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SEC clears Aboitiz group for next tranche of P30-B bonds

ABOITIZ Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV) on Tuesday said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has allowed the company to sell the third tranche of its P30-billion shelf-registered fixed-rate bonds.

In a disclosure to the exchange, AEV said it received its certificate of permit to offer securities for sale which was dated July 26.

The third tranche offer will consist of a principal amount of P5 billion, with an oversubscription option of up to P5 billion.

“AEV intends to list the Bonds with the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.,” the company said.

The offer period began on Monday and will last until July 30. The bonds will be issued on Aug. 9.

AEV, in an earlier disclosure, said the proceeds from the third tranche of bonds will be used to finance the early redemption of some of its outstanding bonds, pay for the future funding requirements of Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc., and for other general corporate purposes.

The Philippine Rating Services Corp. gave the bonds a “PRS Aaa” rating, which means that it has a minimal credit risk with the company having an “extremely strong” capacity to commit to its financial obligation.

Meanwhile, AEV shares at the stock exchange went up by 2.44% or 0.95 centavos to close at P39.95 each on Tuesday. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

Filipino teens languish as pandemic drags on

PIXABAY

By Brontë H. Lacsamana 

OVERWHELMED by daily learning modules requiring focus in a household of eight people, 16-year-old Shaia found herself struggling with mental health issues made worse by Metro Manila’s lockdowns. 

“Around April this year, I had a mental breakdown to the point where I asked myself, what are all my efforts for? I felt like the ‘bright’ future I had was getting dimmer and dimmer, and I also kept wondering why our situation [with the pandemic] was just getting worse,” shared Shaia, who gave only her first name, in the vernacular via messaging platform Discord. 

Sixteen months into the worldwide spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), people are feeling the effects of spending most of their time online, where a lack of boundaries can mean seeing a lot of friends’ social media posts hinting at stress, depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts. Scrolling through these posts became part of Shaia’s routine, the main assurance that she was not alone and could rely on others as a support system. 

This feeling has become common not just among teens, but also people of various ages, according to Dr. Belle Erika R. Nubla-Gestuvo, head of outpatient services at The Medical City’s Department of Psychiatry, who spoke on the topic of teens’ mental health decline at a July webinar held by the Philippine Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (PSCAP). 

Citing a widely circulated New York Times article published in April, Dr. Nubla-Gestuvo said that “languishing” was the best term to describe that feeling: “It’s a state of not being depressed but also not thriving. It’s not that you’re sick and not that you’re having a disorder, but also not that you’re feeling well. It’s a feeling of stagnation and emptiness.” 

Despite not being a clinical illness, languishing for extended periods of time may put one at risk of developing mental and anxiety disorders later in life, Dr. Nubla-Gestuvo warned. 

CYCLES OF DEPRESSION
In the Philippines, mental health problems have been reported in the workforce, from frontliners and business owners to pretty much everyone whose work involves greater levels of stress.  

Students’ mental health has been cited by pediatric experts as a compelling reason to gradually reopen in-person classes, starting with low-risk areas. 

However, the emergence of the Delta variant of COVID-19 has not only foiled any hope of such plans, but also disrupted natural cycles of mentally adapting or recovering, according to Dr. Cinderella Arellano-Sta. Cruz, program manager of the Clinical and Intervention Services Department at the Philippine Mental Health Association (PMHA), who spoke about students’ mental health on Radyo Veritas this July. 

“Mas nakakataas sa anxiety ng isang tao ‘yung mga balita na ‘yan. Nasisira na naman momentum nila. Mafu-frustrate, maa-anxious, at made-depress na naman. Continuous cycle ‘yung nangyayari [Bad news can trigger a person’s anxiety. It can break their momentum, and they’ll feel frustrated, anxious, or depressed again. It becomes a continuous cycle],” she said. 

Missing out on once-in-a-lifetime experiences like prom and graduation also contributes to already-low morale. As an incoming Grade 10 student, Shaia lamented that it was “suffocating” having not much to do all year except stay inside and study, without any space to relax in a house of eight people, including her parents, aunt, uncle, cousin, and two siblings. 

Maria Mikaela “MM” P. Cabrera, an 18-year-old incoming college freshman, shared her similar struggles at the PSCAP webinar. Sharing an internet connection and space with several siblings can be hard yet manageable, but add on top that zero physical interaction with friends, disrupted sleeping patterns, and increased screentime and the situation takes a toll on you, she said. 

“Everyone is actually in one house or one home, but you don’t talk to each other because you’re all busy [with school or with work],” Dr. Arellano-Sta. Cruz of PMHA told Radyo Veritas, referring to how having a full household doesn’t equate to everyone talking. “You have to keep the communication lines open.” 

On equipping the youth with tools to take care of themselves, she added: “They have to be trained so that, while they’re at home, they have to do something to motivate themselves and plan their own schedules, with [parents and/or teachers’] guidance and support.” 

