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Strange fruit

By Carmen Aquino Sarmiento

Movie Review
Metamorphosis
Written and directed by Jose Tiglao

WITH THE contentious SOGIE (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression) Equality bill pending in congress, a film that purports to tackle the obscure and oft-misunderstood matter of intersexuality raises expectations. To make sure that even the thickest audience member understands what he’s getting at, the writer-director Jose Tiglao repeats every heavy-handed metaphor at least twice. For example, the opening lines about a legendary mango tree in the Bonifacio family’s orchard which bore an atis comes up every so often. In case you didn’t get it, the atis is supposed to stand for the protagonist: 14-year-old Adam Bonifacio (Gold Azeron).

To make sure we get the obvious implications of the film’s title, young Adam has a small glass jar on his desk, crowded with cocoons. He is also “artistic,” a recognizably gay stereotype. Thus, he is charged with rendering the stiff, hard-edged illustrations for the lame school projects their teacher assigns. His class partner is his high school’s oldest student: the 20-something town prostitute Angel (Iana Bermudez). She turns up at Adam’s house at 10:30 p.m., in pek-pek shorts and a tight tank top, ostensibly to do homework, and is promptly ushered into Adam’s bedroom by his unusually accommodating mother Aling Elena (Yayo Aguila). Although he has a writing desk in his bedroom, Adam lies prone on his bed, and sets the picture which Angel brought for him to copy, behind him, so that he has to keep contorting his body, twisting and straining his neck, just to look at it.

The Bonifacio family is certainly atypical. We are to believe that his parents never thought that his having two sets of human genitalia was odd, and that Adam was never examined by a medical doctor throughout his 14 years. (During the Q&A after the screening, the director said he also wanted to show how the government has been remiss in responding to its citizen’s health needs.) Adam’s parents got him quality art materials and a Discman but they never took him to a doctor. To bolster the plausibility of such an unlikely scenario, one of the film’s producers, a youngish woman, further claimed that although her own parents were both government employees, they never took her for a check-up or treatment with a medical professional through her growing years. Thank you, Mom and Dad.

Much is attributed to Aling Elena’s being illiterate. For example, she sticks a serving spoon in a bowl of rice, then uses her bare, saliva-coated fingers to scoop up clumpfuls, and dump these on her family’s plates. Her husband, Adam’s father (Ricky Davao), is a Christian pastor, obnoxiously spewing Bible verses. He holds praise and worship services on their tiled, balustraded terrace. A medical doctor is among his regular congregants. The family certainly appears middle-class. They live in a concrete two story house in a town with cement roads, and even a motel which Angel frequents.

Angel takes a liking to Adam. They are together when he gets his first period, somewhat late at age 14. So, the drama of having a clueless Adam bleed into a pristine stream while cavorting with a pok-pok in a wet T-shirt was the reason for setting up his parents as negligent to the point of abuse? This calls for more clunky symbolism, with several scenes afterwards of Adam, wrapped up in sheer nylon mosquito netting and agitatedly rolling about his bed, while blood seeps through his shorts. Remember those grade school natural science lessons about the pupa and the chrysalis, dummy. Perhaps impelled by concern over their stained bedsheets, his oblivious parents finally decide to consult their swishy congregant Dr. Mortiz (Bodgie Pascua). He refers Adam to the Manila-based endocrinologist Dr. Tolentino (Ivan Padilla) whom he repeatedly stresses is a wealthy, gorgeous hunk, hence a catch, an obvious object of desire.

Disturbingly, mere days later, upon receiving Adam’s test results, Dr. Tolentino pressures the Bonifacio’s to immediately decide on sexual reassignment surgery for their son. The Philippine Medical Association should take notice of this extremely ill-considered and unprofessional behavior which is portrayed as being entirely normal and usual among members of their profession. Weirdly, Dr. Tolentino, who is an endocrinologist and not a family medicine physician, turns up at Adam’s very urban home town to conduct a half-assed “medical mission” out in an open field: just a desultory handful of patients queued in a single line, and without any medical support staff such as nurses to take their vital signs or keep records, not even a pharmacy station. The film is set in the late 1990s when Barangay Health Centers existed. But this pathetic excuse for a medical mission becomes the unlikely opportunity for Dr. Tolentino to get stranded in Adam’s hometown due to a sudden rainstorm. His only recourse is to seek shelter in the Bonifacio home, although he is a customer of the local motel, which he and Angel use for their short time trysts.

The ever-accommodating Aling Elena does not put up the young virile Dr. Tolentino in a spare room or on their living room sofa. She has him bunk with Adam, whom she realizes possesses a penis, a vagina and also a rectum for that matter — or all the equipment for a pedophile’s delight. The Bonifacio’s do not take their only child into their bedroom either, but complacently leave him alone with an almost total stranger whom they have met, perhaps twice at best. It is a restless night of more raging hormones for poor Adam. This inspires him to do a languorously sensuous head-and-shoulder-rolling dance which is uncannily similar to that of Arthur Fleck in the public toilet (The Joker, 2019) after his subway killing spree. Tiglao declared though that even if parts of this film were re-shot just three weeks before its premiere (in order to get the original X-rating mitigated to an R-16), or after The Joker had become a Philippine box office hit, Adam’s little interpretative dance antedates Joaquin Phoenix’s.

