Hyperbole, braggadocio and joke-only

May 23, 2021 | 5:44 pm

We should be talking about the deepest recession since the Marcos dictatorship 35 years ago. That is not hyperbole — it is the fifth consecutive quarter that the country has registered negative GDP growth due to the pandemic. On Tuesday, May 11, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced that the country’s gross domestic product shrank 4.2% in the first quarter of 2021, confirming that the economy is in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and will recover even slower than earlier diagnosed.

But at the start of the year, Bangko Sentral Governor Benjamin Diokno was all braggadocious about the economy. At the 24^th Membership Meeting of the Rotary Club of Manila on Jan. 6, Diokno said, “While the real domestic GDP could contract by 8.5% to 9.5% in 2020 amid the community quarantines, economic activity in the country is projected to recover and expand by 6.5% to 7.5% in 2021 and by 8% to 10% in 2022, as global and domestic economies gradually re-open.” (Reported in bis.org/review). The PSA confirmed at end January that for the full year 2020, GDP plunged 9.5% — the steepest economic contraction in Philippine history since the PSA began collecting annual data in 1947 (BusinessWorld, Jan. 29, 2021).

“How can this be?” one might rhetorically ask of the trusty Angel Gabriel like the Blessed Virgin Mary asked at the Annunciation. The jump of GDP growth from minus 9.5% in 2020 to positive 6.5% to 7.5% at end-2021, after a foreboding minus 4.2% in Q1/2021 would be a miracle. Oops — that is hyperbole, of course!

Perhaps there is not much focus on the status of the economy (a macro issue) while the COVID pandemic still grasps people’s faces to look eye to eye with sickness and death (a personal, basic issue). Health before wealth. After an initial hesitancy of most to be vaccinated under an “Emergency Use Authority” (EUA) of the only two vaccines earliest available — Sinovac’s CoronaVac, commonly referred to as simply Sinovac, and the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, commonly referred to as AstraZeneca — people in the Priority Groups A1 (healthcare workers and other frontliners), A2 (Seniors), and A3 (those with comorbidities) agreed to be vaccinated. AstraZeneca was preferred but vaccinees had no choice but had to accept what was available in their municipality. The AstraZeneca supply soon ran out and Sinovac, a Chinese brand 6.5 times more available than the former, was jabbed into most A1 and A2. As of May 18, 2,512,942 people were vaccinated or 2.3% of the population, with only 786,528 (0.7% of population) of those vaccinated having received both first and second doses.

In April, Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. boasted that 70 million people will be vaccinated by the end of this year. Braggadocio? How can this be, former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said to Rappler (April 27, 2021)? “To reach 70 million full vaccinations this year, the government needs to go from 44,000 injections a day to 500,000 a day starting in June, when the promised other more preferred vaccines will start coming. LGUs are used to vaccination levels of only two million a year for children,” Dayrit said. He thinks the vaccination program will extend to 2022 or even beyond. He added that there’s the problem of a big chunk of Filipinos, “as high as 30% to 40%,” refusing to get shots. Fact or hyperbole?

Yet, on TV News last Thursday, ABS-CBN anchors Tony Velasquez and Danny Buenaflor showed LGU centers with hordes of walk-ins who insistently wanted to get vaccinated, even without the prerequisite scheduling of the Mayor’s Office. On Friday, GMA News was still reporting the hordes that came for AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. How can this be? The answer came from on-site interviewees who plainly and honestly said that they wanted to be jabbed with the Pfizer-brand vaccine which just came in, or with AstraZeneca, now that it is available again, instead of the abundant no-choice-but Sinovac seen as pushed by government. Could there be more faith in US-made vs. made in China? Or a collective doubt about anything Chinese?

How strange that it would take the hesitancy towards a Chinese-made vaccine to draw out some maybe-unspoken doubts about Chinese-Philippine relations! The common consciousness about Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea (a.k.a. South China Sea) surfaced when, on March 7, over 200 Chinese militia ships were spotted in the Julian Felipe Reef around 175 nautical miles west of Bataraza, Palawan, within the country’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). It was Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana who first publicly protested on April 3 (almost a month later) about the intrusion. “They (the Chinese militia ships) sought shelter from inclement weather,” the Chinese embassy explained (as recounted by Tony Lopez in BizNews Asia, May 10, 2021). It only revealed the differences of opinion even at the Cabinet level vis-à-vis President Duterte on China. Duterte has since issued the gag rule, barring his Cabinet from publicly discussing the South China Sea dispute (The Diplomat, May 19, 2021).

Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio led the public outcry at the delayed and mixed reaction of government against the intrusion of China. He has been “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness” (like John the Baptist) for the Philippines to claim its territorial and maritime rights in the South China Sea as confirmed by the arbitration case awarded in July 2016 against the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Justice Carpio and then-Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario worked since the filing of the arbitration case in 2013 against the insistence of China on its own “nine-dash-line” of revised boundaries that infringed on Philippine sovereignty and rights (12 nautical miles) and jurisdiction over its EEZ (beyond the 12 nautical miles up to 200 nautical miles).

“We must fight this battle with China. We must preserve our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea through the rule of law,” Justice Carpio declared in print, mass media, and social media. For this, Carpio got threats of fisticuffs and collaring from Duterte. Perhaps it was unrealistic for Carpio to expect that Duterte would retract his lurid reactions to Carpio’s protest. “Launched through the Change.org platform, the petition urged Duterte to retract his statement that the arbitral ruling in favor of the Philippines is a scrap of paper meant to be thrown in the wastebasket. Carpio said the President should also take back his earlier statements that China is in possession of the West Philippine Sea and that Chinese nationals can fish there” (GMA News, May 14, 2021).

Carpio said Duterte’s statements could be considered betrayal of public trust, which is an impeachable offense. However, the retired justice admitted that impeaching a president who enjoys wide support in Congress will be an exercise in futility. Duterte lashed back, calling Carpio “stupid” on national television, and challenged Carpio to a debate on the West Philippine Sea. But the President backed down upon the advice of some Cabinet members.

Duterte admitted his statements in the debate could be construed as policy. “It’s not because I’m afraid of debates,” he said in his weekly talk to the nation on COVID-19 response and other issues.

At least the Filipino people gained something good from the morality play that was the latest Chinese intrusion in the West Philippine Sea: perhaps President Duterte now realizes (for the moment) that what he says in public is policy, and not retractable loose talk or “joke only.” While a president is president, his mind and heart are inseparably and indistinguishably for, and only for, the Filipino people.

Duterte, in the lead-up to the 2016 polls, said he would ride a jet ski to the Spratley’s in the West Philippine Sea, plant the Philippine flag in a Chinese airport on reclaimed land there, and tell Beijing, “This is ours.” (ABS-CBN News, May 10, 2019).

“That was campaign period and that joke, we call it bravado. My bravado was a pure campaign joke, and if the other side believes that, maybe even Carpio did, I would say you’re stupid,” Duterte said on national television (Ibid., ABS-CBN).

Enough of hyperbole, braggadocio, and “joke only.”

Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.

ahcylagan@yahoo.com

Israel’s Gaza challenge: Stopping metal tubes turning into rockets

May 23, 2021 | 5:22 pm

THE ISRAEL-HAMAS conflict that ended with a cease-fire on Friday showed the Palestinian group’s ability to build an arsenal of home-made rockets largely with civilian materials and Iranian expertise, analysts and officials said, a feat it could likely replicate.

The low cost of such arms and the need to rebuild Gaza leaves Israel and the international community with a quandary of how to meet Gazans’ basic needs yet keep ordinary items such as pipes, sugar and concrete from being put to military uses.

Current and former officials see no easy answers, saying it is all but impossible to seal off even a relatively small area such as Gaza and to prevent goods for reconstruction from being turned into locally made rockets.

Hamas and fellow militant group Palestine Islamic Jihad, both deemed foreign terrorist organizations by Washington, have boosted the quantity and quality of their rockets since the last Gaza conflict with Israel in 2014.

“We were extremely surprised by Hamas’ capacities this time around. They had long-distance rockets they didn’t have before. That is all down to Iran,” said a senior European official on condition of anonymity.

