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Toll firms to test interoperability of RFID systems

TOLL OPERATORS will still be required to have lanes for the installation of RFID stickers beyond Jan. 11. — PHILIPPINE STAR/MICHAEL VARCAS

THE TOLLWAY units of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) will soon begin to test the interoperability of their cashless payment systems, the Transportation department said on Monday.

SMC TPLEX Corp., Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) and NLEX Corp. signed on Dec. 4 a memorandum of agreement to test the use of AutoSweep and EasyTrip radio frequency identification (RFID) cashless toll payments for the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx), Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx).

AutoSweep RFID tags are issued by SMC for use on the tollways it operates, while the EasyTrip RFID tags are issued by MPTC for its own tollways.

Eventually, the motorists will be required to have only one RFID sticker “but now it’s the mutual compatibility,” Romulo S. Quimbo, Jr., NLEX Corp. senior vice-president for communications, told BusinessWorld in a phone interview.

Mr. Quimbo said “mutual compatibility” would mean one sticker, either AutoSweep or EasyTrip, can be used on any toll road.

“That means you have two accounts or two wallets in your sticker,” he added.

Mr. Quimbo said the 14-day interoperability testing will start “in a few days’ time.”

The Transportation department said the interoperability testing will involve 45 vehicles from different classifications.

“After the test, the participants will submit their test transaction reports and dashcam video recordings to the steering committee for validation and assessment. The steering committee is given five (5) days, from the complete submission of the data collected, to determine the read rate percentage or the system’s performance indicator when comparing RFID infrastructure,” the department said.

Mr. Quimbo said the results of the tests may be announced by January. “Hopefully the conclusion is that a sticker can be used on two expressways provided that you activate another account in the same sticker,” he added.

The Transportation department said efforts to make the toll collection systems interoperable were started in 2017 after the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the toll road operators.

The implementation of the project was accelerated this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Transportation department earlier set Dec. 1 as the deadline for toll operators to implement cashless payments, but the transition period will end on Jan. 11, which means motorists without RFID stickers will not be apprehended just yet.

Toll operators will still be required to have lanes for the installation of RFID stickers beyond Jan. 11.

MPTC is the tollways unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of three key 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 a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Arjay L. Balinbin

PHL scores higher on ranking of data coverage

By Marissa Mae M. Ramos, Researcher

THE PHILIPPINES scored higher in the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) assessment of nonprofit organization Open Data Watch, which tracks coverage and openness of official country statistics.

The country scored 73 out of 100 in the ODIN 2020, placing 18th out of 187 countries. In its previous iteration in 2018, the Philippines scored 58 out of 100 while ranking 41st out of 178 countries.

Out of 11 Southeast Asian economies, the country ranked second to Singapore this year, which scored 91 out of 100 and ranked first globally.

Scores of each country are obtained from a combination of scores on data coverage and openness. Data coverage refers to indicator availability, disaggregation, and frequency of observations, while data openness refers to the format and licensing of datasets, comprehensiveness of metadata, and download options of data available.

In terms of data openness, the Philippines scored 81 out of 100 to rank 17th globally and second regionally. The country fulfilled all of ODIN’s criteria under category Terms of Use which looks at whether data are made available under an open license that allows users to reuse, share and adapt data for commercial and non-commercial use.

It also scored high in categories such as: Non-proprietary, which looks at the availability of data in formats that do not require costly software to access, and Machine-readability, gaining a score of 98, and 97, respectively.

Moreover, the Philippines scored 63 out of 100 in the data coverage indicator to rank 25th globally and second regionally. Under this indicator, it scored highest in category Indicators and Disaggregation with 88, while it scored lowest on category Second Administrative Level with 17, which looks at the availability of data on further divisions.

Among data categories, economic statistics in the country had the highest overall score of 81 (out of 100) after achieving a score of 79 in data coverage and 83 in data openness. Economic statistics include the national accounts, labor, price indices, international trade, and balance of payment data.

The Philippines scored 73 in environment statistics, which include data on agriculture and land use, resource use, energy, pollution, and built environment.

Meanwhile, it scored lowest in social statistics at 65, which looks at population and vital statistics, education and health facilities and outcomes, gender statistics, and poverty and income among others.