Over-stimulated by his night with the hunky Dr. Tolentino, Adam engages in self-exploration, probing himself with a cold white plastic ballpoint pen — not with his natural God-given fingers — while lying supine in his bed. His mother suddenly calls him to dinner, startling him so that he falls out of bed and lands with a thud, flat on his back on the floor. Miraculously, the plastic ballpoint pen does not perforate or bruise his tender lady parts. He does get to reply, “Coming!” which may be the only intentionally humorous line in this ostentatiously sincere film. A coming-of-age moment is when Adam decides to attend his junior-senior prom stag. Unfortunately, his sense of style is severely limited by the selections from his mother’s wardrobe. Say no to his dress: he turns up in a dowdy long-sleeved button-down polo shirt and a prim, non-descript A-line skirt, with no accessories or make-up, except for a Dinky Soliman streak in his hair. The Queer Eye guys would have a field day making him over.

Because of its au courant topic and politically correct, though ham-fisted, good intentions, Metamorphosis was well-received by the wannabe indie crowd culturati. The scenes which merited its original X-rating have been revised though its ending has what may be considered its money shot: buck-naked Adam sprawled on a rock, basking in the sun at his and Angel’s favorite swimming hole. There is no visible prosthetic female vulva, but the camera lovingly lingers on his flaccid penis, which is the color of tocino.

AMA Online Education to offer students data analytics courses

AMA Online Education (AMA OEd) said it hopes to graduate over a hundred thousand data analytics-ready students beginning 2021 as part of a partnership with technology firm SAS, which will help develop basic and advanced courses for both IT and business students.

“We have 150,000 students, both in online and blended programs. Majority of our students are enrolled in IT and Business programs, so about 80% of them will be SAS-trained by 2021,” Christopher P. Satulan, chief operating officer of AMA OEd, said at a media briefing in San Juan City last week.

AMA OEd and SAS, an analytics software firm based in North carolina, signed a partnership Friday for courses which will be compulsory for third and fourth-year IT and business students beginning next year.

“There is a scarcity of data analysts in the country, and we are in the Industry 4.0 wherein most industries need them. Our students, trained by SAS, will be helping these industries. We can provide them our graduates,” Mr. Satulan said.

Under the partnership, SAS will be providing AMA OEd’s data analytics students with “localized” content.

Data analysis, according to Mr. Satulan, will be integrated in the school’s research program.

The partnership will be carried out in cooperation with Singapore consulting and technology services company Thakral One.

“It was SAS and Thakral One that trained the professors within AMA, and then they should be able to deliver the whole course,” SAS Philippines Country Manager Ryan C. Guadalquiver said.

Thakral One Philippines Country Head Melissa M. Egasani said it took only a “few days” to train AMA OEd’s mentors on data analytics “because of their technical background.”

She noted that the limited number of data science experts in the country encourage practitioners to teach at colleges and universities.

“We actually encourage our senior consultants to teach at schools. We also have partner clients and organizations that do the same, so there’s that thrust to give back to the academe among our practitioners,” Ms. Egasani said.

SAS, which has at least 50 industry partners in the Philippines, will also be assisting students during their internships.

“We will partner with our client companies (for) internships; and from there, they could be evaluated for possible employment,” Mr. Guadalquiver said.

He added that many of SAS partners have been looking for data analytics-trained workers.

“Our partners have been asking for them. Even us at SAS, we have a problem also in terms of talent scarcity,” he said.

AMA OEd said the partnership includes a three-month boot camp, which is designed for new graduates to deepen their analytics knowledge and skills.

“After finishing the boot camp, graduates will be given preferred employment referral among SAS partner organizations in the fields of data science, computer analytics, and AI,” the school said in a statement.

Mr. Satulan said the data analytics program will eventually be offered at AMA’s 200 campuses nationwide. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Reserve Bank of India unexpectedly holds benchmark interest rate as inflation spikes

THE RESERVE Bank of India kept its benchmark rate unchanged. — COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG

INDIA’S CENTRAL BANK unexpectedly kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged as headline inflation breached its medium-term target for the first time in more than a year.

The repurchase rate was left at 5.15% in a unanimous decision, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement on Thursday. None of the 43 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the move, with all expecting a cut. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) retained its accommodative policy stance, signaling rate increases continue to be off the table.

“The MPC recognizes that there is monetary policy space for future action,” the RBI said. “However, given the evolving growth-inflation dynamics, the MPC felt it appropriate to take a pause at this juncture.”

“This signals that RBI’s appetite for easing has nearly sapped as aggressive easing earlier in the year bore no fruits, while rising inflation has also been reducing the policy space,” said Prakash Sakpal, an economist at ING Groep NV economist. “Still, we don’t think inflation is going to be any hurdle to further RBI easing if needed.”

While central banks around the world have been loosening monetary policy to offset a growth slowdown, the RBI opted to pause and address bottlenecks that impede the transmission of previous rate cuts. It has so far delivered 135 basis points of easing in five moves this year, while banks have passed on much less to borrowers.

