COCA-COLA Philippines stays true to their mission of refreshing people, inspiring moments of optimism and happiness, and making a difference as they proudly support the 30th South East Asian (SEA) Games. Not only are they refreshing the best Filipino and other SEA region athletes, officials, volunteers, and spectators with millions of bottles of different Coca-Cola products — from Wilkins Pure to Thunder Supersoda, to Viva! Mineral Water to Coca-Cola — they are also encouraging and engaging people to advocate for a cleaner and a litter-free sports competition.
Hosted by the Philippines, the 30th SEA Games will feature 11 participating countries squaring off through 529 events in 56 sports. A total of 5,630 athletes will compete in different venues including the newly-built Clark City, the Rizal Memorial Stadium, and the Mall of Asia Arena.
WHILE admitting that it felt painful to miss out on a podium finish, still the Philippine football women’s national team is not looking at its 30th Southeast Asian Games campaign anything less.
Defeated in the bronze medal game by Myanmar, 2-1, on Sunday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium, the Philippine Malditas were left ruing but nonetheless grateful and positive to have been able to put up a spirited fight in front of the hometown fans throughout the competition and vowed to continue improving.
“The players really improved in the tournament, from the training two months back all the way to the competition. We may have lost but I’m proud of them. It is painful but it would help improve the team,” said national team coach Let Dimzon after their campaign ended.
The Malditas were on track for a bronze medal against Myanmar when Quinley Quezada gave the Philippines a 1-0 lead in the 57th minute.
But the Burmese side was not be deterred by it and came back strong, scoring back-to-back goals care of July Kyaw and Yee Yee O in the 77th and 79th minute to seize the upper hand.
The host team tried desperately to rally back but Myanmar would hold on for the win and the bronze medal.
“Despite the loss I think in this tournament we showed what we are capable of doing. We just have to keep the players together and add the needed pieces,” said Ms. Dimzon.
The Malditas coach was also thankful for the fan support their team received throughout the competition.
“It was huge for the morale of the team to see all the support we got. We’re very thankful and it was really heart-warming,” Ms. Dimzon said.
After the SEA Games, the Malditas would start preparing for the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Women’s Championship which the country is hosting next year.
SUCCESSFULLY dethroned the defending Southeast Asian Games champion in the semifinals, the Philippine men’s volleyball team tries to complete its scintillating run in this year’s edition of the biennial regional sporting meet by winning the gold medal in the finals today at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
To face Indonesia in the scheduled championship match at 6 p.m., the Philippines is out to build on its huge five-set upset of erstwhile champion Thailand on Sunday and hand the country its first-ever gold in the event.
The Philippine men’s volleyball team dethroned Thailand with a gusty come-from-behind 17-25, 25-20, 23-25, 27-25, 17-15 victory, ending in the process the Thais’ reign as champion.
Bryan Bagunas sparked the team’s comeback from a 1-2 set deficit, delivering the big hits, including a big block and a championship-clinching attack that frustrated the Thais.
“This is too much, I can’t explain the feeling right now. We’re elated because we won and we’re assured of a silver. But we need to work harder for the title,” said coach Dante Alinsunurin after their win which was witnessed by some 6,000 fans live at the venue.
With Marck Espejo checked by the Thai defense, Mr. Bagunas, a product of National University, rose to the occasion, playing his heart out to the delight of the crowd, coming up with a SEA Games-best 27 points built on 23 attacks, two aces and two blocks.
Mr. Espejo, meanwhile, poured in 20 points on top of 12 excellent receptions.
Thailand was seemingly on its way to the finals with a 14-13 lead in the deciding set but committed a service error.
Substitute Amorntep Konhan gave the lead back to the defending champions but the Filipinos did not buckle down and earned the victory in two hours and 18 minutes.
Standing in the way of the Philippines for the gold is Group B mate Indonesia, which has been undefeated so far in the tournament and is coming off a straight-sets win over Myanmar in the semifinals.
In the SEA Games, the Philippine men’s volleyball team has earned six medals to date — one silver and five bronze.
The “Frenchman with Two Names” Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL) is on a mission — he wants to be the next world champion. He thinks he can beat Magnus Carlsen.
As our readers know there have been only two people who have defeated Carlsen in three consecutive games — Wesley So accomplished that feat in the recent World Fischer Random Chess Championship. MVL beat Magnus twice in the Abidjan (Ivory Coast) Grand Chess Tour event earlier this year, and then got the third straight victory in the Norway opening blitz tournament in Stavanger. This Stavanger event must have been especially bitter for Carlsen, as up to then (June this year) he had won all five tournaments he participated in for the year. MVL not only broke his streak, he also snatched first place in the 9-round single round robin and did it by upending Carlsen in the final round.
But to play a world championship match means that he has to go through the Candidates’ tournament, and as strong a player as he is GM Vachier-Lagrave has never been able to qualify.
Back in the previous world championship cycle MVL already made a determined bid to qualify but just missed out by a whisker.
The World Cup 2017, a 128-player KO tournament held in Tbilisi, Georgia (Sept. 2–27, 2017) qualified the two finalists for the 2018 Candidates. After five very tough rounds the four semifinalists were MVL, Aronian, Wesley So and Ding Liren. Maxime actually had the toughest matches. He faced Grischuk in Round 4 and then Peter Svidler in five and managed to win both matches. He was looking quite invincible but fell to Aronian in a very tense and tight battle which reached all the way to the Armageddon phase. MVL only needed to draw in the last game to go through to the finals but, despite getting the advantage at one point finally lost. Aronian was to go on to win the World Cup after defeating the other finalist Ding Liren.
