Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 6860

Nationwide round-up (02/24/21)

COVID vaccine law exempts gov’t workers from liability

GOVERNMENT officials and workers involved in the inoculation of individuals who will experience adverse effects from the coronavirus vaccines will be exempt from liabilities under the proposed law that provides for an indemnity to affected patients. “They are free from liability unless there was negligence or gross negligence or there is a willful intent,” Quirino Rep. Junie E. Cua said on Wednesday. He explained that such clause is needed because health workers would otherwise “be afraid to administer (the vaccines).” The House of Representatives on Tuesday evening adopted the Senate version of the proposed Emergency Vaccines Procurement Act. The measure will skip the bicameral conference and will only need the signature of the President for it to become a law. The measure will expedite the procurement and administration of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. The proposed measure also provides for a P500-million fund to compensate vaccine recipients who might require confinement due to side effects, incur a disability, or die. — Gillian M. Cortez

BI warns vs fake immigration officers

BUREAU of Immigration Commissioner Jaime H. Morente warned against individuals pretending to be a bureau officer and offering to fix travel documents for a fee. In a press release on Wednesday, Mr. Morente reminded overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to “not fall prey to these predators.” He added, “They are sweet-talkers that will entice you to attempt to work illegally, but we (already have) measures in place to prevent that from happening.” He cited that the bureau received a complaint in December regarding an OFW who wanted to leave for Dubai under a tourist visa, but a certain “James” who claimed to be an immigration officer collected money in exchange for arranging his documents. The complainant transferred a total of P75,000 to the suspect. Mr. Morente said they have confirmed that they have no such employee and have already identified the suspect. “I have instructed our Travel Control and Enforcement Unit and Intelligence Division to coordinate with the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) and ensure that this person faces the harshest penalties of the law,” Mr. Morente added. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago

Regional Updates (02/24/21)

 

1st typhoon’s toll: 1 child died, 4 missing, over 23,000 families still displaced

STORM Auring, the first typhoon to hit the Philippines this year, left one person dead, two others injured and four still missing as of Wednesday morning, the national disaster management agency reported. Defense Undersecretary Ricardo B. Jalad, the executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), said the casualty was a six-year-old child who drowned in Claver, Surigao del Norte. “The (four) missing, three of these are fishermen who ventured out to the sea in Bislig,” he said at the briefing Tuesday night in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur where President Rodrigo R. Duterte and several Cabinet members were present. Almost 50,000 families were affected, mainly in the Surigao provinces in the country’s south, when the tropical storm swept through over the weekend. NDRRMC said 23,359 families composed of over 87,000 individuals were still staying in evacuation centers or with relatives as of Feb. 24. Of the 64 flooded areas across the eastern side of the archipelago from Bicol to the Caraga regions, water has yet to subside in 18 areas. NDRRMC recorded 679 affected houses, with 226 totally destroyed and 453 partially damaged. Auring, with international name Dujuan, caused minimal damage to public infrastructure with only Surigao del Norte province reporting a P2.8 million cost on flood control and water facilities. The storm moved slowly over the Philippine sea and weakened into a tropical depression before making landfall over Batag, a small island in central Philippines. Relief operations are ongoing using prepositioned food and non-food items in the regions. Additional supplies were being shipped from the central social welfare office on Wednesday. Department secretaries also assured assistance on emergency employment, agriculture, and for small and medium enterprises. — MSJ

Another 4,047 hogs delivered to Metro Manila

ANOTHER 4,047 live hogs and 24,368 kilograms of pork carcass have been delivered to Metro Manila as part of government initiative to augment supply, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said. In a report on Feb. 23, the DA said that around 66.2% or 2,677 heads of the supply that arrived were sourced from the region of CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon). Other sources were Bicol Region at 530, and Oriental Mindoro at 400 heads. “[The] Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Cagayan Valley, Eastern Visayas, and CARAGA have no shipments since they reported that the hog supply in their areas are insufficient,” the DA said. “Ilocos Region and Central Visayas were not able to transport to Metro Manila on Feb. 23 since majority of their shipments were delivered to other areas such as Pampanga, Bulacan, and Negros Oriental,” it added. Since the implementation of the price ceiling on Feb. 8, the DA said that a total of 73,365 heads of live hogs and 439,852 kilograms of pork carcass have arrived in Metro Manila. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

PHL mayor named among ‘anti-corruption champions’ in new United States gov’t award