More Philippine firms now find it ‘easy’ to innovate, study says

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Senior Reporter

MORE THAN HALF of Philippine organizations now find innovation in the country “easy,” after they increased their abilities to innovate amid a pandemic crisis, the latest study by Microsoft Corp. and International Data Corp. (IDC) Asia/Pacific showed.

“Since the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, Philippine organizations have matured in the culture of innovation by 4%, increasing their ability to innovate; 56% of these organizations now find innovation easy,” Microsoft said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

Before the pandemic, 77% of organizations in the Philippines found innovation to be “hard,” the study said.

“They have since changed perceptions with significantly less Philippines organizations and leaders (36%) having this sentiment now,” Microsoft noted.

“This is because they were forced to accelerate innovation in response to the disruptions in the market,” it added.

The study found an increase of 5.4 percentage points in the number of adopters of the so-called “culture of innovation” among Philippine firms.

“The culture of innovation is the synergy between four dimensions: technology, processes, data, and people. These allow organizations to drive sustained innovation,” Microsoft noted.

“In the span of six months, organizations in the Philippines have matured in the culture of innovation… In comparison, organizations in Asia Pacific saw an 11% growth in the culture of innovation maturity,” it added.

The report said almost half or 43.8% of Philippine organizations will be focusing on “having the right technology” in the next 12 months “to become resilient and be able to quickly recover from the crisis.”

Microsoft and IDC Asia/Pacific surveyed 213 business leaders and 231 employees in the Philippines within six months, before and since the pandemic.  Microsoft said the study was part of a broader survey among 3,312 business leaders and 3,495 employees “across 15 markets in Asia-Pacific conducted over the same time-period.”

Daniel-Zoe Jimenez, associate vice president, head of digital transformation at IDC Asia/Pacific, said: “We see amongst leaders a constant appetite for growth and evolution. During COVID-19, 45% of them (in the Asia-Pacific region) said they think their business model will lose competitiveness in five years’ time, as compared to 21% of firms in the Philippines.”

“This desire and urgency for continuous improvement through agility and adaptation to change will determine the success of businesses in this new normal,” he added.

More property seekers eyeing house and lots

MORE PROPERTY seekers are interested in buying house and lot properties as well as land-only projects due to the lockdown, online property marketplace Lamudi said in a report on Monday.

“After the experience of staying at home for a long period, property seekers appreciate larger floor areas in their property. House and lots and land-only projects have captured great interest as preferences for the living set-up tilt to horizontal developments,” Lamudi said in its third quarter report.

House and lot properties remained the most popular listing in Metro Manila in the third quarter, representing 52.95% of total listings.

Interested buyers inquired about houses the most, accounting for 43.27% of leads, compared to 31.52% for land and 17.02% for condo developments.

Quezon City topped the list of cities in Metro Manila generating the highest number of leads, with almost half of the leads in the region. The cities of Makati and Manila followed with 16.97% and 9.44%, respectively.

Outside of Metro Manila, Cagayan de Oro is experiencing a “huge demand” for houses for sale, the report said.

“Property seekers prefer the regional center to have greater accessibility to essential goods. As the national government builds more infrastructure projects, these areas will see stronger interest among property seekers,” Lamudi said.

Online searches for house and lot properties represented half of the property page views in Cagayan de Oro in the third quarter.

At the same time, Lamudi said property seekers are looking into Cebu and Davao cities as they see potential in land asset value increasing as the government develops infrastructure in those cities.

In Cebu, lot-only properties generated more inquiries with 46% of leads compared to 36.31% for houses. The same was true of Davao City, with land registering 48.55% of leads.

“This signifies that most property seekers are eager to buy lots for sale in Metro Davao, particularly in Davao City.” — Jenina P. Ibañez

Dito Telecommunity’s cell towers near 1,900

DENNIS A. UY’S Dito Telecommunity Corp. has constructed about 1,900 cell towers to date, in line with its commitment for its first year, an official said on Monday.

“As of today, we have close to 1,900 towers already constructed,” Dito Chief Administrative Officer Adel A. Tamano said in a hearing.

He noted the third telco player has built more than enough cell sites to achieve its commitment to cover 37% of the population with a minimum of 27 Megabits per second (Mbps).

He added Dito was able to build more than 1,300 by September and reached over 1,500 towers in October. It has also laid out 11 kilometers of cable.

“These infrastructure achievements are more than enough to cover the 37% of the population and deliver speed of a minimum 27 Mbps,” he said.

