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On September 21st, there’s a lot to reexamine

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Though this article is slated for publication on Thursday, Sept. 23, I am reflecting on the day that I am writing this, September 21st, a day where we extend rethinking the capital markets towards re-examining major issues in our country and in the world in general. Today marks what is a dark day in the history of the Philippines, the anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law by Dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the year 1972. It is also the World Zero Emissions Day, which, while a great initiative, is yet another stark reminder of darker times to come with climate change. And it is also declared by the United Nations as The International Day of Peace. And while these three things do not seem connected on the outset, we all know that they are, and we need to attempt to understand our roles as economic actors in observing these three specific events. Today we rethink our economic situation vis-à-vis the situation during Martial Law.

While historians and political analysts are best placed to comment on the grave ills of Martial Law, suffice it to say that the economic impact of those two decades of plunder and violence are still being felt to this day. There are many who are recalling the Never Again and Never Forget hashtags to take stands in the upcoming elections, but many forget the economic problems faced then that seem to be not only haunting us today but threaten to be replicated.

On this same day last year, Ruben Almendras wrote in The Freeman that the economic justification for Martial Law was to promote faster economic progress. He said that prior to Marcos’ presidential election, GDP growth “ranged from 3.55% to 7.06%.” The Philippines was the 2nd economy to Japan in Asia. This continued towards the first and second terms of Marcos — until Martial Law was declared, which led to erratic economic growth rates, jumping up and down each year, from a high of 8.8% then progressively decreasing to -7.3% in 1984 and 1985, marking two full years of recession. This is not unlike what we are experiencing today. Though many things were external like oil prices, Almendras says that political pressure on economic decision makers and technocrats of the Marcos regime took away from sensible economic policies. Massive inflation (at one point hitting 62.8% in September 1984), excessive spending, and, of course, massive corruption ensued, and government investments were mismanaged. The final whammy was the heightened political risk which ultimately dampened the foreign investment climate. Infrastructure spending plunged to the lowest levels as the government was unable to pay its debts.

As decisions in the political arena have a direct impact on the economy, it is not enough to denounce Marcos’ scions or cronies out of mere conscience, although this is an excellent first step; but truly a better and quite clear way forward is to select a leader that will not burden the people with mismanaged amounts of debt. For we must keep in mind that the story of the Marcoses is not simply one of extravagance in buying shoes and art and smuggling cash in Swiss Bank accounts, it is much more sophisticated and complex that that; it is a master class on how the mismanagement of foreign investments, the dwindling reputation of political leaders, the threat to press freedom, and violence can cripple an economy almost instantly.

What then is our role as economic actors, as financial market movers, as investors, entrepreneurs? It is to understand and better educate the public on the impact of economic decision making, from the tax increases in tobacco and oil, the transport hikes, the imports of pork, the flight of the POGOs, the retail trade liberalization act, the lowering of corporate taxes — vis-à-vis, the impact on the bottom-line of firms, the impact on the competitiveness of the Philippines versus our Asian peers, the sustainability of operations from an environmental, social, and governance perspective — and how this bottom-line affects: the unemployment rate of the country, the brain drain from the flight of the OFWs, the poverty levels.

And it gets even more specific in the times of COVID, for our role is to explain the impact of the health spending and dwindling fiscal aid or ayuda on the productivity of the labor force, on the ability to maintain the economy open and running; The impact of keeping classes closed on the earnings of graduates in the future and how this severely limits their prospects. The impact of lockdown policies on the ease of doing business in the Philippines and attractiveness to foreign investors. The impact of infrastructure spending and the slow pace of construction on ballooning debt. And the idea of banking on short-term gains, remittances, BPOs, to save us instead of sound government policies.

These are all issues that can be brought to light and better addressed in this period, this is an opportunity to debate, to compare the difficulties economically then with now, and this is the time to take courage to learn from the past, from the dark past, but also from the highly avoidable pains of a rough economic past.

 

Daniela “Danie” Luz 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 IÉSEG School of Management in Paris and maintains teaching affiliations at IÉSEG 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.

Mixed signals on retirement

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Determining the official retirement age for government workers should be seen more as a pension issue rather than a labor supply issue. In a country where national and local governments are among the biggest employers, and where a young population provides an abundant supply of workers, legislators should tread carefully in deciding on how best to adjust retirement policies for the bureaucracy.

To date, I am getting mixed signals from the House and the Senate, and I am uncertain whether decisions are being made on the basis of quality and irrefutable empirical data and metrics, or more on the basis of political interests. After all, in about eight months we are holding the May 2022 elections, and many of our lawmakers are seeking reelection.

At present, the optional retirement age for government workers is 60, and the compulsory retirement age is 65. Under consideration now are bills proposing to lower the optional retirement age of government employees to 56; and, for public school teachers to 55. However, there are also a pending bill raising the retirement age, particularly for the military and the police, which is 56. The Senate proposal is to raise the retirement age of officers to 60 and the Chief of Staff to 65. But the retirement age of enlisted personnel will remain at 56.

We have no set optional or mandatory retirement ages for presidents, vice-presidents, senators, congressmen, and Cabinet members, or appointed heads of agencies. But in the judiciary, the mandatory retirement age for judges is 70. Incidentally, at the US Supreme Court, and all other US federal courts, there is no mandatory retirement age for judges. However, of those who decide to retire voluntarily, available online data indicate an average age of 78.

Perhaps legislators should strive for consistency, and that retirement ages should not be a matter simply of age but physical and mental and intellectual ability. But more than this, there should be a major consideration of fiscal implications, particularly the ability of pensions systems and future generations to shoulder the cost of benefits of retirees. Moreover, why allow military officers to stay on longer than enlisted personnel? For all members of uniformed services, shouldn’t retirement age be the same?