PASIG City Mayor Victor N. Sotto — @VICOSOTTO

PASIG City Mayor Victor “Vico” N. Sotto has been named an “International Anti-corruption Champion,” a new award launched on Feb. 23 by United States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in recognition of individuals across the world “who have demonstrated leadership, courage, and impact in preventing, exposing, and combating corruption.” In a note posted on the US State Department’s site, Acting Assistant Secretary James A. Walsh described Mr. Sotto as “a standard-bearer for a new generation of Philippine politicians who prioritize anticorruption and transparency initiatives in their election campaigns and in office.” The 31-year old mayor, a former councilor of the city, won his current post in the 2019 elections after beating “an incumbent mayor whose family had ruled the city for 27 years,” Mr. Walsh wrote, “Sotto has sought to solidify his reputation as a fresh voice with a new, more transparent approach to governance.” Mr. Sotto joins 11 others in the first batch of awardees. They are: Ardian Dvorani (Albania), Diana Salazar, (Ecuador), Sophia Pretrick (Federated States of Micronesia), Juan Francisco Sandoval Alfaro (Guatemala), Ibrahima Kalil Gueye (Guinea), Anjali Bhardwaj (India), Dhuha A. Mohammed (Iraq), Bolot Temirov (Kyrgyz Republic), Mustafa Abdullah Sanalla  (Libya), Francis Ben Kaifala (Sierra Leone), and Ruslan Ryaboshapka (Ukraine). “As President (Joseph R.) Biden has emphasized, our commitment to truth, transparency, and accountability is a mission that we must live at home and exemplify abroad.  I commend the dedication of these 12 brave individuals to these same ideals,” Mr. Walsh said in a statement. — MSJ

Pilipinas Shell provides solar-powered street lights in Batangas

PILIPINAS Shell Petroleum Corp. has installed 16 solar-powered street lights along the Batangas-Tabangao-Lobo road covering the village of San Isidro, the company announced Wednesday. “A community’s progress rests on an effective partnership between government, starting with the barangay, and the private sector,” said San Isidro Barangay Chairman Andres B. Malibiran. The Batangas City police station commander, Lt. Col. Gerry M. Laylo, said the lights also contribute to maintaining peace and order. Pilipinas Shell has a solar farm in Tabangao, which has been supplying power to the listed oil company’s import terminal since December. The street lighting project was under the Save, Invest and Nurture Access to Green Energy and Technology program led by Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc. — Angelica Y. Yang

Doing good while doing well: Fact, fiction, or an aspiration?

If investing in only good firms — firms that pay their employees properly, do not pollute, have a strong number of women and minorities in leadership positions, et cetera et cetera — made people richer, then the world would be a much better place. Yet despite so many calls for people to change their consumption behaviors — stop plastic use or avoid fast fashion, buy fair trade or organic, boycott this or that company, shift to renewable energy — the fact is that people have yet to completely dedicate themselves to a life of being truly responsible for their actions, whether direct or indirect, because there seems to be no extrinsic benefit; or if there is, it is negligible. And knowing consumers’ behaviors, investors are wary about putting all their money in good firms since that’s not what sells. Our society has become so framed in capitalism that it is difficult to not require what we in business schools term exactly that: a business case. “Tell me why I should invest in good firms,” is another way of saying: “I know this company is nice and all that, but will it make me money?”

As such, asset managers actually asking what should be urgent and obvious questions when they probe a company’s environmental, social, and governance practices, are often seen as controversial. The practice of asset management is a widely acceptable means of investing current wealth in anticipation of higher expected future returns. The idea behind asset management is that it is more effective and less risky to pool money — “assets” — from several individuals or organizations and to outsource the collective management of these assets to a specialized firm. This allows risks to be spread across a diversified portfolio of assets, which would otherwise be more expensive to do individually due to high transaction costs. The onus is that an efficient portfolio can only be created through specific combinations of risk and return. The investor would (or should) then want to select one of those portfolios which give rise to the efficient combinations of the two. This theory — Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory — is arguably the most strongly manifested theoretical underpinning in the practice of asset management. Highly sophisticated tools are available for asset managers to use to create an efficient portfolio and the performance of a fund is judged on whether it is able to achieve a return above a previously identified benchmark (usually a market index such as the S&P 500 in the US, the MSCI Index in Europe, or the PSEi in the Philippines).

Traditional asset managers are tasked to make money for their investors. They are not hired to make moral or ethical choices. Engaging in responsible investment — even if it sounds nice on paper — still gets eye rolls in the industry; because by accepting Responsible Investment as Mainstream, the very core theory of Finance, that of Risk Diversification, gets threatened. Another issue is the time horizon of markets. By selecting assets based on sustainability issues of a longer-term nature, one might be missing out on opportunities in the short run.

The bottleneck ultimately lies in financial persons and particularly asset managers still “looking at sustainability with a financial lens,” but that is the archetype we must work with and elaborate if we are to make any changes. If they care about risk and return, well then we must introduce new sources of risk and return.

And here is the best pitch of that so far: Responsible Investing (RI) has risk-reducing benefits which appear as a by-product of the information depth and reputational benefits that occur because of probing deeper into the sustainability practices of a firm. Proponents posit that by having more information, they can make better decisions and select more stable and predictable firms that will survive the test of time and be able to address the complex problems our world faces. In my research work on European equity RI mutual funds, I found empirical evidence to show that while limiting the investable universe increases idiosyncratic (specific) risk due to portfolio diversification issues, engaging in substantive RI can be risk-reducing since informational benefits allow fund managers to be more selective.

So maybe in the short-term, one will make money by investing in the firm that outsources the cheapest labor using the most polluting form of low-quality production by sheer amount of volume and margins. But in the long term? We know that such firms will not withstand the test of time. There will be cracks in their leadership, cover-ups that regulators will find out about, and a market audience that will be increasingly educated and agile with information now commoditized from digital and social media outlets that will make them short-lived in a future filled with people who have begun to question the status quo. Doing good while doing well: Fact, fiction, or an aspiration? Neither of the three. Looking beyond financial theories and into the horizon, it is investors’ only remaining choice.

