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Baguio starts pedestrian-friendly Session Road trial on Aug. 4

THE UPHILL side of Session Road in Baguio City will be closed to vehicular traffic from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Aug. 4, starting off the trial period for making the street pedestrian-friendly every Sunday. “This is an experimental scheme in support to the plan to pedestrianize Session Road in an aim to revitalize the environmental condition at the Central Business District,” the city’s Public Information Office office said in its social media post announcing the plan. The car-free area would be from the Development Bank of the Philippines to the rotunda. Vehicles will still be allowed to pass from Gen. Luna Street towards Harrison Road. The Baguio City Police Office will lead the implementation of the scheme.

TERMINALS
Meanwhile, the city government announced on Thursday that it plans to set up at least five transport terminals “in strategic areas around the city to help decongest the central business district from the monstrous traffic jams daily.” In a statement, Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said among the site being eyed are: a four-hectare (ha) portion of the eight-ha Dairy Farm property that has been given to the city by the Agriculture department; an 8,000-square meter private property of Dwight Bello in Barangay Irisan; and the slaughterhouse compound. The city government also has a plan to build a six-storey parking structure at the back of the city-owned Baguio Convention Center to be funded under the Department of Public Works and Highways’ budget. Mr. Magalong said some investors have already “signified their intention” to finance the construction of the terminals.

Bangsamoro parliament passes resolution on ad-hoc joint body for Sulu Sea, Moro Gulf

THE BANGSAMORO Parliament has passed a resolution calling for the creation of an ad-hoc body to identify zones of cooperation and ensure the equitable sharing of resources from the Sulu Sea and Moro Gulf between the region and the national government. Anchored on Section 18, Article XIII of Republic Act No. 11054, or the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM), the resolution provides for a joint body composed of representatives from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), “and a corresponding number of representatives from appropriate agencies of the Bangsamoro Government.” Based on the resolution, passed July 31, the ad hoc body will also “ensure cooperation and coordination between the National Government and the Bangsamoro Government on the exploration, development and utilization of non-living resources in the subject Zone, and the protection of the indigenous communities’ traditional fishing grounds.” Through the ad hoc body, the BARMM and national governments would formulate policies and regulations that apply for both the Sulu Sea and the Moro Gulf. The proposed body is supposed to start work within 30 days after the ratification of the Organic Law and will cease to operate after it has established the coordinates of the Bangsamoro territorial jurisdiction within the Bangsamoro waters and the zones of joint cooperation. The resolution was drafted by the following Parliament members: Amir Mawallil, Jose Lorena, Nabil Tan, Laisa Masuhud-Alamia, Don Mustapha Loong, Alzad Sattar, Adzfar Usman, Abdulmuhmin Mujahid, and Abraham Burahan. — Tajallih S. Basman

Home of endangered Visayan species struggles with limited funding

By Emme Rose S. Santiagudo, Correspondent

A P30,000 monthly food budget would cover the standard nourishment needed by 54 animals — mostly endangered and vulnerable species endemic to the Visayas — housed at the Mari-it Conservation Park in Lambunao, Iloilo.

The park’s management struggles to raise that amount and is often forced to cut back on the animal’s basic food requirements, according to JB Ian G. Bullo, the center’s veterinarian.

In some instances, he added, the park’s staff would chip in their personal money to cover the feeding expenses.

Mari-it Park is currently home to 16 Visayan hornbills, including the writhe and tariktik hornbills; five Visayan leopard cats, and two Panay cloud rats, which are both vulnerable; 11 critically endangered Visayan warty pigs; and 20 endangered Visayan spotted deer.

Run by the West Visayas State University-College of Agriculture and Forestry (WVSU-CAF), the facility was set up in 1993 through an agreement between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Mulhouse Zoo in France, with the initial purpose of conserving the Visayan spotted deer.

“For the hornbills, they should have standard meal with at least three types of fruits and live food supply like mice, crickets, and worms. Once, we don’t supply live food, they will have a hard time breeding. They are extremely sensitive that once they cannot sustain their offspring, they will abort their eggs,” Mr. Bully said in an interview.

It has been 14 years since the center, for the first time, successfully bred in captivity a writhe hornbills.

“We house the second most endangered hornbills. It is very rare and should be treasured, but no one seems to appreciate it,” the veterinarian lamented.

Mr. Bullo said the goal has been to breed more and have a big enough population to have them reintroduced into the wild.

