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Writer, publisher, art patron Gilda Cordero-Fernando, 90

RENOWNED writer and publisher Gilda Cordero-Fernando, known for her musings on Philippine arts and culture and a great supporter of the arts, passed at the age of 90 on Aug. 27.

Her death was confirmed by her family who wrote that there was “no need for funeral services” as Lola Mad (as she was called) “held her own wake earlier,” according to a Facebook post by her son, Mol Fernando.

Mr. Fernando was talking about a 2012 column Ms. Cordero-Fernando wrote for The Phiilippine Daily Inquirer where she talked about having her wake while still alive because she wanted to enjoy it. She talked about being inspired to do so after hearing “Oh Moon of Alabama” sung by Marianne Faithful. She also talked about wanting a paper house mansion (because she always wanted to own a mansion) like those found in Chinese wakes as the Chinese believe that burning paper embodiment of material goods (paper, houses, cars, etc) will make the spirit have it in the next life. She found one in Ongpin but found it so expensive, she just decided to make one. Ms. Cordero-Fernandez also chose 10 “shock-proof” friends (Eric “Kidlat Tahimik” de Guia, Jose Estrella, Mariel Francisco, and Rody Vera, to name a few) to make three-minute presentations to celebrate her life.

Celebrating a wake before her actual death is indicative of what kind of personality Ms. Cordero-Fernando had as a multi-hyphenate creator (writer, publisher, visual artist, fashion designer, art curator, playwright, and producer) and lifetime patron of the arts. National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin once said of her: “We have no other writer capable of such sublime nonsense.”

In a more scholarly form, she was described by the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALIWW) as the “Philippine culture’s towering figure, for the broad, impressive range of her accomplishments.”

Her short fiction titles, The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker (1962), A Wilderness of Sweets (1973), and its compilation version, Story Collection (1994) were said to “ring in the reader’s ears in well-turned English and fill the mind with curious characters — people in the war, sunburned Filipinos with the American twang, queer designers in the world of high fashion, the humble folk cooped in a bust, a Dust Monster, even the Anti-Christ,” ALIWW noted.

She also wrote the book Philippine Food and Life (1992) with Alfredo Roces and worked on Filipino Heritage, a 10-volume study on Philippine history and culture in 1978. She founded GCF Books that published a dozen titles about Philippine culture and society including Turn of the Century, Philippine Ancestral Houses, and The History of the Burgis.

She won many awards in her life including the Carlos C. Palanca Memorial Award for Literature and the Philippines Free Press award. Her Palanca-winning stories are “The Morning Before Us” (1954), “Sunburn” (1957), “A Wilderness of Sweets” (1964), and “Early in Our World” (1967.)

The Cultural Center of the Philippines awarded her its highest honors, the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining for Literature and Publishing, in 1994.

As a visual artist, she painted a series of women portraits now sold as a card set. In 2001, she produced Pinoy Pop Culture, a show and book for apparel company Bench. It was a night filled with Filipino novelty and pop songs and camp with a burgis audience.

Her shows were things that defied basic definition: in 1995, she staged “Jamming on an Old Saya,” a show at the Cultural Center of the Philippines to launch the book of the same name. It was a play, it was a fashion show, it was a celebration of the Philippine traditional dress, and it had an almost-nude man painted in gold on stage. She also held a birthday celebration for the wheelchair-bound hero of the Revolution Apolinario Mabini where she and other artists bedecked wheelchairs with wings and other decorations, turning them into mobile art.

“This is my theory in life: Some people create the same things over and over and over — and they make masterpieces. I don’t like doing the same thing again and again, ever. Sometimes I’m doing a play; sometimes I’m doing a fashion show; sometimes I’m doing whatever. I will never do the same thing. My happiness is the change, the movement, the difference in the things I do,” Ms. Cordero-Fernando told High Life magazine in 2017, and no words could describe her better than the words she used to describe herself. (https://www.bworldonline.com/celebrating-beauty-gilda-cordero-fernando/)

Such was her character and contribution to Philippine arts that it feels like writing an obituary would be a disservice to her when her life is better told in her own writing, as an author of books and short stories, as a columnist for the Manila Chronicles and Philippine Daily Inquirer, through her various stages and exhibits, and through countless anecdotes.