 

Daniela “Danie” Laurel is a business journalist and anchor-producer of BusinessWorld Live on One News, formerly Bloomberg TV Philippines. Prior to this, she was a permanent professor of Finance at IESEG School of Management in Paris and maintains teaching affiliations at IESEG and the Ateneo School of Government. She has also worked as an investment banker in The Netherlands. Ms. Laurel holds a Ph.D. in Management Engineering with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy and an MBA from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Breathing space

Tough call not to ease quarantine restrictions come March 1. Businesses and consumers have been hurting, and the economy is in the doldrums. But the number of daily cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) seems to be on the uptrend, again. So, I can understand why the President opted not to shift the entire country into the most lenient quarantine status just yet.

He wants more time to decide on the shift, he said. At least, until after the government starts the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. But while he may seem to have been guided by science and data on the matter, and his decision seems to appease a number of medical experts, I suspect the President is really acting more on gut feel, and perhaps, just being practical.

Question is, can Modified General Community Quarantine or MGCQ really wait until after the vaccine rollout starts? I doubt Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua would have suggested the shift by March 1 unless it was absolutely necessary. MGCQ will perhaps allow government economic managers some breathing space, by shifting the burden of boosting economic activity more to the private sector.

Data indicate an uptrend in COVID-19 daily cases. Data also indicate that the economy is in a worse state than previously forecasted. But I have not seen data that indicate the repercussion or consequences of delaying nationwide MGCQ by two to three months. Again, if the shift is not crucial, would NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) have recommended it? Would Metro Manila mayors have pushed for it?

My concern is that the President has opted to link his decision on the matter to the vaccine rollout, which does not seem to have a definite timetable. Meantime, everybody is waiting to exhale, so to speak. Businesses, investors, consumers, and everybody else will be holding their breaths for another two to three months, maybe even more.

Public health and safety get priority over the economy, and perhaps rightly so. However, public health and safety cannot easily be assured unless the government is prosperous enough to spend on programs, and unless businesses are profitable enough to actually pay taxes, or to spend for health and safety programs themselves. It takes money to implement even minimum health standards and protocols against COVID-19.

CNN Philippines reports that health workers are relieved by the President’s decision, since it gives them more time to prepare for the shift to MGCQ, when COVID cases are anticipated to go up. Parents are perhaps just as relieved by the President blocking the initiative to allow face-to-face classes for now, or his decision not to allow younger teens to leave their homes.

Without doubt, there are risks to shifting to MGCQ prior to the vaccine rollout. But, I believe, it is likewise risky to delay MGCQ until after the vaccination program starts. For the simple reason that no one really knows when vaccines will arrive, and when and how the government will distribute them. Perhaps the timetable should not depend on the vaccine rollout?

It is number crunching time for NEDA as well as all agencies involved in vaccine procurement and distribution. Decision-makers need reliable and credible data based on simulations and forecasts to estimate the consequences and implications of delaying the shift to MGCQ, and making the vaccine program the precondition to it.

We also need to see data and estimates from health/medical and statistical experts, from scientists, on the consequences and implications to public health and safety. Decision-makers need to see everything in numbers, and all data and information that serve as bases for decisions should be made public.

My take on the matter is that COVID-19 is not about to go away, and all we can do at this point is to live with it, while taking precautions. And while I am for the gradual and safe reopening of the economy, public health and safety should always come first. Of course, this is from the viewpoint of one who follows health protocols, and avoids unnecessary “exposure” by being more discerning as to when to go out, and to where.

For almost a year now, my family has managed to stick to only “essential” travel out of the house. And perhaps we have to wait for another year to pass before it is “almost” business as usual for us. But we count ourselves lucky that we can actually afford to avoid leaving the house unless absolutely necessary. Work and school can be done from home.

However, most people are not as lucky. In fact, an overwhelming majority of Filipinos need to go out of their homes to earn a living. To them, leaving the house is not an option but a necessity. Sadly, as we delay the shift to MGCQ, it remains difficult for many to resume full-time work, and earn sufficient wages to cover all their expenses. They, too, need a breather from lockdown.

While COVID-19 is a threat to their health, maybe they are more concerned with the quarantine’s threat to their livelihood and subsistence. With or without the vaccine, life must go on for them. The government is no longer in a position to assist them. And now with rising food prices, it has perhaps come to that point that they would willingly face COVID-19 and take their chances with it, just so they get a fair chance to fight poverty and hunger.

 

Marvin Tort is a former managing editor of BusinessWorld, and a former chairman of the Philippines Press Council

matort@yahoo.com

Australia is right. Facebook should pay up

FACEBOOK, INC. went on the offensive last week, banning Australian news organizations from posting links to their work on the social media giant’s platform. Facebook, which also blocked users from sharing the links, punched back after the Australian government proposed a law requiring it to pay publishers when links to their content appear on its site.

