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Świątek marches into Miami semis; Ruud upsets Zverev

POLAND’S Iga Świątek continued her terrific run with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Petra Kvitova on Wednesday to reach the Miami Open semifinals, while Norway’s Casper Ruud upset men’s second seed Alexander Zverev in their quarterfinal clash.

Świątek, who came to Miami full of confidence after claiming back-to-back titles at Doha and Indian Wells, pressured twice Wimbledon champion Kvitova’s serve throughout the 77-minute match and never faced a break point.

The Polish second seed, who will take over the world number one ranking next week, has now won 15 consecutive matches dating back to Qatar and will next face 16th seed Jessica Pegula.

“I want to use the confidence that I built since the beginning of Doha,” said Świątek.

“I’m on a roll and I want to use that. Having that kind of streak got pretty tricky, but I’m pretty glad that I could play well, that I’m healthy, and that I can compete against players like Petra. She’s a legend.”

Pegula advanced after Spanish fifth seed Paula Badosa retired with a viral illness while trailing 4-1.

“Been struggling with illness since the last match the other day,” Badosa wrote on Twitter. “Tried everything to recover but wasn’t enough. I’ll take some days to recover well and prepare for clay court season.”

For Pegula, it marked the second consecutive abrupt ending to a match as unseeded Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinin retired while down 6-0 in their fourth-round clash.

Norwegian sixth seed Ruud secured the biggest win of his career with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 triumph over world number four Zverev.

After Zverev leveled the match, it was Ruud who was the aggressor in the decider as he frequently approached the net with great success, held tough during baseline rallies and limited his unforced errors.

Ruud had failed to win a set in two previous meetings against Zverev.

“I feel a little bit good. I mean, it’s obviously an exciting night and the biggest win of my career so far,” Ruud told reporters.

“This is now the fourth time I’m reaching a semifinal in a Masters 1000 event and… the first time on hard court so that means it’s a little bit extra special for me.”

Ruud lost the three Masters semi-finals he previously played in Rome, Monte Carlo and Madrid — all claycourt tournaments.

“Let’s see if I can take what I have learned from the three previous semifinals where unfortunately I lost all of them and see if I can turn it around and make the fourth time the lucky charm,” he added.

Up next for Ruud will be Argentine Francisco Cerundolo, whose dream run in his ATP Masters 1000 debut continued after Italian ninth seed Jannik Sinner was forced to retire from their match with foot blisters.

Cerundolo, who is ranked 103rd, was leading 4-1 when Sinner decided to call the match and becomes the lowest-ranked men’s singles semifinalist in the tournament’s history. — Reuters

Grizzlies clinch West’s second seed with win over Spurs

TYUS Jones scored 25 points to lead a balanced Memphis attack as the visiting Grizzlies outlasted the San Antonio Spurs (112-111) on Wednesday in a key late-season Western Conference dustup.

The victory allowed Memphis (54-23) to clinch the second seed in the West. It was the Grizzlies’ sixth straight win.

The Grizzlies led by 18 points late in the third quarter before San Antonio roared back to tie the game at 93 early in the fourth. Memphis never allowed the Spurs to see the front, building its advantage back to eight points only to see San Antonio make another late push.

The Spurs held Memphis scoreless the final 2:35 and clawed to within 112-111 on Keldon Johnson’s tip in with 27.8 seconds left. After a miss by the Grizzlies and a timeout, San Antonio ran a final play for Johnson, who missed a contested layup with 2.7 seconds remaining, allowing Memphis to escape with the victory.

Dillon Brooks added 21 points for Memphis, with Desmond Bane and De’Anthony Melton scoring 16 each and Brandon Clarke hitting for 10. The Grizzlies played without star guard Ja Morant for the sixth straight game (and seventh in Memphis’ past eight) because of a knee injury.

Dejounte Murray tied a career-high with 33 points and added 13 rebounds for San Antonio (31-45) while Johnson scored 23 and Devin Vassell had 19.

The Grizzlies led 31-27 after a back-and-forth first quarter in which they hit 6 of their 11 shots from beyond the arc and got eight points from Jones to offset Johnson’s 11 points in the period.

San Antonio pulled to within 35-33 on Jakob Poeltl’s layup at the 9:20 mark of the second period before the Grizzlies forged a 12-0 run behind via five points from Clarke and four from Bane. Memphis pushed its advantage to 17 points on Brooks’ 3-pointer with 1:23 to play in the half and went to the break up 65-52.

Brooks paced the Grizzlies with 13 points in the half while Bane had 12 and Clarke scored 10. Memphis outshot the Spurs 51% to 46.3% over the first 24 minutes.

Johnson’s 16 first-half points led all scorers while Murray added 14 points and eight rebounds before half time for San Antonio. — Reuters

James legacy

Don’t look now, but the Lakers are out of the play-in picture. Once thought to be at least a reprieve to a long season of disappointment, participation in the tournament has now moved to the “Unlikely” end of the spectrum. And it’s not simply because of the continuing absence of top god LeBron James and fellow All-Star Anthony Davis. Their concerns are fundamental, and owing to poor personnel decisions and a string of bad luck that had them parading their 32nd distinct starting lineup against the Mavericks the other day.

How bad are the Lakers? Well, a simple glance at their schedule tells the story. They haven’t strung together two victories since they were last above .500 in early January. Over the last two and a half months, they’ve gone 10 and 24, and with reason; even casual observers won’t be hard-pressed to see their lack of chemistry on offense and glaring inability to put up any semblance of defense. They’re middling at best with James on the floor, and need otherworldly performances from him to provide the moist eyes they cast at a rare triumph with a semblance of reality.

