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DoH confirms two more COVID-19 cases in PHL

THE Department of Health (DoH) confirmed on Friday that there were two additional confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Philippines, bringing the total number of cases to five.

The patients are a 48-year-old male Filipino who travelled to Japan, and a 62-year-old male Filipino with known hypertension and diabetes mellitus, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III said at a briefing.

“The fourth confirmed case is a 48-year-old male Filipino with travel history to Japan. The patient returned to the Philippines last Feb. 25 and experienced chills and fever beginning March 3,” the Health Secretary said, adding that the patient is currently stable at the Research Institute for Topical Medicine (RITM).

Meanwhile, the fifth confirmed case sought medical consultation at a hospital in Metro Manila on March 1 and was admitted with severe pneumonia. Samples were collected on March 4 and tested positive for COVID-19 on March 5.

It was also reported that the fifth case has no known history of travel outside the country, but Mr. Duque said it cannot yet be considered as a case of local transmission of COVID-19 for now.

“Well there is no transmission to speak of as of yet, because we only have one. That’s why we’re doing contact tracing… But now it’s premature to say that there is local transmission,” he said.

The patient was known to have regularly visited a Muslim prayer hall in Barangay Greenhills, San Juan City.

The city already ordered the temporary closure of the prayer room, said a statement posted on the official Twitter page of San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora.

“I have already instructed the San Juan City Health Office, with the support of the Department of Health, to immediately disinfect, sanitize, and close to the public temporarily the prayer room in Barangay Greenhills, which was frequented by a patient who lives in a municipality near Metro Manila whom the DoH has confirmed positive with coronavirus (COVID-19),” he said on Friday.

The DoH said that contract tracing is currently being done for both cases and samples have already been collected from close contacts.

The department is also in close coordination with the concerned Local Government Units on identifying persons who had interactions with the confirmed cases, and strengthening of infection prevention and control protocols.

“These recent developments are significant, but we are prepared to respond to its potential consequences. Our priority is to protect our health workers and the most vulnerable populations,” the Health Chief said.

“We can still contain the spread of the virus in the country, which is why we are encouraging the public to practice proper handwashing, social distancing, and cough etiquette. We call on the public to be vigilant and continue doing their part in containing the disease,” he added.

Prior to the two new cases, the Philippines reported that three Chinese nationals tested positive for COVID-19 while in the country. One died, while the other two recovered.

Meanwhile, the DoH also received reports of three confirmed COVID-19 cases among foreign nationals who had a history of travel to the Philippines.

The first is a 38-year-old Taiwanese male who visited the Philippines from Feb. 28 to March 3. The patient consulted at an outpatient clinic in Taiwan on March 4, and was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 5.

“The onset of symptoms on March 2 points to possible infection before the patient traveled to the Philippines,” the Health Secretary said.

The second case is a 44-year-old Japanese male who visited the Philippines from Feb. 21 to 28. Prior to visiting the Philippines, he traveled to Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan. He stayed at three different hotels during his stay in Metro Manila.

“He flew back to Japan last March 4 and was tested positive for COVID-19. The patient was admitted and is still in isolation at Aichi Prefecture Hospital. The extensive travel history of the patient suggests possible contraction of the disease in another country,” Mr. Duque said.

The third is a female living in Sydney, Australia. The patient attended a wedding in Manila on Feb. 13 and visited Pangasinan.

“The patient left the country for Sydney on March 2, and was confirmed with COVID-19 by the New South Wales Government on March 3. As for this case, DoH is still verifying information with the International Health Regulation National Focal Point Australia,” the Health Secretary said.

As of writing, the virus has killed more than 3,300 people and sickened 97,000 more, mostly in China, according to the World Health Organization. — Genshen L. Espedido

Filipino linked to money laundering indicted in Pasay City

THE Pasay City Prosecutor is indicting a Filipino who was recently linked to the laundering of millions of pesos in foreign currency. He is being charged for not declaring the amount of money he brought into the country last September.

