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Proven safe and effective

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COVID-19 vaccine acceptance has been a critical concern over the past few months. To address hesitancy and to encourage uptake, FDA-approved vaccines have repeatedly been described to be safe and effective. Some understand “safety” in this context as a guarantee that no vaccine shot would cause death in a recipient while others have set greater expectations that often pertain to the avoidance of certain adverse effects. Despite variances in the desired outcomes, the communicated standard for safety from the authorities is clear: you will not die from vaccination alone. However, such a standard for effectiveness has not been clearly established.

In management, “effectiveness” is defined as the degree to which something succeeds in producing a desired result. This is in stark contrast with perceiving effectiveness merely as the presence of causal effects. From a managerial standpoint, defining the desired results is a necessary step in evaluating the effectiveness of a product or endeavor. When it comes to vaccines, the desired results may vary greatly from person to person. Given the vast amounts of knowledge on the various vaccines that have been generated so far, we have several bases for defining our desired outcomes and for guiding our vaccination-related decisions. For instance, some would prioritize avoiding specific adverse effects that occur frequently for some vaccines. Others would consider their medical histories and other vulnerabilities including but not limited to past allergic reactions, immunodeficiencies, and mental health considerations. Some would consider non-medical factors such as potential work and travel implications, while others would just want to get the vaccination over with by using any vaccine brand that is already available. With such a wide variety of factors to consider and with clear differences in the actual effects of the different options, it is easy to appreciate that effectiveness should not simply be dictated to us by the authorities. Rather, we ourselves need to assess effectiveness based on our own desired results.

No matter which factors we choose to value for our own assessments of effectiveness, authorities should have communicated a minimum standard clearly and consistently from the start: that an approved vaccine will not by itself kill you and will decrease your chances of infection, transmission, hospitalization, and death. Sadly, one of the many factors that have affected vaccine acceptance is the inability of authorities to stay consistent with their communication. Instead of presenting a consistent set of reasonable expectations, they took a reactive approach and dealt with each unfavorable event as it happened.

Many people started with the expectation that vaccines would allow us to go back to the way things used to be. When persons who got one shot either tested positive or died, authorities emphasized that a second shot was needed. When persons who got two shots still tested positive, authorities emphasized that full protection only comes two to three weeks after the second shot, and that although infection can still occur, hospitalization and death could be avoided. Recently, several fully vaccinated persons died of COVID-19. All these outcomes should have been expected, and we should realistically expect more of such outcomes because no vaccine is 100% effective in preventing infection, transmission, hospitalization, and death. Instead, a series of broken expectations resulted in the incremental degradation of the perceived value of some vaccines. Such degradation could have been avoided through clear, consistent, and honest communication, which authorities should work towards moving forward.

Today, my 91-year-old grandmother will get her second vaccine shot. Tomorrow, I will get mine. In a few weeks, we will be among less than 3 million fully vaccinated people in the Philippines, which is sadly less than 4% of the 70 million target population for herd immunity. My desired vaccination result of minimizing our risks of infection, transmission, hospitalization, and death, and the path leading towards it has always been clear to me no matter how little control I have over it.

Can I still get infected by COVID-19, transmit it, and get hospitalized or die due to it after getting fully vaccinated? The answer is still “yes.” However, the chances of each of those undesirable events occurring should be significantly reduced after my second shot, enabling me to protect myself and the people around me. Due to decisions made based on my desired results, vaccine effectiveness will have been achieved.

 

Rafael Gerardo S. Tensuan, an engineer, is a lecturer at the Management and Organization Department of the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University.

rstensuan@gmail.com

1Sambayan needs to find out what wins elections

“We need to understand why many are attracted to President Duterte and to politicians like him.” That is what Vice-President Leni Robredo said in her radio talk show the day after 1Sambayan announced she was one of those the political coalition is considering nominating for president in the general elections in 2022. She implies that to win in 2022, candidates need to know what makes people attracted to Mr. Duterte.

I assume the basis of her saying that many are attracted to the President is his high rating in public opinion polls. In Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) nationwide surveys, President Duterte’s satisfaction rating has been in the 70s. However, she probably finds it hard to reconcile the high satisfaction rating of the President with the various issues surrounding the administration that should be damaging to President Duterte’s political standing.

After all, the President himself admitted that he had failed to fulfill his campaign promises of eliminating the illegal drug trade, eradicating corruption in his administration, and controlling criminality. He had also become defeatist when faced with the challenges to his administration. Fed up with the unsuccessful attempts to solve the traffic gridlock on EDSA, he blurted, “Let EDSA rot.” About the Pasig River, he said, “That Pasig, you can no longer clean it.” Most alienating was his message to jeepney operators or owners. The President angrily told them: “If you can’t modernize that, leave. You’re poor? Son of a bitch, go ahead, suffer in poverty and hunger, I don’t care.”

Yet, the President, in the words of Vice-President Robredo, remains attractive to many people. No, the people do not turn a blind eye to those human rights abuses, they just don’t set their eyes on those extra judicial killings, just as they don’t set their eyes on other issues that impact on their daily lives.

The respondents in surveys are asked to give their opinion on the performance of the President. The usual wording of the question asked in surveys about the President’s performance is as follows:

“Please tell me how satisfied or dissatisfied you are with the performance of Rodrigo Duterte as President of the Philippines. Are you very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, undecided if satisfied or dissatisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, very dissatisfied, or you have not ever heard or read anything about Rodrigo Duterte?”