The move was gutsy — and brazen. In addition to blocking larger, traditional publishers in Australia, it also cut off sites offering public health information, assistance for victims of domestic violence, the national weather service and other niche providers. Facebook has endured years of criticism for its privacy practices, for a muscular presence so ubiquitous it has invited federal and state antitrust lawsuits, and for allowing disinformation and extremism to flourish on its feeds, undermining democracy. Most companies might walk softly amid all of that. Not Facebook.

“The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” said William Easton, managing director of Facebook’s operations in Australia and New Zealand. “It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter.”

Cutting off publishers seeking compensation for expensive work that helps Facebook build and retain its audience — even as it helps publishers build and retain theirs — has already attracted attention outside of Australia and is likely to open another front in the Facebook wars. It’s also revivified the debate over the internet’s broader character and future.

Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web, has argued that requiring payment for news links will wreak havoc on a global network that has thrived on freely exchanged information. On the other side of the argument are people like Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, who is chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee focused on antitrust issues.

“If it is not already clear, Facebook is not compatible with democracy,” Cicilline tweeted last week after Facebook imposed its Australian ban. “Threatening to bring an entire country to its knees to agree to Facebook’s terms is the ultimate admission of monopoly power.”

Facebook doesn’t see it that way.

Easton noted that Google, the Alphabet, Inc. subsidiary, sweeps up content publishers don’t willingly provide, whereas publishers enthusiastically pursue Facebook for its reach. (Google agreed last fall to begin compensating publishers for their work and is also subject to the Australian proposal.) He said publishers benefit more from the relationship than Facebook, noting that the platform generated about 5.1 billion “free referrals” to Australian news outlets last year worth an estimated A$407 million ($320 million). Easton also reminded publishers that while it recognizes that “journalism is important to a democratic society,” it’s not very important to its bottom line. “The business gain from news is minimal,” he said. “News makes up less than 4% of the content people see in their News Feed.”

That largely makes sense to Mike Masnick, the founder and editor of Techdirt, a blog that covers technology’s intersection with business and economic policy. “Look, I get it, Facebook is a terrible, terrible company and deserves lots of blame for lots of bad things that it does. But this ain’t it,” he wrote. “The simple facts of the situation are that Australia — pushed heavily by Rupert Murdoch — has decided to put in place a plan to tax Google and Facebook for any links to news.”

Masnick says Australia’s proposal undermines an open internet, requires Facebook and Google to carry the burden of notifying publishers of daily algorithmic changes (which will only compel publishers to try gaming algos more than they already do), and turns Facebook into a publishing pinata — damned for both what it does and doesn’t do. On top of all of that, “a bunch of lazy newspaper execs who failed to adapt and to figure out better internet business models not only want the traffic, they also want to get paid for it.”

Masnick used bold type for that last bit, and I left it as such for a couple of reasons. First, Masnick asks readers at the end of his blog post to donate money or subscribe, so he also wants to get paid for it. (I work for a company that, like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, NBC and others, also wants to get paid for it, so I come to this topic with baggage.) And second: How to sustainably fund news-gathering and publishing is the broader existential issue informing this head-butting, highlighted by the distinct role independent reporting plays in keeping the public educated and alert.

News organizations long ago misread what the internet’s arrival meant for their business models. They also made the fundamental mistake of posting hard-won content online for free. Seeing the web as just another information channel, rather than as a revolutionary reordering of communication and distribution, they underestimated how abruptly and monumentally audiences and advertising would flee.

Rupert Murdoch didn’t. His premier properties have always rejected the idea that what they funded should exist free of charge. Given that Murdoch is the steward of Fox News, an openly damaging and propagandistic outfit that serves his political and financial interests more than the public, he’s a horrid ambassador on this topic. But he isn’t a newcomer to the debate in Australia, and his philosophy has a track record.

With advertising revenue gutted, print publications have had to look to pricier subscriptions, paywalls, or philanthropy to fill the financial void. Masnick and other smaller publishers can theoretically thrive on small donations. Large news organizations can’t. So it’s not irrational for publishers to want a bigger cut of the action that Facebook and Google enjoy from news without spending much to gather it. Some news organizations can monetize the traffic Facebook sends back to them. Many can’t, in part because they’re smaller, traffic is episodic, or readers are more loyal to Facebook and its brand — rather than news organizations themselves — as their primary media conduit.

Although news may not be a huge content category for Facebook, there’s money there. Audience engagement spikes during crucial news cycles, and news content often dominates discussions among Facebook users. News matters to Facebook because it matters to its audience — and to some of its regulators. News is engaging and viral, and Facebook prizes both, traffic and advertising data aside.

Sharing knowledge and information may be a special province on the web, but media is sourced in myriad ways. News publishers (unlike, say, libraries or academic institutions) aren’t, for the most part, publicly subsidized for the information they collect and disseminate. As long as they are privately funded, and until that structure changes, charging readers and viewers for the work is reasonable — as is charging other platforms that piggyback on that work.

As my colleague David Fickling has pointed out, the money at stake in Australia is relatively modest for Facebook, which has only agreed to token revenue sharing arrangements with publishers elsewhere. Google threatened to pull its search service from Australia before relenting and agreeing to compensate publishers. Australia’s plan may be heavy-handed, and it opens a can of worms around which links Facebook, or anyone else, should pay for (read Benedict Evans, Paying for news — Benedict Evans (ben-evans.com)). But if being heavy-handed also brings Facebook to the bargaining table to craft an alternative, so be it. Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg will pull up stakes Down Under, but I doubt it.

