Their faces lined with worry, they haunt its public transport stations, brandishing giant

portrait photos of their children, missing victims of the country’s many-sided conflict.

“It’s like a cry that we are launching, so that the world will know, so that it becomes
aware,” said Maria Elena Gallego, who has spent the last eight years looking for her
missing daughter.

Gallego is one of a group of 35 women seeking to draw attention to the victims of forced
disappearances, which were a feature of Colombian life during a half-century of conflict.

Every day, they board buses carrying their children’s portraits, distributing handwritten
letters recounting their poignant, unceasing searches.

“Mothers of missing people carry eternal pain,” says one missive.

KAYA, with a total funding of P1billion under the Department of Agriculture, offers 18-
Official figures put the “disappeared” at nearly 83,000 — almost three times the number
missing under the dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil and Chile combined.

“Where is She?”, “Where is He?” — the questions are written in bold lettering over the
ageless portraits of the long lost: civilians and soldiers, men and women, but mostly the
young.

Gallego says telling strangers about her experience is a kind of balm against uncertainty.

“At least we go out, we shout, we talk, we cry! It’s an outlet! It’s therapy! But the pain,
we take it with us everywhere,” she tells AFP.

A campaign called #ReconocemosSuBusqueda (We recognize your search) was launched

this year to highlight the work of these women, who have taken on the weary task of
investigating the disappearances alone.

The initiative is supported by Colombia’s Missing Persons Research Unit and the Truth
Commission, created as part of the 2016 peace agreement that ended the armed conflict
between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Though Colombian officials have never given her any leads in the search for her
daughter, Gallego believes Sandra disappeared because of her environmental work. She
still believes that her daughter is alive.

30-year-old agripreneurs P300,000 to P500,000 loans payable in 5 years at zero percent

interest. After approval, partner state universities and private sector partners will serve as
mentors to help ensure the success of the venture.
Agrinegosyo, on the other hand, offers cash loans from P300,000 to P15 million to
individuals and businesses already engaged or want to establish micro and small
agribusiness enterprises. Visit acpc.gov.ph for details.

In addition to these, the lower income taxes from the TRAIN Law and CITIRA bill, there
will be more money left over for spending within the economy, boosting growth. The
economic managers led by the Department of Finance have done a good job getting these
reforms ready to boost local growth.

Other grassroots loan programs in agriculture

Apart from these there are new loan programs that will allow those in the agribusiness
sector to obtain financing. As I have written before, the agri sector will need to expand
production if we are to keep food prices, and inflation low in this age of African Swine
Flu in many areas in the country.

Starting with the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) for local farmers, the
Agricultural Competititveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) offers low interest loans for
farm enterprises. Two new programs launched recently under the Department of
Agriculture’s (DA) Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) are the Kapital Access for
Young Agripreneurs (KAYA) and Agrinegosyo loan program.

There are several new reforms and programs that can enable us to achieve this higher
volume of investment.

The Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), the long awaited Implementing rules for
which were approved in the last month is designed to attract investments in the important
real estate sector, which encourages other investments.

The Personal Property Security Act will allow more Filipinos to use their idle assets and
invest in business. Banks will no longer restrict collateral to residential and commercial
properties, giving more people the chance to borrow through secured, lower rate
financing.

There is also the Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-Asenso (P3) under the Small Business
Corporation of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for micro businesses. This
can shoo away the loan sharks who make a killing in interest rates on such short-term,
unsecured loans.

Last week’s upgrade of Japanese credit ratings agency to BBB+ brings the Philippines a
step from the minimum of the sought-after “A” scale. Like the previous S and P upgrade,
the agency also assigned a “stable” outlook to the Philippines.
What do these things really mean for us?

This means we are paying better on our loans to international banks, and reforms are
making this possible. This gets better rates for the loans, particularly in the international
bond markets. More institutions will want to lend to and in the Philippines.

New programs to spur growth through financing

Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo has praised the Philippine basketball team for
showing “flashes of brilliance” despite the loss to the Italians.

Italy inflicted a crushing defeat on the Philippine team, winning 108-62 during the
opening game of FIBA tournament in Foshan, China where President Duterte was among
the spectators. Duterte showed support for Gilas Pilipinas by watching the game, which
he earlier predicted local team would be beaten by the Italians.