A document dated Feb. 24 obtained by reporters on Friday from the Department of Justice (DoJ) Office of the City Prosecutor of Pasay City, said that the court finds probable cause to file charges against Simon John G. Rodriguez. The resolution of the Pasay City Prosecutor states that Mr. Rodriguez “allegedly failed to declare possible bundles of money” worth $700,000 or over P35 million.

“After examination of the bundles of money at the Conference Room, NAIA Customs Building, an inventory was conducted and revealed the total amount of Seven Hundred Thousand US Dollars (USD700,000.00),” the resolution said.

Mr. Rodriguez was found “violating Section 1401 (e) of R.A. 10863 (Customs Modernization and Tariff Act or CMTA) in relation to BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) Circular No. 308 series of 2001 under R.A. 7653 (New Central Bank Act).”

BSP Circular No. 308 states that those who enter or leave the Philippines must declare in writing that they are transporting foreign currency worth over $10,000.

Mr. Rodriguez and his family are alleged to have served as mules for laundering millions of pesos, as revealed by Senator Richard J.Gordon at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on Thursday. Mr. Gordon said that Mr. Rodriguez and six members of his family were discovered to have brought in $633 million in cash from various Asian countries over the course of seven months.

The seven Rodriguezes have been subpoenad by the Senator to appear before the next Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the matter on March 12.

GIVE LAW MORE TEETH
Meanwhile, the Department of Finance (DoF) has asked Congress to give the law “more teeth” when it comes to examining suspiciously large sums of money coming into the country by lifting “stringent bank secrecy laws.” This after lawmakers raised concerns over the P19.7 billion ($389.6 million) in foreign currencies that entered the country for alleged money-laundering activities.

“They do this because they can. Our laws have no teeth to investigate and prosecute these activities effectively. We don’t have enough tools to know where all this money is going, without being hamstrung by stringent bank secrecy laws,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said in a speech during the Bureau of Local Government Finance’s oath-taking of local treasurers on Friday.

Mr. Dominguez said the country’s anti-money laundering law remains “weak” as tax evasion and other financial cases do not fall under the list of “predicate crimes” where the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) could look into the suspected bank accounts with a court order.

“This leaves us powerless in going after tax evaders and other criminals using funds for other illegal activities,” Mr. Dominguez added.

Later that day, he said at a press conference that bringing in large amount of currencies into the country is “not illegal” as long as these are declared, so he asked the legislators to pass a law that will strengthen safeguard measures against this.

“So you want to make it illegal, we are sworn to implement all the laws that are in the country, but we cannot implement things that are not in the law or else we will be accused of over-stretching,” he said.

“If people are concerned, pass a law, we will implement. You don’t want POGOs (Philippine offshore gaming operators)? Pass a law,” he added.

He said the $389.6 million which legislators have raised concerns about is equivalent to the volume traded in the foreign exchange market for three hours, considering an average of $1 billion of currencies traded per day.

“I’m not saying it’s not big, but you have to put it in proportion of what is the total foreign exchange being traded every day, it is equivalent to three hours of trading, roughly. I’m not saying it’s not dangerous, but in fact, it is not illegal,” he told reporters.

During a recent hearing on POGOs, Senator Gordon criticized regulators for failing to immediately investigate these large sums of money that could have been laundered by Chinese nationals into the country easily.

“The money had been spent and circulated around the world and you did nothing… You defeat the purpose of the law,” Mr. Gordon told representatives of the AMLC.

For Mr. Dominguez, easing the bank secrecy laws as well as amendments on the anti-money laundering law will give regulators “more teeth” to battle against tax evasion and other financial crimes, including money-laundering activities. — Gillian M. Cortez and Beatrice M. Laforga

Sandiganbayan junks appeal vs Marcos cronies

THE anti-graft court junked the Philippine government’s appeal on the dismissal of a P267-million ill-gotten wealth case against cronies of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife Imelda R. Marcos, deeming the documentary evidence presented to be insufficient as they were not original documents.