Mr. Tamano was speaking before the Senate Public Services Committee, which is tackling its franchise application under House Bill No. 7332. The committee however suspended deliberations on the franchise pending its March rollout.

“The basis of granting the franchise, because we’ll be remiss also of our responsibility, is that they’re able to provide at least the initial commitment they gave,” Senator Grace S. Poe-Llamanzares said in the hearing. “If they’re able to do that, then we will be able to determine if we will give them the additional 25 years.”

The bill will renew for another 25 years the franchise granted to Dito Telecom, formerly known as the Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. (Mislatel). The franchise will officially expire in 2023.

For its second year, Dito Telecom targets to reach around 50% coverage, which will go up to 70% in the third and 84% in the last year. Mr. Tamano said the company is aiming to get to around 90%, beyond its commitment to the government.

“We actually aim to hit those milestones in advance, we are hoping that for example, our final year, we’re hoping to hit about 84-85% coverage, but we are aiming for more than 90% coverage for our final year,” he said.

The company will undergo a technical audit on Jan. 7 next year, which was originally set last July 8. It was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic that placed the country under a strict lockdown.

Ms. Poe-Llamanzares, who chairs the committee, asked Dito Telecom whether it will be able to reach underserved and unserved areas, which is a part of its commitment, but Mr. Tamano said the company started in highly urbanized areas to achieve its target.

“We have to do it in a very logical and very efficient way, which is unfortunately we start with NCR (National Capital Region) areas, with Cebu, with Davao,” he said.

The panel also decided to conduct an executive session to discuss cybersecurity issues concerning Dito Telecom after Senator Francis N. Pangilinan raised that China Telecommunications Corp. has been blacklisted by the United States.

Mr. Pangilinan was referring to the list issued by the US Department of Defense that identified Chinese companies that American companies are not allowed to invest in. — Charmaine A. Tadalan

Why offices are likely to change, not disappear after pandemic

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Senior Reporter

DESPITE THE work-from-home boom and accelerated digital transformation, offices are not likely to disappear after the pandemic, a real estate expert said.

“If I talk about the shape of the future of our offices, they are not going to disappear. The office will stay. It will stay in a different shape,” Christophe Vicic, country head of JLL Philippines, Inc., said during the recent BusinessWorld Virtual Economic Forum.

“The shape and the type of brick and mortar in real estate, such as office, residential, malls, and hotels, will change in design, in conceptual reality. The technology, the digital piece of that will be enormous because we need data to make the right decision. All of us have to consume certain data to make the right decision,” he added.

Most companies began implementing work-from-home schemes for employees when Metro Manila was placed under a strict lockdown in mid-March. Even as restrictions eased and offices reopened, companies continue to allow some employees to work from home.

In its property market overview for the third quarter, JLL said the overall office vacancy rate in Metro Manila had increased to 9.7%.

“Office space in the metro continues to be underutilized as work-from-home setup remained the predominant work arrangement,” the report noted.

“The prolonged community quarantine in Metro Manila caused investors to remain in the sidelines and hold investment plans until the end of the year. Also, move-outs from POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) players during the latter part of the quarter further increased vacancy rate in Metro Manila,” it added.

CONNECTIVITY, REMOTE WORK
PLDT, Inc. Chief Revenue Officer and Smart President and CEO Alfredo S. Panlilio said the pandemic has become an opportunity for telecommunications firms to further develop the digital ecosystem by improving connectivity and providing platforms for online payment, shopping, education, and health, among others.

He said the strong demand for internet connectivity is expected to continue even after the pandemic.

“Companies like us, PLDT and Smart, have been rethinking our office space requirement because you have to consider social distancing. I think the work-from-home setup will be part of our normal working scenario nowadays, so we would have to have connectivity not only at our corporate buildings but also at home. The strategy of how we will now plan our office space is changing, but I think there will be a combination of working from home and people going to work,” Mr. Panlilio said.

On mobility, Ting Wu, partner at McKinsey & Company China, noted that customers are becoming more “individualistic and digital” now, and there is a rediscovered appreciation of individual mobility as part of the impact of the pandemic.

JLL Philippines’ Mr. Vicic cited potential solutions for post-pandemic transit and commuting, such as dual-location strategies, extended remote working, flexible workspace solutions, and shuttle services.

