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What you should know about HMOs

For a vast majority of Filipinos, falling sick is unacceptable. The demands of daily life are often too rigid and unyielding to allow for any unexpected breaks, especially if someone is the breadwinner in their family. The financial costs of a bad accident, an unfortunate injury, or an unexpected diagnosis can set a family back and derail their lives completely.

This is, among many reasons, why health insurance is so important to daily life. Fortunately, many employers in the Philippines are partnered with renowned health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to give their employees the security they need to avoid the worst scenarios.

HMOs are a type of insurance provider that works with a network of physicians to give the subscribers under its coverage basic and supplemental health and medical care in times of need. Typically, the network or organization provides such health insurance coverage for a monthly or annual fee charged to one’s employer, and covers the fundamental services needed by individuals to maintain their health and well-being such as in-patient and out-patient care, basic surgeries, and other ancillary services like laboratory testing and medication.

While HMOs may not provide the extensive and comprehensive coverage given by private health insurance, they also come at a cheaper cost. By limiting the coverage to medical aid provided by the primary care physicians, clinical facilities, and specialists within their network, HMOs can allow for lower, more affordable premiums. This also comes to the health care providers’ benefit, as such contracts give them a steady stream of patients to look after.

HMO subscribers pay a monthly or annual premium to access medical services in the organization’s network of providers. Many companies in the Philippines are partnered with HMOs and automatically provide their employees with all the included benefits without any additional work on their part.

The catch to such convenience is that HMO subscribers are also limited to receiving health care from specific contracted medical providers under their particular network. The insured employee can only get medical care and services from doctors under the HMO network or else pay out of his own pocket. However, there are some companies that offer out-of-network medical care coverage, including services like emergency care and dialysis.

Additionally, HMO coverage could require the insured to live or work in their particular plan’s area of network in order to be eligible for coverage. This is a non-issue for Filipinos working within Metro Manila, but could be something worth considering when one is moving to the provinces.

What also bears noting is that many HMO plans also work with PhilHealth, giving Filipinos much more out of their health insurance. As the health insurance provider run by the government, PhilHealth seeks to offer all Filipino citizens an affordable and progressive insurance program that extends financial assistance to all citizens seeking medical help, whether employed or unemployed. This means that it comes first before any health insurance plan. For instance, in times of hospitalization, PhilHeath will partially cover one’s medical bills from anywhere to 15% and 30% by default, while the remaining balance could be paid by HMOs or private health insurance provider.

PhilHealth membership is compulsory for all Filipino employees and typically half of the monthly contribution is covered by the employer while the other half is deducted from the employees’ salary. The amount of financial assistance it extends to its members will vary according to the disease, and knowing more about particular illnesses and the associated coverage plan could save a lot of trouble down the road.

The major downside to HMO plans is that they are not as comprehensive and extensive as private health insurance, which may offer much better financial assistance in times of critical illness. Premiums at these organizations are priced much higher than HMOs and are usually fully paid by the insured, but these come with facilities that are typically at par with international standards and policies that may extend even outside the country. Many private insurers also offer lifelong coverage, as opposed to the limited coverage and duration of HMO plans.

Given enough resources, of course, the best option would be to subscribe to both an HMO plan and private health insurance, as this will ensure that any health and medical needs could be paid for if the need arises. If that is too much, and all you want is basic health coverage to protect you from any common illnesses and emergencies, then an HMO will be enough. — Bjorn Biel M. Beltran

A key to prevention and wellness

Apparently, checkups are called for when one is already sick. But, nowadays, health care providers are changing the norm as they try to prevent or mitigate illnesses and promote a healthy lifestyle among their clients through executive checkups.

An executive checkup, more known abroad as executive physicals, is defined by Mosby’s Medical Dictionary as “a physical examination that includes extensive laboratory, radiographic, and other tests that may be provided periodically to management level personnel at employer expense.”

As it takes the regular physical examination to a larger extent, executive checkups “typically begin with an in-depth health evaluation that includes advanced lab testing, specialized imaging and specialty consultations,” as American health care provider PartnerMD put it.

“Information gathered from this thorough examination is compiled into a comprehensive package that creates an accurate map of the patient’s health status, can achieve early identification of health risks, and helps the patient plot a course to optimal health and performance,” the PartnerMD added.

