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Palay farmgate price declines 0.4% in last week of October

THE AVERAGE farmgate price of palay, or unmilled rice, fell 0.4% week-on-week to P15.36 per kilogram in the fourth week of October, with the price down 1.4% year-on-year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

In its weekly update on palay, rice, and corn prices, the PSA said the average wholesale price of well-milled rice rose 0.2% to P37.57 while the retail price rose 0.1% to P41.48.

The average wholesale price of regular-milled rice rose 0.1% to P33.47 while the retail price fell 0.3% to P36.58.

The farmgate price of yellow corn grain fell 0.3% week-on-week to P11.83.

The average wholesale price of yellow corn grain fell 0.5% to P19.35 while the retail price fell 0.1% to P24.53.

The farmgate price of white corn grain fell 0.9% week on week to P12.90.

The average wholesale price of white corn grain fell 0.4% to P16.09 while the retail price fell 2.2% to P24.93.

The PSA released three weeks’ worth of data in its latest update.

In the second week of October, the average farmgate price of palay fell 1.6% week-on-week to P15.51 per kilogram. The price fell 1.2% from a year earlier.

The farmgate price of yellow corn grain rose 0.2% to P11.87, while the farmgate price of white corn grain fell 2.5% to P12.88.

During the third week of October, the farmgate price of palay fell 0.6% week-on-week to P15.42, with the price down 1.5% from a year earlier.

The farmgate price of yellow corn grain was flat at P11.87 while the farmgate price of white corn grain rose 1.1% to P13.02. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave

Green infrastructure investment seen potentially supercharging PHL recovery

INVESTMENT in “green” infrastructure can help the Philippines bounce back faster and become more resilient after the pandemic, according to a report published by the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) and prepared with the Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“The significant scaling-up of investment in green infrastructure is critical for the Philippines to meet its climate commitments — including meeting global emission reduction pathways under the Paris Climate Change Agreement — and build resilience to the impacts of climate change as well as to achieve rapid economic development,” according to the “Philippines: Green Infrastructure Investment Opportunities” report released Thursday.

The report was prepared in order to identify infrastructure investment opportunities in four key sectors: renewable energy, low-carbon transport, sustainable water management, and sustainable waste management.

It said green infrastructure promises to significantly benefit the economy and environment by promoting competitiveness, productivity, and employment opportunities; extending the reach, reliability and efficiency of the power grid while mitigating air pollution; expanding the economic base; creating new markets; and boosting inclusion and connectivity.

“The lack of understanding of what are green investments makes it difficult for governments to develop pipelines of commercially viable green infrastructure investment opportunities that are able to support the nation’s transition to a low-carbon economy,” it said.

The government’s flagship “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program hopes to invest roughly P8 trillion between 2016 and 2022 to close the Philippines’ infrastructure shortfalls.

The pandemic has hampered such investment due to the repurposing of some funding towards coronavirus containment efforts. The government plans to ramp up spending again next year with the infrastructure budget rising to P1.12 trillion from the reduced P785.5 billion this year.

“Infrastructure is necessary for a return to economic growth. Ensuring this infrastructure in green would aid in increasing the nation’s resilience to future shocks and help to build a more sustainable society,” according to the report.

“However, attracting finance to green infrastructure projects has been challenging because of a lack of bankability and low revenue streams. Thus, there is an urgent need to leverage public funds better… (and attract investment from) private institutions and commercial sources to bridge the financing gap,” according to Joven Z. Balbosa, the ADB’s Principal Country Specialist for the Philippines, during the report’s launch Thursday.

The report said the Philippines can adopt key policy and institutional reforms to increase the profile of its green infrastructure, support financing channels for infrastructure developers, diversify risk, and expand the menu of options for investors.

These include the study of climate risk exposure in the preparation of new infrastructure plans; boosting the visibility of green investment; adjusting regulatory requirements; issuing sovereign green or recovery bonds; promoting green bonds among local government units by offering incentives; and offering perks such as grants to subsidize bond issue costs and interest payments, as well as tax exemptions. — Beatrice M. Laforga

Domestic trade falls 60.1% by value in third quarter

DOMESTIC TRADE declined 60.1% year-on-year by value to P91.19 billion in the third quarter, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday, citing preliminary data.

By volume, domestic trade amounted to 2.29 million tons, down 61.6% from a year earlier.

All 10 commodity groups monitored by the PSA posted double-digit drops by value.

Machinery and transport equipment — which accounted for the biggest share of trade by value at 36.1% — posted a decline of 51.5% to P32.94 billion, on volume of 328,236 tons, down 49.6%.