Yes, Cicilline is overstating things when he equates a Facebook news blackout with bringing Australia to its knees. But his concern for news-gathering, and suspicion of Facebook, are entirely warranted. News publishers — in Australia and elsewhere — will continue losing a sizable share of their audience if Facebook cuts them off, and I suspect that Facebook would consider funding news-gathering itself if the current supply eventually evaporates.

Facebook is a publisher, not just a technology platform. It plays a role in society that extends beyond its income statement. And it should pay up for what it publishes.

BLOOMBERG OPINION

A simple matter of influence

IN THIS AGE of social media and virtual meetings, how many times do we hear the appellation of “influencer”? Was there even such a word before blogs and followers became faddish? From the old-fashioned celebrity endorser, we now encounter advice-givers who influence decision-making for individuals or herds. The recent stock market assaults in the US involved influencers going wild with their herd instructions that made certain stocks shoot up or crash down.

Influencers are often subjective and may themselves be influenced to promote certain opinions. Moving together, mercenary influencers are referred to as trolls. And they can be a collective, or a “troll farm,” under the employ of subjects with their own agenda. In the coming political exercise, these opinion farms will mushroom and clash with one another.

Giving advice can be quite private (and not necessarily socially distanced), especially when the one soliciting it is a high-profile personality.

A leader, whether political or corporate, tries to project an image of control. (I alone make the important decisions.) He does not want to look like a puppet whose strings are being pulled by advisers, especially those who don’t bother to hide their influence peddling. This Greek Chorus (sometimes masked) does not leave the stage and manages to steal the scene, especially in a tragedy.

When always seen at a leader’s side, advisers display their clout publicly. They may lean close to the boss before a speech, and whisper — there’s a broccoli bit stuck in your front teeth. (And he isn’t even the ghost-writer.) Such public posturing can be irritating for the chief who wants the spotlight to be only on him.

Leaders put arrogant advisers off-balance by exiling them to the doghouse. They are excluded from certain meetings — I needed to talk with other people about you. They are publicly ridiculed (is he wearing his tight shirt again?) just to make the point that they are dispensable.

Advisers need to move in the orbit of the planet they are influencing. It is important for them to observe some rules. Advisers too need to be advised on how to behave.

When asked for an opinion, take some time to reply. Showing some hesitation denotes respect — I want to provide a considered opinion. It’s good to repeat the question, to ensure that the right issue is being addressed.

If there is already a group around the leader (especially in a virtual meeting), it is best to avoid shallow remarks — yes, that problem keeps coming back like a stray cat.

In a one-on-one situation, waiting for an idea to poach (or summarize) is not possible. It is best to give parables and platitudes (yes, three is better than two) and probe to check what the boss is looking for.

There is seldom a need to give a straightforward answer to a question posed, unless it is only to provide a home address. (Is he sending you a gift?)

Never be limited to just one course of action like sacking somebody, even if the person is at the top of a hate list. Presenting a menu allows more flexibility (Maybe, send him on a study leave for an online course?) It is advisable to present an analysis of the situation and the implications of certain options — true, he seems to be indispensable with his ongoing project. But, is he still with the home team? Using sports metaphors allows some room for error — it was a bad call.

In case of a controversial suggestion the leader is sure to be upset about, like accusing his relative of some wrongdoing (he steals rolls and rolls of toilet paper), it is best to present the infraction as a news item, somebody else’s suggestion, or something overheard in the executive lounge — they say his pockets are always bulging, even when there is no object of desire.

Never put advice on e-mail or a phone message. This is sure to be forwarded to the object of scorn with a little twist of the knife — what do you think of this accusation? Also, e-mails can’t really be deleted. They reside in the ether and can be fished out by cyber-detectives to nail you later. It’s part of “forensic accounting.”

Is giving advice a simple matter of influence? Not always. Changes in leadership and even moods can upset the value of advice… and the one giving it.

 

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Thailand receives its first batch of Sinovac vaccines

VIALS of the Sinovac coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine are pictured at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport before the arrival of a shipment of 200,000 doses from China, in Bangkok, Thailand, Feb. 24. — REUTERS

BANGKOK — Thailand received on Wednesday its first 200,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac, the country’s first batch of coronavirus vaccines, with inoculations set to begin in a few days.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is expected to be among the first to receive the vaccine this weekend. Most doses have been reserved for frontline medical workers.

“Thank you to the People’s Republic of China for delivering the vaccine this month and subsequent months,” Mr. Prayuth said on the tarmac at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where a refrigerated container bearing the flags of the two countries was lowered from a Thai Airways plane. Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul earlier this week said 117,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine would also arrive on Wednesday and that Mr. Prayuth would be among the first recipients.

Thailand is expecting to take delivery of a further 1.8 doses of CoronaVac in March and April, to be given mainly to health workers and at-risk groups.

The country has so far been spared of the kind of epidemic seen elsewhere, with just over 25,000 infections overall.

