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Parenting in a pandemic: how to develop stronger family relationships during COVID-19

By Tina Montreuil

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has undoubtedly affected us. It has increased our worries and concerns about physical health. COVID-19 has added to the existing challenges parents face, and has also created greater awareness surrounding the fragility of mental health.

Yet, the second wave has also paved the way for a larger discussion on ways to promote mental well-being.

As a researcher and a clinical psychologist, I lead a research group that investigates how emotion regulation, values, and beliefs affect the development and inter-generational transmission of mental or behavioral disorders, and how these problems can impact educational achievement.

The Childhood Anxiety and Regulation of Emotions (C.A.R.E.) research group has developed a school-based program as well as a parenting program, both of which teach core coping skills that have been associated with resilience. Resilience is the capacity for an individual to remain engaged, available, and optimistic instead of withdrawn, overwhelmed, and defeated when faced with hardship and adversity.

Our research group believes that when parents are aware of their own emotional self-regulation, and when they can find space to structure meaningful family activities that promote mutual bonding, both they and their children are in a better position to learn core coping skills that will benefit individuals and family relationships.

IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON FAMILY LIFE
A recent report by the Australian Human Rights Commission investigated COVID-19-related concerns experienced by children aged five and older and emerging adults from January to April 2020. The report suggested that “mental health concerns resulting from COVID-19” and “impacts on family life” were among the top five concerns endorsed by youth.

Similarly, a July 2020 Statistics Canada report revealed three out of four parents experienced concerns and worries about balancing child care, their child’s schooling, and their own professional work irrespective of the child’s age. More than half of parents surveyed reported greater difficulty managing their child’s emotions as well as their own.

The arising parenting challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic may represent an opportune time for us to improve our resilience and model more adaptive strategies and skills. In turn, such skills can promote the development of resilient behaviors in our children.

Not everyone reacts in the same way to a given situation. The ability to manage strong negative emotions and shift our mindset to a more adaptive perspective can be developed at any age. Since our brain is most adept at performing a new task early in life, it’s most beneficial for people to become socialized in these fundamental life skills early. This will help children to become self-regulated, adaptive, and thriving adults.

Parents can encourage children to see pandemic changes as an opportunity as opposed to a source of anxiety.

PARENTAL EMOTIONS
Findings from our research group’s recent study, conducted with mothers, suggest that parents’ abilities to regulate their own emotions predicted how frequently and effectively they rely on supportive parenting practices. Supportive practices are things like comforting children when they experience negative emotions, engaging in problem-solving strategies aimed at reducing children’s distress, and discussing children’s emotional experiences with them. As such, these results suggest that supportive parenting is associated with children who are better at managing difficult emotions.

We also found that invalidating children’s emotional expression or ignoring or dismissing the child’s emotions contributed to poorer emotion regulation skills in children, and that such less-supportive parenting practices were linked to anxiety in adulthood. When parents themselves match or exceed their child’s emotions, they also offer less adaptive emotional coaching.

Parents may have heard the airplane safety tip to always don one’s own oxygen mask before helping a child: the same applies with emotional regulation. As parents, when we prioritize managing our own stress; tolerating greater uncertainty; and engaging in self-care activities like exercise, good sleep hygiene, and relaxation, this expands our capacity to respond calmly. This teaches our children that they too can cope and manage stress and related threats.

Supportive parenting is best achieved when a connected, caring, and responsive relationship with children is fostered early on. Supportive parenting that builds resilience is comparable to an early investment that grows with time. It is key to create as many early positive and reinforcing experiences as possible. — The Conversation

 

Tina Montreuil is an assistant professor, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology; associate member, Department of Psychiatry; and director of Childhood Anxiety and Regulations of Emotions (C.A.R.E.) Research Group at McGill University in Canada.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Philippines signs initial deal with Moderna for COVID vaccines

Image via Moderna

The Philippines has signed a preliminary deal with Moderna Inc. to supply its coronavirus vaccines, with a final agreement likely this month.

Moderna is among the five vaccine makers the Philippines has inked term sheets with for about 108 million doses, said Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., who heads the nation’s vaccine program. He didn’t specify how many doses are being sought from Moderna, although he earlier said that there are talks for up to 20 million doses.

