01:00.4
Investors in the region also assessing President Joe Biden's exit from the U.S. presidential race.
01:05.1
Look at that board. There you go. The DEX up by 1.3%.
01:10.0
So is the CAC 40. The FTSE 100 not to be left out also rising by three quarters of 1%.
01:16.2
Now as for Wall Street, futures are pointing to a positive open for the major U.S. indices following their worst week since April.
01:24.6
Second quarter earnings are also in focus this week with Tesla and Google parent Alphabet set to kick off
01:30.0
with the so-called magnificent seven mega cap group.
01:35.7
Now here in Asia, markets ended morning trade lower.
01:38.8
Let's take a look at the board. Japan's Nikkei 225 dipping below the 40,000 level for the first time in three weeks down by over 1%.
01:46.6
The big drag, industrial and tech stocks as they mirrored the route on Wall Street last Friday.
01:52.4
The Shai Composite also closing lower by over half a percent unimpressed.
01:57.4
But the People's Bank of China unexpectedly cutting 1%.
01:59.4
Now that move though is meant to boost demand for credit and increase private consumption.
02:07.2
Well, that lifted Hong Kong Hang Seng Index by 1.3%.
02:11.2
Now, here in Tome, Philippine shares joining the route with the main index falling more than 1%
02:17.4
ahead of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s third State of the Nation address.
02:23.4
The market is still looking out for some cues on where inflation,
02:29.4
where we can go and what are the efforts being or efforts will be carried out to help stabilize prices from him.
02:38.9
Three years already since Filipinos have suffered from elevated prices this year being rise at the very center of it.
02:47.2
So that's the cumulative of about 15% increase over the past couple of past two years and that is surely affecting the sentiment of our countrymen.
02:58.0
But what we see is that the market is still going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up. It's going up.
02:59.4
So what we need to see is inflation really kept below 4%, even below 3% if possible through next year so that we can see a slower average increase in inflation.
03:12.8
President Marcos Jr. banning offshore gaming operators or POGOs during his third State of the Nation address.
03:19.0
Marcos says POGOs have become a gateway for criminal activity in the Philippines.
03:22.9
He gave the Philippine Gaming Regulator Pag Corp until the end of the year to wind down and seize all POGO.
03:29.4
Marcos' POGO ban comes after his finance chief, Ralph Recto, and other officials recommended the total ban of the gaming operations.
03:38.4
Pag Corp earlier warned the ban could cost the Philippines over 20 billion pesos in potential revenue.
03:45.0
It received over 3 billion in income from POGOs last year.
03:51.0
Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming, such as financial security.
03:59.5
Scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder.
04:06.2
The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop.
04:10.5
Kailangan nang itigil ang panggulo nito sa ating lipunan at paglalapastangan sa ating bansa.
04:29.4
Efective today. All POGOs are banned.
04:41.3
President Marcos also seeking to reassure Filipinos his government is doing all it can to address high inflation.
04:48.1
In his speech, Marcos touted moves to bring down rice and power prices.
04:54.1
The energization of the Mindanao-Visayas interconnection is a defining moment.
04:59.4
Not only for the power sector, but for the entire country.
05:03.5
Finally, we have connected the power grids of all three major island groups.
05:10.2
Batid natin lahat na ang presyo ng kuryente dito sa ating bansa ay mataas.
05:16.3
Kaya patuloy tayo sa pagdadagdag ng mga infrastruktura ng kuryente na magpapababa ng presyo ng kalanun.
05:24.3
Hindi tayo titigil sa paglalaban sa kahirapan.
05:28.4
At sa paghahanap ng lakas.
05:29.4
Lunas upang maibalik sa normal ang presyo ng bilihin.
05:33.2
Lalo na ang bigas.
05:34.8
The hard lesson of this last year has made it very clear
05:38.8
that whatever current data proudly bantering our country as among the best performing in Asia
05:45.1
means nothing to a Filipino who is confronted by the price of rice at 45 to 65 pesos per kilo.
05:55.6
Marcos also reported his government's aggressive infrastructure push
05:58.4
remains on track to bring the country to upper middle income status.
06:03.4
He asserted the Philippine economy remains sound and showing healthy signs of post-pandemic resilience.
06:08.4
He vowed to sustain economic gains by promoting investment-led growth
06:12.4
that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Filipinos.
06:18.4
We have set in motion policies and programs to create an environment conducive for business to thrive.
06:25.4
Like reforms in the capital markets,
06:27.4
and implementation of Green Lanes.
06:30.4
As a result, we have Green Lanes certified around 100 projects
06:35.4
with a total investment of about 3 trillion pesos
06:38.4
across the sectors of renewable energy, digital infrastructure, food security, and manufacturing.
06:45.4
Our aggressive infrastructure development, business-friendly policies, investment and export promotions,
06:51.4
foreign visits, and economic missions are all aimed at generating
06:56.4
not just jobs, but quality and competitive jobs.
07:01.4
In our view, aside from the great income for the country,
07:05.4
these will generate more than two hundred and two thousand jobs for our fellow countrymen.