Interestingly, not a few quarters have seen fit to argue that the Lakers would be better off jut giving up on their 2021-22 campaign altogether. In their one-step-back-and-then-two-steps-forward take, they contend that James and Davis staying in the sidelines from here on to recover from injuries is the best thing that can be done under the circumstances. After all, what’s the point in risking further harm when what awaits is a one-and-done stint?

Pride is the point, of course, and, for James, there is the added incentive of getting closer and closer to setting a singular achievement. The more he sits, the longer it will take for him to jump over living legend Kareem Adbul-Jabbar and claim the top spot in career points scored. It’s a milestone that has stood since 1989, and he has a legitimate shot at reaching it. The clock is ticking, however, and especially because he’s an old 37. Which is why he continues to push himself, but not to the point of breaking the bank. He has been walking the tightrope for a while now, and, at some point, Father Time will win. So the question is: Will he make history before being history? The jury is out.

 

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

Looking out for number one

THE PDP NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING at the Royce Hotel Clark Pampanga held on July 16. — PHILIPPINE STAR/MICHAEL VARCAS

President Rodrigo Duterte has had a “cordial” meeting with him, during which he supposedly gave him advice on how best to govern. But he is yet to confirm his rumored decision to endorse Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. for the Presidency of this country of forgetfulness. Despite his tirades against him — he has described Junior as “a weak leader” — it seems only a matter of time before he does.

The so-called “Cusi wing” of the PDP-Laban (Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan) Party he supposedly still heads has endorsed Marcos Jr. Mr. Duterte’s advisers urged him to similarly do so on the argument that it is the late dictator’s son who can best protect him once he leaves office.

If he does not, it could mean that the Cusi band acted without his approval, and that he has lost complete control of the party he chairs (divided into at least two camps, its “Pimentel wing” is supporting his former ally, now turned critic Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao for the Presidency). But if he does, it would underscore the urgency of Mr. Duterte’s personal need for a protector, and the admission that he has much to answer for to this country and the civilized world.

Every lame duck President ends up ignored and forgotten once their terms end, but Mr. Duterte’s case is entirely different from those of his predecessors’. Many of those he has injured, among them the thousands of widows and orphans left behind by the alleged drug addicts and pushers his policemen killed during his failed “war on drugs,” are awaiting the end of his immunity from suit to call him and his cohorts to account by bringing them to court.

Nine months ago in June 2021, Mr. Duterte was reported to be considering five possible PDP-Laban candidates for President this year: Manila Mayor “Isko” Moreno Domagoso, his confidant Christopher “Bong” Go, boxer-cum-Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., and his daughter Sara.

Go has since passed into oblivion; Domagoso is running under a different ticket; Pacquiao is running under the Pimentel wing of PDP-Laban; and his daughter Sara is Marcos Junior’s Vice-Presidential partner.

His daughter has always been his choice for President because she is the only one whom he thinks he can trust to protect him from, among other possibilities, indictment and prosecution for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and whatever other charges may be brought against him by the legions he has wronged during his six years in office.

He has, in fact, said so in so many words in the past, which makes it abundantly clear that it is not the interests of the country he professes to love that will decide whoever he endorses for the Presidency, but his own.

Sara Duterte’s giving way to Marcos Jr. has prevented him from endorsing anyone, despite her teaming up with Marcos as his Vice-Presidential running mate. But despite his reservations about his daughter’s teammate’s capacity to lead, moral rectitude, and trustworthiness, the Cusi wing’s endorsement of Marcos Jr. and his own fear of losing his immunity from suit are not giving him much of a choice.

Meanwhile, Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and other long-time members of PDP-Laban have expressed their supposed outrage over that endorsement, with Pimentel pointing out that PDP-Laban came into being as part of the resistance to the Marcos Senior dictatorship. Some of the party’s older members have also declared the endorsement an insult to the memory of Pimentel III’s late father, Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, whose PDP merged with the late Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.’s Laban in 1983 to better combat the Marcos autocracy and hasten the restoration of democratic institutions. But despite their protests, the truth is that every last one of Pimentel III and company is complicit in PDP-Laban’s transformation from the liberal force it once was into an enabler of one tyranny and, quite possibly, of another.

The party helped the current despotism come to power when the late “Nene” Pimentel supported the Duterte candidacy in 2016 because of the latter’s declared support for federalism. But he was disappointed soon enough, the shift to that system being one of those promises Mr. Duterte has so obviously failed to deliver on. He nevertheless became PDP-Laban Chair when he won the Presidency, which by itself was already indicative of the state into which the merger party of “Nene” and “Ninoy” had fallen.

Neither from Pimentel III, his now self-righteous cohorts, their chosen Presidential candidate “Manny” Pacquiao, nor from newly minted “oppositionists” Isko Moreno Domagoso and Panfilo Lacson was there ever any sign or sound during the past six years of any protest against Mr. Duterte’s manner and policies of governance and chairmanship of PDP-Laban. Only with deafening silence did they greet the gross violations of human rights; the demise of the republican principle of checks and balances; the attacks on the media; the empowerment of the police and military; the gross incompetence in some of the most important agencies of government — or, for that matter, PDP-Laban’s admitting as members some of the most clueless, most anti-people and most anti-democratic creatures from the black lagoon of Philippine politics and bureaucracy, and Mr. Duterte’s naming them to this or that post.

The principles to which, they would have us believe, they have always been true were apparently not enough to offset the perquisites and privileges of being in power, albeit in the shadow of Mr. Duterte.

Because of this betrayal of its historic legacy, not only PDP-Laban’s commitment to the recovery and defense of democratic institutions and the people’s sovereign right to decide for themselves what government can best represent them has passed. It has also lost its liberal ideology — the one quality that distinguished it from the so-called political parties that stand for nothing except greed for pelf and power.