The value of manufactured goods classified chiefly by material also declined 18.1% to P28.73 billion, while volume fell 84% to 208,548 tons.

The biggest decline was posted by miscellaneous manufactured articles, where value fell 98.8% to P142.4 million. Volume also returned the biggest fall at 98.2% to 4,318 tons.

Other commodity groups with more than a 75% drop in trade value for the quarter were: animal and vegetable oils, fats, and waxes (-98.6%); beverages and tobacco (-94.7%); chemical and related products (-85.6%); and food and live animals (-78%).

Northern Mindanao had the biggest surplus of P14.27 billion off outflows of P44.64 billion and inflows of P30.37 billion.

George N. Manzano, University of Asia and the Pacific economist and a former tariff commissioner, said by phone that the domestic trade downturn is largely due to logistical restrictions on the supply side. On the demand side, continued declines in employment and economic output have eroded consumer demand.

“Goods are also sourced by households closer to where they are due to the pandemic,” Mr. Manzano added.

He expects trade to improve in the fourth quarter with higher spending due to the holidays, but warned that this may be subdued due to restrictions on family gatherings next month.

“As we loosen up the economy and restrictions on mobility, domestic trade growth will likely follow,” he said. — Marissa Mae M. Ramos

Disaster myopia: the new pandemic?

Seven years ago, John Cassidy wrote an interesting article in The New Yorker titled, “Before the Fall: Disaster Myopia at the Fed.” He shared his appreciation of deliberations on monetary policy by the Federal Open Market Committee. Because of Cassidy’s glasnost, or policy of greater transparency; and thanks to wider information dissemination pioneered by Alan Greenspan (continued by Ben Bernanke), monetary policy making-dynamics is for the world to read, and even judge, years after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-2008.

Cassidy narrated that the Fed thought it “had things under control.” It was almost out of their playbook for a catastrophe such as the GFC to shock the US subprime mortgage bond market and spill over to Wall Street, High Street and the rest of the US economy.

Prior to GFC, only a few prescient skeptics imagined that two decades of business prosperity would be disrupted by the deepest depression since the 1930s. The Black Swan was yet to be made known to the markets.

The problem was that the Fed under Bernanke did not drill down into the problem. Cassidy cited Bill Dudley who was then head of the markets desk at the New York Fed (and who would later become its president). Dudley reported to the Committee that “market participants generally believe that the downside risks to growth have diminished.”

Based on this, the Fed economic staff raised their growth forecast and reduced their unemployment forecast.  There was a happy consensus as summed up by Bernanke himself who declared: “I agree with the general view around the table that, except for housing, the economy looks to be healthy.”

Six weeks later, two European banks were in trouble. In the US, there was general panic among financial institutions, the subprime market collapsed. Over the next several months, banks and corporates followed one another in insolvency.

Not that the US Fed did not fully understand the unfolding scenario. They were blindsided. They underestimated the subprime market risks. According to the meeting minutes, only Richard Fischer, Dallas Fed president, indicated some concern. A former banker and hedge fund manager, Fischer correctly read the writing on the wall. He declared: “This has broader dimensions than those we had before. If you look at the growth rate of these instruments… it has been a straight upcurve. The numbers are quite huge.”

Cassidy considered the decision making process as a case of “disaster myopia.”

Disaster myopia is a theoretical paradigm that when favorable conditions persist for a prolonged period, policy makers and the market generally tend to discount any elevation of potential risks for the present and for the near future. It is the thinking that the probability of any adverse outcome experienced in the past recurring — such as the 1930s depression — is low and diminishing to almost zero. It’s no different from being nearsighted. Far objects are too distant to be seen, or for that matter, remembered.

In literature, there is evidence of disaster myopia in the macroeconomy as well as in the banking sector.

Bernanke, his officials and staff, including New York Fed president Timothy Geithner (who was to become Treasury Secretary) were lulled by many years of good US economic performance. So lulled that relevant information about increased risks in the market was discounted.

Disaster myopia is similar to the phenomenon of the Pink Flamingo syndrome. In previous columns we wrote about the “pink flamingo.” Distinguished from the Black Swan, the Pink Flamingo should come as no surprise. The current global pandemic was cautioned about by health experts and IT practitioners over the years, but their warnings were ignored because of “cognitive biases of a senior leader or a group of leaders trapped by powerful institutional forces.”

A prime example that comes to mind is climate change.

This year’s challenges are all Pink Flamingos: the Taal eruption and ashfalls;  the successive earthquakes in Mindanao; and the untold damage and loss of lives brought by typhoons Rolly and Ulysses. Should we say our level of forgetfulness has become legendary that the rapid succession of these natural calamities month after month, year after year has not affected our sense of probabilities? Perhaps something less than disaster myopia is our stubborn spirit, “hindi matuto” (can’t be taught/doesn’t learn).