The Philippines, which has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections in the region, targets to buy 148 million doses this year to vaccinate up to 70% of its population and aid the recovery of its economy that’s seen to remain in recession until this quarter.  — Bloomberg

K-pop for the planet: Fans of South Korean stars take up climate activism

Fans of the mega-band BTS (pictured), known as ARMY, have planted tens of thousands of trees in recent years, from South Korea to the Philippines in the name of their celebrities. Screengrab of BTS’s music video “Idol”

From petitioning to save forests to raising cash for disaster victims, a growing army of K-pop fans worldwide has emerged as the latest force in the global fight against climate change. 

Young and tech-savvy, K-pop lovers have used their social media power to take up political causes, including mobilizing funds for the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States last year and supporting Thailand’s pro-democracy protests. 

But the group is now increasingly vocal on climate change, shining a youth spotlight on environmental issues that get relatively little attention in some parts of the world. 

“K-pop fans are mostly millennials and from the Gen-Z generation—we want to fight for our future,” said Indonesian student Nurul Sarifah, 21, who set up the Kpop4Planet movement in mid-January. 

Using social media, it aims to become a platform for like-minded K-pop fans around the world to discuss and raise awareness on climate-change issues affecting their home cities, said Ms. Sarifah, a fan of top South Korean boyband EXO. 

“Every day we are experiencing these effects: pollution, heatwaves, floods, wildfires. We can change this by doing good, just like how our idols did, so we can enjoy K-pop on a liveable planet,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. 

The movement is just one of the latest campaigns by K-pop fans seeking to make a difference for nature and the climate. 

STAR POWER
As K-pop became a global phenomenon in the last two decades, the philanthropic efforts of its South Korean stars—from donating to orphanages to planting trees—have pushed fans to adopt similar approaches to social and environmental problems. 

Climate change has become an increasingly important issue and was highlighted in December when K-pop global sensation Blackpink released a video to raise awareness ahead of the UN climate summit, Conference of the Parties (COP) 26, due to take place in Glasgow in November. 

In it, the girl band told their nearly 60 million subscribers on YouTube it was not too late to act on climate change and urged their fans, known as BLINKs, to learn more. 

The COP26 talks are widely viewed as a make-or-break moment for the 2015 Paris Agreement, with governments under pressure to submit stronger climate action plans to limit global warming to “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial times. 

Fans of the mega-band BTS, known as ARMY, meanwhile have planted tens of thousands of trees in recent years, from South Korea to the Philippines in the name of their celebrities. 

They also raised funds for flood-hit communities in the Indian state of Assam last year. 

“K-pop fandom does great things beyond borders and generations,” said South Korean activist Kim Na-yeon, 15, from campaign group Youth 4 Climate Action, which last year sued the Korean government for being slow to tackle climate change. 

Awareness is low in South Korea, she said, adding that she connects with other fans through their shared love for K-pop and taps into the network to advocate for climate action. 

“As I have been a K-pop fan for a long time, I know how people are gathering and moving online, so I am using my skills for our campaign,” said Ms. Kim, a fan of boyband NCT Dream. 

The diverse backgrounds of K-pop followers—from North America to Asia—are seen as key to engaging fans in deeper discussions on a range of contemporary issues. 

“K-pop fans are generally open-minded and outward-facing in their approach to the world. If they weren’t, they’d listen to music from their own country in their own local language,” said CedarBough Saeji, an academic who studies K-pop fan culture. 

“It shouldn’t be surprising that they also share their views on their own local political, social, and environmental issues,” added the assistant professor in East Asian languages and cultures at Indiana University Bloomington in the United States. 

John Lie, a sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who authored a book about K-pop, said the phenomenon was driven by fans seeking to show the genre is “not mere mindless entertainment” and is “rare in idol music.” 

DISASTER RELIEF
In Indonesia, K-pop fans mobilized quickly to raise nearly $100,000 in January for those affected by floods in South Kalimantan and a powerful earthquake on Sulawesi island that killed about 80 people and displaced more than 30,000. 

With climate change expected to fuel extreme weather disasters including in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 270 million, Arendeelle, a K-pop fan who helped initiate the recent fundraising effort, said she was prepared to do more. 