Gilda Cordero-Fernandeo was born on June 4, 1930 and passed on Aug. 27, 2020. This writer hopes she got the mansion she wanted. — Zsarlene B. Chua

CIC’s system now covers 18.2 million Filipinos

THE STATE-RUN Credit Information Corp. (CIC) has covered 18.2 million Filipinos in its credit information system so far as more financial institutions (FIs) join and submit credit data.

The CIC said in a statement on Thursday that its database now covers 80.4 contracts as of this month, but the coverage is seen expanding further with more FIs participating and submitting their borrowers’ credit data.

“This means that the CIC covers the average Filipino when it comes to credit reports—not just those who have credit cards or have loans with commercial banks, but even cooperative members and those who turn to lending and financing companies, especially during these uncertain times,” CIC President and CEO Jaime Casto Jose P. Garchitorena was quoted as saying.

Around 519 lenders have started submitting live or the actual basic credit data of their clients, CIC said.

On Aug. 19, it said there were 15 new institutions that joined, most of which were cooperatives, lending companies and rural banks.

“Cooperatives are key players in the country’s financial ecosystem especially during this pandemic where cooperatives are active front liners in terms of getting credit in areas outside the reach of traditional lending,” Mr. Garchitorena said.

“The on-boarding of credit data from cooperatives is crucial in achieving the goal of inclusivity of the credit registry — by having credit reports available to even the smallest and most distant borrowers — as envisioned by the law,” he added.

The CIC provides credit reports and other data that lenders and other institutions can access subject to fees, terms and conditions.

The CIC also recently rolled out its Primary ID Number Tagging System aiming to address the issues encountered by cooperatives and microfinance institutions on borrowers with no access to government-issued IDs.

Republic Act No. 9510 or the Credit Information System Act (CISA), mandates the CIC to set up a comprehensive and centralized credit information system that will be used to collect and distribute credit-related information of all participating entities. — B.M. Laforga

Coke posts worst sales during height of lockdown

COCA-COLA Beverages Philippines, Inc. posted its worst sales in the country after losing demand from restaurant and convenience store clients, which account for at least half of its revenue, amid a coronavirus lockdown.

“We definitely have seen consumption patterns change dramatically,” Coca-Cola Philippines President and General Manager Winn Everhart said at a news briefing on Thursday.

“Businesses that are away from home that used to be close to 50% of our business if not more have pretty much gone away,” he added.

Majority of sales shifted to home-based consumption, the company said.

While consumers tended to stock up on Coke products during the lockdown, this did not make up for the sales decline as people cut their trips to stores.

Sales in March and April were “the worst months we’ve ever experienced within the Philippines,” although demand has since improved, Mr. Everhart said.

“We do see it sequentially getting better,” he said. “We’re still declining depending on your day or week or month, but at the same time, we do have certain categories or channels within those categories that are doing really well.”

The company expects 2021 to remain a “tough year” even if Filipino consumers are more resilient than the rest of the world, he added.

The first four to five weeks of quarantine restrictions also led to distribution delays, causing a dip in supplies, Coca-Cola President and Chief Executive Officer Gareth McGeown said at the same briefing.

The Philippine-based company bottles and distributes Coca-Cola products such as soft drinks, water and juices in the country.

The company in July said it was investing P1.1 billion more in its local operations for 2020 as it adds new production lines in Luzon and Mindanao. This includes investments in Misamis Oriental, Zamboanga and Santa Cruz, outside Davao.

This puts total investment for the year at P4.74 billion.

Mr. McGeown said the company hired about 140 people at the end of last year to operate more manufacturing lines.

Coca-Cola delayed the development of its P1-billion recyclable polyethylene terephthalate bottle recycling facility to next year because of the lockdown.

There’s a dearth in local technicians, Mr. Everhart said, noting that operating equipment at its facility requires technical engineering expertise.