To mitigate the tendency to be caught off-guard, preparedness and resilience are absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately, in the matter of natural disasters and COVID-19, the Philippines has demonstrated neither. As a result, our extended community lockdowns froze business activities and produced three quarters of economic recession, one of the deepest in the world.

Is there evidence of disaster myopia?

Lately, Government is stressing that we have macroeconomic buffers in the areas of growth, prices, external payments and public finance, while glossing over the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought our economic growth to its knees, with millions out of work and overseas Filipinos sent home.

While it is incumbent upon public authorities to encourage civil society during this difficult period, it is also the Government’s responsibility to prepare households and businesses for the worst.

There is disaster myopia when we assume that the benign past will simply replicate itself.  The lessons of the debt crisis of 1982-84 and Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 should not be forgotten because economic dynamics, like life, is never linear nor repetitive.

During the G-20 virtual meeting last week, no less than the IMF warned that “while the United States and other major economies turned in better-than-expected economic performances in the third quarter, the world now faces slower momentum with a resurgence in coronavirus cases.”

Despite the vaccine being forthcoming, the Fund highlighted risks, including the threat of viral resurgence that might again require strict economic lockdowns.

In the spirit of Game of Thrones, “Winter is coming.” This is the sober warning.

This was also the message of APEC leaders last week. They pledged to work together to accelerate economic recovery. They recognized the imperative of developing an affordable vaccine.

In the US alone, more than a million cases are reported weekly. Mortality has also risen fast. This is true in Europe. This is also true in many Asian capitals. Thus, the initial signs of victory in Manila should be received with guarded optimism especially as international travel — the inadvertent platform for global disease transmission — is again allowed.

We cannot just assume that the economic green shoots we have been seeing would be sustained despite a pandemic resurgence. Flattening of the epidemiological curve must still be the priority.

Another indicator of disaster myopia is the confidence that current fiscal support is already enough to fix the problems in the real sector — the way it worked in the past. Economic scars will not easily disappear. There are tangible and felt consequences of unemployment, decreased output, lower productivity and soon, rising inflation. Cash transfers and small business support may be dismissed as subsidies or as acts of charity. But in reality, these help heal wounds caused by the pandemic on livelihood. These can make scars less permanent.

There is disaster myopia when we keep interest rates low and pat ourselves on the back when extraordinary amounts of liquidity are released into the financial system.

There is disaster myopia when we fail to recognize this is just pushing on a string.  Lest we forget, it was a prolonged regime of low interest rates that caused the IT bubble during Greenspan’s time. Sustained low interest rates was also behind the subprime crisis that birthed the GFC.

While right now, we still have the monetary space, it would be wise to conserve it. Otherwise, we run the risk of mispricing risks, higher debt levels and the so-called leveraged “reach for yields.” These would increase the economy’s vulnerability to future shocks.

Current and consistent monetary policy cuts might unwittingly lengthen the period of recession because both savings and capital formation may be unduly weakened.

These lessons are etched in history.

We need to remember them.

Sadly, disaster myopia has become more pervasive, affecting various layers of both the bureaucracy and the private sector.

Could it be the new pandemic?

 

Diwa C. Guinigundo is the former Deputy Governor for the Monetary and Economics Sector, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). He served the BSP for 41 years. In 2001-2003, he was Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. He is the senior pastor of the Fullness of Christ International Ministries in Mandaluyong.

Government by confusion

It was the students of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) who had declared an academic strike — they won’t attend online classes and neither would they submit course requirements — in protest against what they saw as government’s inept response to the disaster wrought by typhoon Ulysses. But it was the University of the Philippines (UP) President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to defund and at the same time accused of “doing nothing except recruit communists.”

What some UP Diliman professors are campaigning for is entirely different from what the students of their Katipunan Avenue confrères had done. They are petitioning the UP System administration to end the current semester, which the 2020-2021 academic calendar had scheduled for Dec. 10, 2020.

His spokesperson said Mr. Duterte was “confused” when he threatened and red-baited UP, but his boss did not even acknowledge his mistake. Neither did he show any sign that he was aware of the consequences of shutting down and preventing UP from discharging its duty of providing the country’s youth the best education possible.

His all too obedient cohorts in Congress could still defund UP should he decide to carry out his threat. It would shatter the dreams of the less fortunate for the brighter future that they assume a good education can guarantee, and devastate as well the country’s pool of intellectual assets it needs for it to survive and hopefully flourish. But it would also mesh perfectly with one of the best-kept State secrets in this country: the belief among the powerful that learning is dangerous, hence their preference for citizens who are as ignorant and as obedient as sheep.