Israel said Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups fired about 4,360 rockets from Gaza during the conflict, of which around 680 fell short into the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Iron Dome interceptors, activated against rockets that threatened its population centers, had a successful shoot-down rate of about 90%, the military said.

It said 60 or 70 rockets still struck population centers, implying an accuracy rate of about 15%. Others fell in open areas, nonetheless triggering panic and sending Israelis scrambling for shelters as they flew overhead.

The majority of the rockets, analysts said, were short-range, unsophisticated and homemade.

They’re extremely simple to fabricate and they use metal tubing, metal pipes. They often, believe it or not, will use detritus from Israeli missiles,” said Daniel Benjamin, a former US State Department coordinator for counterterrorism.

“It’s just virtually impossible to make a place completely airtight,” said Mr. Benjamin, now president of the American Academy in Berlin.

The latest Israel-Hamas hostilities were triggered on May 10 in part by Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa compound, one of Islam’s holiest sites, and clashes with Palestinians during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

ROCKET FACTORIES
A Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the group had developed its own expertise producing rockets and needed no help.

“Therefore, any attempt to tighten the blockade on Gaza to limit the abilities of the resistance will be worthless,” he told Reuters by phone from Mauritania, where he is visiting.

Palestinian militant groups have used rockets for years. Before Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, its Gaza settlements were frequent targets for short-range mortar and rocket fire from nearby Palestinian towns.

Rockets only became the go-to weapon for Hamas after the military barrier that Israel began building around and through the occupied West Bank in 2003 made it harder for suicide bombers and gunmen to cross into Israel and carry out attacks.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad smuggled in factory-grade missiles via the Egyptian Sinai until the 2013 ouster of Islamist Mohammed Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president. After he was replaced by Egypt’s current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Cairo largely choked off that route by destroying tunnels into Gaza.

Egypt’s crackdown triggered what one Israeli official called a strategic shift by Hamas to develop local rocket fabrication capabilities with Iranian assistance, provided both by Iranians visiting Gaza and Gazans traveling abroad.

Now, Israeli and Palestinian sources say, the guerrillas use Iranian funding and instruction to make rockets inside Gaza that have ranges of 200 km (125 miles) or more, some with warheads carrying hundreds of kilograms of TNT and shrapnel.

One Iranian security official said Hamas now had at least three underground factories to produce rockets in Gaza.

In the conflict’s final days, Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Al-Nakhala boasted about his group’s ability to improvise weapons from everyday materials.

“The silent world should know that our weapons, by which we face the most advanced arsenal produced by American industry, are water pipes that engineers of the resistance turned into the rockets that you see,” he said on Wednesday.

‘SUITCASES OF MONEY’
Money, in many ways, is not the issue.

Qatar, with Israeli acquiescence, has provided substantial funding to Hamas in recent years, by some tallies, millions of dollars a month, chiefly to pay administrative salaries, some of which can then be siphoned off.

“It’s not rocket science, so to speak. A guy from Qatar comes every month with his suitcases of money accompanied by Israeli soldiers to pay Hamas administrative staff. That then disappears,” said the senior European official.

An Iranian diplomat in the region said millions of dollars were handed over to Hamas representatives almost every month, either carried into Gaza or neighboring countries.

“It does not mean money always came from inside Iran. We have businesses (in the region) that funded Hamas and it’s not a secret,” the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A western official who follows Hamas activities closely said the group was able to tap investment portfolios worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies across the Middle East.

“It controls about 40 companies in Turkey, UAE, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Algeria which deal mainly in real estate and infrastructure,” the official said.

A second official said the group was also able to obtain resources from charities sympathetic to its cause across Europe.

US President Joseph R. Biden said on Thursday aid would be sent quickly to Gaza, but coordinated with the Palestinian Authority — Hamas’ Western-backed rival in the occupied West Bank — “in a manner that does not permit Hamas to simply restock its military arsenal.”

That is easier said than done.

It would likely require on-the-ground monitoring, and it is not obvious whether Hamas would permit that or who might do it.

Dennis Ross, Washington’s former lead diplomat on Israeli-Palestinian peace, said someone, possibly the Egyptians and others, would need to have a physical presence in Gaza to inspect imported goods and monitor their use.