In addition, according to the Web site of Aventus Medical Care, executive checkups include “full-body scans, blood testing for multiple rare conditions, and extensive time spent with a doctor going over medical history, and discussing any issues that the patient might otherwise not mention in a standard physical.”

Follow-ups may supplement the already-comprehensive checkup which, as Florida-based health care provider MDVIP wrote, “may also include optional lifestyle counseling and add-ons like fitness and nutrition coaching, a personal trainer, holistic services and massage.”

Since it efficiently puts essential health examinations in a single- or two-day package, an executive checkups aims to meet several goals, which MDVIP specifically enumerates on its Web site: to determine risk factors and preempt potential health problems before they occur; provide expert personal health care for conditions, illnesses and injuries; and promote general health, including nutrition, fitness and stress management.

Executive checkups are becoming a very important tool in monitoring and taking care of the health of executives and employees, since they are usually caught in the busyness of day-to-day work and so happen to leave their health hardly attended to or even compromised.

“With an eye toward prevention, these one- or two-day examinations attempt to accommodate busy schedules while supporting the long-term wellness and productivity of a firm’s key players,” medicine professor Anthony L. Komaroff, MD, explained in an analysis of executive physicals published in Harvard Business Review.

As this particular kind of health care is being offered by more and more providers, executive checkups matter since they show that the health of each employee should be valued and that a healthy work force is vital for a well-functioning organization.

Executive checkups are a better means to determine conditions or risks that might hint at more serious complications. They are being used as a tool to prevent illnesses, proving indeed that prevention is better than cure.

“An executive physical can help identify medical problems before they become serious,” Pittsburgh-based health care provider and insurer UPMC explains. “Many conditions — such as diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers — have a high rate of successful treatment when detected early.”

A post by the Lung Center of the Philippines agrees, stating that an executive checkup “is often considered as the cornerstone of disease prevention, and works hand in hand with other ways of avoiding disease like changes in lifestyle, controlling risk factors and vaccination programs.”

As a result, as Aventus’ Web site wrote, “Early diagnosis of a condition can mean that people are more likely to get early treatment, which can result in cures or management of conditions that may be too late to treat or reverse by the time they manifest symptoms.”

A study by the University of Michigan’s Management Research Center on executive health examination recognized that “[t]he success of a corporation is significantly dependent on the health and productivity of the executive work force.” And since executive checkups become a vital way of preventing and mitigating health woes, they are very helpful in keeping members of the work force healthy.

With the corporate sector possibly being subject to various lifestyle diseases, an executive checkup promotes the wellness of employees. This, in turn, contributes to their enthusiasm and productivity at work, and lessens their chances of taking time off work because of some health problem.

Executive checkups, as an extensive and well-rounded service that aims at prevention and promotes wellness, are very helpful in maintaining the good health of employees, and eventually in keeping organizations up and running. — Adrian Paul B. Conoza

Thrift, rural bank reserve requirement cut

THE MONETARY BOARD of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday announced an expected reduction in thrift, rural and cooperative banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR) — a week after it did so for big banks and two weeks after it cut policy interest rates — releasing more funds for lending to further prod economic activity at a time of easing inflation and slowing gross domestic product growth that disappointed at a four-year-low 5.6% last quarter.

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno told reporters in a mobile phone message: “This morning, the Monetary Board decided to cut the RRR for thrift, savings and cooperative banks.”

“For thrift banks, the RRR cut was by 200 bps from eight percent to six percent… : 100 bps effective May 31… 50 bps effective June 28… and 50 bps effective July 26…,” Mr. Diokno said.

“For rural and cooperative banks, the RRR was cut by 100 bps from five percent to four percent, effective May 31… The BSP will issue the necessary circular shortly.”

The MB had announced after its May 16 meeting a phased 200 bps cut in universal and commercial banks’ RRR to 16% from 18% currently, “to be implemented in three stages: 100bps effective May 31, 50bps effective June 28 and 50bps effective July 26.”

Current rounds of RRR cuts for all banks in the country follow a cumulative 200 bps cut in February and May last year that nevertheless left the requirements for thrift, rural and cooperative banks untouched.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa C. Guinigundo on May 16 parried reporters’ questions on prospects for more RRR cuts, saying such a move “[d]epends on system liquidity in the near future and outlook on inflation” since it frees more funds for banks to lend to businesses and households, in turn spurring both economic activity and overall price increases.