“The Court finds that the Republic has failed in its burden of proving its case against the Spouses Gimenez (Fe R. Gimenez and Ignacio B. Gimenez) by preponderance of evidence and consequently, the present civil forfeiture case should be dismissed,” the Sandiganbayan said in its decision promulgated on Jan. 23.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) asked the Court to take a look into the “nature, character and probative weight” of the documentary evidence that it had presented, as this would show that most of its evidence were “not mere photocopies, but rather authenticated true copies of the original.”

The Sandiganbayan, however, was not persuaded, saying that the pieces of evidence on the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth “remain as private documents and do not become part of public records.”

“Not having attained the status of certified public records… the photocopies that the Republic has submitted as exhibits amount to a violation of the best evidence rule which requires that the original document must be produced whenever its contents are subject of the inquiry,” the Court said.

Likewise, the Sandiganbayan was not convinced on the prosecution’s claim that “sufficient evidence had been submitted to prove that the assets of the Spouses Gimenez are manifestly disproportionate to their source of income.”

“As correctly pointed out by the Spouses Gimenez, there is insufficient evidence to prove that the properties listed under the name of the Spouses Gimenez were ill-gotten,” it said.

“The PCGG’s power to sequester alleged ill-gotten properties is likened to the provisional remedies of preliminary attachment or receivership. In the same way that the lifting of the sequestration order does not mean that the property is not ill-gotten wealth, the fact that a property has been sequestered cannot be taken as proof that the same is already ill-gotten wealth,” the Court added.

The Court affirmed its decision to dismiss the case promulgated in October 2019. Under Civil Case No. 0007, Ms. Gimenez was accused of participating in the transfer of “millions of dollars of government funds into several accounts in her name in foreign countries,” disbursing these funds to her co-defendants, and “acted as a conduit” of the Marcoses in the purchase of expensive works of art and properties in New York, USA.

Her husband, on the other hand, was accused of acting as a dummy of the Marcoses in corporations such as Allied Banking Corp. — Genshen L. Espedido

BIR goes after cockfighting group for P1.30-B in unpaid taxes

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has temporarily halted the operations of the Manila Cockers Club, Inc. (MCCI) for not paying proper taxes. It also sealed some of MCCI’s unregistered ticket-dispensing machines on Thursday.

Citing a report from the bureau, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters via Viber that MCCI has P1.3 billion of unpaid taxes and that it has no registered automated ticket dispensing machines in any of its 132 locations nationwide.

As of Thursday evening, “51 machines were simultaneously sealed by 20 teams in 19 locations in Quezin City,” Mr. Dominguez said. The operation was led by Deputy Commissioner Marissa O. Cabreros.

Ms. Cabreros explained that using unregistered machines is subject to corresponding penalties and liabilities since businesses are mandated to register their machines with the BIR for proper monitoring of sales and transactions.

She added that if the company attempts to operate the sealed machines again, they will “incur further penalties and liabilities by altering a formal government activity that was properly done by sealing those unregistered machines.”

Sought for comment, MCCI has not responded as of press time.

“What we did is what we call constructive seizure by sealing it, may notice na nakalagay, may pirma para hindi maalter ’yung seal na ginawa, at hindi na nila magamit (a notice was placed on them with a signature so the seal cannot be altered and the machine can no longer be used) until such time that they properly comply with the registration requirement of the BIR,” Ms. Cabreros told reporters.

However according to its website, MCCI claims that it “is the only cockfighting event entity that pays taxes due to its legal operations.”

“[MCCI] licenses were granted by the local government unit (LGU) of Carmona, Cavite. The permits of MCCI ‘off cockpit betting stations’ are granted by LGUs where they operate as mandated by the cockfigthing law,” the website read.

Without disclosing the exact figure, Ms. Cabreros had said the company faces “billions of liabilities.” — Beatrice M. Laforga

Survey says: 81% satisfied with Duterte Administration

THE majority of Filipinos — 81% — were satisfied by the performance of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s administration, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll.