UP mostly graduates the opposite of the oligarchy’s ideal constituents. It is internationally recognized as among the world’s best universities, and since its founding in 1908 has trained veritable legions of the country’s best artists, writers, political scientists, agriculturists, agronomists, composers, physicists, economists, businesspeople, biologists, climatologists, distinguished professionals in nursing, law, education, medicine, communication and journalism, accountancy, engineering, pharmacology, and public administration among many others.

Only the most biased graduates of the fifth-rate institutions that infest Manila’s so-called University Belt would describe it as “doing nothing.” The equally clueless police and military bullies Mr. Duterte claims as his own say exactly the same thing about UP, but that’s not surprising given their long-established anti-intellectual traditions. There are also the regime’s keyboard army of trolls that have poisoned much of public discourse in this country, as well as its hacks in print and broadcasting. As expected, they’ve been echoing the same hoary refrain, throwing it around at the least sign of truth-telling, dissent and criticism from anyone or any organization they associate with the UP culture of academic freedom, intellectual daring and fearless inquiry.

Despite its vast contributions to the nation, and although a university supported by the people, UP has not been immune to the hostility of governments to its steadfast quest for knowledge and understanding of the natural and social environments and their consequences on the human community and on every individual.

The House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Filipino Activities (CAFA) accused it in the early 1960s of harboring communists among its faculty because of their supposed atheism and the publication in one of their learned journals of a document on the peasant struggle for land, which was a legitimate subject of study. Upon the declaration of martial rule in 1972, the Marcos kleptocracy arrested student leaders for leading protests against corruption and abuse of power, and members of the faculty for their teaching and their books and other publications.

Only the Duterte regime, however, has threatened to defund and shut down UP. An all-out fascist UP alumnus Ferdinand Marcos may have been, but he did not even come close to making that threat. Neither did any of his predecessors and successors, except the current one.

As obviously damaging not only to its faculty, students and staff but also to the nation and its future are the assaults on the country’s foremost university, there is disturbing evidence that large sectors of the population nevertheless believe them and everything else Mr. Duterte and company say. It is not just his having been elected in 2016 that, so his spokesperson claims, also shows that the electorate approves of his rape jokes. His 91% approval and trust ratings loudly proclaim it. There are also the low trust and approval ratings of Vice-President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, despite her helping meet the needs of medical front liners and ordinary folk in these pandemic- and typhoon-afflicted times.

The fear factor can partly explain these survey results, but there is still the possibility that they do reflect much of the sentiments of the population. Apparently encouraged by these numbers, Mr. Duterte and his attack dogs have subjected Mrs. Robredo to the most vitriolic verbal assaults at every opportunity. But even more telling is the lack of both public and media outrage over Mr. Duterte’s insulting Mrs. Robredo on the basis of false information provided by two members of his inner circle, and his looking at providing relief to the tens of thousands of survivors of typhoon Ulysses not as an official responsibility and humanitarian undertaking but as a political competition he has linked to the 2022 presidential elections.

As expected, he refused to apologize for his false claims, admitting his mistakes not being among his virtues. His spokesperson instead justified his rants against Mrs. Robredo by dragging the Vice-President’s daughters into the fray for asking in their tweets — which did not name Mr. Duterte — what government officials were doing to ease the suffering of the people they’re supposed to be serving. Both were of course within their rights, as other citizens were, to ask that question.

In concert with this absence of outrage is celebration by the media, Netizens, and even those citizens who have suffered most from government neglect and incompetence, of the Filipino people’s supposed “resilience” in the face of adversity. In practice, that vice in the mask of virtue has meant their surviving and surmounting difficulties by themselves with little or no expectations of government, and only with the help of their kin and friends, civil society organizations, and sympathetic individuals.

Filipino “resiliency” is just another name for letting pass the egregious failures of the dynasts a benighted electorate elects every three years. That the people can manage by themselves is exactly what the bunglers in office want them to believe, because the citizenry’s low expectations sanction their ineptness, corruption and criminal indifference to the plight of the people whose taxes pay their salaries.

Both ruler and ruled feed the rampant confusion over what governance can and should be. The disinformation of the many who could otherwise check the abuse of power is a consequence of the deliberate distortions, sophistry, and outright mendacity of the ruling oligarchy. But the feudal assumption that power and status make one’s views credible has also enabled them to so debase public discourse that many mistake bluster for statesmanship, vice for virtue, stupidity for wisdom, deception for honesty, falsehood for truth, villainy for probity.

