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Dyson seeks pioneer-status incentives for Philippine-made products

THE PHILIPPINE UNIT of Dyson Electronics Pte. Ltd., a British-founded technology company that anounced a strategic relocation to Singapore, is seeking pioneer status from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) to manufacture hair dryers, vacuum cleaners and motors for its appliances.

The applications cover production of the V7 and V8 Dyson Digital Motor (DDM), the V7 and V8 vacuum cleaners, the V9 DDM and V9 “Supersonic” hairdryer, and the V10 DDM and V10 vacuum cleaners,

The products are manufactured at Camelray Industrial Park II in Calamba, Laguna, a PEZA ecoomic zone.

The application is based on the final product being first to be produced in the Philippines, which if approved will entitle the company to six years of income tax holidays (ITH), against four years for non-pioneer projects.

“Said application has been officially accepted and is under process in this office,” PEZA said in a notice published Tuesday in a newspaper.

PEZA has solicited comment on the applications, which are due within 15 days of the notice’s publication. — Janina C. Lim

Sugar output rises 0.63% in mid-June

SUGAR PRODUCTION at the second week of June rose 0.63% year-on-year, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said.

As of the second week, the SRA reported that sugar production was 2.068 million metric tons (MMT), up from 2.055 MMT a year earlier. This is equivalent to 41.36 million 50-kilo bags, compared with 41.097 million a year earlier.

The crop year for sugar starts in September and ends in August.

Demand for raw sugar declined 17.77% to 1.65 MMT.

Total sugarcane milled decreased 7.65% year-on-year to 21.7 MMT.

Refined sugar output fell 7.73% year-on-year to 784,606.8 MT.

The millgate price fell 24.87% to P1,476.21 per 50-kilo bag. The retail price was stable at P45 to P50 per kilo, but fell year-on-year from a range of P52 to P59.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III has said that the government is looking into liberalizing sugar imports because prices are uncompetitive. He said that domestic prices are double the world market price, weighing on the competitiveness of the food processing industry.

Asked for comment, University of the Philippines School of Economics Professor Ramon L. Clarete said that the liberalization should be pushed so that the food industry can develop.

“There are two iconic monuments of protection. One is rice, the other one is sugar, so if you really want agriculture to be moving forward this has to go,” he told BusinessWorld after an event held in Makati City on Tuesday.

“Attitudes are changing because, clearly, some of the people in Negros are looking at the downstream part of sugar. There is business after planting the sugar. The more people there who can understand that, I think, they will start to open up to getting the product more competitively priced,” he added.

The Confederation of Sugar Producers (CONFED) has said that liberalizing imports would threaten five million jobs tied to the industry.

Mr. Clarete said that it is part of the government’s job to consider this factor if it were to liberalize any industry.

“That is, I think, something we can do about if in the past, there were people who were just left behind. When the government liberalizes anything, it should look at the people who are adversely affected rather than just leave them alone because liberalization will leave scars,” he said.

SRA Board miller representative Roland B. Beltran said he hopes liberalization does not go ahead, since “The price of sugar has been stable,” he told BusinessWorld in a text message. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Locked out of China, US pork producers sniff out new buyers

CHICAGO — US hog farmers lost hundreds of millions of dollars in export sales to China and Mexico after President Donald Trump launched his trade wars last year.

But the sector has largely offset those massive losses by cobbling together new customers in smaller markets from Colombia to Vietnam, according a Reuters analysis of data from the US Meat Export Federation and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

As American farmers pin their hopes for a trade deal on Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s agreement to restart talks at last week’s G20 summit, the pork industry stands out for its success in avoiding the sharp sales reductions that have slammed other US farm sectors, such as soybeans and sorghum.

Overall, US pork exports fell 3.9% by volume and 8.4% by value from May 2018 to April 2019, compared to a year earlier, according to data compiled by the US Meat Export Federation. China increased its tariff on US pork in April of last year and again in July, when it imposed tariffs on soybeans.

By comparison, total US soybean exports dropped 13.7% by volume and 19.2% by value during the same period, while total sorghum exports dropped 72.8% by volume and 73.6% by value, according to the USDA.

The boom in small-market sales has “been a savior for the pork industry,” Iowa hog farmer Dean Meyer said.

The industry’s salvation has roots in global marketing efforts that began more than a decade before the US-China trade dispute, as American hog farmers and their trade groups sought to take advantage of a boom in protein demand linked rising incomes in emerging markets.

They visited importers and grocery stores in developing countries, taught buyers how US pork is produced and touted its quality to chefs and bloggers around the world, according to participants in the trade trips. Those efforts took years to pay off.

As China and Mexico reduced their purchases last year, a subsequent drop in US pork prices helped encourage alternative buyers to ramp up purchases — particularly from smaller markets that had trade agreements with the United States, such as Colombia and South Korea.

The sector’s ability to avoid a sharper decline in total exports underscores the importance of developing a diversified customer base to guard against any trade disruptions with major importers.

The soy industry had grown so heavily dependent on China — which before the trade war purchased 60% of US soy exports, worth about $12 billion — that its more recent efforts to find new markets couldn’t make up for the business it lost in the trade war. Sorghum, a much smaller crop, is even more dependent on China, which had accounted for 80% of US exports.

