PARTICIPANTS who registered for the canceled PRURide PH 2020 can start claiming their refund beginning this month till November, organizers have said.
Set to happen from March 11-15 at Mimosa Drive in Clark, Pampanga, the cycling festival was forced to be scrapped by life insurer Pru Life UK because of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, citing health and safety concerns.
PRURide PH 2020 was touted to be another exciting event, featuring more than 2,500 cyclists, including 18 local and international professional teams, who will race in 10 categories.
Among the categories on offer were the Virtual PRURide, and PRURide Criterium which features different races, including fixed gear, road bike, and mountain bike races.
Bannering the PRURide PH 2020 would have been the PRURide UCI 2.2 Stage Races, a three-day race accredited by world governing body Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), where cyclists could chalk up points to advance to bigger international competitions.
For the refund of registration fees, registered participants are requested to send an e-mail to info@pruride.ph with the subject “Refund Request – (insert 6-digit transaction number)” with the following details: Registered name; name of bank; branch of account; bank account type; bank account name; and Bank account number (including all zeros at the beginning).
Despite the cycling event being canceled, Pru Life UK is still encouraging people to take up an active lifestyle and develop passion for cycling through its all-in-one health management app called Pulse.
Through the app they can register and join the Cycling – PRURider Community for free. They can also get further announcements and updates on PRURide PH. Pulse is currently available for free download by all users of Android and iOS devices. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
It’s hard to deem a play occurring with more than half the fourth quarter still to be negotiated as pivotal. Even in a close match, such a turn of events can easily be tabbed run of the mill; the extremely fast pace of pro hoops typically produces bang-bang sequences from opening tip to final buzzer. Nonetheless, there can be no doubting the impact the flagrant foul slapped on the Heat’s Kelly Olynyk off a rebound battle with 6:56 remaining in the payoff period had on the set-to, and not simply because the immediate aftermath — two free throws (from supposedly offended party Kyle Lowry) and a basket — saw the Raptors turn a tie into a lead it would not relinquish.
True, the Heat fought and clawed until the very end. They were even able to bring the deficit down to one with 41.4 ticks left on the clock; unfortunately, the effort required proved too much — and the time too little — for them to overcome. And it’s with no small measure of irony that the Raptors’ margin of victory would equal the number of points gained from the controversial call. In this regard, the admission of referee David Guthrie that he erred in whistling Olynyk for the flagrant foul doesn’t help, and actually adds insult to injury. Imagine being handicapped by a mistaken assessment that was upheld even after a supposedly thorough video review.
That said, the Raptors deserve major props for taking advantage of the opportunities given them. There will be missteps from the men in gray; the action is just too fast, and the contact too furious, for three impartial watchers to oversee with complete accuracy and fairness. Judgments are made on the fly, with sins of commission and omission part and parcel of the so-called breaks of the game. Under the circumstances, the better teams separate themselves from the dregs of the National Basketball Association by knowing how to roll with the punches, generate momentum in the face of adversity, and stay focused on the task at hand regardless of developments.
For longtime followers of the sport, the Raptors need no propping up. If they’re not talked about a lot in media, it’s because their workmanlike style does not appeal to casual observers. The results are clear, though — beginning with the Larry O’Brien Trophy they earned (and for which departed star Kawhi Leonard is accorded too much credit), continuing with their remarkable consistency, and possibly ending with another stint at the top. For all the interest generated by more fashionable picks like the Bucks and Celtics — and even the Sixers — in the East, they possess the bragging rights until they’re dethroned.
Frankly, the Raptors don’t care. They’re fine with letting such notables as the Lakers hog headlines. After all, they know the real score; as they showed all and sundry throughout their shellacking of the purple and gold over the weekend, they can hang with the best. And, in manifesting their unshakable self-assurance, they aim to do so until they’re again declared first among equals.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
The hospitality industry has to re-skill and upskill to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, said experts.
“That is the best possible thing that anyone can do right now: to position yourself with the right skills and the right knowledge to jump immediately back in the industry,” said John Lohr, director of development, school relations at global hospitality network Hosco, in a recent webinar.