Coca-Cola has been in talks with the Board of Investments to register the project. The company operates 19 manufacturing plants and more than 70 sales and distribution offices in the country. — Jenina P. Ibañez

OPM Archive looking for Filipino music artifacts


The OPM Archive Foundation has announced its official plans to collect Filipino music memorabilia and push for digital archiving in a bid to preserve cultural artifacts.

Heading the OPM Archive Foundation are Moy Ortiz, President; Krina Cayabyab, Vice-President; Dinah Remolacio, Treasurer and Chevy Salvador, Secretary.

The archive is a separate entity from Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit (OPM) in that it will serve as a foundation that collects and documents not just the actual original Filipino music, but also narratives, photographs, music sheets, and press releases.

Originally, the term “OPM” referred to the inclusive period from the 1970s to 1980s when a rich influx of new and modern sounds, melodies, lyrics, singers and musicians flooded the airwaves, and even the theater, with original dance musicals such as Rama Hari and Tales of the Manuvu. Among the familiar and popular singers who emerged, at that time were Celeste Legaspi, Basil Valdez, Hajji Alejandro, Sampaguita, Mike Hanopol, Florante, Freddie Aguilar, Leah Navarro, and Didith Reyes.

The archive, however, for the purposes of music research and study for future generations, shall extend its coverages to the precedents of this era, the 1960s, and extend to the present, and hopefully can be sustained into the future, for the identification and recognition of music development. The accompanying narratives will seek to contextualize the music in its specific social relevance that defined each period, and perhaps identify continuity to the next period.

Plans for the OPM Archive started before the COVID-19 lockdown, when the Filipinas Heritage Library (FHL), where the archive are to be housed, was ready to receive hard copy donations. With the lockdown, FHL head Suzanne Yupangco and the archive group agreed to go digital. This does not, however, preclude the collecting of hard copies once the quarantine period is over.

While each hard copy donation will be digitized, the original copies will also be preserved through actual preventive conservation, knowing how digitization alone can be prone to obsolescence because of evolving digital formats.

The archive is now open for digital collection, and is open to the public for donations. For details, visit opmarchive.com.

Pawning activities dropped in first semester

PAWNSHOPS saw a decrease in consumers tapping them for services in the first half of the year, said Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno.

“We did a quick survey recently which revealed a 15% average decline between end-December and end-June. During the lockdown, most pawnshops noted a number of customers surprisingly redeemed their pledged loans,” Mr. Diokno said in an online briefing on Thursday.

Mr. Diokno said pawnshops have become more significant for financial inclusion amid the pandemic.

“I think they will continue to grow because they’ve been used in terms of distribution, for example, of welfare grants to some people because of their extensive reach and because they now provide varied services,” he said.

The industry has also applied loan restructuring for their clients and have been exploring digitization of services during the pandemic in order to adapt to the changing consumer behavior, he added.

The central bank in June increased pawnshops’ allowed percentage of total borrowings to pledge loans to 70% from 50% in a bid to boost liquidity during the crisis. The relief measure will be effective until end-2021.

Pawnshops were also included among financial institutions that needed to comply with a mandatory grace period for loan payments as provided by Bayanihan I. This grace period ended in June, although Bayanihan II which has yet to be signed into law also provides a 60-day debt moratorium.

Due to their broad networks, pawnshops are vital for financial inclusion in a country where 29% of adults remain to be unbanked.

BSP data showed the pawnshop industry had 14,416 head offices and branches across the Philippines at end-July, going beyond the combined 12,913 network of banks. These pawnshops are also present in 1,338 out of 1,634 cities and municipalities nationwide.

Mr. Diokno said the industry still mainly depends on income from their pawning operations which account for 64% of their total gross income. Meanwhile, about a third (35%) of their income are sourced from remittance activities.

Pawning services saw a 35% growth from 2014 to 2018, Mr. Diokno added. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Century Properties seeks to refinance debt

LISTED Century Properties Group, Inc. (CPG) plans to raise funds through long-term facilities next year to refinance debt, according to a company director.

The property developer seeks to continue expanding by maintaining a healthy balance sheet, CPG Director Jose Carlo R. Antonio said at the company’s annual stockholders meeting on Thursday.