We cannot tell what those who find the President’s performance satisfactory base their assessment on as they are not asked why they are satisfied with President Duterte’s performance. Each respondent interprets the question from his own viewpoint. One respondent’s understanding of the word “performance” may be different from another respondent’s understanding of the same word, and much more so from that of political commentators.

SWS draws its sample from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) population figures. According to the PSA, the Philippine population breaks down into 1% AB, 9% C, 60% D, and 30% E socio-economic classes. If the sample of 1,500 respondents is representative of the voting population, as it should be, then only 15 respondents come from the socio-economic class AB and 135 come from Class C. The bulk of the interviews therefore is conducted among the lower socio-economic classes — 900 from among those belonging to the socio-economic class D and 450 to class E.

I wonder, therefore, if the great majority of the respondents know what the responsibilities of the president are. So, when adult Filipinos are asked if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the performance of the President, their frame of reference could be the performance of something unrelated to governance, like his long speeches spiced with racy adlibs or his expletive-laden tirades against his detractors and Catholic Church dignitaries. Respondents could also be referring to the President’s abandonment of the formalities, traditions, and protocol long established in Malacañang in favor of the ways of the common tao.

To extract more accurate information about the people’s opinion of the performance of the President, a number of questions should be asked of respondents of public opinion polls. In addition to the first question on the degree of satisfaction about the president’s performance, the following open questions (not multiple choice) should be asked:

1. What makes you feel the way you do about the president’s performance?

2. Can you cite the act of the president you are most satisfied with?

Perhaps looking back at the 2016 campaign period may also provide some understanding of the initial attractiveness of politicians and their eventual fallout. In 2016, presidential candidate Jojo Binay projected himself as the person who could raise the people from the depths of poverty. “Life will improve with Binay” said his slogan, citing his governance of the financial capital of the Philippines as basis of that claim.

The slogan seemed to have worked for he topped the polls for a long time until his political enemies twisted the slogan into something like “Life improved for the Binays when they ruled over Makati.” His campaign staff changed the slogan to “competence and experience.” Senator Grace Poe asked rhetorically “Experience and competence in anomalous transactions?”

While having had only modest accomplishments as a senator, Ms. Poe topped the polls on presidential candidates as she projected herself as the one to carry on what FPJ (her father, actor and presidential candidate Fernando Poe, Jr.) had started. When stumped by the question of what FPJ had started, she adopted the slogan “Walang iwanan (We don’t leave anyone behind).” But her detractors countered by accusing her of having turned her back on her countrymen when she migrated to the United States and renounced her Filipino citizenship so she could get a job.

Mar Roxas’ campaign staff created for him the image of “PNoy’s anointed” and the “Toll patrol of the Straight Path.” His rivals for the presidency did not bother demolishing or distorting that image as it never catapulted him to the top spot in the polls anyway.

When Mr. Duterte joined the presidential race, his persona of the “Fearless crimebuster,” a Filipino and a real-life version of the Hollywood movie character Dirty Harry (from which DU30 was derived) placed him at the top of the polls. His opponents tried to put him down as only a mayor of a city at the southern tip of the country and therefore not knowledgeable of issues of national and international implications. That putdown only made him attractive to people who had been wanting to rid the top echelons of government of traditional politicians.

I chose the word “persona” over “personality” because “persona” is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as “the type of character that a person seems to have that is often different from his real character.” When President Duterte backed out of his own challenge for a debate with retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, his detractors flooded social media with his image above which was the word in bold capital letters “Duwag (Coward).”

The label “Coward” must have disturbed President Duterte immensely as his underlings took on a massive effort to justify his withdrawal from the debate. The excuse that it was below the dignity of President Duterte to debate with a private citizen, though a Supreme Court justice he may have been, did not wash. It was the President himself who challenged Mr. Carpio to a debate. President Duterte’s retreat totally destroyed his “Fearless” persona and proved his “macho” image a myth.

 

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. is a retired corporate executive, business consultant, and management professor. He has been a politicized citizen since his college days in the late 1950s.

Corporate governance principles of transparency and accountability: Duty to maintain and report on key corporate records

One of the significant corporate governance (CG) reforms introduced under the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines (RCCP) was the formally institution of the “fiduciary duty to maintain records and to report on significant corporate information.” Section 161 of the RCCP, under the title “Violation of Duty to Maintain Records, to Allow Their Inspection and Reproduction,” expressly subjects to a specified range of criminal fines, “The unjustified failure or refusal by the corporation, or by those responsible for keeping and maintaining corporate records, to comply with” the following sections, thus:

(a) SECTION 45: Bylaws shall be signed by the stockholders or members voting for them and shall be kept in the principal office of the corporation, subject to the inspection of the stockholders or members during office hours.

(b) SECTION 73: Every corporation shall keep and carefully preserve at its principal office all information relating to the corporation including, but not limited to:

(1) Articles of incorporation and bylaws and all their amendments;

(2) Current ownership structure and voting rights of the corporation, including lists of shareholders or members, group structures, intra-group relations, ownership data, and beneficial ownership;

(3) Names and addresses of all the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Officers;

(4) Record of the resolutions of the Board of Directors and of the shareholders or members;

(5) Record of all business transactions;

(6) Copies of the latest reportorial requirements submitted to the SEC; and,

(7) Minutes of all meetings of shareholders or members, or of the Board of Directors, setting forth in detail, among others;

(i) Time and place of the meeting held;

(ii) How it was authorized, the notice given, the agenda therefor;

(iii) Whether the meeting was regular or special, its object if special;

(iv) Those present and absent, and every act done or ordered done at the meeting;

(v) The following must be noted in the minutes upon the demand of a director or trustee, shareholder or member:

• Time when any director or trustee, shareholder or member entered or left the meeting;

• The yeas and nays on any motion or proposition, and a record thereof carefully made; or,

• The protest of a director or trustee, shareholder or member on any action or proposed action.