Health and hygiene protocols have received more attention because of the pandemic. International and local hospitality companies, such as Hilton and Marivent Resort Hotel, Inc.,are already implementing safety standards at their accommodations based on guidelines from public and private health organizations. The workforce must keep up with new knowledge if they hope to be chosen and retained by employers.
Soft skills like leadership, agility, stress resistance, and optimism are also in demand. Aside from allowing hospitality workers to manage their mental health, these skills are valuable in dealing with customers and colleagues.
“As it gets harder and they have to lay people off, how do they deal with that… What skills do they need to manage their people better and to have empathy and to understand?” said Andy Cuthbert, general manager of the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel in the United Arab Emirates. “It’s understanding what is the reaction to your action,” he added. The hotel conducts leadership training sessions for their employees online.
According to Mr. Lohr, there will be a talent shortage in the hospitality industry during the pandemic recovery period. The École hôtelière de Lausanne, a Swiss hospitality management school, reported that anincreasing expectation for workers to use technology has pushed out older talent and those who are less familiar with technology.
To address this gap, hospitality companies and organizations should consider partnering with academia to create curricula. This relationship will also shorten the time it takes for students to enter the workforce. One possible execution is offering short courses backed by a school.
“It’s about more bite-sized learning and learning additional skills without necessarily going through school for two to three years, which takes people out of the workplace,” said Jeremy Dahdi, executive director for international and digital credentialing at City & Guilds, an organization for work-based qualifications.
Another option is to certify workers who acquired their skills by learning on the job instead of attending school. City & Guilds, for example, offers global hospitality certification for jobs across culinary, food and beverage, front of house, and housekeeping.
“One of the great things about the global certification is that you can achieve a digital credential to recognize your skills that is transportable. You can then take that anywhere in the world and still be recognized,” said Mr. Dahdi.
Held this July, the “The Future of Work in Hospitality” webinar was part of Food & Hotel Digital Week, organized by Saladplate, an online marketplace designed for food and hotel professionals.
White House adviser Peter Navarro, one of the top administration opponents to the TikTok deal, to argue that Microsoft may not be the best suitor for the unit of China-based ByteDance Ltd., or that Microsoft should perhaps be made to divest its Chinese holdings should it acquire TikTok in the US.
Microsoft Corp.’s attempt to buy TikTok’s US operations represents the latest step in a careful dance the software maker has performed to meet the demands of the Chinese and US governments while doing business in both places, a balancing act that has grown increasingly fraught in the political conflict between the countries.
China hawks in the Trump administration oppose any purchase of the social-media service by Microsoft, which wants the popular app to expand its consumer internet business in the US. But the company also wants to maintain its robust business in China, the world’s most populous country.
Microsoft entered China in 1992, helping to engineer the government’s computer systems and installing special versions of Windows operating systems that would comply with the country’s censorship controls. Early on, the company launched a massive research operation in China, churning out a feeder system of tech executives who would go on to start or work at many of China’s biggest tech companies. The large presence endeared the Redmond, Washington-based company to Chinese officials, who allowed Microsoft to maintain the only major Western-run search engine and social media companies in Bing and LinkedIn, albeit censored versions.
The company also operates cloud services under a joint venture with a Chinese company and its Xbox console was the first of that type of video-game device approved for sale in China, again through a joint venture. In September, Microsoft president Brad Smith criticized US President Donald Trump and his administration for what he called unfair treatment of Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technolgies Co., raising the ire of some Republican senators.
That longstanding relationship has prompted White House adviser Peter Navarro, one of the top administration opponents to the TikTok deal, to argue that Microsoft may not be the best suitor for the unit of China-based ByteDance Ltd., or that Microsoft should perhaps be made to divest its Chinese holdings should it acquire TikTok in the US.
“Whose software does the People’s Liberation Army and China run on? Microsoft,” Mr. Navarro told CNN on Monday. “The Chinese Communist Party, whose software do they use to do all the things they do? It’s Microsoft. So this is not a white hat company. It’s an American company, it’s clearly a multinational company, that’s made billions in China, that enables Chinese censorship through things like Bing and Skype.