“Exactly a week ago, the BSP cut the RRR of the biggest banks by a total of two percentage points or equivalent to about P190 billion in additional peso liquidity to be infused into the financial system (about P95 billion effective May 31… about P47 billion effective June 28… and about P47 billion effective July 26…),” Michael L. Ricafort, economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., told reporters in an e-mail.

Mr. Ricafort said the announced RRR cut for smaller banks “would be equivalent to about P22 billion additional peso liquidity to be infused into the financial system.”

“Thus the overall additional peso liquidity to be infused into the local financial system from any combined RRR cuts for all banks worth a total of at least P200 billion would be positive for both the Philippine economy and financial markets, in terms of greater economic activity/faster gross domestic product growth,” Mr. Ricafort explained.

Money supply growth eased further in March by the slowest pace in over six years. Domestic liquidity or M3, considered the broadest measure of money in an economy, grew 4.2% year-on-year to about P11.4 trillion in March, slower than the 7.1% expansion in February and 7.6% growth in January. This pace is also the slowest recorded since September 2012.

In an e-mail, Security Bank Chief Economist Robert Dan J. Roces said, “We see this as an alignment by the BSP after cutting large banks RRR last week.”

“The additional liquidity injection is, of course, a positive to economic growth, further propping-up aggregate demand and bringing down financial intermediation costs, thereby leading to better credit growth that should go into capital formation and consumption,” Mr. Roces explained.

Headline inflation eased for the sixth straight month from a nine-year-high 6.7% in September and October last year to a 16-month-low three percent in April — marking the third month in a row that the overall rise in prices of widely used goods fell within the BSP’s 2-4% target — taking the year-to-date pace to 3.6% against the central bank’s downward-revised 2.9% full-year forecast average for 2019.

In its third policy review for the year on May 8, the BSP partially dialed back a 175 bps cumulative increase in benchmark interest rates fired off in five meetings in 2018, adopting a 25 bps cut that brought down BSP’s overnight reverse repurchase rate to 4.5%, the overnight deposit rate to four percent and the overnight lending rate to five percent. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio

ADB OK’s its biggest infrastructure financing yet

By Victor V. Saulon
Sub-Editor

THE ASIAN Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday approved financing for up $2.75 billion for the construction of a passenger railway linking Malolos in Bulacan to Clark economic zone and international airport in Central Luzon, making it the regional lender’s “single largest infrastructure project financing ever.”

The 53.1-kilometer Malolos-Clark railway is part of the Philippine government’s North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) project, which spans 163 kilometers from New Clark City in Tarlac province in the north down to Calamba in Laguna province. The project is expected to be completed by 2025.

Markus Roesner, ADB principal transport specialist for Southeast Asia, said in a press conference in Mandaluyong City that what had been approved by the bank’s board yesterday is the elevated railway’s section from Clark International Airport, then the Clark area all the way down to Malolos.

“This will follow the existing railway alignment,” he said, adding that a short section will link the project to the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 1 station in Blumentritt through a “convenient” interchange.

The approved north rail transport system, which is targeted to be partially operational by 2022, will have a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour, with stops in seven stations designed to also accommodate the elderly and the disabled, he said.

Six contracts are now out for bidding to cover parts of the project, of which five are for the Malolos-Clark section, and one for the Solis-Blumentritt section. The contracts are for the railway system, electrical, mechanical, signalling, power supply, among others.

“Internationally experienced operation and maintenance contractor will be selected,” Mr. Roesner said, adding that any entity belonging to any of ADB’s 68 member countries could participate in the bidding.

The Malolos-Clark railway project can serve about 342,000 passengers daily along the Manila-Clark corridor and up to 696,000 passengers per day to Calamba by 2025. It is expected to reduce the travel time from Metro Manila to Clark International Airport to less than one hour by rail, compared with the 2-3 hours today by car or bus.

The project includes construction of two rail segments, namely: a 51.2-kilometer section connecting Malolos City in Bulacan to the Clark regional growth center, and a 1.9-kilometer extension connecting the NSCR to the Blumentritt Station in Manila, where an elevated interchange station for LRT Line 1 will be built.

ADB will be financing the civil works of the Malolos-Clark railway project, including the stations, bridges, and viaducts for the elevated railway alignment, and a tunnel leading to the underground station in Clark International Airport. The bank will also support the government in using global standards for procurement, and environmental and resettlement safeguards.