(vi) Stock and Transfer Book (STB) containing:

• Record of all stocks in the names of the shareholders alphabetically arranged;

• The installments paid and unpaid on all stocks for which subscription has been made, and the date of payment of any installment;

• A statement of every alienation, sale or transfer of stock made, the date thereof, by and to whom made; and,

• Such other entries as the bylaws may prescribe.

The STB, which shall be kept in the principal office or in the office of the stock transfer agent, shall be open for inspection by any director or shareholder at reasonable hours on business days.

(c) SECTION 92: Non-stock corporation shall, at all times, keep a list of its members and their proxies in the form the SEC may require, which shall be updated to reflect the members and proxies of record 20 days prior to any scheduled election;

(d) SECTION 128: For One-Person Corporation, when action is needed of any matter, it shall be sufficient to prepare a written resolution, signed and dated by the Single Stockholder, and recorded in the Minutes Book.

(e) SECTION 177: Every corporation, domestic or foreign, doing business in the Philippines, shall submit to the SEC: (a) Annual Audited Financial Statements certified under oath by the Treasurer or Chief Financial Officer; and (b) the General Information Sheet (GIS);

Corporations Vested with Public Interests Must Submit in Addition:

(1) A compensation report for each of the directors or trustees; and,

(2) An appraisal or performance report for each director or trustee, and the standards or criteria used to assess each director or trustee.

(f) “Other pertinent rules and provisions of this code on inspection and reproduction of records,” into which may fall the following:

(1) SECTION 58: Providing that voting trust agreement filed with the corporation shall be subject to examination by any shareholder in the same manner as other corporate book or record;

(2) SECTION 74: Provides that —

(i) A corporation shall furnish a shareholder or member, within 10 days from receipt of their written request, its most recent financial statement, in the form and substance of the financial reporting required by the SEC;

(ii) At the regular meeting of shareholders or members, the Board of Directors shall present a financial report of the operations of the corporation for the preceding year, which shall include financial statements duly signed and certified in accordance with the RCCP and the rules prescribed by SEC.

Under the old Corporation Code, only a denial of the right of inspection and/or reproduction of corporate records was subjected to criminal penalty. The RCCP not only retains the separate criminal penalty for violation of the right of inspection and/or reproduction, but has provided under Section 161 for a criminal penalty for the foregoing violations of the “duty to maintain records and to allow their inspection or reproduction.”

Under Section 73 of the RCCP, any officer or agent of the corporation who shall refuse to allow the inspection and/or reproduction of corporate records shall be liable under Section 161; provided, that if such refusal is made pursuant to a resolution or order of the Board of Directors, the liability shall be imposed upon the directors or trustees who voted for such refusal. Section 73 also provides that “If the corporation denies or does not act on a demand for inspection and/or reproduction, the aggrieved party may report such denial or inaction to the [SEC]. Within five days from receipt of such report, the [SEC] shall conduct a summary investigation and issue an order directing the inspection or reproduction of the requested records.”

Falling within the “Duty to Report” are the following provisions of the RCCP:

(a) Section 25: Provides that —

(1) Within 30 days after the election of the directors or trustees and officers, the Corporate Secretary, or any other officer, shall submit to the SEC, the names, nationalities, shareholdings, and residence addresses of directors or trustees and officers elected;

(2) Within 30 days from the date of the schedule election, shall be reported to the SEC, which report shall specific a new date for the election, which shall not be later than 60 days from the schedule date; and,

(3) Within seven days from knowledge thereof, a report in writing shall be made to the SEC of the death, resignation or in any manner ceasing to hold office of a director or trustee or officer.

(b) SECTION 28: The corporation must notify the SEC within three days from the creation of an Emergency Board, stating therein the reason for its creation;

(c) SECTION 29: Providing that corporation vested with public interest shall submit to their shareholders and the SEC, an annual report of the total compensation of each of their directors or trustees.

(d) SECTION 49: Providing that at each regular meeting of shareholders or members, the Board of Directors shall endeavor to present the following:

(1) The minutes of the most recent regular meeting which shall include, among others:

(i) A description of the voting and vote tabulation procedures used in the previous meeting;

(ii) A description of the opportunity given to shareholders or members to ask questions and a record of the questions asked and answers given;

(iii) The matters discussed and resolutions reached;

(iv) A record of the voting results for each agenda item;

(v) A list of the directors or trustees, officers and shareholders or members who attended the meeting; and,

(vi) Such other items that the Commission may require in the interest of good corporate governance and the protection of minority shareholders;

(2) A members’ list for nonstock corporations and, for stock corporations, material information on the current shareholders, and their voting rights;

(3) A detailed, descriptive, balanced and comprehensible assessment of the corporation’s performance, which shall include information on any material change in the corporation’s business, strategy, and other affairs;