“We care about the environment. We are inspired by our idols who have shown us their utmost concerns about society,” said Arendeelle, who goes by one name and is a coordinator of ELF Indonesia, the local fan club of K-pop group Super Junior. 

Indonesian K-pop fans last year also helped boost an online campaign to highlight rapid deforestation in Papua, by sharing the #SavePapuanForest hashtag on social media and making it a trending topic on Twitter. 

Such momentum is what Ms. Sarifah of Kpop4Planet seeks to spur in her push for more debate on climate change and its impacts. 

“Deforestation is one of the reasons why these natural disasters happen,” she said. “It is relatable to all of us.” 

Ms. Sarifah said she hoped EXO and other K-pop stars would lend their support to her green campaign. 

“The K-pop fan movement is big and if our idols also help (on climate justice), it will become even bigger,” she added. — Beh Lih Yi/Thomson Reuters Foundation

Pfizer targets at least 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses this year, sees $15 billion in 2021 from the shots

Pfizer also said it expects there could be a long-lasting need for COVID-19 vaccines, to combat new virus variants that emerge and to boost peoples’ waning immune responses. Image via Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Pfizer Inc. said on Tuesday it expects to generate $15 billion, or about a quarter of its total revenue this year, from sales of its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine co-developed with German partner BioNTech SE. 

Sales from the vaccine—on track to be the drugmaker’s top product this year—could top $15 billion if the company signs more supply contracts, it said. 

Pfizer aims to make two billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021. Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in an interview that the company wanted to be conservative in its target and is working on numerous initiatives to exceed that output. 

“We’ve increased the batches we run per week, we’ve doubled the output—the yield per batch—we’ve dramatically improved our success rates, we’ve made process improvements to the assembly lines,” Chief Financial Officer Frank D’Amelio said in the interview. 

“All these things are things we’re continuing to examine to see what else we can do to try to produce more doses faster,” he added. 

Pfizer also said it expects there could be a long-lasting need for COVID-19 vaccines, to combat new virus variants that emerge and to boost peoples’ waning immune responses. 

The company is launching a study to determine whether a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, administered 6-to-12 months after the initial shots, can extend and improve efficacy with more contagious variants circulating in communities around the world. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is currently administered as two doses three weeks apart. 

Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said he believes mRNA vaccines like Pfizer’s generate a strong enough immune response to repel the currently circulating variants, and that a booster, rather than a redesigned vaccine, is the right approach for now. 

Citi analyst Andrew Baum said he was optimistic that revenue contributions from the vaccine could be sustainable beyond 2021. 

Pfizer expects to supply 200 million doses to the US government by the end of May. 

To achieve the goal, it will have to deliver an average of around 10 million doses per week, more than double the rate Pfizer and BioNTech delivered to the United States through the end of January, according to Reuters calculations. 

The vaccine, which uses synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) to prompt an immune response against the virus, was the first shot to be authorized for emergency use in the United States, marking the first regulatory nod for the new technology. 

mRNA vaccines and COVID-19 could prove transformative for Pfizer, which is already one of the world’s largest drugmakers, Mr. Bourla said. A potential flu vaccine based on the technology could hit the market by 2025, executives said on a conference call. 

Pfizer forecast 2021 sales between $59.4 billion and $61.4 billion. The company raised both ends of its full-year adjusted profit forecast by 10 cents and now expects to earn $3.10 to $3.20 per share. — Manas Mishra and Michael Erman/Reuters

Days before coup, IMF sent Myanmar $350 million in emergency aid it cannot get back 

WASHINGTON — Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sent $350 million in cash to the Myanmar government, part of a no-strings-attached emergency aid package to help the country battle the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. 

Days later, military leaders seized power and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected officials, in what the US State Department said on Tuesday constituted a coup. 

There appears to be little the IMF can do to claw back the funds, part of rapid-disbursing COVID-19 financing programs with almost no conditions and approved by the IMF board on Jan. 13, sources familiar with the payments and international finance experts said. 

“We are following the unfolding developments closely. We are deeply concerned about the impact of events on the economy and on the people of Myanmar,” an IMF spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Tuesday, confirming that the payment was completed last week. 