“The plan is once they increase their population, the animals will be reintroduced to the wild, but what happened was they decreased in number because of the limited funding.”

The leopard cats also do not get their supposed daily serving of live chicken.

“They are carnivores so we are providing them with chicken meat or other type of meat. Pero (But) it is much better if we can give them live food like chicks and mouse,” he said, noting that these cats are usually hunted to be sold in the market for breeding with domestic cats to produce Bengal cat.

Among the five leopard cats in the park are the two recently rescued in Pontieedra, Capiz, and have been named Ponte and Vedra.

To address the financial challenges, Mr. Bullo said the Lambunao local government unit (LGU) has stepped in to help in the development and promotion of the park as an eco-tourism destination.

The LGU and some non-government organizations have been providing funding support to Mari-it, but Lambunao Mayor Reynor R. Gonzales said “it’s not enough.”

“That is why we are promoting Mari-it as an eco-tourism site for it to be self-sustaining,” he said in an interview.

Mr. Gonzales said he also recently met with WVSU-CAF officials to discuss the expansion of the park area.

“In a meeting with WVSU, they agreed to little by little open up some space. If Boracay is along the seacoast, we will promote the park in the hinterlands — from the sea to the forest, the development is continuous,” he said.

The mayor said they are also planning to tap the participation of the surrounding communities by encouraging them to take care of the flora and fauna in the area.

“We have to develop the area in relation to the ecosystem. We need to balance the development in relation to the ecosystem because we provide the conducive place for animals na maka-recover because they are endangered,” he said.

Mr. Gonzales said he will have another meeting with the WVSU to discuss the park’s development program.

“We have a master plan but it needs updating.”

Nation at a Glance — (08/02/19)

News stories from across the nation. Visit www.bworldonline.com (section: The Nation) to read more national and regional news from the Philippines.

Nation at a Glance — (08/02/19)

Founders, funders, and bayanihan in the fourth industrial revolution

When Keller Rinaudo founded his drone-based delivery start-up Zipline, it was with the lofty dream of building “an instant, automated logistics system for the planet.” It was 2014 and, at the time, AI-powered robots were commonplace only in the warehouses of the world’s tech giants: Alibaba, Amazon, and the like. But Mr. Rinaudo felt that the technologies of the future were being wasted on delivering tennis shoes and pizza. Instead, he believed “the long-term impact of that technology is providing universal healthcare to every person on the planet.”

Today, Mr. Rinaudo oversees the largest commercial autonomous logistics system in the world, delivering emergency medical supplies and relief packages to remote communities. Like his drones, Mr. Rinaudo is constantly travelling to far flung regions, finding new ways to partner with local governments and private institutions, taking his futuristic solution to as many places as possible.

“People in Rwanda today say ‘Yeah, of course we have drones that deliver blood. How else would you solve that problem?’” Mr. Rinaudo said. “It’s amazing how fast it goes from science fiction to totally boring.”

While the team is headquartered in California, Zipline’s operations are halfway across the world in Rwanda, Ghana, and — following a meeting last month with the Department of Health and Department of National Defense — the Philippines.

It’s across the Philippine archipelago that Mr. Rinaudo believes Zipline will truly come into fruition as a game-changer in autonomous logistics. With their drones, Zipline will be able to send payloads of vital cargo across various bodies of water, instantly connecting remote islands otherwise considered unreachable in emergency situations.

The Philippines is a vast country, with an equally vast array of social ills, borne out of generations of band-aid solutions and neglect. Infrastructure gaps, wealth inequality, disproportionate allocation of private and public funding — all these and more constitute a nation rife with complex, interlocking problems.

But where there are problems, there are also opportunities. Just as Zipline hopes to address Philippine infrastructure gaps with artificial intelligence and robotics, the fourth industrial revolution presents a nearly bottomless toolkit with which enterprising firms might tackle the issues that plague our country.

And it’s in that intersection of emerging technologies and societal need that we’re seeing the rise of a new breed of enterprising pioneers: Start-ups.

LEADING THE CHARGE

As of 2017, Impact Hub Manila CEO Report 2018 found that Metro Manila alone was home to over 500 registered start-ups. In the same year, global investors funneled over $100 million into Philippine start-ups, outpacing the growth of the community’s Singaporean and Indonesian counterparts.