For the upcoming 2020 Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the qualifiers as defined by FIDE regulations are:
Runner-up 2018 title match — this is Fabiano Caruana
Two finalists from 2019 World Cup — Teimour Radjabov and Ding Liren (his second straight runner-up finish)
FIDE Grand Swiss tournament in the Isle of Man — Wang Hao
Two top placers in the FIDE Grand Prix — as of now Alexander Grischuk and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are the top contenders but there is a final grand prix event to be held in Jerusalem starting Dec. 11 and both Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ian Nepomniachtchi can still qualify assuming they do well and MVL succumbs to the pressure.
The highest average rating (who does not qualify by one of the above methods, and is not Carlsen) — as of now this is Anish Giri with an average rating of 2782. He is being chased by MVL with 2777. Unfortunately for Vachier-Lagrave in the previous cycle the top two highest average rating qualified for the Candidates (this was how Wesley So qualified previously). This time, with the introduction of the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, the two slots here was reduced to one.
One wild card chosen by organizer, subject to eligibility criteria — As per eligibility criteria MVL can be a wild card but the organizer has already indicated that they will nominate a Russian player as a wild card. This will probably be either Kirill Alekseenko (the highest non-qualifier in the Grand Swiss), Alexander Grischuk (assuming he does not qualify through the Grand Prix) or Ian Nepomniachtchi. I find it hard to believe though that Nepom will be nominated as wild card for he had verbally clashed with the organizer of the Hamburg Grand Prix after being eliminated in the 1st round. Nobody likes poor sports.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a contender in the last three categories but realistically he needs to do well in Jerusalem in order to earn a ticket to Yekaterinburg.
Is it obvious to you, my dear readers, that I want him to qualify? This is because he deserves to be in the world championship cycle! Born 1990, he is part of the generation of chessplayers born in 1990 — this is a particularly strong class which includes Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergey Karjakin, and Dmitry Andreikin. He became a grandmaster at the age of 14 and his peak ELO rating of 2819 makes him the 7th-highest rated player of all time (ok, I know what you are thinking — how about Wesley So? Well, he is the 5th highest rated player with a peak of 2822).
MVL has been competing since the age of six, has won numerous local and international tournaments and in addition to his strength in classical time controls is also highly skilled at rapid and blitz chess. You will recall that Caruana held Magnus Carlsen to 12 straight draws in their 2020 world championship match but then got completely taken apart in the rapid tie-breaks. This is not going to happen with MVL.
He is a very aggressive attacking player. He never shies away from complications. On the contrary, he revels in them. The wilder the position, the better for him. He’s so fond of imbalanced play that he struggles to play safe in situations when he only needs a draw. He just can’t help himself. He’s always a dangerous opponent for anyone, because he usually finds a way to steer the game into messy tactical play.
MVL knows his strengths and weaknesses, and he always plays to his strengths. He has a narrower opening repertoire than any of his competitors in the world elite. As black, he plays his beloved Sicilian Najdorf against 1.e4 and the Gruenfeld against pretty much anything else. As white, he plays 1.e4 and the Giuoco Piano. Ironically, his black games are often more aggressive than his white games. Many top players come prepared with novelties against his narrow black repertoire, and they often fail spectacularly. It’s telling that most of MVL’s exciting games come with the Black pieces.
I will show you how he eliminated former world champion Veselin Topalov in the Quarterfinals of the recently-concluded Hamburg Grand Prix, but first here is one of my favorite games — this is “The Magician from Riga” with one of his devastating attacks on his way to the World Championship in 1960.
As you know Black has two major ways to lay out his knights. He could go 10…Nb8-d7-e5 or 10…Nb8-a6-c7. The former is more popular but this game is a powerful demonstration of the ideas behind the latter formation.
We have transposed to a variation of the Benoni Opening. In fact, the position is almost identical to Gurgenidze-Tal except that Black’s knight is on b4 instead of c7, and white’s rook on a3 instead of a1.
15…a6 16.Bf1 Nd7 17.Na2 Ra7!
In essence provoking White to exchange knights on b4, after which Black’s knight would get an outpost on c5.
Topalov is known for his exchange sacrifices and here he provokes Black into going after his rook. The former world champion is banking on the idea that the black-squared bishop is stronger than a rook.
28…Bf4 29.Bf3 Bxe3 30.Bxe3 Rc8 31.Qd4 Qe5 32.Qa7
Topalov didn’t want any back-rank problems after 32.Qxb4 Ra8! 33.g3 Bxh3 although even then 34.Bd4 Qe7 35.Qxb5 Rc8 White is at least equal.
32…Be8 33.g3 Rc3
You will notice one thing about MVL’s play — he likes to sharpen up the game as the clocks wind down, trusting in his superior quick play skills.
34.Bd4 Qg5 35.Be2
[35.Bxc3? bxc3 Black is suddenly winning as the passed c-pawn cannot be stopped]
35…Qd2 36.Bf1 Rxb3 37.Kg2 Ra3! 38.Qb6 <D>
38…Ra6!
MVL gives back the exchange but his passed pawn on the b-file wins the day.
39.Qxa6 Qxd4 40.Qc8
Neither
40.Qxd6 Qxe4+ 41.f3 Qe1;
or 40.Bxb5 Qxe4+ 41.Kg1 b3 42.Bd3 Qxd5 change anything.