US President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., facing his first international crisis since taking office less than two weeks ago, has threatened new sanctions against the generals, and the State Department said it would review its foreign assistance to the Southeast Asian country. 

The United States is the dominant shareholder in the IMF, which has provided Myanmar with $700 million in emergency coronavirus financing over the past seven months, including last week’s payment, which included $116.6 million through the IMF’s Rapid Credit Facility and $233.4 million through the Rapid Financing Instrument. 

The Fund said in a statement on Jan. 13 that the money would help Myanmar meet “urgent balance-of-payments needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the government’s recovery measures to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability while supporting affected sectors and vulnerable groups.” 

Unlike the IMF’s regular financing programs, which have performance benchmarks, the emergency aid is provided quickly, with no way to yank it back. 

“It’s not a program that was negotiated, there isn’t conditionality and there aren’t forward-looking reviews with disbursements tied to those reviews,” said Stephanie Segal, a former IMF economist and US Treasury official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. 

“I’m not aware of any precedent where money that’s been approved by the IMF board can be recalled,” Ms. Segal added. 

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis last year, the IMF has provided emergency financing to 80 countries. 

The timing of the latest disbursement to Myanmar was unfortunate, two sources familiar with the payments said, and pointed to the risks of using rapid financing that gives governments broad discretion over how they spend the money. 

The best-case scenario is that the Myanmar government that emerges from the current political turmoil will spend the money appropriately because it wants to have a productive relationship with the Fund, one of the sources said. 

The IMF’s counterparty in Myanmar is the central bank. — David Lawder/Reuters

GameStop, other Reddit-favored stocks plunge as trading frenzy fizzles

GameStop Corp. shares more than halved in value on Tuesday and silver prices retreated as the Reddit-driven trading frenzy that roiled stock and commodity markets appeared to fizzle, at least for now. 

The videogame retailer’s shares, whose wild gyrations have made or lost billions of dollars for hedge funds and other investors in recent weeks, closed down 60% at $90. They are now worth less than a fifth of their high of $483 last week. 

Posters on the popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets, which was instrumental in fueling the rally, bemoaned the fall. “Our darkest hour,” read one post by user name kigfik who said they were still holding the stock. Another user, Cinther, posted that they bought at $390 and “lost so much that I don’t even care anymore” but were still holding. 

“The rally is likely over (since) the short positions are pretty well taken care of,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago. 

“That’s the game you play when you do this thing. It can work for a while until it stops working and when it stops working, it reverses pretty quickly.” 

Short sellers saw paper gains of $3.39 billion during Tuesday’s session, according to S3 Partners. Year-to-date realized and unrealized losses for shorts recently stood at $9.2 billion. 

“We have had a lot of shorts take their losses and walk away from the trade,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3’s managing director of predictive analytics. 

Spot silver prices, which became an alternative focus in the battle between small traders and Wall Street hedge funds last week, fell more than 8% after hitting an eight-year high on Monday. The main silver ETF was down 8.3%. 

The retail frenzy in silver has left some dealers scrambling for bars and coins to meet demand. 

Analysts said the silver pullback may show the limits of small investors’ impact in a large and complicated market. 

Online broker Robinhood, on whose platform much of the buying and selling has taken place, raised trading limits on GameStop Corp., AMC, and other stocks, according to an update on its website on Tuesday. 

‘BIZARRE SITUATIONS’ 

Analysts predicted that the market frenzy, which has drawn the attention of regulators and politicians, was likely to fade, and said it was just a question of how soon. 

“This is a pretty narrow strategy that likely creates some bizarre situations like GameStop and AMC but it’s not broad enough to change how institutional investors are going to invest,” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey. 

“The strength of the move was so severe that it really opened up people’s eyes to the power of social media in the investment world. But having seen it and how short-term the nature of it is, I think it’ll lose its surprise.” 

Broader markets appeared to be moving on. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.57%, the S&P 500 gained 1.39% and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.56%. 

Other so-called meme stocks caught up in the Reddit rally also sold off. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc and Koss Corp each dropped by more than 40%, Express Inc. and Naked Brand Group Ltd. lost about a third of their value, while BlackBerry Ltd. and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. showed double-digit percentage losses. Nokia’s US-listed shares fell 7%. 