“Microsoft is one of one of four or five American technology companies, Yahoo, Google, Cisco and others, who helped China originally build the Great Firewall of China, which is used to surveil, track, monitor, censor and imprison the Chinese people,” Mr. Navarro said. “But more importantly, one of the few surviving search engines from America in China is Bing and Microsoft owns Bing so we know that there’s some some fishy stuff going on there.”
The Great Firewall of China is the term used to describe the combination of regulation, technology and human monitoring used to control and restrict the internet in the country. Internet products such as Google’s search engine and Facebook Inc.’s main social network aren’t available in China due in part to the reluctance of the US companies to censor information for the Chinese government.
A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.
Microsoft has emerged as a top contender to buy TikTok partly because Facebook, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other tech giants are being scrutinized by US regulators and lawmakers over antitrust issues. Microsoft, which settled antitrust cases almost two decades ago, now occupies an enviable position of relative trust among big tech companies. Rival Slack Technologies Inc. has made a complaint against Microsoft in Europe and may do the same in the US, so that could change.
While it has sued the Trump administration several times on issues surrounding cloud data privacy and immigration, Microsoft also has maintained friendly relations, particularly through large contracts with the government. It was recently awarded a massive Defense Department cloud contact over rival Amazon.com Inc., which Amazon is alleging in a lawsuit stemmed from Trump’s bias against the e-commerce giant, and unlike Google, Microsoft hasn’t avoiding bidding for military technology deals.
Over the weekend, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella held talks with Trump, which for the time being salvaged Microsoft’s efforts on TikTok after Trump told reporters Friday night that he planned to ban the app from the US
Microsoft has faced challenges with the Beijing government, too, and has struggled to contain software piracy in the country. Its offices were raided in 2014 as part of an anti-monopoly investigation that ran for several years. The Windows operating system had been banned at times from Chinese government computers, leading Microsoft to offer an altered version that allows the government to use its own encryption and removes some apps and features. And while China accounts for about 18% of the world’s population, it’s less than 2% of Microsoft’s sales, partially because the Chinese market isn’t fully open to US companies, Mr. Smith said at a conference in January.
Still, Microsoft’s approach differs from rival Google, which pulled its search engine from China in 2010 over concerns about censorship and has since scrapped some search and cloud initiatives it was working on for that market. Last year, the company ended a secretive project, called Dragonfly, to build a new search app in China. In May, Google shut down a plan to offer a new cloud service in China and other politically sensitive countries due, in part, to concerns over geopolitical tensions, sources told Bloomberg News last month. Microsoft and Amazon both offer this kind of cloud service, which lets countries keep data stored locally. Still, at a congressional antitrust hearing last week, multiple lawmakers hammered Google for its recent efforts in China, including setting up an AI lab in Beijing.
For a company to successfully acquire TikTok in the US, it will have to pass national security and antitrust muster with Beijing and Washington. Microsoft’s careful work with both governments may make it one of the few that can thread the needle. At the same time, it’s bound to arouse suspicion from both sides that it’s too close to the other. — Bloomberg
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that, while the coronavirus was the biggest health emergency since the early 20th century, the international scramble for a vaccine was also “unprecedented.” Image via Reuters.
GENEVA — The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that there might never be a “silver bullet” for COVID-19 in the form of a perfect vaccine and that the road to normality would be long, with some countries requiring a reset of strategy.
More than 18.14 million people around the world are reported to have been infected with the disease and 688,080 have died, according to a Reuters tally, with some nations that thought they were over the worst experiencing a resurgence.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and WHO emergencies head Mike Ryan exhorted nations to rigorously enforce health measures such as mask-wearing, social distancing, hand-washing, and testing.
“The message to people and governments is clear: ‘Do it all’,” Mr. Tedros told a virtual news briefing from the UN body’s headquarters in Geneva. He said face masks should become a symbol of solidarity around the world.
“A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection. However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment—and there might never be.”
The WHO head said that, while the coronavirus was the biggest health emergency since the early 20th century, the international scramble for a vaccine was also “unprecedented.”