Topalov resigned because of 44…Qd1+ 45.Kf2 Qc2+ forcing the exchange of queens and queening his pawn.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
The Mavericks didn’t have any zip from the get-go yesterday. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back set against the rested Kings, they started slow and found themselves down by 20 at the break. They didn’t even get a taste of the lead at any point in the first half; the best they could do was forge two ties early on. And when they began the fourth quarter, they were still 14 points behind. Still, they plodded on, tightening the screws on defense and slowly clawing back on the strength of inspired play from veteran J.J Barea, plus the usual dose of late-game production from Most Valuable Player candidate Luka Doncic.
Considering the deficit the Mavericks needed to overcome, having the ball with a chance to go for a tie or the lead with potentially the last play of the game was nothing short of remarkable. Needless to say, the overflow crowd of 19,566 at the American Airline Center knew the outcome would be decided by Doncic. Coming off a timeout with 13.4 seconds left, a well-designed isolation set had Doncic receiving the inbounds pass and taking command of the open court. The stepback three was an option, but, at home, he knew well enough to drive to the paint and aim for an extension.
There was just one problem, however. Doncic missed. Against seemingly token opposition from overmatched Cory Joseph, he drove the lane, spun to his left, and pulled up from six feet. Unfortunately, his one-handed flick proved off the mark; perhaps it was short because of a hit on his shooting elbow. Beyond the no-call, however, those from the outside looking in couldn’t help but wonder why he began his assault on the basket prematurely. Even if he made the shot, there would have been more than enough time for the Kings to design a game-winning play after securing the rebound off their last timeout.
In any case, there can be no doubting the Mavericks’ claim to be counted among the league elite. And there can also be no doubting the biggest reason for their turnaround. Despite being just 20 and fresh off a Rookie of the Year campaign, Doncic is already showing superstar chops usually manifested only with the benefit of extensive experience. Yesterday was an uncharacteristic hiccup on his part, but, in the grand scheme of things, nothing to delve on. Even the best of the best have stumbled over the course of a long season.
For the Mavericks to truly thrive, though, they will need to win the games they should. As head coach Rick Carlisle noted in the aftermath, they didn’t do themselves any favors by timidly greeting the opening tip. “Gotta play the whole game,” he said. “A disappointing loss.” Indeed. The Kings, eight and 13 entering the set-to, should have been fodder. As things turned out, THEY were the fodder. Moving forward, they aim to learn and do better. And because they have Doncic leading them, the safe bet is that they will.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
THE PESO moved sideways on Monday following the latest round of cuts to banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRR) and as markets await the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) monetary policy decision.
The local unit closed at P50.77 versus the greenback on Monday, depreciating by less than a centavo from its P50.765 finish on Friday, according to data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines.
The peso opened the session at P50.83 per dollar. Its weakest showing was at P50.875, while its intraday best was its close of P50.77 against the greenback.
Dollars traded dropped to $653.4 million yesterday from $899.2 million on Friday.
Traders attributed the peso’s performance for the day to the central bank’s upcoming policy meeting as well as data from the United States.
“The peso weakened slightly from the impact of the latest BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) reserve requirement cut and upbeat US labor reports last Friday,” a trader said in an e-mail.
Meanwhile, another trader said the market is on the lookout for new signals from the central bank.
“The peso was flat as market is still awaiting for more clues regarding the BSP’s action especially with the Monetary Board meeting this Thursday. With this, we see sideways trading for the rest of the week,” the second trader said in a phone call.
The RRR for universal and commercial lenders now stands at 14% and four percent for thrift banks following 400 basis points worth of cuts for the year thus far, while the reserve ratio of nonbank financial institutions with quasi-banking functions is at 14%. Meanwhile, the RRR of rural banks is at three percent.
Meanwhile, the BSP Monetary Board’s Dec. 12 policy meeting is the eighth and last for 2019.
In the US, Reuters reported that November job growth was strongest in 10 months fueled by a hiring upsurge in the health care industry and the return to work of production workers at General Motors.
The monthly employment report from the US Labor department also showed that unemployment rate slowed to its lowest levels in nearly half a century and wage gains remained near their strongest in a decade.
The US government’s survey of establishments showed that non-farm payrolls grew by 266,000 jobs in November, pushed by the 60,200 additional health care workers paired with the increased hiring at restaurant bars.
For today, the first trader expects the peso to range at P50.65-50.85 versus the dollar, while the second trader sees the local unit moving around the P50.70-50.90 band.
Meanwhile, most Asian currencies also remained range-bound on Monday, as investors awaited trade talk developments ahead of the scheduled implementation of new tariffs by the US on Chinese imports.
The US is set to impose a new round of trade tariffs on Chinese goods on Dec. 15, a plan which White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Friday was still in place. — LWTN withReuters
PHILIPPINE SHARES failed to sustain their recovery on Monday as investors poured money into the US market on the back of better jobs market data.
The 30-member Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 21.92 points or 0.28% to close at 7,779.80 on Monday, while the broader all shares index fell 8.08 points or 0.17% to finish at 4,637.88.
“The main index ended slightly lower on low trading volumes and some foreign outflows,” AAA Southeast Equities, Inc. Research Head Christopher John Mangun said in an e-mail on Monday.
Net outflows for Monday’s session reached P308.32 million, lower than Friday’s net sales worth P718.66 million.
