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NBA staffers perturbed players get pass on vax

THERE is a divide between players and everyone else in the National Basketball Association (NBA) when it comes to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine, and some are not happy about it.

The NBA mandated that all team employees must be vaccinated — except for players.

Mandatory vaccinations for players has been a non-starter with the National Basketball Players Association. Though the league has instituted strict protocols for unvaccinated players, there is lingering tension on staffs, ESPN reported.

“Everyone who is vaccinated should be pissed at those who aren’t,” a veteran assistant coach told ESPN. “Not requiring NBA players to be vaccinated is horses—.”

Protocols for unvaxxed players could include eating and traveling apart from vaccinated teammates as well as being located in a different part of the locker room.

Said one strength and conditioning coach: “They need to hold the players to the same standards they hold us. This is a disease that doesn’t differentiate between a player and a staff member.”

Roughly 90 percent of players have been vaccinated, but some highly publicized comments made by outspoken stars in the lead-up to training camp has raised eyebrows. Kyrie Irving, Andrew Wiggins and Bradley Beal have put themselves out there in staunch opposition to getting the vaccine.

“People want to draw it as a personal health decision, but it’s not,” a Western Conference head athletic trainer told ESPN. “It’s a public health decision.”

Beal clarified earlier comments on Tuesday saying he would still considering getting the vaccine. Beal said he’s currently not able to be vaccinated because he tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 60 days.

Portland Trail Blazers All-Star Damian Lillard said he wouldn’t argue with players choosing not to be vaccinated, but explained his decision was multi-faceted.

“I’m not mad at people who say they need to do their research. But I have a lot of people in my family that I spend time around,” Lillard said. “I’m just not going to put their lives in danger. As a kid, I had to get shots my whole life.”

Lakers superstar LeBron James took a similar line on Tuesday, saying it’s not his place to be an advocate to other players. James is fully vaxxed after doing his research.

“We’re talking about individual bodies. We’re not talking about something political or racism or police brutality,” James said. “I don’t think I personally should get involved in what other people do for their bodies and livelihoods. I know what I did for me and my family… But as far as speaking for everybody and their individualities and things they want to do, that’s not my job.” — Reuters

Kishida certain to be named Japan’s next PM

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida — KYODO/VIA REUTERS
FORMER Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida gestures as he is elected to be the new head of the ruling party in the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership vote in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 29. — KYODO/VIA REUTERS

TOKYO  — Former foreign minister Fumio Kishida won a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership race on Wednesday, a victory that virtually ensures he will succeed Yoshihide Suga as prime minister within days.

Mr. Kishida enjoys only moderate public support and has a bland image and his victory could spell problems for the LDP in a general election due within weeks.

Mr. Kishida defeated former defense and foreign minister Taro Kono, seen as an outspoken maverick, in a second round run-off vote. Two female contenders, Sanae Takaichi, 60, and Seiko Noda, 61, dropped out after the first round.

The winner of the party poll to succeed unpopular Prime Minister Suga, who is not seeking re-election after just one year in office, is almost certain to become premier because of its majority in parliament’s lower house.

Mr. Kishida must call an election by Nov. 28 and faces the task of rebuilding an economy staggering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but his consensus style will help him consolidate power within the factious ruling party.

Mr. Kishida’s victory is unlikely to trigger a huge shift in policies as Japan seeks to cope with an assertive China and revive an economy hit by the pandemic, with the soft-spoken MP highlighting the need to focus on reducing income disparity.

He shares a broad consensus on the need to boost Japan’s defenses and strengthen security ties with the United States and other partners including the QUAD grouping of Japan, the United States, Australia and India, while preserving vital economic ties with China and holding regular summit meetings.

Specifically, Mr. Kishida wants to beef up Japan’s coast guard and backs passing of a resolution condemning China’s treatment of members of the Uyghur minority. He wants to appoint a prime ministerial aide to monitor their human rights situation.

Mr. Kishida said deregulation during the reform era in the early 2000s widened the gap between the haves and have-nots and that former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics,” which sought to fix tattered finances by achieving high growth and boosting tax revenues, did not result in benefits trickling down.

Mr. Kishida has said fiscal consolidation would be a major pillar of his policy and in the past has voiced doubts over the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) ultra-loose policy, saying in 2018 that stimulus cannot last forever.

With the economy suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Kishida reversed course to say the BOJ must maintain its massive stimulus. He proposed a spending package of more than 30 trillion yen, adding that Japan likely would not raise a sales tax rate from 10% “for about a decade.”