But he underscored uncertainties. “There are concerns that we may not have a vaccine that may work, or its protection could be for just a few months, not more. But until we finish the clinical trials, we will not know.”
‘THE WAY OUT IS LONG’ Mr. Ryan said countries with high transmission rates, including Brazil and India, needed to brace for a big battle: “The way out is long and requires a sustained commitment,” he said, calling for a “reset” of approach in some places.
“Some countries are really going to have to take a step back now and really take a look at how they are addressing the pandemic within their national borders,” he added.
Asked about the US outbreak, which White House coronavirus experts say is entering a “new phase,” he said officials seemed to have set out the “right path” and it was not the WHO’s job to do so.
The WHO officials said an advance investigation team had concluded its China mission and laid out the groundwork for further efforts to identify the origins of the virus.
The study is one of the demands made by top donor the United States which plans to leave the body next year, accusing it of being too acquiescent to China.
A larger, WHO-led team of Chinese and international experts is planned next, including in the city of Wuhan, although the timing and composition of that was unclear. Mr. Ryan said China had already given some information but knowledge gaps remained. — Reuters
Companies are studying the impact of the forced work-from-home experiment on productivity, morale, culture, costs, and other factors to determine how they might modify their practices going forward.
We log longer hours. We attend more meetings with more people. And, we send more e-mail.
From New York City to Tel Aviv, the telecommuting revolution has meant a lot more work, according to a study of 3.1 million people at more than 21,000 companies across 16 cities in North America, Europe and the Middle East.
The researchers compared employee behavior over two 8-week periods before and after COVID-19 lockdowns. Looking at e-mail and meeting meta-data, the group calculated the workday lasted 48.5 minutes longer, the number of meetings increased about 13% and people sent an average of 1.4 more e-mail messages per day to their colleagues.
In a few cities, such as Los Angeles and Chicago, the average workday length returned to its pre-pandemic levels. But longer days persisted in New York City, San Jose, and most of Europe well into May.
“People have adjusted their work patterns,” said Jeff Polzer, a professor in the organizational behavior department at Harvard Business School, one of the study’s five co-authors.
During the two month time frame, there was one part of working that did improve: Those additional meetings were shorter, according to the analysis by researchers at Harvard Business School and New York University. The study was published by the National Bureau of Economic Relations this July.
Companies are studying the impact of the forced work-from-home experiment on productivity, morale, culture, costs, and other factors to determine how they might modify their practices going forward. Other analyses looking at VPN data found people were putting in three additional hours in the US and logging in at odd hours. People who spoke to Bloomberg News attributed their harried schedules to child care demands, blurring boundaries between work and home, and the stresses of an economic recession.
The group from Harvard and NYU said their research represents one of the largest studies so far and included data from 16 metropolitan areas.
Mr. Polzer from Harvard says more research is needed to see if habits have changed permanently, but he doesn’t expect behavior to return to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon. “It’s not like we’re going to back to normal times,” he said. — Bloomberg
With mounting evidence that some COVID-19 survivors face months, or possibly years, of debilitating complications, healthcare experts are beginning to study possible long-term costs. Image via Reuters.
NEW YORK — Late in March, Laura Gross, 72, was recovering from gall bladder surgery in her Fort Lee, New Jersey, home when she became sick again.
Her throat, head, and eyes hurt, her muscles and joints ached and she felt like she was in a fog. Her diagnosis was COVID-19. Four months later, these symptoms remain.
Ms. Gross sees a primary care doctor and specialists including a cardiologist, pulmonologist, endocrinologist, neurologist, and gastroenterologist.
“I’ve had a headache since April. I’ve never stopped running a low-grade temperature,” she said.
Studies of COVID-19 patients keep uncovering new complications associated with the disease.
With mounting evidence that some COVID-19 survivors face months, or possibly years, of debilitating complications, healthcare experts are beginning to study possible long-term costs.
Bruce Lee of the City University of New York (CUNY) Public School of Health estimated that if 20% of the US population contracts the virus, the one-year post-hospitalization costs would be at least $50 billion, before factoring in longer-term care for lingering health problems. Without a vaccine, if 80% of the population became infected, that cost would balloon to $204 billion.