Mandatory and optional retirement ages will ultimately depend on the type and volume of work required from an individual. In this line, recent studies and research should be reviewed to help set a baseline as well as a standard that can be applied to different types of government work. Benchmarking will help in this regard. The starting point perhaps should be the present standard of 60 for optional and 65 for mandatory, for all government workers. Nothing lower.

For the Philippine military and police services, the mandatory retirement age is currently 56, or 35 years of service. A Senate bill proposes to jack this up to 60, but for officers only, and to 65 for the Chief of Staff. I don’t see any compelling reason for this difference. In the US, the Army has raised the retirement age for active personnel to 62 from 55, and the age limit for enlistment to 39 from 34. Why not apply the 60-65 metric to all uniformed personnel as well?

I believe the state-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) should be heard on this issue. Personally, I see no reason to lower either the optional and mandatory retirement ages from the present 60/65. If at all, it should be raised instead or lowered. Provided, however, that after the age of 55, annual assessments are made whether one continues to retain the physical, mental, and intellectual capabilities deemed needed to do the job.

As the GSIS itself said in an explanatory note on its website, “any change in the [retirement] benefit package has a corresponding fund liability that would be hard to sustain, given the present poor investment environment and successive increments in government employees’ monthly salary.” Lowering the retirement age shortens the contribution period of GSIS members. The GSIS will also pay pensions much earlier than originally planned.

“GSIS is gravely concerned that the untimely receipt of benefit resulting from early retirement will continuously shorten the actuarial life. To address this, it may resort to two options — increase the contribution of those who are still in service or reduce benefits of the present and next generation of pensioners,” it said.

“The actuarial life of SIF [Social Insurance Fund] is 26 years. This means that it will last until 2045 from 2019. Based on GSIS’s studies, if any of the bills [to lower retirement age] would be implemented, the actuarial life will drop from four to 14 years. Thus, instead of until 2045, the fund life would will be 2041 only, or much worse, until 2031,” it added.

On whether the GSIS can still pay pensions of retirees if the retirement age is lowered, the pension system replied, “We are unsure of the future. GSIS might be too conservative with its projections. Only time will tell.” But it concedes that the GSIS will have a “weakened capacity to pay its SIF liabilities” unless premium contributions are raised significantly and benefits are adjusted.

The GSIS added that legislators should consider the aging population resulting from longer life expectancy and lower fertility rates. It said that life expectancy was expected to rise to 72.7 years in years 2045-2050 (from 67.5 years in 2005-2010), while the number of people aged 60 and above would increase in the year 2030.

It noted that in Australia, the retirement age was even slightly raised to 67 in 2017 and may be implemented until 2023. In Malaysia, the retirement age was raised to 60 in 2012 from 55, with plans to further increase it to 65. Thailand also did the same — to age 60 from 55. Vietnam is also considering increasing the retirement age of males to 62 from 60, and that of females to 60 from 55, the GSIS said. South Korea is studying raising its retirement age to 65 from 60.

In Belgium, the retirement age is also to be increased gradually to 67 by 2030. In France, the minimal retirement age has gradually increased from 60 to 62, and the full retirement age is to be increased gradually to 67 by 2023. In Germany, the retirement age is to be increased gradually to 67 by 2029. In Denmark, the retirement age will be increased gradually to 67 by 2022. And from 2030 onwards, it will be increased a maximum of one year every five years, depending on increases in average lifespan. In Ireland, Taiwan, and Japan, the retirement age is to be increased gradually to 68 years.

European civil servants retire at the age of 66 since 2014. And in the United States, retirees are eligible to receive reduced Social Security payments by 62, while people 65 and over are eligible to receive some free Medicare benefits if they paid Medicare taxes for at least 10 years. The full retirement age is to be increased gradually by 2023 and will be 67 for everyone born in 1960 or later. While everybody is considering going up, why are we looking at going down?

 

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

matort@yahoo.com

Martial Law and Ninoy Aquino

Almost 50 years after Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law, those of us who were around at that time continue to denounce it as part of a grand design to extend the Marcos rule indefinitely.

The official reason behind Marcos’s Proclamation 1081 was “to save the Republic and form a New Society.”

Marcos, who was known to have a fetish for numbers with the digit seven or numbers divisible by seven, officially declared Martial Law on Thursday, Sept. 21, 1972. The Proclamation was, however, carried out late Friday evening, Sept. 22, with most of Marcos’s political opponents in military custody hauled off to Camp Crame by Marcos military acolytes like then Colonel Romeo Gatan of the Philippine Constabulary (PC), the forerunner of the Philippine National Police.

Gatan led a team of PC operatives who carried out the arrest of Benigno Aquino, Jr., then a sitting senator performing an official function of a congress still in session, at the then Hilton Hotel at Isaac Peral (later renamed UN or United Nations Avenue) late Friday, Sept. 22 or early Saturday morning, Sept. 23, 1972. Gatan, later promoted to General, would prove to be a player in any major move against the Aquinos. But that is another story.

All these dates and hours assume some significance as I narrate the last few hours I spent with Ninoy Aquino before his arrest.

I had earlier interviewed Ninoy in June-July 1971 for a Marketing paper on “Image Management in a Senatorial Campaign” that I was writing as a student at De La Salle. I later expanded it into a Management Research Report (MRR) at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).

A few days before Aug. 21, 1971, Ninoy told me he was running for President of the Philippines in 1973 and he wanted me to join his campaign. He however said that in order for me to learn the ropes of a national campaign, I should join the senatorial runs of the “young candidates like Monching Mitra and John ‘Sonny’ Osmena.” The miting de avance of the Liberal Party (LP) was on Aug. 21, 1972 and was to be held at the Plaza Miranda, the common man’s plaza for free speech and public gatherings.