With hedge funds at the center of the market drama, the GameStop saga is likely to expedite a regulatory review of the ever-larger role played by non-bank firms in the financial markets, regulatory experts said. 

Melvin Capital, one of the biggest funds betting on a drop in GameStop’s share price, lost 53% in January. Other funds like billionaire investor Steven Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management lost nearly 9%, investors in the funds said. 

Point72 has opened to new cash and raised more than $1.5 billion in commitments, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Meanwhile, Robinhood’s app recorded more downloads than any other U.S. trading app last week, despite concerns its restrictions on transactions would alienate some users, according to market research data providers. 

Robinhood, which raised $3.4 billion in emergency funds in the past week, plans an initial public offering later this year. 

Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev said in a blog post that it was time to consider real-time settlement in US equities trading, which currently follows a two-day settlement system. 

“There is no reason why the greatest financial system the world has ever seen cannot settle trades in real time. Doing so would greatly mitigate the risk that such processing poses,” said Mr. Tenev. 

CME RAISED SILVER MARGINS 

One big drag on silver prices was a Chicago Mercantile Exchange margin hike on contracts for the metal, which makes speculative trade more expensive. 

Mining stocks including First Majestic Silver and Pan American Silver fell. 

Posts on Tuesday on WallStreetBets ranged from those giving up on the GameStop trade to calls to stick with the stock. 

“Redditors are focused on meme stocks and that fight should continue—right now they think that silver is a distraction to their cause,” said Ephraim Rinsky, a novelist who was one of the first Redditors to post about buying silver on WallStreetBets. 

The forum was in a sober mood on Tuesday. 

“Guys. This only works (if) we work together. Buy the dip and hold. For all of us. The movement isn’t over,” said one post from Reddit user mwybert that garnered more than 8,000 comments, most of them supportive. 

GameStop, AMC, Koss, BlackBerry and Bed Bath & Beyond have not responded to requests seeking comment. — Sagarika Jaisinghani, Thyagaraju Adinarayan, and Lewis Krauskopf/Reuters

Bridging the Filipino youth to their big dreams

SM Foundation opens college scholarship to this year’s batch of high school graduates

One of the most valuable lessons that the late SM founder Henry “Tatang” Sy, Sr. imparted is to dream big. Dreaming requires little effort, but achieving those dreams requires a great deal of determination and hard work.

This might be challenging, however, for many young people who are hindered by the lack of finances to enroll and attend classes.

Yet, there are still high school graduates who are intent on getting a college degree despite the lack of means, firmly convinced that a degree is their key to get a good-paying job and, eventually, help their families improve their lives.

These are the youth for which “Tatang” opened the SM Scholarship Program in 1993.

Reaching underprivileged yet deserving students for almost three decades, the SM Scholarship Program continues to make an impact on the Filipino youth, like Khyle Aaron Monteban and Edmon P. Laguna who are currently studying as SM scholars.

Mr. Monteban, 20, is taking up BS Computer Science at the University of Immaculate Conception in Davao City. He learned about the SM scholarship program while in senior high school.

“It was at the time when I thought about [how] I could help lessen the financial burden of my parents while being able to go to a prestigious school. So, I searched for programs that I could apply for, and SM was the one that caught my attention the most,” he shared.

As Mr. Laguna, 19, shared, he does not only dream big but dream high as well. After learning about the scholarship from his friends and from searching for scholarships online, he is able to dream further as an SM scholar at Saint Paul School of Professional Studies in Tacloban City taking BS Accountancy.

From L-R (Dominic Bolima, Mark Paul Magallanes, Edmon Laguna and Kyle Aaron Monteban)

For school year 2021-2022, SM Foundation is opening its doors to new scholars as it starts accepting online applications from high school graduates from Jan. 1 to March 20, 2021.

Application is open to Grade 12 public high school graduates from schools in the areas where SM operates businesses. These areas are Metro Manila, Albay, Bataan, Batangas, Benguet, Bulacan, Cagayan, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Cavite, Isabela, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, Palawan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Sorsogon, Quezon, Rizal, Tarlac, and Zambales in Luzon; Capiz, Cebu, Iloilo, Leyte, Samar and Negros Occidental in Visayas; and Agusan del Norte, Davao del Sur, Misamis Oriental, South Cotabato, and Zamboanga del Sur in Mindanao.