“If Hamas says ‘no’ then you put the spotlight on them,” he said, adding that one could pressure the militants by saying, “We’d like to be providing material to Gaza, but Hamas won’t permit it.”

An Israeli official was blunt about the challenge.

“Someone has to find a better way to monitor what’s going in, how it’s supervised and what it’s used for,” he said. — Reuters

Indians turn to illegal clinics as coronavirus spreads to rural areas

May 23, 2021 | 5:21 pm

A MAN selling masks in the busy street of Varanasi during the pandemic — SHUBHANGEE VYAS /UNSPLASH

AN INDIAN former hospital worker with no medical education is running a small unlicensed clinic, tending to patients with breathing difficulties and checking their oxygen levels as they lie on cots on the mud floor.

India has been hard hit by a second wave of coronavirus infections that has overwhelmed its health system, even in big cities.

In the countryside, medical facilities are dilapidated and doctors and nurses are few on the ground, meaning many clinics are run by people who don’t have training.

The poor health infrastructure and lack of testing means many patients do not know if they are infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) or just have a cold.

In Parsaul village, about 60 kms (40 miles) from the capital New Delhi, villager Ashok said people in his area were afraid to step out of their houses. He suspects that coronavirus had killed around 15 people nearby in recent days.

Mr. Ashok has come with a patient who had fever to the clinic run by a 52-year-old former hospital assistant who moves from one cot to another to check IV levels. Empty intravenous drips lie piled up under a brick-walled staircase.

“Patients with fever and breathing problems have increased in the last two months,” said the former assistant, who said he had been helping patients at his clinic since 1993 but did not wish to be identified as he feared a backlash from authorities.

“The people from nearby six or seven villages know me personally and trust me.”

Some patients wore face masks lying on cots, while others had their faces covered with clothing.

Bubli, 30, visited the clinic to get treatment for fever.

“No, she doesn’t have COVID, it’s just a fever,” Ms. Bubli’s husband told Reuters. “ “We are scared of COVID, but going out to a big hospital is more dangerous.”

Total infections in the country stood at 26.3 million on Saturday, the second highest in the world after the United States, while the country’s total death toll was 295,525. — Reuters

vivo-ZEISS partnership enhances mobile photography through new vivo X60

May 22, 2021 | 8:00 am

Proficiency in looking for visual elements is apparently an essential tool to capture subjects or scenes and turn them into creative images. But along one’s vision, the kind of photography gear would also matter to polish those images with high-quality, amazing details.

Whether you are creating a photograph of a magnificent landscape or merely preserving a happy occurrence, a good and handy camera can picture every moment possible. Enabling improved photography of any spectacular views or memorable experiences, leading smartphone brand vivo works with ZEISS, a world-renowned maker of lenses, to produce the vivo X60.

A flagship smartphone, the vivo X60 is the first-ever innovation of the vivo-ZEISS partnership. Such collaboration takes mobile photography to a new level in terms of night, motion, and portrait photography. Aside from its first-in-smartphone photography features, it also has a stunning design and powerful performance.

Users can practice photography even in dark settings and still look forward to wonderful images at night through the X60’s Extreme Night Vision 2.0. This allows users to produce high-quality low-light shots with artificial intelligence (AI) noise reduction algorithm, an innovation that was previously available only on advanced lenses in professional cameras.

The X60 also improves the experience of capturing events in motion. It utilizes a VIS 5-axis video stabilization technology to generate clear and ultra-HD quality shots of moving subjects.

Another groundbreaking motion photography feature in X60 is the ProSports, which also captures moving objects with a well-defined accuracy and is one of the instant scene modes ready for users to choose from its camera.

More scene modes that can enrich photos in X60 are HDR Super Night Portrait, Ultra-Wide Night Mode, Super Pano, Kids Snapshot, Multi-Style Portrait, Long Exposure Mode, and Super Moon, among others.

Above all, the principal tool that gives the X60 its superior photography capacities is the vivo-ZEISS co-engineered system. The X60 is made up of three rear cameras, which include a 48-megapixel main camera, 13-megapixel macro camera, and a 13-megapixel bokeh camera. And on its front, there is a 32-megapixel camera.