The LP had lost the 1969 presidential and local elections to the Nacionalista Party (NP) headed by Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos was the first incumbent president to be reelected for another four-year term.

Ninoy, himself a former NP, had become LP Secretary General and had captured second place in the 1967 senatorial elections dominated by the NP. Together with the other LP leaders like Gerry Roxas, Jovito Salonga, Soc Rodrigo, Mitra, and Osmeña, Ninoy formed a fighting team called KIMMPOSS (Eva Estrada-Kalaw, Eddie Ilarde, Mitra, Gene Magsaysay, Salipada Pendatun, Osmena, Salonga, and Melanio Singson) to do battle with an equally powerful but more financially endowed NP ticket.

Because of a conflict in schedule, I was not able to attend the rally. I was with a lady, Margie Penson, whom I married a year later. Margie and I were on our way to her home that evening as we passed in front of the vacant lot which is now SM Megamall. I was monitoring the rally on radio and after a few minutes, we heard several loud explosions. We could hear people screaming and could imagine the terror-stricken faces of people in the chaos that ensued.

Shortly after the Plaza Miranda bombing, Marcos activated the first in several steps leading to the declaration of martial law. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus thus removing the protection of a citizen from arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention. He had succeeded in heating up the climate of fear and was unmistakably and irreversibly headed toward uncharted territory. Political observers and commentators speculated about the very real possibility of Martial Law given Marcos’ options and his consistent pattern of strong-arm politics.

Despite or perhaps, because of this explosive political environment, I soldiered on with my political marketing study on Ninoy. Part of the study involved inviting him to a convocation at the AIM. The invitation was for Friday, Sept. 22 at 3 p.m.

Ninoy arrived at AIM around 2:30 p.m. and spent some time at the faculty lounge with some AIM professors. I had spent around 40 to 50 hours interviewing Ninoy by the time he accepted my invitation to speak before AIM students, faculty, and other invited guests. In all those hours, Ninoy was always ebullient and confident of himself. This time, it was different. I noticed it the moment he stepped out of his black Toyota sedan accompanied by his most trusted close-in security, Ross Cawigan. The dispirited and weary demeanor.

While inside the lounge, I heard Ninoy for the first time speak of the dim prospects in the battle against the anti-democratic moves of Marcos and what definitely were orchestrated bombings of public facilities. Ninoy exclaimed, “Marcos is following a script. It seems there is a check list of events that need to happen to justify the declaration of Martial Law. There is now no legitimate organized opposition to Marcos. Even the Church, which is supposed to oppose these dictatorial moves on moral grounds is silent. The only opposition, illegal at that, is the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front.”

Ninoy went on to speak before a crowd which had by then packed itself into the auditorium. Ninoy spoke for about 30 minutes and entertained questions for about an hour. In front of the graduate school of business students, Ninoy spoke of government deals favoring Marcos’ partisans and friends. As I later told Ninoy a few hours after his speech, the crowd was mesmerized by his revelations on the business deals, the bombings, and the attempts of Marcos to influence the ongoing 1971 Constitutional convention to adopt the parliamentary system of government to allow him or his wife to become Prime Minister thus skirting the term limitation in the 1935 constitution.

A key figure in that attempt was former Ambassador Eduardo Quintero, ironically from Leyte, Imelda’s home province. During a press briefing, Quintero brandished envelopes of peso bills given to him to vote for the parliamentary system. Marcos had Plan A: for the Philippines to adopt the parliamentary form of government. A subsidiary plan was for Imelda to run for President. The most preferred and realistic plan, no matter the permanent damage it would inflict on political institutions, was to declare Martial Law.

After Ninoy’s speech, he left for Channel 5 in Pasong Tamo, Makati. I was to proceed to Channel 5 and meet him there, as previously agreed, to continue our conversations and the tutorial on Political Marketing and Campaigning. He was to tape his TV program, Insights, which aired on Sundays.

Ninoy’s plans changed however. He sent word to me that he had to leave for the Hilton Hotel to meet with a bi-partisan group of senators and congressmen to discuss ways to raise new revenues “because Marcos emptied the National Treasury.” He suggested to meet the next day, Saturday, Sept. 23, at 10 a.m. at Channel 5.

The meeting did not materialize. He and thousands of others had been arrested that night. I had to change my dissertation topic on the advice of AIM faculty and military friends. My other resource persons had also been incarcerated: Bren Guiao, Ben Aniceto of ABS-CBN, Max Soliven, Senator Jose Diokno, Jose Mari Velez, Nap Rama, Genie Lopez and Ross Cawigan, among many others. Cawigan had been tortured to provide information on Ninoy.

In November 1973, Marcos continued his in-your-face treatment of the Filipino people: he declared Sept. 21 as National Thanksgiving Day.

I spoke to Ninoy several times when he was allowed to go on home furlough while in the custody of his military and civilian jailors. In one conversation, he spoke of the first time he met Marcos since his incarceration. He was brought to Malacañang one evening and the two political giants, fraternity brothers in Upsilon, called each other “brod” as if there was no ongoing conflict between them. Marcos said, “I envy you brod. You’re able to commune with history’s greatest intellectuals. I understand you read about three books a day. I can’t get that kind of thinking here. I’m surrounded by clowns.” Two Marcos cabinet members who were with the two political protagonists, squirmed in their seats. During the same encounter, Marcos said, “Ninoy, why don’t you just admit the charges against you. I’ll pardon you and you and Cory can live in the US. Your own close-in bodyguard admitted to so many of your misdeeds.” Ninoy replied, “Brod, of course he’ll admit to anything while being tortured. Don’t you think these two Ministers of yours will do the same thing if they were being tortured?”