Since then, the local ecosystem ballooned, with more than half the current roster of start-ups founded in the last two years. Earlier this year, global business ranking report Start-upBlink found that the Philippine start-up ecosystem jumped up 16 slots to 54 out of 100 countries surveyed.

Today we see dozens of case studies of independent, homegrown companies that have leveraged their innovative business models to raise significant institutional funding, create thousands of new jobs, and quickly achieve liquidity.

Coins.ph, a regional success story that made headlines after its $72 million acquisition by Indonesian tech giant Go-Jek, drew massive support by allowing users to invest in cryptocurrencies. FlySpaces, another homegrown company, is now Southeast Asia’s leading provider of serviced office and co-working spaces, with locations all over the region. Similarly, Edukasyon.ph is now one of the fastest growing ASEAN-based education technology start-ups, with over one million monthly users covering more than 40 percent of Filipino students with internet access.

“The Philippines has incredible potential to be a leading start-up hub,” said Katrina Chan, Director of QBO Innovation Hub, a public-private initiative supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Trade and Industry, IdeaSpace, and J.P. Morgan. “We are starting to see more elements come into place — increased investment activity, growing public -private support, rising interest in entrepreneurship — which makes me believe that the Philippines can live up to its promise and… rival the biggest names in the region in the next few years.”

Whether homegrown or foreign, start-ups are thriving in the Philippines and, in turn, the community is helping the Philippines thrive. But in order to understand how to best bolster that growth, it’s important to first understand what exactly that community looks like.

THE START-UP ECOSYSTEM

Pop culture is saturated with hero stories of visionaries reshaping entire industries with their revolutionary ideas. One imagines the founder leading a scrappy team of developers, bootstrapping their projects out of garages and studio apartments. While the reality of start-ups in the Philippines is not nearly as romantic, it is, at least, infinitely more interesting.

Today, there are at least 20 major incubators and accelerators offering mentorship and seed funding opportunities to start-ups in metropolitan cities across the country. Additionally, there are at least 30 angel investor and venture capitalist groups actively seeking new Filipino start-ups to fund and help scale.

And it doesn’t stop there. Many schools have launched their own business accelerator programs, to complement their management and entrepreneurship curriculums. Institutions like Ateneo de Manila University and the Asian Institute of Management boast robust accelerators, while modern schools like MINT College connect their students to the start-up world through partnerships with global networks like Impact Hub.

As with any major societal venture, the government plays a key role in creating the scaffolding against which entirely new industries are being built. Earlier this year in May, the Senate passed on third and final reading the Innovative Start-up Act, which aims to create a more conducive environment for start-ups to grow in the country.

“These are start-ups that provide unique and relevant solutions to our problems, from daily hassles, like finding a taxi during rush hour, to improving the delivery of healthcare, providing support for our farmers, and addressing unemployment,” said Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, the bill’s primary author. Under this act, start-up founders can expect tax breaks and expedited processes for securing business permits and certifications.

According to the Senate, the measure also includes a provision for the establishment of a P10 billion “Innovative Start-up Venture Fund” that entrepreneurs can apply for through the Department of Science and Technology.

Elsewhere in the executive branch, start-ups have found even more direct partners in offices such as the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Information and Communications Technology. Through their affiliate agencies both national and local, these departments have created innovation centers, competitions, workshop programs, and grassroots projects all directed towards equipping Filipinos with the tools needed to respond to the nation’s needs through entrepreneurship.

A COMMUNITY EFFORT

While the self-organizing founders of the local start-up scene have benefited greatly from academic and government support, it’s in strategic and funding partnerships with corporations that many of these founders have been able to take their businesses to the next level.

“Corporations really want to work with start-ups,” said Minette Navarete, vice chairman and president of Kickstart Ventures. Kickstart Ventures is one of the country’s leading venture capital firms, a subsidiary of Globe Telecom backed by Ayala Corporation and SingTel.

According to Ms. Navarete, large corporations benefit from the creativity and excitement that start-ups bring to the table. Whereas corporations like Globe Telecom and Ayala have the resources to fund large ventures, start-ups are agile enough to develop and scale solutions at a pace traditional firms just can’t keep up with. Far from the narrative of disruptor versus disrupted, corporations in the Philippines play a vital role in creating spaces for start-ups to flourish.

