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Locsin apologizes for tweets on Mao

THE PHILIPPINES’ top diplomat apologized on Sunday for Twitter posts on Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, including referring to the revolutionary leader as “burnt rice.”

In a tweet two weeks ago, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin called the Chinese revolutionary Mao Che “Tutung,” which means burnt rice in the Filipino language.

In a separate tweet on Oct. 11 while reacting to a challenge by left-leaning groups for leaders to use public transport, Mr. Locsin said the point of communism is “to take power and unleash a famine like Mao did.”

Mr. Locsin, known for his colorful words, apologized to China and its ambassador to the Philippines, Zhao Jianhua, for using Mao’s name “in vain.”

The apology, posted on Mr. Locsin’s Twitter account on Oct. 13, reads: My profound apologies to the People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party responsible for its unprecedented achievements and Amb. Zhao, for using the Great Helmsman’s name in vain. All this revisionism makes me — as the first defender of “Red China”— forget my admiration.

The Philippines under President Rodrigo R. Duterte has improved its ties with China and tapped Chinese funds for infrastructure projects amid a territorial dispute between the two nations in the South China Sea. — Bloomberg

Pasig court returns Rappler execs’ case for preliminary probe

A PASIG City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has returned to the prosecutors for preliminary investigation the case involving online news site Rappler’s officials for alleged violation of the Securities and Regulation Code (SRC).

In a nine-page order dated Oct. 8, Judge Elma M. Rafallo-Lingan of Pasig RTC Branch 195 said the “undue haste in the transmittal of records” to the court by the city’s prosecutor’s office violates the rights to due process of the accused.

“When the accused were deprived of this right, there is a denial of the right to a full preliminary investigation preparatory to the filing of the Information,” the order read.

Charged for violation of Section 26.1 (Fraudulent Transactions), in relation to Section 73 of the SRC are Rappler Chief Executive Officer and Executive Editor Maria A. Ressa, Managing Editor Glenda M. Gloria, and 2016 directors Manuel I. Ayala, Nico Jose Nolledo, James C. Bitanga, Felicia Atienza, and James Velasquez.

In a joint motion filed earlier, Mses. Ressa and Gloria noted that the Pasig City prosecutor’s office furnished the resolution of their indictment after office hours of March 25 while Ms. Gloria received a copy at noon the next day.

The others accused were not served with a copy of the resolution.

The Information was filed before the court at 2:45 p.m. on the same day despite a motion from the accused to defer its transmittal to court.

They also claimed that they were not notified of their case for violation of the SRC, and were only informed about charges for violation of the Anti-Dummy Law and Section 2 of Presidential Decree 1018, which states that mass media should be owned by Filipinos, and Section 7 in relation to Section 14 of Republic Act 7042 or the Foreign Investments Act of 1991.

The accused filed their respective motions for reconsideration, but the prosecutor’s office denied these in a consolidated resolution on May 7.

The Pasig judge also said in the order that “in the interest of justice, the Court finds it proper to remand the case to the OCP (Office of the City Prosecutor)-Pasig for the conduct of preliminary investigation, relative to the charge of violation of Section 26.1, in relation to Section 73 of the Securities Regulation Code.”

The court also consolidated the SRC case with the Anti-Dummy Law case before RTC Branch 265, where proceedings are currently suspended and been deferred.

The court also reduced the bail of Mses. Ressa and Gloria from P126,000 to P63,000 and Ms. Ressa’s travel bond from P100,000 to P50,000.

The case stems from the alleged fraudulent transaction Rappler entered into with the issuance of Philippine Depositary Receipts to investing firm Omidyar Network Fund in 2015.