It was clear Ninoy was still the same witty person he was before all the physical and mental humiliation he and his family had undergone, especially at Laur, Nueva Ecija.

Although one of those cabinet ministers would later say, in a characteristic moment of envy and pique, that Ninoy’s assassin “did the nation a favor,” Ninoy still remains a hero in the eyes of many.

 

Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as Secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.

Digitally speaking

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MESSAGING via SMS or online chat has become the normal form of communication, even for masked couples physically in the same place — “When I am dead, my dearest, sing no sad songs for me.” This can be met with an emoticon of surprise.

With billions of messages a day sent just in this country, the numbers surging even higher with free online apps, do people still have regular conversations outside the home? Is there a decline in verbal exchanges with turn-taking, arguments, and interaction where one can display erudition by mentioning that Da Vinci’s Last Supper was his only mural and discussing the impact of the pandemic on local art auctions? (Do people still talk like this?)

Is digital dialogue a real conversation?

Messages are abbreviated and with word prediction algorithm can end up being cryptic. (About that supper, did you mean Da Vinci or Denny’s?) There can also be a lag time in the response. (I was in a Zoom meeting.) The absence of clues like inflection of voice or raised eyebrows removes emotional context, like enthusiasm or dismay.

When she replies to a possibly seductive wink (How’s the rose garden?) with an exclamation point, was she puzzled or offended? When the reply is delayed, did she just pause to get a glass of water or was she turned off?

Virtual communications do not provide body language clues. Words are delivered without inflection. There is no meditative pause or a hesitation where the body tenses before an emphatic phrase is delivered. The glow of joy at an uttered endearment is replaced by an emoticon, an ovoid creature with puckered lips.

Face-to-face conversation, even with masks, is digitally framed too. It’s called an eyeball meeting (or in-person) as opposed to winking from home (WFH). Even when a couple is physically together, they may be absorbed by their digital toys: playing games, sharing political posts, or texting other people.

Digital conversations tend to stick to a single topic at a time and rarely jump outside the thread. Otherwise, there is a mystified head-scratching when a new and unrelated topic pops up. Virtual meetings even have an agenda and the need to raise a digital hand to be given permission to ask a question, or interrupt the speaker — do you see my charts?

Real conversation meanders. It flows like a river, twisting around rocks and driftwood, deep in some parts, shallow in others, moving fast one moment and then slowing down over an alligator’s back. It requires intimacy and the license to be irrelevant — why are you bringing that up now?

Conversation used to be a form of direct social intercourse requiring no digital intermediary or energy source (I have to charge my phone). Homes would feature some found object as a “conversation piece.” This can be a discarded and un-tuned piano retrieved from a dump site and tuned and buffed like new. The serendipitous discovery of such a treasure sparks comment and elicits delight in discussing the importance of music in the home and the discovery of some hidden talent — have you composed a sonata yet?

The digital culture may have gotten us closer to a paperless office using e-mails and SMS instead of memos and physical meetings. And the pandemic, with its various (and variable) statuses, has only accelerated the digital alternative. In real conversations, spoken words cannot be retrieved or deleted after some deep breathing. They’re already out there irretrievable in their impact. Wait, that is an inappropriate word: I meant morose, not moron. Sorry, you cannot delete.

At the height of the ’60s (age alert) soirees (literally, evening gatherings) were a form of mass dating for college students, usually from two non-coed schools. In the soiree, a “good conversationalist” can be a prized person who probably can’t dance or have flat abs. He may have very thick eyebrows that form a single line. But he can discuss the migration pattern of the monitor lizard and the impact on local governance of the Spanish colonization.

The aim of the tea party was to secure a phone number or two. In that era of the fixed line, a call had to go through the one picking up — Hey Sis, it’s that moron you are trying to avoid.

Digitally speaking, confirming appointments, and getting agreements on decisions are efficiently accomplished. As for appreciating a person and the quality of her shampoo, only a face-to-face meeting can delight… as well as disappoint.

 

Tony Samson is Chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda

ar.samson@yahoo.com

Climate, COVID-19 dominate UN as Biden and Xi up their promises

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The United Nations headquarters building is seen from inside the General Assembly hall in New York City, Sept. 21, 2021. — REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ/POOL

JOSEPH R. BIDEN and Xi Jinping boosted their efforts to help other nations address climate change as fears over the global environment and the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic dominated the first day of world leaders addressing the annual United Nations General Assembly.

President Biden said in his speech Tuesday morning that the US would double funding to aid developing countries cope with climate change, helping bring the world closer to a $100-billion annual target sought ahead of a climate conference in Scotland next month.

“Making these ambitious investments isn’t just good climate policy, it’s a chance for each of our countries to invest in ourselves and our own future,” Mr. Biden said.

China’s President Xi, speaking hours later in a prerecorded video, said his country will stop financial support for the construction of coal-fired power plants abroad, a move long sought by climate activists.

“China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” Mr. Xi said.

The moves by leaders of the world’s two biggest economies signaled the importance placed on climate change as governments globally face mounting costs from extreme weather events.

Continuing the focus on climate, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he’ll submit the Paris climate accord to his nation’s parliament for approval, while the president of the Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, said rising global temperatures would be a “death sentence” for his island nation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised the announcements by Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi Tuesday but said in a statement that “we still have a long way to go” to ensure the conference next month “marks a turning point in our collective efforts to address the climate crisis.” 