Mr. Roesner said the project is co-financed with up to $2 billion by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which will finance the rolling stock and the railway systems. ADB policy also calls for the Philippine government to should a portion of the financing, which will cover the relocation of the informal settlers and the shifting of public utilities, he said.

“Additional contracts will be bid out later this year for the section to Calamba. This is still for finalization,” he said.

In an interview after the briefing, Mr. Roesner said financing for the Blumentritt-Calamba section is still being finalized.

“We’re still finalizing the design. It’s almost the same size,” he said.

Asked about when he expects loan approval to take place, he said: “About the same time next year, so May, June next year.”

He said the Manila section of the project is “technically more complicated” because of the informal settlers right beside the existing Philippine National Railways line, thus the design of the financing for the southern section takes longer.

“That’s why we decided to start first in the north,” he said.

In a press release issued during the press conference, ADB quoted Takehiko Nakao, its president, as saying: “It will be ADB’s single largest infrastructure project financing ever, and from a development perspective, we are pleased this investment is taking place in ADB’s host country.”

“The project, combined with other investments in light rail transit, metro rail transit, and subway systems, will bring back the culture of rail transport in Metro Manila.”

Vivencio B. Dizon, president and chief executive officer of Bases Conversion and Development Authority, said the project had seen several ground-breaking ceremonies, although none progressed until now.

“[The project is] truly something that we and the entire country have been looking forward to for so long,” Mr. Dizon said in the same briefing.

He said the Malolos-Clark railway supports the vision of the administration for the Clark and Subic area to become the next urban and economic center of the country.

Senate pushes bigger increase in tobacco tax

By Charmaine A. Tadalan
Reporter

THE SENATE is pushing a bigger increase in excise tax on tobacco products, proposing a hike to P45-60 per pack by 2023 from P35 currently, against the House of Representatives’ proposed P37.50-45/pack rates by 2022.

The measure will be submitted for plenary action on Monday, in an attempt to ratify the bill in time for the June 7 adjournment of the 17th Congress. “We told (Finance) Sec. (Carlos G.) Dominguez (III), we will try with our best effort,” Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III said in a mobile phone message on Thursday.

Members of the Senate’s majority bloc met with Mr. Dominguez on Wednesday to discuss prospects for approval of this particular “sin” tax, whose collections are intended to help fund implementation of the Universal Health Care Act.

The 17th Congress has six session days left to tackle the measure at the bicameral conference committee and ratify it for President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s signature. Otherwise, the measure will have to be refiled in the 18th Congress, which opens July 22.

In its draft committee report, the Senate Committee on Way and Means proposed to increase the tobacco excise tax to P45 from P37.50 in January 2020, to P50 in January 2021, P55 in Jan. 2022; and to P60 in Jan. 2023, and then by five percent yearly thereafter.

The Senate version has higher rates than those under House Bill No. 8677, which proposed to increase excise tax on cigarettes by P2.50 annually until it reaches P45 per pack in 2022, and then by four percent annually thereafter. HB 8677 provided that excise tax on cigarettes will increase to P37.50 from P35 in July 2019, P40 in July 2022, to P42.50 in July 2021 and to P45 in July 2022.

Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian said the Senate version is an improvement of the proposal of the House of Representatives, whose ultimate proposed rate is lower than the P60 increase proposed by the Department of Finance.

“Malaki ang suporta sa ‘sin’ tax eh. Majority acceptable ’yung (P)60 because that is a large improvement from the lower house… doble ito sa lower house. acceptable naman ‘yung (P)60. But some of us, including myself, gusto natin na mas mataas pa (There is much support for the sin tax hike. P60 is acceptable to majority of senators because that is a large improvement from the lower house version… double that of the lower House. But some of us, including myself, want an even bigger increase),” Mr. Gatchalian told reporters in a briefing, Thursday.

Mr. Gatchalian authored Senate Bill No. 2177, one of the three bills consolidated, which proposed to increase the tax to P70. The other two were Senate Bill Nos. 1599 and 1605, which proposed to raise it to P60 and P90, respectively.

“I really support the ‘sin’ tax. Our version is P70. I will lobby to increase it from P60 to P70 dahil ang pinaka mahalaga dito ay mabawasan ang naninigarilyo at ’yung mga batang nag babalak na manigarilyo (because what is important here is to reduce the ranks of smokers and the youth who are thinking of taking up smoking),” Mr. Gatchalian said.