If there is any lesson to be drawn from PDP-Laban’s morphing into its very opposite and from the distinct possibility of Mr. Duterte’s eating his own words once he endorses Marcos Jr., it is how totally without principle and self-serving is the ruling elite — the handful of families and their clones that have monopolized political power in this rumored democracy for nearly a hundred years, and for whom changing sides and parties has been as easy as changing clothes, cars, and residences.

Marcos Senior himself did it. For many years a member of the Liberal Party (LP), he switched to the Nacionalista Party (NP) when he realized that the LP would not field him for President in 1965. The NP itself changed from a relatively enlightened into a shamelessly backward organization under Marcos Senior’s stewardship.

During the current campaign, a la Marcos Senior did Sara Duterte abandon her own party and Panfilo Lacson his own because it is endorsing Vice-President Leni Robredo rather than himself for the Presidency.

No surprise there. Not only do the so-called political parties in these isles function solely as disposable vehicles for the realization of political ambitions. Looking out for number one is also every garden variety Filipino politician’s first priority. In every dynast’s hierarchy of values are personal, familial, and class interests, in that order. As for country, people, and society, those are at the very end of their list of priorities, if they have ever been in it at all.

 

Luis V. Teodoro is on Facebook and Twitter (@luisteodoro).

www.luisteodoro.com

Politics and market confidence

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A careful reading of the economic platforms of those running for president of this Republic suggests a good differentiation. Who will win the May 9 election should certainly matter, and market reaction would not be even.

Content-wise, their economic platforms couldn’t be more diverse.

Leody de Guzman is running under the mantra, “Bagong Pulitika, Bagong Ekonomiya” or what he calls “A Democratic Socialist Electoral Platform.” Aside from politics and social development agenda, it has an unconventional economic component: production for domestic needs, workers’ control, farmers’ control of agriculture, wealth tax for the richest, five-year national debt cancellation, and recovery of Marcos’ stolen wealth.

Isko Domagoso’s “Bilis Kilos” consists of a 10-point agenda covering housing, education, labor and employment, health, tourism and creatives, infrastructure, industry, agriculture, good governance and smart governance.

Ping Lacson is more focused on addressing four general issues: comprehensive health agenda (testing, contact tracing, treatment and vaccination, healthcare coverage to all Filipinos); rebooting the economy (fiscal stimulus packages for small business, opportunities for farmers and fisherfolk, social safety nets); improving tax administration (cross reference data of relevant agencies); and reinventing government (elimination of corruption, zero-based budget planning, meaningful devolution to local governments, digitalization of processes, partnership with the business sector).

Manny Pacquiao is equally comprehensive but like Isko, he needs more focus. He wants to take up 22 issues which he considers his priority agenda. The Champ wishes to address the issues of stopping corruption; promoting economic growth and development; expanding employment; providing free housing, sustainable livelihood, and education; improving healthcare and tourism; developing agriculture, infrastructure, and sports; reforming the judiciary; increasing private and public salaries; a war on drugs; and strengthening international treaty agreement.

Leni Robredo prioritized health and livelihood. On health, she proposes attaining freedom from health scares, hunger and illiteracy. On livelihood, she would like to restore trust in government, energize Filipino industries, end discrimination in the workplace, and support of small business and those who lost their jobs.

Marcos Jr.’s economic ideas are yet to blossom. He has made reference to agricultural modernization, food security, cheap power, renewable energy, environmental protection, and support of small businesses. These general statements need to be explained as to their specifics but this is not possible unless he joins the other candidates in public debates.

The Filipino electorate deserves to know what these candidates are offering them. Debates are an integral part of the democratic process; elections become meaningful when the people are free to choose who would lead them based on true information and facts. We might be going through the election based on fake news and guesswork. Marcos Jr., by refusing to debate and confront facts, would like the Filipino voters to vote for him and his team based on what we have merely imbibed from social media.

With the other presidential aspirants’ brave appearances in public fora and debates, press interviews, and speeches before crowds, their respective general economic programs have been explained, better understood, and more nuanced.

For instance, during the CNN presidential debates on Feb. 27, these leading presidential candidates were asked about their first order of the day once elected president. Ka Leody declared that he would start his agenda of labor first policy; ending contractualization is foremost in his mind. Isko, for his part, committed to focus first on improving the livelihood of Filipinos.

For Ping, it’s government cleansing, even pledging he would waive his rights under the Secrecy of Bank Deposit Act. Manny was serious in his intent to put up a mega prison dedicated to corrupt government officials. He also wanted to audit all levels of government offices.

For Leni, transparency is her priority. She wanted full disclosure of public transactions to impress upon civil society her seriousness in fixing the government.

As usual, we failed to hear what Marcos Jr. intends to do if ever he is elected president. His call for “unity” is his closest version of a platform. He forfeited the opportunity to explain why his family has refused to return their ill-gotten wealth, and their failure to pay the estate taxes on their inherited assets, whether legitimate or otherwise. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has subsequently served them notice to pay.

While these five brave souls slugged it out during the Commission on Elections (Comelec) debate on March 19, Marcos Jr. skipped it and chose to be interviewed on government station PTV by anchor Erwin Tulfo and Communications Secretary Martin Andanar. What this is all about, we also don’t know.

Reuters, on Feb. 8, also released its own helpful reading of the background of these leading candidates. The candidates’ transparency allowed this assessment of what one could expect should any one of them win the presidency.

Reuters was also forthright in saying that the Marcos family “has sought to rebuild an image tainted by the elder Marcos’ often brutal rule and the plunder of billions of dollars of wealth.” It also explained why he was leading in the surveys: “strong presence on social media, one that critics say is attempting to rewrite the family’s controversial history.”

