Philippines picks up in 2024 Bribery Risk Rankings
THE PHILIPPINES improved its ranking in a global index assessing business bribery in over 190 economies. Read the full story.
Postmortem on our energy pricing problems
While our National Government leaders play at disgusting adolescent political posturing more than four years before the next presidential election, the country continues to suffer from high inflation that has caused our poverty situation to worsen with each passing year.
In the early 1960s, before Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. became president, we ranked 2nd only to Singapore among Southeast Asian nations based on per capita GNP. Today, we rank 7th among nine countries, surpassing only Myanmar and Cambodia or Laos. What are the causes of our decline in productivity? Inflation, which cannot catch up with our population growth, low input of foreign investments, and of course, waste of the peoples’ money due to graft, corruption, and political wastefulness.
Perhaps we need to remind them that the people are suffering from food poverty day after day, largely due to high prices of basic needs. Climate change has also made us one of its worst victims.
We know, and they should know, what the basic cause of our high inflation is. It is the price of energy caused by our lack of access to oil and other low-priced electricity inputs.
Postmortems are undertaken to learn the causes of problems and how they can be solved and avoided over the long term.
Let us try to look at the problem as forensic pathologists.
First, President Marcos Sr. purchased the Bataan nuclear plant on a loan from the US government’s Import-Export Bank. There has been a lot of debate on whether the sale of the nuclear plant by Westinghouse through the Romualdez’ cousin Herminio Disini was overpriced. US-based courts found no evidence that the rumor was true that the price (a total of $1.9 billion) was double what it should have been. But the Disini group received $50 million in commissions from Westinghouse.
When the nuclear plant in Morong, Bataan was ready to receive uranium-based fuel in mid-1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Russia blew up. This happened soon after Cory Aquino became president. Joker Arroyo, who was practically running the fledgling government at the time, ordered the shutting down of the Bataan nuclear plant and went even further. He abolished the Department of Energy which he said was plagued by corruption. Meanwhile, demand for electricity was rising dramatically due to an increase in investments, both local and foreign.
Since the Department of Energy was abolished, current and future demand for electric power was not being monitored. Since no alternative source of energy was provided for in lieu of what was to have been provided by the nuclear plant, brown-outs began to plague Luzon, especially the areas serviced by Meralco. The crisis was so severe that President Cory became very unpopular in Metro Manila.
When the military man Fidel V. Ramos became president in 1992, among his first directives was to restore power at any cost, ASAP. The plants able to produce power the fastest were diesel-fired. But they also produced the most expensive electricity among the various options. Moreover, investors in these power plants demanded incentives from the government to ensure adequate profitability given the risks they were taking, with the economy seeming to be in decline due to high prices of imported oil, since the country does not produce its own oil. The government had no choice. It signed commitments to make up for deficiencies in minimum profits to the investor power suppliers.
The government was able to complete the payment for the nuclear plant no earlier than the year 2007 or 30 years from purchase. I read somewhere that the Harvard and Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs wanted to help the Philippines negotiate reductions in its nuclear plant debt burden. Sachs thought that the Philippines had so much goodwill that it could obtain better terms from the US government. For some reason we cannot appreciate at this time, our government preferred to be “an honorable debtor.” Meanwhile, the government continues to maintain the non-operating nuclear plant at a cost of almost $800 million a year!
Surveys of potential foreign investors find that the main reason why they do not invest in our country is the high cost of energy. This is why even those who were located here, such as Intel, have moved to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations close to the big market, China. There is very little manufacturing, which provides jobs, in our country today.
Meanwhile, the average cost of living for the Filipino family is probably the highest in our part of the world, mainly because of the price of food and other essential commodities. This adds to our unattractiveness to foreign investors: the high cost of labor.
So, clearly, rather than engage in adolescent power games and back and forth drama, our politicians must put together, as a matter of urgency and importance, a multilateral (private and public sector) team of thinkers to strategize creative and effective solutions to our energy pricing problem. It may call for radical ideas and compromises in policy, but we cannot continue pretending there is no problem. We could end up in dire circumstances in 10 years or less.
In a recent TV interview, Secretary Frederick Go, the government’s economic czar, revealed his focus on bringing in manufacturing investments, with a “Make more” law that provides incentives, including tax breaks. He said that steps to make it easier to go into business by reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks was one of the priorities. The interview lasted almost an hour; yet I did not hear any mention of the high price of energy as a key concern.