By contrast, the US pork industry relied on China and Hong Kong for about 20% of exports by volume in the $6-billion market before the trade war. Hog farmers started to worry years ago about the risk of a decline in demand from China, which previously blocked some US pork over the use of a drug that helps fatten hogs.

US pork sales to China and Hong Kong sank about 30% by volume and value to about 326,726 metric tons and $737 million in the 12 months ending in April, after Beijing increased its tariff to 62% from 12% last year.

Sales to Mexico over the same period dropped 11% by volume and 25% by value, to about 726,859 metric tons and $1.2 billion, after Mexico imposed 20% tariffs on US pork imports in retaliation for US duties on metals imports last year.

Replacement buyers in smaller markets — many of which already had relationships with US meat producers – quickly stepped in to snap up much of the pork industry’s surplus.

US exports to Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea climbed by 24% by volume — to more than 530,000 metric tons — in the 12 months ending in April, compared to a year earlier, according to data from the US Meat Export Federation.

YEARS OF SALES PITCHES
Meyer and other hog farmers like him have trekked across the globe on trade missions seeking new buyers for US pork. He visited Colombia in 2015 and Peru in 2017, efforts that are now showing results, Meyer said.

Colombia’s imports of US pork rose by 34% to more than 103,000 metric tons in the 12 months ending in April 2019, aided by the US–Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.

Exports to South Korea jumped 14% to more than 230,000 metric tons in the 12 months ending in April, boosted by the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

US pork sales to Vietnam climbed by 334% by volume, to more than 16,500 metric tons, over the same period.

“I think it’s a result of doing these trade missions, hitting these markets hard,” said Meyer, who also serves on the executive committee for the US Meat Export Federation.

This spring, the US Meat Export Federation organized a pork cook-off in Ho Chi Minh City and afterward held an educational session and reception for about 300 chefs.

US farmers on a separate trade trip to Vietnam visited food manufacturer Vissan last autumn, said Nebraska hog farmer Bill Luckey, who took part in the trip and is a director for the National Pork Board.

As a result, the Vietnamese company sent a delegation to tour US meat processing plants, opening the door for potential deals, he said.

“We are out there trying to look at opportunities around the world,” Luckey said.

Vissan is now considering importing frozen US pork for the first time, the company said.

In a bid to increase international meat sales, Tyson Foods, Inc added staff last year to include South America, Philippines, and the Middle East. Hormel Foods Corp. also added staff, focusing on Asia and South America.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
While the pork sector has limited its losses, it might make great gains in sales to China were it not for the trade war. An epidemic of a fatal hog disease, African swine fever (ASF), has decimated millions of pigs in China’s domestic herd, increasing its reliance on pork imports.

China is the world’s top hog producer and pork consumer.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in China because of ASF,” said Nick Giordano, vice president and global government affairs counsel for the National Pork Producers Council. “We can’t fully capitalize on it because we have a 50% punitive tariff.”

The US industry did benefit from the epidemic, however. Expectations that the disease will push China to increase pork imports lifted US hog futures LHc1 by 78% from a four-month low in February to a five-year high in May. Prices have since dropped, but the gains allowed some farmers to lock in profits through 2020. — Reuters

DILG to distribute over ₱11 billion to support 1,373 low-income local governments

THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said it allocated P11.714 billion to support 1,373 municipalities under its Assistance to Municipalities (AM) program.

DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año said that the program will help fund priority infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, drainage systems, potable water supply, evacuation centers, and drug rehabilitation centers.

“Layunin ng AM program na matulungan ang mga munisipyo lalong lalo na yung mga 4th to 6th class at iyong nasa malalayong lugar para matupad ang kanilang mga programa at mabigyan ng serbisyo ang kanilang mga mamamayan,” said Mr. Año in a statement Tuesday. (The AM program aims to help municipalities, especially those who are considered 4th to 6th class, and those that are in far flung areas, to ensure that their programs are implemented and services are delivered to residents.)

From the AM funds, P1.17 billion will support 134 AM projects across 75 local government units (LGUs) in Ilocos Region; P818-million for 145 projects in 89 towns in Cagayan Valley; P1.269 billion for 207 development projects in 116 towns in Central Luzon; P1.153 billion for 259 projects in 123 towns in Calabarzon; P509 million for 108 projects in 71 towns in Mimaropa; P851 million for 177 projects in 107 towns in Bicol Region; P656 million for 134 projects in 75 towns in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); and P11 million for a project in the National Capital Region (NCR).

P1 billion was allocated for 173 projects in 136 towns in Eastern Visayas; P965 million for 169 projects in 117 towns in Western Visayas; and P834 million for 196 projects in 116 towns in Central Visayas.

P553 million will be given to 103 projects in 103 towns in Zamboanga Peninsula; P673 million for 116 projects in 84 towns in Northern Mindanao; P304 million for 74 projects in 43 towns in Davao Region; P387 million for 71 projects in 45 towns in Soccksargen; and P551 million for 76 projects in 67 LGUs in Caraga.

DILG said that the criteria for budget allocation include equal shares, fiscal capacity, per capita share, and LGU performance.