“The need at this juncture is to address impediments, which are holding back investments,” the RBI said.

Latest gross domestic product data showed growth slipped to a six-year low of 4.5% in the quarter to September, amid rising unemployment and a crisis in the shadow banking sector.

The RBI cut its full-year growth forecast for the fiscal year through March to 5% from 6.1%, while adding the inflation print in October was “much higher than expected.”

Inflation of 4.6% in October was higher than the RBI’s medium-term target of 4%, the first breach in more than a year. The central bank raised its inflation forecast for the second-half of the fiscal year to 4.7%-5.1% from 3.5%-3.7% seen previously.

The pickup in prices of vegetables is likely to continue in the coming months, the RBI said, alluding to the recent soaring costs of onions and tomatoes.

“Although industry continues to struggle, gauges of services activity, consumption and credit growth have all improved a little,” said Darren Aw, an Asia economist at Capital Economics Ltd. “And the effect of past monetary and fiscal stimulus should be felt soon. Our base case for now is that the easing cycle will come to an end in February.” — Bloomberg

PECO hits back at ERC over ‘heavily worded’ notice

PANAY Electric Co., Inc. (PECO) said the “heavily worded” notice of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on the power distribution company’s alleged operational lapses omitted the valid points in its favor.

“Regarding ERC’s claim that PECO’s protective devices were not properly rated and designed, we assure everyone that PECO has multiple protective devices that have proper ratings and designs for each of its feeder lines and down to its secondary lines,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

“Moreover, the fires that happened didn’t involve PECO’s lines as most of them are attributed to the improper bundling of telecom and cable lines which oftentimes short out,” it added.

PECO was responding to a directive issued by the ERC dated Nov. 26 and released to reporters on Wednesday.

The regulator told PECO’s directors and officers to explain violations of provisions of the following: Philippine Distribution Code (PDC) 2017 Edition; Amended Distribution Services and Open Access Rules (DSOAR); Amended Elevated Metering Center (EMC) Rules; and ERC Resolution No. 12, Series of 2009, or the Guidelines for the Accreditation of Satellite Laboratories of Meter Shops.

“We would like to point out that with our current protective devices in place, the lives and properties of our valued consumers were never affected in all the fire incidents related to this matter not unless the fire comes from within the consumers’ structure already,” PECO said.

“Regarding failed voltage tests in certain locations, the areas visited by the ERC ocular inspection team that had low voltage levels were actually in areas that had electrical pilferage present which resulted in the dropping of the voltage level due to the unregistered loads in the areas,” it added.

PECO also gave its side on the issue of leaning poles and those that are in unsafe positions, which were raised by the ERC.

“We would like to stress that PECO has a regular pole replacement and relocation program in place every year in order to cope up with the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) projects being implemented around Iloilo City. We also have maintenance activities in order to straighten certain poles that tend to lean after some time. This is a year-to-year activity since coordinating with telco and cable companies take time,” it said.

The company also clarified that it had filed for 40 elevated metering center (EMC) sites during the last regulatory period, contrary to the ERC’s findings.

It added that contrary to the ERC report, PECO had been constantly coordinating with the ERC Visayas head office on its documentary requirements on the renewal of its meter shop certificate of authority.

“Suffice it to say that, through it all, PECO has been trying its best to abide by the rules and regulations of the ERC despite multiple external factors beyond our control. We communicated to the ERC that should they need further clarification on certain matters, we are very much willing to cooperate as we have been doing so consistently,” the company said.

“We in PECO are surprised by the seeming slant that the ERC is taking and we just hope that the ERC will not allow itself to be manipulated by the propaganda of economic saboteurs and give PECO a fair assessment,” it added. — Victor V. Saulon

Employers call for ‘balanced’ NCR wage for domestic workers

THE EMPLOYERS Confederation of the Philippines (ECoP) said the Metro Manila wage board needs to come up with a “balanced” wage ruling for domestic workers, adding not all household employers can afford higher pay.

In a Dec. 2 statement, ECoP said it participated in a public wage hearing lead by the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board — National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) which is hearing evidence to set new wages for domestic workers. ECoP added that it called for a fair salary hike that will consider the needs of the domestic workers and the ability of household employers to pay.

“ECoP said not all household employers are business owners. A large majority are middle-income and minimum wage earners who, like the domestic workers, are trying to make both ends meet,” ECoP said.

ECoP added that the board has yet to officially release the exact amount that it has set for its new wage order.

Last week, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said that the NCR wage board has decided on a P5,000 minimum wage for domestic workers. This is subject to review by the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC).

Mr. Bello added that he personally prefers a higher wage hike but granting a wage higher than P5,000 is beyond his mandate.

ECoP said: “Any excessive increase will impact the household employers’ ability to hire a domestic worker and maintain a family with two income earners.”

The last NCR wage order was issued on Dec. 16, 2017 and set the domestic minimum monthly wage at P3,500.00. — Gillian M. Cortez

I heard you make movies

The Irishman
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Netflix

IN The Irishman (2019) someone puts a question to Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), the same question that is title of Charles Brandt’s 2004 book (I Heard You Paint Houses) — the same question one might ask of Martin Scorsese with the same innocuousness, and just the hint of something more.