Sounding a bleak tone for the gathering, Mr. Guterres warned in remarks earlier Tuesday that the world is hurtling toward ecological destruction and that the “climate alarm bells” are “ringing at fever pitch.” Calling current global efforts insufficient, he forecast a “hellscape of temperature rises” if emissions aren’t cut more than currently planned.

“We are weeks away from the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, but seemingly light-years away from reaching our targets,” Mr. Guterres said. “We must get serious. And we must act fast.”

Global leaders are in New York this week against the backdrop of a world that’s increasingly fracturing into polarized camps. 

Repeating vows to work more collaboratively with allies and global institutions, Mr. Biden urged the world to turn from conflict toward cooperation. While that message is meant to contrast with former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to the world, Mr. Biden found himself trying to assuage frayed nerves among key allies.

Some foreign leaders were upset over the hasty withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. French officials also remain outraged over a new defense alliance that calls for the US and UK to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

The deal cost Paris a $66-billion contract to build Australia a diesel-powered submarine fleet. In response, France last week recalled its ambassador from Washington for the first time.

“It’s not so much about breaking a contract,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters at the French mission in New York on Monday. “It’s about unilateralism and unpredictability, the absence of consultations between allies.”

VACCINE INEQUITY
Even UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared caught by surprise by positive news: The US decision to ease travel restrictions on foreigners who can show proof of vaccination. European nations had long called for US travel barriers to be eased.

With the UNGA taking place in a hybrid mode — many leaders stayed home and delegations in New York were kept smaller than normal — the global COVID-19 pandemic continued to be a key issue.

Mr. Guterres decried the vaccine inequity that has left rich countries with surplus doses and considering booster shots as developing nations have barely started vaccinating their populations.

“Perhaps one image tells the tale of our times: The picture we have seen from some parts of the world of Covid-19 vaccines in the garbage, expired and unused,” he said. “It is an obscenity.”

Reviewing the mistrust and lack of unity he says have undermined global efforts to address Covid and climate, Mr. Guterres said, “Instead of the path of solidarity, we are on a dead end to destruction.” While millions go hungry, Mr. Guterres said, they see “billionaires joyriding to space.”

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro  — who was bashed by Mayor Bill de Blasio for coming to New York without being vaccinated, though he had previously contracted COVID-19 — sought to strike a moderate tone in a bid to improve his nation’s image abroad.

In a speech that kicked off the day’s addresses by leaders, the conservative president highlighted efforts to open the Brazilian economy to foreign investment, defending his environmental policies and his track record during the pandemic. The South American nation suffered the world’s largest COVID-19 death toll after the US and faces broad condemnation over lax policies to protect the Amazon.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS
And while the UN, like many institutions, has placed renewed emphasis on gender equity, the difficulty of doing that at a national level was highlighted by the opening day’s agenda, which featured just one female head of government.

Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova sent a video speech to the General Assembly in which she urged the international community to stand up in particular for girls and women in Afghanistan, where the Taliban-led government that has taken power was condemned in the 1990s for its harsh human rights record.

“Over the past two decades, girls and women in Afghanistan could exercise their legitimate rights,” she said. “These must not be taken away.”  — Bloomberg

Australia rocked by one of its biggest quakes on record

UNSPLASH

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE — A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Melbourne on Wednesday, Geoscience Australia said, one of the country’s biggest quakes on record, causing damage to buildings in the country’s second-largest city and sending tremors throughout neighboring states.

The quake’s epicenter was near the rural town of Mansfield in the state of Victoria, about 200 kms (124 miles) northeast of Melbourne, and was at a depth of 10 kms (six miles). An aftershock was rated 4.0.

Images and video footage circulating on social media showed rubble blocking one of Melbourne’s main streets, while people in northern parts of the city said on social media they had lost power and others said they were evacuated from buildings.

The quake was felt as far away as the city of Adelaide, 800 kms (500 miles) to the west in the state of South Australia, and Sydney, 900 kms (600 miles) to the north in New South Wales state, although there were no reports of damage outside Melbourne and no reports of injuries.

More than half of Australia’s 25 million population lives in the southeast of the country from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney.

“We have had no reports of serious injuries, or worse, and that is very good news and we hope that good news will continue,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Washington.

“It can be a very disturbing event, an earthquake of this nature. They are very rare events in Australia and as a result, I am sure people would have been quite distressed and disturbed.”

Quakes are relatively unusual in Australia’s populated east due to its position in the middle of the Indo-Australian Tectonic Plate, according to Geoscience Australia. The quake on Wednesday measured higher than the country’s deadliest tremor, a 5.6 in Newcastle in 1989, which resulted in 13 deaths.

The mayor of Mansfield, Mark Holcombe, said he was in his home office on his farm when the quake struck and ran outside for safety.

“I have been in earthquakes overseas before and it seemed to go on longer than I have experienced before,” Holcombe told the ABC. “The other thing that surprised me was how noisy it was. It was a real rumbling like a big truck going past.”

He knew of no serious damage near the quake epicenter, although some residents reported problems with telecommunications.

No tsunami threat was issued to the Australian mainland, islands or territories, the country’s Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement.

The quake presented a potential disruption for anti-lockdown protests expected in Melbourne on Wednesday, which would be the third day of unrest that has reached increasing levels of violence and police response. — Reuters

Pandemic threatens Asia-Pacific’s progress  on global development goals

PHILSTAR

MANILA — The coronavirus pandemic may have pushed as many as 80 million people in developing Asia into extreme poverty last year, threatening to derail progress on global goals to tackle poverty and hunger by 2030, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

Developing Asia’s extreme poverty rate — or the proportion of its people living on less than $1.90 a day — would have fallen to 2.6% in 2020 from 5.2% in 2017 without coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but the crisis likely pushed last year’s projected rate higher by about 2 percentage points, ADB simulations showed.