“The main index opened higher today, but the gains were short-lived as sellers were clearly in control,” he said on Monday, adding that losses from Ayala Land, Inc. (down 0.80 points or 1.76%), Ayala Corp. (down 15 points or 1.81%), and SM Investment Corp. (down 18 points or 1.67%) weighed down on the index.
Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said yesterday’s outflows can be attributed to investors pouring money into the US after the US Department of Labor reported that non-farm payrolls surged by 266,000 in November, while unemployment fell 3.5%
“Here at home, the major event will be the last BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) meeting which is scheduled towards the end of the week,” he added.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial index gained 337.27 points or 1.22% to 28,015.06, the S&P 500 index rose 28.48 points or 0.91% to 3,145.91, while the Nasdaq Composite index increased 85.83 points or 1% to 8,656.53.
For Asian markets, AAA Southeast Equities’ Mr. Mangun noted that most were slightly higher due to weak trade data from China, which showed that exports declined for the fourth month in November by 1.1%, year-on-year, with exports to the US declining 23%.
Back home, subsectors were divided. Those that gained were led by financials which rose 20.44 points or 1.09% to 1,895.05; industrials added 94.91 points or 0.99% to end at 9,650.34; and mining and oil increased 19.66 points or 0.26% to close at 7,537.17.
Losers were led by holding firms, which fell 102.79 points or 1.32% to end at 7,648.03; property lost 28.35 points or 0.69% to 4,071.53; and services dropped 2.18 points or 0.14% to 1,497.17.
Some 576.20 million issues valued at P5.56 billion switched hands on Monday, versus previous session’s 468.04 million issues valued at P5.71 billion.
Losers outnumbered advancers, 105 to 81, while 48 issues were unchanged.
“We may see it (PSEi) test support at 7,750 before going higher. The sentiment right now is extremely gloomy, and nothing seems to give investors any reprieve. The next two weeks are going to be crucial for global markets, what we are seeing may be the calm before the storm,” Mr. Mangun noted. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang
Typhoon Tisoy (international name: Kamurri) left 17 people dead, isolated several provinces, and destroyed infrastructure and agriculture worth billions of pesos. Torrential rain submerged hundreds of villages in the Bicol region as well as in Isabela and Cagayan, floodwater rising to as high as the roof of most houses in those provinces.
The governments of Camarines Sur, Albay, Sorsogon, Quezon Province, Oriental Mindoro, Northern Samar, Virac town in Catanduanes, and Ilagan City in Isabela placed their territories under a state of calamity.
It could have been much worse. Many more lives would have been lost were it not for the timely and well-planned response of government agencies and the officials of the areas in the path of Typhoon Tisoy.
When the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) reported on Nov. 29 that the typhoon was expected to make landfall in the Bicol Region between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, the various agencies and units of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) went into action. The civil defense authorities in Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur, and Catanduanes recommended the cancellation of classes at all levels on Dec. 2 and 3. In Catanduanes and Masbate, people living in coastal areas were moved to shelters. In Albay, people dwelling on the slopes of Mt. Mayon were evacuated to safer grounds.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano directed all governors, mayors, and village chiefs to stay at their posts and oversee response to the disaster that Tisoy would cause. The Philippine National Police placed all its units in Luzon and the Visayas on full alert, ready for calls for help. The Metro Manila Development Authority advised residents to take precautionary measures. Legaspi City Mayor Noel Rosal ordered all outdoor Christmas decorations taken down.
As southern and central Luzon was expected to be battered by strong winds and heavy rain, organizers of the 30th Southeast Asian Games cancelled or re-scheduled outdoor events in Subic, New Clark City, Calatagan and Tagaytay in Batangas. Officials of Camarines Sur forced residents in flood- and storm surge-proned areas to evacuate.
Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and Air Asia cancelled all their international and domestic flights from the afternoon of Dec. 2.
It is amazing that the NDRRMC was able to reduce considerably the number of lives lost and the amount of damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and private property given the fury and wide scope of Typhoon Tisoy and the organizational structure of NDRRMC.
The NDRRMC is a working group of various government, non-government, civil sector, and private sector organizations, administered by the Office of Civil Defense under the Department of National Defense. Its function is “to plan and lead the guiding activities in the field of communication, warning signals, emergency, transportation, evacuation, rescue, engineering, health and rehabilitation, public education, and auxiliary services such as firefighting and the police in the country.”
It is composed of 40 members that include the president of the Social Security System and the secretary of Tourism. The chairman is the defense secretary, with the secretaries of Interior and Local Government, Social Welfare and Development, Science and Technology, and the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority as vice-chairmen.
President Duterte wants a unified body dedicated to disaster risk reduction. In his State of the Nation Address last year, he urged Congress to pass a bill creating the Department of Disaster Management. He said: “We need a truly empowered department characterized by a unity of command, science-based approach, and full-time focus on natural hazards and disasters, and the wherewithal to take charge of the disaster risk reduction, preparedness and response, with better recovery and faster rehabilitation.”
There is, however, a strong objection to the separation of PAGASA from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The DOST, which also deserves honorable mention in risk reduction and management, has been able to build PAGASA as well as the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) into well-functioning units in the overall disaster risk reduction and management system in spite of its meager resources.