“For investors and landlords, there is a need to assess parking capacity and new modes of transportation, improve sidewalk use, create new bike lanes, and enhance transit capacity and operations,” he added.

JEG Tower @ One Acacia wins property award

JEG DEVELOPMENT Corp.’s (JDC) first green high-rise tower was named the Best Commercial Green Development at the 8th PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards.

JEG Tower @ One Acacia, located in Cebu business district, is a LEED pre-certified Silver residential development.

The 22-storey office and retail building has energy-efficient features. It has a recycling space for a Materials Recovery Facility and dedicated 20% of the estate to green spaces, including a green rooftop.

The company is also the first local Cebuano company to win the Best Commercial Green Development award.

“We aim to inspire other developers to take the first steps in offering high-quality spaces that make people feel valued and protected. We wanted to elevate the experience of our occupants with sophisticated workplace design, and environment that revolutionizes work and life,” JDC Chief Operating Officer Marko Sarmiento said.

Aboitiz Construction to provide free training

ABOITIZ CONSTRUCTION, Inc. has partnered with a workforce development program to provide free construction training to 3,000 Filipinos until 2023.

Aboitiz partnered with Asiapro Multipurpose Cooperative and YouthWorks PH, a workforce development program from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd). The five-year project launched in 2018 set aside P1.7 billion to connect out-of-school youth with training programs.

Youth in the program will be initially trained by Asiapro Multi-purpose Cooperative, a social enterprise that provides full employment benefits to low-income construction workers.

“Through this partnership, 3,000 youth will be receiving free life skills training, mentoring, skills training in various construction trades, and on-the-job training until 2023,” USAID Philippines Acting Deputy Mission Director Jenna Diallo said during the online launch on Friday.

“We’re also providing our private sector partners with skilled, quality human resources who can power their businesses and improve productivity.”

Aboitiz Construction Vice President for Corporate Affairs and Services Nina Ylagan-Pedro said the firm plans to accelerate the hiring process for skilled workers needed in their projects.

“Aboitiz Construction will be offering work-related learning opportunities for our youth beneficiaries and will include periods of hands-on training,” she said.

YouthWorks PH previously partnered with D.M. Consunji, Inc. (DMCI) to train 2,100 youths for masonry, steel works, carpentry, and heavy equipment operation.

“The partnerships will allow youth across the Philippines to get on-the-job training at the two construction companies, and receive additional benefits such as free mentoring, allowance, and possible employment,” PBEd said in a press release.

Aboitiz Construction in September announced it was looking to hire 1,200 skilled workers for its Surigao, Cebu, Iligan, Davao, Sarangani, and Subic work sites.

Aboitiz Construction is part of the Aboitiz Group of Companies. The Aboitiz Group in June said that it was laying off employees due to the financial impact of the pandemic. The group’s listed holding company, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV), posted a 55% income decline to P4 billion in the first semester.

Shares in AEV fell P2.75 or 5.79% to P44.75 apiece on Monday. — J.P. Ibañez

Construction of Ridgewood Towers Premier underway

C-5 MANSIONS Development Corp. said construction for its Ridgewood Towers Premier project has reached the ground level.

In a statement, the company said the building’s mat foundation and four basement levels are now structurally complete. It will soon start work on the upper floors.

The 31-storey residential condominium is located along President CP Garcia Ave., near SM Aura and Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

Turnover of Ridgewood Towers Premier is scheduled for the latter part of 2022.

LBC Express looks to conduct follow-on offer

LBC Express Holdings, Inc. is planning to sell 69.1 million shares at a maximum price of P25 apiece in its follow-on offering, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a notice on Sunday.

The logistics and money transfer service is offering its shares at a price of up to P25 each, amounting to P1.73 billion in total.

LBC’s primary and secondary offerings of 10 million common shares and 59.1 million shares, respectively, will have offer prices of P15 to P25 apiece. The secondary offer will be offered and sold by the selling shareholder LBC Development Corp., the SEC said.

Last month, the firm reported a 37.6 % growth in its third-quarter attributable net income, but its cumulative earnings as of September remained lower on a year-on-year basis.