BUILDING RESILIENCE
Teens have devised their own coping mechanisms over time: Shaia watches movies and TV shows during the weekends, and bikes around her barangay when allowed; Ms. Cabrera plays video games and schedules video calls with friends.  

A 2020 study by Shuquan Chen and George A. Bonanno on psychological adjustment during the global COVID-19 outbreak found that “the vast majority of individuals are resilient, and that outcomes depend on a combination of resilience factors including exposure severity, individual differences, family context, and community characteristics.” 

In the Philippines there are hotlines and organizations that address the issue of mental health, including: 

  • Youth for Mental Health Coalition, a youth-led non-profit organization that campaigned for Republic Act No. 11036, or Philippine Mental Health Act, which passed in 2018. Their projects include information-sharing on social media, donation drives and fundraisers, procurement and delivery of medications, referrals for psychiatric consultation, online support groups, and podcasts on mental health.
  • The hotline HOPELINE, created by Globe and the Natasha Goulbourn Foundation in 2012 to reach out to people in need of immediate crisis intervention. The hotline is 2919 (free for Globe and TM subscribers), 804-HOPE (4673), or 0917-558HOPE (4673). This July, they partnered with telehealth service integrator HealthNow, making the service available on the HealthNow app.
  • The National Center for Mental Health, the country’s designated PhilHealth-accredited mental health institution, has a 24/7 crisis hotline reachable at 1553 (the free Luzon-wide landline), 0917-8998727, 0966-3514518, or (0908)-639-2672.

Webinars on mental health such as PSCAP’s are held almost every week as well, filling a demand for health services and information. Dr. Nubla-Gestuvo noted that it was important to maintain all these avenues of dialogue with the youth and with students, pandemic or no pandemic, to assist them in building their resilience. 

On helping teens like her cope, Shaia said that just having people to talk to already helps and that more concern should be directed toward the state of the Philippines: “Siguro ako kaya ko pang ma-manage. Ang kinakatakutan ko lang talaga ay baka dumating sa punto na abutin pa tayo ng ilang taon bago umayos ‘yung sitwasyon. [I guess I can still manage. What I’m really scared of is what if we reach the point where it will take years before this situation improves.]” 

Meanwhile, Ms. Cabrera and her friends have somewhat adjusted to remote learning organizing video-call study groups and trying time management methods like the Pomodoro technique to stay focused. She was recently accepted at her university of choice and is looking forward to being a college student, despite the fact that she will still be learning remotely.  

Again, citing Chen and Bonanno’s 2020 study on psychological adjustment, Dr. Nubla-Gestuvo put faith in teens’ resilience, guided by support systems: “People can bounce back. Human beings are not passive victims of change, but active stewards of our own well-being.” 

The stories behind faces

SOCIAL REALIST painter Antipas Delotavo

Art in the Park’s special exhibits

A CHRONICLING of the Filipino story, exploring self-portraits, and transforming new spaces are the focus of three featured artists in this year’s “Art in the Park Online 2021: Special Edition.”

For its 15th anniversary special edition, Art in the Park online (www.artinthepark.ph) is featuring over 10,000 artworks from 62 galleries, four special exhibits, and a variety of special online activities until Aug. 1.

A PEOPLE’S STORY
Throughout his long career — he has been making art since the 1970s — social realist painter Antipas Delotavo has been inspired by history and current events. Most of the images he creates are derived from photographs he has taken, videos and images on social media showing people’s daily lives, as well as his interactions with people in the streets.

“For an artist, everything in this world is fair game when it comes to choosing subjects. Some are moved to paint something they can relate to, be it aesthetic or philosophical, pleasant or unpleasant, to inspire them,” Mr. Delotavo said in an e-mail to BusinessWorld.

“In our country, the latter just overwhelms me. The artistic possibilities are also endless for a social realist; there are landscapes, human figures, still lives, abstract forms, etc. that I can incorporate in my work. The bottom-line is always art,” he added.

For this edition of “Art in the Park” online, Mr. Delotavo presents a special exhibit called Gridlock, depicting the Filipino and his societal burden through seven collages of nameless citizens who contribute to the nation.

“In art, a grid is a series of lines commonly used in drawing that form squares in a confined space. It seems our political, economic, social life is in a standstill. We are trapped in a grid. The pandemic just intensified it during the lockdowns,” Mr. Delotavo said.

“It’s important that you believe that you are the conscience and soul of society, that you are doing something noble other than what pleases the art market,” he added.

SELF-PORTRAITS IN THREADWORK
Eugenia “Ginny” Alcaide first ventured into using embroidery in her art during her third year as a student of  Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines.

“My class was given an interesting assignment: create a portrait with just one continuous, unbroken line,” Ms. Alcaide said in an e-mail. She knew that the work she wanted to make would be “difficult to achieve… with the physical limitations of paint.”