Our electricity is fueled by mainly coal (58%), natural gas (18.7%), geothermal (10%) and hydro (9%). All others (solar, biofuels, waste, etc.) contribute less than 5%.
The government has been doing a lot of studies on nuclear power, which for many reasons is unpopular with the general public. Mr. Go may want to bring together a multilateral group of experts who can investigate other fuel and policy options. For example, we produce so much waste. Can we do some radical moves that can increase the contribution of our garbage to energy? There could be energy producing technologies that have been discovered that we can adopt.
The Malampaya gas field, which contributes almost 20% of our energy fuels, is being depleted. The government expects our demand for energy to triple by 2040. It is crucial, important and urgent to act on the problem today!
Teresa S. Abesamis is a former professor at the Asian Institute of Management and fellow of the Development Academy of the Philippines.
PHL, Israel eye tourism partnership
THE PHILIPPINES and Israel are eyeing collaboration to drive tourism growth and strengthen economic ties, their tourism representatives said on Tuesday.
The Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DoT) and the Israel Ministry of Tourism signed a joint declaration of intent to cooperate on Tuesday.
“In time to come, a memorandum of cooperation on tourism will be signed and what was executed today is a joint declaration of the intention of both countries to cooperate on tourism,” Tourism Secretary Ma. Esperanza Christina G. Frasco told reporters.
The agreement is expected to result in economic growth by bringing more opportunities for expansion in terms of providing livelihood in the tourism industry, Ms. Frasco said.
While the Philippines and Israel have yet to sign a memorandum of understanding on tourism cooperation, Ms. Frasco said this will likely happen soon.
Year to date, the Philippines has logged nearly 14,000 tourists from Israel, making it a priority source market for the country, Ms. Frasco said.
“We view Israel as an opportunity market especially that the Philippines offers tourism products that are very attractive and popular with the Israeli market,” she added.
For Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz, the possibility of launching a direct flight between the Philippines and Israel would be important and could result in at least 100,000 tourists from Israel coming to the Philippines.
“This is a matter that has been on the table for some time, in the case of our national flag carrier, Philippine Airlines. So, I express that we will relay the continued interest of Israel for direct flights,” Ms. Frasco said.
Philippine Airlines does not currently offer direct flights to Tel Aviv. The flag carrier mounts flights to Dubai and has an interline agreement with flydubai, operated by Dubai Aviation Corp., which offers flights to Israel.
At the same time, Foreign Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary Marlowe A. Miranda said the Department of Foreign Affairs is taking a cautious lens on the overall situation in Israel, but the agency supports DoT’s move to explore tourism opportunities with Israel.
“I cannot really say when the request for increasing and re-establishing flights between the Philippines and Israel would happen because there are also considerations for other airlines to launch it, but [the Philippines] is definitely willing to hold the talks,” Mr. Miranda said.
The Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv has advised Filipinos to suspend nonessential travel to Israel due to the ongoing conflict with Iran and the war in Gaza.
Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate after Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in response to missile attacks by militant group Hamas in October last year. — Ashley Erika O. Jose
Federal Reserve chief Powell may have made US monetary policy boring again
WASHINGTON — For much of the past 17 years the US Federal Reserve has been the central player in US economic policy, throwing multitrillion-dollar safety nets under the financial system, offering nearly a decade of ultra-cheap money, jumping red lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and delving more into areas like equity and climate change.
But that expansive role has now shrunk to one of terse policy statements, a meat-and-potatoes debate over interest rates, a declining stash of bonds, and a growing possibility that Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell may be remembered both as the man who got the US through the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic and the one who made central banking boring again.
Former St. Louis Fed President James Bullard was on the policy-making team that saw the central bank’s role expand during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, watched as it mushroomed again during the pandemic and sees it now morphing back into something more normal.
In recent years “we had to go back to kind of heavy-duty inflation fighting that is reminiscent of the old days when you did not worry about the zero lower bound, you did not worry about balance sheet policy,” Mr. Bullard said. “It is kind of plain vanilla in that respect. Times have changed.”
Mr. Bullard, who is now the dean of the Mitch Daniels School of Business at Purdue University, will give the opening address on Monday at a conference in Washington about the Fed’s monetary policy framework and its strategy for achieving its mandate to foster price stability and maximum employment.
