr. Sondheim became famous, he mentored others on Broadway. When Miranda began work on a rap musical about American founding father Alexander Hamilton, Mr. Sondheim encouraged and critiqued him. The play became a smash hit on Broadway in 2015.

In box office success, Mr. Sondheim fell short of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer behind The Phantom of the Opera and Cats with whom Mr. Sondheim shared a birthday.

Mr. Sondheim pushed audiences, which sometimes resulted in box office flops.

Some of his least commercially successful plays were lauded by critics. Those included the 1976 Pacific Overtures, which depicted Japan during an age of Western colonialism, and his 1990 off-Broadway production Assassins about real-life figures who each set out to kill an American president.

Mr. Sondheim had many fans in the academic world. In 1994, a quarterly magazine called the Sondheim Review was founded to examine his work, five years after Oxford University in England named him a visiting professor of drama.

His devotees celebrated the acerbic irony of his lyrics, which they described as commenting on everything from the limits of America’s melting pot to the downside of marriage.

These lines from “The Ladies Who Lunch” in his 1970 musical Company contained a typical slice of Mr. Sondheim’s wit: “Here’s to the girls who play wife/Aren’t they too much?/Keeping house but clutching a copy of LIFE/Just to keep in touch.” — Reuters