But the most telling commentary on the market consequences of the candidates came from Nomura Global Research. Nomura wrote that a Leni win is “more market-friendly.” This is based on its study of Leni’s experience “at the national level and articulating a strategy for the country’s recovery from the pandemic.”

The Nomura economists considered her experience and strategic approach with the ability to lead the health and economic recovery efforts. She was right to focus on both healthcare and education. The pandemic has overwhelmed our health facilities in the last two years and unmasked decades of criminal neglect. With the lockdown, education was the immediate and most serious casualty.

Nomura gave Leni and her running mate Kiko Pangilinan a maximum of five points for national experience and business friendliness; four out of five for continuity/governance, infrastructure progress, and fiscal discipline. She was singled out for declaring that transparency and accountability shall be central to her presidency.

On the other hand, Nomura dismissed Marcos Jr. as an uncertain choice. He was considered less market-friendly because his victory might cast doubt on the credibility of the May 2022 election.

Although most of the disqualification cases against him were dismissed by the Comelec, Nomura scored Marcos “for making false statements and a previous conviction of failing to file income tax returns.” Today, these charges have been complicated by the renewed call for his family to return their ill-gotten wealth and to pay estate taxes which could run into a couple of hundred billion pesos which have remained unpaid for decades.

Marcos Jr. and his running mate Sara Duterte managed to get four out of five in infrastructure but only three out of five in fiscal discipline and governance. They had lower ratings in national experience than Ping and his running mate Tito Sotto. In business friendliness, they had the lowest score among all the other candidates.

There is uncertainty in the Marcos victory because he himself would face a dilemma in implementing some laws and Supreme Court rulings, the content of which he has denied all these years.

For instance, RA 10368, approved on Feb. 25, 2013, provides for reparation and recognition of victims of human rights violations during the Marcos Regime. Also known as the “Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013,” the law overturns nearly everything that Marcos Jr. has denied knowing, much less, admitting.

Aside from such assessments by research outfits and investment banks as guide to prospective investors in emerging markets like the Philippines, investors also consult credit rating agencies. Their value added is their risk assessment on key areas.

The February 2022 rating action by Fitch should be very instructive. While keeping our investment credit rating at BBB, Fitch downgraded our outlook from stable to negative. They considered our strong growth and external buffers but weak structural indicators, cast some uncertainty on economic recovery, and projected higher infra spending. Fiscal deficit and debt monitoring is part of their rating process. Developments in local government finance are also critical as this impacts the overall fiscal position. Fitch also raised issues if the central bank financing of the fiscal deficit is sustained beyond the pandemic needs as it could affect policy credibility.

If the candidate the nation will be voting to Malacañang is at ground zero on these critical markers, we hate to think what could happen to market confidence and economic growth. We should learn our lesson that while we had good continuity of macroeconomic stability and growth in the late 1990s through 2019, it took only one misstep to send us down to the deepest recession we have known in many years.

 

Diwa C. Guinigundo is the former deputy governor for the Monetary and Economics Sector, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). He served the BSP for 41 years. In 2001-2003, he was alternate executive director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. He is the senior pastor of the Fullness of Christ International Ministries in Mandaluyong.

The iconic book on Makati: Fifty Years and Forward

“The rapid, well-ordered growth of Makati didn’t happen by chance. One thing has to be made clear: The process that caused this change was long and complicated. It had to be planned… It was created.”

— Colonel Joseph R. McMicking

“It has been interesting to follow through the unique role that the leaders of Ayala played in the evolution of the Makati Central Business District, from concept, to planning, and ultimately, to execution,” revealed Fernando Zóbel de Ayala, chairman of Ayala Land, president and CEO of Ayala Corp., in the newly launched book on the development of Makati, Fifty Years and Forward.

This stunningly beautiful book will take the reader on an extraordinary journey that Col. McMicking once called “The Makati Adventure.” It is the first book on the making of the Makati Central Business District (CBD), that golden quadrant through which Ayala Avenue runs. It has defined the entire city.

“Col. Joseph McMicking played a very distinctive role in the visioning of Makati with the close support and help of Alfonso Zobel de Ayala and Col. Jaime C. Velasquez. Much of the execution of this plan followed under the leadership of Enrique Zóbel and subsequently, Jaime Zóbel de Ayala, laying down the strong foundations of the Makati that we see today.

“Along the way, while the key principles of the original masterplan were maintained, certain elements were adjusted, all in the hope of ensuring that the development was as relevant and responsive to the needs of the times,” he explained.

“Today, as this responsibility moved to our generation of managers, we once again had to evolve Makati to keep it as dynamic and meaningful to present and future Filipinos; Throughout this process, MACEA (Makati Central Estate Association) continues to be a key partner as the association that represents the diverse community within this district. We work hand in hand though MACEA and with all our stakeholders to achieve these goals and preserve Makati’s status as the country’s premier city.”

He described Col. McMicking as “A true visionary… a bold and pioneering spirit.”

Architect William V. Coscolluela, chairman and president of MACEA, wrote in the preface of the book: “MACEA’s primary purposes were two-fold: ‘To promote the general welfare, prosperity, service, and reputation of the Ayala Avenue-Paseo de Roxas Administrative Office Area. To promote the best interest and well-being as well as safeguard the welfare of the owners, lessees and occupants of property’ in the area.”

The original incorporators of MACEA were Col. Jaime C. Velasquez, Salvador J. Lorayes, Silvio M. Barcelon, Ramon T. Garcia, and Jose Ma. Enriquez. In 1953, the Association had 39 landowner-members. In 2021, there are more than 390 members.

MACEA has quietly but effectively shepherded the area’s trajectory as the nation’s business — and political — nerve-center to the high-rise residences that set the pace for the country’s condos, to the 21st century “city within cities” combining creative communities and transport hubs and information highways.