Building the Philippine start-up community is a tripartite effort that calls on the government, the academe, and private institutions across the spectrum to work together in unprecedented new ways. To pull that off requires no shortage of creativity and open-mindedness — a paradigm shift towards collaboration that, if properly structured, could see not only the start-up community, but the nation as a whole, flourish.

In choosing to expand into the Philippines, Zipline’s founder Keller Rinaudo echoed what many start-ups have already known about the local ecosystem. It’s not just the wealth of opportunity that firms like his can capitalize on, but the spirit of collaboration that permeates every facet of the local start-up community.

With the government’s scaffolding of legislative and executive support, the academe’s thrust towards equipping the next generation of business leaders with the business and tech know-how to thrive, and the entrepreneurial spirit that drives Filipino founders forward into the fourth industrial revolution, it’s no wonder why firms across the globe have their eyes on the Philippines.

“Many people think the next big technological applications of our time will come out of places like Japan or the United States,” Zipline’s Mr. Rinaudo said. “But it’s precisely the [countries] that embrace innovation that end up leapfrogging ahead of even developed nations.”

How to choose a brand name that’ll last

Naming a business may be a daunting task, but entrepreneurs, make no mistake—your brand name can be as important as the quality of the product you make and the price at which you sell them.

A study by CrowdSpring showed that eight in 10 consumers make purchases based on a brand or trade name, as it is the first thing they see about a business. A good business name gets noticed by consumers and makes it top of mind if it makes a good enough impression. While a rather quirky business name may be memorable, it may not necessarily translate into sales.

Brand names dictate the identity of a business—a well-thought out name signals to the consumer that the product or service was developed with a lot of planning and care. A good name helps with perception—imbuing your product a more premium and reliable feel. A brand name can also hint at a positive company culture. Consumers tend to patronize businesses that not only fulfill their needs but also reflect their own values.

GoDaddy, a leading online tools provider empowering everyday entrepreneurs and small business owners, knows the importance of a good brand name. “Having a compelling brand name can naturally translate into a good domain name that’s not only unique but easy to find and memorable,” says Tina Shieh, Marketing Director for GoDaddy Asia.

Here are some tips for creating an effective brand name for online and offline use:

Keep it short, simple, and easy to remember. If your customers can’t remember your name, can’t spell it, or properly pronounce it for others, they won’t be able to help promote your
business. Remember, word-of-mouth is often still the most successful and credible form of advertising. “Having a short brand name doesn’t mean a lack of creativity; rather, it shows that
the essence of the brand can be condensed with a few letters,” says Shieh.

Test the name. Once you’ve selected a few possible name choices, share them with trusted friends, family, and customers to get feedback. If you have the budget, assemble a focus group to get unbiased opinion. Be open to changing the brand name depending on the feedback you get.

Be wary of trends. Names that contain words like “lit” may be popular today, but they limit the business to a specific clientele. Not only that, they ensure that in five years when these
buzzwords are completely out of rotation, your business will be too. “Relatability is important in
choosing the name for the business, but you have to consider how relatable the name is over time and across different demographics as you grow,” says Shieh.

Plan for the future. Think big for your brand and what it can accomplish in the future. For instance, don’t name your business as a flower shop if it could grow to a floral enterprise. Some people use their city, state or region as part of their brand name, but think about the wisdom of using the name when you expand your business to other places in the future. A great example is U.S. multi-national company—Minnesota Manufacturing and Mining—when the company grew beyond the state and the industry, it changed its name to 3M.

Claim your brand name online. When you have settled on a brand name, try to acquire other possible iterations of its domain, whether .com, .ph, or .net. This way, you protect not only the name, but also your brand identity and reputation. It only takes a single visit to the wrong website for a consumer to diminish their regard for your brand.

Support your brand with credible content. A brand that has informative and credible content will be able to relay its messaging more effectively. “Such content can help build the brand’s reputation, allowing customers to identify with the brand and reward them with their business,” says Shieh.

Strong brand names can create a sense of reliability and a greater desire for purchase among its customers. As the company empowering everyday entrepreneurs around the world, GoDaddy has turned searching for domain name into a science with its easy-to-use domain name search tool for mobile and desktop users, as well as other options for choosing and registering the right domain name for your venture.

“GoDaddy provides the right tools and solutions that are easy-to-use and affordable, as well as providing helpful guidance from purchasing domain names to building websites and managing an online presence,” says Shieh.