Some countries hit hard by the new coronavirus—including the United States, Britain and Italy— are considering whether these long-term effects can be considered a “post-COVID syndrome,” according to Reuters interviews with about a dozen doctors and health economists.
Some US and Italian hospitals have created centers devoted to the care of these patients and are standardizing follow-up measures.
Britain’s Department of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are each leading national studies of COVID-19’s long-term impacts. An international panel of doctors will suggest standards for mid- and long-term care of recovered patients to the World Health Organization (WHO) in August.
YEARS BEFORE THE COST IS KNOWN More than 17 million people have been infected by the new coronavirus worldwide, about a quarter of them in the United States.
Healthcare experts say it will be years before the costs for those who have recovered can be fully calculated, not unlike the slow recognition of HIV, or the health impacts to first responders of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
They stem from COVID-19’s toll on multiple organs, including heart, lung and kidney damage that will likely require costly care, such as regular scans and ultrasounds, as well as neurological deficits that are not yet fully understood.
A JAMA Cardiology study found that in one group of COVID-19 patients in Germany aged 45 to 53, more than 75% suffered from heart inflammation, raising the possibility of future heart failure.
A Kidney International study found that over a third of COVID-19 patients in a New York medical system developed acute kidney injury, and nearly 15% required dialysis.
Dr. Marco Rizzi in Bergamo, Italy, an early epicenter of the pandemic, said the Giovanni XXIII Hospital has seen close to 600 COVID-19 patients for follow-up. About 30% have lung issues, 10% have neurological problems, 10% have heart issues and about 9% have lingering motor skill problems. He co-chairs the WHO panel that will recommend long-term follow-up for patients.
“On a global level, nobody knows how many will still need checks and treatment in three months, six months, a year,” Mr. Rizzi said, adding that even those with mild COVID-19 “may have consequences in the future.”
Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital has seen more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients for follow-up. While major cardiology problems there were few, about 30% to 40% of patients have neurological problems and at least half suffer from respiratory conditions, according to Dr. Moreno Tresoldi.
Some of these long-term effects have only recently emerged, too soon for health economists to study medical claims and make accurate estimates of costs.
In Britain and Italy, those costs would be borne by their respective governments, which have committed to funding COVID-19 treatments but have offered few details on how much may be needed.
In the United States, more than half of the population is covered by private health insurers, an industry that is just beginning to estimate the cost of COVID-19.
CUNY’s Mr. Lee estimated the average one-year cost of a US COVID-19 patient after they have been discharged from the hospital at $4,000, largely due to the lingering issues from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which affects some 40% of patients, and sepsis.
The estimate spans patients who had been hospitalized with moderate illness to the most severe cases, but does not include other potential complications, such as heart and kidney damage.
Even those who do not require hospitalization have average one-year costs after their initial illness of $1,000, Mr. Lee estimated.
‘HARD JUST TO GET UP’ Extra costs from lingering effects of COVID-19 could mean higher health insurance premiums in the United States. Some health plans have already raised 2021 premiums on comprehensive coverage by up to 8% due to COVID-19, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Anne McKee, 61, a retired psychologist who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee and Atlanta, had multiple sclerosis and asthma when she became infected nearly five months ago. She is still struggling to catch her breath.
“On good days, I can do a couple loads of laundry, but the last several days, it’s been hard just to get up and get a drink from the kitchen,” she said.
She has spent more than $5,000 on appointments, tests and prescription drugs during that time. Her insurance has paid more than $15,000 including $240 for a telehealth appointment and $455 for a lung scan.
“Many of the issues that arise from having a severe contraction of a disease could be 3, 5, 20 years down the road,” said Dale Hall, Managing Director of Research with the Society of Actuaries.
To understand the costs, US actuaries compare insurance records of coronavirus patients against people with a similar health profile but no COVID-19, and follow them for years.
The United Kingdom aims to track the health of 10,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients over the first 12 months after being discharged and potentially as long as 25 years. Scientists running the study see the potential for defining a long-term COVID-19 syndrome, as they found with Ebola survivors in Africa.