The granddaughter of a seamstress, Ms. Alcaide inherited her knowledge on stitching.

“My very first thread portrait was made for that class, and I have been trying to push the boundaries of this material and myself as an artist ever since,” she said.

After a stint as a graphic designer, Ms. Alcaide focused on fine arts full-time in 2010.

When she is working on a portrait, Ms. Alcaide noted that she works with reference photographs, with the subject evolving as her piece progresses, with the final image moving away from its reference and towards the faces of people around her.

“I do not stitch on cloth,” Ms. Alcaide clarified, preferring to work on silkscreen, adding that she seeks to explore “the idea of layers” which she described as “different and distinct, yet interconnected planes of design that just aren’t possible with opaque fabrics.”

“I stitch on silkscreen. I have found this material to not only possess the transparency required for the effect, but also a light-catching sheen that adds a mysterious brilliance to the finished pieces,” she said.

For the special edition of Art in the Park online, Ms. Alcaide focuses on self-portraits in the collection, “Adrift,” where she weaves “compositions of doubt, despair, and desolation” in striking colors of gold, orange, blue, and black.

“This is the only way I know to show the world how I see myself. And beyond the external image, I wanted to vivify how I feel,” she said.

The time in lockdown affected her creativity. “The feeling of isolation, and that unwavering, creeping sense of desperation affected me greatly… Relating this to my work, there is a definite and sudden exploration of color in the Art in the Park 2021 pieces that was not present before,” she said,

MELTING MIRRORS
Sculptor, painter, installation artist, and designer Leeroy New moves to the digital space with “Iris,” mirror sculptures which were constructed during the lockdown when he received requests to construct mirror sculptures with melting frames.

“These mirrors appeared as portals like openings to other worlds or dimensions and the melting frame was kind of like the dissolution the physical reality that we’re currently inhabiting,” Mr. New said in a press interview via Zoom.

Aside from holding the online exhibit of his mirror pieces, Mr. New also makes his first foray into augmented reality (AR) with Aliens of Manila, headpieces made of plastic containers that can be used as an Instagram filter for the duration of the online art fair.

“I’ve always been open to exploring how my works can translate into the virtual realm…,” Mr. New said. “So, it’s really just a natural progression for me to be able to harness technology for us to be able to give other forms to the work that we do and reach a different audience that would not be able to experience our work in the traditional ways.”

GODDESS IN THE PARK
The fourth exhibit is also by Mr. New — a scaled down installation of his work Mebuyan Vessel Polyp at Art in the Park’s home base, Jaime Velasquez Park in Makati, for the duration of the online fair. The public art installation serves as a sneak peek of the full installation which will be mounted in La Union later this year. The piece will be Mr. New’s entry for the online edition of Burning Man 2021 in August.

The installation is inspired from Mebuyan, the breast-covered goddess from Bagobo mythology, who is the mother who nourishes the infants and children in the underworld.

The original installation is likened to isolation pods or “a womb” constructed in varying sizes and connected by bridgeways.

In the future, Mr. New said that he would like to focus more on working in a sustainable manner.

“I realized from my collaboration with other people [that] they respond more positively to the fact that I focus on using discards,” Mr. New said, adding that he hopes to utilize at least 90% discarded materials in his future projects.

For more information, visit www.artinthepark.ph and follow www.facebook/artinthepark and @artintheparkph on Instagram. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Globe says 4G LTE network expands in 12 provinces

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GLOBE Telecom, Inc. announced on Tuesday that it had upgraded its third-generation (3G) network in 12 provinces to 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) with the completion and modernization of several sites.

“More customers in Batangas, Bohol, Bukidnon, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte and seven other provinces will now have better access to Globe’s 4G LTE network,” Globe said in an e-mailed statement.

The Ayala-led telco said it upgraded at least 507 sites in Batangas from 3G to 4G LTE, the new standard of mobile data.

It also migrated 488 areas in Metro Manila and 450 in Cebu to 4G LTE.

“In Mindanao, 366 sites are now powered by 4G LTE in Davao del Sur. In Davao del Norte, 126 sites have been upgraded. In Bukidnon, 79 sites have been migrated to 4G LTE,” Globe said.

It also said 85 areas in Bohol are now 4G LTE-powered.

“Globe has also upgraded 111 sites in Cagayan; 88 in Rizal; 195 in Cavite; 328 in Laguna, and 358 in Pampanga,” the company noted.

Ookla, the company behind Speedtest, recently said the country’s speed rankings for both fixed broadband and mobile internet continued to improve in June.

The country’s average download speed for fixed broadband was 66.55 megabits per second (Mbps) in June, a 6.82 increase from the 59.73 Mbps speed recorded in May.

As for the mobile internet, the Philippines reached 32.84 Mbps, a 0.86 increase from 31.98 Mbps in May.