For information on how GoDaddy can help your small business, you can visit their country site here.

A top-class patient care experience

Filipina patient shares heart operation experience at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital

It was a common scenario for Vanessa Ocampo, a Filipina training consultant by profession, to experience severe palpitations in the last 10 years. She had been used to it, as she told BusinessWorld in an interview, not until a year came when she experienced it every week.

From that time, Mrs. Ocampo took some rest for six months, and observed less heartbeat irregularities thereafter. Assuming everything was fine, she decided to get back to her normal routine of doing trainings and travel.

Last March, Mrs. Ocampo, together with her husband, went to Singapore for a mission trip. And while having a dinner in a mall, she unexpectedly suffered from palpitations. After taking her medicines and making all the techniques she know to get her heartbeat back to normal, the irregularities continued, recording almost 200 beats per minute.

This pushed them to go straight to the nearest hospital in the area which happened to be the Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, a health care facility operated by Parkway Hospitals Singapore. Although Mrs. Ocampo’s heart stabilized after three hours, she had another episode of tachycardia. The doctors advised her then to be admitted in the hospital.

After knowing Mrs. Ocampo’s medical history, Dr. Lim Choon Pin, a cardiologist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, offered her to undergo a catheter ablation procedure, which would be a permanent solution to her heart disorder — supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) — diagnosed in 2016.

Dr. Hsu Li Fern, a senior consultant and cardiologist at the same hospital, did the procedure. It lasted for three and a half hours — which supposed to be done for about two hours — as another case of abnormal heart rhythm called atrial tachycardia was discovered during the operation.

Mrs. Ocampo shared that she was so blessed that Dr. Hsu did the procedure. “I searched him in Google and learned that he was actually one of the bests in his field. I never dreamed that the procedure will be done by somebody like him,” she said.

When asked how Mrs. Ocampo would describe the overall patient care she got from the Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, she said everything was fantastic and fabulous.

“I actually told my husband: Maybe all the staff here in Mount Elizabeth were trained in customer service. Because the brand of service I got from the nurses and the doctors, to the ones getting my food order, seems to be the same,” Mrs. Ocampo said. “They were all very friendly, they were all very caring.”

The Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, according to Mrs. Ocampo, really changed the way she looks at patient care. At present, her life is getting back to normal. She is able to do training and traveling again, and is able to eat the food she wants.

Parkway Hospitals Singapore operates four hospitals (Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital and Parkway East Hospital) and several medical centers in Singapore, where multi-disciplinary specialist care is effectively administered in one place.

For international patients, Parkway Hospitals Singapore goes the extra mile and offers dedicated medical evacuation and concierge services through its Patient Assistance Centres; located in Metro Manila, to better serve the Filipino patients who need support and advice in medical and travel arrangements. These queries start from the diagnosis and treatment options, the estimated cost, doctor availability and appointments, and so on.

To make an enquiry or appointment, contact the Parkway Patient Assistance Centre:

Parkway Patient Assistance Centre (Taguig)

2/F Ore Central, 31st Street corner 9th Avenue

Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, 1634 Philippines

Tel: +63 2 812-1264 ext 227

Email: cmi-bgc.ph@parkwaypantai.com

 

Parkway Patient Assistance Centre (Pasig)

Unit 3106 East Tektite Tower

Exchange Road, Ortigas Center

Pasig City 1605, Philippines

Tel: +63 917-560-6498

Email: manila.ph@parkwaypantai.com

BSP: July inflation could be as low as 2%

THE OVERALL RISE in prices of widely used goods could have eased to its slowest pace in more than two-and-a-half years last month, the central bank announced on Wednesday, citing lower rice and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices, cheaper electricity rates and a stronger peso that made imports cheaper.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Department of Economic Research told reporters in an e-mail that it “projects the July 2019 inflation to settle within the 2.0-2.8% range,” explaining that “[l]ower rice and domestic LPG prices, along with downward adjustment in electricity rates and the recent peso appreciation” can be expected to have tempered inflation pressures last month.

The floor of BSP’s estimate would be the slowest in more than two-and-a-half years or since October 2016’s 1.8%, while the ceiling compares with June’s 2.7% and the 5.7% clocked in July last year.