Further, Mr. Año said the funding is subject to the submission of some requirements.

They include certifications like the DILG Good Financial Housekeeping and the DILG Local Development Council Functionality Assessment; the assessment of Public Financial Management (PFM) Systems and adoption of corresponding PFM improvement measures; and submission of notarized certifications for fund release signed by the local chief executive.

DILG said “only those LGUs who have complied with the mandatory requirements will be endorsed by the DILG for the direct download of AM funds from the Department of Budget and Management down to the LGU level.” — Vince Angelo C. Ferreras

The June 9 Reed Bank Incident: Chinese gray zone operation in action?

The warm waters of the South China Sea are rich, which make them highly contested fishing grounds. China is the largest littoral state around this body of water, and it has a huge population to feed. It has built several supporting harbors and infrastructure in the last few years in the area, enabling it to deploy the largest fishing fleet in the South China Sea. The Chinese Maritime Militia (CMM) leads and protects China’s huge armada of fishing vessels.

The CMM’s purpose is to keep Chinese aggression at sea below the level of naval operations, thus complicating the littoral states’ responses to China’s maritime expansion. It hides behind a civilian facade, which allows it to hide behind the cloak of deniability. This gives China a powerful incentive to dissemble and deny the evidence of the militia’s invisible role of asserting Chinese maritime claims in the East and South China Seas. The CMM is not a maritime law enforcement agency even as it supports China’s goal of gaining control over the whole of the South China Sea through gray zone operations.

It was US naval analysts who alerted the world about China’s gray zone operations, including the deployment of non-naval coastguard and CMM fishing vessels geared to enlarge Chinese presence in the contested waters. An American analyst defines gray zone operations as “actions in the sea that often blur the line between military and non-military platforms, actions, and attribution for events, and are often, but not always, undertaken to assert” a territorial claim. Claiming that there is such a thing as Chinese gray zone operations, however, ignores how China has perfected a type of political warfare nearly 4,000 years ago, one which considers the use of force as a last resort and aims to defeat an enemy without actually fighting.

AN ACCIDENT OR A CMM OPERATION?
On the midnight of June 9, 2019, a Chinese fishing vessel rammed and sank a wooden Filipino fishing boat, the F/B Gem-Ver 1, then anchored at Reed Bank. After the collision, the Chinese vessel turned off its signal lights and sailed away as the Filipino boat sank. The 22 Filipino fishermen abandoned their boat and struggled to keep themselves afloat for more than six hours. Fortunately, a Vietnamese fishing vessel was in the vicinity and rescued all the Filipino fishermen.

On June 12, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana publicly announced the incident and criticized the Chinese for abandoning the Filipino fishermen to the mercy of the sea. Mr. Lorenzana said “the cowardly action of the Chinese fishing vessel that abandoned the Filipino fishermen is not the expected action from a responsible and friendly people.” He called for a formal investigation of the incident and appealed to authorities to take the appropriate diplomatic steps.

On June 13, the Chinese foreign ministry came out with a dismissive statement, calling the June 9 Reed Bank incident as “an ordinary maritime traffic accident.” China was still investigating the matter, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang. “If relevant reports are true, regardless of the country from which the perpetrators came from, their behavior should be condemned,” he added, even as he castigated the Philippines for politicizing the incident without verification.

Local fishermen pull F/B Gem-Ver 1 to the shores of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro after being rammed by a Chinese vessel near Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea. — THE STAR/WALTER BOLLOZOS

Philippine Navy (PN) Vice-Admiral Robert Empedrad challenged the Chinese position. According to him, it was a deliberate maneuver by the Chinese vessel to ram a smaller wooden Filipino boat. “The Filipino boat was anchored,” he said. “Based on the International Rules of the Road, it had the privilege because it could not evade an incoming ship. So the boat was rammed. This is not a normal incident.” He added: “It was the Chinese disregard for the safety and well-being of the 22 Filipino fishermen that made the incident doubly reprehensible.”

Supreme Court Associate Justice Carpio argued that no ordinary Chinese fishing vessels would engage in the ramming of other fishing boats for fear of inflicting damage to their own vessel. According to him, a CMM vessel probably sank the Filipino boat since it has a reinforced steel hull designed for ramming fishing vessels of other coastal states in the South China Sea.

Mr. Carpio observed that CMM vessels often loitered in the territorial waters off Philippine-occupied Pagasa (Thitu) island and other Philippine-occupied rocks in the Spratlys to intimidate Filipino occupants. The alleged ramming and sinking marks a possible quantum escalation of China’s aggressive acts against the Philippines. This incident might be the start of a new Chinese “gray zone” offensive to drive Filipino fisherman away from their traditional fishing grounds in the Reed Bank.

LET THE CHINESE FISH IN PHILIPPINE EEZ!
The captain of the ill-fated Gem-Ver 1 confirmed the navy chief’s account that the incident was deliberate since the crew of the Chinese vessel saw his fishing vessel before the collision. Ship captain Jonnel Insigne said that the Chinese vessel turned its lights on seconds before it rammed the Gem-Ver 1 and fled the scene with its lights off after the smaller wooden Filipino boat began to sink with all its catch and equipment. He told reporters that they thought the Chinese would pick them out of the water after the boat sank but they left the Filipinos alone in the dark. After interviewing the fishermen, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed that an investigation was ongoing but intelligence reports were “confident” that the Philippine boat was stationary when it was hit by the Chinese vessel.