Globe Telecom shares closed 1.31% lower at P1,881 apiece on Tuesday. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Gov’t fully awards 7-year bonds at higher yield

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THE GOVERNMENT made a full award of the reissued Treasury bonds (T-bonds) it offered on Tuesday at a higher rate amid strong demand for securities at the long of the yield curve.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on Tuesday raised P35 billion as planned via the reissued seven-year T-bonds with a remaining life of six years and eight months.

The offering was nearly twice oversubscribed, with tenders reaching P69.758 billion. This prompted the Treasury to open its tap facility and offer P10 billion more in the seven-year papers.

The demand seen for Tuesday’s offer was also more than the P61.175 billion in bids when this bond series was last auctioned off, which was on July 6. The government likewise made a full P35-billion award of the papers at that offering.

The notes fetched an average rate of 3.651% on Tuesday, up by 7.5 basis points from the 3.576% quoted for the tenor at the July 6 auction.

The yield fetched on Tuesday was also higher than the 3.491% quoted for the tenor at the secondary market prior to the auction, based on the PHL Bloomberg Valuation Reference Rates published on the Philippine Dealing System’s website.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said the bond offer attracted strong demand from investors due to the abundant liquidity in the market and with the seven-year tenor serving as a “sweet spot” for investors.

A bond trader said via phone that the average rate quoted for the seven-year papers at the auction fell within market expectations and only tracked the rising trend of yields on government debt.

“This is actually closer to the market and is actually not bad as the demand was almost two times oversubscribed,” the trader said.

“Overall, it is indicative of the growing demand and the comfort level of the market, showing it is more comfortable extending the duration up to the seven-year level pending the August borrowing program of the BTr,” the trader added.

The BTr is expected to release its borrowing program for August this week.

Excluding the result of the tap facility offering on Tuesday, the Treasury raised P227.86 billion from the local market this month, lower than its P235-billion program after it made a partial award of the fresh 20-year bonds it offered on July 13.

Broken down, it borrowed P60 billion as programmed via Treasury bills but only raised P167.86 billion out of the P175-billion plan from T-bonds despite opening the tap facility thrice.

The government wants to borrow P3 trillion from domestic and external sources this year to help fund a budget deficit seen to hit 9.3% of gross domestic product. — B.M. Laforga

DoH to streamline service delivery for viral hepatitis

PIXABAY

By Patricia B. Mirasol 

TO IMPROVE hepatitis B service delivery, the Department of Health (DoH) is including encrypted data related to the liver infection in a reporting platform that monitors HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) cases and STIs (sexually transmitted infections).  

The DoH aims to integrate a viral hepatitis module into its One HIV, AIDS and STI Information System (OHASIS) by December. 

“The integration of the viral hepatitis module in the One HIV/AIDS and STI Information System, which is already an established platform for HIV, is the most efficient way of coming up with evidence-based interventions for viral hepatitis,” said Dr. Maria Rosario S. Vergeire, DoH’s official spokesperson, in an e-mail interview with BusinessWorld.  

She added that the integration was in response to the clamor of private physicians, members of the Hepatology Society of the Philippines, and facilities providing viral hepatitis services. “It is cost-efficient and feasible since most of the facilities providing viral hepatitis services are also established HIV and STI facilities,” Dr. Vergeire said. 

The OHASIS was conceptualized to serve as an efficient reporting and recording system. It was created in 2020 by the DoH’s Epidemiology Bureau to capture client-based encrypted information on HIV and STI prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment, cure or viral suppression.  

An estimated 7.3 million adult Filipinos are chronically infected with the Hepatitis B virus, according to the World Health Organization. In the Philippines, chronic hepatitis B infection is the leading cause of cirrhosis, a late-stage liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the country.   

FUNDING MECHANISMS 
In 2019, a comprehensive framework for hepatitis B service delivery was implemented in Regions III and VII, as well as in the National Capital Region. The demonstration project involved a package of intervention, reporting, and monitoring of the cascade of care. 

According to Dr. Vergeire, the project showed promising results and that the department plans to expand and duplicate it in other regions. “The support given in the demonstration sites was in the form of capacity building by training health workers (doctors, nurses, medical technologists), assistance to set up the information system, diagnostic kits/tests, and anti-viral medicines,” she said.  

At a virtual event organized in January by advocacy group Yellow Warriors Society of the Philippines (YWSP), Joseph Michael D. Manlutac, DoH-Central Luzon’s viral hepatitis program manager, shared that some of the challenges of the demonstration project were competing program demands, low service uptake for testing and treatment, diagnostics that are not covered by local health insurance, and discrimination against patients.  

The region’s workaround was to integrate the project’s framework within existing systems and healthcare provider networks to manage the challenge of competing national program demands. Patient-centered approaches were also applied to address the low service uptake during the pandemic. This included the creation of regional helplines, as well as various approaches to testing (like outreach activities) and treatment (like sending treatments through courier).   