Not only has rational discourse become almost impossible as a result. Even fewer today are the signs that the government by confusion with which this country has been afflicted for decades, and which has reached its worst stage, will ever end — even as more lives are lost to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, pandemics, and official indifference.

 

Luis V. Teodoro is on Facebook and Twitter (@luisteodoro).

www.luisteodoro.com

The unbearable futility of mandatory mask laws

St. Augustine once wrote: “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.” He was writing, obviously, about matters of faith. Unfortunately, many who’ve scolded the public to “follow the science!” over the past several months are now seemingly content to treat masks as an object of faith rather than trust the science behind it.

Take the now famous Danish mask study (Henning Bundgaard, et al.), published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, Nov. 18. 2020. One would think the study’s findings would encourage greater scrutiny on the efficacy of mandatory mask mandates, considering the absurd burden it places on individuals and businesses, not to mention the likely violation of civil liberties. Instead, many on the Left lost no time in single-mindedly smearing the study, attack its credibility, and nitpick on whatever semantic holes they pretend in finding.

And so it proved.

Not that The Annals was making it hard for the study to be attacked. Referrals, as well as the abstract, tended to make the findings appear as benign as possible for the pro-mask narrative: “Observational evidence suggests that mask wearing mitigates transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and that the findings “should not be used to conclude that a recommendation for everyone to wear masks in the community would not be effective in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections.”

Gratifyingly, the study itself says differently. In fact, the study itself would note that Danish authorities “did not recommend face mask use outside hospital settings.” Why is that?

Because the Danish health authorities themselves do “not recommend that healthy people who move around in public [to] generally wear face masks.” The only exceptions being hospital visits, commutes within risk areas, or when caring for COVID-19-infected family members.

The study was conducted on nearly 5,000 participants, of which half were asked to wear masks and the other half weren’t. Those who were asked to wear masks were given proper training and the masks given were of good quality. In the end, “1.8% got infected wearing masks, while 2.1% got infected not wearing masks.” Which is statistically insignificant. Thus, as the study itself points out: “a recommendation to wear a surgical mask when outside the home among others did not reduce, at conventional levels of statistical significance, incident SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with no mask recommendation.”

The foregoing should be taken in the context of study after study showing that masks in the public setting do tend to be ineffective. And a CDC Report of Sept. 11, 2020, which found that amongst those infected by COVID-19, 85% “always” or “often” wore masks, while 70% of those actually hospitalized for COVID-19 “always” wore masks.

What makes this insanity all the more frustrating is that centuries before and up to March 2020, the advice had nearly always been: “don’t wear masks.”

Yet, suddenly, mask proponents, imposed an about-face. It became “yes wear it publicly because it protects you.” Then it changed to: “no, actually it doesn’t protect you but it protects others.” The current manifestation seems to be: “well, wear it to raise awareness of COVID-19.”

The foregoing is bizarrely contradicted by CDC Director Robert Redfield’s Sept. 16  statement: A “face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine.” Which in turn weirdly contradicted the CDC’s own Sept. 11 Report (particularly in an e-mail to Health Feedback), which stated that it “clearly stated that wearing a mask is intended to protect other people in case the mask wearer is infected. At no time has CDC guidance suggested that masks were intended to protect the wearers.”

Note that an Oct. 23 study (Dhaval Adjodah, et al), published on medRxiv, had to be retracted when it claimed that mask mandates resulted in reducing COVID-19 cases, only to find infections in the subject areas rose after the study was released.

Then, finally, there is this: a study (Shiyi Cao, et al) published Nov. 20, described “a city-wide SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening program between May 14 and June 1, 2020 in Wuhan. xxx There were no positive tests amongst 1,174 close contacts of asymptomatic cases.” (Emphasis supplied).

In short, and if true: asymptomatic spread is not real. And if that is the case, with nearly 98-99% of COVID-19 cases being asymptomatic or mild, what could then justify mandatory mask wearing?

To reiterate a point made in a previous article: if the science on public mask wearing shows that such is useless or doesn’t work (in fact, the Danish mask study seems to indicate that masks may even increase the likelihood of infection) or at the very least uncertain, then for the government to make public mask wearing a mandatory requirement is arbitrary, capricious, and even perhaps despotic.

It is one thing to recommend that people wear masks. But to force people to wear masks under risks of penalty is simple government overreach.