The figure could even be higher considering the inequalities in areas like health, education and work disruptions that have deepened as the COVID-19 crisis disrupted mobility and stalled economic activity, the ADB said in a flagship report on the region.

“As the socioeconomic impacts of responses to the virus continue to unfold, people already struggling to make ends meet are at risk of tipping over into a life of poverty,” the Manila-based lender said.

Among reporting economies in Asia and the Pacific, which refers to the 46 developing and three developed ADB member economies, only about one in four posted economic growth last year, it said.

As unemployment rates increased the region also lost about 8% of work hours, affecting poorer households and workers in the informal sector.

The economic damage brought about by the pandemic had further intensified the challenge of meeting global development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015.

U.N. members unanimously passed 17 Sustainable Development Goals, known as SDGs, in 2015, creating a blueprint of ambitious tasks from ending hunger and gender inequality to expanding access to education and health care.

The goals had a deadline of 2030.

“Asia and the Pacific has made impressive strides, but COVID-19 has revealed social and economic fault lines that may weaken the region’s sustainable and inclusive development,” ADB Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada said in a separate statement. — Reuters

BDO Foundation receives Enterprise Asia award for 5th straight year

For the fifth consecutive year, BDO Foundation was recognized by Enterprise Asia at the prestigious Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards.

BDO Foundation’s corporate citizenship initiatives were recognized once again as among the most outstanding in Asia. For its efforts to help control the spread of the coronavirus, support frontliners and aid underserved sectors of society vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic, the corporate social responsibility arm of BDO Unibank was recently awarded by international non-governmental organization Enterprise Asia.

The award was officially conferred at the Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards (AREA) 2021, a virtual event witnessed by audiences across the continent. BDO Foundation has received recognition from Enterprise Asia for five consecutive years now.

Out of the more than 200 nominees Enterprise Asia received from 16 countries this year, BDO Foundation’s entry was among 69 honored at AREA. The foundation was one of only five Philippine organizations awarded as other winners were based in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The award-giving body acknowledged the foundation for its pooled testing program, relief assistance forfamilies affected by the health crisis and COVID-19 initiatives designed to support health workers.

As part of its COVID-19 response, BDO Foundation funded the pilot implementation of pooled testing in the Philippines. The mass testing intervention—considered a game-changer in efforts to curb the transmission of the virus—was carried out in Makati, Cebu and Mandaluyong for 18,000 market vendors, public utility drivers and medical frontliners.

The foundation also embarked on a donation drive, donated 10,000 test kits to 10 hospitals, distributed 8,000 food packs in disadvantaged communities on lockdown and supported the donation of 1,900 hygiene kits to repatriated overseas Filipino workers. It supported the government’s efforts to facilitate the movement of frontliners during quarantine and to accelerate the distribution of financial assistance to beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program. Further, the foundation facilitated the donation of 200,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to the government.

“Guided by BDO Unibank’s ‘We find ways’ philosophy, BDO Foundation has made significant strides to promote the health and well-being of Filipinos,” BDO Foundation president Mario A. Deriquito said as he accepted the prestigious award. “Moving forward, we will continue to help underserved sectors of society grappling with the pandemic. We will find ways to help communities recover from COVID-19, mindful of our commitment to sustainable development and nation-building.”

Now on its tenth year, AREA honors corporations in Asia that promote sustainable and socially responsible business practices. The awards program is organized by Enterprise Asia, an NGO that recognizes responsible entrepreneurship in the areas of green leadership, investment in people, health promotion, social empowerment, corporate governance, circular economy leadership and responsible business leadership.

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Social entrepreneurs fight to make gig work fairer, greener

DURBAN – When Londoner Rich Mason signed up as a bicycle food delivery rider in 2017, he found the long hours, poor pay and lack of communication from management “jaw-dropping” – so he started his own delivery app instead.

One of his proudest moments was in June this year when his phone pinged with the first order on his Wings platform, which he says pays bicycle couriers above minimum wage, is an eco-friendly alternative to motorbikes and supports family-run restaurants.

“We wanted to create a model that is good for riders, good for society and good for the environment,” said Mason, 32, adding that he wanted to humanize the gig economy into a model that is worker-focused.

“Our brand is built on community,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video call, adding that Wings also partners with local charities to deliver food to people in need.

The gig economy – where people pick up work in a flexible manner – boomed during COVID-19 lockdowns, as people around the world suddenly needed goods and food delivered to their homes and millions of newly jobless were looking for work.

By 2020, there were more than 777 digital labour platforms – from food delivery to web design – around the world, up from about 140 a decade earlier, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

But many people drawn to gig work for its flexibility have reported being exploited by companies paying low wages, and offering weak insurance policies and no sick leave while encouraging long hours.

Now social enterprises like Wings are trying to rejig the gig economy model by offering tech-driven, on-demand services that prioritize workers’ rights and ethical supply chains.

“It is always exciting to see communities taking ownership of digital tools for work and production in a way that is fair and inclusive,” said Kelle Howson, a researcher at Fairwork, a gig economy research project at the Oxford Internet Institute.

PLANET AND PEOPLE
At the large companies that dominate the gig platform sphere, most delivery drivers are classified as “partners”, not employees, meaning they have flexible work hours but few to no benefits, such as healthcare or paid leave.

But some businesses are using elements of the gig economy – like reliance on tech, employment flexibility and direct-to-consumer orders – to create both profit and social change.