In the era before weather satellites and Doppler radar, sudden and alarming weather disturbances were a way of life in the Philippines. Typhoons batter islands, particularly those lying on the western rim of the Pacific Ocean, many times during the year, sometimes in the dead of night, causing loss of many lives and wreaking serious damage to infrastructure, private property and crops. Today, PAGASA is able to track a typhoon days before it makes landfall, and even before it enters the Philippine area of responsibility, as PAGASA did when it spotted Tisoy in late November, enabling the NDRRMC to perform its function commendably.
We do not know when the knowledge we now have about typhoons could have been gained had the bill to study typhoon prospered in the halls of Congress and passed into law before the end of the 1950s. In the mid-1950s, Rep. Francisco Perfecto of Catanduanes filed a bill in Congress to address the problems caused by typhoons, his island province being frequently pounded by the furious storms. The true intent of the bill was to study typhoons with a view to dissipating their force and reducing the damage they wreak. It included provisions for funding the specialized training of personnel and the acquisition of technical equipment.
A cynical member of the House of Representatives instantly dubbed the bill as the “Bill to Outlaw Typhoons.” The press lapped up the derisive label, prompting political pundits to comment that the bill was reflective of the inanities indulged by the occupants of the Lower House. The twisted information that a member of Congress wanted to declare typhoons outlaws gained wide circulation among politicized citizens. The fact is nowhere in the bill was there any statement or even a hint to declare typhoons outlaws.
But because of the jeers that rained down on his bill and the snide remarks blown his way, Rep. Perfecto allowed his bill to die a quiet death. He retired from politics at the end of his term in 1957.
Had Rep. Perfecto’s bill been made into law, perhaps the staff of the weather bureau would have gotten to know more about the behavior of typhoons by the beginning of the 1970s. A super typhoon, Yoling, hit Metro Manila on Nov. 19, 1970. Fortunately, it raged in the morning of that day when people were up and about. Power would not be restored in many parts of the metropolis until 10 days later, causing many people to miss the telecast of Pope Paul VI’s visit on Nov. 27.
Perhaps damage to property could have been reduced and many more lives saved if Yoling had been tracked before it entered the country’s area of responsibility and people warned of its potentially destructive force to enable them to secure their property and ensure their personal safety.
But the DOST has been making up for lost opportunities. It has made PAGASA what the late Catanduanes Rep. Perfecto may have envisioned it to be. PAGASA played a major role in reducing the destruction of Typhoon Tisoy as it did when typhoons battered the country in recent years.
Hail PAGASA! Hail NDRRMC!
Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. is a retired corporate executive, business consultant, and management professor. He has been a politicized citizen since his college days in the late 1950s.
“Can rights and values be universal if they seem, even after lengthy explanations of the communitarian case, to be rationed by a subset of rules about sovereign boundaries? Perhaps we should agree to think of rights and values as limited resources…” — Jeremy Harding, “Europe at Bay,” London Review of Books 34(3), 2012
The above quote was from an essay written in 2012, a year when migration “crises” were being debated worldwide. The right of asylum was being delegitimized by global right-wing propaganda claiming such asylum policies are being exploited. This tore at the heart of a presumed consensus: that which says that nations must extend aid and mercy to people fleeing violence and oppressive governments.
Many governments failed to defend this principle. Four years later, 2016, saw the catapulting of authoritarians and demagogues trading on “populist” rhetoric to high offices worldwide — our own current President included.
It might be odd to open a column in this pessimistic way — especially as today is International Human Rights Day. The day commemorates the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): a document detailing the inalienable rights of all human beings, exhorting the nations of the world to adopt such standards in their government policies. The document has held up to scrutiny and valuation for the past 71 years. Nearly all global governance institutions and democratic movements worldwide stand by it, invoking its contents and guidance in crafting their agendas and advocacies.
Yet the existence of the Declaration also belies a bitter truth. It has not wholly guaranteed the protection, enactment and actualization of such rights in all countries. The institutions supposed to promulgate its contents, sovereign-nation states, keep invoking national sovereignty to continue repressive internal security policies. This, ultimately, is at the heart of the crises denying and violating peoples’ basic rights to live.
Many nation-states, especially ones under the sway of personalistic and patronage-led regimes, ignore, dismiss or wilfully violate international human rights. They rely on their party and personal machineries to spin and delude their populations towards ignoring, dismissing, or fully antagonizing the entire discourse that seeks to protect them and their quality of life.
Southeast Asian nations continue to garner criticism specifically for being guilty of this. It was once hoped that the regional platform of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would open more opportunities for cross-cultural and cross-country empowerment and advocacy. This was the premise of ASEAN’s Vision 2020 Charter, promoting the formation of a single ASEAN Community that would promote closer and interlinked governance standards along political-security, economic, and socio-cultural lines.
Yet its long-critiqued “non-intervention” principle continues to maintain the status quo of preventing cross-country accountability, as well as regional opportunities to address human rights violations. It probably does not help that nearly all ASEAN member-states have been guilty of human rights violations under the guise of promoting social and ethnic cohesion, “discipline” and crackdowns on political dissent/opinion. In his combative 2004 essay “Who Is the Subject of the Rights of Man?,” the French philosopher Jacques Ranciere criticized contemporary attitudes on human rights discourse, which assumed that the presence of international standards guaranteed their adoption. In his view, this has led to the neutralization of human rights discourse, rendered impotent as “the rights of those who cannot enact them, of victims whose rights are totally denied.” Ranciere argues that only peoples and communities who dare “use,” invoke, and fight for these rights — even in direct opposition to political authority — could be expected to enjoy them.