For all the potential controversy around the Fed posed by Donald J. Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 election – hints, for example, that the US president-elect might rekindle his first-term feud with Mr. Powell by trying to fire or undercut him — there’s an alternate possibility that the framework discussion highlights: That with inflation coming under control, the economy growing, and interest rates in their longer-run historic range, the central bank may be moving somewhat offstage, with its steady focus on inflation now the important thing for the incoming administration to sustain.
SUPER-LOW RATES NO LONGER NEEDED
Mr. Trump’s initial picks for his economic team have been more conventional than not. The conference in Washington, which is organized by the American Institute for Economic Research, includes a keynote address by Fed Governor Christopher Waller, an appointee from Trump’s first term in the White House who, like Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, would offer an in-house option for new leadership when Mr. Powell’s term as central bank chief expires in May 2026.
With Mr. Powell, Mr. Waller has been a leading force in navigating the fight against inflation and steering the Fed system away from issues like climate change that are outside the direct sway of monetary policy and which had raised tensions with some Republicans in Congress.
Mr. Waller is likely to have a strong voice, too, in reforming the Fed’s current policy framework, which at its adoption in 2020 took the central bank into new territory that many now see as out of step with the current economic environment.
The outbreak of the pandemic that year led to widespread unemployment and made the healing of the labor market a top priority for central bankers determined not to see a replay of the slow-paced employment recovery after the 2007-2009 crisis that many feel caused a lost decade, scarring a generation of workers. Chronically weak inflation and historically low interest rates also sparked concerns about stagnation.
The 2020 framework tried to address all of those issues with a new commitment to “broad-based and inclusive” employment amid expectations that interest rates would remain low and end up near the zero level “more frequently than in the past.”
The “zero lower bound” is the bane of a central banker’s existence: Once interest rates go to zero, only bad and politically difficult options remain to further support the economy. Interest rates can be pushed into negative territory, in effect taxing people for saving, or other unconventional steps can be taken, such as large-scale bond purchases to suppress long-term rates and promises to keep rates low for a long time.
The solution for the 2020 Fed was to promise periods of higher inflation to offset periods of weak price growth, which its policy makers hoped would keep inflation at the central bank’s 2% target on average.
What followed, for a variety of reasons, was the worst inflation in 40 years, which spurred the Fed to aggressively raise interest rates in 2022 and 2023. Whatever else that meant for the US economic and political landscape, it may have also juiced the entire economy out of its torpor and put fiscal and other policies back in the driver’s seat.
“The economy and stock market simply don’t require super-low rates anymore,” said David Russell, global head of market strategy for TradeStation. “Trade and tax policy will probably matter more than monetary policy going forward.”
PREEMPTIVE ACTIONS ‘NECESSARY’
Fed officials now see inflation pressures remaining more elevated than before the pandemic, with rates lodged far enough above zero that they can achieve their goals by raising and lowering them, just as central bankers did before the “Great Recession” unleashed use of unconventional methods 17 years ago.
Those tools remain at hand, and a big enough shock may see their return.
Some economists argue, for example, that the incoming Trump administration’s policies, by simultaneously raising the price of imports with tariffs, stoking spending through lower taxes, and restricting the pool of available workers by limiting immigration, could rock an economy the Fed feels is currently both healthy and in balance.
But there is emerging agreement that the central bank’s current framework was tailored too much to the circumstances and risks of the decade after the 2007-2009 crisis and the pandemic era, and needs to return to a more cautious stance on inflation.
Fed staff research has suggested that stance provides better job market outcomes anyway, and a return to the old-school philosophy of suppressing inflation before it takes hold has regained favor.
“Preemptive monetary policy actions are not only appropriate, but necessary,” economists Christina Romer and David Romer wrote in research for a Brookings Institution conference in September. The Fed “should not deliberately seek a hot labor market,” they wrote, since the blunt tools of monetary policy “cannot… reduce poverty or counter rising inequality.”
Mr. Powell seems to have anticipated changes ahead, and not unwelcome ones given they indicate the US has escaped the need for extraordinary Fed support, something he was not fully comfortable with in his first years as a central bank governor.
After pushing Fed power to its limit during the pandemic, he may leave his successor a much more focused institution.
“Twenty years of low inflation ended a year and four months after we did the framework,” Mr. Powell said last month in Dallas where he spoke of a return to a more “traditional” style of central banking. “Shouldn’t we change the framework to reflect interest rates are higher now, so that some of the changes we made … shouldn’t be the base case anymore?” — Reuters
Excitement, relief in Paris as Notre-Dame Cathedral prepares to reopen
PARIS — Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral will reopen its doors this week to tourists and the Catholic faithful, five-and-a-half years after fire gutted the Gothic masterpiece, one of the French capital’s most beloved and visited monuments.