In 2014, Colombian entrepreneur Diego Benitez launched SiembraViva, an e-commerce platform that connects rural smallholder farmers with consumers while helping the farmers transition to organic produce through training and technical support.

The platform uses a WhatsApp chatbot to gather planting information from farmers to determine their ideal harvesting schedules based on customer demand, reducing waste and guaranteeing an income for the farmers.

“We work to make the fruit and veg supply chains sustainable, inclusive and efficient,” said the 40-year-old former banker, who hopes to expand into other countries in South America in the coming years.

Similar startups have sprung up around the world from Namibia to the United States, utilizing technology and direct-to-consumer models to help small-scale, organic farmers hold their own against bigger grocery stores.

A core component of the gig economy involves door-to-door deliveries and Spanish courier company Koiki realized they could boost eco-friendly job opportunities for people at risk of social exclusion, like migrants or homeless people.

Koiki provides the technology, training and parcels for delivery people who are hired by partner charities or organizations, said marketing director Patricia De Francisco, adding that all parcels are delivered on foot or on bike to reduce the company’s carbon emissions.

Many of Koiki’s 150 couriers have physical or mental disabilities and they work out of delivery centers in their own neighborhoods so that the routes are familiar to them, said De Francisco.

“They were the heroes of the pandemic, the only ones on the roads delivering medicine and food to people in need,” she said, adding that all workers are on fixed or flexible contracts aligned with the minimum wage.

“We realise we have to take care of the planet and people if we want to be here longer,” said De Francisco.

In East Africa, Kenya-based Digital Lions became the world’s first Fairtrade verified digital agency, highlighting the enterprise’s commitment to fair pay and environmental protection using solar power and emissions offsetting.

The company has trained 300 members of the largely pastoralist community on the shores of Lake Turkana in business and tech skills, helping them enter the international market as web designers, animators and more.

“We can create jobs in remote areas, empower and educate women and deliver quality service, that’s very hard to beat,” said co-founder Jan Veddeler.

Major gig platforms are beginning to take note of smaller players in the sector, with some incorporating their social impact goals into their own model.

In June European gig companies Delivery Hero, Bolt, Glovo, and Wolt announced the European Purpose Project – an online consultation inviting individuals to help draw up an inclusive gig economy code of conduct.

In India, businesses working with temporary staff like garment and construction workers have begun turning to LabourNet, a training and employment mediator for gig workers that has helped improve work contracts and social security benefits.

So far they have helped 8,000 people with the aim of reaching 15,000 in the coming year, said founder Gayathri Vasudevan.

Bigger corporates have also used their capital to fund ethical gig platforms – like Robinhood – launched by Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank last year to help small food businesses that had taken a hit during lockdowns.

Launched as part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, the app does not charge merchants a fee for listing on the platform, and has drawn 150,000 small food vendors and more than 2 million subscribers.

‘READY FOR ETHICAL ALTERNATIVES’
Co-operatives and enterprises like Wings and SiembraViva say consumer demand and decision making is a huge factor in rethinking the gig economy model.

Customers are getting more discerning about how online services use their money and their impact on communities and the environment, said Mason at Wings.

“People are ready for ethical alternatives … I hope we will have built up a loyalty in our community that will come through for us and stand with us if an Uber Eats tries to kill us off in a year or two,” he said.

But customer loyalty alone is not enough, said Howson, the gig economy expert.

“To enable (these) enterprises to succeed, we need changes in wider commercial, tax, supply-chain and labour policy settings … (regulation) should favour companies providing maximum social and economic benefits to local communities,” she said over email.

Social entrepreneurs like Benitez agree that the gig economy is not going anywhere, but that using elements of the gig model for good would make it both more sustainable and profitable.

“Success is not just about money. We can make money and capture carbon and create equitable supply chains for farmers … we can do it all, so that the next generation lives in a better place than we do now,” he said. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

Evergrande wooed retail investors with Gucci bags, Dyson appliances

SHANGHAI – Lured by the promise of yields approaching 12%, gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci bags, and the guarantee of China’s top-selling developer, tens of thousands of investors bought wealth management products through China Evergrande Group.

Now, many fear they may never get their investments back after the cash-strapped property developer recently stopped repaying some investors and set off global alarm bells over its massive debt.

Some have been protesting at Evergrande offices, refusing to accept the company’s plan to provide payment with discounted apartments, offices, stores and parking units, which it began to implement on Saturday.

“I bought from the property managers after seeing the ad in the elevator, as I trusted Evergrande for being a Fortune Global 500 company,” said the owner of an Evergrande property in the conglomerate’s home province of Guangdong surnamed Du.

“It’s immoral of Evergrande not to pay my hard-earned money back,” said the investor, who had put 650,000 yuan ($100,533) into Evergrande wealth management products (WMPs) last year at an interest rate of more than 7%.

More than 80,000 people – including employees, their families and friends as well as owners of Evergrande properties – bought WMPs that raised more than 100 billion yuan in the past five years, said a sales manager of Evergrande Wealth, launched in 2016 as a peer-to-peer (P2) online lending platform that originally was used to fund its property projects.

Some 40 billion yuan of the investments are outstanding, said the person, declining to be named as they were not authorized to speak with the media.

China Evergrande did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, which was a public holiday in China.

With more than $300 billion in debt, Evergrande’s liquidity crisis rattled global markets this week. The company has vowed to repay WMP investors.

CHRISTMAS PROMOTION

China’s years-long effort to deleverage its economy has pushed companies to resort to off-balance sheet investments in search of funding.

After Beijing further capped debt levels of property developers last year, the most indebted players like Evergrande felt even more pressure to find new sources of capital to ease mounting liquidity stress, turning to employees, suppliers and clients for cash through commercial paper, trust and wealth management products.