Grade 12 graduates from private schools are also qualified to apply as long as they finished Grade 10 from public high schools with DepEd vouchers and a general weighted average grade of at least 88% or its equivalent for Grade 12. Only graduates with an annual family income of P150,000 and below are eligible to apply.

Bringing hope
All applications undergo screening by a committee from the SM Foundation Education team. Shortlisted applicants are then visited by the team at their homes.

Mr. Montebon recalled that he kept his finger crossed as he took the admission test and got interviewed. “When I received the e-mail acceptance. I felt so happy! I felt so thankful! I told myself that this is the start of my journey with SM,” he said.

Photo from left: A scholar applicant is interviewed by a member of the scholarship screening committee. Photo from right: A scholar graduate applies for a job during the job fair prior to the presentation of graduates.

SM scholars are given the option to enroll in degrees specializing in computer science, information technology, and engineering courses; accounting and allied business courses; and elementary and secondary education degree programs.

These courses can be pursued in 114 SM partner schools nationwide, 14 of which are in the National Capital Region, 61 in Luzon, 23 in Visayas, and 16 in Mindanao.

SM Foundation scholars with Ling Lansang, OIC of the Education Program

Opening opportunities
Moreover, scholars enjoy full tuition subsidy, monthly allowance, part-time job opportunities at SM stores during semestral and Christmas breaks, activities and enrichment programs like annual recollection, and exclusive job offers with the SM Group of Companies after graduation.

Dominic Bolima and Mark Paul M. Magallanes, SM scholar alumni, recalled how much they enjoyed these additional opportunities.

Mr. Bolima, now a college instructor at the Bicol State College of Applied Science and Technology, considers his part-time work at the SM Department Store — from sales clerk, package counter attendant, to gift wrapping attendant — as one of his best experiences.

“I valued each work assignment which taught me about customer service. I can now apply my learnings in my teaching profession. I am always proud whenever I share these stories with others,” he said.

From working part-time as a utility clerk at The SM Store Magallanes, he was hired during SM’s job fair in 2013 and now works as assistant mall manager at SM Seaside City Cebu.

A moment he cherishes as an SM scholar-graduate is the testimonial dinner, a culminating event that gives scholars the opportunity to meet the Sy family.

“It was an amazing and memorable experience meeting the family who helped me through college, and I was able to thank them personally,” Mr. Magallanes reminisced.

Having produced over 3,000 graduates, the SM college scholarship program is looking forward to lending a hand to another batch of Filipino youth who believe that nothing hinders those who are determined to reach their dreams.

For more information about the SM College Scholarship program, visit www.sm-foundation.org and follow its social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube) @SMFoundationInc.

 

BusinessWorld Insights: Preparing the Next Gen Leaders

Much has already been discussed on how to manage millennials (those born between1980 and 1996) in the workplace. As they get older, more of them are starting to climb up the organizational ladder, assuming leadership positions previously held by their seniors.

Join the next generation leaders Cirtek Chief Finance Officer Brian Gregory Liu, Angkas Chief Transport Advocate George Royeca, Mega Global Chief Growth and Development Officer Marvin Tiu Lim; and moderator BusinessWorld Reporter Jenina Ibañez in a discussion on how young executives effectively assume their leadership posts in the third and final session of BusinessWorld Insights’ Leadership Series with the topic, “Preparing the Next-Gen Leaders: Millennials in the C-Suite”.

#BUSINESSWORLDINSIGHTS​ Leadership Series is presented by InLife; with the support of Management Association of the Philippines, British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Philippine Association of National Advertisers, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and The Philippine STAR.

Philippine debt-to-GDP ratio in 2020 highest since 2006

THE National Government’s (NG) outstanding debt reached P9.8 trillion at the end of December 2020, pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio to the highest in over a decade, as it borrowed more to fund the pandemic response. Read the full story.