Shares of LBC Express Holdings on Monday inched down by 0.13% to close at P15.78 apiece. — Angelica Y. Yang

Prayers and pranks get Pinoys through the pandemic

YouTube releases lists of top videos in PHL

VIDEO sharing platform YouTube has announced the videos that got Filipinos through the long lockdowns, with singer Marcelito Pomoy’s rendition of “The Prayer” topping the year end charts followed by several prank videos, because if there’s something Filipinos love doing it’s marvelling at their countrymen’s talent in singing competitions and laughing at prank videos.

“Filipinos use YouTube to tell and listen to stories, providing some form of comfort in this extremely challenging year. It is inspiring to see how the creators continued to show wayfinding to support one another as a community and to keep their viewers engaged despite the odds,” Mervin Wenke, communications and public affairs head at Google Philippines, said in a statement.

Marcelito Pomoy’s “The Prayer” was uploaded by America’s Got Talent on Jan. 13 and is the top “trending video that entertained Filipinos in 2020.”

Mr. Pomoy, who won Pilipinas Got Talent in 2011 and is known for singing in both male and female voices, competed once again — this time internationally — in America’s Got Talent: The Champions. While he didn’t win the talent show (he finished fourth), the video of him singing “The Prayer,” popularized by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion, has more than 45 million views as of this writing.

Following Mr. Pomoy’s video is a prank done to YouTuber and actress Ivana Alawi by TV personality Raffy Tulfo on his show Idol in Action. The video was uploaded on May 12 with views currently sitting at 25 million views.

One of the top comments on the video, written in the vernacular, says: “This has been sitting on my feed for so long and who else just watched this video for the first time because you have nothing else to do? Who’s with me?”

The YouTube list is peppered with several prank videos like the Boyfriend Prank by Ms. Alawi at the fourth spot, a prank by YouTube couple Ja Mill at the seventh spot, and another prank by actor Jak Roberto celebrating his 500,000 subscribers at the ninth spot.

Ms. Alawi also topped the top creators list for this year.

While much of the list is fun and games, the year end trending videos had YouTube creators who recently died taking spots in the Top Ten, namely: Emman Nimedez and Lloyd Cadena. Mr. Nimedez’s May 17 video, titled “Kailangan Niyo Na Rin Malaman,” sits at the 6th spot while the video by Mr. Cadena’s mother titled “Ask Mother Kween (Anong Mangyayare sa YouTube ni Lloyd)” sits at the 5th spot.

Mr. Nimedez lost his battle with acute myeloid leukemia in August while Mr. Cadena succumbed to COVID-19 in September.

For the music videos that topped the YouTube trending charts, hip-hop is king in 2020 as local rappers and groups released their original tracks, taking six out of 10 spots on the list.

Topping the list is Flow G’s “Araw araw Love” which currently has 63 million views, followed by three K-pop songs: BlackPink’s “How You Like That” music video, their “Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)” music video, and BTS’s “Dynamite” music video.

“The heart of YouTube is its creators and we recognize their important role in providing not just relevant content but even hope to Filipinos in the time of what turned out to be a difficult 2020,” Mr. Wenke said in the statement. — ZBC

The Medical City partners with Robinsons Hotels

THE MEDICAL CITY has teamed up with Robinsons Hotels and Resorts to offer hotel and travel care packages.

The Hotel Care Package 1 is recommended to those who plan to have their ECLIA Serological (antibody) test from The Medical City.

Since the result will be released within 24 hours, the patient has the option to wait for the results in the comfort of Summit Hotel Magnolia and Go Hotels Ortigas Center.

Package 1 costs P4,750 net per person (single occupancy), and includes packed meals. Package 2 (three days/two nights), which is priced at P11,000 per person (single occupancy), is recommended for those who need to take the RT-PCR test since the results will be released after two days.

A Travel Care Package, which costs P12,300 net per person (single occupancy), is designed for overseas Filipino workers, seafarers and balikbayans. It includes private car pickup service from airport to hotel or hotel to airport; a two-night stay in a single room; and packed meals.

To avail of the Travel Care Package, contact Robinsons Hotels and Resorts at least three days from date of arrival. Send the online guest information sheet with required information at reservations@gohotels.ph or reservations@summithotels.ph. You will receive confirmation of your booking and your COVID-19 test schedule, which you can show at the airport. Upon arrival at the hotel, show the confirmation e-mail to the front desk during check in. Rates are inclusive of taxes and service charge. Full prepayment is required at the time of booking.

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