‘PRRD patiently watched the game as the Filipino players valiantly fought their taller,
bigger, shiftier and sharp-shooting Italians. In the end, we were outplayed and out-scored
but not without displaying some flashes of brilliance, although few and far between,”
Panelo said.

“It’s not always the winning that counts, it’s how the game is played. Our Filipino
players played with grit and passion. And for that they deserve our admiration,” he
added.

After watching the FIBA game, the President is expected to return to the country Sunday.

On Tuesday, the carrier said it planned to cut about 30% of capacity over the next two
months, including about 90% of flights to mainland China.

“Today, we are appealing to all employees to participate in the special leave scheme,
which will take effect from 1 March and last until 30 June,” Cathay said in a statement.
“All employees will have the option to take three weeks of unpaid leave in this period.”

The leave is not mandatory, a spokeswoman said, but it is encouraged.

The South China Morning Post earlier cited a video recording from Cathay Chief
Executive Augustus Tang appealing to employees to help by taking up the leave.

Cathay shares were trading 2.1% higher as of 0730 GMT on Wednesday following the
announcement of capacity cuts after the market closed on Tuesday.
In a note to clients, Jefferies analysts estimated the airline would report a loss in the first
half of 2020 before returning to a profit in the second half, assuming traffic rebounds as it
did with the 2003 SARS epidemic.

DTI Secretary Ramon M. Lopez told reporters covering the opening of PROPAK
Philippines, the country’s premier processing packaging event, that the country’s exports
are going to be affected only to the point of supply chain of inputs to production local
industries.

He cited that several parts are being supplied from China. Delivery from the Chinese
suppliers are delayed affecting local assemblers and manufacturers. For instance, Lopez
said Japanese carmaker Honda has auto parts supplier from Wuhan.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that China was the Philippines
biggest supplier of imported goods with 22.9 percent share of total imports in November
2019. Imports from this country amounted to $2.05 billion, from $1.8 billion in
November 2018. Other major trading partners were Japan with import value of $894.42
million; USA, $668.81 million; Thailand, $602.48 million; and South Korea, $568.43
million.

Lopez, however, said that based on computation by the National Economic and
Development Authority the impact due to delays in delivery in terms of cost is still
miniscule, but during his meeting with manufacturers said they are already thinking of
looking at suppliers from other countries.

Most of those affected are companies with Asia production. China, which is a world’s
major supplier of material inputs, is Philippines major trading partner.

But the nCoV is already a global epidemic that it expected to slowdown the world
economy.
“Generically speaking there will be a slowdown with the global economy reeling because
of disruption in exports and supply chain. So, we hope this to be over with as soon as
possible,” he said.

The country’s total export sales in November 2019 already decreased by 0.7 percent to
$5.6 billion from $5.64 billion in November 2018. This was due to the double-digit
decline in the export sales of three of the top 10 major export commodities, namely,
ignition wiring set and other wiring sets used in vehicles, aircrafts and ships (-23.7%);
machinery and transport equipment (-21.7%); and electronic equipment and parts (-
20.5%).

The Philippine Export Development Plan 2017-2022 target for exports of goods and
services of $122 billion to $130.8 billion by 2022.
Meantime, Lopez said that a memorandum by the Bureau of Quarantine that
inadvertently included quarantine procedures for cargoes/containers by ships coming
from China has been rectified.

“We have an agreement already not to include cargoes but must not be coordinated with
the Bureau of Quarantine, so the memo has been withdrawn yesterday,” he said noting
the ships affected by the memo were those coming from China only and it was
implemented yesterday morning only in the Manila ports.

“Even the Philippine Ports Authority disregarded the memo,” he said adding that
containers and goods cannot be carriers of the virus, only human to human transmission.

Earlier this week, the PPA also said that ships calling in the Philippines more than 14
days after calling out at a port in China or its SARs shall be allowed to dock without
restrictions in any PPA-operated ports.

For the ship’s crew, the PPA has banned the disembarkation of vessels from nCoV-HIT
China and its Special Administrative Regions Macau and Hong Kong.