These groundbreaking abilities for photography practice show its best with the assistance of the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 870 processor, which assures daily user experience. The X60 also comes with the UFS 3.1 ultrafast flash memory to step up its speed and meet the demands for run time and storage.

To guarantee smooth scrolling and viewing, the X60 contains a 120Hz refresh rate. It also has a 240Hz response rate, which stimulates an ultra-responsive touch screen to optimize user performance for gaming or occupational capacities.

Furthermore, the X60 series has been awarded certifications like HDR10+ for better vibrancy and clarity in its display that leads to rich and immersive visuals.

Also attesting the exceptional quality of X60 is the ZEISS logo embellished on the lens and the ZEISS Vario-Tessar trademark carved under the cameras.

The X60 comes in colors of Midnight Black and Shimmer Blue, finished with a slim and sleek design.

Experience these brilliant photography features and excellent performance of vivo X60, now available in vivo stores nationwide and also on Lazada and Shopee for P34,999. For more information on this new smartphone, visit https://www.vivoglobal.ph/phone/vivo-X60/ or visit vivo Philippines on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Philippines adds 6,285 COVID-19 cases

May 21, 2021 | 8:29 pm

facemask-commuters — PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

The Department of Health (DoH) reported 6,285 coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing the total to 1.17 million. 

The death toll rose by 141 to 19,763, while recoveries increased by 2,586 to 1.1 million, it said in a bulletin.

There were 55,531 active cases,  1.4% of which were critical, 93.5% were mild, 2% did not show symptoms, 1.8% were severe and 1.22% were moderate.

It said 10 duplicates had been removed from the tally, five of which were tagged as recoveries. Seventy-four recoveries were reclassified as deaths, while 19 deaths were reclassified as recoveries. Five laboratories failed to submit data on May 19.

About 12.1 million Filipinos have been tested for the coronavirus as of May 19, according to DoH’s tracker website.

The coronavirus has sickened about 165.9 million and killed 3.4 million people worldwide, according to the Worldometers website, citing various sources including data from the World Health Organization.

About 146.6 million people have recovered, it said.

Meanwhile, the Health department on Friday opposed a proposal to let people aged 66 years and above who have been vaccinated go out. Only people aged 18 to 65 are allowed outside.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told an online briefing there is no guarantee that vaccinated people won’t get infected. She also reminded local governments to follow the priority for vaccination especially involving drugs under a global initiative for equal access.

She said the vaccines had been provided under specific condition that these will be given to healthcare workers, senior citizens and seriously ill people.

The Philippines has received 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and about 193,000 doses of the Pfizer, Inc. vaccine under the facility for equal access.

Meanwhile, the government would also prioritize athletes competing in the Olympics and Southeast Asian games for vaccines, presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr. said.

He added that an inter-agency task force had approved the proposal of Metro Manila  mayors to allow 30% capacity for religious events. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

Green lane for vaccinated tourists eyed

May 21, 2021 | 8:27 pm

passengers-tourists-coronavirus-NAIA-020720 — Passengers wearing protective masks, following confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country, arrive at the departure area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. -- *REUTERS*

The Tourism department on Friday said it had recommended that a green lane for vaccinated tourists be set up.

“The green lane will pave the way for the reopening of our tourist destinations to leisure travelers who are now fully vaccinated,” Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said in a statement.

“It will give the jobs back to many of our tourism workers and gradually revive the tourism industry under safe conditions,” she added.

The agency said it was studying protocols for inbound international travel for people who have been fully vaccinated.

It said some countries have eased border restrictions and opened up major destinations to fully vaccinated foreign visitors.

The Bureau of Immigration has said more international flights might resume in the next few months. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Traffic expected as NLEX starts bridge repairs

May 21, 2021 | 8:25 pm

Velo_image3-7 — NLEX Harbor Link, Segment 10 — PHOTO BY WALTER BOLLOZOS/THE PHILIPPINE STAR

Motorists may experience delays as NLEX Corp. has started repairs on Meycauayan and Bigaa bridges in Bulacan province, both built in the 1960s, the company’s top official said on Thursday.