Arguably the question is bullshit — Bill Tonelli in a Slate piece pokes holes in Sheeran’s story and on the surface the very premise of the film sounds implausible: an armed Forrest Gump wandering the margins of mob history, delivering boxloads of Browning M2 machine guns for the Bay of Pigs invasion; walking into Umberto’s Clam House to shoot “Crazy” Joe Gallo; walking into an anonymous house in suburban Detroit with gun in hand, right behind Jimmy Hoffa (in Brandt’s book Sheehan goes further to claim he delivered three rifles to a pilot days before the Kennedy assassination, and half a million dollars to US Attorney General John Mitchell).

Tonelli even makes fun of the book’s title: “In all of mob literature” he asks, “fictional and factual, has anyone ever uttered such expressions about painting and carpentry?” I wouldn’t know, not familiar with mob literature, and what mob cinema I’ve seen — no.

But it’s a hell of a phrase: “I hear you paint houses.” “I hear you make movies” — and I remember a scene in Resident Evil: Retribution where Milla Jovovich hands Michelle Rodriguez a pistol and ties film and violence together with a single throwaway statement: “It’s just like a camera: point and shoot.”

The film’s themes also rope in one of Scorsese’s pantheon figures, John Ford, whose late masterwork The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance turned on the phrase: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Ford had a way of making historical accuracy seem irrelevant or at least dull; someone once pointed out that the climactic chase in Stagecoach would have ended sooner if the Apaches had shot the horses. Have no real response to that, save the thought probably doesn’t occur when one is actually watching the film.

Actually, the character of Sheeran himself doesn’t exactly pop out of the screen: this is one of De Niro’s more introverted performances, where he plays a lump that if allowed would rather blend into the background — someone who treads lightly but carries a loud .38 Special.

Or so Sheeran says — again we need to take his word with a chunk of salt (Tonelli scoffed at the idea that he ever took a life, though I wonder if the writer ever considered Sheeran’s war record). It helps that Scorsese does away with Brandt as a character and has Sheeran face the lens directly as an old man (the camera wandering in from outside past wizened figures tottering on canes and walkers, to come upon our protagonist in a wheelchair, lost in his memories).

That image (an old man and his memories) starts and ends the film; the old man experiences two kinds of flashbacks — one being a trip from Philly to Detroit, the other the various memories prodded along the way, like the swarm of birds provoked in a forest by the passage of a rhino. One kind the narrative spine, the other the narrative meat, the retirement home scenes framing the whole.

Gradually an image forms: of truck driver Sheeran and his chance meeting with Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci, reportedly coaxed out of retirement after being asked 50 times, and terrific), of his later meeting with James Riddle Hoffa (Al Pacino) and their growing brotherly bond.

Sheeran’s troubled relationship with Hoffa recalls Scorsese’s earlier autobiographical Mean Streets with Hoffa as Johnny Boy, playing irrepressible Id to De Niro’s Sheeran playing the dutiful Charlie (who — following Mean Streets schema — also plays the director’s cringing conscious-stricken self). De Niro was the original Johnny Boy and lit up the screen with his unpredictably hilarious-yet-horrifying antics; as this film’s Charlie, he’s if anything better, the heroically staunch spear-bearer of first Russell and later Jimmy Hoffa. Call Sheeran a man of faith, a faith established by an ancient organization with laws and secrecy and wide-reaching influence; call the film a test of Sheeran’s faith versus his family (with his daughter Peggy [Anna Paquin as an adult, the haunting Lucy Gallina as a child]* standing as witness), versus his friend Hoffa.

* As for the whole brouhaha about Paquin’s character’s relative silence — there’s some point to the Bechdel test, but the impact of Peggy depends mainly on the idea that she stands aside watching what’s going on and keeping everything to herself, only speaking up (as an adult at least) when it most mattered. Like her father she sees but is silent; like her father she remembers, feels, judges.**

** As for Peggy’s judgment I’m guessing she keeps arms’ distance from her father and Russell because they’re killers; Hoffa while egotistical and corrupt is not — at least not directly, as far as we know. It’s the stink of blood that makes the difference.

The latter half of the film plays out like The Last Temptation of Frank (or, going back even further, Mean Streets: Detroit) — the power figure rising, hitting his plateau, striving for higher, being betrayed by his Judas. Frank/De Niro as Judas/Charlie/Scorsese registers the journey as near imperceptible tics on the face, fissures on what is supposed to be a professional mask, and a grim line of a mouth that warps gradually into a grimace.

Is Scorsese replaying his greatest hits? I’d say he’s reviewing them, slowed down and distorted, turning them over in his head in the hope, possibly vain, of making sense of what he had wrought, wrote, rote. His usually operatic rhetoric has been dialed down to a whisper, his visual brio reduced to a simmer; he seems subdued, confronting what may be his, Frank’s, Jesus’, Charlie’s final adversary. If, as detractors say, this is yet another of Scorsese’s gangster flicks it has the look and feel of a final Scorsese gangster flick — his last word on the subject.