This is easier said than done, especially if one lives in a country where spaces for freedom of movement, speech, and opinion have been stymied. Yet the reality of globalization and an interconnected world has not only allowed for the spread of news coverage and ideas. It has allowed for collective global realization, as well as coordination of global common agendas.
What could be done to address this backlash against the extending and expanding human rights worldwide?
The past holds lessons in how to achieve these. This year, 2019, is also the 20th anniversary of the “Battle of Seattle.” Protest actions by movements in Seattle against the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference were followed by solidarity demonstrations worldwide, leading to the collapse of trade negotiations. It spirit still seems to be alive today, if the growing worldwide protests and advocacy by the youth against climate change are any indication. Last Friday, Dec. 6, famed Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg led nearly half a million people on the streets of Madrid.
Such movements and actions are only possible when there are enough infrastructure, institutions, environments, and cultural development to support them. Civil society organizations should be allowed to grow organically via community organizing and empowerment — not imposed, sanctioned, or mobilized by state fiat. Resources and public funding for such should not be withheld, and people should be educated towards their purpose (that they may make the choice of funding and supporting them themselves).
International support and funding, for that matter, must be made available and easier to mobilize and access. At the same time, such organizations, movements, and advocacy groups must continue to maintain the highest of standards, transparency, and accountability. In these times of crises, they cannot afford to lose credibility — not when governments are pouncing at every opportunity to delegitimize them.
No people kept their rights and way of life without fighting to protect them. No society should be consigned to such misery and deprivation that they cannot even stand up for themselves. No more should we allow human rights to be treated as scarce, exclusive and limited resources — if we are to give substance to our dreams of global progress.
Hansley A. Juliano serves as Lecturer to the Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University. He teaches and writes research on democratization, Southeast Asian politics and social movement issues. He is also engaged in research and advocacy for key sectoral issues (such as labor rights and agrarian reform).
Section 116 of the Revised Corporation Code (RCC) defines a “One Person Corporation” as a corporation with a Single Stockholder, who must either be a: (i) natural person; (ii) trust; or (iii) estate, and which shall be governed by a special set of provisions under its Chapter III, Title XIII. However, as will be demonstrated in the discussions below, it would be easier to view the Single Stockholder in a One Person Corporation (OPC) setting as simply a natural person.
By way of comparison, if the close corporation reflects the commercial medium of an “incorporated partnership” introduced into the Philippine setting by the old Corporation Code, then the OPC should be viewed as a new corporate medium of “incorporated sole proprietorship” introduced under the RCC to promote the ease of doing business (EODB). The provisions of Chapter III, Title XIII seek to extend the commercially advantageous features of separate juridical personality and limited liability to entrepreneurs and proprietors of micro-, small-, or medium-enterprises (MSMEs), and to promote the EODB.
The OPC is primarily a “for-profit” corporate vehicle and generally cannot be employed by a natural person as a means to practice a profession, unless expressly allowed by a special law. Although theoretically there can be a nonstock corporation with a single member, such an institution would not fall within the ambit of Chapter III, Title XIII of the RCC.
‘NATURAL PERSON’ AS THE SINGLE STOCKHOLDER
Although Section 10 of the RCC (Number and Qualifications of Incorporators) expressly provides that “a person, partnership, association or corporation, singly …may organize a corporation for any lawful purpose or purposes,” it nevertheless provides in its last paragraph that “A corporation with a single stockholder is considered a One Person Corporation as described in Title XIII, Chapter III of this Code.” However, not all corporations with a single stockholder would fall within the definition of an OPC that shall be governed under Chapter III of Title XIII, since Section 116 provides essentially that only a natural person may form an OPC.
a. OPC is Organized as a Stock Corporation. The language of Section 10 referring to a single stockholder, as well as the provisions under Chapter III of Title XIII clearly provides that an OPC can only be organized as a stock corporation with a single stockholder.
To illustrate, although Section 10 allows for a single incorporator, and the amendment reflected in Section 22 allows the Board of Trustees to be constituted of only one member even for nonstock corporation, nevertheless, when a single natural person incorporator organizes a nonstock corporation with a Board of only one member, such a nonstock corporation cannot be considered as governed by Chapter III of Title XIII of the RCC, but rather by Title XI that governs primarily nonstock corporations.
b. A “Natural Person” as the Single Stockholder Acting as Nominee. When an OPC is organized by a natural person, there is no provision in Chapter III of Title XIII to indicate that it would not qualify to be an OPC when the Single Stockholder is holding such shares as a nominee for another person or persons, or even when he/she holds the shares as nominee of a corporation or any other juridical entity.
This position is bolstered by the fact that Section 116 provides that a “trust” is qualified to be the single stockholder, even when the trustee clearly holds the trust properties for the benefit of several beneficiaries, or, for that matter, for the benefit of a juridical entity.
c. A “Trust” as the Single Stockholder. A trust arrangement is not a juridical entity, and having no “capacity to contract” as such, cannot legally assume the role of the Single Stockholder who holds title to the shares in the OPC.
What Section 116 must mean is that the trustee of the trust property, when he/she is a natural person (since a trustee can also be a juridical person) can qualify to incorporate the trust estate into an OPC, with the trustee as the Single Stockholder, even when expressly stating that he holds the shares in the OPC as trustee for the benefit of an identified beneficiary or beneficiaries.