BSP’s July estimate would take inflation in the first seven months to a 3.2-3.31% range against the central bank’s downward-adjusted 2.7% forecast average and 2-4% target band for 2019, as well as the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s 2.7-3.5% assumption. Actual headline inflation averaged 3.4% last semester.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority — which will report July inflation data on Aug. 6 — show average retail price of well-milled rice fell by 4.2% and 4.3% year-on-year in the first and second weeks of July, respectively, to P42.88 per kilogram (/kg) as of the second week, while average retail price of regular milled rice dropped by 6.2% and 6.8% annually in the first and second weeks, respectively, to P38.40/kg as of the second week.

Moreover, the overall rate of Manila Electric Co. — the country’s biggest electricity distributor — dropped for the third straight month by P0.1068 per kilowatt-hour to P9.985/kWh in July.

Rice accounts for 9.59% of the theoretical basket of goods used by a typical household that is the basis for computing year-on-year overall price changes, while liquid fuel, solid fuel, gasoline and electricity contribute 0.13%, 1.22%, 1.28% and 4.8%, respectively.

Supporting importers, the peso finished P50.89 against the dollar on Wednesday, stronger than end-July 2018’s P53.095 close, while the local currency’s weighted average amounted to P51.109 to the greenback, stronger than the year-ago P53.415, according to data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines.

At the same time, the BSP said on Wednesday, the impact of reductions in rice, LPG and electricity prices as well as of the stronger peso was “partly offset by higher prices of petroleum and food items” in July.

Energy department data show year-to-date adjustments of fuel pump prices yielding net increases of P5.95 per liter for gasoline, P3.80 per liter for diesel and P2.05/liter for kerosene as of July 23.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno told reporters on the sidelines of a forum on July 23 that inflation could settle “below two” percent in the third quarter as food and oil prices ease, citing “base effects” of multi-year-high rates last year.

The central bank, whose Monetary Board meets on Aug. 8 for its fifth policy review for 2019, has signalled further cuts in benchmark interest rates on the table after it reduced such borrowing costs by 25 basis points in May — following a cumulative 175 bp hike last year in the face of multi-year-high monthly inflation rates that brought 2018’s average to a decade-high 5.2% — and banks’ reserve ratio requirement by 200 basis points after a cumulative reduction of the same magnitude last year. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

San Miguel to bag Bulacan airport project with no bid contenders

By Denise A. Valdez
Reporter

SAN MIGUEL Holdings Corp. (SMHC) is all but certain to bag the contract for the P735-billion Bulacan airport project after its unsolicited proposal went unchallenged by the deadline to do so on Wednesday.

Giovanni Z. Lopez, the Department of Transportation’s (DoTr) bids and awards committee (BAC) chairman, said after a ceremony at the DoTr office that the notice of award is expected to be given in a week.

“Today was the opening of bids for the Swiss challenge… no one bought our bid documents… so no one submitted… which means we have to award the project to San Miguel,” Mr. Lopez said.

“But we still have to await the recommendation of the TWG (technical working group) within three days, and then the BAC will submit a recommendation to the head of agency, which is (Undersecretary for Aviation Manuel Antonio L. Tamayo) in this case, within five days, for the notice of award.”

After the notice of award, SMHC will have 20 days to comply with regulatory requirements such as submission of a performance security and a proof of commitment.

The performance bond will be at least two percent of the project cost if given in cash, at least five percent if through an irrevocable letter of credit and at least 10% if through a surety bond. Mr. Lopez said the bond may be a combination of any of the three.

Mr. Lopez said that if the post-bid process goes as planned, SMHC should be able to start construction of the airport next quarter.

“I think we can finish all the documentation processes by the last week of August until first week of September,” he added.

‘A LONG WAY TO GO’
Ramon S. Ang, president and chief operating officer of SMHC parent San Miguel Corp., said in a statement: “We still have a long way to go, but with the continued support of government and everyone, we hope to get started working right away.”

The company wants to help decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila by building a 2,500-hectare airport in Bulacan — provisionally to be called the New Manila International Airport — with four to six parallel runways and a terminal that will have an annual capacity of 100 million passengers.

Wednesday’s proceedings initially appeared to be headed for some complications, as Transportation Undersecretary for Planning Ruben S. Reinoso, Jr. said in a mobile phone message that the Public-Private Partnership Center, in a letter addressed to BAC Chairman Lopez that was received on Monday, asked “to stop Swiss Challenge.”

A Swiss challenge is a competitive process by which unsolicited proposals are opened to counterproposals, which the original proponent has the right to match.