Saying “dialed down” doesn’t mean “totally absent.” The opening tracking shot and barber shop hit show Scorsese still has the spark, just isn’t putting it front and center; the Joe Gallo hit is a marvel of blinking bright reds and whitewashed walls drenched in sickly green neons. He’s also taken to perching the camera from on high to look down on a street corner or intersection of hallways, suggesting that the protagonist or character is approaching a dramatic turning point.

Sound may be the film’s most innovative feature: Sheeran’s offscreen narration opens the picture and suddenly his voice speaks up, continuing his train of thought; the scoring is relatively subdued, with long stretches of quotidian life punctuated mostly by the clink of silverware or traffic noise or occasional bird call; Sheeran on the phone mutters painfully hypocritical words of reassurance to a distressed Jo Hoffa (Welker White, her voice muffled so that emotion and not specific words are more audible).

Not a perfect picture: the digital de-aging looks grotesque, actually looked even more grotesque on the big screen with De Niro’s and Pesci’s faces looking boiled lobster red, their hunched bodies walking slowly, carefully as if they were in their frail seventies (which they are) — watching the film on Netflix streaming I see that they have apparently corrected the offputting red, though the old-man movements remain. I remember how in Once Upon a Time in America Scott Tiler’s performance as the young Noodles dovetailed so lyrically into De Niro’s adult figure and wonder why Scorsese couldn’t cast accordingly. Also wonder if Scorsese couldn’t have inserted a little more skepticism about the veracity of Sheeran’s claims, or at least suggest more that the man’s memory is unreliable — possibly De Niro (who produced) and Scorsese did buy Sheeran’s story hook line and sinker, only pivoting in interviews (emotional truth takes precedence over historical) in response to Tonelli’s article.

Oh and the titles that give us the various mobsters’ varied fates (“shot in the head, 1980”; “killed, 1979”): what was it about the period of 1979 to 1980 that nearly everyone was bumped off? One of the film’s biggest laughs happens when we learn that “Tony Jack” was well-liked by all and died of natural causes in 2001.

The final 50-plus minutes (skip this and the next paragraph if you haven’t seen the film!) recalls Father Rodrigues’ odyssey as a changed man moving through a changed more accommodating Japan, in Silence — what to do with yourself when you’ve won the one thing you desire above all (the cessation of others’ suffering) at the price of the one thing you value above all (your faith). Rodrigues’ struggle is frightening in its way — he can’t utter even a whisper of dissent — but Sheeran, in total freedom and with only passing interest from law enforcers (a pair of federal agents, asking him to come clean), learns an additional lesson: with the passage of enough time no one cares. People die, people forget, things change irrevocably. Rodrigues faced the absolute terror of totalitarian repression for the rest of his long life: Sheeran faces the absolute invincibility of indifference.

As for Tonelli’s points, I find them believable, including one that even Tonelli concedes: Sheeran must have been in the car that drove Hoffa to his death otherwise Hoffa would have never climbed in. Sheeran was involved, however tangentially, and likely knew what’s going on. All this — Sheeran shooting Hoffa, shooting Gallo, all the other killings, even delivering guns for the Bay of Pigs — is his way of blowing up his reputation and improving his stature that his fall might be all the greater, confessing crimes to give substance and scope to his real central sin: betraying the friend who trusted him. As with Willem Dafoe’s Jesus, much of the whole three hours might just be taking place inside Sheeran’s guilt-wracked head — the ultimate jail cell and torture chamber.

John Ford once appeared before the Director’s Guild to say “My name’s John Ford. I make Westerns.” The matter-of-fact statement nicely sums up what the man was about, the way this film pretty much sums up what Scorsese’s about (and, as I say that titles come to mind contradicting the assertion: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore; Kundun; Hugo). He did do this film, that much is clear, and I think it’s terrific, the best American production of the year — which I think is true even if you didn’t like the picture.

Life insurers in Japan are taking more dollar risks

AS THE DECADE that welcomed unprecedented quantitative easing (QE) comes to a close one thing is clear: Japan life insurers are taking more and more risk with their investments.

A combination of ever lower bond yields and elevated costs have seen Japanese life insurers cut their hedges on dollar investments to the lowest in at least 10 years, according to calculations by Bloomberg. Despite holding $354 billion in dollar-denominated assets, nine of the biggest insurers had hedged just $164 billion of them against a decline in the greenback, the data as of the end of September showed.

The steady reduction of protective bets against adverse dollar moves comes as elevated hedging costs turned Treasuries into negative-yielding debt for Japanese investors. The slump in foreign-exchange volatility has enhanced the allure of unhedged dollar positions, yet leaves insurers increasingly at risk of a sudden surge in the yen.

The reduction in hedging suggests “life insurers expect any strength in the yen to be limited,” said Shinichiro Kadota, a senior foreign-exchange and yen-rates strategist at Barclays Plc in Tokyo. “Given caution has receded toward a stronger yen, a sharp gain could see an undue impact” on hedging activity, he said.

Four life insurance companies, including the biggest players Nippon Life Insurance Co. and Japan Post Insurance Co., said in October that they plan to increase holdings of unhedged foreign debt in the second half of the fiscal year ending in March.