Philippine debt-to-GDP ratio in 2020 highest since 2006

Pandemic pushes Philippine gov’t debt to P9.8 trillion

THE National Government’s (NG) outstanding debt reached P9.8 trillion at the end of December 2020, pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio to the highest in over a decade, as it borrowed more to fund the pandemic response.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on Tuesday reported last year’s debt stock jumped by 26.7% from P7.731 trillion at the end of 2019, due to “higher funding requirements to respond to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.”

Month on month, the BTr said the debt stock went down by 3.3% from the end-November level of P10.13 trillion after the government settled its outstanding loans to the central bank.

Philippine debt-to-GDP ratio in 2020 highest since 2006

This brought the debt-to-GDP ratio to 54.5% as of end-2020, from the record low of 39.6% in 2019.

Finance Undersecretary and Chief Economist Gil S. Beltran said the 2020 debt stock ratio was the highest in 11 years or since the 57.2% recorded in 2009, a year after the global financial crisis.

This also breached the 53.5% debt-to-GDP ratio projected by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) for the year.

“[The debt ratio] is not alarming. The economy is expected to grow by 6.5-7.5% this year. This will enlarge the denominator and tend to reduce the ratio,” Mr. Beltran said via text message on Tuesday when asked to comment.

“Further, the debt is financeable given the country’s higher domestic savings pool boosted by remittances, BPO (business process outsourcing) earnings and 10 years of 6.4% annual GDP growth,” he added.

The share of domestic debt to the overall debt stock rose to 68.35% last year from 66.32% in 2019, the BTr said. The balance or 32% was sourced from foreign lenders.

Local outstanding debt stood at P6.695 trillion at the end of December, down 7% from the month prior after the Treasury settled its P540-billion loan with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Year on year, domestic debt grew by 30.6% from P5.127 trillion as of end-2019.

The local debt stock consisted of P948 million in loans and P6.694 trillion in government securities.

Meanwhile, external outstanding debt rose 5.4% to P3.1 trillion month on month after the government issued $2.75 billion (P132 billion) in dollar-denominated bonds in December to further plug the ballooning deficit. External debt jumped by 19.1% from the P2.6 trillion as of end-2019.

Broken down, foreign debt stock included P1.312 trillion in loans and P1.788 trillion in government securities issued offshore.

The BTr said the third-currency denominated debt added P10.67 billion to the overall value of foreign debt but the appreciation of the peso reduced the total by P3.91 billion.

The Treasury used a peso exchange rate of P48.021 against the greenback for December.

Meanwhile, the National Government’s guaranteed obligations went up by 3.5% month on month to P458.35 billion in December after obtaining P27.52 billion in fresh local guarantees, while third currency adjustment added P1.47 billion to the overall value.

This more than offset the P13.18 billion paid for external guarantees, as well as the effect of the stronger peso versus the dollar which trimmed the total value by P250 million.

Total guaranteed obligations of the government rose by 6.2% as of end-December, from P488.746 billion at the end of 2019.

Mr. Beltran noted that despite the higher debt stock ratio, credit raters still maintained the sovereign ratings for the Philippines last year.

“Actually, credit rating agencies and analysts are aware of the higher deficit and the negative GDP growth and they maintained the investment grade rating. Also, peer countries are also facing higher debt ratios and even higher deficits,” he said.

Fitch Ratings affirmed last month the Philippines’ long-term foreign currency issuer default rating at “BBB” with a stable outlook, while S&P Global Ratings kept its BBB+ long-term credit rating with a stable outlook for the country in May 2020. Moody’s Investors Service also affirmed its Baa2 rating with a stable outlook last July.

For this year, the DBCC projected the debt-to-GDP ratio will continue to rise to 57%. — Beatrice M. Laforga

BoI targets P1.25 trillion in investments this year

More investments in the infrastructure sector are expected this year. — PHILIPPINE STAR/EDD GUMBAN

THE Board of Investments (BoI) is targeting P1.25 trillion in investment approvals for 2021, 22.5% higher than last year’s tally, as it expects to attract more investments in infrastructure.

Trade Secretary and BoI Chairman Ramon M. Lopez said that the investment promotion agency is looking to a V-shaped economic recovery this year, which led to its adoption of the original 2020 target.