The Swiss challenge for the Bulacan airport project began when bid documents became available on Apr. 22 for the price of P10 million.

But Mr. Reinoso said the Swiss challenge went on as “BAC decided there’s no legal basis for PPP Center to stop process.”

Mr. Lopez confirmed in a telephone interview that he received a letter from the PPP Center.

“Yes, I received the letter from PPP,” he told BusinessWorld when asked about such communication.

However, he said that while “they sent the letter to me” its contents were “highly confidential.”

Mr. Lopez said the BAC decided to proceed with the Swiss Challenge because it was “the legal thing to do,” adding that only a temporary restraining order from a court could have stopped Wednesday’s proceedings.

The PPP Center, however, denied that it had tried to stop the Swiss Challenge.

“In light of media queries, the PPP Center would like to clarify that it did not request the DoTr to stop the New Manila International Airport (Bulacan International Airport) Project,” the center said in a statement on its Web site.

San Miguel’s Mr. Ang said he “will ask DoTr” on necessary action steps regarding the PPP Center’s letter in relation to SMHC’s proposal.

Health dep’t eyes maximum retail prices for select drugs

THE GOVERNMENT could issue an order this year that will cap retail prices of select medicines, even as a group of drug manufacturers argued that such a move was unnecessary.

During a public hearing on the plan on Wednesday, Drug Price Advisory Council (DPAC) member Diana Tamandong-Lachica said that the DPAC will have to determine which medicines will be covered by maximum retail prices (MRP). This will then be submitted to Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III who will send it to Malacañang for an executive order (EO) on the MRP.

“The Secretary of Health shall recommend the MRP list to the president of the Philippines and… upon approval of the president an executive order shall be issued ordering the imposition of the MRP on selected drugs and medicines,” Ms. Lachica said during the hearing.

The MRP will cover medicines for the top 40% of health problems in the country, including cancer, diabetes and hypertension.

The DPAC was formed by the Health department under implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act No. (RA) 9502, or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008.

DPAC Chair John Q. Wong said that there is a need to regulate prices of medicine because the Philippines has the highest medicine prices in Asia.

“OECD countries have higher prices but we’re second to them and the highest among all of the Asian countries. This shows a pattern that our prices are almost the same as OECD countries but higher than Asian countries,” Mr. Wong said, referring to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

For the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines, however, “the proposed imposition of maximum retail price is unnecessary” since RA 11223, or the Universal Healthcare Act, and RA 11215, or the National Integrated Cancer Control Act, “offer broader and sustainable approaches to improving access to medicines and health care.” It called for group procurement of medicines that “creates economy of scale which result in low transaction costs and better leverage in pricing negotiations and terms of contract.” — Gillian M. Cortez

Aboitiz Q2 net income up 3% on one-time gain

ABOITIZ Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV) reported a 3% rise in its second-quarter consolidated net income to P5.4 billion, in part after the holding firm and its biggest contributing unit both recognized non-recurring gains.

It told the stock exchange on Wednesday that the one-off gains of P412 million during the period were mainly from unrealized foreign exchange gains on the revaluation of dollar-denominated net liabilities as against a forex loss of P42 million a year ago.

Without these gains, AEV said its core net income during the quarter was at P5 billion, down 6% compared with the previous year’s.

“While challenges to our bottomline continue to persist, we have seen recovery across our entire portfolio compared to the same period last year and compared to the previous quarter,” said Erramon I. Aboitiz, AEV president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

Its energy subsidiary Aboitiz Power Corp. (AboitizPower)contributed the bulk of earnings during the period. It reported a second-quarter net income of P5 billion, down 2% from a year ago.

The unit recognized non-recurring gains of P560 million, reversing last year’s one-off losses of P196 million.

Without these gains, AboitizPower’s core net income was at P4.5 billion, declining 16% from the previous year largely because of the interest expense incurred after the company’s bond issuance in October 2018, take-up of interest and depreciation expenses from Hedcor Bukidnon, Inc. and Therma Visayas, Inc.

In the first half, AEV’s net income was lower by 11% at P9 billion. Core net income was down 16% to P8.9 billion.

“We still feel we are well-positioned to reap the benefits of our country’s ‘demographic dividend’ and to take advantage of opportunities to evolve and expand beyond our borders, as we deepen our role in building a better future for communities,” Mr. Aboitiz said.