The yen is on track for its fourth straight year of modest gains against the greenback and has been trading in the smallest range on record this year. A combination of factors such as the unhedged outflows and the steady growth in Japanese acquisitions abroad have all helped keep a lid on yen strength.

Strategists are expecting a mild appreciation of just 3% to the 105 level by the end of 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, buying protection against a stronger yen for six months costs Japanese investors 2.14% on an annualized basis, according to Bloomberg data. That compares with the 1.76% yield available from benchmark 10-year Treasuries, and the 2.21% an investor would get from its 30-year equivalent.

“There is little demand for Treasuries from Japanese investors because hedging eats up their yields,” said Hiroshi Yokotani, managing director and portfolio strategist for fixed income and currencies at State Street Global Advisors.

Almost seven years of unprecedented Bank of Japan stimulus has driven much of the domestic yield curve into negative territory, sending the country’s investors abroad in search of returns and adopting riskier strategies such as unhedged positions. The top life insurers are now turning to equities and corporate bonds to safeguard returns, according to recent strategy presentations.

The nine insurers studied are hedging 46.3% of their dollar-denominated assets as of September, down from 73.2% a decade ago, according to a Bloomberg analysis. As an industry, they own 100 trillion yen ($919 billion) in foreign securities

With hedging euro positions actually returning a premium for yen investors, European securities have proven popular in the Asian nation. After adjusting for exchange-rate fluctuations, life insurers’ holdings of euro assets increased 14% during the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with a gain of 8.6% in dollar-denominated securities.

“Hedge costs are still too high,” said Minori Uchida, Tokyo-based head of global market research at MUFG Bank Ltd. “Because the yen’s volatility remains low, investors are taking a wait-and-see stance for hedging.”

The yen has appreciated against all its major peers so far this fiscal year, underscoring the risk of unprotected overseas investment. Life insurers held a higher hedge ratio for the Australian dollar at 62.7%, compared with 43.7% for the Canadian dollar. — Bloomberg

Roxas Holdings swings to loss

ROXAS Holdings, Inc. (RHI) swung to a net loss in its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, due to lower sugar production and higher costs.

In a statement, RHI said its attributable net loss stood at P1.884 billion for 2019, from a net income of P47.66 million a year ago, due to “higher feedstock costs, lower sugar production volume, and increases in interest costs.”

Revenues grew 33% to P6.554 billion, with sale of goods growing 20% to P5.833 billion, and sale of services surged to P721.161 million from P48.498 million. This was driven by higher prices and sales of alcohol, as well as increase in revenue from milling activities, which reached P1.5 billion.

However, cost of sales and services ballooned 57% to P6.431 billion.

“We faced a very tough market during the past year. Philippine sugar output for Crop Year 2018-2019 was down 17.12% year-on–year at 2.072 million metric tons due to unfavorable weather conditions,” RHI Chairman Pedro E. Roxas said in a statement.

“Talks on the liberalization of the sugar industry were also rampant during the period, causing a softening of sugar prices… Our results reflect the impact of these challenges,” he added.

The Department of Finance (DoF) proposed the liberalization of sugar imports in September in a bid to help food processors to be more competitive in the global market. However, senators opposed such a move, saying this will lead to the loss of livelihood of sugar farmers and workers.

Higher interest rates weighed on the company’s efforts to reduce its debts, which declined 8% to P9.8 billion. The company also utilized net earnings from sale of some assets in November to reduce long-term debt to P900 million.

“We will continue to look for opportunities to significantly reduce our debt levels,” RHI Executive Vice President and Chief Finance Officer Celso T. Dimarucut said.

Meanwhile, RHI’s ethanol business improved in 2019 due to system and equipment upgrades.

“Our ethanol units registered the highest production volumes in the past three years, better than the target for 2019,” RHI President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hubert D. Tubio said.

Roxol Bionenergy Corp. (RBC) reported the highest methane fuel displacement at 60.67% in May 2019 as anaerobic digesters improved in production of biogas.

Mr. Tubio expressed hope the next fiscal year will be better for the company as senators unanimously voted against the liberalization of sugar importation, “which should help stabilize the market.”

“RHI is a resilient company that continues to seek ways to refine its competitive advantage despite the many ongoing industry challenges. We are actively engaging our stakeholders as we work closely with government in crafting solutions to issues hounding the industry,” he added.

Aside from RBC, RHI, which is described as the largest integrated sugar business in the country, manages sugar miller Central Azucarera de la Carlota, Inc.; ethanol producer San Carlos Bioenergy; and RHI Agri-business Development Corp.

Shares in RHI fell 1.52% or 0.03 centavos to close at P1.95 apiece in the stock exchange on Thursday. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

HK bankers say city’s divide infecting office life

HONG KONG — An economist says he was pushed out of his job at a Chinese bank in part due to his views on the impact of Hong Kong’s protests. A brokerage employee in the city is looking for a new job because she disagrees with her bosses’ politics. An investment banker says he avoids talking to most colleagues about the unrest, fearing it may damage his career.

At financial firms across Hong Kong, personal political views that used to have little bearing on work are taking on new significance as the city’s pro-democracy protests harden opinions on both sides of the debate.