Omidyar Network donated its PDRs worth $1.5 million to Rappler staff in February last year after the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision in January 2018 revoking the news site’s certificate of incorporation and declaring void the PDRs for being a “fraudulent transaction.” — Vann Marlo M. Villegas

6 Luzon plants in unplanned outage

THE DEPARTMENT of Energy (DoE) said on Monday that six power plants in Luzon went on an unplanned outage, putting the system under a “yellow” alert between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. as reserve power thinned after the forced shutdown. DoE said the six plants have an installed capacity of 1,165 megawatts (MW), of which 1,130 MW are “dependable.” Of the six plants, the biggest in terms of capacity is TeaM Energy Corp.’s Sual coal-fired power plant unit 1 with a dependable capacity of 647 MW. It listed the cause of the unplanned outage as “condenser tube leak; ongoing washing or boiler and turbine to remove contaminated water with sodium and chloride.” Second was GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. with a dependable capacity of 316 MW, which went on a maintenance outage to facilitate the correction valves. The four other plants have a dependable capacity of up to 60 MW. The DoE said the outage were due to reasons outside management control, referring to the outage of the Malampaya offshore gas project, which fuels the country’s gas-fired power plants. Malampaya’s planned shutdown affected three power plants with a total capacity of 1,620 MW. “We are closely monitoring the situation,” said Energy Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella. — Victor V. Saulon

Only gasoline increasing this week


ONLY GASOLINE products will increase this week, by P0.25 per liter (/L), most oil companies advised on Monday. Diesel products will be down by P0.10/L, while kerosene will also be cheaper by P0.40/L. Most of the oil companies will be adjusting prices at 6:00 a.m. today, Oct. 15. Last week, the per liter prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene dropped by P0.80, P1.00 and P1.15, respectively. — Victor V. Saulon

Sprout Solutions raises $6M for expansion

SPROUT SOLUTIONS Philippines, Inc., a human resource and payroll management systems provider, announced on Monday its $6-million Series A investment for expansion across the country.

Patrick Gentry, Sprout Solutions founder and chief executive officer, announced on Monday that the company has closed its Series A round and raised around $6 million of capital from foreign investors, including the US investment firm Point72 Ventures, Dymon Asia, Next Billion Ventures (NBV), and Endeavor Catalyst.

“We are going to be expanding through provinces. We are now spreading a lot more nationwide,” he said during a media roundtable at the Bonifacio Global City.

Mr. Gentry said the company’s existing investors, including local firm Kickstart Ventures and Singapore-based firms Beenext and Wavemaker Partners, also took part after participating in the company’s 2017 seed round that raised $1.6 million.

With the fresh funds, Mr. Gentry said Sprout Solutions is targeting to put up offices in areas outside Metro Manila next year, including Davao City and Clark in Pampanga.

He said the company already has at least 300 client-companies nationwide.

“We are serving larger and larger companies here in the Philippines. Actually today, we have a nationwide presence already. Like we have a lot of clients in Davao, Cebu, Clark, Baguio, Palawan, but we don’t have offices in these places,” he added.

In a press release, he noted that the perception that “the Philippines is a highly demanding investment environment has kept it off the radar of traditional Western investors.”

“Growing a business in the Philippines from scratch is nothing like in Silicon Valley. The trust barrier here is so high, so you really have to focus on overcoming that obstacle before you start to see any success,” Mr. Gentry explained.

“This means you need to have solid business fundamentals and solid revenue streams, but more than that, you have to do the right thing and take care of people before you can establish that trust,” he added. — Arjay L. Balinbin