President Emmanuel Macron was one of the first to catch a glimpse of the newly renovated cathedral on Friday morning. He appeared impressed by the spectacular light pouring into the nave after the cathedral’s windows were renewed and its white stones cleaned.
“This is overwhelming,” the president said as he took an extensive tour along with his wife Brigitte and some officials, shaking hands with many of the master craftsmen who had taken part in the renovation.
Major reconstruction works have restored the 12th-century cathedral, its spire, rib vaulting, flying buttresses, stained-glass windows and carved stone gargoyles to their past glory, with the white stone and gold decorations shining brighter than ever.
It is a far cry from the evening of April 15, 2019, when TV viewers in France and worldwide watched with horror as the cathedral’s roof and spire burst into flames and collapsed in a raging fire that also threatened the main bell towers, which narrowly avoided destruction.
Firefighters worked through the night to save the cathedral, and for more than five years, thousands of expert craftspeople used age-old methods to restore, repair, or replace everything that was destroyed or damaged.
“It was an exceptional renovation project,” stone-carver Samir Abbas, 38, said, relieved at having finished on schedule, while waiting along with some 1,300 other workers in front of the cathedral for Mr. Macron’s arrival.
An opening ceremony — to which celebrities and heads of state have been invited — is planned for the evening of Dec. 7, followed by days of special Masses to celebrate the reopening and to thank those who helped save and rebuild the cathedral.
So much money poured in for the renovation from all over the world — more than €840 million ($882 million), according to Mr. Macron’s office — that there are still funds left over for further investment in the building.
The Catholic Church now expects the cathedral to welcome some 15 million visitors annually.
“We are very eager to welcome the whole world under the roof of our cathedral,” Paris’ Archbishop Laurent Ulrich said in a message on the cathedral website, expressing the Church’s gratitude to all those who helped save it.
“On the night of April 15, hundreds of thousands of people committed themselves to what then seemed an impossible bet: to restore the cathedral and give it back its splendor within the unprecedented deadline of five years.” — Reuters
Bestfriend Goodies partners with gov’t agencies to fight malnutrition
BESTFRIEND GOODIES, a food enterprise in Cagayan de Oro City, hopes to help combat malnutrition and stunting by producing science-based nutritional products like enhanced nutribun and ready-to-eat (RTE) items.
The company initially began as a pasalubong (souvenir) food producer, but the pandemic’s impact on local tourism prompted it to adopt new technologies to create food products for government-led feeding programs, said Bronson Mabulay, consultant for Bestfriend Goodies, in an interview with BusinessWorld.
He said the Department of Education (DepEd) requires a very specific type of food to counter malnutrition and stunting. Bestfriend Goodies’ food products, he noted, comply with the “green category,” which is a must-have food in the canteen as specified by DepEd.
Bestfriend Goodies’ nutribun is produced under a license from the Department of Science and Technology (DoST)-Food and Nutrition Research Institute, he added. Each 160-165 gram serving contains 504 calories, 17.8 grams of protein, 6.08 milligrams of iron, and 244 micrograms of vitamin A.
The RTE products, including Filipino favorites like Arroz Caldo, are packaged in convenient pouches under a licensing agreement with the DoST-Industrial Technology Development Institute, Mr. Mabulay noted.
The company also has a licensing agreement with the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines for four other RTE products: mixed fruit with coconut milk (bilo-bilo), sweet chocolate rice porridge (champorado), chicken soup with coconut milk, and mung bean-based food with coconut milk.
Mr. Mabulay said the RTE products have a two-year shelf life due to the water retort technology from the DoST, the same used for canned goods like sardines.
This year, Bestfriend Goodies launched nutritional cookies made from local ingredients like squash, moringa, cassava, and coconut.
Mr. Mabulay said children consuming Bestfriend Goodies’ nutritional products through feeding programs are showing positive results.
“They said, ‘Yes Sir, it’s effective,’ because the following year, the number of children they had to feed decreased as the children gained weight and were no longer on the list,” he said in Filipino.
Mr. Mabulay said Bestfriend Goodies currently produces 17,500 RTE meals and 10,000 cookies daily.