He stressed the need to distribute more wealth to households, in contrast to the focus of Abe’s “Abenomics” policies on boosting corporate profits in the hope benefits trickle down to wage-earners. — Reuters

Myanmar’s junta powerless as currency drops 60% in 4 weeks

REUTERS
U.S. hundred-dollar bills are seen at AYA Bank’s money changer in Yangon, Myanmar, July 17, 2015. — REUTERS/SOE ZEYA TUN

MYANMAR’S currency has lost more than 60% of its value since the beginning of September in a collapse that has driven up food and fuel prices in an economy that has tanked since a military coup eight months ago.

“This will rattle the generals as they are quite obsessed with the kyat rate as a broader barometer of the economy, and therefore a reflection on them,” Richard Horsey, a Myanmar expert at the International Crisis Group, said.

In August, the Central Bank of Myanmar tried tethering the kyat 0.8% either side of its reference rate against the dollar, but gave up on Sept. 10 as pressure on the exchange rate mounted.

The shortage of dollars has become so bad that some money changers have pulled down their shutters.

“Due to the currency price instability at the moment… all Northern Breeze Exchange Service branches are temporarily closed,” the money changer said on Facebook.

Those still operating were quoting a rate of 2,700 kyat per dollar on Tuesday, compared to 1,695 on Sept. 1 and 1,395 back on Feb. 1 when the military overthrew a democratically elected government led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a report published on Monday, the World Bank predicted the economy would slump by 18% this year, partly due to the pandemic, and said Myanmar would see the biggest contraction in employment in the region and the number of poor in the country would rise.

The increasing economic pressures come amid signs of an upsurge in bloodshed, as armed militias have become bolder in clashes with the army after months of protests and strikes by opponents of the junta.

“The worse the political situation is, the worse the currency rate will be,” said a senior executive at a Myanmar bank, who declined to be named.

Myanmar is also struggling to deal with a second wave of coronavirus cases that started in June with the response by authorities crippled after many health workers joined protests. Reported cases have comes off their highs though the true extent of the outbreak remains unclear.

Stay at home orders in some townships have been withdrawn, but are still in effect in some areas.

In the immediate months after the Feb. 1 coup, many people queued up to withdraw savings from banks and some bought gold, but a jewelry merchant in Yangon said many desperate people were now trying to sell their gold back.

The central bank gave no reason to why it abandoned its managed float strategy earlier this month, but analysts believe its foreign currency reserves must be seriously depleted.

Central bank officials did not answer calls seeking comment on how much foreign currency was left, but World Bank data shows it had just $7.67 billion in reserves at the end of 2020.

After coming off its managed float, the central bank still spent $65 million, buying kyat at a rate of 1,750 to 1,755 per dollar between Sept. 13-27.

The bank executive said the central bank’s efforts had limited impact in a currency market shorn of confidence.

The economic crisis has driven up the price of staples, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said this week that around three million people now require humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, up from one million before the coup.

A 48-kilogram bag of rice costs 48,000 kyat, up nearly 40% since the coup, while gasoline prices have nearly doubled to 1,445 kyat per liter.

The crisis is also hurting businesses, particularly those needing to import raw materials. A plastic bag manufacturer in Yangon said he had been forced to increase prices and sales had dropped about 30%.

Per capita gross domestic product was just $1,400 last year, and Zaw, a resident in Yangon who asked to use only part of his name, was under no illusion about where Myanmar was heading.

“People will become poorer.”  — Reuters

Learning not to forget

FORMER PRESIDENT FERDINAND E. MARCOS — BW FILE PHOTO

There is a post going around in Viber which features a column in the Manila Bulletin by former Vice-President Salvador Laurel dated July 14, 1998 — some 23 years ago.

The column was called “Turning Point” and the title of that day’s piece was, “A dying Marcos wanted to settle nine years ago.” By “nine years ago,” Mr. Laurel referred to an event that purportedly happened from Feb. 2 to 4, 1989 in Manila and Hawaii. The column appeared to have been posted on Viber by “#The Selfie Patriot.”

In his column, the former Vice-President claimed that “at this time nine years ago, a dying (Ferdinand) Marcos personally asked me to convey to then President Cory Aquino a 90-10 settlement in favor of government, but Mrs. Aquino would not hear of it.”