Meanwhile, 12% of Filipinos were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, while 7% were dissatisfied with the government’s performance, the polling firm said in a statement released on Thursday.

“This is up by six points from the very good +67 in September 2019, and matches the record-high excellent +73 in June 2019,” it said.

Out of 16 performance subjects, the government was rated “very good” on seven subjects, “good” on six subjects, and “moderate” on three subjects, the SWS said in its Governance Report Card.

“The National Administration’s net satisfaction rating was very good on: Helping the poor (+64), Fighting terrorism (+61), Providing information needed by the citizens to properly examine what the government is doing (+58), Having clear policies (+56), Developing a healthy economy (+53), Reconciling with Muslim rebels (+51), and Protecting the freedom of the press (+50),” it said.

The surveyed Filipinos also said the Duterte administration was good in fighting crimes (+49), reconciling with communist rebels (+48), in foreign relations (+47), acting according to what the people want (+45), defending Philippine sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea (+32), and eradicating graft and corruption (+31).

Meanwhile, the government got moderate ratings on ensuring that no family will ever be hungry (+29), recovering the “hidden wealth” stolen by Marcos and his cronies (+25), and fighting inflation (+12).

“The December 2019 survey found the National Administration’s net satisfaction rating up by one grade on five specific subjects, down by one grade on one subject, and steady on 10 subjects, compared to when they were last surveyed,” the poll said.

The government also got an excellent rating in Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

SWS interviewed 1,200 adults nationwide from Dec. 13 to 16 for the poll with an error margin of ±3% points. — Genshen L. Espedido

Power distributors ordered to refund P2.8B in excess charges

By Jenina P. Ibañez, Reporter

THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Friday ordered 63 distribution utilities (DU) to refund its customers over P2.8 billion in over-recoveries charges.

In a statement on Friday, the ERC said the power distributors should refund to consumers the over-recoveries in pass-through charges, which includes generation rate, transmission rate, system loss rate, lifeline subsidy rate, and senior citizens subsidy rate.

ERC said the DUs will refund between P0.0025 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to P1.3183/kWh to its customers.

“The Commission ordered to refund the total amount of P2.8 billion to the concerned 63 DUs, particularly 38 in Luzon, 13 in Visayas, and 12 in Mindanao,” ERC Chairperson and CEO Agnes VST Devanadera was quoted as saying in a statement.

She said the refunds would be given over a period of 12 months, except for Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and Angeles Electric Corporation (AEC).

The two companies asked a shorter refund period, which will start on the billing cycle after they receive the ERC’s order.

Meralco said that their refunds will span three months, from the March billing until May.

MERALCO RATE ADJUSTMENT
In a separate statement, Meralco said rates in March will rise slightly by P0.0278 per kWh to P8.8901 per kWh from P8.8623 per kWh in February. This translates to a P6 rise in the monthly bill for households who consume 200 kWh per month.

“The slight increase this month is mainly due to a higher generation charge, which was mitigated slightly by a refund of over-recoveries in pass-through charges and a one-time adjustment in universal charge-NPC stranded contract costs,” Meralco said in a statement.

Meralco vice-president and head of utility economics Lawrence S. Fernandez said in a phone interview on Friday that the company will follow the order as part of their requirements with the regulator.

He said that over/under-recoveries continue as the company bills customers prospectively, according to their previous consumption.

“Because of uncertainty of the consumption of customers, pwede talaga (there may be) magka-over-recovery or under-recovery.”

The refund, he said, will be incorporated in the different components of customers bills.

The ERC earlier approved adjustments for Meralco’s over and under-recoveries in pass-through charges for January 2012 to October 2013. Meralco will refund P0.14/kWh through a universal charge adjustment in March, and P0.05/kWh of pass-through charges in the next three months.

The regulator said the DUs incurred over-recoveries of P107,000 to P657.58 million covering various time periods, because of differences between the estimated costs of generation or transmission charges and the actual costs.