The vaccine’s arrival comes amid some public criticism of the government and accusations it has been too slow to secure the vaccines.

Its mass immunization campaign, which aims to administer 10 million doses a month, is slated to begin in June, using 26 million shots of AstraZeneca vaccines produced by local firm Siam Bioscience. It has also reserved a further 35 million doses of the vaccine.

The government has said it plans to vaccinate more than half the adult population this year.

“We will procure more as we produce them so there is enough to create herd immunity in our country,” Mr. Prayuth said.

He said the Chinese vaccine would need a few days to be prepared for inoculations.

“As for who will take it first is another story,” he said. — Reuters

COVID billionaire fortunes fade as vaccines rolled out

IN THE HEALTH-CARE industry, the coronavirus pandemic led to big fortunes, fast. Now some of them are evaporating just as quickly.

Take Seegene, Inc., a maker of COVID-19 test kits, and Alteogen, Inc., a biotech with subcutaneous-injection technology. Their founders became billionaires as the shares surged last year. Fast forward a few months to the vaccine rollout, and they’ve lost their title after both stocks sank more than 41%, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

It’s a similar story for glove makers in Malaysia, which counted at least five industry billionaires by August as the worsening health crisis increased demand for the protective gear. Despite a brief rebound amid last month’s frenzy in retail trading, their shares are down at least 40% since hitting highs, wiping more than $9 billion from their founders’ net worths.

While the billionaires created by the Pfizer, Inc.-BioNTech SE and Moderna, Inc. vaccines have maintained much of their wealth, many others have seen a falling off. The moves show how fleeting fortunes can be with a market so wild that some stocks have had days with fluctuations of more than 20%. Some of the founders took advantage of the volatility to book profits, just as others increased their control by buying more shares as prices fell.

“It doesn’t look like fortunes made from a sudden boom in demand — such as for test kits or biotech — would continue to grow once things get more stable,” said Park Ju-gun, president of Seoul-based corporate watchdog CEOScore. He expects platform-based services that thrived with the pandemic will lead to further wealth creation.

The emergence of COVID-19 and its rapid spread across the globe led to an immediate need for test kits, protective gear and treatments for the disease. Companies such as Seegene, Alteogen and Top Glove Corp. stepped up.

Seegene developed a coronavirus test kit in late January of last year. Alteogen licensed its injection technology that enabled patients to self-administer medications. The world’s biggest maker of rubber gloves beefed up production and continues to do so — it’s aiming to produce 110 billion pieces of the protective gear annually by December, up from 91 billion now.

Each of the stocks climbed at least 500% last year at their peak, with Seegene up as much as 919% by August as demand for test kits rose. South Korean President Moon Jae-in even visited the company’s headquarters in Seoul after then-US President Donald Trump asked for medical equipment to help fight the virus.

“I’ve never felt more pressure in my life,” Seegene founder Chun Jong-yoon said in an interview with a local newspaper last June.

But the vaccine rollout has put a brake on the ascent. While Seegene’s revenue for 2020 jumped almost 10-fold and Alteogen’s more than doubled in the third quarter, the shares have slumped on skepticism over their ability to maintain such growth. Mr. Chun and his family, who together own 31% of Seegene, are now worth about $840 million, down from $1.6 billion last year. Alteogen’s Park Soon-jae, who controls 25% of the company with his family, is valued at $830 million compared with $1.4 billion at the peak.

Glove makers, which are mostly in Malaysia, became the focus of short sellers soon after the nation lifted a ban to bet against equities at the start of the year. The Reddit-inspired retail trading craze that lifted them in January proved short-lived.

Almost $2.2 billion has evaporated from the net worth of Top Glove founder Lim Wee Chai and his family since October. The fortunes of Supermax Corp.’s Thai Kim Sim, Hartalega Holdings Bhd.’s Kuan Kam Hon and Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd.’s Lim Kuang Sia are each down more than $1.2 billion, while Riverstone Holdings Ltd.’s Wong Teek Son is no longer part of the 10-figure club. Some of the Chinese health-care and biotech companies that produced a slew of new billionaires after the pandemic’s outbreak have also tumbled, including Allmed Medical Products Co., a maker of gauze products and surgical masks, and Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech Co.

BOOSTING CONTROL
Some of the newly ultra-rich have taken advantage of the market volatility. The Lims of Top Glove bought almost $23 million of shares since early December as the stock fell, strengthening their control over the company, while Kossan Rubber’s founder purchased about $4.9 million of equity after he and his family made more than $128 million selling some of their holdings through August. Alteogen’s Park family gained about $12 million from offloading shares through September, while the Chuns also sold some of Seegene stock.

Others are holding on to their gains. Li Xiting, chairman of Chinese medical-equipment maker Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., became Singapore’s richest person with a fortune of $23.8 billion as the company’s shares hit a record high earlier this month. Moderna and BioNTech, whose Covid-19 vaccines are being administered around the globe, have more than tripled in the past year, boosting the fortunes of at least six billionaires.

And of course tech entrepreneurs that benefited from lockdowns and work-from-home arrangements — such as Amazon.com, Inc.’s Jeff Bezos, Zoom Video Communications, Inc.’s Eric Yuan and Forrest Li of gaming firm Sea Ltd. — remain big winners despite recent stock drops.