Republic Act No. 10963, the first of up to five planned tax reform packages, increased the cigarette excise tax to P32.50 from P30 in January 2018 and then further raised it to P35 beginning July 2018. It is scheduled to go up to P37.50 in January 2020.

The Philippine Tobacco Institute, Inc., (PTI) in the November 2018 position paper it submitted to the Senate, argued that over the years the increase in tobacco taxes resulted in a decline in demand, mass termination of workers and worsened smuggling.

“These high tax increases led to the proliferation of illicit cigarettes in the country. In a 2016 report, Oxford Economics estimated that illicit cigarette consumption in 2012 (prior to RA 10351) was at 6.4 billion cigarettes. One year later, Oxford Economics found that illicit consumption in 2013 jumped to a staggering 19.1 billion cigarettes,” the PTI said in its paper.

“The high tax increases have not only caused the industry to significantly contract but has also enabled illicit trade of tobacco products to flourish,” it added.

“In cooperation with the Department of Finance and law enforcement agencies, we have made progress in 2018 in our fight against illicit cigarette trade. Imposing significant and prohibitive taxes again will further exacerbate the situation.”

Fed’s patience on interest rates to last ‘for some time’

WASHINGTON — US Federal Reserve officials at their last meeting agreed that their current patient approach to setting monetary policy could remain in place “for some time,” a further sign policy makers see little need to change rates in either direction.

“Members observed that a patient approach… would likely remain appropriate for some time,” with no need to raise or lower the target interest rate from its current level of between 2.25% and 2.5%, the Fed on Wednesday reported in the minutes of the central bank’s April 30-May 1 meeting.

Recent weak inflation was viewed by “many participants… as likely to be transitory,” while risks to financial markets and the global economy had appeared to ease — a judgment rendered before the Trump administration imposed higher tariffs on Chinese goods and took other steps that intensified trade tensions.

Still, Dallas Federal Reserve president Robert Kaplan in a Wednesday interview on Fox Business said that to move rates higher or lower, “I would need to see something compelling… We are basically at the right policy setting.”

Analysts saw little new in the minutes regarding Fed policy, although some noted that policy makers’ views may have changed in the intervening weeks since US President Donald Trump took a harder trade line with China.

“The re-escalation in the trade tension between US and China since the meeting, that could change Fed’s outlook a lot,” said Eric Stein, co-director of the global income group at Eaton Vance Management in Boston.

Yields on US Treasury securities briefly rose following the release of the minutes while US stock markets and the dollar pared losses through midafternoon.

The minutes showed the Fed delving deep into the mechanics of how they could best structure their holdings of several trillion dollars of securities to battle a future economic downturn.

“Many participants,” the minutes noted, saw advantage in stocking the portfolio with shorter-term securities, which could, in a crisis, be swapped for long-term bonds in hopes of lowering the longer-term interest rates that impact home mortgage rates, business borrowing, and a number of forms of credit important for the economy.

But a staff report on various balance sheet strategies posed a dilemma. If the Fed skewed its bond holdings toward shorter-term Treasuries, it might come at the cost of higher longer-term rates now — in effect tightening credit conditions for many borrowers.

That would “imply that the path of the federal funds rate would need to be correspondingly lower to achieve the same macroeconomic outcomes.” In the scenarios being discussed that would, ironically, mean the Fed would have less room to cut rates in a crisis — and be more likely to have to rely on its balance sheet tools to boost the economy.

No decisions were made.

Though the support for a “patient” approach to rate hikes was widespread, according to the minutes, “a few” participants did warn of the risk of higher inflation and a possible need for higher rates given the low rates of unemployment.

“Several” warned, on the other hand, that inflation could weaken.

But overall “it appears as though the Fed is exactly where they want to be and don’t have to lean one way or the other,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

The Fed meets next on June 18-19, when it will update economic projections. While Fed officials have largely downplayed the Sino-US trade dispute as a short-term problem, they have of late begun discussing the risks if the tariffs and trade tensions persist and begin to reshape global supply chains and pricing. In comments in Hong Kong overnight, St. Louis Fed president James Bullard said that a failure to resolve the trade dispute in the near term could change global trading patterns, and is another reason for the Fed “to tread carefully.” — Reuters

Illegal GoT downloads include more dangers than dragons

HBO’s Game of Thrones may have finally ended its run after a decade but fans of the show who haven’t yet caught up on the series’ final episodes or those who want to relive it all again by downloading episodes illegally were treated to malware attacks instead of the actual episode, according to a study by Moscow-based cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky Lab.