In the book’s epilogue, Jaime Zóbel de Ayala, chairman emeritus of Ayala Corp., wrote: “Anticipation of the future is based of the past — and on the present. The elements of yesterday serve as the foundation of today and influence the direction of tomorrow.”

The book’s author, Lisa Guerrero Nakpil, navigated the research and production. She described the process, “The terrific thing is that the ‘Master Plan’ that created Makati also provided for the establishment of an archive, a repository of information. At the same time those fabulous buildings on Ayala Avenue were going up in the 1960s, Col. McMicking and his wife Mercedes Zóbel set up the Filipinas Foundation which would eventually become Ayala Foundation, which in turn created Ayala Museum and the Filipinas Heritage Library which are all wonderful sources of data.

“Among all the things that were envisioned by the planners — Col. McMicking, Don Alfonso Zóbel de Ayala, Col. Jaime C. Velasquez — the importance given to culture was never taken for granted. That attitude informs the business and investment of the CBD.

“MACEA chairman and president William Coscolluela gave the book an architect’s perspective and one can see this in the text and visuals. Fernando Zóbel de Ayala provided the context for the direction of the book. He parsed the essence of the Makati CBD and its different moving parts.

“It was important to Arch. Coscolluela to chart the develop as a connected, walkable, weather-proof city — think of the underpasses and elevated walkways — but also a secure district that is safe 24/7 in tune with today’s work and lifestyles.

“The MACEA board was also active in sharing its inputs and that was a big help. And in keeping with MACEA tradition, the book is intended for a worthy cause: To help Makati’s poorest with coping with the pandemic.”

The Ayala archives had two exceptional and precious vintage photographs by Nap Jamir. They were traced back to his son who is an excellent photographer in his own right.

“Nap Jr. was putting together an archive of his father’s work and was rehabilitating the negatives. It took several months — almost as long as the book production itself to get them back into shape.”

Well-known photographers were reeled in by Ms. Nakpil. Wig Tysmans, an architecture graduate, found it a different challenge. “The cover of the book, for example, involved lying on his back between the structures of the new Tower two (in the Ayala Triangle Gardens) to get just the right angle.

“I was a little merciless with him because this was at the height of the Delta virus, and he had to shoot without his usual retinue. If the photographs have the feel of Vanilla Sky (the surreal movie that featured empty streets), it’s because it was a surreal time. Mr. Tysmans had a talented fellow, Paul Quiambao, who operated the drones. We crashed a couple of those in the process because there’s apparently a lot of jammers in the CBD. We also recruited Patrick Diokno who is the creative director of L’Officiel [for the] atmospheric shots,” Ms. Nakpil recalled.

The timeline of Makati from1834 through the decades until 2021 makes one feel nostalgic. The vintage photos of the Master Plan; The Nielsen Tower and airfield (1937) on Makati Ave.; the early Makati buildings like the Rizal Theater (1960), Hotel Inter-Continental (1969), the Asian Institute of Management, and the first skyscraper, The Insular Life Building (1962), that still stands at the iconic crossroads of Ayala Ave. and Paseo de Roxas.

The book’s impressive visuals include photos of geometric patterns — close and long shots of the shimmering steel and glass skyscrapers — the magnificent Ayala Triangle Gardens Tower Two, the multi-awarded Zuellig Building with its unique bamboo design on the glass windows. There are the murals on the ceilings and walls of a driveway and the underpasses; aerial shots of the towers and rooftops with floral designs including that of the Makati Medical Center (1969).

The verdant lungs of the city are the Jaime C. Velasquez Park in Salcedo Village and the Zen-inspired Washington Sycip Park in Legazpi Village.

A chapter “The Capital of Art” is dedicated to the precious collections located everywhere in the area. These include the excavated pieces of the exquisite pre-Spanish gold collection and the abstract paintings, including the legendary black and white Icaro (1958) by the internationally acclaimed artist Fernando Zóbel, at the gleaming new Ayala Museum. This painting was exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2017.

The Exchange Plaza has the Philippine marble sculpture by Impy Pilapil and the epic black and white artworks by National Artist Arturo Luz. A dramatic brass sculpture by Eduardo Castrillo is at the MetroBank plaza. A painting of National Artist Juan Luna is at the RCBC Plaza’s Yuchengco Museum. The Mauro “Malang” Santos Barrio Fiesta mural is at the Makati Building.

The fabulous annual Art Fair (2017) held at the Link carpark has featured the intriguing installation Settlement by Mark Justiniani and the landmark contemporary mural collaboration Tagadagat by Elmer Borlongan and Manny Garibay.

Ms. Nakpil’s flowing historical essays complement the marvelous visuals of the book. It is “must-have” for the collections of businessmen, lovers of art, architecture, culture and history, and schools and institutions.

Warm congratulations to Ayala Corp., Ayala Land, and publisher MACEA for the launch of Fifty Years and Forward

(The book is available by e-mailing fiftyyearsandforward@gmail.com)

 

Maria Victoria Rufino is an artist, writer and businesswoman. She is president and executive producer of Maverick Productions.

mavrufino@gmail.com

What is a woman?

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“Woman, I can hardly express…,” so sang John Lennon.

Unfortunately, nowadays, not many people apparently can even express what a “woman” is. Not even US Supreme Court nominees. And if USA Today is to be believed, not even members of the medical profession. Which is disconcerting because the latter were also the same ones telling us to be completely terrified of COVID and inject ourselves continually with vaccines. But that’s another matter.