“We also employed various financing mechanisms, since laboratory diagnostics for eligibility and monitoring are neither covered by the demonstration fund nor the local health insurance,” said Mr. Manlutac. Among these mechanisms are the local government fund, subsidies from the DoH regional offices, and out-of-pocket expenses for patients who are able to afford them.  

Chris S. Muñoz, an adviser for the YWSP and vice-president of the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations, told BusinessWorld in a phone interview that “a fixed funding mechanism is necessary.” While DoH provides medicines, local government units (LGUs) can also chip in. A challenge arises when LGUs decide to discontinue funding when priorities change — something that happened this pandemic.  

ONGOING STIGMA
As with individuals with other infectious diseases, hepatitis B patients can be victims of stigma and discrimination. On July 21, YWSP shared the story of a job applicant who was allegedly rejected on the basis of HBsAg (hepatitis B surface antigen) screening, even though the infection cannot be transferred easily unless there is blood contact.   

“Companies should not screen applicants and instead help in raising awareness through their own health program,” Mr. Muñoz said. “If there is a need for treatment, then they can support and encourage the said employee to consult a doctor for proper guidance.”  

In commemoration of World Hepatitis Day on July 28, Mr. Manlutac added, local implementers will conduct online awareness fora, intensified testing, vaccination advocacy, condom distribution, and other related activities.  

“In Central Luzon, we have 51 access points for free hepatitis B testing and treatment, and six for hepatitis C,” he told BusinessWorld in a Facebook message. “It is important to have a prepared service delivery portfolio to cater to clients’ evolving needs in light of the Universal Health Care.”  

Teatro Europa’s second year online

FACEBOOK.COM/TEATROEUROPAPH

THE PANDEMIC did not stop theater from adapting to changes last year and this year the artists have continued showcasing plays online. For Teatro Europa, last year’s first virtual showcase attracted 300,000 viewers. From the original seven theater groups that participated in the 2020 online theater festival, this year’s second online edition welcomes 16 participating universities from all over the country, with new universities from Metro Manila, Baguio, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, and Ozamiz City joining.

Teatro Europa, The Second Edition is a project of the European Union Delegation to the Philippines, together with the EU (European Union) Member States, their EU cultural institutes, and the 16 universities, The theater festival will showcase video performances from Aug. 1 to 31, with re-runs from Sept. 1 to 30, streaming on its official Facebook page (www.facebook.com/TeatroEuropaPH).

The festival will showcase 16 European plays by playwrights from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Sweden.

“Theater is a mirror of all human emotions and helps to better understand Europe and its culture, from the plays played in ancient Greece to the current online performances,” EU Ambassador Luc Véron said in a statement. “Teatro Europa provides a platform for artistic Filipino youth to share their talents in acting, directing and production design.”

The 16 partner universities and their respective plays are: Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Tartuffe by Moliere (France); Saint Louis University, Rur by Karel Čapek (Czech Republic); Wesleyan University, Pariah by August Strindberg (Sweden); University of the East, Life’s a Dream by Pedro Calderon de la Barca (Spain); University of Makati, The Horrid Little Princess by Geneviève Damas (Belgium); Meridian International Business, Arts and Technology (MINT), The Salt Princess folktale (Hungary); University of San Agustin, Snow by Stanislaw Przybyszewski (Poland); La Salle University, Erasmus Montanus by Ludvig Holberg (Denmark); Mapua University, Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge (Ireland); Jose Rizal University, The Birds by Aristophanes (Greece); Arellano University, II Vero Amico by Carlo Goldoni (Italy); Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina, Lucifer by Josst van den Vondel (the Netherlands); First City Providential College, La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler (Austria); Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Valenzuela, My Three Angels by Sam and Bella Spewack (Romania); University of St. La Salle, Broken Heart Story by Saara Turunen (Finland); and Rizal Technological University, Leonce and Lena by Georg Büchner (Germany).

Having participated in last year’s edition, actor and director Dennis N. Marasigan —  who is the Theater Arts program head at MINT College and adviser at Mapua University’s Mapua Tekno Teatro — talked about what they had learned from last years’ experience of transferring a show to a virtual stage.

“There is a bit less of difficulty [this year] in a way because there’s already the experience that we had from last year. I would think that for this year, it’s more of a move towards experimentation. We’re trying to see what else we can do with the online platform. Of course, we look forward to being back on stage again,” he said during a press conference held over Zoom on July 16.

“This pandemic taught us in the arts community that the truth has its way of showing up, and in the midst of hardships, we always find ways to adapt, and to be innovative,” said Teatro de Letran’s artistic director of Lygie Carillo, whose theater group will present a Philippine adaptation of Moliere’s Tartuffe.