There were also gaps between discounts granted and the actual subsidies collected for lifeline and senior citizen charges.

ERC directed the DUs to submit compliance statements within 10 days as well as monthly reports until the full amounts have been refunded.

Under ERC Resolution No. 16 Series of 2019, DUs are required to file applications for confirmation and approval of calculations of their over or under-recoveries for automatic cost adjustments and true-up mechanisms every three years.

“The confirmation of the DUs’ pass-through charges are meant to protect the interest of the consuming public by way of ensuring that what were charged and collected from them are reasonable and accurate rates”, Ms. Devanadera said. — with R.M.D.Ochave

Kepwealth buys condo units, parking spaces in Pasig

KEPWEALTH PROPERTY Phils., Inc. is investing P184.44 million for the acquisition of condominium units and parking spaces in a building in Pasig City.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange Friday, the company said it entered into deeds of absolute sale with Amberland Corp. for spaces in its One San Miguel Avenue building.

The agreement covers two contiguous floors and 18 parking spaces in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA)-certified skyscraper located at the corner of Shaw Boulevard.

“The total consideration paid of P184,439,808 (VAT included) will form part of the use of proceeds from the initial public offering (IPO) of the company last Aug. 19,” Kepwealth said.

In its website, Amberland said the One San Miguel Avenue building stands on a 1,568-square meter corner lot and has 54 storeys and seven basements. It hosts companies from the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

Kepwealth is among the four companies that listed their shares on the stock exchange last year. It was able to raise P384.77 million in its IPO, which it said it will use to acquire new spaces for commercial and office leasing.

In earlier disclosures, the company said it was planning to buy 3,500 square meters of space in Quezon City, Pasig City, Makati City and Davao City to increase its portfolio of leasable space to 18,121 square meters.

It identified then an unnamed “prime property” in Quezon City and the Apo View Hotel in Davao City as among the properties it was looking at, and a target of closing the acquisitions within the first half of 2020.

Kepwealth reported an attributable net income of P20.1 million in the first nine months of 2019, down 26% from a year ago, amid a 19% rise in revenues to P73.62 million.

Kepwealth shares fell 19 centavos or 2.19% to P8.50 apiece on Friday. — Denise A. Valdez

5,000 out-of-school youth to undergo training at McDonald’s

AROUND 5,000 unemployed and out-of-school youth may soon undergo skills training at branches of McDonald’s around the country.

This as YouthWorks PH, a youth employment project of Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), signed a memorandum of understanding with Golden Arches Development Corp. (GADC) for the training program. GADC holds the Philippine franchise for McDonald’s.

“We’re working towards up to 5,000 for the next three years of the project,” PBEd Executive Director and YouthWorks PH Chief of Party Lovelaine B. Basillote told BusinessWorld on Friday.

Under the MoU, young Filipinos aged between 18 to 24 years old will undergo training with partner institutions of the PBEd and at McDonald’s branches.

YouthWorks PH is a workforce development project valued at P1.7 billion, which provides training and employment opportunities for Filipino youth.

“A global American brand that started from humble beginnings in the1940s, made its way from California to the Philippines in the 1980s, and along the way revolutionized the fast food service industry is now working with us to provide education and employment opportunities to underprivileged Filipino youth,” US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim said in a statement.

For his part, GADC CEO Kenneth S. Yang said: “We are proud to partner with YouthWorks PH in providing quality skills training opportunities for underprivileged Filipino youth. Through this partnership, McDonald’s Philippines commits to welcome and train at 5,000 youth in our restaurants nationwide.” — G.M.Cortez

NEDA ICC-CabCom approves P5.45-B Customs Modernization Project

THE NATIONAL Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee (ICC-CabCom) approved on Friday the P5.45-billion Philippine Customs Modernization Project to streamline and improve Customs’ revenue-collecting capacity.