Instead of considering the June 9 incident as a possible CMM operation, however, the current administration immediately adopted the Chinese government position that it was an “ordinary maritime incident.” It has also agreed to a joint investigation with China. To add insult to injury, President Rodrigo R. Duterte also wants the Chinese fishermen to fish in Philippine waters because the Philippines and China are friends. Such a position does not only violate the Philippines Constitution, it offers to China’s huge fishing armada and the CMM the opportunity to conduct more gray zone operations that will afford Beijing the capability to drive Filipino fishing boats away in the West Philippine Sea.

 

Renato Cruz De Castro is a Trustee and Convenor of the National Security and East Asian Affairs Program, Stratbase ADR Institute.

66 years in media… and counting

I believe “Ad Lib” is the second longest-running column in BusinessWorld, next only to that of the venerable Tony Samson. But I think we both started writing for this paper the same year it was reincarnated from the ghost of Business Day. My first piece came out on Sept. 21, 1988, almost 31 years ago.

Headlined, “Ah, those good old tabloid days,” it must have scandalized the usually straight-laced, prim and proper readership of what would become the country’s leading business daily (as Business Day had been). It was about my experience as a 16-year-old cub reporter in a tabloid — the kind that specialized in all the news not fit to print.

I had led off with the classic advice that the deskmen gave me, if ever I got stumped for a sensational story — “Masturbate it!” — and I thought that was shocking enough. But Letty Locsin, then managing editor, pushed it to the edge by translating that line into Tagalog: “Salsalin mo!”

At the time, Rodrigo Duterte had only been trashing good manners and decency in Davao City — not yet nationally — and being publicly bastos (vulgar) was not yet in fashion, thus my entry into column writing was a shocker.

But that wasn’t the first time my writing broke rules. For the mid-term elections in 1959, I wrote the scripts of the propaganda films of both the Liberal Party (LP) and the Nacionalista Party (NP) — and I wasn’t even old enough to vote.

For some reason, Documentary, Inc., the film production company of celebrated director Lamberto V. Avellana, had been assigned both competing projects by the two dominant political parties, and I happened to be the company’s in-house script writer. With no loyalty to either party, I dug up all the dirt I could find about them in the morgue of the Philippine Free Press and wrote the kind of hit pieces that were de rigueur back then.

One of the LP candidates was a charismatic congressman from Ilocos Norte, Ferdinand Marcos. I portrayed him reviewing for the bar exams behind bars. Marcos turned out to be the top vote-getter in an election dominated by the NP.

Six years later, in the 1965 presidential election, Marcos would run as the official candidate of the Nacionalista Party against reelectionist President Diosdado Macapagal. I had just joined ABS-CBN TV Network as head of program evaluation and development, and was given a special assignment by network president Eugenio Lopez, Jr. The Lopezes were helping Marcos, one reason being that Senator Fernando Lopez was his vice-presidential running mate.

I was asked to produce a daily anti-Macapagal TV show for which I suggested the title, Alis Diyan (“Get out of there,” a popular noontime show expression). Marcos won and changed the course of Philippine political history. Mea culpa.

At the start of the 2010 presidential campaign, some supporters of Senator Benigo Aquino III asked me for assistance. I said that I wasn’t impressed with Aquino but I was persuaded to help because he did seem like a better choice than the other contenders. Noting that Senator Manuel Villar was leading in the surveys, I suggested a term to scuttle his surge: Villarroyo — a mash-up of Villar and Arroyo (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo), which had become the most toxic name in politics at the time.

I did it for free. Gratis.

Villar’s campaign lost steam, Aquino overtook him and won. From reports, I understand that my creative contribution to the campaign helped a great deal. I subsequently found Aquino a disappointment as president. Villar, a seasoned executive, could have performed better. Mea culpa.

These and other historical, interesting, intriguing and engaging vignettes are contained in a book which I have just finished: Confusions of a Communications Man. It is as much an inside story of the Communications industry, including its seamy side, as it is the tale of a young boy who stumbled into it, “not knowing where he was going but getting there anyway.”

Sixty-six years… and counting. I have been actively involved in more areas and disciplines of media and communications than most people would experience in two lifetimes. And I’m still in the harness. Still involved in media, still doing marketing and communications. But this time, with tools and techniques that were considered science fiction when I began.

The book is not simply an exercise in nostalgia. It includes events and involves personalities who have become part of our country’s history. In a number of cases, I wasn’t simply a passive onlooker seated in the bleachers, but an active participant or an up-close eyewitness as the events unfolded.

I was acting in soap operas when radio was still the best alternative to going to the movies — before TV was introduced in the Philippines. This was in 1953. The following year, Alto Broadcasting System — the ABS half of what would become ABS-CBN — went on the air and brought the country into the mind-expanding and dumbing world of television. I was among the first batch of performers to appear before the TV cameras.