The company aims to improve its online retail presence, as 99% of its sales come from government contracts, he added. — Edg Adrian A. Eva
Supreme Court’s recent ruling emphasizes crucial role of procedural rules in labor disputes
In a decision published on Nov. 19, the Supreme Court departed from prevailing jurisprudence on the filing of complaints by aggrieved workers against their employers before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), particularly regarding the inclusion of additional claims.
In Lingganay v. Del Monte Land Transport Bus Co., Inc. (G.R. No. 254976, Aug. 20, 2024), the Supreme Court clarified that under the 2011 NLRC Rules, a complaint may only be amended to add new causes of action during the mandatory conciliation and mediation conference or, at the latest, before the submission of position papers. No amendments to the complaint shall be allowed after the filing of position papers, except with the express permission of the Labor Arbiter.
In 2017, Marcelino Dela Cruz Lingganay, a bus driver for Del Monte Land Transport Bus Co. (DLTB Co.), filed a complaint for illegal dismissal against his employer and Narciso Morales. Lingganay’s employment was terminated for several reasons, including multiple vehicular accidents: one in 2013 along the Maharlika Highway in Quezon, another in 2016 involving a motorcycle, and a third in 2017 when the company bus he was driving rear-ended a Toyota Wigo along the San Juanico Bridge.
On July 13, 2017, Lingganay filed an amended complaint, adding claims for moral and exemplary damages, and attorney’s fees against DLTB Co. He then submitted his position paper on Aug. 17, 2017, with a motion to further amend his complaint, seeking entitlement to separation pay, holiday premium, and underpaid wages.
In a decision dated Sept. 29, 2017, the Labor Arbiter ruled in favor of the respondents, finding that Lingganay’s dismissal was justified due to his violations of DLTB Co.’s rules and regulations on health and safety. Moreover, the Labor Arbiter denied Lingganay’s motion to further amend his complaint pursuant to Rule V, Section 11 of the 2011 NLRC Rules, which states in part that “an amended complaint or petition may be filed before the Labor Arbiter at any time before the filing of position paper[.]”
The NLRC affirmed the Labor Arbiter’s decision. It also denied Lingganay’s motion for reconsideration.
In its July 6, 2020 decision, the Court of Appeals upheld Lingganay’s dismissal and concurred with the Labor Arbiter’s denial of his motion to further amend his complaint, citing Rule V, Section 11 of the 2011 NLRC Rules, as well as Section 12 thereof, which prohibits the amendment of the complaint after the filing of position papers unless there is leave from the Labor Arbiter. As observed by the Court of Appeals, since the second amended complaint was already embedded in Lingganay’s position paper, the denial of his motion was justified. The Court of Appeals also dismissed Lingganay’s motion for reconsideration.
Lingganay argued before the Supreme Court that his motion to amend and second amended complaint in the position paper were supported by its ruling in Our Haus Realty Development Corp. v. Parian (G.R. No. 204651, Aug. 6, 2014), citing Samar-Med Distribution v. NLRC (G.R. No. 162385, July 15, 2013), which allowed claims not raised in the initial complaint to be included in the position paper.
The Supreme Court disagreed with Lingganay, noting that the cited rulings were based on the outdated 1990 NLRC Rules, which had already been superseded by the 2011 NLRC Rules when Lingganay filed his illegal dismissal complaint in 2017.
A specific rule on amending complaints was first introduced in the 2005 NLRC Rules and was carried over as Rule V, Section 11 in the current 2011 NLRC Rules. According to the Supreme Court, the intention behind this, like any notice requirement, is to fully apprise the other party of all causes of action in the complaint, allow him/her to present informed arguments, and avoid surprises that could result in injustice. It was also aimed at preventing delays just to give the other party the time to counter the additional allegations and search for new evidence or witnesses to address a belatedly raised cause of action in the position paper.
Considering Lingganay’s repeated failure to timely raise his additional claims at the expense of the speedy disposition of the case, the Supreme Court held that it was within the sound discretion of the Labor Arbiter to disallow Lingganay’s motion to further amend his amended complaint.
In this case, the Supreme Court highlighted that procedural rules — designed to facilitate the adjudication of cases — must be treated with utmost respect and due regard, in accordance with the constitutional guarantee in the Bill of Rights stating that “all persons shall have the right to the speedy disposition of their cases before all judicial, quasi-judicial, and administrative bodies.”
Indeed, the observance of procedural rules should not be regarded as merely a formality, but as a cornerstone of our legal system that safeguards the rights of all parties while preserving the integrity of our judicial processes.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and not offered as and does not constitute legal advice or legal opinion.