In a press release, the company noted that while spikes on the number of attacks were recorded every time a new episode premiered, some episode proved to be more toxic than others: “the third episode trigger[ed] the highest number of detected attempts to attack users, reaching 3,000 attacks a day at its peak.”

The third episode of the eighth season, “The Long Night,” saw the remaining characters of the show take a stand against the Night King and his army of White Walkers who was determined to put an end to humanity.

“Overall, after tracking associated malicious activity through the entire eighth season, Kaspersky lab researchers have found that the average daily number of attacks on users that involved malware disguised as an episode of Game of Thrones, was around 300 to 400. This number jumped to around 1,200 for the three to four days following the release of each new episode: a three- to four-fold increase in malicious activity,” the company said.

The company also said that it noticed a similar attack vector used in the series and with the recently released Avengers: Endgame film where users are invited to watch newly released episodes for free, but which are actually designed to extract sensitive data from users.

“Typically, the online-player icon shows a scene from the TV show and redirects the victim to a registration page, later asking for bank card details with the CVC/CVV-code, claiming it is only for validation purposes,” it said.

“We see shared TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) across the phishing websites where scammers try to steal users’ details by promising a pirated movie before its official premiere. We believe there is a certain group of threat actors that methodically hunts fans of popular movies and TV productions, adjusting schemes dynamically according to pop-cultural happenings,” said Tatyana Sidorina, security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, in the release.

In order not to fall victim to schemes and put one’s cybersecurity at risk, Kaspersky Lab advised users to “avoid questionable websites, especially the ones that distribute pirated content.”

They also said to not enter any information — especially credit card details — on websites “you have no reason to trust,” not to use the same password for different web pages, and, finally, “use [a] reliable antivirus software with protection from online scams and phishing.” — ZBC

Globe stands firm on Huawei partnership

By Denise A. Valdez, Reporter

GLOBE TELECOM, Inc. said it will continue to partner with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., including on the establishment of a fifth-generation (5G) network in the country, despite the United States placing the Chinese tech giant on a trade blacklist last week.

Ernest L. Cu, president and chief executive officer of the Ayala-led telecommunications giant, said Thursday the company will continue its existing tie-ups with Huawei, noting the 5G network is scheduled to launch next month.

“For us, given the fact that we have an extremely great relationship with Huawei for the last 10 years… We have a lot of information, they gave us pre-warnings… and assurance that they will be independent of the US in the near future,” he said at the Bloomberg Industry 4.0 forum in Taguig City.

“We have a very extensive spending program this year, P63 billion capex. Majority of that will be Huawei equipment. And of course, our best-selling phones are Huawei phones. So we continue to support them,” he added.

Globe and rival PLDT, Inc. announced Monday they are working with Huawei to address customer concerns as Alphabet, Inc.’s Google is suspending ties with the Chinese tech firm amid the US-China trade war.

Google earlier said it will comply with the US government’s order to stop supplying Huawei phones with updates to its Android operating system. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the US Commerce department granted Huawei a license to buy US goods until Aug. 19 to keep its existing telecoms networks and provide software updates to Huawei smartphones.

Mr. Cu told reporters he believes Huawei is “really pretty much independent,” and Globe will continue to engage with the technology provider not just for 5G, but also in selling its mobile handsets.

“We’ve been assured by both Google and Huawei that the current handsets that have already been licensed by Google, already in production in market, will be safe,” he said.

However, Mr. Cu said once the new Huawei models come out, the company will “have to see and decide whether we carry the line or not,” as the new ones would no longer have access to Google services.

Mr. Cu said for the 5G launch in June, the company is likely to stick with the current setup where majority of the technology it will use for rolling out will be sourced from Huawei.

“In a level playing field, and without any of these external situations…they’re about a year and half ahead in terms of technology,” he said.

In a separate statement, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said the issues surrounding Huawei should be no cause for concern, as local telcos are mandated to keep a close watch of their network.

“On matters of cybersecurity, the incumbent telcos are to this day still strictly monitoring their network and up to now there was no incident of a national security breach from their respective network predominantly using Huawei equipment,” it said.