As the former Vice-President narrates it, “on Feb. 2, 1989, at about 5 o’clock in the afternoon. I was at home when an urgent call came from Honolulu. I was surprised to hear Imelda Romualdez Marcos on the other line. She was sobbing, ‘Doy, gusto kang kausapin ni Ferdinand! Mayroon siyang gustong sabihin sa iyo! Masama na ang kanyang tayo! (Doy, Ferdinand wants to meet you. He has something to tell you. He’s not in good health) Please come right away!’ she pleaded.”

Mr. Laurel left for Honolulu on Feb. 3. Upon arrival in Hawaii, Laurel reported he went to the Intensive Care Unit of the St. Francis Hospital. After describing the physical state of Marcos, the former Vice-President wrote that Marcos said, “Tell her (President Corazon Aquino), ‘I am willing to turn over 90% of all my earthly possessions to the Filipino people. Only 10% will go to my family. I have already created a foundation for this. Enrique Zobel has all the papers. All I ask is that I be allowed to die in my own country… I returned to Manila the next day, Feb. 4, and immediately sought an appointment with President Aquino to convey the offer of the dying Marcos.”

Mr. Laurel wrote President Aquino and asked to meet her to relay Marcos’s offer. According to Laurel, President Aquino refused to meet him.

I had read that same account many years ago. I discussed that visit of former Vice-President Laurel to Marcos with mainly columnist-friends who said they had “scoops” of that visit. Mr. Laurel’s relationship with President Aquino somehow soured several months after taking his oath as Vice-President at Club Filipino on Feb. 25, 1986. Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency of the revolutionary government also on the same day.

Vice-President Laurel was later appointed by President Aquino Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a post from which he resigned in September 1987. A month earlier, August, military rebels unsuccessfully staged a coup but at the cost of many lives. Other military elements tried to seize power by taking over the main Manila airport and the television network, GMA. Early into President Aquino’s term, soldiers and civilians led by former Senator Arturo Tolentino by occupied the historic Manila Hotel under the direction of Marcos by remote control from Hawaii.

The Viber post and the supposed offer of Marcos to “turn over of 90% of all my earthly possessions to the Filipino people; only 10% will go to my family,” aroused my research instincts and led me to Bloomberg.com. The website had an article with a fascinating title, “Where did Marcos hide his $10 billion fortune?” The well-researched article was written by Andreo Calonzo.

The moment I saw the title, Marcos’s proposed settlement crossed my mind: 90% of $10 billion is $9 billion “for the Filipino people” and 10% of $10 billion “for my family” amounts to about P50 billion.

What was intended to go to the family should be compared with the proposed Department of Health (DoH) budget of P73.99 billion for COVID-19 response for 2022.

Calonzo narrates the work done by lawyers Sherry Border, based in Hawaii, and Robert Swift, a Philadelphia lawyer. Swift who had traveled to the Philippines at least 40 times to represent relatives of human rights abuses during the Marcos regime, developed an interest in the Philippines as he watched the EDSA People Power Revolution unfold before him on prime-time news together with millions of people all over the world.

Together with Broder, Swift was able to get a US court to award about $100 million to relatives of human rights victims during the 14 years of Martial rule that formally ended on Feb. 25, 1986.

The court-instigated award was funded by the sale of Marcos properties (in Hawaii, New York, and Texas) and art pieces, some of which were in the custody of prominent Filipino families who willingly served as Marcos’ property and art work “custodians.” Imelda eventually accused one of these keepers of trying to “steal a property” in Texas that belonged to her. Imelda complained to a Texas businessman that this keeper hadn’t turned over to her the papers of the property.

Etta Rosales, herself a human right victim and activist, a former party-list congressman representing Akbayan, and chair of the Commission on Human Rights from 2011 to 2015, cites the tremendous work done by Broder and Swift especially in the light of competition offered by the government’s Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) in recovering ill-gotten wealth.

Rosales said that before her release from detention during martial law — during which she was suffocated and electrocuted — she warned a military officer that the Marcos camp would lose in the long run. Calonzo quotes Rosales, “I told them: I am going to win because we are on the side of justice and truth.”

Ruben Carranza, former PCGG commissioner who now works for the International Center for Transnational Justice, a human rights non-profit, points out that the Marcoses were never held directly accountable for the human rights violations they committed in any sort of legal proceedings in the Philippines, making it easier to whitewash their family’s history, writes Calonzo.