 

Jemy Gatdula is a Senior Fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence.

jemygatdula@yahoo.com

www.jemygatdula.blogspot.com

facebook.com/jemy.gatdula

Twitter @jemygatdula

Win-or-go home Friday

TNT Tropang Giga vs Phoenix Fuel Masters, Barangay Ginebra Kings against Meralco Bolts for finals spot

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

IT is win or go home for the four remaining teams in the PBA Philippine Cup as they play in a pair of semifinal rubber matches on Friday at the Angeles University Foundation Sports Arena in Pampanga.

All knotted up at 2-2 in their respective best-of-five series, the TNT Tropang Giga and Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters on one bracket and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings and the Meralco Bolts on the other make one last go at booking a spot in the finals of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) All-Filipino tournament.

Kicking off the proceedings at 3:45 p.m. is the clash between the Tropang Giga and Fuel Masters.

TNT forced the do-or-die on Wednesday after taking Game Four, 102-101.

It was another close game in the tightly fought series with the outcome not decided until the dying seconds of the contest.

Ray Parks Jr. led the way for the Tropang Giga in their gutsy Game Four victory, finishing with a game-high 36 points, 12 coming in the fourth quarter, to go along with six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Veteran Jayson Castro had 21 markers and five dimes while Roger Pogoy finished with 18 points.

Also stepping up for TNT was guard Simon Enciso who had 14 points, going 4-of-7 from beyond the arc.

For Phoenix, which showed a lot of resilience despite the loss, Matthew Wright had another solid outing coming from injury, finishing with 34 points, nine assists and five rebounds. Jason Perkins, meanwhile, had 19 points.

Do-it-all Calvin Abueva, for his part, had 17 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and three steals for the Fuel Masters before fouling out.

Given how highly competitive the series has been, with the average winning margin pegged at 3.5 points, TNT coach Bong Ravena said they have to be ready for what is expected to be another grind of a match in the winner-take-all.

“There is no relaxing on our part. We just tied the series. There is nothing to celebrate yet,” said Mr. Ravena postgame.

“We have to want it more in the next game and keep a high level of play.”

KINGS VS. BOLTS
Capping off the do-or-die day for the PBA is the clash between the Kings and the Bolts at 6:30 p.m.

Meralco dug deep in the last game to hack out an 83-80 win to stay alive in the Philippine Cup.

Game Four between the Kings and Bolts was marked by runs and counterruns, setting up a cardiac end game.

Reynel Hugnatan, who top-scored for Meralco with 19 points, drained a crucial long basket in the closing seconds of the match while Raymond Almazan produced a game-saving defensive gem — blocking Stanley Pringle’s go-ahead basket attempt — to help their team to the big win.

Chris Newsome had 16 points, 11 rebounds, six steals and five assists, while Cliff Hodge also had 16 markers for the Bolts.

For Barangay Ginebra, it was Mr. Pringle who was the high point man with 18 points to go along with seven rebounds and six assists.

Jared Dillinger had 15 points with Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar chipping in 12 points apiece.

Having put themselves in a position to advance to the finals, Meralco coach Norman Black said they have every intent to see their championship push through.

“We have to win two games to move to the next stage. We’re halfway through,” said Mr. Black., adding that he is hoping that his players play their respective roles and more so as to give them a better chance to win in the rubber match.

Argentina mourns death of Diego Maradona, 60

HAVANA — Argentina football legend Diego Maradona said his hero, late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro — whom he considered a “second father” and whose face he had tattooed on his leg — once urged him to go into politics.

Maradona, who died on Wednesday aged 60, never fulfilled those aspirations but he did play a role in championing leftist leaders across Latin America — such as Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, and Bolivia’s Evo Morales — and in helping to lend them broader international appeal.

“Everything Fidel does, everything Chavez does for me is the best (that can be done),” Maradona said on Chavez’s weekly television show in 2007.

“I hate everything that comes from the United States. I hate it with all my strength.”

The son of a factory worker raised in a shantytown on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Maradona first met Castro in 1987, a year after helping Argentina win the World Cup and four years before the fall of the Soviet Union that would usher in a new era of economic hardship in communist Cuba.

An unlikely friendship between the often outlandish footballer and the well-read revolutionary deepened at the start of the century when Maradona spent four years in Havana to shake an addiction to drugs.

“Coming from such humble beginnings, Castro was his idol,” said Alfredo Tedeschi, an Argentine TV producer now based in Belgium who became close friends with Maradona during a stint working for Reuters in Havana.

“It was like he fell in love (with Castro), and then came Chavez, Morales, and the rest,” said Tedeschi, who would often invite the footballer over for traditional Argentine steak barbecue dinners.

Tedeschi recalls the time Maradona knocked on his door and proposed a spontaneous visit to Castro. The Cuban leader received them within minutes of their arrival and cleared his busy agenda to spend three hours with them, including to play football in his office.