“Many people, we believe will have scarring in the lungs and fatigue … and perhaps vascular damage to the brain, perhaps, psychological distress as well,” said Professor Calum Semple from the University of Liverpool.
Margaret O’Hara, 50, who works at a Birmingham hospital is one of many COVID-19 patients who will not be included in the study because she had mild symptoms and was not hospitalized. But recurring health issues, including extreme shortness of breath, has kept her out of work.
Ms. O’Hara worries patients like her are not going to be included in the country’s long-term cost planning.
“We’re going to need … expensive follow-up for quite a long time,” she said. — Reuters
As the unseen enemy that is COVID-19 continues to impact families, communities, and businesses worldwide, we want to laud all the workers who are relentlessly fighting in this battle.
Thank you to our front-liners for your life-saving and vital work, even if it entails considerable risks. Thank you to all essential workers who, despite understanding the need to stay at home and support the lockdown, still risk going out to earn a living and provide for their loved ones. Thank you to those who are working remotely and diligently, even without being noticed.
All your sacrifices are keeping our nation going.
We all have our fair share of fears on how to survive this crisis.
Times are tough. We are all in the same boat.
But we have always been a resilient people.
Together, we can pull through.
Let’s continue to act jointly for a healthy, safe, and decent working condition for all workers amidst the pandemic.
Magtulungan tayo. Walang bibitiw.
Our sincere appreciation goes out to all workers, especially U.
*This video features various efforts of CommUnity Care, a Udenna Foundation Initiative.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said on Monday that the COVID-19 antibody drug combination it is developing both prevented and treated the disease in rhesus macaques and hamsters, adding to hope that it might work for people.
The US biotech company said in the animal study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, that the cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies was able to “almost completely block establishment of virus infection.”
Regeneron said the cocktail was also able to minimize infection in a second study in which animals were infected with a much higher level of the virus. The prophylactic effect was greatly diminished with a lower dose of the drug, the company said.
It said the results matched or exceeded effects recently shown in animal studies of vaccine candidates.
Effective treatments and vaccines are seen as essential to halting a pandemic that has claimed more than 690,000 lives worldwide.
The infected animals treated with the antibodies cleared the virus faster than those given a placebo, the company said.
The lead researchers said the data suggests the therapy may offer clinical benefit in both prevention and treatment of COVID-19. They also said the animals did not show any signs of increased viral load or worsening of pathology after treatment, an important safety signal that suggests it will not worsen symptoms in humans.
The studies were conducted on a total of 36 rhesus macaques and 50 hamsters. Positive results in animals are no guarantee of success in humans.
Regeneron has already started late-stage clinical trials in humans to assess the antibody treatment’s ability to prevent and treat COVID-19.
The company signed a $450 million contract with the US government as part of its Operation Warp Speed program to provide the United States with the treatment if it succeeds.
Monoclonal antibodies are among the most widely used biotechnology medicines. Eli Lilly and Co and other drugmakers are testing similar treatments against COVID-19. — Reuters
Remittances are expected to continue to fall this year, as overseas Filipino workers face pay cuts and job losses. — REUTERS
By Luz Wendy T. Noble, Reporter
REMITTANCES plunged by 19% in May as overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) face salary cuts and layoffs as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to ravage economies around the world.
Cash remittances from OFWs coursed through banks slumped to $2.106 billion in May from $2.609 billion in the same month a year ago, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday showed. This is the biggest decline in nearly two decades after the -33.5% recorded in January 2001.
Month on month, the May inflows were $60 million higher than the April level.
From January to May, cash remittances dropped 6.4% to $11.554 billion against the $12.349 billion logged in the same five months of 2019.
“This is the third consecutive month that personal remittances posted year-on-year contraction amid the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on global economic activity, travel, and employment, resulting in the repatriation or deferment of employment of many OFWs,” the BSP said in a statement.
Inflows from the United States accounted for 39.4% of the total, followed by Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, and Taiwan. Together, these countries accounted for 78.8% of total cash remittances.