“We promise as a new generation of young artists in this country to devout all our energies and efforts to push through the boundaries in presenting advocacies, experiences, and stories of the Filipino people,” Mr. Carillo added.

The festival will have limited physical performances in late August in Intramuros, and a series of webinar with theater directors on the similarities, intersections, and differences between Philippine and European theater.

For the full schedule of shows, visit www.facebook.com/TeatroEuropaPH. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

DoE, Angkas to monitor fuel prices in real-time

PHILSTAR

THE Energy department and motorcycle ride-hailing operator Angkas forged a deal on Tuesday for the real-time monitoring of pump prices in fuel stations based in the National Capital Region.

Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi and Angkas co-founder George I. Royeca formalized the agreement through a virtual memorandum signing event.

The public-private partnership, which will run from Aug. 2 to Nov. 15, aims to keep the public updated with the real-time pump prices of gas, diesel and kerosene from liquid fuel retail outlets.

Pump price data, which will be collected by Angkas riders from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday noon, will be posted immediately in the DoE’s website, said Rodela I. Romero, the assistant director of the DoE Oil Industry Management Bureau, who was present at the virtual signing.

The initiative seeks to help motorists identify gas stations with the best prices and services, according to the DoE.

Angkas riders will also be evaluating the condition of gas stations, the cleanliness of their facilities, and the quality of service provided by the pump attendants. Deserving fuel retail outlets will receive a seal of excellence from the department by the end of the year.

“The agreement is pursuant to the mandate of the DoE to ensure a responsive retail market under a regime of fair prices and quality service to the public,” the Energy department said in a statement issued on Viber.

During the virtual signing, Mr. Cusi said that the collaboration seeks to establish the reporting of domestic fuel prices as “a basis for policy formulation.”

“In addition, this project also recognizes the exemplary performance of deserving liquid fuel retail outlets through the awarding of seals of excellence. It is our hope that this would further motivate our gasoline stations to keep striving for excellence at all times,” he said.

Meanwhile, Angkas’ Mr. Royeca said that riders will be the “eyes and ears” of the DoE in the monitoring of fuel prices.

“With this collaboration, we hope to be a step closer towards a safer, more inclusive and more efficient transport industry for the Filipino people,” he said. — Angelica Y. Yang

Libor’s final days begin with push to shake up swaps market

US REGULATORS are wagering a major shakeup of the multitrillion-dollar interest-rate swaps market is just what’s needed to wean Wall Street off the London interbank offered rate (Libor) for good.

In a key development in the shift from the discredited benchmark, beginning Monday, swaps desks will switch from Libor to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) when entering into most interdealer trades, effectively changing how they hedge their interest-rate risk.

The move is designed to ignite a flurry of activity in derivatives tied to SOFR, ensuring enough liquidity to help establish a forward-looking term structure, a critical holdup that’s prevented various cash markets from embracing the rate. It’s the first step in a renewed effort to push firms toward the benchmark ahead of the year-end deadline to ditch Libor for new transactions, and comes amid increasing competition from a slew of new reference-rate providers seeking to carve out their own slice of the post-Libor landscape.

This “is a huge deal,” said Thomas Pluta, global head of linear rates trading at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “We’ve been surprised at how slow the uptake in SOFR derivatives has been to this point, so this is exactly what the market needs.”

The shift will see SOFR replace Libor as the floating leg on all linear swaps, swap spreads and curve trades in the interdealer market, where financial institutions like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. hedge the interest-rate exposure they incur from transactions with clients.

The best-practice recommendation from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s market risk advisory committee doesn’t affect Libor-SOFR basis trades, meaning firms can still hedge their risk via Libor if they choose.

Still, it will create more volume in SOFR derivatives by definition, said Bart Sokol, a managing director for US interest-rate swap trading at Barclays Plc. That should narrow bid-ask spreads, encourage banks to migrate end users over to SOFR, and ultimately facilitate the liquidity the Federal Reserve-backed Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) has said it wants to see prior to endorsing a term rate.

“It’s a healthy way to build up the marketplace,” Mr. Sokol said.

‘COMPLEX ECOSYSTEM’
Extricating Libor from the financial system has proven a monumental endeavor since global regulators in 2017 announced plans to phase out the benchmark. Over $220 trillion of assets were still tied to the dollar iteration of the rate as of the end of last year, including more than $80 trillion in notional value of over-the-counter interest-rate swaps, according to data from the ARRC.

Participants in the syndicated corporate loan markets in particular have said that operational constraints make it difficult to transition from forward-looking Libor to an overnight rate such as SOFR without a similar term structure.

“We’re talking about a very complex ecosystem,” Tal Reback, a principal at KKR, said July 21 on a panel discussion hosted by the ARRC. “With the term rate, the ability to project your cash flows in the future — both as a borrower for your interest expense and as a lender — enables you to plan.”

Monday’s shift seeks to replicate a similar move in the UK last year that’s been credited with helping get swaps desks in London to abandon Libor.