“They would always talk about politics — Diego was really interested in politics,” said Tedeschi, adding that Castro would also pay spontaneous visits to his Havana home.

In 2005, Maradona interviewed Castro on his Argentine TV show, asking how George W. Bush had been re-elected president of the United States, to which Castro responded: “Fraud. The terrorist mafia of Miami!”

As such, Maradona was also a propaganda tool for Latin America’s leftist leaders, said Tedeschi.

“Diego was the kind of guy where anything he said would have a repercussion,” said Tedeschi. “And for Fidel, that kind of propaganda was welcome.” — Reuters

Gilas takes on Thailand in FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers

GILAS Pilipinas begins its campaign in the November window of the qualifiers for the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup on Friday, taking on Thailand in the first of a slated two-game series in Manama, Bahrain.

Bannered this time around by amateur and collegiate stars, the Philippine men’s basketball team, currently sporting a 1-0 record in the tournament, is looking to stay unscathed and build momentum for future windows of the qualifiers.

Fourteen players are included in the Gilas pool for the window, namely: Kobe Paras, Juan and Javi Gomez De Liano, Jaydee Tungcab, Dwight Ramos, Dave Ildefonso, Will Navarro, Justine Baltazar, Calvin Oftana, Kenmark Carino, Isaac Go, Matt and Mike Nieto, and Rey Suerte.

As of this writing, the team has yet to announce who the final 12 players will be on tap for the team’s first game, set for 9 p.m. (Manila time), at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium.

Coach of the team is veteran Jong Uichico, supported by SBP program director Tab Baldwin, assistant coach Boyet Fernandez, and skills coach Alton Lister.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas said it is excited to see the young Gilas crew in action, seeing it as laying the groundwork for the future, including the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup in 2023 where the Philippines is one of the hosts.

“I am excited because it’s only gonna level up Philippine basketball with this experience and yes, a lot of pool of young men I’m excited to see who among these players will be there in 2023 and of course to be competing slots with PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) veterans,” said SBP president Al Panlilio on Tiebreaker Vods’ 2OT podcast on Tuesday.

“We’re really looking at this as a long-term program for the national team,” he added.

Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Philippines has played only one game to date in Group A, a 100-70 win over Indonesia (0-2) in February in Jakarta.

Thirdy Ravena, currently playing in the Japan league, led the way for Gilas in said game, finishing with 24 points and eight rebounds. PBA stars CJ Perez and Roger Pogoy backstopped him with 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Messrs. Ramos and Go and Juan Gomez De Liano and Matt Nieto were also part of the team then, combining for 31 points.

Thailand, for its part, has also played only one game, losing to group leader South Korea (2-0), 93-86.

Thai-American Tyler Lamb paced his team in said game, finishing with a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Nakorn Jaisanuk followed with 15 points, with Chanatip Jakrawan and Wattana Suttisin adding 13 and 12 points apiece.

As per tournament format, the top two teams in the group at the end of the qualifiers advance to the FIBA Asia Cup set for August next year.

Gilas versus Thailand will be broadcast live over One Sports and ONE Sports+.

The second game between the two teams will be on Nov. 30. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Filipinos have potential to excel in Lethwei, says WLC

BELIEVING that Filipinos have the potential to excel in the Burmese martial art of Lethwei, the World Lethwei Championship (WLC) is looking to feature fighters from the Philippines beginning next year, part of the group’s push to expand its operations and help grow the sport.

One of the fastest-rising combat sports in the world, Lethwei originated from Myanmar where competitors can showcase their full offensive arsenal, including head-butts, punches, elbows, knees, kicks, clinching, sweeps, and throws.

While it has been around for a long time now, Lethwei has been brought to the fore of late, helped by WLC, whose thrust is anchored on providing live entertainment combined with historic traditions.

Since setting up shop in 2017, Yangon-based WLC has held almost 20 sold-out events across Myanmar, and has attracted top martial artists from different parts of the world, including Dave Leduc from Canada and Filipino-Australian sensation Michael Badato.

Now the promotion is angling to stretch the sport’s reach to more areas and people, one of which is the Philippines.

“The Philippines is a hotbed for combat sports and the fans are some of the most passionate in the world. Filipino combat sports athletes have all the skills to translate well into Lethwei, and I truly believe that there could be a Filipino world champion in Lethwei in the near future,” said Gerald Ng, WLC chief executive officer, in a statement.

The group has already named at least four strikers right now who could leave their mark in the sport, namely: Jean Claude Saclag, Ariel Lee Lampacan, Ryan Jakiri and Fritz Biagtan.