“For 2021, we are focusing on the company’s balance sheet by refinancing our short-term loans with longer tenor facilities, and hopefully at lower rates,” he told the virtual meeting.

Century Properties is also looking at operating expense savings and boost collections as it focuses more on the affordable and leasing asset segments, he added.

The company is unlikely to replicate this year growth in recent years because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Antonio said.

First-half profit fell by 36% to P458.13 million as sales declined by a fourth to P4.52 billion. Second-half figures are expected to improve as construction resumed at all CPG sites, he said.

“We will continue to diversify our portfolio toward our original goal of balanced contributions from our three business segments,” CPG President and Chief Executive Officer Jose Marco R. Antonio said at the same meeting.

These segments are affordable housing, commercial leasing and in-city vertical developments.

“Planning for future projects and new business are under way so we can seize opportunities at a much quicker pace when the market recovers,” he added.

In recent years, CPG has focused on raising revenue and income contributions from the affordable housing and commercial leasing segments to balance its asset portfolio.

“We see these two segments to contribute about a third each to our total revenue and income for the company,” CPG Chairman Jose E.B. Antonio said.

The two segments contributed P225 million in the first half, accounting for 42% of the total from just 29% a year earlier.

The company has increased its office leasing portfolio through the buyout of its joint-venture partner in Century Diamond Tower, an office building in Makati City. The deal adds 25,000 square meters of floor area to CPG’s leasing portfolio.

Later this year, CPG will start its seventh affordable housing project in Pampanga province through unit PHirst Park Homes, Inc., which will offer more than 500 house and lot units.

CPG shares gained 4.29% or 1.5 centavos to close at 36.5 centavos each on Thursday. — Denise A. Valdez

WWII historian Benito Legarda, Jr., 94

HISTORIAN and economist Benito Legarda, Jr., a man widely known as the authority on the Second World War and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines and former Deputy Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, died at the age of 94 on Aug. 26.

“Dr. Benito Justo Legarda, Jr. was a historian, economist, newspaper columnist, and one of the finest scholars the Philippines has ever produced. He had an impressive array of focus for his scholarship, spanning colonial church architecture, the Philippine-American war, and 19th century economic history,” Ian Rosales Casocot, a professor at Silliman University and deputy director of the Dumaguete City Heritage Council, said in a post honoring the life of Mr. Legarda on Aug. 27.

“After the Galleons was a revision of his Harvard University doctoral dissertation. Many critics consider his account of World War II in the Philippines as having provided an important Filipino perspective of the Japanese Occupation,” Mr. Casocot added.

Born on Aug. 6, 1926, in Manila, he was the son of Benito Roces Legarda and Trinidad Fernandez-Legarda, the former head of the Manila Symphony Orchestra. His great-grandfather, Benito Legarda y Tuason, was involved with Emilio Aguinaldo in the early  days of the short lived first Philippine Republic. Mr. Legarda earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Science from Georgetown University in 1948, going on to earn a Master of Arts in Economics from Harvard College in 1950, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard in 1955.

Mr. Legarda served as the Deputy Governor for Economic Research of the Central Bank of the Philippines and was a founding member of the Philippine Statistical Association and the Philippine Economic Society; he also served as the president of the latter.

He was also an avid collector of maps since the 1960s and wrote many articles about Hispanic-Philippine art, church architecture, economics, and finance. He also wrote many books, some of which were After the Galleons (1999), The Hills of Sampaloc (2001), Occupation ‘42 (2003), Occupation: The Later Years (2007), and the Eight Rizalian Miniatures (2011).

Mr. Legarda was also a trustee of the National Museum from 1999 to 2001, a board member of the National Historical Institute from 2003 to 2010, and one of the members of the board of advisers at the Ayala Museum.

“Rest in eternal peace, Tito Beniting Benito Jr. Legarda – eminent historian, gifted writer, and most of all – a wonderful friend and mentor. We will miss you in our meetings at Memorare, and I will truly miss our almost weekly phone calls. Glad though that I was still able to talk to you last Sunday. Thank you for visiting me in my dreams last night, the details are hazy now, but I know you were saying goodbye,” Desiree Ann Cua Benipayo, founder of the Philippine World War II Memorial Foundation, said in a Facebook post on Aug. 27.