“This is an opportunity for the industry to take collective action and deliver a piece of the puzzle, to deliver term SOFR into parts of the market that are mission critical,” Tom Wipf, ARRC chair and vice chairman of institutional securities at Morgan Stanley, said during the panel.

TERM-RATE TROUBLE
Some market watchers remain wary. It wouldn’t be the first time officials have predicted a spike in SOFR trading, only to be disappointed.

October’s so-called big bang shift by derivatives exchanges to SOFR for discounting cash flows for swaps, and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s (ISDA) publication of a highly anticipated legal protocol to help convert Libor-linked contracts to SOFR, produced relatively fleeting boosts.

So did the setting of ISDA’s spread adjustment — used to determine fallback rates for Libor deals maturing after the benchmark is phased out — earlier this year.

Bloomberg Index Services Limited, an affiliate of Bloomberg L.P., the parent of Bloomberg News, is the official vendor calculating the spread adjustment and other fallback calculations on behalf of ISDA.

Those setbacks in part prompted the ARRC in March to announce that it couldn’t recommend a forward-looking term rate by midyear as initially planned, and couldn’t even guarantee one by yearend.

While officials have since upped the urgency, the announcement nonetheless helped other Libor alternatives gain traction.

Last month the American Financial Exchange, the administrator of Ameribor, launched term rates based on futures contracts listed on the CBOE Futures Exchange.

And in May the first corporate syndicated loan tied to the Bloomberg Short Term Bank Yield Index (BSBY) was issued, coming on the heels of the first swaps trade and first bank bond linked to the benchmark. BSBY is administered by Bloomberg Index Services Limited.

Yet regulators in recent weeks have begun to push back, making clear their preference for SOFR.

Earlier this month, the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Edwin Schooling Latter said that so-called credit-sensitive rates are flawed because they’re derived from markets where liquidity “has not proved robust to stress.”

MORE CHANGES
For now, all eyes will be focused on when the ARRC will endorse SOFR term rates. Wipf said last month that it could be a matter of days, rather than weeks, following the swaps shift.

In a Monday statement from the ARRC, Wipf added that the projection for SOFR activity “appears to be positive” following the rollout of the swaps-market shift, and “should provide momentum” for the ARRC to endorse term rates soon.

The ARRC has already selected CME Group Inc. as the recommended administrator of forward-looking SOFR, and in April the exchange started publishing term rates for one-, three- and six-month tenors based on SOFR futures.

Yet Monday’s move is just the first in a series of changes intended to push the derivatives market toward the benchmark before the year-end deadline to ditch Libor. Interdealer market conventions for cross-currency basis swaps involving Swiss franc, British pound, Japanese yen and US dollar Libor will shift to SOFR in September.

Later in the year trading of non-linear derivatives like swaptions will switch to the rate, ultimately followed by exchange-trade derivatives.

“You want to get people in the habit of transacting in SOFR before you have no other choice but to do it,” JPMorgan’s Mr. Pluta said. “When you’re transitioning a market with notionals in the trillions, you don’t want to wait until that last minute to figure out how to do it. It’s a big market so you want to make sure the pipes work.” — Bloomberg

To combat sedentarism and lockdowns, people are turning to exercise videos — fitness app

UNSPLASH

LIMITED OPERATIONS of gyms and fitness studios have made Filipinos more comfortable with working out at home, according to Rebel, a Filipino health and fitness app that conducted a home fitness survey in June within its social media community. 

The pandemic itself has made people more mindful of their health, motivating them to find ways to keep fit at home.  

“Waves of fitness and health, the level of intensity, comes and goes, but the one thing I see now, or the one thing I anticipate, is the baseline — people won’t let themselves go as much anymore — and the baseline will start to be higher. They’re well aware of the fact that this is for your health, this is something you need to do,” said Vince Velasco, a Rebel trainer and fitness instructor, in an interview with BusinessWorld. “Aside from the social aspect of it, people are realizing how important it is, how valued it is.” 

The fitness app’s survey of 700 respondents showed that 40% choose to work out at home for safety and convenience while 38% do it to focus on their overall health and well-being, an awareness brought about by fear of the pandemic. Meanwhile, 35% of respondents revealed that they did not really exercise prior to the pandemic, but now work out regularly. 

“Everybody sees the potential for growth in the fitness and health industry. Because of the pandemic, a lot of people are shown the reason why people work out. You have to stay healthy. You have to stay in good shape or form,” said Mr. Velasco. “It’s not about the six-pack abs. It’s making sure we’re all healthy.” 

Lifestyle-related diseases, for example, can be partially addressed by staying fit, according to Dr. Linda L. Varona, a lifestyle medicine specialist and director of medical education at Adventist Medical Center. 

“Let’s do a lifestyle check this pandemic… is it truly a life style, or a dead style?” she asked a recent webinar organized by the Philippine College of Physicians. 