In an e-mailed statement, the tollway company said the bridge rehabilitation projects seek to provide safer travel.

“We always look after the safety and convenience of our motorists. Both bridges were built in the 1960s and it is high time that we replace the girders and slabs to strengthen the structures,” NLEX Corp. President and General Manager J. Luigi L. Bautista said.

The rehabilitation of the 45-kilometer Meycauayan bridge is expected to be completed by September.

Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of the 64-kilometer Bigaa bridge in Balagtas is expected to be finished by August.

“To keep the traffic flowing as efficiently as possible, works on both bridges are being undertaken in stages, beginning with the southbound portion, then to be followed by the northbound portion. Three lanes have remained passable to motorists while works are ongoing,” NLEX Corp. said.

“Motorists may experience temporary delays since lane closures and counterflow are being implemented in the said areas,” it added.

NLEX Corp. is part of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC). MPIC is one of three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.

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

Senate OK’s bill on child sexual abuse

May 21, 2021 | 8:23 pm

The Senate on Thursday approved on second reading a bill seeking to strengthen the country’s law against sexual abuse of children online.

The Senate approved Senate Bill 2209, which will repeal the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 and amend the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009.

The committees on women, science and technology and finance approved the measure on Tuesday.

Senator Risa N. Hontiveros-Baraquel, who endorsed the bill to the plenary, said the bill penalizes the use of digital or analog communications to sexually abuse and exploit children.

Cases of online child sexual abuse almost quadrupled in the Philippines at the height of a coronavirus pandemic from March to May 2020, according to data from the Department of Justice.

The Philippines was also among the top 10 countries that produced child porn in 2016, Ms. Baraquel said in her sponsorship speech, citing a report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

Gov’t Q1 tax effort improves

May 21, 2021 | 7:18 pm

The share of tax collections in the country’s economic output rose to a record first quarterl level of 14.41% in January to March, according to the Department of Finance (DoF), a sign of improved economic activity amid a coronavirus pandemic.

State tax revenue went up by 0.44 percentage point during the quarter from a year earlier, the agency said in a bulletin.

The DoF traced the improvement to fiscal reforms under the government of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

“These reforms made the country one of the few emerging economies to maintain investment grade rating and avoid a credit rating downgrade which would have pushed up interest rates and delayed nascent economic recovery,” it added.

The P470-billion revenue generated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) accounted for 10.81% of gross domestic product (GDP), up from 10.52% in the first quarter of last year. Customs collections worth P149 billion translated to a tax effort of 3.43% from 3.27%.

Including revenue from nontax sources, the government’s total revenues fell by 1.14 percentage points to 16.03% of GDP in the first quarter from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the state’s total expenditure effort climbed by 4.32 percentage points to 23.42%. State spending rose by 19.9% to P1.018 trillion.

This resulted in a budget deficit equivalent to 7.4% of GDP, which ballooned from just 1.94% in the same period last year. Economic managers have capped the ratio this year to 9.4% 

“The country should continue to adopt fiscal reforms, particularly tax reforms still pending in Congress, to sustain these fiscal gains,” the DoF said.

“Due to fiscal reforms, the country was able to fund the unprecedented fiscal requirements imposed by the pandemic and, at the same time, protect its strong macroeconomic fundamentals,” it added.

Mr. Duterte has enacted a measure that will gradully lower the corporate income tax to 20% from 30%, while streamlining the country’s incentive system.

Two sin tax laws have also been passed since 2019 that increased the excise taxes on tobacco, cigarettes and vapor products and alcoholic beverages. 

These meaures followed the flagship tax law that slashed personal income tax, while increasing the excise taxes on various goods and services such as fuel, cars, tobacco, sugar-sweetened beverages and cosmetics, among other products.

Lenders’ suspicious transaction reports surge

May 21, 2021 | 7:15 pm

Suspicious transactions reported by Philippine banks and other financial institutions have risen in the past eight years, and are expected to grow by 26% and 44% this year and in 2022, according to the country’s anti-laundering agency.

These reports are expected to hit 1.2 million this year and 1.8 million in 2022 unless the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) does something about it, it said in a report.