If indeed there is no way, as liberal progressives insist, to coherently define what a woman is, then:

• chivalry is not a thing;

• the women and children first rule should be set aside;

• separate sports divisions and separate toilets have no rationale;

• sex based criminal laws protecting women should be repealed;

• women’s rights legislation should be repealed;

• treaties involving women’s rights should be terminated;

• gender equality studies should be shut down; and,

• Women’s Month is non-sensical.

But until this year, everybody knew what a woman is. Cambridge Dictionary defines “woman” as “an adult female human being” or “a wife or female sexual partner.” The Collins Dictionary says that a “woman” is “an adult female human being.” Wiki: “A woman is an adult female human.” And what is a “female”? That “sex that can give birth to young or produce eggs” (Cambridge Dictionary), “produce babies from its body” (Collins Dictionary), or “the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction” (Wiki).

Liberal progressives however try to confuse the issue by making a false distinction between “sex” and “gender,” the former (they say) are physical characteristics including genitalia and chromosomes while the latter is how a person identifies.

The problem with that subjective approach is ultimately it doesn’t make sense; taken to its logical conclusion, the words “man” and “woman” would have no meaning whatsoever. And if indeed being a woman is just a “construct,” then it still begs the question of what that person identifying as a “woman” actually means, that identification (by the way) being also obviously a construct.

Sex and gender clearly cannot be separated from each other. Glenn Stanton, Focus on the Family director of family formation studies, writes (“Why Sex and Gender Are Not Two Different Things,” The Federalist, Oct. 15, 2019): “From the 14th century, gender has referred to the essence of what male and female are, issuing from the Proto-Indo-European root gen- or gene-. It fundamentally references the creation, birth, and begetting of new human beings, as in, to generate or engender.”

Furthermore, “gender’s grammatical root — gene/gen — is also associated with such words as genesis, generation (both in terms of being generated as well as the historical time-frame one was generated) and yes, of course, genitals, those two unavoidably binary parts of the human anatomy that help our gonads and associated cooperative parts do what gonads do: generate.”

Thus, “gender” is actually “the furthest thing from being a mere social construct,” the words “‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are indeed two objective sides of the same coin. Anyone who says differently is just making stuff up.”

Indeed, what makes a woman a woman (and a man a man) run to the very core of our DNA, the fundamental molecule containing genetic instructions of our physical being. A chain of DNA is called a “chromosome.” Women have two similar X chromosomes. Men, on the other hand, have one X and one Y chromosome.

And what makes a woman a woman continue to the very wiring of women’s brains — “Women excel in several measures of verbal ability — pretty much all of them, except for verbal analogies. Women’s reading comprehension and writing ability consistently exceed that of men, on average. They outperform men in tests of fine-motor coordination and perceptual speed. They’re more adept at retrieving information from long-term memory.

“Men, on average, can more easily juggle items in working memory. They have superior visuospatial skills: They’re better at visualizing what happens when a complicated two- or three-dimensional shape is rotated in space, at correctly determining angles from the horizontal, at tracking moving objects and at aiming projectiles.” (“Two minds: The cognitive differences between men and women,” Stanford Medicine, 2017).

The characteristics that make up a woman are so profound that some scientists even claim that men are more closely related to male chimpanzees than to women! (https://bit.ly/36AmNPv and here https://bit.ly/3Lrgpsr.)

Wisely, our own Supreme Court so far has refused to buckle down to progressive nonsense. In Silverio vs. Republic (G.R. No. 174689), it ruled — quite correctly — that “the sex of a person is determined at birth” and is “immutable.” Thus, “sex is defined as ‘the sum of peculiarities of structure and function that distinguish a male from a female’ or ‘the distinction between male and female.’ Female is ‘the sex that produces ova or bears young’ and male is ‘the sex that has organs to produce spermatozoa for fertilizing ova.’”

Besides, it would be a quite disturbing world if John Lennon (“Woman”), Billy Joel (“She’s Always A Woman”), Urge Overkill (“Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”), and Roy Orbison (“Pretty Woman”) all don’t know what they’re singing about.

 

Jemy Gatdula is a senior fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence

https://www.facebook.com/jigatdula/

Twitter@jemygatdula

US weighs largest ever draw from emergency oil reserve

A 3D printed oil pump jack is placed on dollar banknotes in this illustration picture, April 14, 2020. — REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), four US sources said on Wednesday, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) member countries are set to meet on Friday at 1200 GMT to decide on a collective oil release, a spokesperson for New Zealand energy minister said in an email on Thursday.

“The amount of the potential collective release has not been decided,” the spokesperson for minister Megan Woods added. “That meeting will set a total volume, and per country allocations will follow,” she said.

It is unclear if the US SPR draw would be part of a wider global coordinated release.

The IEA did not respond to a request for comment outside office hours. President Joseph R. Biden will deliver remarks on Thursday on his administration’s actions, the White House said.

The latest amount of U.S. oil release being considered, which is equivalent to about two days of global demand, would mark the third time the United States has tapped its strategic reserves in the past six months, and would be the largest release in the near 50-year history of the SPR.

Global oil prices plunged more than $5 a barrel on the news.

Oil prices have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February and the United States and allies responded with hefty sanctions on Russia, the second-largest exporter of crude.

Brent crude, the world benchmark, soared to about $139 earlier this month, highest since 2008, but slipped under $108 a barrel in Asian trading on Thursday.

Russia is one of the top producers of oil, contributing about 10% to the global market. But sanctions and buyer reluctance to purchase Russian oil could remove about 3 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil from the market starting in April, the IEA has said. Russia exports 4 to 5 million bpd.

The news comes just before the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, an oil producer group known as OPEC+ that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, meets to discuss reducing supply curbs. The United States, Britain and others have previously urged OPEC+ to quickly boost output.