(4) A financial report for the preceding year, which shall include financial statements duly signed and certified in accordance with this Code and the rules the Commission may prescribe, a statement on the adequacy of the corporation’s internal controls or risk management systems, and a statement of all external audit and non-audit fees;

(5) An explanation of the dividend policy, the fact of payment of dividends or reasons for nonpayment;

(6) Director or trustee profiles which shall include, among others, their qualifications and relevant experience, length of service in the corporation, trainings and continuing education attended, and their board representations in other corporations;

(7) A director or trustee attendance report, indicating the attendance of each director or trustee at each of the meetings of the board and its committees and in regular or special shareholder meetings;

(8) Appraisals and performance reports for the board and the criteria and procedure for assessment;

(9) A director or trustee compensation report prepared in accordance with this Code and the rules of the Commission may prescribe;

(10) Director disclosures on self-dealings and related party transactions; and/or

(11) The profiles of directors nominated or seeking election or reelection.

It must be noted that there is no specific provision under the RCCP that specifically imposes criminal penalties for violation of the “duty to report” under Sections 25, 29 and 49. The issue therefore that most confront directors or trustees and reporting officers is whether they can be punished under the general sanction clause of Section 170 of the RCCP. It should also be noted that nothing prevents the SEC from adopting the reportorial provisions of Sections 25, 29, and 49 and imposing administrative sanctions under Section 158 of the RCCP.

This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or the MAP.

 

Attorney Cesar L. Villanueva is Chair of MAP Corporate Governance Committee, trustee of the Institute of Corporate Directors, former Chair of Governance Commission for GOCCs (August 2011 to June 2016), Dean of the Ateneo Law School (April 2004 to September 2011), author of the book The Law and Practice in Philippine Corporate Governance and the National Book Board Award-winning Profession, and founding partner of the Villanueva Gabionza & Dy Law Offices.

map@map.org.ph

cvillanueva@vgslaw.com

http://map.org.ph

High growth under PNoy Aquino and tax cuts under Duterte

This is a follow up to last week’s piece, “The economic and energy legacy of PNoy Aquino” (June 28). Also good opinion pieces on the late President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino’s administration here in BusinessWorld are “PNoy and inclusion” (June 27) by Dr. Raul Fabella, and “PNoy’s unsung contribution: Rapid industrialization” (July 4) by Andrew Masigan.

A friend and Cabinet Secretary asked if 2020 can be separated in assessing Philippines economic performance. So here I disaggregated the averages from six years to three years under former Presidents Gloria Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III, and current President Rodrigo Duterte.

For comparison and additional context, I included data (as of 2020) on the Philippines’ four neighbors with big populations: Indonesia, which has a population of 270.2 million, Vietnam with 97.4 million, Thailand with 69.8 million, and Myanmar with 53.2 million. The population of the Philippines is 108.8 million.

I used four sources in constructing Table 1: the IMF, World Economic Outlook (WEO) database April 2021 for GDP growth; ADB, Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2020 for unemployment rate and labor force participation rate until 2019; Trading Economics for labor data 2020; and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for the Philippines labor force survey October 2020.

The numbers in Table 1 show the following:

1. GDP growth: The 6.6% growth in 2014-2016 — PNoy’s last three years — would be the highest economic achievement for the past four decades or more in the Philippines. The 6.4% in 2017-2019 (the Duterte administration) was also high, but growth momentum has been reversed. The -9.6% contraction in 2020 was the worst since post WWII records.

Myanmar is the most dynamic economy in the ASEAN and perhaps in the world today. It was growing 12% to 15% a year from 2000 to 2007, and managed to grow 3.2% in 2020.

2. Unemployment rate: PNoy significantly reduced joblessness, from 7.4% of the labor force in 2010 to 5.4% in 2016. President Duterte has continued the unemployment decline to 5.1% in 2019, but this quickly jumped to 8.7% in October 2020 due to indefinite lockdowns and many business and school closures.

3. Labor force participation rate (LFPR): This is an indicator of job optimism or pessimism. If many people, the younger ones especially, think that there are no jobs available anyway, they stop looking for a job and pursue additional studies and are not counted as unemployed. LFPR declines as an indicator of job pessimism, and this is evident under the Duterte administration starting 2017. For the first time since the 1990s and perhaps the 1970s and ’80s, the LFPR is below 62%. Then it further worsened to 59% in 2020.

Filipinos and Philippine-based businesses have much to thank in the administration of PNoy Aquino.

The Duterte administration, however, should be credited for one important achievement — reducing the Philippines’ high corporate income tax (CIT) as a response to continuing tax competition in the ASEAN.

The Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act of 2021 (RA 11534) has reduced the CIT, retroactive to July 2020, to 25% for big corporations and 20% for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with net taxable income of P5 million or lower, and total assets of P100 million or lower excluding land.

Until the first half of 2020, the Philippines had the highest CIT at 30% while Singapore had the lowest with only 17%, followed by Brunei with 18.5%. Five neighbors have 20% CIT — Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Malaysia and Myanmar have 24% and 25%, respectively (see Table 2).

Recently, Finance Ministers and Treasury Secretaries in the US and Europe have pushed for a global minimum tax (GMT) of 15%, tax harmonization, and killing tax competition worldwide. Their plan is to impose the GMT on companies where they do most business, not on where they are based or headquartered.

Global tax competition is dynamic. See these countries and economies with low CIT or even zero CIT:

• Zero CIT: Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Vanuatu.