For some in the industry, it’s making an already difficult business environment even tougher to navigate and fueling concerns about Hong Kong’s future as one of the world’s premier financial hubs.

The change is being felt most acutely at state-owned Chinese financial companies, where several backers of the protests say they fear retribution from superiors if they’re found to attend rallies or otherwise support the pro-democracy movement. Law Ka Chung, the former chief economist at Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), has gone public with his concerns, saying on Tuesday that he suspects he was ousted in part because his research contradicted the Chinese government’s narrative on Hong Kong.

While global banks operating in the city are more insulated from local politics, they aren’t immune. At BNP Paribas SA, a legal executive left the company in September to focus on activism after social media posts on his personal account led to a public apology from the bank.

In Citigroup Inc.’s Hong Kong office, some pro-Beijing staff are now socializing less frequently with their pro-democracy counterparts, with the rift becoming more apparent in the wake of a widely circulated video of one of the firm’s investment bankers getting arrested after a scuffle with police, according to employees familiar with the matter. The employees, who asked not to be named discussing a sensitive subject, emphasized that in most cases the differences of opinion have yet to get in the way of work.

When a JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker from mainland China was filmed getting punched during his lunch break after shouting “we are all Chinese” at a crowd of yelling protesters, several employees complained verbally to their managers about his behavior, a person with knowledge of the matter said. It isn’t clear from the video what initially sparked the confrontation, and there’s no indication it was connected to his employer. Conversations between some JPMorgan staff from mainland China and their peers from Hong Kong have become less frequent since the protests began, two people said.

For senior managers in Hong Kong’s financial industry — which accounts for about 20% of the city’s gross domestic product — the potential for rising workplace tensions adds to challenges that already include a sinking local economy and a pullback in deal-making. Banks have to find ways to accommodate employees with differing views without getting caught up in controversies that damage their brands, said Benjamin Quinlan, chief executive officer of financial services consultancy Quinlan & Associates in Hong Kong.

“Firms need to be much more clever about the way things are handled, carefully balancing free and open thinking while ensuring ongoing employee professionalism,” said Quinlan, a former executive at Deutsche Bank AG.

In response to questions from Bloomberg News, a Citigroup spokesman said the US bank “values diversity and inclusion, which speaks to not just gender or ethnic diversity but also diversity of thought. We respect people with different views and perspectives and our staff and clients respect that diversity too.”

A JPMorgan spokeswoman said the firm’s employees “come from all walks of life and so many different backgrounds and continue to support each other.” BNP declined to comment when the executive left in September, while BoCom didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Law, who spent more than 14 years at the Chinese bank, wrote in an August article that Hong Kong’s protests would deepen the city’s slowdown but that their impact was limited, a view that contradicted the dire outlook in China’s state-run media. Law said he was asked to leave the bank shortly after he shared with colleagues a link to an outside article critical of China’s firewalls and closed system.

He left behind a team of mainly local Hong Kongers. “I wish them good luck,” he said in an interview.

Employees at other Chinese financial firms said they’ve felt similar pressure to toe Beijing’s line.

Man, 25, who works in the back office at a Chinese brokerage in Hong Kong, said department heads of her firm have told employees that they’ll be fired if they participate in pro-democracy protests.

The company sends staff to pro-police rallies, which Man has attended even though she also takes part in pro-democracy protests without telling her employer. While she wants to leave the firm, she’s finding it difficult because most of the job openings she sees in Hong Kong are with mainland Chinese companies. Like others who agreed to speak for this article, she asked to use only one name because of the subject’s sensitivity.

Jason, who works at a Chinese investment bank in Hong Kong, said most of the senior executives at his firm openly condemn the protests and are strongly supportive of Beijing. He said lower-level managers who have lived in Hong Kong for years tend to have a milder stance — supporting the right to demonstrate while condemning violence — whereas middle and back-office workers are typically Hong Kong locals who back the protesters.

Jason said his views place him somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Wary of offending someone on either side, he takes care to speak about the protests only with his closest co-workers when they’re outside the office on cigarette breaks.

Another banker, surnamed Chan, said he’s part of a small minority of pro-democracy employees at a Chinese securities firm. Fearful of “whistle blowers” who might out him to pro-Beijing managers, he keeps quiet when colleagues discuss the protests at lunch. He says some of his peers have been reported to high-level bosses in China for social media posts that contradict Communist Party messaging.

Chan keeps his own posts on Facebook and WeChat free of politics, though he sometimes shares song lyrics that convey subtle messages of support for the pro-democracy movement. — Bloomberg

S. Korean actor found dead in latest K-pop tragedy

SEOUL — South Korean actor Cha In-ha was found dead in his home, police said on Wednesday, the country’s third young celebrity to die over the past two months as concern mounted over the intense social pressures that artists face.

In an unrelated case, K-pop star Kang Daniel’s management agency Konnect Entertainment said the former member of the hit boy band Wanna One was taking a break from his performing schedules due to “depression and panic attacks.”

The agency said the 22-year-old had recently been showing “frequent signs of worsening health and anxiety.”

While South Korea’s pop culture mostly projects a wholesome image on stage and screen, it has been marred by a series of untimely deaths and criminal cases that have revealed a darker side of the industry.