More than 115,000 OFWs have been repatriated since February due to the pandemic as of Aug. 1. Over 68,000 of them are land-based, while about 47,000 are those working in ships and cruises, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Personal remittances, which include inflows in kind, also dropped 19.2% to $2.341 billion from the $2.896 billion a year ago. It shrank by 6.4% to $12.835 billion in the January to May period from the $13.707 billion logged last year.
The contraction in remittance inflows has yet to bottom out in May and will continue to affect the local economy in the coming months with the expected drop in consumption, according to analysts.
“We should brace for further drops as data shows that 115,000 OFWs have returned home by Aug. 1. That’s around 75,000 more since end-May,” Security Bank Corp. Chief Economist Robert Dan J. Roces said in an e-mail.
With more OFWs being repatriated and remittance inflows continuing to drop, the pandemic’s impact on consumption and employment is worsening, said Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa, a senior economist at ING Bank N.V. Manila.
“Consumption will be hit yet again and the former star player is now almost completely hobbled by the virus with job prospects turning even more precariously close to free fall,” Mr. Mapa said in a note to reporters.
Remittances fuel consumption that makes up 70% of the local economy.
The BSP in June said remittance inflows are expected to shrink by 5% this year, a reversal from the 2% growth forecast it gave in May.
‘MOST AFFECTED IN ASIA’
Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) economists projected the Philippines to be the most affected in the region by the decline in global remittances this year.
In a report released on Monday, the ADB said remittances are estimated to drop 20.2% this year under a “worst-case scenario,” or when the fight against the coronavirus drags on for one year.
The ADB gave a baseline estimate of a $6.2-billion drop in remittances to Southeast Asia region, and expected global remittances to fall by $57.6 billion this year.
Under the worst-case scenario, global remittance inflows would be slashed by $108.6 billion while those in Southeast Asia would be cut by $11.7 billion .
“The two-digit decline in remittances expected this year, if realized, will record unprecedented decline in remittances to the region,” it said, noting the estimate is worse than the global financial crisis in 2007-2008, when remittances to the Asia and Pacific region dropped 2.7% to $173 billion in 2009.
The ADB made the estimates using 2018 baseline data to assess the remittance impact from 2018 to 2020 under two circumstances: the baseline scenario where countries took six months to control the outbreak and normalize economic activities since the onset. The worst-case scenario considers a year-long battle before economic activities normalize and the pandemic fallout dissipates in the last three months.
Remittance receipts in other economies in the region are seen to fall by 21.4% in Indonesia; 18.1% in Vietnam; 17.7% each in Timor-Leste and Myanmar; 16.3% in Laos; 15.8% in Thailand; 15.4% in Cambodia; 12.8% in Brunei; 10% in Singapore; and 5.2% in Malaysia.
Citing a recent study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), ADB said remittance inflows to the Philippines is estimated to fall by 23%-32% this year “relative to levels absent the pandemic, primarily attributed to adverse macroeconomic shocks in host economies,” which could dent household spending per capita by 2.2%-3.3%.
The ADB said the COVID-19 shock to remittances will be realized via three channels: where a decline in gross domestic product (GDP) affecting wage and employment in both host and source countries; halted economic activities resulting in mass job losses; and the plunging demand and price of oil affecting employment and wages of foreign workers.
“Without continuous remittance flows, remittance-dependent households can fall into poverty or have difficulty meeting basic essential needs, as well as access education and health services. Loan repayment is another challenge,” it said.
Aside from the looming drop in remittances, the ADB said the coronavirus pandemic also poses challenges to cross-border labor mobility and migration costs while movement restrictions are still in place.
To cushion the impact, the multilateral bank said host countries can give migrant workers access to social protection, job-retention support, social assistance and public health services, amid the ongoing pandemic.
Governments can also create a program that will re-skill and upskill migrant workers to help them transition in other jobs at home.
The World Bank also forecasts a 20% drop in global remittances. — withBeatrice M. Laforga
FACTORY ACTIVITY dropped for a fifth straight month in July, as manufacturing firms reported weaker production and demand despite relaxed lockdown restrictions. Read the full story.
FACTORY ACTIVITY dropped for a fifth straight month in July, as manufacturing firms reported weaker production and demand despite relaxed lockdown restrictions.