As of this point, Broder and Swift aim to recover more of Marcos assets, including a $2-million deposit Ferdinand Marcos made in 1972 in a Merrill Lynch account owned by Arelma, Inc., a Panamanian shell company set up on his behalf “at the same time he was declaring Martial Law,” according to Swift.

So far, a US court has awarded about $100 million to victims of human rights abuses while the Philippine government, through legislation sponsored by Rosales, awarded victims about $150 million or a total of $250 million or about P12.5 billion to more than 11,000 victims. The government award was administered by the Human Rights Violations Compensation Board, once headed by PNP General Lina Sarmiento, now with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

The Bloomberg article says “the immediate trigger (for People Power) was Marcos’s victory in a seemingly fixed election, but the ire was much deeper. In the 1970s, Marcos had led a military government of uncommon brutality, disbanding congress, silencing media and using the army to torture and kill thousands of citizens.”

The people know better. Never again.

 

Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as Secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.

Singapore’s COVID response overlooked a major factor: Fear

SHAWNANGGG-UNSPLASH

SINGAPORE is very proud of its reputation for technocratic excellence. In recent months, government officials have tried to tackle the country’s most pressing question — how to live with COVID-19 — by scrutinizing, modeling, and projecting data, as if staring hard enough at those little gray-rimmed boxes on Excel would produce the answer.

The trouble with this strategy is that living with COVID is messy, and the data will never look good. Countries that have been praised for the most meticulous of approaches to the outbreak have stumbled time and again. Ultimately, treating the coronavirus as endemic will require Singapore to do something it may find unnatural: think beyond the numbers.

In recent days, the government reintroduced a host of restrictions to curb a quickly rising case count, which has remained above 1,000 for more than a week. Low by global standards, these figures are staggering for a country that had all but eliminated the coronavirus for several months before the Delta variant emerged in the spring. In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday, Lawrence Wong, the finance minister who co-chairs the COVID task force, said Singapore should prepare to cope with 5,000 daily cases or more.

By most measures, Singapore’s COVID situation remains under control. With 82% of the population fully vaccinated, 98% of cases have mild or no symptoms. There are 209 cases requiring oxygen supplementation and 30 people in the intensive care unit. Officials’ major concern is an exponential increase in cases that would overwhelm ICU capacity. Wong said that while just 0.2% of cases end up in the ICU, doctors need to admit 10% into hospitals to provide “timely care” — these include seniors, those with serious symptoms, and patients with comorbidities. Intensive care cases stay in the hospital for at least a week, according to Wong. At 5,000 cases a day, 10% can add up quickly, even if those cases don’t all end up in ICU beds.

Singapore’s pathway to what it has called a “whole new normal” broadly relies on a three-pronged strategy: test, trace, vaccinate. The government has delivered self-testing kits to every household throughout the month. As of Sept. 20, it had tested 19.1 million swabs in a population of 5.7 million.

The result? Lots and lots of positive mild or asymptomatic cases. Because the government made little attempt to de-stigmatize COVID — catching it is still broadly seen as some sort of moral failure or impurity — many Singaporeans justifiably got scared and flooded into emergency rooms. “A lot of people are actually very anxious,” Kenneth Mak, the director for medical services told the Straits Times last week. It’s likely that people who are well are going to the hospital because they are worried and unsure of what to do, he said.

Now the government is hustling to shore up medical staffing and facilities. The latest plans account for 1,600 COVID-19 hospital beds, up from 1,000. Singapore is opening community treatment centers for non-serious cases, providing booster shots for the vulnerable, and has introduced a number of services to get people comfortable with the idea of staying home, from telemedicine and hotlines to assigning “recovery buddies.” It’s even deploying the Singapore Armed Forces to help roll out this effort.

This military-grade exercise is Singapore at its finest, but it’s only half the battle. Anyone who looks at data for a living will tell you that numbers are a Rorschach test: You see the story you want to see. Right now, Singapore wants an aggressive COVID tracking strategy, but cannot absorb the information that it produces. That leaves two choices: 1.) Stop testing asymptomatic cases because the numbers are scary and, given the high rates of vaccination, lack informative value; or 2.) change the public narrative. That means, instead of playing on fear, urging people to look past the numbers. Success will come down to trusting the smart plans the country is already putting in place. As COVID becomes endemic, managing emotions will be just as critical as managing the virus.