While many people remember Mr. Legarda for his wealth of knowledge on history and economics, JC Punongbayan, a teaching fellow at the University of the Philippines Diliman School of Economics, remembered Mr. Legarda for his “signature bow tie, brown suit jacket, and explosive laugh,” in a Facebook post on Aug. 27.

On his Facebook page, Mr. Legarda kept up a constant stream of commentary on a variety of timely topics including the controversial Anti-Terrorism Law where he pointed out that while the President said that he would abide by any ruling of the Supreme Court, the country’s “judicial decisions are not always based strictly on the law,” and that 11 of the 14 sitting members of the Supreme Court were the President’s appointees.

His last Facebook post was on Aug. 7 about the Philippine ownership of the West Philippine Sea. — Zsarlene B. Chua

Aboitiz group keeps operating amid lockdown

THE ABOITIZ GROUP on Thursday said it continues to operate its various business segments amid a coronavirus lockdown that started in mid-March.

In a statement, listed Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV) said its business facilities, power and cement manufacturing plants and development sites have been operating while following health and safety protocols.

“Aboitiz is committed to providing unhampered delivery of products and services across critical sectors that will help keep our economy moving,” AEV President and Chief Executive Officer Sabin M. Aboitiz said in the statement.

Aside from its main business which is power, the Aboitiz group also has banking and financial services, food, land and infrastructure interests. It also has units in cement manufacturing and construction.

AEV posted a 55% income drop to P4 billion in the first half, as contributions from its power business dropped by 57% to P2.9 billion.

When it disclosed its earnings in late July, the company said it was expecting improved performance in the second half as the country adjusts to the pandemic.

Shares at AEV fell by 2.49% or P1.20 to P47 each. — Denise A. Valdez

New York rejects 11th parole bid of John Lennon’s killer

NEW YORK – The man who cut short the life and music of rock superstar John Lennon with a burst of bullets nearly 40 years ago lost his 11th bid to be freed from a sentence that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life, a New York prison system spokesperson said on Wednesday.

  A parole board denied a request for release from Mark David Chapman, who must wait two more years before he becomes eligible again, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision spokesperson said.

The rationale behind the decision of the Board of Parole panel members who interviewed Chapman on Aug. 19 at the Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo, was not immediately disclosed.

Chapman, 65, who has previously said that he long ago stopped being the troubled young man who shot one of the most famous people in the world to gain notoriety, is serving 20 years to life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

The assassination-style murder of Lennon, a founder of the Beatles who also had solo hits such as “Imagine” and “(Just Like) Starting Over,” stunned the music world, the British-born musician’s adopted home of New York City and a generation that grew up with “Beatlemania.”

At 40, Lennon had just emerged from a musical hiatus with the release of his Double Fantasy album when he went to a nighttime recording session on Dec. 8, 1980. When he returned to his home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Chapman was waiting for him and shot him four times in front of his wife Yoko Ono.

Since 2000, the first year Chapman was eligible for parole, Ono, 87, has steadfastly opposed his release. Her attorney, Jonas Herbsman, said she submitted comments to the parole board, which he would only say are “consistent with the prior letters.”

At his previous parole interview in August 2018 Chapman said he was a changed man and a religious Christian who would welcome freedom even though he said he did not deserve it.

A remorseful Chapman, whose 2018 prison photo shows a leaner man than the pudgy 25-year-old who pulled the trigger, remembered being in a “tug of war” with himself over what he was about to do before yielding to the idea of killing for fame.

“I was too far in,” he said in a transcript of the hearing.

Chapman has worked as a porter and wheelchair repairman at the prison hospital and has occasionally been visited by his wife whom he married about 18 months before the murder. — Reuters

The pivotal role of insurance in managing financial health

By Rico T. Bautista, President and CEO of Etiqa Philippines

Last July 2020, Social Weather Stations (SWS) did a survey on the adult unemployment rate in the Philippines and the results showed that it reached a record high of 45.5% or around 27.3 million adults. This means that almost half of the Philippine adult population either lost their jobs, could not find a job, or are still struggling to have an employment. Half of those who were surveyed lost their jobs during the coronavirus period, while the rest lost theirs even before the pandemic crisis hit our country.