However, OPEC+ is not expected to veer from its plan to keep boosting output gradually when it meets Thursday.

The US SPR currently holds 568.3 million barrels, its lowest since May 2002, according to the US Energy Department.

The United States is considered a net petroleum exporter by the IEA. But that status could change to net importer this year and then return to exporter again as output has been slow to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was not immediately clear whether a 180 million barrel draw would consist of exchanges from the reserve that would have to be replaced by oil companies at a later date, outright sales, or a combination of the two.

The White House did not comment on the plan to release oil.

“The immediate need is to fill the gap in the real economy, and releasing barrels from the SPR will alleviate that problem although it is effectively transferring the shortage from one pocket to the other,” said Howie Lee, an economist at Singapore’s OCBC bank.

POLITICAL LIABILITY FOR BIDEN
The White House said Mr. Biden will deliver remarks at 1:30 p.m. ET (1730 GMT) on “his administration’s actions to reduce the impact of Putin’s price hike on energy prices and lower gas prices at the pump for American families.”

It did not give additional details.

High gasoline prices are a political liability for Biden and his Democratic Party as they seek to retain control of Congress in November elections.

Given that the United States is taking a “muscular stance toward Moscow, promising more sanctions if Russia continues to wage war in Ukraine, we believe the SPR release is being used as a tool to blunt the impact of these foreign policy decisions for US consumers,” RBC Capital said in a note to clients.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last week that the United States and its allies in the IEA were discussing a further coordinated release from storage.

IEA member states agreed earlier in March to release over 60 million barrels of oil reserves, with 30 million barrels coming from the US SPR.

The Biden administration is also considering temporarily removing curbs on summer sales of higher-ethanol gasoline blends as a way to lower fuel costs for US consumers, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Adding more ethanol to gasoline blends could potentially reduce prices at US gas pumps because ethanol, which is made from corn, is currently cheaper than straight gasoline. — Reuters

Russia sanctions threaten to chip away at dollar dominance — IMF official

RUSSIAN rouble coins and a 1,000-rouble banknote are seen in this picture illustration taken June 7, 2016. — REUTERS

FINANCIAL SANCTIONS imposed on Russia threaten to gradually dilute the dominance of the US dollar and could result in a more fragmented international monetary system, Gita Gopinath, IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director, told The Financial Times.

Russia has been hit with a plethora of sanctions from the United States and its allies for its late-February invasion of Ukraine. Russia has called the invasion a ‘special operation’ to disarm its neighbor.

“The dollar would remain the major global currency even in that landscape but fragmentation at a smaller level is certainly quite possible,” Ms. Gopinath told the newspaper in an interview, adding that some countries are already renegotiating the currency in which they get paid for trade.

She said that the war will also spur the adoption of digital finance, from cryptocurrencies to stable coins and central bank digital currencies.

The IMF did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Ms. Gopinath told the FT that the greater use of other currencies in global trade would lead to further diversification of the reserve assets held by national central banks.

She had earlier said the sanctions against Russia do not foreshadow the demise of the dollar as the reserve currency and that the war in Ukraine will slow global economic growth but will not cause a global recession. — Reuters

Fuel hikes anger food delivery drivers and truckers across Asia

VEHICLES are seen on the road in Seoul, South Korea on April 27, 2020. — REUTERS

SKY-HIGH fuel prices are sparking waves of anger and frustration throughout the ranks of truckers and food delivery drivers in Asia, causing concerns over potential disruptions that could add to supply-chain risks.

South Korea’s average diesel price last week jumped 44% from a year earlier to the highest since 2008, while gasoline surged more than 30%, according to data from Korea National Oil Corp. The fuel costs are rising at a time when freight rates and delivery fees have remained unchanged, directly impacting workers’ wages, union groups that represent the drivers said.

“The spike in petrol prices is a huge burden on us,” Gu Gyo-hyeon, a director at Rider Union, which represents 1,000 food delivery drivers in South Korea, said by phone. “Unlike other industries, we get zero subsidies from the government, which makes it even harder for us to maintain our jobs.”

Surging energy costs have been adding inflationary pressure across the globe, affecting everything from Uber rides to children’s toys as oil underpins essential aspects of the economy like shipping and manufacturing. Japan has maximized the subsidy provided to oil refiners, and Pakistan is risking its $6 billion bailout program with the International Monetary Fund by cutting fuel prices and pledging not to increase them until at least June.

In response to the growing pressure, ride-hailing companies and other transportation providers are taking action. In the US, Lyft, Inc. and rival Uber Technology Inc. added surcharges this month to rides to help drivers, while Grab Holdings, Inc. was among several companies in Singapore making similar moves to ease drivers’ gas bills. In Tokyo, taxi drivers are seeking their first fare hike in 15 years.

Pump prices for diesel in New Delhi have increased 6.5% after a freeze of more than four months ended on March 22, sparking a protest from opposition lawmakers in India’s parliament. The spike is destroying the road transport sector, as diesel accounts for about 70% of operating costs, according to Kultaran Singh Atwal, president of the All India Motor Transport Congress, which represents about 10 million truck and bus operators.

Operators of cargo trucks in South Korea that weigh 25 tons had to pay about 2.5 million won ($2,070) more on average for diesel in March compared with a year earlier, according to the Cargo Truckers Solidarity, which is affiliated with the Korean Public Service and Transportation Workers’ Union. Food delivery drivers are paying about 50,000 won more to fill up their gas tanks each month, Gu said.   

South Korea has extended a reduction in fuel taxes for another three months through July to rein in inflation. Still, workers from the food delivery and trucking sectors, services that became even more crucial during the Covid-19 pandemic, are seeking additional government support to offset the soaring fuel prices, the union groups said.