Suspicious transaction reports rose by 63% last year to 1.01 million from a year earlier as reports filed b by pawnshops more than doubled to 149,935, the council said.

Money service businesses’ reports also almost tripled to 139,757 STRs in 2020, while electronic money issuers’ reports doubled to 144,294.

The increase in reports filed by these industries alone hit 237,352 STRs in last year, which was more than the 143,457 increase filed by universal and commercial banks.

Suspicious transaction reports involving crimes such as the online sexual exploitation of children surged by 40 times, the council said.

Covered institutions reported fewer suspicious transaction reports at the start of the lockdown in March to May last year, but these started increasing again as quarantines were eased in June. — Isabel B. Celis

BSP raises P110 billion from 28-day bills

May 21, 2021 | 7:13 pm

The Philippine central bank raised P110 billion at the auction of its short-term debt paper on Friday, even as rates rose on higher US Treasury yields.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) fully awarded the 28-day debt as bids reached P135.1 billion. The auction was 1.23 times oversubscribed, while demand was bigger than P120.9 billion at last week’s auction.

The bills fetched an average rate of 1.7746%, higher than 1.7739% a week earlier. This marked the first uptick in the rates of BSP securities after eight straight weeks of decline.

The asking range of banks fell to 1.7525-1.79% on Friday from 1.7625-1.8%.

The central bank uses the short-term bills and term deposit facility to mop up excess liquidity in the system and guide short-term interest rates.

“The results of the BSP bill auction remain in line with the BSP’s view that market conditions remain normal and financial system liquidity continues to be ample,” central bank Deputy Governor Francisco G. Dakila, Jr. said in a statement.

Offshore developments may have pushed the rates up, said Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

He said the local rates reacted to the higher US Treasury yields amid growing inflation concerns and hints from the Federal Reserve of a possible tapering of its bond-buying program. 

Benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields hit 1.68% on Wednesday and eased to 1.63% on Thursday, based on the latest data from the US Treasury department.

Some US policymakers have said the US central bank might have to start talking about reducing its bond purchases at some point, Reuters reported, citing minutes of the Federal Reserve’s April meeting released this week.

The rise in yields might have also been due to the loosening of quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila and nearby provinces until the end of May, Mr. Ricafort said.

Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal were placed under a general community quarantine from May 15 to May 30.

“Looking ahead, the BSP’s monetary operations will remain guided by its assessment of the latest liquidity conditions and market developments,” Mr. Dakila said.

Diokno says BSP in no hurry to adopt digital currency

May 21, 2021 | 6:24 pm

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will continue to study the possibility of developing its own digital currency but will seek to build up its capacity to handle digital-currency operations.

“We are developing our capacity to adopt it but we are not in a hurry… at the moment,” Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said during the Institute of International Finance’s Asia-Pacific summit Friday, in response to a question about developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

“We remain supportive of financial innovations brought about by technological advancements knowing that new and promising enhancements to the delivery of our mandate may still arise and therefore, we will look at it as we consult with other central banks,” Mr. Diokno added.

The central bank is in possession of the results of a study conducted by a technical working group formed before the pandemic, but he did detail the findings.

Late last year, Mr. Diokno had said the BSP will continue to assess the issue of a digital currency but may not move to issue one within the next five years.

A CBDC is centralized, issued, and regulated by a central bank, and can serve as a medium of exchange or store of value. It is deemed less prone to price volatility unlikeh decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

It may also act as a representation of actual paper-based currency notes. Central banks in China, Sweden, and Singapore are among those considering the issue of CBDCs.

The BSP has cited potential benefits of such an issue, including broader financial inclusion with the decline of bills and coins, additional options for monetary policy action, and heightened competition and innovation in the financial system.

Some of the risks include privacy violations, higher banking costs, money laundering, terrorism financing and other cybersecurity issues.

On the bank’s financial inclusion goals, Mr. Diokno said the BSP retains its target of a 50% share of digital for all financial transactions, and 70% penetration of financial accounts in the adult population by 2023.

“With the pandemic, we will accomplish such goals earlier than originally envisioned, so that may be before the end of 2022,” he said. – Beatrice M. Laforga