A police official said Cha, 27, was found dead on Tuesday and the cause of death was not immediately known.

Cha, whose real name is Lee Jae-ho, made his film debut in 2017 and was previously a member of the five-member boy band Surprise U, which released two albums.

The singer-actor had left an Instagram post the day before he was found dead, with a single-line message to his fans: “Everyone be careful not to catch the cold.”

There were no reports to suggest he had been subjected to the kind of personal attacks and cyber bullying that other K-pop artists have received.

His talent agency Fantagio in a statement expressed “the deepest mourning for his passing” and asked the public and the media to refrain from spreading stories about his death. — Reuters

Nestlé to implement gender-neutral parental leave policy

NESTLÉ S.A. on Thursday announced a new global gender-neutral parental support policy, extending parental leave to a minimum of 18 paid weeks from 14 weeks.

Secondary caregivers are given four weeks, after having no previous global minimum.

“Every family is unique, so we have designed a parental support policy that is flexible enough to work for us all. Supporting the healthy development of infants has been a core value of our company since our founding,” Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider said in the statement.

“Our new parental support policy is an important part of our efforts to provide children with the best start in life, by allowing parents to spend more time with their new child.”

Nestlé said that the new policy does not set limits, allowing some places to offer additional weeks of paid leave. The company said that it will provide longer parental leave where local laws require it.

Philippine law requires private and government offices to give mothers 105 days of fully paid maternal leave.

The Expanded Maternity Leave Law also allows the mother to transfer up to seven days of her paid leave to the father, increasing paternity leave to up to 14 days.

Nestlé’s new parental support policy also reinforces employment protection, non-discrimination, health protection, and the availability of flexible working options and breastfeeding support.

Policy implementation begins in 2020. Nestlé expects its global rollout to be completed by the end of 2022. — Jenina P. Ibañez

Australian banks need extra $8.5B to meet tougher rules

WELLINGTON/HONG KONG — Australia’s major banks shrugged off concerns about further weakness in dividend payout ratios and earnings downgrades after New Zealand announced tougher capital requirements on Thursday.

The four Australian banks that dominate the New Zealand market said they will need a combined extra NZ$13 billion ($8.5 billion) to meet the new requirements, significantly less than the NZ$20 billion that had been forecast. They were also granted two years longer than anticipated to reach the higher ratios.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) said raising the total capital ratio minimum to 18% for the big four, and to 16% for smaller banks was necessary to better enable the country to weather economic turbulence. The current minimum requirement is 10.5%.

For high-quality Tier 1 deposits, the minimum ratio for the top four banks almost doubles to 16%, while smaller banks will be required to hold 14%.

The level of bank capital adopted by New Zealand is more stringent than other countries, but not extreme, and was necessary to protect the country against a one in 200 year big bank failure, the RBNZ said.

In Australia the Tier 1 minimum capital requirement for the big four banks — Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac Banking Corp. — is 10.5%.

ANZ Chief Executive Shayne Elliott said “while the increased capital requirements remain significant … we are confident we can meet the higher requirements without the need to raise additional capital.”

NAB said in a statement that the “ultimate impact” would be dependent on various factors, including “potential mitigating actions undertaken.”

CBA said it will consider ways “to minimize the financial impact from the requirements while supporting our customers and growth in the NZ economy.”

The RBNZ provided some further relief by announcing that changes will be phased in over a seven-year period from July 2020, rather than the five years originally proposed. Banks will also be allowed to raise capital by issuing cheaper redeemable preference shares, rather than be restricted to common equity.

However, Moody’s Investor Services vice-president Daniel Yu said the changes would weigh on the banks’ return on equity ratios.

“As such, we expect the new measures will prompt higher lending rates in efforts to boost profitability, as well as constrain growth in more capital-intensive lending,” he said.

DIVIDEND IMPLICATIONS
Jefferies analyst Brian Johnson said the new regime was marginally better than anticipated but will “crimp the banks ability to stream capital from New Zealand back to Australia, especially for ANZ.”

“The big implication from these changes will be on the sector’s dividend payout ratios.”

The big four Australian banks earn a sizeable share of their profits from across the Tasman Sea. ANZ, the biggest of the quartet, garnered 22% of its group profit from New Zealand in 2019, according to its annual report.

Australian lenders are already under pressure back home amid the fallout of a government-backed inquiry last year that found widespread misconduct in the financial sector.

Westpac, NAB and ANZ all cut their final dividends or reduced their franking credits this financial year to prepare for the RBNZ’s changes and a move by Australian regulators to reduce the amount of Tier 1 capital banks can hold against their international operations. CBA will announce its interim dividend in February.

UBS analyst Jonathan Mott said “we expect the earnings downgrade cycle to continue unless the global economy rebounds sharply and yield curves steepen.”

The New Zealand dollar rose 0.3%, as the long lead time was seen as less of a drag on the economy than had been expected, which in turn reduced expectations of deeper monetary easing to offset any negative effects.

The RBNZ said in its statement that the changes could lead to around a 20-basis-point increase in average lending rates, once fully implemented. — Reuters