Power accounted for 67% of the semester’s total income contributions from AEV’s strategic business units, followed by banking and financial services (24%), food (6%), infrastructure (2%), and land (1%).

AboitizPower’s net income in the first six months slipped by 5% to P8.6 billion, while core net income fell by 19% to P8.5 billion largely as a result of the higher volume and cost of purchased power during the period.

“The first half of 2019 was challenging for AboitizPower as Luzon faced supply issues leading to the elections. Nevertheless, we remained committed to serving our customers to the extent of providing them with replacement power that we bought from the spot market at rates higher than our contract prices,” said Emmanuel V. Rubio, AboitizPower chief operating officer.

The company said spot market prices were “exceptionally high” during the period, which also saw it buying replacement power because of the outages and advanced contracting ahead of incoming capacity.

AboitizPower’s net income contribution to AEV decreased by 5% to P6.7 billion due largely to higher volume and cost of purchased power during the first half.

Income contributions from the generation and retail electricity supply businesses accounted for 82% of total income contributions from AboitizPower’s business segments, which reached P8.1 billion, down 5%. The distribution business posted an income share of P1.8 billion, lower by 12%.

Union Bank of the Philippines’ income contribution to AEV rose by 3% to P2.4 billion as it sustained the growth of earning assets despite lower margins and strategic investment in its digital transformation.

The contribution of non-listed food subsidiaries Pilmico Foods Corp., Pilmico Animal Nutrition Corp., and AEV International Pte. Ltd. amounted to P552 million, or lower by 17%. The food group’s total earnings were generated offshore as against the 1% a year ago, as Pilmico International announced earlier this year its full acquisition of Singapore-based feed company Gold Coin Management Holdings Ltd.

Republic Cement & Building Materials, Inc.’s income contribution to AEV jumped 473% to P249 million, primarily due to improved control on production costs coupled with higher market prices and increased private sector demand.

Aboitiz Land, Inc. reported a 79% drop in consolidated net income to P60 million, while its revenues slipped by 28% to P1.4 billion. The company attributed the decline to the deferred revenue recognition of industrial lot sales.

On Wednesday, shares in AEV slipped 1.76% at P53 each, while those of AboitizPower fell by 2.21% to P35.40 each. — Victor V. Saulon

Holcim Q2 profit down 17% on lower cement sales

HOLCIM Philippines, Inc. reported a 17% drop in its attributable profit for the second quarter of 2019, weighed down by lower cement sales amid flat infrastructure spending for the period.

In a regulatory filing, the listed cement manufacturer said net income attributable to equity holders of the parent stood at P716.15 million, lower than the P863.65 million it posted in the same period a year ago. Net sales plunged 28% to P7.28 billion.

This brought the company’s attributable profit nine percent lower to P1.42 billion in the first half, amid an 18% decline in net sales to P15.38 billion.

“Net sales generated for the first half of 2019 was P15.4 billion…mainly due to easement of demand from muted pubic infrastructure projects following the delayed passage of the national budget,” the company said.

Holcim Philippines noted that price management in both cement and aggregates offerings partly compensated for the lower volumes.

Meanwhile, operating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization) improved by 9.5% to P3 billion for the first half, which the company attributed to its initiatives on product mix, pricing, logistics efficiency, and cost-optimization. EBITDA margins accordingly went up by five percent.

“We continued to deliver value to our customers and shareholders by sustaining actions to manage our costs and improve operational efficiency despite a slowdown in public construction activity which affected sales volumes,” Holcim Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer John Stull said in a statement.

Mr. Stull added that they expect demand to accelerate in the second half.

“Holcim Philippines is ready to capture the market’s growth having put in place significant initiatives to drive performance and adequately respond to the country’s growing need for high quality building materials,” he said.

In June, the company completed the expansion of its Davao plant that raised its cement production capacity to 2.4 million metric tons. The expansion started in October 2017 and was valued at P1.5 billion. It also launched Solido, its newest blended cement brand, for infrastructure applications last March.

Holcim Philippines is currently being acquired by diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) worth $2.15 billion, as part of its parent Lafarge Holcim Group’s exit from the Southeast Asian region.

The transaction is currently being reviewed by the Philippine Competition Commission.

Shares in Holcim Philippines went up 0.43% or six centavos to close at P14.10 each at the stock exchange on Wednesday. — Arra B. Francia

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