In the midst of all these, one cannot help but ask, how can I manage my financial health? Will I be able to sustain my financial health in the middle of the pandemic and beyond? What are the things I should consider so that my financial situation will continue to be healthy? Will insurance continue to be relevant so that I can keep my finances in a very good position?

There is no single answer to all the questions above, but it is my intention to give some bits and pieces of advice which hopefully can help our readers manage their financial health.

For those who have their jobs and are currently earning during this pandemic, it is important to continually be grateful for what you have, and the situation that you are in. You need to maximize your current earning capacity. This can be done by ensuring that the following principles are considered.

  • Save for the rainy days. We do not know when the next pandemic or crisis will be. Because of this, we should find ways to set aside from our earnings an amount that we can use for the challenging times ahead. Do not splurge on nonessential things.
  • Invest and grow your money. There are several investment opportunities that you can look into. The idea is for you to ensure that your money will grow as you set them aside.
  • Get covered by your company. Employee benefit on group health insurance and group life insurance should be made available by employers. These benefits should be provided for to employees.
  • Protect your assets. One of the things that you need to do is to protect your valuable assets like your properties and vehicles. You are paying a small amount compared to the peace and security against any risks of damage to what you own.
  • Insure yourself. You should protect the most valuable asset that you have, i.e., yourself. This is one of the best and more responsible things to do. In case of unexpected demise or health emergencies, it would be helpful to have a financial support system for you and your loved ones as well.

The first two points above are reminders of how one’s earnings should be allotted. Being able to take the future into consideration, spend your income wisely, and find ways to make your money grow well are some of the most important things when it comes to managing your financial health. The last three points focus on making sure that you and your assets are well-protected. This can be achieved through health, life and even general insurance. While it may seem like an expense at first, it is also a necessary expense that would be beneficial to you and your financial well-being in the long run.

On the other hand, for those who are in the midst of looking for a job, my most important reminders would be the following:

  • Maximize your skillset.
  • Seek for earning opportunities.
  • Network with people who can help you.
  • Build your personal branding.
  • Be hopeful.

Although these may be trying times, there will always be a silver lining in the horizon. There will be better times ahead.

My family came from humble beginnings. My father, who used to be a house help and a mailman, worked his way up in the economic ladder by selling and getting life insurance products. When he passed away, his insurance coverage helped my mother provide for her medical and hospital bills. My mother also passed away several years back. But she left us, her seven children, with an insurance policy which allowed everybody to sustain our way of life. We did not suffer economically when our parents died, due to lingering illnesses.

As we are in the midst of a pandemic, we are continually reminded of how vulnerable we are, both to mother nature and the happenings of life. By having an access to insurance, we are taking a step towards taking better care of our lives and of those whom we love, and making sure that our assets are also well-protected.

We are not certain of the future. But we can protect our dreams and the dreams of our loved ones by getting life, health and general insurance products. Insurance is key as it plays a pivotal role in managing one’s financial health.

Stimulus package for the tourism sector

In recent years, the Philippine economy has relied on three major pillars of growth: the remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFW), the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, and the tourism sector. Of the three, only the BPOs have survived the pandemic since many OFWs lost their jobs while the airlines and hospitality establishments are on the brink of collapse.

What a difference a year makes. In 2019, the Philippines recorded an all-time high of 8.3 million international tourist arrivals reflecting a 15.2% increase from the year-ago level of 7.16 million based on statistics from the Department of Tourism (DoT).

Domestic tourists already numbered 111 million in 2018, surpassing the 2022 target of 89 million as projected by the DoT’s National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP). That year, some 8.4 million jobs were directly and indirectly supported by the travel industry, accounting for almost 20% of total employment in the country.