“The skyrocketing diesel prices are leading us to suffer from greater losses if we continue to stay on the road,” Lee Bong-ju, president of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity, said at a briefing last week. “But we have to bite the bullet and continue working over fears that we may lose our work contracts.” — Bloomberg

S. Koreans flock overseas for ‘revenge travel’ as COVID rules ease

STOCK IMAGE VIA KOREANAIR.COM

SEOUL — After spending two years being socially distanced in his home country of South Korea, Kim Hoe-jun booked a last-minute flight to Hawaii, where he had enjoyed his honeymoon six years ago, giving in to his craving for overseas travel. 

“I bought the ticket just a week ago, but it was rather a no-brainer. It felt like I was making up for those two years not being able to go abroad often as I used to before COVID,” he said, before boarding the plane from Incheon International Airport on Friday. 

Vaccinated and boosted, Mr. Kim and his wife are among South Koreans joining in a rush for “revenge travel” — a term that has been trending on social media as people scramble to book overseas trips that were delayed by coronavirus restrictions. 

The boom started after March 21 when South Korea lifted a seven-day mandatory quarantine for fully vaccinated travelers arriving from most countries. The restriction had been eased last year but was reimposed in December as the highly infectious Omicron variant spread. 

The country has largely scrapped its once-aggressive tracing and containment efforts despite a record coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) wave, joining a growing list of Asian countries which have eased quarantine rules, including Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 

Koreans now appear more ready to travel. Polls showed people are less worried about the implications of catching the virus, and increasingly see its prevention as out of their hands. 

Sales of overseas flight tickets on 11st, an e-commerce unit of SK Telecom Co Ltd, South Korea’s top mobile carrier, rose more than eight-fold compared with a year before between March 11, when the lifting of quarantine was announced, and March 27, the company said. 

Kim Na-yeon, 27, was excited to return to Hawaii where she used to live. 

“I couldn’t dare to travel even in Korea because of COVID,” she said. “But now I feel a bit freer with the exemption, so I’ve decided to go meet old friends and do some sightseeing.” 

EXPLODING DEMAND
Airlines and travel agencies have reported exploding demand for routes to Hawaii, Saipan, and Guam, as well as some destinations in Europe and Southeast Asia where tourists submitting a vaccination certificate or negative test result are exempted from quarantine. 

Saipan and Guam, both of which have travel bubble pacts with South Korea, also offer free COVID testing and pay for quarantine expenses if a traveler tests positive. Each South Korean national visiting Saipan even receives $100 in “travel bucks” incentives to spend at businesses there. 

The tour arm of online retail giant Interpark Corp. reported a 324% growth in flight bookings for Oceania between March 11–22 from the same period of 2021, a 268% increase for Southeast Asia and 262% more bookings for Europe. 

On Sunday, the company sold a record 5,200 Hawaii tour packages within just 70 minutes. CJ Corp.’s home shopping unit said it received some 2,800 orders for a Spain and Italy trip in one hour on Sunday, totaling 15 billion won ($12.41 million), days after garnering 9 billion won from its sales of a Hawaii package. 

“The surge reflects growing customer sentiment that an end of COVID travel curbs might be in the offing after the mandatory quarantine was lifted,” said Lee Jeong-pil, general manager of CJ’s home shopping unit. 

Lee Tae-woo, a 36-year-old frequent traveler to Japan, said he has changed some money into yen, taking advantage of the currency’s sharp decline and hoping to jump on the revenge travel bandwagon soon. 

Though Japan has yet to allow tourists back in, it has reduced the quarantine period for arrivals for business and other purposes to three days from seven this month, and signaled further easing of travel curbs. 

“It’s been a long wait, and I’m ready to go back as soon as they finally open up again, and visit my favorite coffee roastery and enjoy the night view from Shibuya station,” Mr. Lee said, referring to Tokyo’s bustling central district. — Hyonhee Shin and Yeni Seo /Reuters

Australian businesses commit to $38B new UK investment, Britain says

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (third from left) hosts an Australia Investment Announcement Roundtable in 10 Downing Street. Picture by Simon Dawson/No. 10 Downing Street/Flickr

LONDON — Australian businesses have committed to investing 28.5 billion pounds ($37.5 billion) in sectors such as infrastructure and clean energy in Britain, the British government said following a UK-Australia investment roundtable. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan met with 10 Australian chief executives and senior executives on Wednesday evening to discuss the investments and opportunities for further collaboration. 

The investments include a pledge by financial services firm Macquarie Group to support 12 billion pounds of investment by 2030 in infrastructure projects including offshore wind, gigabit broadband and hydrogen hubs, the government said. 

It said this would include Macquarie’s Green Investment Group founding a new UK-headquartered global offshore wind development business Corio, and developing two new British offshore wind sites over the next decade. 

Other investments include 5.5 billion pounds from real estate and investment group Lendlease and its partners over the next five years to deliver new low carbon homes as part of major regeneration projects in London and Birmingham. 

IFM Investors plan to deliver 3 billion in investment over five years to maintain existing assets such as Stansted and East Midlands airports, and create a new net zero fund to support large-scale infrastructure energy transition projects. 

The government also said pension fund AustralianSuper forecasted a further 8 billion pounds in investments across the UK over the next five years. 

Last month AustralianSuper’s head of international investments told the Financial Times newspaper the fund expected to more than double its UK assets from 7 billion to more than 15 billion by 2026. 

Britain and Australia signed a free trade deal in December projected to eventually boost bilateral trade by over 10 billion pounds. 

Total goods and services trade between Britain and Australia was worth 14.5 billion pounds in the year to June 2021, with Australia ranked Britain’s 21st-largest trade partner and accounting for 1.2% of total British trade. — Reuters

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