The IHS Markit Philippines Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) slipped to 48.4 last month to indicate a “moderate decline in operating conditions” from June’s 49.7 reading that neared the 50-neutral threshold.
“Despite some positive signs towards recovery in June, the latest PMI data signalled that operating conditions across the Philippines’ manufacturing sector worsened again during July,” IHS Markit said in a press release on Monday.
Operating conditions in the manufacturing sector began deteriorating in March, when the government implemented a strict lockdown in Luzon to curb the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
A PMI reading below 50 signals deterioration in operating conditions compared to the preceding month, while a reading above 50 denotes improvement.
David Owen, an economist at the IHS Markit, said manufacturing conditions have yet to improve at the start of the third quarter.
“It was hoped that June PMI numbers would signal the start of a recovery for manufacturers, as output tentatively increased. However, production levels dropped back into contraction territory in July, while new orders decreased for the fifth month in a row,” he was quoted as saying.
The Philippines’ PMI was second-best among ASEAN countries, following Malaysia’s 50 reading and just above Vietnam’s 47.6, Indonesia’s 46.9 and Thailand’s 45.9. Data for Myanmar and Singapore were not yet available.
Capital Economics said PMI data for Emerging Asian countries showed that recovery in economic activity is “picking up some momentum” but not as strong as that seen in China, while other economies are still recording worsening conditions.
IHS Markit said Philippine manufacturers surveyed saw a renewed drop in output as new work continued but demand for export still declined.
“Production declined only modestly, but nonetheless erased the slight improvement seen in June which was supported by steps to reopen the economy,” it said.
Companies also reported less new orders for five months in a row, decelerating at a faster pace since April, but IHS Markit noted the overall slump remained “modest.” It said this indicated that clients were still “uncertain and hesitant” in buying.
IHS Markit also attributed the decline to the “much more severe fall in new export orders” as the ongoing restrictions in the Philippines dampened export sales.
Mr. Owen said the country may “lose out in terms of foreign trade” as new export sales continued its downfall amid the broad easing of lockdown restrictions globally.
Metro Manila and other key cities enjoyed looser lockdown since June 1, but will once again be under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until Aug. 18 as coronavirus infections spiked.
Mr. Owen said the Philippine economy will enter a “deep recession” this year, estimating gross domestic product (GDP) might have contracted by six percent in the second quarter. Official data will be released on Aug. 6.
“While domestic demand may stabilize, it will be important for businesses to re-strengthen foreign sales in order to recover from this period of (likely) deep recession,” he said.
IHS Markit noted the worsening conditions of manufacturers forced companies to reduce operations and trimmed their workforce at the fastest rate in July.
The survey also showed that supply of raw materials was “stretched” again last month, hampering production and sales further. Companies also reported longer delivery times since suppliers are working with smaller workforce and experience limited air freight services in obtaining the input materials.
Supply chain disruptions pushed input prices to increase for the third month in July, contributing to higher overall costs on top of the uptick in oil prices and faster inflation which stood at 2.5% in June.
The higher production costs were partly passed on to consumers via a marginal increase in output charges. IHS Markit noted “pricing power remained weak due to subdued sales,” forcingcompanies to keep prices low to attract customers.
IHS Markit said business expectations in the next 12 months weakened for the first time since March in July as less than half of firms surveyed gave a positive forecast for output growth.
“Companies that were more pessimistic noted that they expect COVID-19 to have a long-term impact on production. That said, others hoped that demand would increase once restrictions were fully lifted and consumer confidence improved,” it said.
University of Asia and the Pacific School of Economics Dean Cid L. Terosa said the deeper PMI contraction last month indicated manufacturers’ realization “that it may take some time to recover pre-pandemic market demand conditions.”
“With Metro Manila back on MECQ for the first two weeks of August, it is certain that manufacturers will continue to hold a less optimistic view of domestic market conditions. Hence, it won’t be surprising if the weakened manufacturing activity will contribute to lethargic economic performance in the third quarter,” Mr. Terosa said via e-mail on Monday.
Capital Economics expected recovery across the emerging Asia region will remain “slow and protracted” in the coming months. — Beatrice M. Laforga