But the pandemic brought massive devastation to global tourism this year, and the NTDP projection of 12 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2022 is unattainable. In a DoT study titled “Insights on Filipino Travel Behavior Post-COVID-19,” the results showed that domestic leisure travel is expected to lead the recovery of Philippine tourism in the new normal.

The Senate and the House of Representatives recently ratified the consolidated version of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or “Bayanihan II” bill. During the bicameral conference committee deliberations, legislators from the two chambers of Congress agreed to allocate P10 billion for the ailing travel and tourism industry but they differed in terms of which agency would implement the rescue package. For the lower house, it should go to the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), while the upper house preferred to let the DoT handle the stimulus budget.

After heated debates, they compromised to lodge P6 billion with the Department of Trade and Industry’s Small Business Corp. as loanable funds for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the travel sector. Another P3 billion was assigned to the Department of Labor and Employment for financial assistance to displaced tourism industry workers, with the remaining P1 billion given to the Department of Public Works and Highways for tourism infrastructure projects.

Senator Franklin Drilon led the Senate contingent in opposing the allotment of the entire P10 billion to TIEZA. In a media interview, he said: “House lawmakers wanted to allocate the funds for the construction of toilets and roads, while the Senate fought hard to defend the position of the DoT that the funds be appropriated as cash aid through soft loans.”

Strangely, Drilon lumped the proposed TIEZA projects together under toilets and roads. For someone who endorsed the P8.8 billion Iloilo International Airport and the P800 million Iloilo Convention Center (ICC), he seems to have developed a simplistic view of tourism infrastructure lately. Among the TIEZA board’s approved plans for Drilon’s hometown are the restoration of three public plazas in Iloilo City, the construction of a tourism information center at the Iloilo River Esplanade, and improvements on the ICC.

As a veteran legislator, Drilon should be more sensitive to the needs of island destinations across the archipelago that have infrastructure gaps limiting the overall tourist experience as well as the competitiveness of these sites and their attractiveness to investors. His home province is the prime example where an exponential growth in foreign and domestic tourism resulted from big-ticket construction projects that translated into jobs and investments.

Yet he supported the position of large companies who clamored for direct aid to their declining businesses — in other words, a bailout. Instead of being distributed equitably to MSMEs and ordinary tourism workers, public funds might be cornered by these big players to the disadvantage of the small fry.

With or without the Bayanihan 2 bill, industry recovery must happen soon to break the current impasse. For instance, the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association (HSMA) Philippines is set to launch an online travel mart next month. Dubbed SOS or “September Online Sale,” it will offer huge discounts from participating HSMA member-hotels.

Air Asia, Cebu Pacific, and Philippine Airlines are also doing their part by offering low fare deals. The state-run Civil Aeronautics Board has suspended the passenger fuel surcharge on domestic and international flights in a bid to restart the local aviation industry.

Such efforts from both the private and public sectors could energize demand in the near-term and provide relief to tourism-related businesses until the industry returns to normalcy. Thus, it is imperative for stakeholders to draw up a holistic and comprehensive plan that will resuscitate this vital pillar of our economy.

 

J. Albert Gamboa is the CFO of Asian Center for Legal Excellence and Chairman of FINEX Publications.

Measure modernizing security industry welcomed by guards

SECURITY GUARDS said Thursday they welcome a bill proposing to modernize the industry and improve training for workers.

In a statement, the Private Security Industry Personnel Employees and Guards Credit Cooperative (PSIPAGC) said the Private Security bill recently introduced in the House of Representatives will strengthen the industry.

“The number of security guards currently employed is equivalent to almost double the combined number of police and military personnel deployed today. It is, therefore, important that we improve not only the conditions of their employment, but also standardize their training to professionalize the industry,” PSIPAGC Chairman Neil Estrella said.

The House Committee on Public Order and Safety subcommittee last week approved in principle the draft consolidation of various bills that will address the concerns of private security guards and improve their working conditions.

The substitute bill also aims to repeal the 51-year-old Republic Act No. 5487 or the Private Security Agency Law.

The bill will address working conditions such as low pay and illegal contractualization, as well as subsidized training. — Gillian M. Cortez

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