LRTA starts extension to Tutuban and Pier 4

THE LIGHT Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) on Monday announced that it has started working on the extension of the LRT-2 System to Tutuban, Divisoria, and Pier 4. “Mas magiging madali na ang biyahe ng mga gustong pumunta para mamili sa Tutuban at Divisoria, o mga sasakay sa barko sa Pier 4 ng North Harbor (Travel will soon be easier for those who wish to go shopping at Tutuban and Divisoria, or those who will take boats at the North Harbor),” LRTA Administrator Reynaldo I. Berroya said in a statement. Once the project is completed, LRTA said travel time from Recto station to Pier 4 will only take five minutes while the journey from Masinag station to Pier 4 will not exceed an hour. The government targets to finish by 2023 the P10.1-billion, five-kilometer West Extension Project, which is part of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s Build, Build, Build program. “Currently, the LRT-2 System which traverses the East-West routes with terminal stations at Santolan in Pasig and Recto in Manila, moves about 240,000 passengers daily. Upon completion, this number is projected to add 16,000 more passengers each day,” LRTA said. Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade said last week that he is open to proposals to privatize the LRT-2, which had to be partially shut down after a fire damaged the rail line’s power system. The LRTA has estimated that at least P430 million is needed to fix the damage. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Fisherfolk group ties fishkill incidents to Manila Bay rehab

A FISHERFOLK group wants more transparency in the government’s Manila Bay rehabilitation program as more incidents of fishkill are recorded in bodies of water connected to the bay.

“It’s not enough that BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) and DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) would only explain scientifically the causes of the fishkill. We are already aware of that and we believe that this is not a natural phenomenon,” Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) said in a statement on Monday.

“What we want to hear from them is who was the responsible, what are the measures, and what concrete actions can the affected fisherfolk expect from the government to continue their wheels of production,” the group said.

BFAR said on Monday that the reported shellfish mortality in Bacoor and Sangley Point in Cavite was caused by lower level of salinity from 19 to 25 part per thousand (ppt) versus the required level at 27 to 35 ppt, triggered by heavy rainfall in the area.

Low level of dissolved oxygen and high concentrations of ammonia and phosphates were also observed in the water. High levels of such chemicals is harmful to marine life.

PAMALAKAYA reported that coastal towns of Cavite were also affected by water pollution, as dead mussels and oysters were collected in a mussel farm in Bacoor City.

Fish kill was also reported in Las Piñas City and Parañaque City on Oct. 11, which was caused by low levels of dissolved oxygen compared with the standard 5.0 part per million (ppm), and high levels of ammonia and phosphates, versus normal levels of 0.05 ppm and 0.5 ppm, respectively.

Loss was estimated to be at one to two tons of various fish species. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

Iloilo City plans inclusion of bicycle infrastructure in land use update

By Emme Rose S. Santiagudo, Correspondent

THE ILOILO City government will include bicycle lanes and other related infrastructure in its ongoing review and updating of its Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP).

“The bike lanes and biking will become part of our comprehensive land use plan so that whatever infrastructure needed to make it easier for bikers to go around the city, we will be able to include it in our plan,” Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said last week after receiving the results of the “Think Bike Workshop” organized by the Dutch Cycling Embassy.

Representatives of the Dutch Cycling Embassy, together with Dutch Ambassador to the Philippines Saskia Elisabeth de Lang, presented to the mayor last October 9 the output from the workshop, which was participated in by members of the tourism and planning offices of the local government, the transport sector, and cycling civic society organizations.

The Dutch Cycling Embassy is a public-private partnership of The Netherlands government and private consultants on urban planning and cycling in Asia.

Mr. Treñas acknowledged that bicycles, as a form of transportation, can help decongest the city and improve its mobility.

“We have a growing population on biking, most of them do it for recreation. Biking for transportation can be a tool to decongest the city,” he said.

Ms. De Lang, for her part, said with some bike lanes and a growing community of enthusiasts already present in the city, it is only a matter of making biking more accessible and safe for everybody in terms of infrastructure.

“It is already in the tradition, now it’s about making it accessible for everybody in terms of infrastructures. Biking should be safe, it should easy to take a bike when going to work, shopping, or biking along the river,” she said.

“I am pleased that the mayor sees the future and he knows that this will develop more economic growth and more investments. Thinking about the future and the zoning and land use planning in the city, I am pleased to hear that biking can be fitted in those future plans,” she added.

Mati airport development plan expanded for bigger aircraft

LOCAL OFFICIALS, together with representatives of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), have decided to expand the development plan for the airport in Mati City, Davao Oriental to include a runway for bigger aircraft. In a meeting last week, the parties also agreed to push through with construction work using the approved P200 million rehabilitation fund for this year, according to a statement from the provincial government. The initial plan was to rehabilitate the airport and develop its system for Class 3C operations, which would allow for turbo-propelled aircraft operations. With the new plan, the government will have to acquire another 27 hectares in addition to the current 34 hectares that is enough for the terminal building and the shorter runway. The property owners, the Rabat and Rocamora families, have reportedly agreed to support the project. Davao Oriental 2nd District Rep. Joel Mayo Z. Almario stressed during the meeting that there is a need to immediately look into how to fast-track the project considering that there is only about two months before the fund is reverted to the National Treasury. Gov. Nelson L. Dayanghirang said the operations of the airport is necessary to open up the province to more tourists. “We have a lot of destinations to offer in terms of tourism which can be maximized if we could offer our tourists an alternative and inviting means to reach us,” said Mr. Dayanghirang. — Carmelito Q. Francisco

PBGEA condemns threat to biosecurity facilities under ‘road clearing’ operation

DAVAO CITY — The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association, Inc. (PBGEA) has condemned the action of the Davao del Norte provincial government to clear the roads leading to banana plantations, which would have led to the destruction of biosecurity facilities.

In a press release Monday, PBGEA said the provincial government’s attempt last week to supposedly clear the entry leading to the farm of Tagum Agricultural Development Co. (Tadeco), under a national program to clear roads and sidewalks from obstruction, threatened not just the farm of the Floirendo-owned company but also the entire industry.

PBGEA, through its chair, Alberto F. Bacani, said biosecurity facilities must not be considered a traffic obstruction.

“These should be seen as a protective measure which helps the community in its income generation,” said Mr. Bacani, adding that the removal of these facilities would mean “you destroy the people’s source of income.”

The PBGEA statement added that in areas where these facilities are absent, the dreaded Panama disease has thrived and resulted in the wiping out of about 2,400 hectares of banana plantations in the province.

This has also resulted in the shutting down of about 300 packing houses, it added.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show $1.38 billion worth of fresh bananas were exported last year, seventh among the county’s top 10 commodities.

PBGEA members account for about 50% of the total area planted to Cavendish, the export variety.

PBGEA Executive Director Stephen A. Antig said instead of exposing the industry to possible dangers, local governments should help protect one of the biggest contributors to the local economy.

“Their constituents are largely dependent on the banana industry for their livelihood. They should help the banana growers, and not interfere in their operations,” Mr. Antig said.

Last week, Gov. Edwin I. Jubahib ordered the road-clearing operation but was halted through the intercession of Mindanao Development Authority Chair Emmanuel F. Piñol and a temporary restraining order from a Regional Trial Court.

The provincial government wanted to remove the entry barriers that guide vehicles to tire dips and pedestrians to foot baths, which are intended to prevent the potential spread of diseases in the farm.

The Provincial Information, Communication, Knowledge and Management Office has yet to reply to BusinessWorld’s request for comment. — Carmelito Q. Francisco

Nation at a Glance — (10/15/19)

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

Nation at a Glance — (10/15/19)

A bright and robust sector

The Philippine insurance industry remains bright and robust, exhibiting positive growth in recent years despite some internal and external challenges. In fact, in 2018, the local insurance sector marked another banner year after posting new record highs in terms of premium, assets, net worth, and net income. Preliminary data based on unaudited reports submitted by all industry players to the Insurance Commission (IC) showed that the industry’s assets reached an all-time high of P1.58 trillion as of end of 2018, up 1.28% from the P1.56 trillion recorded as of end 2017.

The industry also posted the highest amount of premiums collected for the recent years. The industry’s total premium income grew 11.67% to P290.15 billion in 2018 from P259.82 billion posted a year ago.

In terms of net worth, the local insurance industry likewise posted a record-high net worth amounting to P337.37 billion in 2018, an increase of P17.07 billion from P320.3 billion a year ago. The industry’s total net income also rose to a record high of P37.43 billion from P36.39 billion, which translates to a 3% growth.

For the first half of 2019, however, the industry experienced a slight slowdown in terms of premium income, based on the unaudited quarterly reports submitted by life and non-life insurance firms and mutual benefit associations (MBA) to IC. The latest report released by the regulator on Oct. 10 showed that the industry’s overall premium income dropped 2.64% to P141.91 billion in the first six months of the year from P145.76 billion posted in the same period last year.

“The decrease in the total premium of the insurance industry can be attributed to the decrease in the uptake of single premium variable products due to global market uncertainty and economic slowdown,” Insurance Commissioner Dennis B. Funa was quoted as saying in a statement.

“Despite the year-on-year increase in the first year and renewal premiums in variable life products of 11.67% and 32.04%, respectively, the decline in the premium from the sale of variable life insurance products was caused by the significant decrease of single premium of 52.5% from P43.24 billion last year to P20.54 billion this year,” he added.

Meanwhile, premiums collected from traditional life insurance products increased by 12.55% to P31.17 billion as of end of second quarter of this year from P27.69 billion during the same period in 2018.

“A remarkable increase of 94.97% should also be noted in single premium policies of traditional life insurance from P1.1 billion in Q2 2018 to P2.2 billion of the same quarter in 2019,” Mr. Funa said.

The non-life insurance sector’s net premiums, on the other hand, grew by 12.98% year-on-year to P27.61 billion from P24.44 billion in the previous year. Consistent with the trend in the past reporting periods, the motor car insurance business contributed majority of the total net premiums at 49.47%.

Similarly, the MBA sector’s premium income grew 13.54% to P5.88 billion as of end of second quarter this year from P5.18 billion posted in the same period a year ago.

Overall, the total assets of the local insurance industry in the first six months of 2019 rose by 11.79% to P1.72 trillion from P1.54 trillion as of end-June last year.

“As of end of the first half of this year, the three sectors of the insurance industry registered positive growth in terms of assets. A significant portion of the industry’s assets or 88.37% (P1.52 trillion) were held in income generating investment,” Mr. Funa said.

Meanwhile, early this year, IC also released the ranking of top insurance companies in the country for 2018 in terms of key insurance statistics.

Among the life insurance companies in the country, Sun Life of Canada (Philippines), Inc. emerged on top and has retained its market leadership in terms of premium income collected at P37.39 billion. In terms of new business annual premium equivalent, Sun Life also topped the other life insurance companies with P8.22 billion.

Based on net income, on the other hand, Philippine American Life & General lnsurance Co., (Philam Life) took the top spot with P9.8 billion. It also topped the sector in terms of assets and net worth, amounting to P246.75 billion and P78.87, respectively.

For the ranking of non-life insurance companies in terms of net premiums written for 2018, Prudential Guarantee & Assurance, lnc. remained on top after recording the highest premium income of P5.18 billion.

In terms of gross premiums written and assets, Malayan Insurance Company, lnc., ranked first with P10.16 billion and P34.28 billion, respectively.

Based on net worth, Pioneer lnsurance & Surety Corporation has retained its market leadership with P15.39 billion. The BPI/MS lnsurance Corporation, on the other hand, recorded the highest net income with P453.83 million.

According to IC, existing insurance companies are required to increase their respective net worth to P900 million by end of 2019 from the existing minimum of P550 million. This is the penultimate mandatory increase in minimum net worth requirement as required under the lnsurance Code, as amended by Republic Act No. 10607. By end of 2022, firms are required to have a net worth of at least P1.3 billion. — Mark Louis F. Ferrolino

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