07:18.4
The rationalized incentive scheme under the CREATE Act
07:21.4
has also made possible the generation of investments
07:24.4
amounting to more than one billion pesos.
07:26.4
One trillion pesos.
07:28.4
And more than a hundred thousand new jobs.
07:33.4
We are taking a quick break.
07:35.4
Up next, we talk to Philippine Business for Education's Justine Lagas
07:39.4
for her take on the President's State of the Nation Address.
07:51.4
Welcome back. Educational reform through technology.
07:54.4
That was President Marcos Jr.'s marching order during his third State of the Nation Address.
07:59.4
The Chief Executive maintains digitalization and learning recovery should be priorities of the education sector.
08:05.4
The Executive Director of Philippine Business for Education, Justine Lagas,
08:09.4
joins us on the show to share her insights.
08:12.4
Hi Justine, good to see you. Welcome back.
08:14.4
Good evening, Mimi. Thank you for inviting me.
08:17.4
Alright, so Justine, the President talked about this learning recovery for the Philippines,
08:23.4
and he did say, you know, there's a poor reality that more than half of our Grade 6,
08:28.4
Grade 10, and Grade 12 students failed to reach ideal proficiency levels.
08:33.4
Very low ratings.
08:35.4
The National Learning Recovery Program, he says, must proceed without disruption,
08:39.4
especially in basic education.
08:42.4
From what you've heard this afternoon, are you happy with the priority given to education?
08:47.4
What did you like? What did you think was missing?
08:50.4
So we are actually encouraged by the pronouncements that the President made during the SONA,
08:57.4
particularly on education reforms.
09:00.4
While if you listen to the flow of his speech, he started with agriculture and food security,
09:07.4
and then he talked about infrastructure, which kind of really shows the priority, right,
09:12.4
and how aggressive this administration is in infrastructure.
09:16.4
But we're happy that there was time devoted in the speech
09:19.4
to uphold education as a vital pillar,
09:22.4
and really connecting that to economic growth,
09:25.4
and a real emphasis on investing in people, health, nutrition,
09:30.4
and really connecting even nutrition and education and health.
09:35.4
I really like that he talked about learning recovery as something that's very important.
09:41.4
We do know that our performance in international assessments
09:47.4
and the learning outcomes of our students,
09:49.4
of our learners are really dismal.
09:51.4
And it's really important to really devote time to make sure that these students recover.
09:58.4
So that's a good marching order because at this point,
10:01.4
while there are efforts currently for learning recovery,
10:05.4
a lot still has to be done to make sure that they are effective,
10:08.4
such as the summer learning camps or the catch-up Fridays,
10:12.4
which were implemented in the previous school year.
10:14.4
So hopefully, you know, that gets looked at.
10:17.4
And in this coming school year, really improved,
10:22.4
and then implemented and assessed as well,
10:25.4
and really using data to make sure that these interventions
10:29.4
actually result to proper learning outcomes.
10:32.4
Justine, speaking of prioritizing education,
10:35.4
let me throw out this overarching question to you
10:38.4
because by law, education gets the highest budget allocation,
10:43.4
the lion's share.
10:44.4
For 2024, it was nearly 1 trillion pesos.
10:47.4
Followed by DPWH at 822.
10:50.4
And a distant third would be for health, 306 million.
10:54.4
You did talk about how he prioritized agri
10:57.4
because he started by talking about the rice problem.
11:00.4
But really, the budget that rice got, that agriculture got this year,
11:03.4
is just 250 million.
11:06.4
And if they get their way next year, that's going to double to 500.
11:08.4
Still very far from the budget of education.
11:11.4
So clearly, money is not the problem.
11:15.4
So I ask you, from your perspective,
11:17.4
what's being done wrong then?
11:19.4
I mean, what are other countries doing that we're not doing?
11:22.4
And by other countries, if I may just cite,
11:25.4
let's not look very far.
11:27.4
Let's talk about Vietnam.
11:28.4
Always compared to Vietnam.
11:30.4
The latest PISA, 2022, in reading, our score, 347.
11:35.4
Vietnam was high on that list, 462.
11:39.4
For math, we're at 355.
11:41.4
Vietnam is at 469.
11:43.4
For science, we're at 356.
11:46.4
In this case, we're at 356.
11:47.4
And Southeast Asia, we're the second worst performing.
11:50.4
Only better than Cambodia.
11:52.4
So what are the other countries doing right?
11:55.4
That's a really good question, Mimino.
11:57.4
And actually, I was about to,
11:59.4
while you were asking the question,
12:00.4
I was also about to say, to cite Vietnam.
12:04.4
In terms of spending and in terms of our allocation
12:08.4
for the education budget versus our GDP,
12:11.4
we still haven't met international standards of 6%.
12:14.4
We're at like 3.9.
12:16.4
So that's been steadily increasing.
12:18.4
But now we're also learning, having looked at Vietnam,
12:21.4
that it's not really the money, the amount,
12:24.4
but it's really how that's spent.
12:26.4
So essentially, compared to Vietnam,
12:28.4
we spend similar, close to similar,
12:31.4
in terms of per student per capita.