A few years later, I would also produce shows on television. In fact, I wrote, directed and produced the first action series on Philippine TV. Telecast on ABC TV Channel 5, Target: Agent 69, was unabashedly patterned after Ian Fleming’s Agent 007 series. Much later I did special reports on ethnic TV in California; was involved in the entry of both GMA Network and ABS-CBN Network in the United States; and produced a weekly news-magazine program that was telecast on the major cable and direct-to-home systems in America.

While still performing on radio; I landed a job as a police reporter, then got promoted to associate editor of a fan magazine; and that, in turn, got me involved in Tagalog movies. I wrote my first story and screenplay for LVN Pictures at 17, and made some 200 films, including some of the biggest box office hits on record.

But there were years when screenplay writers were paid starvation fees. Needing to earn money to support my family and help send my siblings to school, as well as pay for my own college education, I joined an advertising agency and set off on a new career path. But I still continued to write for the movies and direct TV serials.

It was a killing pace. Early on, I had to drop out of college and never finished. But I taught Advertising Management at De la Salle and Lyceum U, as well as at the Asian Institute of Journalism, despite lacking academic credentials.

I spent more years in advertising than in any of my other “careers”; became president and CEO of one of the leading ad agencies in Manila, Advertising & Marketing Associates; created ad campaigns (many of them for Nestlé) that are considered classics in the industry; and then relocated to the US where I set up my own ad shop, Minority Media Services.

While I referred to it as a mom-and-pop-and-kids operation, it did pretty good work in a highly competitive environment. In fact, my agency won the 1996 Gold Effie for the “most effective non-English campaign in the US.” This was for a campaign that I wrote for Wells Fargo Bank.

If all that seems confusing, it certainly is — which is why my book is entitled Confusions of a Communications Man. The sub-title is: Surviving Radio, TV, Movies, Journalism and Advertising.

Indeed, it was a test of survival. There were times when I was engaged in all five careers in a virtual non-stop grind, relieved only with catnaps and spurred by the Spartan showbiz axiom that “the show must go on.”

I am told that my book could serve as a source of inspiration for anyone who wants to “make it” in the World of Communications, but only if one is equipped with a capacity for hard work, a strong heart, and the will to win. Plus brains and lots of luck.

The book will be available on Amazon shortly.

 

Greg B. Macabenta is an advertising and communications man shuttling between San Francisco and Manila and providing unique insights on issues from both perspectives.

gregmacabenta@hotmail.com

Of Passports, ‘Wash’ Sycip and Unbearable Lightness

By Raul V. Fabella

WHEN Hong Kong denied entry to two valid Filipino passport holders, there seems no more to it than the rightful prerogative of a government to bar who it considers persona non grata. When the Philippine territorial waters and exclusive zones are being impunitively violated, there seems no more to it than conflicting territorial claims. Or wasn’t there? In the 1840s and 1850s Western colonial powers bombarded the coastal cities of Imperial China and even occupied Beijing to force China to open its borders to the lucrative opium trade. Defeated China was forced to swallow the “Treaty of Nanjing” dictated by the occupiers. The mindset behind these two actions set two centuries apart seems to be the same: “You are a lightweight, you don’t matter.”

There is a view we owe to, among others, Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) that says “When you don’t matter, you are free.” Gravity does not tether “no-matters” to the ground. Gautama Buddha believed as much. Our own Dr. Jose Rizal put it well: “Morir es descansar” (To die is to rest). Death unburdens us; it dissolves all debts that in life weighed us down. Which is why in many East Asian cultures untouched by Christianity, suicide is the preferred honorable exit; it spares your kin of the shame you caused. Suicide, mind you, is very cost efficient: it spares family and society the burden of your demoralized self. So when you finally end it, you attain a lightness of being not unlike freedom. Pareto efficiency in another guise!

Kundera’s quarrel with Friedrich Nietzsche’s “eternal recurrence” rather than his bearably prosaic storyline of love and infidelity was what gave him the gravitas to take the literary world by storm, even to earn a nomination for the Nobel. “Lightness” in Kundera means your “sin” and its dire consequences end with you. Contra Nietzsche, they will not be a curse on future generations. You can thus indulge without the guilt of collateral damage. Fair enough. But unbearable? It resonates differently with different people. Let me share how it resonates with me.

My generation, really the “boys of the ’50s and ’60s,” spanning the second half of the 20th century, saw the Philippines fumble its way from grudging envy to veiled contempt in the Asian region. The post WWII era was when the Philippine passport was cherished; aliens faked or bribed their way to its possession. In droves, students from Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia graced even our second-rate campuses. A Philippine PhD and MBA commanded high premia in the global marketplace. Young accounting wizards of Sycip, Gores and Velayo logged countless air miles to other Asian capitals and back to teach the natives the rudiments of double entry accounting and equity markets. The burden of leadership towards the promised land of development lay squarely on our laps. The epithet “Pearl of the Orient Sea” was consonant. Did anyone ever think that 40 years later the same epithet would seem dissonant?

The once coveted passport had become a ticket to exit the misery of the homeland. Customs authorities elsewhere now treat the Philippine passport holder with suspicion. The burden of leadership in the region slipped from our laps as the global league tables told year-in and year-out of our deadweighting the region’s index averages. It came to a head in 2019 when two prominent Philippine passport-holding visitors to Hong Kong were denied entry.