Again, when the natural person incorporates an OPC in his name as the Single Stockholder, expressly stating that he holds the shares as trustee for an identified beneficiary, this should not disqualify the corporation from being an OPC governed by Chapter III of Title XIII, since the provision itself allows a “trust” to be incorporated as an OPC, regardless of the trustor/beneficiary of record. It is only when the trustee is a juridical person that it cannot incorporate the trust properties into an OPC with the trustee-corporation itself as the Single Stockholder.
d. An “Estate” as the Single Stockholder. Section 111(a) (on Articles of Incorporation) states that “If the single stockholder is… an estate, the name, nationality and residence of the… administrator, executor, guardian, conservator, custodian, or other person exercising fiduciary duties together with the proof of such authority to act on behalf of the… estate” shall be contained in the OPC’s articles of incorporation.
An “estate” cannot lawfully become a stockholder of any corporation, because it has no “juridical capacity to act”; only persons with capacity to contract may own properties (i.e., shares of stock) or become parties to contractual relationships (i.e., as subscriber to the shares of stock of a corporation). It may be true that the OPC may assume the name of the estate, say “Estate of the Decedent Juan dela Cruz, OPC,” but the Single Stockholder of record would be the fiduciary holding legal title to the estate properties.
What Sections 116 and 118(a) must mean when referring to an “estate” which may form an OPC is that whoever is the fiduciary holding title to the estate (whether as an administrator, executor, guardian, conservator, etc.) may validly incorporate the estate into an OPC, with a fiduciary natural person as the Single Stockholder of record. Again, such a fiduciary must be a natural person to constitute the corporation an OPC governed by Chapter III of Title XIII of the RCC.
As in the case of a trust, the single stockholder may validly indicate that he/she holds all of the shares in the OPC as fiduciary of an identified estate beneficiary. In the case of the conservator, he actually holds the title to properties that pertain to a corporate entity.
ENTERPRISE OR BUSINESSES THAT MAY BE PURSUED THROUGH AN OPC
If one were to evaluate the various provisions of the RCC, we can deduce the following rules on the types of enterprises or undertakings that may be pursued through the medium of the OPC, thus:
a. Practice of a Profession. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 10, a natural person can pursue the practice of his profession through an OPC (or an ordinary corporation) only when authorized by the special law that governs the practice of that particular profession.
An example of such a special law would be the Architecture Act of 2004 (R.A. 9266) that allows the registration with the SEC of architectural professional corporations.
b. Service Company. A natural person can pursue the rendering of his/her services, other than in the practice of a profession (i.e., a service that is not regulated by the Professional Regulations Commission), through an OPC which thereby retains him/her as an employee or a consultant.
c. Holding Company. Aside from the express power granted to a natural-person-trustee or natural-person-fiduciary to incorporate the trust properties or the estate into an OPC, there is no prohibition in Chapter III of Title XIII, for an OPC to be organized by a natural person Single Stockholder, not to operate a business, but merely to hold title to properties, real or personal; EXCEPT:
(i) When it comes to holding title to private lands, where the single stockholder must be a Filipino citizen; and
(ii) When holding shares in a corporation engaging in a nationalized business or industry, where, if the Single Stockholder is a foreigner, the amount of equity held in the corporation should not exceed 40% of the voting capital stock, nor more than 40% of the entire outstanding capital stock
d. All Other Lawful Business Enterprises May Be Pursued Through an OPC by the Single Stockholder; EXCEPT: As expressly provided in Section 116: (i) Banks and quasi-banks; (ii) Insurance, preneed and trust companies; (iii) Publicly-held and Publicly-listed companies; and (iv) Non-chartered GOCCs
e. Businesses Vested With Public Interests. Although not expressly stated in Chapter III of Title XIII (unlike in the case of close corporations), an OPC cannot be organized to undertake any business that has been classified by the SEC as being “vested with public interests,” because such classes of corporations are required to have at least 20% of the Board constituted of independent directors, which requirement an OPC, by its very nature, cannot legally comply with.
f. Mining and Oil Companies, Stock Exchanges, Public Utilities. If close corporations are expressly disqualified under Section 95 from engaging in these types of business, then policy considerations should also disqualify the OPC from engaging in such business activities.
(The article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or the MAP)
Cesar L. Villanueva is Chair of the MAP Corporate Governance Committee, the Founding Partner of the Villanueva Gabionza & Dy Law Offices, and the former Chair of the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG).
The good news in the country’s labor force survey reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is that unemployment rate has significantly declined, from 6% in October 2014 to only 4.5% in October 2019. The underemployment rate has also declined to only 13%.
The bad news is that the labor force participation rate (LFPR) is declining, from 64.3% in October 2014 to 61.5% in October 2019. Declining LFPR means people are less optimistic, less confident that they will be hired or they can hire themselves, so they postpone seeking jobs or entrepreneurship and pursue more studies, training, or bumming around. Those who join the labor force are more confident, more skilled and that partly explains the lower unemployment and underemployment rates (see Table 1).
We should still aim for a 2.5% or below unemployment rate. That number can be considered as “full employment” as the 2.5% are considered as short-term “voluntary unemployment,” like people who are offered a P20,000/month job and refuse to take it as they wait for P25,000/month or higher job offers.
One recent issue that can have an adverse impact on employment — on the manufacturers, shops, and sellers — is the vaping ban, or heavy regulations and higher taxation of e-cigarettes and tobacco substitutes like vaping products.