Mr. Saclag, 26, part of noted combat sports group Team Lakay of Baguio City, is a wushu practitioner, who won a silver medal in the 2014 Asian Games and turned heads and won gold in last year’s Southeast Asian Games here in kickboxing.

He has also parlayed his skills in ONE Championship.

Another SEA Games gold medallist in muay thai is Mr. Lampacan, also of Team Lakay. He has been making a name for himself in martial arts since picking it up at the age of 14, winning medals after medals en route to being a member of the national team.

Apart from his remarkable standing in muay thai, Mr. Lampacan also owns an impressive mixed martial arts record of 4-1 as part of the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC).

Known by the moniker “Filipino Assassin,” Mr. Jakiri, meanwhile, is a six-time Philippine national muay thai champion.

He made an appearance in ONE Super Series in October 2018 and won a silver-medal finish in the 2019 SEA Games.

Mr. Biagtan, 25, for his part, is a former URCC strawweight champion, who also fought in Rizin and is a noted boxer.  

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, WLC is staying resilient, with its last event happening in September. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Varquez, Anton rule Race 3 of Phoenix Pulse FV1 Virtual Cup

ANDRE Varquez and Iñigo Anton ruled their respective categories in Race 3 of the Phoenix Pulse Formula V1 Virtual Cup, which was broadcast last weekend by Tuason Racing.

Done on a replica of the Laguna Seca racetrack, Messrs. Varquez and Anton once again showed their top-class skills, mastering the field in the Reverse Grid Position of the PC-based Assetto Corsa game.

Mr. Varquez topped in Race 3 of the AM Class, setting the fastest lap time of 01:34.424 along the way.

“I had a good start on the race. I already secured my position at the first corner of the racetrack. I’ve seen that there was a huge pile at the back, so I kept going on. I don’t have to push myself, I just need to retain my consistency. Laguna Seca is super slippery, one mistake, and it will make a huge loss in everyone’s performance,” said Mr. Varquez after the race.

Coming behind Mr. Varquez was Race 2 champion Julian Colvin Tang in second place, and Patrick Malicsi at third spot.

Mr. Anton, meanwhile, emerged on top in the PRO Class category.

He was challenged by Estefano Rivera and Russel Reyes, but held on amid the slippery track, to secure the top spot. Mr. Rivera, however, set the fastest lap time of 01:32.603.

“The track was so difficult and the grip level was so low. So during the race, I got a very keen start and very keen lap. From there on, I just kept the level head and just tried to be very consistent and at the same time try not to commit any mistakes,” said Mr. Anton.

Organizers of the Cup are very excited for the final round of the Cup set for broadcast next month as it would feature the Clark International Speedway in Pampanga as the virtual track.

The Virtual Cup is backed by Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc., Tuason Racing, LG Philippines, BlueChem, Bendix, PC Express, and Family Mart.

It was set up to keep interest in motorsports going, despite the challenges presented by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Organizers admitted that going virtual is not easy, but they are undeterred and looking at flipping its downside into opportunities. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Bayern reaches knockout stage with 3-1 win over Salzburg

MUNICH, Germany — Holders Bayern Munich failed to hit top form, but did enough for a 3-1 win over visitors Salzburg on Wednesday to book their spot in the Champions League knockout stage with two games to spare.

The German champions stretched their record run to 15 straight wins in the competition, with Robert Lewandowski firing in on the rebound in the 43rd minute after the hosts had struggled with Salzburg’s high-intensity pressing during the first half.

Lewandowski now has 71 goals in the competition and is joint third-best scorer of all time, along with Spaniard Raul, behind Lionel Messi and leader Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Austrians had started much stronger, putting the hosts on the back foot, and would have been ahead in the 16th minute were it not for keeper Manuel Neuer’s superb double save.

“It is very important that we are already now confirmed group winners,” Neuer said. “It is a clear step in the right direction.”

Bayern, who slipped up in the Bundesliga with a draw against Werder Bremen on Saturday, were lacking their usual spark and got lucky in the 52nd minute when Salzburg defender Maximilian Woeber deflected Kingsley Coman’s shot into his own net.

Bayern were left with 10 men in the 66th following the dismissal of Marc Roca with a second booking, but two minutes later, Leroy Sane settled their nerves, heading in their third goal.

Salzburg cut the deficit through Mergim Berisha in the 73rd after Neuer had pulled off another sensational double save minutes earlier.

The Bavarians, who have now scored two or more goals in all four of their group games, top Group A on 12 points, with Salzburg in last place on one. Atletico Madrid are second on five following their goalless draw with Lokomotiv Moscow, who have three. — Reuters

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