Evergrande Wealth started to sell WMPs to individuals in 2019 after a regulatory crackdown led to a collapse of the P2P lending sector, said the sales manager and another Evergrande employee who bought the WMPs.

To attract investors, the sales manager offered gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci handbags to each person who bought more than 3 million yuan of WMPs during a Christmas promotion last year.

A product leaflet provided by the sales manager seen by Reuters showed the WMPs are categorised as fixed-income products suitable for “conservative investors seeking steady returns”.

‘DE-FACTO EVERGRANDE PRODUCT’

In two products sold last November, a construction company in Qingdao was looking to raise up to 10 million yuan with annualised yield of 7% in one and 20 million yuan with yields ranging from 7.8% to 9.5%, depending on the investment size, in another. Minimum investments were 100,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan, respectively.

Evergrande also usually offers additional yield up to 1.8% to certain investors, which can push returns to above 11% for a 12-month investment, said the sales manager.

Proceeds were to be used for Qingdao Lvye International Construction Co’s working capital, the documents showed. The firm could not be reached for comment during a public holiday.

Repayment would either come from the issuer’s income or from Evergrande Internet Information Service (Shenzhen) Co, a subsidiary that runs Evergrande Wealth and promises to cover the principal and interest if an issuer fails to repay, the prospectus said.

The sales manager said the Qingdao company was working on Evergrande projects and would use the payment from Evergrande upon completion to repay investors.

“It’s a de-facto Evergrande product,” the person said.

Other highly leveraged Chinese conglomerates including HNA Group, which declared bankruptcy early this year, and China Baoneng have used similar products.

In a petition to various government bodies, a group of WMP investors in Guangdong accused Evergrande of inappropriately using money that should have gone to the issuers to fund its own projects, and not sufficiently disclosing the risks.

They also complained that they were misled by the stature of its chairman, Hui Ka-yan, noting that he was seated prominently during a 2019 celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

“The investors trusted Evergrande and bought Evergrande’s WMPs out of our love for and faith in the Party and government,” they wrote. — Reuters

McDonald’s Happy Meal toys to go green globally by 2025

McDonald’s Corp said on Tuesday it will drastically cut the use of plastic in the more than 1 billion children’s toys it sells globally each year by the end of 2025.

The change involves swapping out a plastic figurine of Batman, for example, for one made with a dozen cardboard pieces that kids can put together themselves.

More toys will also be made from recycled or plant-based plastics, McDonald’s said. The changes will allow the Chicago-based company to cut its use of virgin fossil fuel-based plastic for Happy Meals by 90% compared with 2018.

McDonald’s is one of many restaurant chains aiming to reduce environmental harm from packaging and other products.

Burger King, a unit of Restaurant Brands International Inc , said in 2019 that it would stop giving out free plastic toys and that customers could return existing ones to be melted down and used as trays and other items.

Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement that if McDonald’s really wanted to be more sustainable it should reduce the amount of beef it serves and “stop nibbling around the edges of sustainability.”

McDonald’s, which started selling Happy Meals in 1979, shifted to more sustainable toys in the UK, Ireland and France in 2018.

Some similar toys will soon make their way to the more than 100 other countries where Happy Meals are sold.

In the United States, McDonald’s is already using some sustainable toys, including books and Pokemon collectible cards.

More such toys will hit the U.S. market in January, said Amy Murray, vice president of global marketing enablement. The revamped Happy Meals will not cost franchisees more money, she said. — Reuters

Celebrity mayor eyes Philippine presidency, challenging Duterte

Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko" Moreno Domagoso / Photo by Edd Gumban, Philippine Star

The movie star turned mayor of Manila declared his candidacy for the Philippine presidency in next year’s elections, posing the biggest challenge to President Rodrigo Duterte’s plans to extend his hold on power.

Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno Domagoso, 46, said on Wednesday he will soon unveil his platform, but pledged to expand his pandemic response and projects for the poor in the capital on a national level. He also said he will appoint officials outside his circle and encourage millennials to join a “government of national reconciliation.”

“The road to recovery will be hard, the journey long, the challenges complex,” Moreno said in a speech declaring his presidential bid. “There is no magic wand that will make our problems go away, only hard work will.”

Moreno has picked cardiologist Willie Ong as a running mate, his political strategist Lito Banayo said in an earlier interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

The Manila mayor’s entrance heats up a crowded presidential race as he is the nearest rival to Duterte’s daughter, Sara, in a presidential preference survey carried out in June. While Duterte’s daughter has since said she will no longer seek the presidency in next year’s elections, her father accepted his party’s vice-presidential nomination with his aide-turned-senator Christopher “Bong” Go as a potential presidential candidate.

Moreno was a garbage collector before becoming a movie teen star in the 1990s. He later entered Manila politics as a city councilor and eventually became its vice-mayor. Rivals have often tried to use Moreno’s sexy photos from his showbiz career to cast doubt on his character, but Moreno has been candid about his past and often talks about how his impoverished childhood in Manila gives him perspective in governing the city.

In a sign of increasing rivalry, Duterte in August mocked a mayor who has “bikini” photos, without naming Moreno. Duterte himself appointed the former movie star as the social welfare undersecretary in 2018 before Moreno resigned a year later to seek the top post in Manila, which he won.

Moreno is now the third politician to confirm joining next year’s presidential race. Aside from him, boxer-turned-senator Manny Pacquiao, who is from the same ruling party as Duterte, launched his bid over the weekend, while Senator Panfilo Lacson declared his run earlier this month.

The son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos has said he’s eyeing a national post in the 2022 elections. — Bloomberg

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