Rey Alan L. De Juan is an associate of the Labor and Employment department of the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW)
8830-8000
National Government outstanding debt
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT’S (NG) outstanding debt inched up to a fresh high of P16.02 trillion as of end-October amid the peso’s depreciation against the US dollar, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said. Read the full story.
Maynilad’s largest treatment facility nears completion at 83%
MAYNILAD WATER Services, Inc.’s CAMANA Water Reclamation Facility is now 83% complete and on track for completion next year, its president said Tuesday.
The P10.5-billion facility, located in Maypajo, Caloocan City, is designed to treat up to 205 million liters of wastewater daily from South Caloocan, Malabon, and Navotas, Maynilad said in a statement.
Slated for completion in 2025, the facility is expected to serve approximately 1.2 million Maynilad customers.
“We are pleased to share that the construction of our largest wastewater treatment facility, the CAMANA Water Reclamation Facility, is nearing completion,” Maynilad President and Chief Executive Officer Ramoncito S. Fernandez said.
“This project is part of our commitment to investing in infrastructure that expands sewer coverage and creates cleaner and healthier communities,” he added.
Maynilad said that the water reclamation facility will comply with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Water Quality Guidelines and General Effluent Standards of 2016 (DAO 2016-08), as amended by DAO 2021-19.
The facility will feature advanced technology to effectively remove pollutants from wastewater before safely discharging it into the Maypajo Creek, which flows into Manila Bay.
To complement the facility, the company is laying 77 kilometers of sewer pipelines to collect wastewater from households and establishments in the three cities and convey it to the treatment plant.
To date, Maynilad operates 23 wastewater treatment facilities with a combined daily capacity of 684 million liters of wastewater per day.
The company serves certain portions of Manila, Quezon City, and Makati. It also operates in Caloocan, Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Valenzuela, Navotas, and Malabon.
It also supplies the cities of Cavite, Bacoor, and Imus, and the towns of Kawit, Noveleta, and Rosario, all in Cavite province.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which has a majority stake in Maynilad, is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
UnionBank to redeem P6.8-B Tier 2 notes
UNION BANK of the Philippines, Inc. (UnionBank) is looking to buy back P6.8 billion worth of bonds due 2030.
“Please be informed that the board of directors of Union Bank of the Philippines at its meeting held on Dec. 2, approved the exercise of the call option (voluntary redemption) on its P6.8-billion unsecured subordinated debt eligible as Tier 2 capital due 2030, subject to prior approval of the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas),” the Aboitiz-led bank said in a disclosure to the stock exchange on Tuesday.
The bank in February 2020 raised P6.8 billion from the Tier 2 notes, higher than the initial P5-billion target. The issue was listed on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. that same month.
The Tier 2 notes carry an interest rate of 5.25% per annum, payable in arrears quarterly, and are set to mature on May 24, 2030.
They have a tenor of 10 years and three months and are callable in 5.25 years from the issue date or starting May 24, 2025.
UnionBank’s net income rose by 76% year on year to P3.5 billion in the third quarter. This brought its nine-month profit to P8.56 billion.
Its shares closed unchanged at P36.70 apiece on Tuesday. — A.M.C. Sy
New Greek metro is archaeological window to the past
ATHENS — A metro system in Greece’s second city Thessaloniki officially opened on Saturday, its stations displaying the same ancient artifacts that nearly derailed the project’s completion.
During construction, which began in 2006, workers discovered a Byzantine-era market, a Roman cemetery, and other treasures of the city’s long and varied history.
The finds stalled the metro’s progress and raised questions about how the city would modernize while protecting its rich past. The answer was to blend the two by displaying the uncovered artifacts for modern-day commuters to enjoy.
“This is not just a public works project, which is incredibly important for the city. It is also a museum,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said before visiting the Venizelou station for a private tour on Friday.
“It’s probably unique in the world. We will go through an underground museum to reach the train.”
The metro took nearly 20 years to complete, in part because of funding problems during Greece’s 2009-2018 debt crisis. It is the first such system in Greece outside Athens.
Builders had to dig deeper than originally planned — up to 31 meters (102 feet) — to make sure the tunnels ran below the archaeological findings, according to the project’s contractor.
“It is an opportunity for Thessaloniki to become a second Rome, in terms of antiquities,” said Melina Paisidou, one of the archaeologists to discover the relics underground. — Reuters
How PSEi member stocks performed — December 3, 2024
Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Tuesday, December 3, 2024.