The venerable Washington “Wash” Sycip whose birth date, June 30, I am commemorating with this reflection, was more distressed than any Filipino by this reversal of fortune. “Wash” worried that endless quibbling over who gets what of the prospective harvest leaves the field unsown; that the ceaseless quarrel over who sits where on the deck of the sinking Titanic gets us closer to hunger and disaster. Can a democracy gone bad, one that privileged the individual over the group before its time, heal itself? May it not be the case that the healing of a democracy gone sour lies in its opposite, an autocracy? Many people disagreed with Wash on this but his was a valid scientific point. It remains at the dead center of our present national political discourse.

Our state authorities obsessed endlessly over the best modality to build the dam projects to supply bulk water for Metro Manila instead of building them. And when the inevitable water crisis finally came, the state authorities responsible for the missing dams found convenient scapegoats in the water concessionaires whose pipes could not deliver the missing water from unbuilt dams! Among East Asians, suicide or at least resignation among accountable state officials would be expected, but East Asia has long departed our DNA.

Through decades of unbuilt and half-built arterial infrastructure, through generations of unresolved ambiguity between the market and populism, investment sagged and economic dynamism relocated elsewhere in East Asia. The last 40 years came under the spell of “development progeria” when policies that strangled Tradables (Manufacturing, Agriculture) dragged the low income economy down to the sewers of low investment, low growth, and high poverty incidence. With investment on a long eclipse, the Philippines became a fast fading spectacle in East Asia’s rear view mirror. Observers joked that we forfeited our East Asian identity and relocated elsewhere. Only recurrent horrendous natural and man-made calamities (Typhoon Yolanda, the Maguindanao Massacre, Marawi) and occasional pugilistic feats, neither of which is of the East Asian genre, reminds the world that we still exist.

For better or for worse and despite the heroic effort of some of our generation to right the ship*, this I fear will go down as my generation’s legacy to its progeny and what Wash Sycip found so unbearable — the lightness of inconsequence.

This painful journey to inconsequence had a hopeful pause that started from Aquino’s watch and into the first year of Duterte’s. We saw a spell of the new normal (see e.g., Fabella, 2017, “Manufacturing, Quality of Growth, and Poverty Reduction,” BusinessWorld, Jan. 16, 2017, bit.ly/Introspective20170116) when the quantity but more importantly the quality of growth parted ways with the old. But this pause is itself having a hiccup as we enter the last three years of Duterte. Growth quantity and quality is reverting towards the old norm. Investment is being threatened by assertive populism. Temporary hiccup, we hope and pray! Otherwise, future generations of Filipinos will be condemned to Wash Sycip’s worst fear: the “unbearable lightness of inconsequence.”

*In early September, some of those boys — Romeo “Romy” Bernardo, Calixto “Toti Chikiamco, Emmanuel “Noel” de Dios and I, with the late Cayetano “Dondon” Paderanga — will launch a book called Momentum: Economic Reforms for Sustaining Growth that contains recommendations for staying in the new normal. Hope springs eternal.

 

Raul V. Fabella is a retired professor of the UP School of Economics, a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology and now an Honorary Professor at Asian Institute of Management. Weaving ideas in coffee shops is an integral part of his day. He gets his dopamine fix from hitting tennis balls with wife Teena and bicycling.

Japan is cool but has no clue about selling itself

By Noah Smith

NETFLIX just re-released one of the most popular animated television programs of all time — Neon Genesis Evangelion. The show, which combines dark, complex themes of alienation and loneliness with action-packed battles between robots and monsters, captivated the worldwide audiences when it came out in 1995. It introduced an entire generation to Japanese animation, whose high quality, adult themes and unique sensibilities helped redefine Japan’s culture in the eyes of the world, supplanting traditional visions of Mt. Fuji, geisha and tea ceremonies. But a quarter-century later, Japan is having difficulty transforming its newfound cultural cachet into economic riches.

Yet Japanese pop culture is thriving, with enormous fan conventions all over the world. Thanks to platforms like Crunchyroll (owned by AT&T) and Netflix — which has licensed many TV programs from Japan, as well as ordering its own originals from Japanese studios — overseas sales have been increasing rapidly, with cartoons making up the bulk.

BOOM TIMES
This is progress, but the Japanese entertainment industry could do much more. As things stand, the profits from platform distribution flow to AT&T and Netflix; if a Japanese company bought Crunchyroll or started its own worldwide streaming distribution service, those profits would go to Japan instead. Japan also has so far failed to make an internationally successful live-action movie business, despite possessing the technology to make cutting-edge visual effects that could rival Hollywood.

But the real power of Japan’s cultural cachet could go well beyond entertainment products. As the book Reinventing Japan noted, many of the products and services that Japan makes — cars, clothing, food, architecture, even zippers — embody a matchless Japanese aesthetic sensibility. This Japanese-ness is difficult to describe, but easy to recognize. And if promoted correctly, it could be used to help increase Japanese exports.

Many people think of Japan as an export-oriented economy, but it’s more insular than most:

SO WHO’S DEPENDENT ON EXPORTS?
The lure of its large domestic market is too strong, causing many companies to look inward for safe, reliable revenues. But with the population shrinking and aging, and the rest of the world growing, that strategy makes less sense every day. Japanese companies must look outward.