• 3-9% CIT: Micronesia 3%, Barbados 5.5%, Uzbekistan 7.5%, and Hungary and Montenegro 9%.

• 10% flat CIT: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Paraguay, and Qatar.

• 12-12.5% CIT: Macau, Moldova, Cyprus, Ireland, and Liechtenstein.

Small countries have few natural resources and small land area, or they may have big resources like oil and gas but they lack highly technical people to develop and extract those resources, they attract businesses and professionals via low or zero CIT. Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE are doing this.

The move to a GMT of 15% is not good. We should see more tax competition, not tax harmonization and higher taxes.

 

Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the Director for Communication and Corporate Affairs, Alas Oplas & Co. CPAs

nonoyoplas@alasoplascpas.com

China’s Xi, Europe leaders said to plan talks as tensions flare

REUTERS

CHINA’s Xi Jinping is expected to speak this week with Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron, people with knowledge of the matter said, as they attempt to keep human rights disputes from scuttling efforts at cooperation.

The agenda for the joint video call between the leaders isn’t yet known, according to the people, who asked not to be named since the information isn’t public. The French and German leaders have held similar discussions with Mr. Xi in the past, including a Dec. 30 call with top European Union (EU) officials that resulted in a now-stalled investment agreement.

China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Officials with the French and German governments didn’t confirm that the call would go ahead.

China-EU ties have frayed this year amid an upsurge in negative views toward Beijing in Europe and US President Joseph R. Biden’s effort to press traditional American allies to make a united defense of democracy and human rights. China’s crackdown on its Uyghur minority in Xinjiang has emerged as a key point of tension, with the two sides sanctioning each other’s officials and EU lawmakers in May halting ratification of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.

The two sides have also clashed over Group of Seven (G7) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization statements expressing concern about China’s challenge to the established global order. Ms. Merkel and Mr. Macron have advocated a middle ground with China, whose cooperation is vital to global efforts to fight climate change and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Mr. Macron hosted a climate-focused call with Ms. Merkel and Mr. Xi in April, days before a wider climate summit hosted by Mr. Biden. At the time, the European leaders welcomed Mr. Xi’s renewed commitment for China to achieve CO2 neutrality by 2060. The trio also discussed the coronavirus pandemic and global vaccine availability.

China accounted for almost $700 billion of trade with the European Union last year, and Mr. Macron is said to be keen to give a new push to the interests of the aviation company Airbus SE. The Europeans also want China to ease travel restrictions into China for EU citizens, especially business people.

Last month, the G7, which includes France and Germany, joined the EU and the US in pushing for a fresh World Health Organization probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese diplomats have lashed out against such calls, which Beijing has dismissed as a US-led effort to shift the blame for its own struggle to contain the virus last year.

Still, the Uyghur issue has been the most contentious, with China denying claims it forced ethnic Muslims into internment camps, work programs and birth-control initiatives. A French prosecutor’s office has launched a probe into whether Claudie Pierlot parent SMCP SA, Zara owner Inditex SA, Skechers and Uniqlo profited from exploiting forced labor in China to manufacture fashion products.

Mr. Xi has signaled a defiant stance toward what Beijing views as foreign interference, saying in a nationally televised speech to mark the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party that China would no longer listen to “sanctimonious preaching.” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi echoed that sentiment Saturday at a forum in Beijing, in which he accused the US and its allies of holding onto a “Cold War mentality.”

“Today’s China is no longer the same country of 100 years ago,” Mr. Wang told the World Peace Forum, which was organized by Tsinghua University and the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, a government-run policy group. “No individual or force should underestimate the determination and capacity of the Chinese people to uphold the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests.”

During a panel discussion at the same forum, leading European diplomats called on China to listen to international concerns. Caroline Wilson, the UK’s ambassador to China, told the panel Sunday that human rights issues were “foundational matters” and not tools in a geopolitical game.

Nicolas Chapuis, the European Union’s ambassador, expressed “dismay” in China’s more aggressive approach. “Effective multilateralism implies that all nations, big and small, sit at the same table with the same rights, and most importantly, accept peer review in a tolerant and constructive manner,” Mr. Chapuis said.

The Italian ambassador to China, Luca Ferrari, said on the Sunday panel that the sanctions have been the “main shadow” on the relationship between Beijing and the EU. He called on China to relook at the sanctions to “come out of this conundrum.” — Bloomberg

Hackers demand $70M from companies hit in cyberattack 

WASHINGTON — Hackers suspected to be behind a mass extortion attack that affected hundreds of companies worldwide late on Sunday demanded $70 million to restore the data they are holding ransom, according to a posting on a dark web site.

The demand was posted on a blog typically used by the REvil cybercrime gang, a Russia-linked group that is counted among the cybercriminal world’s most prolific extortionists.

The gang has an affiliate structure, occasionally making it difficult to determine who speaks on the hackers’ behalf, but Allan Liska of cybersecurity firm Recorded Future said the message “almost certainly” came from REvil’s core leadership.

The group has not responded to an attempt by Reuters to reach it for comment.

REvil’s ransomware attack, which the group executed on Friday, was among the most dramatic in a series of increasingly attention-grabbing hacks.

The gang broke into Kaseya, a Miami-based information technology firm, and used their access to breach some of its clients’ clients, setting off a chain reaction that quickly paralyzed the computers of hundreds of firms worldwide.

An executive at Kaseya said the company was aware of the ransom demand but did not immediately return further messages seeking comment.

About a dozen different countries were affected, according to research published https://www.welivesecurity.com/2021/07/03/kaseya-supply-chain-attack-what-we-know-so-far by cybersecurity firm ESET.

In at least one case, the disruption spilled out into the public domain when Swedish Coop grocery store chain had to close hundreds of stores on Saturday because its cash registers had been knocked offline as a consequence of the attack. .

Earlier on Sunday, the White House said it was reaching out to victims of the outbreak “to provide assistance based upon an assessment of national risk.”

The impact of the intrusion is still coming into focus.

Those hit included schools, small public-sector bodies, travel and leisure organizations, credit unions and accountants, said Ross McKerchar, chief information security officer at Sophos Group Plc.

McKerchar’s company was one of several that had blamed REvil for the attack, but Sunday’s statement was the group’s first public acknowledgement that it was behind the campaign.

Ransom-seeking hackers have tended to favor more focused shakedowns against single, high-value targets like Brazilian meatpacker JBS, whose production was disrupted last month when REvil attacked its systems. JBS said it ended up paying the hackers $11 million.

Liska said he believed the hackers had bitten off more than they could chew by scrambling the data of hundreds of companies at a time and that the $70 million demand was an effort to make the best of an awkward situation.

“For all of their big talk on their blog, I think this got way out of hand,” he said. — Reuters

Americans’ July Fourth festivities sparkle after last year’s pandemic cancellations

REUTERS
A child holds a US flag as she watches the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks in New York City, New York, US, July 4, 2021. — REUTERS/ANDREW KELLY

NEW YORK — Americans marked their nation’s 245th birthday on Sunday with fireworks that may look brighter, hot dogs that may taste juicier and marching bands that may sound jauntier after the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of nearly all celebrations last year.

As always, fireworks displays are the highlight of the July Fourth holiday. Two of the biggest pyrotechnic shows in the country will blast off over the National Mall in Washington, and over a mile stretch of New York City’s East River, separating Manhattan from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.

Despite being scaled back by COVID-19, Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest at Brooklyn’s Coney Island thrilled socially distanced crowds when reigning champion Joey Chestnut shattered his own world record by downing 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. That was one more than he gobbled last year and marked his 14th win.

This year’s Independence Day holiday, following 600,000 US deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and amid a rise in the more aggressive Delta variant, was a time for Americans to show their patriotism and celebrate a personal sense of freedom by mingling with friends again and enjoying summer’s simple pleasures.

But the occasion was not entirely carefree. The US Department of Homeland Security warned state and local police last week of a heightened threat of violence by domestic extremist groups amid relaxed COVID-19 restrictions and the July Fourth holiday.

It was expected to be the busiest July Fourth road travel holiday on record — with an estimated 43.6 million Americans behind the wheel, or 5% more than a previous record set in 2019, the American Automobile Association said.

At Independence Hall in Philadelphia, first lady Jill Biden told a crowd: “The clouds have broken” after a long, dreary winter of isolation battling COVID-19 along with efforts to meet her husband’s goal of getting 70% of US adults their first shot by July Fourth. The government calculated the number at about 67%, as some people have resisted getting vaccinated.

“We’re not at the finish line yet, but summer has never felt more full of possibility, and doesn’t the air smell so much sweeter without our masks?” the first lady said.

Unvaccinated attendees must wear a mask at an evening celebration for 1,000 people on the White House lawn that President Joseph R. Biden and the first lady are hosting for essential workers and military families, officials said. 

The US Secret Service said authorities removed barriers at the White House that were erected in recent years to increase security. The change allows visitors to get right up to the fence of the White House.

The president is hosting the event three days after his visit to Surfside, Florida, to console families whose loved ones were in a condo tower that collapsed on June 24. Several Florida communities canceled their July Fourth fireworks out of respect for those affected by the tragedy, city officials said.

RECONNECTING
The holiday meant a chance for Aleksandra Magidoff, a 12-year-old girl from Brooklyn, to travel to a New Jersey suburb to reconnect with a lifelong friend and her family. They were among the more than 3.5 million people who have moved out of New York, once the US epicenter of COVID-19, since the pandemic started in the spring of 2020.

“I’m so excited — I can talk to them and celebrate with them and just socialize!” said Ms. Magidoff, who was fully vaccinated under the enormous blue whale model at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The girls planned to gorge on “a bunch of hamburgers and hot dogs” before taking in the fireworks show at a New Jersey fairgrounds, she said.

Last July Fourth, she watched fireworks from her apartment building’s rooftop while under pandemic lockdown, allowed to celebrate with only her immediate family.

Earlier on Sunday in Washington, marching bands stepped off in a traditional parade on Capitol Hill’s Barracks Row. As darkness falls, the National Mall was expected to draw big crowds to a 17-minute fireworks display set off from both sides of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

On New York’s East River, 50 pyrotechnicians have spent days loading more than 65,000 shells on five barges to wow audiences watching the spectacular show either in person or on television. The display is presented by Macy’s department store.

Lighting up the night’s sky not only delights crowds but promises to restore a lifeline this year for the businesses that supply the 16,000 July Fourth fireworks displays that typically occur in cities and towns. Last year, only a “scant few” went on with the show, said Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association.

“Approximately 70% are scheduled to return, and many will be bigger and better than pre-pandemic levels,” Heckman said.

But for some, the holiday was somber.

In addition to the pall cast over the country by the pandemic and the Florida building collapse, the US West faces a heightened risk of wildfires after a scorching heat wave and extremely dry conditions. Nationwide supply-chain glitches tied to the pandemic have jacked up prices of everything from household items to fireworks. — Reuters

PLDT assures stronger commitment to ESG Sustainability Goals under new leadership

The country’s largest fully integrated telco provider PLDT recently announced that it is reaffirming its group-wide commitment to align more business initiatives that contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals (UNSDGs) during the recently organized BusinessWorld Economic Forum on how ESG Criteria guides Leading Companies.

Joined by other panel experts in the group, PLDT Investor Relations Head and newly appointed Head of the Sustainability Office Melissa Vergel de Dios explained how PLDT is reinforcing its programs on sustainability, to focus on more initiatives under the Environment, Social, and Governance pillars that are closely aligned with the business and its purpose of “Connecting and Empowering Filipinos everywhere.”

“A key success factor for sustainability efforts within a company is that it should be high in the CEO agenda. PLDT’s focus on sustainability began under our Chairman, Manny Pangilinan, and I’m happy to share that our new CEO, Al Panlilio, is taking sustainability a notch higher. His direction is to ensure that sustainability is incorporated in the strategies for our three areas of focus, namely: customer experience, digitalization, and operating efficiencies,” Vergel de Dios said.

For the PLDT Group, Vergel de Dios shared three guiding principles which determine the sustainability programs to pursue. First, the project should be scalable – so less of the one-offs, and more of those that can be grown or nurtured. Second, the project should be sustainable – meaning less reliance on continuous funding and handouts. And most importantly, it should be tightly linked to the business.

Among its green initiatives, the PLDT Group deployed the country’s first carbon fiber cell tower to start off an initial roll out in more urban rooftops. Manufacturing carbon fiber towers produces less carbon dioxide as compared to the process of producing steel by up to 70 per cent. Cell sites using carbon fiber towers also occupy less space, lessening the company’s land use.

“We are also deploying green towers which use fuel cell technology that emits less carbon dioxide. In addition, fuel cell towers are cost effective and operate with minimal downtime, supporting our focus on CX and cost efficiencies,” added Vergel de Dios.

PLDT also recently announced a Green Fleet Program that includes the use of electric vehicles as part of its re-fleeting strategy.

The PLDT Group is part of the broader MVP Group where the Meralco organization, including MSERV, can easily assist and provide expertise on energy efficiency and green sources of power.

In line with its purpose and business of connectivity, Vergel de Dios also highlighted the group’s efforts in safeguarding its customers from the dangers of going online.

“While connectivity opens up a whole new world for users, including access to information, education, livelihood opportunities and entertainment, there are attendant dangers that we have a responsibility to address. In line with this, we have robust and extensive cybersecurity and data privacy solutions in place as we commit to providing a safe online environment for our customers, including children,” she said.

PLDT has been a staunch advocate and partner among global organizations who fight to protect children against online sexual abuse and explicit content or OSAEC. PLDT and Smart are in fact the first in the Philippines to join the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a global coalition of more than 150 organizations. Since joining, PLDT has successfully blocked over 10,000 links to child abuse material.

In its portfolio, PLDT and Smart have several other sustainability initiatives to roll out soon that not only benefit communities and stakeholders, but will benefit the business in the long-run.

Vergel de Dios summed up PLDT’s outlook in developing and nurturing their programs, how “sustainability is a journey, a continuing work in progress which should be tightly linked to the business. It is not a competition; rather it is about each of us doing our part to achieve a common objective as stewards of this planet for the next generation.”

Last year, PLDT and Smart joined over 1,000 international leaders when they signified their respective companies’ commitments to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) by signing the “Statement from Business Leaders for Renewed Global Cooperation.” PLDT and Smart are registered under the UNGC as the only Philippine telco participants, a tier higher than signatories limited to local engagement. Participants actively engage with the UNGC at the global level to integrate into their companies’ operations, the organization’s Ten Principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.

Vivo Becomes World’s Second-fastest Growing 5G Smartphone Brand, According to Strategy Analytics

vivo dominates the smartphone industy with its leading-edge 5G development. In the photo: vivo V21 5G in Dusk Blue. Visit https://www.vivoglobal.ph/phone/vivo-V21-5g/ to know more about this smartphone.

Global tech brand vivo became the second-fastest growing 5Gsmartphone worldwide in the first quarter of 2021. It has a quarter-on-quarter growth rate of 62%, with 19 million units shipped. China and Europe remains to be its strongholds, according to a new research from Strategy Analytics.

vivo continues to be a strong advocate of 5G development. The brand has made remarkable progress in 5G standards and core technologies, committed to providing users with a growing range of 5G mobile phones and an improved 5G experience.

vivois inthe top five best-selling 5G smartphone brands, with19 million units sold and 62% quarter-on-quarter growth in 2021.

Celebrating nation’s birth, Biden urges Americans to help end COVID-19 pandemic

Image via whitehouse.gov

US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., celebrated the nation’s 245th birthday on Sunday by opening the gates of the White House and calling on Americans to do their part to end the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic once and for all. 

“This year, the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration for we are emerging from the darkness of … a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear and heartbreaking loss,” Mr. Biden told a White House party opened to around 1,000 people, including military families and workers involved in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response. 

“We never again want to be where we were a year ago today,” he added. 

The largest White House event since Mr. Biden took office in January included burgers and fireworks and was geared toward giving Americans something to celebrate as signs of normalcy have returned following a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 Americans. 

Still, the country has fallen short of Mr. Biden’s goal to have 70% of US adults get at least one vaccine shot by Sunday. The figure is around 67%, as some people have resisted getting inoculated, raising concerns among health officials as the more aggressive Delta variant threatens to generate another surge. 

Mr. Biden mourned the people who died, praised Americans who aided in the country’s emergency response and said vaccines were the best defense against new variants of the virus. 

“It’s the most patriotic thing you can do,” he said of getting vaccinated. 

But his administration was also eager to celebrate what it sees as its signature accomplishment — restoring some normality for a country weary of pandemic restrictions and hardship, burdens that have eased but not disappeared with the widespread availability of inoculations. 

The pandemic forced cancellation of nearly all celebrations last year and led to a toned-down January inauguration for the Democratic president, who had to do without traditional black-tie galas and bipartisan comity as Republican former President Donald J. Trump disputed his election loss. 

Fortress-like security around Washington following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was eased as crowds marked the Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776. 

Fencing surrounding the White House has been dramatically scaled back, and the streets filled on Sunday with people who snapped photographs of the president’s motorcade returning from a weekend trip to a Michigan cherry farm, the golf course and his Delaware family home. 

Speaking to people on the south lawn of the White House who had shed their masks to eat watermelon slices and drink beer, Mr. Biden said the coronavirus “no longer paralyzes our nation, and it’s in our power to make sure it never does again.” 

After the speech, the president greeted guests and posed for photographs ahead of a 17-minute fireworks display to be set off later from both sides of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. — Trevor Hunnicutt/Reuters

White House reaching out with assistance to latest ransomware victims

UNSPLASH

WASHINGTON — The White House said on Sunday it was reaching out to victims of a wide-ranging ransomware outbreak that is centered on a Florida-based information technology company and has had an impact on hundreds of businesses worldwide. 

Miami-based Kaseya has said that fewer than 60 of its customers had been “directly affected” by the attack. 

But the full impact of the intrusion is still coming into focus, in part because the Kaseya software tool commandeered by the cyber criminals is used by so-called managed service providers, outsourcing shops that other businesses use to handle their back-office IT work, like installing updates. 

One cybersecurity executive said his company alone had seen 350 customers attacked. 

The White House deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, Anne Neuberger, said in a statement that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber arm “will reach out to identified victims to provide assistance based upon an assessment of national risk.” 

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., said on Saturday he directed US intelligence agencies to investigate who was behind the ransomware attack. 

Security firm Huntress Labs said on Friday it believed the Russia-linked REvil ransomware gang was to blame for the latest outbreak. Last month, the FBI blamed the same group for paralyzing meat packer JBS SA. 

Kaseya said on Sunday that it hired cybersecurity company FireEye Inc to help deal with the fallout of the breach. 

“The two biggest regions we’ve seen are USA and Germany,” Ross McKerchar, chief information security officer at Sophos Group Plc, said of the impact from the latest ransomware. 

Those affected included schools, small public-sector bodies, travel and leisure organizations, credit unions and accountants, he said. 

The rash of German victims may be due to a major provider there having been compromised. Germany’s federal cybersecurity watchdog said on Sunday an unidentified IT service provider that looks after several thousand customers had been hit. 

In some cases, chain reactions fed more widespread disruption. 

The Swedish Coop grocery store chain had to close hundreds of stores on Saturday because its cash registers are run by Visma Esscom, which manages servers for a number of Swedish businesses and in turn uses Kaseya. 

Mr. McKerchar said the wave of disruption was another illustration of how difficult it was for modestly sized businesses to beat back increasingly well-funded cyber-criminal gangs. 

“Small businesses are outgunned when it comes to cybersecurity,” he said. — Raphael Satter and Trevor Hunnicutt/Reuters 

Queen Elizabeth honors Britain’s health service for pandemic work

Image via Duncan C/Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth has awarded Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) the George Cross — the highest civilian gallantry award — in recognition of 73 years of dedicated service, including during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. 

The honor has only been bestowed collectively twice before, and only once by the queen. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the award was a symbol of the nation’s gratitude. 

“NHS staff have cared for us and our friends and family on the frontline of a pandemic for over a year, and I have witnessed their courage first-hand,” Mr. Johnson, who was treated by the NHS in intensive care with COVID-19 last year, said. 

“I know the whole of the UK is behind me in paying tribute and giving thanks for everything the NHS has done for us, not only in the last year, but since its inception.” 

The NHS was established in 1948 as the centerpiece of social reforms following World War Two, with a mission to provide state-funded comprehensive universal healthcare. 

NHS Chief Executive Simon Stevens said the honor recognized the skill, compassion, and fortitude of staff right across the service in responding to the worst pandemic in a century. 

“Out of those dark times have come the best of what it means to be a carer and a health professional,” he said. 

“In the face of adversity, we have seen extraordinary team work, not just across the NHS but involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers, millions of carers, key workers and the British public who have played an indispensable role in helping the health service to look after many hundreds of thousands of seriously ill patients with coronavirus.” 

The George Cross was first bestowed collectively to the people of Malta in 1942 by Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, and to the Royal Ulster Constabulary by the queen in 1999. — Reuters

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