In a press conference on Friday following the ICC-CabCom’s meeting earlier in the day, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said P4.6 billion or 84.5% of the total project cost is proposed for funding through official development assistance (ODA) in one of multilateral lenders.

“This is a revenue-collection infrastructure project that aims to improve the bureau’s (Bureau of Customs) efficiency and transparency by streamlining and upgrading its systems and procedures through the use of information and communications technology (ICT),” told reporters Friday afternoon.

Earlier, a World Bank document showed the lender is proposing to fund $82 million of the Customs Modernization project, scheduled its board’s approval on July 7. Meanwhile, the remaining $15.82 million will be shouldered by the government.

The Washington-based lender said the $82 million will be sourced either through its lending arm International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) or International Development Association (IDA).

It attributed the Customs bureau’s “poor” performance on trade facilitation to “outdated infrastructure and inadequate business practices.”

The proposed project is expected to improve Customs’ efficiency and further lower trade costs.

“The project will support the modernization of the BoC by investing in modern ICT systems and installing ICT equipment (e.g. computers, servers) around the country (locations are not yet known),” the document posted early last month read.

Aside from one approved project, Mr. Dominguez said the committee also discussed the status of other projects and those that were already approved by the NEDA.

He also said all of the 100 projects under the administration’s infrastructure flagship program will be started within their term, while around half will be completed by 2022.

“This provides a very robust pipeline of projects amounting to roughly P2.3 trillion for the succeeding administration, compared with only 14 projects worth about P230 billion that were ready for implementation when the Duterte administration took over in July of 2016,” he said.

So far, he said, a total of 87 projects worth P3.774 trillion have gotten final approval since the start of administration.

“We have identified the bottlenecks on the ongoing implementation of ODA and locally-funded infrastructure projects and explored ways and measures on how to address or eliminate these to accelerate their execution,” Mr. Dominguez said.

“The Duterte administration will continue to ensure all infrastructure projects are implemented on time and on budget. The ongoing implementation of the majority of these projects will provide the economy the impetus it needs to offset the challenges that could dampen growth this year,” the Finance department said in a statement. — Beatrice M. Laforga

Construction starts decline in Q4 2019

By Marissa Mae M. Ramos, Researcher

CONSTRUCTION STARTS, based on approved building permits, declined by 7.7% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2019 amid fewer residential projects during the period, data by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

Building permits numbered 37,256 in the fourth quarter, less than the 40,369 permits in 2018’s comparable three months.

The projects were equivalent to 9.042 million square meters of space and were valued at P111.58 billion, down 8.8% from a year ago.

Residential constructions, which made up 69.4% of the total approved building permits last quarter, shrank 13.3% to 25,869. The decline was brought about by residential condominiums (-42.2% to 37); single houses (-14.5% to 21,591); apartments/accessorias (-13.6% to 3,387); and other residential properties (-10.2% to 44).

The sole exception was that of duplexes/quadruplexes, which saw a 44.6% increase in permits during the quarter to 810.

Bucking the trend were permits for non-residential constructions, which recorded an increase of 14.5% to 6,289 from 5,491 previously.

Approved commercial structures jumped 23.2% to 3,982, followed by agricultural buildings (7.3% to 234) and institutional buildings (3.9% to 1,316).

Permits for “other non-residential” buildings also grew 35.5% to 149 permits, while those of industrial buildings declined by 8.4% to 608.

Additions to existing structures rose 9.1% to 1,337. On the other hand, the combined number of alterations and repairs of existing structures decreased by 1.2% to 3,761.

Permits at Region IV-A (Calabarzon) — immediately south of the National Capital Region (NCR) — topped the number of approved building permits with 9,808 or a 26.3% share. Coming in second was Central Visayas with 4,880 permits or 13.1%, followed by Central Luzon (9.9%), Ilocos Region (9%), and NCR (7.7%).

“This is still somehow related to the delayed budget of 2019. Construction was challenged in 2019 and it’s not hard to put the two together as the government tried to upscale spending until the end of 2019,” UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc. Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion told BusinessWorld in an e-mail.