The psychological toll of Singapore’s data-first strategy is high: 73% of respondents in a recent survey fear catching the virus, up from 37% in August 2020, before vaccinations began. More than three-quarters reported feeling sad or depressed, and many parents are again juggling working from home with home-schooling. It’s this type of pressure that pushes people to the brink over arbitrary restrictions. (A live event can have 1,000 vaccinated attendees, but toddlers “need to stay in one place with their assigned play partner,” according to the latest communication from our pre-school.)

Singapore acknowledges the frustrations of its citizens and businesses, yet far too often this is seen as a necessary sacrifice toward a larger goal. “Living with COVID,” by definition, means those priorities need to be reversed: Day-to-day life must come first.

Singaporeans are resilient. But waiting for the numbers to paint a pretty picture is a fool’s errand. Far more important is mentally preparing the population for a whole new normal. You simply cannot program your way out of COVID Zero.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Twists and turns

FREEPIK

THIS IS NOT a good time for forecasters and planners. Even for the very short term, say the following day, is it possible to make plans like finally opening a restaurant for dine-in customers, even in limited numbers? Yup, some small businesses counted on that possibility when the rules of engagement, the dreaded Q status, made an about-face the evening before. (Just kidding, folks.) So, you bought inventory expecting a dine-in crowd and organized the shift of waiters? Tough luck.

This time they shifted the Q classifications to numbers, like alert levels or the Richter scale in earthquakes. Will the numbering system be fixed and well-defined? Hmm, they’ll let you know. What about the surprise “granular” classification of streets or blocks? They’ll be like surprise quizzes — no warning.

Of course, doomsayers and worst-case scenarists don’t have a problem. They seem to be thriving. More people are paying attention to them.

There will be webinars on end-of-the-world prophecies:

The economy is doomed, even after the lockdown is lifted (too late). Elections? Forget it. The system is rigged. Look who’s running them, all from one region. There may not even be the formality of lining up to vote. Investigations on corruption? Have you thought about the short attention span of the public? What about the distractions thrown to get the dogs off the scent? (I will be more active and visible in the second position than I ever was in the first.)

Can there be a planning function when the situation is so volatile? Not just unpredictable due to external factors like a pandemic or a typhoon, but even more from arbitrary rules with their twists and turns.

In science, chaos does not correspond to a state of confusion or an absence of order, as in ordinary conversation — “our politics are in chaos.” Chaos theory, as propounded by mathematicians like James Glick or meteorologists like Edward Lorenz, refers to non-linear, dynamic, and complex unfolding of events “without the precision and predictability of a Swiss watch.”

In a time of chaos, such concepts as agility, ambiguity, VUCA, and pivots become clichés.

Business sectors are now categorized as “winners” and “losers” in the pandemic. Basic needs like groceries, medicines, digital connectivity, and utilities are winners. Travel, hospitality, restaurants, retail, and beauty care are losers. Even in the winning category like healthcare, with hospitals bursting at the seams with high occupancy levels, and losses coming from rising receivables from PhilHealth.

Unpredictability and the resulting loss of planning and control functions are big obstacles to recovery. Projections are based on a set of assumptions that are expected to hold true for a certain period, longer than two weeks. The interjection of surprises in the business process is unwelcome, a good excuse to quickly exit from the scene. There are, after all, safer havens even in the region. Okay, we need capitalists who have a good appetite for risk, maybe even planning for the reopening to regular service of the airport in Afghanistan.

The excuse of government apologists is that the pandemic is not something we can control. (You never say anything good about the government’s response.) But being in the last place in handling this virus is no consolation. Other countries even in our region are already “living with the virus” through a combination of a high vaccination rates and the gradual opening of mobility, public gatherings, and tourism.

In this political period, we look for leaders that can promise predictability not of the situation, but the government’s responses to it. A leader needs to at least show some empathy in the plight of the citizens — you poor slobs, you deserve to wallow in misery. Okay, not that one.

Is it too much to expect integrity and transparency in the handling of funds meant to alleviate the suffering of the nation in these pandemic times? Maybe being singled out for name-calling and counter-investigation should be taken as a badge of honor.

We already look forward to a changing of the guard. Away with corruption and, yes, laziness. Hands-on management is not something this leadership can be accused of.

We are a hopeful nation that has seen abuses of power before. Yes, peaceful change is what we long for. We can bring this about. History is on our side… with its surprise ending for the seemingly entrenched leadership.

 

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

TCS concludes pilot run of IT education program in Cordillera 

Global information technology service provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) declared the pilot run of its goIT program in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) a success after the participating high school students presented their mobile app projects in a digital innovation fair on Sept. 29. 