Approved investment pledges for 2020 reached P1.02 trillion, reaching the BoI’s revised P1- trillion goal. However, this was lower than the P1.25-trillion target set before the pandemic.

Endorsements of two power projects and a water supply and distribution project at the end of 2020 helped the agency reach its goal. BoI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo earlier cast doubt on hitting the P1-trillion mark while the agency awaited government endorsements.

“Moving forward to 2021, we expect that investments in these types of projects will intensify particularly in infrastructure (road, ports and telecoms), water and power,” Mr. Lopez said in a statement on Tuesday.

The BoI accounts for the bulk of planned projects registered with investment promotion agencies.

The 311 projects last year could create 55,124 jobs, BoI said. Most of the projects are domestic investments contributing 95.3% to the total.

While electricity projects contributed P199.2 billion to last year’s total, transportation and storage added P161.6 billion. Real estate projects contributed P32.5 billion, while the projects in the water supply and sewerage sector invested P27 billion.

The bulk of the investments went to Central Luzon, mostly due to the Bulacan international airport project that contributed to more than half of the year’s total. The Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), National Capital Region, and Northern Mindanao followed.

“While there is a constant flow of investment leads and applications, the BoI as a prudent administrator of incentives puts primacy in a rigorous assessment of these projects,” Mr. Rodolfo said.

“Government agencies, however, have been putting extraordinary efforts to have efficient coordination in removing obstacles to business endeavors, particularly the strategic and critical projects.”

BoI reached a record high of P1.14 trillion in investment pledges in 2019.

Another investment promotion agency, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, said that it aims to reach over P100 billion in investment this year, higher than last year’s P95 billion. — Jenina P. Ibañez

National Government may cut workforce in 2022

ECONOMIC MANAGERS expect the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petition to cost the National Government P234.4 billion or equivalent to 0.92% of gross domestic product once it takes effect in 2022. — PHILIPPINE STAR/ MICHAEL VARCAS

DEPARTMENTS under the National Government may have to reduce their workforce when some projects will be devolved to local government units (LGUs) starting next year, the Budget chief said.

In a webinar on Tuesday, Budget Secretary Wendel E. Avisado said some agencies at the national level may have to be downsized, merged, or even be abolished as several projects will be devolved to LGUs in 2022 to comply with the Supreme Court (SC) ruling on the Mandanas case.

The Department of Budget and Management is currently drafting an Executive Order (EO) detailing the devolution of certain functions of the Executive Branch to local governments starting in 2022.

Economic managers expect the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petition to cost the National Government P234.4 billion or equivalent to 0.92% of gross domestic product (GDP) once it takes effect in 2022.

The ruling clarified that the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share of LGUs should be coming from all national taxes collected and not just from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Mr. Avisado said affected agencies will have to reduce their workforce by next year because of the limited budget for the National Government.

“We have proposed an EO on this and it has been submitted to various agencies. And we will be presenting this to the President in light of the Mandanas decision and for the government to look into its current workforce and what should be done, in light of the fact that there’s not much resources going to be available at the national level next year as before,” he said.

The downsizing of the government agencies is part of the Executive Branch’s plan to comply with the SC ruling, Mr. Avisado said. He added it could also boost the local autonomy of LGUs and help with the decentralization efforts.

Mr. Avisado estimated the IRA share of LGUs will increase by 20% on average by next year.

According to the National Budget Memorandum No. 138 dated Jan. 6, some of the functions of the Executive Branch that will be fully devolved to local governments include: agriculture; local infrastructure services such as school buildings and other facilities; environmental services such as forestry, pollution control, and the implementation of small-scale mining laws; modernization of tax collection services; health services like hospitals; inter-municipal telecommunications services; buildings, parks, sports facilities and jails; roads, bridges and drainage systems and industry research and tourism development.

Other projects that could be transferred to the LGUs are low-cost housing projects, irrigation systems, social protection programs and other livelihood programs.

The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) earlier said it is looking to shift the implementation of various programs, activities and projects worth P404.5 billion to LGUs.

“The government really needs to look into the current personnel structure and organizational structure and the number of workforce needed for the government to continue to operate at the national level,” said Mr. Avisado. — Beatrice M. Laforga