We often hear many “crisis” and catastrophe stories — climate crisis, plastic crisis, non-communicable diseases (NCD) crisis, sugar/obesity crisis, tobacco crisis, vaping crisis, etc. Most if not all are exaggerations. If any or all of them are true, people should be living shorter, sicklier lives. Far out as people now are living longer, healthier, and wealthier as shown by the rising life expectancy.
When more people die of NCDs, that is good news. That means less people die of communicable and infectious diseases, less people die of wars and violence. More people though can die of injuries and accidents as people are now more mobile across islands and countries. Death by injury in the Philippines is declining but is higher than those in Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia, but lower than those in South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam (see Table 2).
“Harm reduction” is being done to mitigate injuries and diseases as people do what they want without harming others. Like helmets and body protection for cyclists and motorcycle riders, low alcohol content drinks like beer vs “high octane” hard drinks, and using vapor/heating instead of burning nicotine.
Dr. Carrie Wade, Director for Harm Reduction Policy, R Street Institute in Washington DC, USA, has good scientific research work on the biological mechanisms of opioid and drug addiction, addiction as a disease, and how the neuroadaptations of an addicted brain can result in destructive behaviors. She believes that “harm reduction practices can shift really risky behaviors to more neutral behaviors, decrease disease transmission and health care costs.”
In a paper, “E-Cigarette Bans Come at the Expense of Public Health,” she wrote, “Is it right to ban a largely successful quitting tool at the expense of people who benefit from it? Policymakers need to recognize that not all tobacco products are created equally, and it doesn’t make sense to prohibit and overly restrict safer alternatives when fatal ones are cemented in the landscape of our laws, economy and culture.”
If the nanny state is to be consistent in protecting people from themselves, it should also impose more regulations and prohibitions on sky jumping, rock climbing, downhill bicycle and motorcycle riding, and many full contact sports. Since the nanny state is not consistent, it should reduce its appetite for more regulations and prohibitions and recognize that people own their body, not the state or NGOs. There should be more personal, parental, and civil society responsibility in public health, not more state command and control.
Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. is the president of Minimal Government Thinkers.
JOB DESCRIPTIONS are supposed to define one’s role, accountability, and sometimes the resources to be made available. (You are not entitled to any information or funds.) Anyway, no matter how a subject performs the duties specified in the job description, he still needs to serve in some committee.
The committee is an assigned group formed to tackle multi-functional issues. It serves to elicit different points of view and eventually gain consensus on the way forward. A committee can become more dominant in the organization than even a supposedly powerful position, as more and more decisions require different groups.
Committees are established by a memo defining its mandate and composition. They are sometimes created to address a crisis, say, the hacking of the ATM system; or a routine cross-functional project like cultural transformation or managing an international sports event.
Committees are also called “task forces,” when announced in a press conference. The latter implies urgency and single-mindedness, and probably a defined operating life.
A chair (or a co-chair) is designated, using furniture rather than the one using it, to adhere to political correctness on gender inclusivity. A specific task is assigned which may or may not define the agenda for meetings.
There is no limit to the size of a committee. It is usually less than 20 but more than two. Less than three members constitutes a conversation which does not merit the serving of snacks.
The secretary of the committee is called the secretariat even if she is just one person. She coordinates the schedules of committee members, books the venue for the meeting, borrows the projector, determines the menu for lunch, and lines up presenters who wait outside for their turn. She e-mails the agenda and takes the minutes of the meeting.
Minutes are prized by committees. Drafts are checked for accuracy and used as instruments of power. Minutes reflect the thinking of the committee and the decisions taken by the group in terms of “next steps.” A camel may be a horse designed by a committee — but it is still important to check the minutes on who put the humps there, and more importantly who gets to ride the beast.
Some details of the meeting, including melodramatic observations are usually left out. (His forehead was beaded with sweat, and his voice faltered, as he tremblingly accepted the committee’s decision.) The minutes record succinctly what happened — the decision to dispense with a corporate orator was passed.
Rarely does a committee publicly rid itself of a specific member. No memo is issued to say that Mr. V is no longer a member of the Committee of Committees (CoC) due to a loss of trust. For the next meeting, the secretary simply fails to notify the person concerned on when the next meeting will take place. And there is one less cup of coffee served.
Occasional texting during meetings is allowed. Active participation is occasionally expected. This can take the form of vigorously agreeing with the chair, but not too forcefully, so as not to embarrass him. Now and then, asserting an opinion may entail interrupting someone and speaking loudly, but only until the Chair throws dagger looks in the direction of the noise, or someone moves to adjourn the meeting.
Investigative committees are a different type of grouping. Here, collegiality and the rules of civility are dispensed with as the sound bite is prized if the hearings are covered by media. It is seldom necessary to keep the minutes, except for consignment to the archives. It’s the grandstanding and the ambush interviews at the break that matter.
Is corporate life possible without committees? No unit is an island (consultants prefer the industrial imagery of a “silo” — spewing industrial waste) complete unto itself. A unit head needs to consult others, to reach out, give inputs, and collaborate with peers in promoting corporate goals. He needs a committee to test ideas and explore the limits of patience.
Committee work teaches humility and the compulsion to cheer a resolution to adjourn. Staying seated for a few seconds after adjournment is necessary to show that one is not rushing out too quickly. A member needs to demonstrate that committees are important, and one is loath to be torn away from them.
And then it is just a matter of waiting for the minutes of the meeting… and what they left out.