It added that the DICT “has the tools to protect our cyberspace from any threats to our national security.”

Last hurrah

EVEN AFTER the airing of the last episode of Game of Thrones, it is not quite over yet. Fans have one last Monday morning to spend with their favorite characters thanks to the HBO Original documentary, Game of Thrones: The Last Watch, which debuts at 9 a.m. on May 27. The documentary delves deep into the challenges of bringing the fantasy world of Westeros to life in the real studios, fields, and car-parks of Northern Ireland. An up-close and personal report from the trenches of production, it follows the crew and the cast as they contend with extreme weather and punishing deadlines.

Imported vehicle sales rise 12% in April — AVID

THE Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors, Inc. (AVID) posted a 12% rise in sales of imported vehicles in April, driven by demand for light commercial vehicles and passenger cars.

In a statement on Thursday, the AVID said it sold 7,259 units in April versus the 6,476 units sold in April 2018.

Light commercial vehicles (LCV), which account for nearly two-thirds of April sales, reported 13% rise in sales to 4,534 units from 4,029 units a year ago.

Passenger car (PC) sales during the month increased 12% to 2,614 units from 2,342 units registered in April last year.

Sales of commercial vehicles (CV) jumped 6% to 111 units from 105 units a year ago.

AVID noted that year-to-date sales rose for the first time this year. January to April sales inched up 0.2% to 29,458 units from the 29,411 sold in the comparable period last year.

PC sales declined by 8% in the first four months of the year to 10,528 units from 11,451 units in the same period in 2018. Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc., accounted for 66% of AVID’s PC sales during the period, followed by Suzuki at 24%.

Sales of LCVs climbed 5% to 18,483 units from 17,520 units a year ago. The segment was led by Ford Group Philippines, Inc. (40%), Hyundai (29%), and Suzuki Philippines, Inc. (22%).

CV sales during the four-month period expanded 2% as 447 units were sold versus the 440 units a year ago. Hyundai accounts for 74% of the segment’s sales while the JAC Automobile International Philippines, Inc. contributed to the remaining share.

“We are pleased to finally see growth in the first four months, coming from a lackluster first quarter,” AVID President Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo was quoted in a statement Thursday.

“The strong April performance signifies that demand for automotive vehicles is slowly increasing, eventually leading to what we forecast as a strong industry recovery.”

AVID is cautiously optimistic that sales will still improve in the next few months.

“We are bound to encounter headwinds this year, including shifts in buying patterns and higher interest rates, but we are confident that the industry is geared to tackle such challenges,” Ms. Agudo added. — Janina C. Lim

Rocketman builds on new music biopic

LONDON — With hit tunes, a plot about one of the world’s best known performers and flamboyant costumes, Rocketman brings Elton John’s story to the big screen, the latest musical biopic offering a concert-like experience at the cinema.

Kingsman actor Taron Egerton stars as the “Your Song” and “Tiny Dancer” hitmaker, belting out John’s songs as he revisits the singer’s road to success as well as his personal struggles.

The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival with John present, has drawn comparisons to last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody about rockers Queen’s stratospheric rise to fame.

That movie, which received mixed reviews, won a best actor Oscar for Rami Malek and grossed $903 million worldwide — a sign of audiences’ appetite for seeing their icons’ story and music on the silver screen.

“I’m very grateful that people compare us and hopefully it shows that there is an appetite for movies of this nature,” Egerton said of the two films at Cannes.

Music biopics have long been a popular genre but what distinguishes this “new wave” is the artist’s involvement and music catalog to create concert-like scenes, said Scott Roxborough, European bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter.

“What a lot of these films are selling is this idea that you can have the experience as if you were going to a concert … go behind the scenes and get to know them,” Roxborough said.

He said this was “not the idea of previous biopics which was often revealing the dark side of these musical heroes.”

Like Bohemian Rhapsody’s take on late singer Freddie Mercury, Rocketman tracks John’s personal battles as his success grows.

“I would say Bohemian Rhapsody (is) not a pressure, if anything it’s opened the gates for us,” Rocketman producer Matthew Vaughn told Reuters.

‘NEW ENERGY’
Mamma Mia, not a music biopic but featuring plenty of all-singing and dancing ABBA numbers, was a box office smash in 2008 and inspired a sequel last year.