Japan already has a reputation for making high quality products, but that’s not enough. Consumer branding, marketing and other consumer-facing services capture large amounts of the value in supply chains, so by increasing brand value and close contact with international customers, Japanese companies can rake in the profits. And cultural cachet provides a way to do that.

Consumers don’t just buy products because they’re high-quality; they consume a certain lifestyle. Traditionally, it has been the US that captivated the hearts of global buyers. They see the freewheeling lifestyle in Hollywood movies and dream of big trucks and Levi’s jeans. Or they see comfortable suburbia and want SUVs and Crocs. Now, thanks in part to ongoing urbanization and in part to the spread of Japanese entertainment, Japanese life has captured the hearts of many of the world’s young. The country’s dense yet peaceful cities, its intricate architecture and artistry of its interior design, and its refined yet friendly culture combine to create a uniquely pleasant environment.

Any doubt about this appeal should be allayed by the scale of Japan’s recent tourism boom, which has far exceeded the targets set by the government a few years ago.

NO ONE PREDICTED THIS
The same attraction that draws in tens of millions of tourists every year can be used to sell products. It’s a short jump from admiring Japanese life to wanting Japanese cars, clothing, food, online services, or retail experiences. Or cosmetics — Shiseido, the Japanese cosmetics giant, is seeing record sales and profits, driven by its successful attempts to export a Japanese ideal of beauty to countries like China. The challenge is to make Shiseido the norm rather than an outlier.

Japan’s government has long recognized the potential of what some have called the country’s “gross national cool.” But the government’s ham-handed attempt to capitalize on the trend, the Cool Japan initiative, has been mostly a failure. It funneled large amounts of public funds to leading advertising agencies like Dentsu and Hakuhodo, but these companies’ efforts produced few tangible results.

A new strategy is needed. Instead of going through intermediaries like Dentsu and Hakuhodo, the government should encourage entertainment-production companies themselves to export their products, using financial incentives and bureaucratic pressure. As for using Japan’s cultural cachet to market other products, the government should award contracts to a large number of smaller marketing and advertising firms instead of the big incumbents, and direct resources toward the ones that succeed in penetrating foreign markets.

Japanese companies will also have a role to play in this effort. Like Shiseido, they should strive to market their products not just as high-quality, but as conferring the stylish sophistication of Japanese culture upon anyone who buys them. They should appoint young, flexible-minded employees with international experience to lead the effort, sending more people and capital overseas in order to develop new markets.

More than two decades after Neon Genesis Evangelion first appeared on TV screens around the world, Japan is cooler than ever. It just needs to believe in its coolness.

 

BLOOMBERG OPINION

Aussie fighter Tuivasa basking in chance to fight at the UFC

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

WITH FIVE FIGHTS under his belt in the Ultimate Fighting Championship since joining the promotion in 2016, Australian heavyweight fighter Tai “Bam Bam” Tuivasa said it is an opportunity that he is basking for the many lessons he has been getting in so many ways.

Brought to the country by AirAsia early this week to conduct a fight camp as part of its #DARETODREAM campaign, Sydney native Tuivasa, 26, said his UFC experience to date has been nothing but amazing and it is a platform he is using to develop himself as a fighter and best represent Australia on the global mixed martial arts (MMA) stage.

“As most people know, Australia is still young in the sport (MMA). Initially I started fighting because I enjoyed it then I had a family of my own and it kind of changed everything for me — my whole attitude in life and things. So I took a bit serious and after that I headed to the UFC,” said Mr. Tuivasa in an interview with BusinessWorld.

“I love being one of the front-runners in the UFC for Australia. I think we have so much talent and potential. And we have UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and number one featherweight contender in Alex Volkanovski. And then there is me. I’m learning at the top level. I’m learning heaps about myself and the people around me and I’m just grateful. To wake up and do something you love,” added the current number 12 heavyweight contender.

While in the UFC, Mr. Tuivasa, who counts Kiwi fighter Mark Hunt as one of his MMA inspirations, has compiled a 3-2 record, his losses coming in his last two fights against Junior Dos Santos and Blagoy Ivanov, in that order.

It is a skid that he is not putting much into and treating it as a chance to better himself.

“I’ve lost plenty of times in life. But it’s a learning curve for me. These losses are something that I’m not going to walk with my head down. These losses are against the best in the world. So it’s a learning curve. I’m just 26 and one of the youngest in the division,” Mr. Tuivasa (8-2) said.

The AirAsia brand ambassador also shared that he is bullish of the growth of MMA in Asia-Pacific and seeing it eventually catching up with the rest of the world.

“We’re still a bit off but we are coming in quietly — with guys like Whittaker, Volkanovski, me and the other fighters in different promotions here. We’re not so far behind. It’s just that the other countries have more global exposure in it but we’re coming,” he said.

Mr. Tuivasa went on to say that to further the MMA growth in this part of the world more top-level competition is maintained and that fighters should be take care of and paid well.

During his stay here, Mr. Tuivasa taught camp participants at the UFC Gym in Alabang proper strength and body conditioning exercises as well various MMA techniques.