Mr. Asuncion was referring to the passage of the 2019 budget, which was signed only in April last year, leading the government to operate on a reenacted budget for more than a quarter. The delay has said to have shed a full percentage point of growth last year.

Meanwhile, President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed the P4.1-trillion 2020 budget last January — the government’s largest spending plan to date. The President has also signed into law a measure allowing the extension of the 2019 budget’s validity until the end of 2020.

With these, UnionBank’s Mr. Asuncion expected construction permits to rebound in the first few months of the year.

“It was a fiscal stimulus of some sort that can help construction activity to recover,” he said.

“With the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) outbreak, there may be some initial reservation of the expected recovery of construction in the next quarters. However, as mentioned, the 2019 and 2020 budget can act as ‘unintended’ fiscal stimulus versus the negative impact of the coronavirus spread,” the economist added.

NPC to end validity of PICs, PIPs in August

THE NATIONAL Privacy Commission (NPC) will end the validity of current registrations to process or control personal information after it launches its automated registration system in July.

NPC in a statement on Friday said the validity of Personal Information Controllers (PIC) and Personal Information Processors (PIP) registrations ends on Aug. 31.

Registrations that were completed by 2018 were previously valid until March 8. The same registrations are now extended up to the end of August.

“The PICs and PIPs covered by the extension are those that previously completed at least Phase-I of their NPC registration,” the statement said.

PICs process or instruct another to process personal data, while PIPs are outsourced or instructed to process personal data.

NPC said those who have not yet registered are required to do so with their data protection officer immediately to avoid liabilities.

PIPs and PICs are subject to compliance checks and NPC cases that result in the issuance of compliance orders.

Under the implementing rules and regulations of the Data Privacy Act of 2012, unauthorized processing of personal information without the consent of the data subject is given a penalty of imprisonment between one to three years, or a fine of P500,000 to P2 million.

Possible imprisonment extends to three to six years and fines grow to P500,000 to P4 million for unauthorized processing of sensitive personal information.

Personal information includes any data that make apparent the identity of an individual.

“Sensitive” personal information includes race, ethnic origin, marital status, health, education, sexual life, social security numbers, and tax returns, among others.

The NPC will begin accepting registrations through its automated system on July 1. — Jenina P. Ibañez

DLSU, IPOPHL team up to develop master’s degree in intellectual property

THE PHILIPPINES may soon offer its first post-graduate degree in intellectual property through a university partnership.

Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) in a statement on Thursday said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with De La Salle University (DLSU) to develop a master’s degree in intellectual property.

“The rationale behind the establishment of a post-graduate course on IP is to further professionalize the experts in the field, which would mean raising the bar on the quality of work and service an IP practitioner is expected to deliver,” IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said.

“Improving the workforce can then lead to a better, more accessible, and more scalable IP system.”

Mr. Barba and DLSU President Brother Raymundo B. Suplido last Feb. 24 signed the MoU, which includes a partnership in producing a semi-annual academic journal on intellectual property management, technology, and innovation.

The two groups will hold a conference, which is tentatively scheduled for the third quarter, for researchers to present papers for possible publication in the journal.

Under the agreement, IPOPHL will provide capacity-building support for DLSU’s program. The two groups also plan to extend intellectual property training programs outside the university.

“The DLSU-IPOPHL partnership is hoped to form the foundations of a stronger relationship between IPOPHL and research institutions that would provide solutions to the country’s developmental and educational concerns,” Mr. Barba said.

IPOPHL’s Intellectual Property Academy plans to further expand its university partners for intellectual property education and training.

IPOPHL Deputy Director General Teodoro C. Pascua, IP Academy Officer-in-Charge Dr. Frederick P. Romero, DLSU’s IP Office Director Atty. Christopher E. Cruz, and DLSU’s Research and Innovation Vice-Chancellor Dr. Raymond Girard R. Tan were witnesses to the signing. — Jenina P. Ibañez

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