Straight Outta Compton about rap collective N.W.A from Compton, California was also a success upon its 2015 release.

“It’s growing constantly year on year… as studios try and make bigger and more bombastic movies, they’re infusing musical biopics with this new energy,” Ali Griffiths, social editor at Digital Spy, said when asked about appetite for the genre.

“Since probably Mamma Mia… they realized they could make a musical like a cinematic experience.”

In March, Netflix released Motley Crue biopic The Dirt based on the heavy metal band’s autobiography and other celebrity-inspired stories are in the works.

Stardust, looking at David Bowie’s first trip to the United States is in the making, although the late singer’s family are not involved in the project.

Its producers have been quoted as saying it is not a biopic but “a moment in time film, at a turning point in David’s life.”

Celine Dion is the inspiration for The Power of Love, which is said to draw from the pop singer’s life and will use her hit power ballads, according to film industry publications.

Gaumont, the French company linked to the project, could not immediately be reached for comment.

“We will see a lot more (music biopics) being done and I think probably more in the style where there’s a lot more music in the films, and a lot more sort of concert performance,” Roxborough said, adding they would be more celebratory and a less critical portrayal.

Digital Spy’s Griffiths said more rock biopics were likely: “Like The (Rolling) Stones, but I’m excited to see so more like contemporary films, like wouldn’t it be cool to see a biopic of Adele’s life with her music.” — Reuters

Shops in Asian countries starting to shun Huawei phone trade-ins

SINGAPORE/MANILA — Mobile phone retailers in some Asian countries are refusing to accept Huawei devices for trade-ins, as more consumers look to offload their device on worries Google suspending business with the Chinese firm will disrupt services.

Google has said it will comply with an order by US President Donald Trump to stop supplying Huawei, meaning current owners of Huawei phones face being cut off from updates of the Android operating system from late August. New phones will lose access to popular apps such as YouTube and Chrome.

Against this backdrop, some customers in Singapore and the Philippines have rushed to sell their Huawei phones, according to retailers and online marketplace data.

BUT THERE ARE FEW TAKERS
“If we buy something that is useless, how are we going to sell it?,” said Dylan On, a salesman at Wanying Pte Ltd., a Singapore retail and repair shop.

“It’s not that Huawei is a bad product. It’s a very good product. It’s just that nobody wants to buy it now because of US policy,” he said, adding he was looking to sell existing Huawei stock online to overseas buyers in hopes they are less aware of current events.

When contacted by Reuters, a Huawei spokeswoman said the company “will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products.”

The company said previously it is developing its own phone software and it can still use an “open source” version of Android that lacks access to Google apps. Huawei also went ahead with a new phone launch in Britain on Tuesday, even as the number of users trading in their devices rose in Asia.

Previously, about five people a day were looking to trade in their Huawei phones, but that has jumped to 20 in the last two days, said Zack, a salesman at Mobile Square in Singapore who declined to give his last name.

“Normally, you would see people wanting to trade their old phones as they want to replace them with new ones,” he added. “Now you’re seeing people wanting to trade in the latest one.”

Carousell, Singapore’s most popular online marketplace, said the number of Huawei phone sales more than doubled the day the US order was announced.

Huawei smartphones had a 14% share of Singapore market last year, according to research firm Canalys.

Mobile phone retailers in the Philippines are also staying away from Huawei products.

“We are no longer accepting Huawei phones. It will not be bought by our clients anymore,” Hamida Norhamida, a saleswoman of new and used phones in Manila’s Greenhills shopping center told Reuters, adding that she felt relieved to have sold off her stock of Huawei P30 Pro ahead of Google’s Monday announcement.

Another phone salesperson at Greenhills said she would only buy Huawei phones at a 50% discount.

“Selling it will be a gamble,” said the saleswoman, who would give her name only as Thelma.

But some see this as an opportunity to get a quality phone on the cheap. “My immediate reaction was worry that my current Huawei could be worthless,” Xin Yi, 24- year-old student from Singapore, told Reuters. “But Google said current Huawei users will not be affected … after that, I was relieved.”

She added that she was now in the market for a new Huawei model at a marked-down price.

Earlier on Wednesday, Japanese telcos KDDI Corp and SoftBank Corp.’s low-cost mobile brand Ymobile said they would delay the launch of Huawei P30 Lite smartphone which was due to go on sale on Friday. — Reuters

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