But for many companies, the tide has already started to turn.

“The extravagant rise in stock prices is going to be far-fetched, and it’s unlikely they’ll grow at the same rate,” said Nirgunan Tiruchelvam, head of consumer sector equity research at Tellimer. “We’re going to see a rotation from virus stocks to vaccine stocks.” — Bloomberg

Chipmakers in Taiwan order water trucks to prepare for ‘worst’

TAIPEI — Taiwan chipmakers are buying water by the truckload for some of their foundries as the island widens restrictions on water supply amid a drought that could exacerbate a chip supply crunch for the global auto industry. Some automakers have already been forced to trim production, and Taiwan had received requests for help to bridge the shortage of auto chips from countries including the United States and Germany.

Taiwan, a key hub in the global technology supply chain for giants such as Apple, Inc. will begin on Thursday to further reduce water supply for factories in central and southern cities where major science parks are located.

Water levels in several reservoirs in the island’s central and southern region stand at below 20%, following months of scant rainfall and a rare typhoon-free summer.

“We have planned for the worst,” Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua told reporters on Tuesday. “We hope companies can reduce water usage by 7% to 11%.”

With limited rainfall forecast for the months ahead, Taiwan Water Corporation this week said the island has entered the “toughest moment.”

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, this week started ordering small amounts of water by the truckload to supply some of its facilities across the island.

“We are making preparations for our future water demand,” TSMC told Reuters, describing the move as a “pressure test.” The chip giant said it has seen no impact on production.

Both Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation and United Microelectronics Corp. signed contracts with water trucks and said there was no impact on production.

Vanguard said it has started a drill to truck water to its facilities in the northern city of Hsinchu.

Taiwanese technology companies have long complained about a chronic water shortage, which became more acute after factories expanded production following a Sino-US trade war. — Reuters

Unsettling future for golf after Woods crash

ALREADY in the final chapter of one of golf’s greatest careers, Tiger Woods may have penned a shocking end to that story on Tuesday when the winner of 15 majors was involved in a single-car crash and taken to the hospital with multiple injuries.

Battered by years of back and knee surgeries, Woods has recently spent as much time away from the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour recovering from injury as he has on the course, providing the golf world an unsettling glimpse of what the future might look like without its biggest drawing card.

“I think golf has accommodated the fact that Tiger is no longer going to be active in attending events on a regular basis,” Neal Pilson, the head of Pilson Communications and former president of CBS Sports, told Reuters. “I think he has lifetime exemptions at every major event, but I suspect we are probably not going to see Tiger in a competitive golf event going forward.

“In his prime, it was clearly established if Tiger was playing on Sunday, numbers for Sunday coverage were usually up 25% to 30%,” Pilson said. “If he doesn’t play again, he will be missed for sure.”

Almost since the moment he burst on the professional scene in 1996, Woods has been the tide that raised all boats, a crossover star who drove television ratings, purses and endorsements to spectacular heights.

With more viewers came more sponsors and larger purses, with Woods creating a new class of golfing millionaires.

That popularity made Woods one of sports’ richest athletes, Forbes anointing him in 2009 as the first athlete to reach $1 billion in career earnings (prize money and endorsements).

Along with injuries, the 45-year-old Woods has survived several scandals throughout his career including a 2017 arrest on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said on Tuesday there was no indication that Woods was under the influence of any substances at the time of the accident.

If Tuesday’s car crash was purely an accident, and even if it affects Woods’ ability to play golf in the future, his longtime sponsors may stick by him, said Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Because of his historical success, there’s still value in partnering with him,” Rishe said. “There’s plenty of athletes who are still brand endorsers who have long been retired.”

REVOLUTIONIZED GOLF
For more than a decade, golf has waited for Woods’ successor to emerge from a crop of prodigious hitters and skilled young players, but none has been able to grasp his mantle or the imagination of the golfing public.

There were signs Woods had been on the cusp of passing the torch and not to world No. 1 Dustin Johnson or Rory McIlroy but to his son Charlie, when they partnered last November in the PNC Championship, a joint PGA/LPGA Tour family tournament.

The 45-year-old Woods showed he had some of his father’s golfing genes, from the twirl of his club to walking in a birdie putt. The greatest golfer of his generation, Woods, as the game’s first African-American superstar, did more than rewrite the record book but changed the way golf is played and looked, bringing diversity to a sport that had been the domain of the white middle class.

With never-before-seen power, Woods revolutionized the game, forcing golf courses, even iconic Augusta National, to Tiger-proof layouts.

While Woods appears to have another long, grueling road back to fitness in front of him, one of the hallmarks of his remarkable career has been resilience.

Former President Barack Obama wished Woods a speedy recovery in a tweet on Tuesday night, adding: “If we’ve learned anything over the years, it’s to never count Tiger out.” — Reuters

Filipino prospect Kai Sotto won’t rejoin Ignite Squad in NBA G League’s Orlando tournament

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

FILIPINO young prospect Kai Sotto will not be rejoining the Ignite squad in the National Basketball Association (NBA) G League but the league wishes the player well in his continued pursuit of his NBA dreams.