The World Health Organization has even tagged sedentary lifestyles as responsible for non-communicable diseases, or diseases that are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral factors.  

In the Philippines, where 28% of the population has high blood pressure, the cost of remaining unaware of one’s condition could lead to medical emergencies like a stroke, setting back individuals approximately P17,141.50 in public hospitals. 

Biking, yoga, and outdoor boxing have experienced a resurgence when and where these activities are allowed, said Mr. Velasco. Given the quarantine and restrictions that continue to limit physical mobility in the country, he observed that Filipinos have had to adapt by finding new routines.  

Rebel’s fitness survey showed that almost half of the respondents (42%) prefer on-demand videos that they can watch in their own time while 27% of those surveyed prefer live, online classes — the closest thing to group fitness sessions. 

“Some people haven’t actually maximized home workouts since they hopped onto the programs late. Other people are in and out. Others only got workout equipment in maybe the last two or three months,” said Mr. Velasco, of the natural ebb and flow of fitness as a trend. Those who have already invested in home equipment and health apps for their routines, he added, find it easier to jump back into it. 

“People are realizing the overall lifestyle change. It’s not just mentality, health, or wellness because all of these things will go hand in hand. Hopefully, when all of this is over, wouldn’t you want to step back into the world again being your best self and not having to start over again?” said Mr. Velasco. — Brontë H. Lacsamana with Patricia B. Mirasol

Spain’s Prado overhauls collection to highlight women artists

La Amabilidad by Marcela de Valencia — PHOTO COURTESY OF ©MUSEO NACIONAL DEL PRADO

MADRID — Seeking to breathe new life into Madrid’s Prado museum after the long months of the pandemic, curators have overhauled the collection to display more works by female artists and better reflect the variety of 19th-century art.

After recent acquisitions of paintings and miniatures, the museum now boasts works by 13 female painters out of a total of 130 artists.

The miniatures, often intimate family portraits, require great technical skill but could be created in small workshops, making them popular among female artists who lacked large studios in the 19th century.

There are now seven rooms with works by women such as Marcela de Valencia and Maria Blanchard, the museum’s head of 19th-century painting conservation, Javier Baron, told Reuters.

Leticia Azcue Brea, head of conservation for sculpture and decorative arts, said each work had to earn its place.

“The museum is very rigorous, if there is a woman there it is because she deserves it,” she said.

Last October, the museum withdrew a 19th-century canvas from a temporary exhibition of female artists after an art sleuth discovered it was actually painted by a man.

The Prado purchased new works with the help of a legacy from Carmen Sanchez Garcia, who left much of her estate for the acquisition and restoration of paintings when she died in 2016.

The museum has opened a room of portraits and self-portraits of painters so visitors can get to know them better.

It has also started exhibiting the work of great masters like Francisco Goya alongside their peers to highlight their originality and show connections to the art of their time, Mr. Baron said. —  Reuters

Vista Land upbeat on remittances, vaccines

VISTA Mall, the Department of Health and local government partners have tied up in the joint mission to hasten the vaccine rollout. — VISTAMALLS.COM.PH/

VISTA Land & Lifescapes, Inc. remains optimistic for its businesses, banking on the improved overseas Filipino remittances as well as the country’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program.

“While COVID-19 continues to impact our performance, both on our leasing and residential businesses, we still anticipate a better year with indicators such as strong overseas Filipinos (OF) remittances and the ramping up of the vaccination rollout across the country,” Vista Land Chairman Manuel B. Villar, Jr. said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Health department said on Monday that 17,202,421 jabs had been administered. Of these, 11,113,107 account for first doses, while 6,089,314 are said to be fully vaccinated.

An average of 300,880 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered daily in the past seven days.

Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported earlier this month that cash remittances from overseas Filipinos climbed by 13% year on year to $2.382 billion in May from $2.106 billion a year ago. The latest figure is also a 3.34% increase from the $2.305 billion logged in April.

Vista Land said this “bodes well” for the company, as sales to overseas Filipinos account for around 55% to 60% of the total.

“I founded Camella Homes more than 40 years ago to help out fellow Filipinos — with an OFW (overseas Filipino worker) as our very first homebuyer — to buy a place they can call their own,” Mr. Villar said.

“I am just so glad that four decades after and even with an ongoing health crisis, here we are, still building the best homes for our kababayans (countrymen),” he added.

Vista Land recently held a virtual property expo, which also featured other property brands of the Villar group. The company said it was able to reach thousands of property seekers and investors.

Vista Land President and Chief Executive Officer Manuel Paolo A. Villar described the event as “just one of the ways we navigate through these challenging times.” He said the company is looking at breaking “more digital ground in the future.”

Vista Land shares at the stock market on Tuesday went up by 2.35% or eight centavos, closing at P3.49 apiece. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

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