“We believe in helping the youth in ways and means that will prepare them for future employment in a digital era,” said Shiju Varghese, country manager of TCS Philippines, during the media roundtable where they presented the program’s outcome. 

The online workshops, which lasted five days, reached 283 students across 22 schools in CAR. A total of 46 mobile app outputs were produced after extensive modules that built participants’ design, critical thinking, public speaking, and problem-solving skills.  

Aside from CAR, the goIT program was launched in Western Visayas, in communities that are also underrepresented compared to urban hubs like Manila and Cebu.  

“We want to empower global communities, especially in the Philippines, with regard to IT, especially now during the pandemic where we saw the digital transformation of a lot of companies,” said Patrick Jay S. Veril, TCS Philippines’ corporate social responsibility manager. “That’s why we’re focusing on goIT — because we want to encourage students to take up STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).”  

Some of the program’s goals are to demystify computer science and spark curiosity in the Filipino youth outside of the major cities, so they can become leaders in support of technological development, he added.  

As for the decision to have the pilot run in CAR, the education department’s assistant director in the region, Florante E. Vergara, said: “We are geographically isolated and some of our schools are in far-flung areas. When this was introduced to us, we grabbed the opportunity for the sake of students in such areas.”  

The apps produced by the students were also encouraged to have a good impact in their respective communities and align with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.   

“Due to preventive measures for COVID-19, the program was done virtually,” added Mr. Vergara. “We are looking forward to having it face to face in the future.” — Bronte H. Lacsamana

Philippine team wins global crowdsourcing tilt for disaster-resilient housing solutions

The field test trial of the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Institute of Civil Engineering team's Column Footing Grade Beam Monolith.

By Patricia Mirasol 

A team from the University of the Philippines-Diliman’s Institute of Civil Engineering (UP Diliman ICE) has won Habitat for Humanity’s crowdsourced competition for retrofitting houses with unsafe foundations. Besting more than 81 submissions from 24 countries, the group’s solution uses a load-bearing support mechanism and a reinforced concrete beam that increase a home’s resilience to earthquakes and typhoons. 

The Column Footing Grade Beam Monolith is the brainchild of Dean Ashton Plamenco, Diocel Harold Aquino, Fernando Germar, and Ammiel Barros. Their winning entry has isolated reinforced concrete footings placed on four corners of a structure, with each side connected by a reinforced concrete beam called a plinth. Said to withstand the required gravity and special loads from earthquakes and strong winds, the method can also be applied for future incremental builds — like a second story — in the existing structure.  

“(I am firmly convinced that) the solutions presented at today’s event will excite and inspire actors in the Philippine housing sector. We have the collective responsibility to reduce disaster risks and protect vulnerable communities in the Philippines and all over the world,” said Luis Noda, Habitat for Humanity International’s Asia Pacific vice-president, in the Sept. 29 awarding ceremony.  

A panel from SeaFreight Labs, BASE Bahay Foundation, Habitat for Humanity International, and Habitat for Humanity Philippines selected four finalists, further whittled down to three in the field test phase, after the solution presented by one was found to be difficult and expensive to install. 

The field test done in Bignay, Valenzuela City employed a lateral load test, which simulates the lateral forces of earthquakes and typhoon winds, on each of the three remaining solutions. Judging was based on four criteria: resilience against typhoons and earthquakes; availability of materials needed; ease of installation among masons and homeowners; and affordability among low-income households. 

“Equally important is if the homeowners like the solution,” said Jessan Catre, Philippine country lead at Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, at the virtual event. “Would they actually use it?”  

The Column Footing Grade Beam Monolith, which won over Charles Bunch’s Foundation-Fit System and Leonard Duffy’s Perimeter Concrete Reinforcement Retrofit for Concrete Hollow Block Structures, exceeded the structural code requirements in terms of resiliency, and also got top scores in a community acceptability survey.  

The winning UP team will receive $25,000. The two other finalists, South Korea-based Mr. Bunch and US-based Mr. Duffy, will receive certificates of participation. 

The Habitat for Humanity Challenge was launched in the Philippines in October 2020 to source cost-effective ways to retrofit houses to withstand a 6.5 Richter scale earthquake and a typhoon with 200-kph winds. Apart from the Philippines, three other challenges were launched in Kenya, Mexico, and India through InnoCentive, an open innovation and crowdsourcing company.  

According to Mr. Catre, Habitat for Humanity will work with UP Diliman ICE to pilot the Column Footing Grade Beam Monolith for scale. It will also work with partners like Holcim Philippines to develop business solutions, as well as the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development to create programs that support innovation.

China’s regulators tighten scrutiny of FX dealers

REUTERS

SHANGHAI – China’s regulators are tightening control over the inner workings of its currency market, pressuring banks to trade less and in smaller ranges, two banking sources told Reuters, as part of a sweeping push to curb speculation.

The moves follow recent efforts at curtailing financial risks that include dampening commodity price rises, banning cryptocurrency transactions and restricting property speculation. And they bring the campaign deeper into day-to-day operations on the dealing desks of a $30 trillion market.

It is also the latest example of scrutiny focused on foreign exchange, which analysts said might be aimed at tightening the leash on the yuan at a sensitive time when U.S. policymakers prepare to withdraw monetary stimulus and China seems poised to add more.

Reuters reported earlier in September that brokers have dropped currency forecasts following regulatory pressure and reports the scrutiny of the interbank market for the first time. Authorities have also been hinting that banks and companies should prepare for volatility.

In recent months many banks have also withdrawn individual FX trading products, closing another avenue for speculation.

Recently, representatives of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) have embedded themselves on currency trading floors from commercial banks to major state-owned lenders, said the two sources at separate market-making banks.

They said the officials stayed for months, far longer than supervisory visits previously, and urged them to price customer deals faster and in tighter ranges, or spreads.

The bid-ask spread is the difference between the price the bank charges clients and price in the market, so narrowing it reduces trading banks’ profit. It could also help hem the yuan in a tighter trading range, but at the same time moves risk from customers to the bank while a deal is being executed.

One source said the regulator reminded them their role is to keep things steady or “smoothen fluctuations without pushing the yuan to either side”. They added that regulators had not visited foreign banks this year. Banks in Hong Kong do not participate in China’s onshore interbank market.

The other source said they were told to cut volumes to reduce the turnover of interbank trades – once a badge of honor for so-called market makers who provide liquidity to each other and the wider trading pool.

“(Now) you get calls from regulators if you trade too much,” he said. Both requested anonymity as they are not authorized to talk to the media about the matter.

SAFE told Reuters by fax it has “always supported” market participants in trading “reasonably”, and to promote the integrity, fairness, order and efficiency of the foreign exchange market.

The scrutiny comes at a delicate time for China’s currency, which sits near multi-year highs but faces headwinds as markets prepare for the United States to begin tapering pandemic-era policy support just as China seems ready to step in and ease as its economy slows.

The People’s Bank of China has pumped a net 750 billion yuan ($116 billion) into the banking system since mid-September as markets have been rattled by fears of contagion from a debt crisis at China Evergrande and economic damage from power cuts.

“Policymakers would rather maintain a loosening bias in the cash conditions, but one side-effect is that too much cash could prompt speculation,” said Ken Cheung, chief Asian FX strategist at Mizuho Bank in Hong Kong, noting that is something the latest crackdown might curb.

“The central bank has said multiple times not to bet on currency appreciation or depreciation,” he said.

MORE INTENSE
As President Xi Jinping makes his case for a third term, the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong is driving what some observers describe as a mini revolution, curbing the excesses of capitalism and returning China to its socialist roots.

Crackdowns on tutoring and on tech firms have unnerved investors and hammered share prices in those sectors. But regulators have also been changing the way markets operate.

“(It’s) certainly becoming more intense this year,” said one currency trader at a mid-sized bank, noting extra training sessions, stricter scrutiny from compliance and even chatter among peers that was becoming more guarded.

Since SAFE head Pan Gongsheng warned in June against laying bets on the yuan’s direction, brokers in China have shied away from publishing once-routine currency forecasts.

Around the same time a handful of banks also began quietly closing foreign exchange trading businesses that had let individual clients bet on non-yuan currency pairs.

Turnover in such accounts was small and has now all but vanished, with the Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and China Merchants Bank among those to post public statements about restricting access to trade.

SAFE said it had not offered any guidance to commercial banks regarding personal foreign exchange businesses, and nor did the banks provide clear reasons for their decisions.

Yet all used similar language in their explanations.

Huaxia Bank, which said it will suspend its personal FX business in December cited market changes, while ICBC and China Merchants bank both said the move was necessary “to respond to changes in market conditions.”  — Reuters

China seeks to calm power supply fears as crunch bites

REUTERS

BEIJING China’s all-powerful economic planning agency waded into the country’s power crunch on Wednesday, attempting to reassure residents and businesses in areas hardest hit by shortages that it has the coal use and supply situation under close watch.