In an announcement made late Tuesday night (Manila time), the G League said that Ignite and 18-year-old Sotto have come to a “mutual decision” that the latter will not be joining the team in the league’s tournament “bubble” in Orlando, Florida, abruptly ending what was once deemed a promising partnership.

“Kai and the team both understood the challenges for him to rejoin Ignite given the current international travel constraints, quarantine times and health and safety protocols,” said NBA G League President Shareef Abdur-Rahim in a statement.

The G League head, however, said they appreciate Mr. Sotto’s time with the team and wish nothing but the best for him moving forward.

“Kai will always be part of the extended Ignite family and we wish him continued success as he pursues his NBA dreams,” Mr. Abdur-Rahim said.

Ignite included Ateneo High School standout Sotto in its team of elite prospects last year to compete in the G League tournament.

The team was looking to develop young players in its fold through a program that would hopefully prepare them for the NBA Draft and provide them with professional life skills that they could use in and out of the court.

Mr. Sotto, who went to the United States in 2019 to begin his NBA quest, joined top US high school prospects Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Daishen Nix, Isaiah Todd, and NBA Global Academy graduate Princepal Singh in Ignite, which is also boosted by NBA and G League veterans.

They were training under champion NBA coach Brian Shaw and Mr. Sotto was reportedly making progress with the coach even expressing excitement on teaching him and seeing the Filipino grow as a basketball player.

In a surprise move last month, however, Mr. Sotto said he was returning home to join Gilas Pilipinas’ bid in the third and final window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers to be held here.

The decision came at a crucial time as Ignite was preparing for its campaign in the G League bubble set for February.

Ignite though was supportive of his decision and allowed him to travel back to the Philippines and represent the country.

But the move turned out to be futile as days after his arrival, the qualifying window set for this month was canceled because of heightened restrictions over the coronavirus pandemic.

The local basketball federation and Mr. Sotto’s handlers scrambled to send him back to the US to rejoin Ignite, but turned out to be too late amid the existing requirements.

As of this writing, there is no word yet from Mr. Sotto’s camp on its next move or what prompted it to leave Ignite in the middle of the team’s preparations in the first place.

Ignite is currently doing well in the G League tournament, sporting a 5-3 record, good for joint fifth place in the 18-team field.

SBP STATEMENT
Meanwhile, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) issued a statement following the exit of Mr. Sotto from NBA G League Ignite, saying it will support him in his NBA pursuit.

“The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas will always be 100% behind Kai Sotto as he pursues his NBA dream,” said the SBP in the statement released on Wednesday.

“When Kai announced via social media that he wanted to come home to play for Gilas Pilipinas Men, we welcomed him with open arms because he’ll always have a home with us at the SBP. The same is true for any Filipino basketball player chasing their dreams on the international stage. Whatever may happen to their respective paths, they can always be sure that the SBP will be there to provide them a stage where they could perform for their Filipino fans,” it added.

The SBP further said it is saddened by the development, but believes on Mr. Sotto rising above the setback.

“Even at his young age, Kai has shown amazing grit and determination to pursue his dreams and we have complete trust that he’ll do us proud.”

Phoenix coach Robinson counting on new players

THE Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters have had it busy in the offseason, trading players to come up with a team that fits the direction they want to take moving forward.

It is a development that has head coach Topex Robinson excited as he feels they got players who can help the team improve more.

On Tuesday, Phoenix completed a deal with the Alaska Aces sending forward Vic Manuel along with two rookie picks in the upcoming Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) draft to the Fuel Masters in exchange for veteran guard Brian Heruela and three picks for this year and next season’s drafts.

It was the second deal that Phoenix was involved with in less than a week after the deal that sent enigmatic forward Calvin Abueva to the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok for guard Chris Banchero.

The trade also involved picks in the March 14 rookie draft.

For Mr. Robinson, to be able to get Messrs. Manuel and Banchero in separate deals is a shot in the arm for their team as the players fill some gaps in their makeup.

Mr. Manuel, the Phoenix coach said, should cushion the loss of do-it-all and all-hustle Abueva with his physical play and veteran smarts, while Mr. Banchero should provide steady leadership and big-game mentality in their guard rotation.

“I’m happy with the players that we got. We did not only find a replacement for Calvin in Manuel, but we also got a player like Banchero. We expect them to help the team,” Mr. Robinson was quoted as saying by the official PBA website.

The coach is also high on the seventh overall pick in this year’s draft they received as part of the deals, bent on using it to get a player that could further enhance the team they got.

“In the regular draft, like in the past, this no. 7 is like getting no. 4 or No. 3,” said Mr. Robinson, referring to a special Gilas Pilipinas draft in effect in this year’s rookie selection next month.

But he is still confident of getting a quality player with the rookie talent pool one of the deepest in recent league history.  “With the talent that’s there, [it’s] good for us.”

Phoenix had one of its best tournaments in the PBA in last year’s tournament “bubble,” where it reached the semifinals and came just a win away from barging into its first-ever league finals appearance.

It did it with a balanced attack on both ends of the court and hopes sustain such push in the next PBA season. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

1...6,8596,8606,861...12,656Page 6,860 of 12,656
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube