More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
Because the pandemic halted the Balikbayan program and allowed Filipino citizens only to enter the nation more Fil-Ams are applying for dual citizenship.
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| https://usa.inquirer.net/149406/more-fil-ams-are-applying-for-dual-citizenship |
A trend has emerged among naturalized American citizens of Filipino descent since the COVID-19 pandemic: An increasing number of dual citizenship reacquisitions and applications.
Ricarte Abejuela, head of the Legalization Department and Dual Citizenship Section at the Philippine Consulate in New York, told Inquirer.net USA that the surge of dual citizenship applications began during the pandemic.
Abejuela said the increased demand for dual citizenship was “an immediate effect of the lockdown in the Philippines during the height of the (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020.”
The Balikbayan program by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging and Infectious Disease, which allowed former Filipino citizens to visit the Philippines without the requirements for foreign nationals, was halted to alleviate COVID-19 risks.
The Balikbayan privilege was suspended and “only Philippine citizens were allowed entry into the Philippines,” Abejuela said. “US citizens who were former Filipinos could not enter the Philippines as balikbayans, thus the surge in the increase in dual citizenship petitions.”
The demand decreased when the Philippines eased the restrictions and once again allowed the entry of foreign visitors, but there has been sustained interest in dual citizenship, with an average of 5,000 per year since 2022, Abejuela said.
Under Republic Act No. 9225, natural-born Filipinos who lost their Filipino citizenship through naturalization in a foreign country may re-acquire Filipino citizenship by taking the Philippine Oath of Allegiance before a duly authorized Philippine official.
It is insane that any country would allow someone to be a dual citizen. A citizen with split allegiances is simply no good.
During the pandemic one Filipino game developer produced a plantita-inspired game. Now Google is throwing money her way.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/5/1/filipino-developer-secures-google-mentorship-with-plantita-inspired-game-1556 |
A Filipino-developed mobile game about plantita life has been featured in one of Google’s grants for indie game development.
Clover-Fi Games, founded by one woman team Camilla Santiago, is the sole Filipino game development company representing the Philippines this year in the Indie Games Accelerator (IGA)
Window Garden allows players to build their own virtual indoor garden on their phone. The game was also featured in the GameDev Summit held in Boracay last February. Pinoy game development companies such as Yangyang Mobile and Ranida Games have also represented the country in IGA in previous years.
In an interview last February with ABS-CBN News, Santiago said the game was inspired by her mother’s own indoor garden during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
"It started during the pandemic. [My setup was] work from home, and my mother had this little garden with plants. [I named it] Window Garden, [because] it's literally a window garden with plants,” she said.
Santiago learned how to develop applications during COVID-19 community quarantines, learning the fundamentals through YouTube, and Google. Over time, she managed to build the application, which now has a 4.7 rating in Google Play.
Fellow game developers who made the program in the past encouraged her to apply. And eventually, in March, she found out she was making the cut.
(At first, I didn't know that they had a program like this. When I started this, the gaming community was barely visible so I was just doing everything by myself. Tutorials, YouTube. When I started I already accepted help from others on how I could be assisted as a game developer.)
For Santiago, being part of the program will help her in her journey as a solo developer, and expand her own game development company in the long run.
(I never saw this as a business at first. But I want to expand the team because I do things all by myself. This is because I don't have an idea on the legal issues in expanding, hiring people so that's what I'm looking forward to.)
Santiago’s tenure in the program will last ten weeks, starting mid-April.
It is amazing what one can learn through YouTube.
During the pandemic the demand for Philippine made garments declined. Now people are losing jobs.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1937634/over-5000-ph-garment-factory-workers-lose-jobs |
Around 5,100 local garment factory workers across the country have been either retrenched or forced to go on leave since the beginning of the year due mainly to weak demand overseas that depressed local orders.
On Monday, Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines (Conwep) executive director Maritess Jocson-Agoncillo said that at least nine factories have been affected, including Luenthai Philippines, the country’s biggest exporter of textile goods using cotton.
In total, around 4,577 workers have been retrenched, while another 500 were made to go on leave. This is equivalent to about 3 percent of the 182,600 workers employed by the Conwep member companies.
Of those retrenched, Luenthai accounted for close to half at 2,000, which is equivalent to as much as 60 percent of its workers.
Jocson-Agoncillo said that according to Luenthai, it had to pare down its workforce because of the soft demand for its products that has persisted for some two years.
Luenthai has manufacturing facilities in Clark Freeport in Pampanga as well as in Cebu, Tarlac and Bataan provinces and works with well-known international brands such as Ralph Lauren, Dillard’s, Adidas, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, Coach and Michael Kors.
“This action (retrenchment and forced leaves) was coordinated with the Department of Labor and Employment to ensure transparency, fairness, and adherence to legal standards, underlining our dedication to ethical business practices,” Luenthai said in a statement provided by the Conwep official.
“All affected employees received comprehensive severance packages that meet legal standards,” read the same statement.
Jocson-Agoncillo, however, said that no other factory had expressed plans to follow suit.
“Knock on wood, I think this is it, so far,” she said.
Jocson-Agoncillo said the Luenthai Group and other Conwep members started to feel the crunch of weak demand and a decline in orders around the second quarter of 2023.
By early February, she said export revenues for apparel, leather goods and footwear had declined by a hefty 34 percent from 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and devastated the local and global economies.
She said the exporters had yet to recover to 2019 levels when export revenues for these goods were at $1.79 billion, higher than the $1.35 billion recorded in 2023.
The latest data from the group showed that exports of apparel, textiles, travel goods, and footwear were down 12 percent in January and February.
Export revenues during the two months for these products dropped to $215.86 million from $246.65 million during the same months in 2023.
Aside from weak demand, Jocson-Agoncillo said another factor that contributed to the Luenthai retrenchments was the impact of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act of the United States, which prohibited imports using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region.
“[Exporters and manufacturers] are currently being required by [US Customs and Border Protection] to prove the origin of the material component and the production practices of all elements in the supply chain,” she said.
The Conwep official said this caused shipments to be delayed by several months.
As of February, Jocson-Agoncillo said that the actual cost of the detained shipments was close to $5 million but said that some of the shipments had already been released a few weeks ago.
She also denied that the local garment industry was using cotton from Xinjiang, citing that they source these materials from other cotton-producing countries such as India and Pakistan.
Doe anyone need specifically Philippine made textiles? The country is just a cheap labor market for Western companies.
The pandemic lockdowns were unnecessary and economically devastating. Here is one man's story of how Duterte's orders killed his business and how he has built it back.
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| https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/food-drinks/rebuilding-sangkalan-restaurant-quezon-city/ |
The nationwide 2020 lockdown, imposed by then-president Rodrigo Duterte to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus – was most traumatic for Philippine businesses big and small, including the two branches of Sangkalan Restaurant, which entrepreneur Carlos de Guzman put up in Quezon City to cater mainly to the middle class.
“Bangungot (Nightmare),” De Guzman said, expressing his exasperation over the sudden imposition of one of the harshest lockdowns in the region. De Guzman recalled how he beefed up his inventory to prepare for the spate of reservations his restaurants received for the incoming summer months of April and May. They included receptions for weddings, baptisms, birthdays, graduations, and other celebrations.
The lockdown came and hell broke loose, he recalled. He had to return the deposits, which the hosts paid him in advance to confirm their reservations. He said he could have claimed “force majeure” and kept the money for himself, but it was not the proper way to do business. It was bad for his business, he said in hindsight.
“I felt sad witnessing many business establishments closing shop because I’m a businessman too,” he said. “Even at the start of the lockdown, we wanted to go back to the thick of things. We did not close shop because we knew it would be difficult if we did, and reopen later. We took the lockdown as a temporary thing.”
“We returned their deposits because we believed it was the right thing to do. When the situation normalized, we knew these customers would return to us. But if we did not, we would lose them forever. The decades of building a market would be gone forever,” De Guzman said.
As the situation normalized and restrictions eased, Sangkalan quietly resumed operations without losing the market. But it quietly engaged in a reengineering program to enable the brand “Sangkalan” to fit in a changing market. De Guzman has led it to a new direction, which is to make the brand known for being essentially a family restaurant.
It did not come overnight. He saw intervening factors, prompting him to rethink and reposition the brand in the changing hospitality market, De Guzman said.
He saw how families gathered in the two branches amid relaxed restrictions two years after the lockdown. It was all life, he said. It dawned on him that the best way to get back to business was to convert the brand for family gatherings, lunches, dinners, and occasions that require a much bigger place than their homes.
It would need capital influx. He sold a piece of real estate property to raise new funds. Moreover, his brother-in-law, a retiree with fresh funds, bought a franchise in 2021. They put up a Sangkalan outlet in Dagupan City. He helped him to train the staff, mostly local hires, and establish the system. The branch is now doing well. The funds he raised from the new franchise helped him in the reengineering program.
The reengineering program makes the brand perfect for family gatherings and receptions like weddings, baptisms, graduations, reunions, or wedding renewals. The brand is not limited to family gatherings alone. It has expanded to include occasions for schools, professional and civic groups, and sectoral organizations as well. It has acquired new fixtures that fit well for a family restaurants like bigger tables and sturdier chairs.
The Sangkalan branch in Visayas Avenue has moved to a two-story building in the same stretch. Its new location has enabled the branch to accommodate more people and bigger occasions.
According to De Guzman, the pair of restaurants has stopped offering entertainment shows, which customers had gone to not only for entertainment but also for bantering and booze. This is to allow families and group mates to have gatherings in a friendly atmosphere.
“Actually, the brand is now easier to manage as we don’t have occasions when customers get unruly and rowdy because of booze,” he said.
De Guzman established the first Sangkalan branch in Visayas Avenue in late 1991. It flourished, prompting him to put up the second Sangkalan outfit in Scout Albano nearly two years later. The two Sangkalan branches are regular fixtures in their chosen locations, he said.
The Visayas Ave branch is located in a crossroad that encompasses several middle class villages. Hence, it services a bigger market. The West Avenue branch likewise covers a big area, although competition is stiffer because of the presence of other restaurants with established branches there. Sangkalan is open for negotiations for franchises, he said.
“Sangkalan is here to stay in the middle class market of Quezon City,” De Guzman said.
From boozy entertainment venue to flourishing family friendly restaurant. Maybe he should thank Duterte after all?
The pandemic has changed the way people work around the world. The Philippines is no exception.
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| https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/5/14/coworking-spaces-to-take-off-after-pandemic-disruption-industry-player-1100 |
At the launch of their new office space in Adriatico Square, Malate, Manila, Lars Wittig—Philippines Country Manager for Regus owner International Workplace Group-- said companies that let go of employees during the pandemic are realizing the importance of flexible workspaces.
"The big tenants with conventional leases, they learned the hard way, especially thanks to COVID, that there's no flexibility in a long-term lease for a certain amount of space," he said.
Wittig said many firms are saddled with 5 or 10-year leases for office spaces that don't meet their needs anymore. He noted that even before the pandemic, it was already difficult to predict what kind of office spaces will be needed years into the future.
"Then thanks to COVID, people really got aware, became aware of it," he added.
The executive said that some companies--particularly those who signed leases before COVID which are now up for renewal--are now going for flexible working spaces.
"Every time their service agreement is up for renewal, the likelihood of renewing--expanding or downsizing but renewing--is five percentage points higher today than pre-COVID," he noted.
Long term leases have several disadvantages for a lot of companies, especially small and medium-scale businesses.
"And you don't like to pay for something that you don't need because you have too much space, and you also don't want to be forced out of something prematurely because that comes with fines and you've made a capital investment."
Wittig also said that even multinational companies rely on flexible working spaces these days, as more employees look for hybrid work arrangements. Younger employees also benefit from the mentorship they gain in co-working spaces, he noted.
"They knew that would help them attract and retain young talents," he added.
The executive also noted that the flexible office space segment is growing “dramatically.” While less than 5 percent of office spaces today are coworking or flexible, this figure is expected to rise to a "minimum 30 percent" in 10 years.
Regus currently has close to 30 locations around the country. Its office spaces are currently 84.4 percent occupied.
Wittig said entrepreneurs can get a virtual office at Regus Adriatico for as low as P4,600 a month. This means their firms can list Regus Adriatico as their business address where they can receive mail, have a virtual receptionist to answer their phone calls, and book meeting rooms wherever needed.
Regus said their office spaces can be rented monthly, quarterly, or annually. The maximum length of a short-term lease contract is 24 months, though this is renewable.
Currently, most of Regus’ clients in the Philippines are in the business process outsourcing, information technology, and startups.
But how long will this change last?
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