The state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said it has asked local governments to closely monitor coal use and stocks at power plants and to improve fulfilment of medium- and long-term contracts to supply thermal coal.

The move comes as electricity shortages continue to paralyze parts of the world’s no. 2 economy in various regions, particularly the northeast. A shortage of coal supplies, toughening emissions standards and strong demand from manufacturers have pushed coal prices to record highs, sparking widespread curbs on usage while dimming economic growth outlook.

China has already called for an increase in imports and ramping up domestic production of coal, a key fuel used for the majority of its power generation. 

Northeastern China is one of the hardest-hit regions with news reports and social media posts flagging problems in cities like traffic lights and 3G communications networks being down, fear of water supply disruptions and shops operating by candlelight.

Officials have sought to reassure citizens coal supply will be adequate ahead of the upcoming winter and rising demand for fuel for heating.

The main state grid operator has also attempted to calm customers twice this week, saying it would work to guarantee coal supply and strictly control power use by high-energy consuming and polluting sectors, ensuring power supply to residents during the October holidays and winter heating season.

On Wednesday the People’s Daily reported coal resources for heating and power generation in the northeastern provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang and Liaoning had been ensured as some suppliers and producers signed medium and long-term coal contracts recently. — Reuters

Singapore sends vaccines to neighbors as region seeks to reopen

REUTERS

Singapore is contributing vaccines to its neighbors amid a regional effort to reopen its economies.

Thailand and Indonesia each received 122,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the city-state this week, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in statements. It also sent 100,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to Brunei Darussalam, in exchange for the same quantity back at a later date, according to the ministry on Wednesday.

Higher vaccination rates are seen as key for many of the Southeast Asian countries seeking to reopen their tourist-dependent economies, though they continue to grapple with limited supply. The Thai cabinet approved this week an additional purchase of 60 million shots of AstraZeneca. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s vaccination rate is lagging behind almost every major economy in the region, with less than 20% of its population fully inoculated.

Thailand is eying a reopening of its tourism economy in November, while Indonesia is seeking to welcome vaccinated tourists back to Bali’s beaches next month. Singapore’s foreign affairs minister Vivian Balakrishnan recently said that relaxations of travel curbs with its neighbors are being “actively discussed,” though the country’s priority is to control the pandemic at home, according to a report in The Straits Times. — Bloomberg

FDA leans toward authorizing Moderna booster at a half dose

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is leaning toward authorizing half-dose booster shots of the Moderna Inc. coronavirus vaccine, satisfied that it’s effective in shoring up protection, people familiar with the matter said.

The authorization would set the stage to further widen the U.S. booster campaign after earlier authorization of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE shot. About 170 million fully vaccinated people in the U.S. received the Moderna or Pfizer shots, or 92% of the total inoculated so far.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity, before a potential announcement. It’s not clear when an announcement will come.

Any authorization would also introduce different dosage levels for boosters. Moderna’s initial inoculations contained 100-microgram doses, and the company’s submission to regulators amounted to a push to authorize a half-dose booster, which would allow Moderna to produce more. Pfizer’s shot, for comparison, has 30-microgram initial doses and a 30-microgram booster.

Moderna declined to comment on Tuesday night. The White House and the FDA declined to comment.

The U.S. is rolling out boosters to head off what President Joe Biden’s health advisers warn are a pair of concerning trends: Hints that vaccine efficacy wanes over months, and that the two-dose regiments are weaker generally against the delta variant. The U.S. has dealt with a summer and fall wave of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, driven by spread among unvaccinated people but increasing the exposure risk for the vaccinated.

The FDA had been seeking information about the effectiveness of a full third dose of the Moderna vaccine, but is now ready to move forward and consider the half-dose booster Moderna has proposed, the people said.

Biden, who got his Pfizer booster on Monday, has said this remains a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said he believes Pfizer and Moderna will eventually be considered three-dose vaccines.
As the vaccination campaign widens, sites that administer them will have to juggle different versions. In addition to Moderna potentially adding a half-dose booster, Pfizer is seeking authorization of a vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, with a 10-microgram dose — one-third the strength given to those 12 and up.

Fauci has indicated that there’ll be progress soon on booster shots for Moderna as well as Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine. “I believe it will be weeks and not months,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier this month. — Bloomberg

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