The camp is part of AirAsia #DARETODREAM campaign, which aims to grow talent and the local sports scene while giving back to the ASEAN community.

School girl Gauff turfs idol Venus out of Wimbledon

LONDON — Cori Gauff served up the perfect excuse for playing hooky from school on Monday as the 15-year-old American caused one of the biggest shocks in Wimbledon history by dispatching Venus Williams 6-4 6-4 in the first round on Monday.

Aged 39, Williams is considered Wimbledon royalty as she has been part of the All England Club family for over two decades, having won the singles title five times — including two before Gauff was even born.

But Gauff, the youngest player to qualify for the main draw in the professional era, was in no mood to play a lady-in-waiting as she made a mockery of the 24-year-age difference and 269 ranking spots that separate her from her idol Williams.

Playing a fearless brand of tennis that belied her young age, she bullied Williams into submission.

“I don’t even know how to explain how I feel,” Gauff, who wiped away a tear as she walked off Court One, said moments after her remarkable win.

“I definitely had to tell myself to stay calm, I have never played on a court so big, but I had to remind myself that the lines on the court are the same size, everything around it might be bigger, but the lines are the same and after every point I was just telling myself to stay calm.

“I never thought this would happen, I am literally living my dream right now, and not many get to say that. So I am just happy that Wimbledon gave me the opportunity just to play and I obviously never thought it would be this far,” added the teenager, who was given a wildcard into the qualifying tournament.

Before the match, Gauff, known as Coco, had told her Instagram followers: “Two of my teachers found out I played tennis after I made the main draw here.”

If her Florida-based teachers needed any proof on exactly what she was up to, they only needed to tune into their TVs to see just why Wimbledon was going Coco-crazy on Monday.

A break in the fifth game of the opening set, which included a delectable lob over the statuesque Williams, was enough to win her the first set.

The nerveless display continued in the second set and she sealed victory on her fourth match point when Williams netted a forehand.

“After the match I told her just thank you for everything she did. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her. I was just telling her that she is so inspiring and that I always wanted to tell her that. Even though I met her before, I guess I had the guts to (tell her today).” — Reuters

TNT KaTropa eye to keep top spot

LEAGUE-leading TNT KaTropa look to stay on top of the heap of the ongoing Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup when they return to league action today against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Holders of a 7-1 record in the midseason PBA tournament, a game ahead of second-running Northport Batang Pier (7-2), the streaking KaTropa shoot for their sixth straight win in their 7 p.m. match with the Elasto Painters to create further distance from the chasing pack and boost their push for a top-two finish in the elimination round and the twice-to-beat advantage that go with it for the next round.

TNT last played on June 21 where it defeated the Columbian Dyip, 109-102.

Import Terrence Jones had another solid outing for the KaTropa in said game, finishing with 39 points, 17 rebounds, seven blocks and six assists to lead the team in the victory.

Jayson Williams had 22 points and six assists while Roger Pogoy finished with 16 points and four steals.

The KaTropa had their struggles to begin the game versus the Dyip but steadily picked things up as the game progressed on their way to their fifth victory in a row.

“We are happy with the win. We struggled early in the game but good thing we were able to recover in the second half,” said TNT coach Bong Ravena, adding they hope to keep their form for the rest of the tournament.

Looking to stop TNT is Rain or Shine, currently in the middle of the pack and in search of a victory to pad its cause.

The Elasto Painters (3-4) lost in their last game against the NLEX Road Warriors, 100-97, that dropped them to below the .500 mark.

Import Denzel Bowles top-scored for Rain or Shine with 35 points to go along with nine rebounds and two blocks.

Guard Kris Rosales backstopped him with 18 markers with Ed Daquioag and Javee Mocon adding 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Rain or Shine had its chances to come out on top of NLEX but it could not complete them en route to the defeat which left it at eighth place at the moment in the race.

Meanwhile, Northport tries bounce back from a loss previously when it takes on Columbian (2-6) in the curtain-raiser at 4:30 p.m.

The Batang Pier bowed to the Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters, 97-87, on June 26 which effectively halted their four-game winning streak prior.

The Dyip, for their part, are coming off a rousing 134-132 overtime victory over powerhouse San Miguel Beermen on June 30 to snap a three-game losing streak. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

‘Miss’ missing as Wimbledon shakes up tradition

LONDON — A familiar sound was absent from Wimbledon’s courts when the tournament started on Monday as umpires were no longer using a woman’s marital status at the end of each game and match.

The use of prefixes such as ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’ has, for the most part, been scrapped by the organizers, ending a long-held tradition and bringing parity with the men’s game.

That means no more “Game, Miss…” or “Game, set and match, Mrs…”

Britain’s Heather Watson was among those to welcome the move, saying: “Equality is always good.”

Yet, as with the passing of all traditions, not everybody was completely won over.

Men’s world number one Novak Djokovic said he supported the move, but added: “I thought that tradition was very unique and very special. I thought it was nice.

“It’s definitely not easy to alter or change any traditions here that have been present for many years. It’s quite surprising that they’ve done that.”

Prefixes will not disappear entirely — they will still be used for code violations, medical announcements and player challenges, but this is the same for women and men. — Reuters

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