12:34.4
So how much Vietnam spends for its students
12:37.4
is pretty much similar.
12:39.4
So now the question is, what are they doing?
12:41.4
What are they doing right?
12:43.4
And they are really focusing on essentials.
12:45.4
I learned, because I also went there last April,
12:52.4
And learning from there,
12:53.4
they really invest in early childhood education.
12:56.4
As early as three months old,
12:58.4
a child, a baby can actually go to institutions
13:03.4
they call mamnons.
13:04.4
These are essentially early childhood care centers
13:09.4
where children already start interacting,
13:13.4
doing social interaction, learning.
13:15.4
There is structured play.
13:17.4
And then they're served nutritious food,
13:20.4
lots of vegetables, lots of protein.
13:23.4
And that's something that we see
13:25.4
is also lacking in the Philippines.
13:27.4
One out of four five-year-olds suffer from malnutrition.
13:32.4
And that stunting, that malnutrition,
13:37.4
once that occurs,
13:39.4
the damage to a child's cognition
13:42.4
is already irreversible.
13:45.4
So even as early as that,
13:48.4
our education problems start as early as early childhood.
13:54.4
They also really prioritize
13:56.4
and really invest in really good materials
13:59.4
and also have teachers who are able to teach,
14:03.4
basically allowing teachers to teach inside the classroom.
14:06.4
But what I also found really striking was that
14:10.4
it was a whole of government approach
14:12.4
really saying, their ministry really saying,
14:14.4
education is our top priority
14:16.4
and everything else follow.
14:18.4
Even how parents view education
14:21.4
is really, really different.
14:23.4
You know, they invest.
14:25.4
So even if students go to public schools
14:29.4
and schools are really free,
14:31.4
parents invest in additional remediation.
14:34.4
Parents invest in resources
14:36.4
and they really take the time
14:38.4
to make sure that they are involved in their students' learning.
14:42.4
They talk to teachers, etc.
14:43.4
So these are different things.
14:47.4
So investment, but also at the same time,
14:49.4
like really a strong marching order from the government
14:52.4
saying this is our priority
14:54.4
and everything else follows suit.
14:56.4
Just two quick questions from what you said, Justine.
14:59.4
You talk about investing in the right textbooks,
15:03.4
The President did talk about that.
15:05.4
He earlier said that the approval of manuscript
15:08.4
to procurement to distribution
15:10.4
will be cut short from three years
15:13.4
And he talked about the quality of teachers
15:15.4
that the classrooms are just empty
15:17.4
or will be empty without the moving force
15:20.4
that is teachers.
15:23.4
as you work with schools and education sector players,
15:27.4
do you think we have an epidemic of bad teachers?
15:31.4
So we do have a problem of teacher quality.
15:35.4
It's been pervasive.
15:36.4
But one of the big,
15:37.4
so the President did say,
15:40.4
teachers are the biggest problem.
15:42.4
The biggest factors are very important for learning.
15:44.4
And one of the biggest challenges actually
15:47.4
that we face specific to teacher quality
15:50.4
is at this point,
15:51.4
teachers aren't able to teach.
15:54.4
Because they're doing something else.
15:56.4
They're bogged down by so many administrative tasks.
15:59.4
They have so many forms that they need to fill up.
16:02.4
And then they don't have time
16:04.4
to be creative in the classroom,
16:07.4
And so we're now complaining, you know,
16:09.4
like in the age of digitalization,
16:11.4
there are so many tools and resources available.
16:13.4
They're not able to maximize that
16:15.4
because they don't have the time to learn
16:17.4
and to do professional development.
16:19.4
So it's also a welcome development actually,
16:24.4
the move to hire more administrative officers
16:27.4
to support these teachers.
16:29.4
But we do hope that this move becomes,
16:34.4
is faster, you know,
16:35.4
like all schools should have
16:37.4
at least one administrative officer,
16:39.4
if not even more,
16:40.4
because they're also going to take the role,
16:43.4
take all these administrative roles
16:45.4
of all the teachers in the classroom.
16:47.4
And until we give the teachers space to teach
16:50.4
and the space to innovate,
16:52.4
we will continue to have poor outcomes.
16:56.4
You know, Justine, just sharing,
16:58.4
I'm not sure if this is the practice across the country,
17:00.4
but here's what I heard from a public school teacher.
17:03.4
Some of them just don't want to fail students anymore
17:06.4
because when you have a student with a failing grade,
17:09.4
that teacher is being questioned by the system.
17:12.4
Why did the student fail?
17:14.4
Did you go to the student's house
17:17.4
to do remedial work?
17:18.4
So when the teacher just thinks about
17:20.4
the things that she needs to do
17:22.4
when a student is given a failing mark,
17:24.4
the teacher just says,
17:25.4
never mind, I'll just pass the student.
17:27.4
So the quality of grading system
17:30.4
also has an impact, right?
17:32.4
Really good point, Mimi.
17:34.4
We did the series of roundtable discussions
17:36.4
across the Philippines last year.
17:38.4
And we saw that mass promotion
17:41.4
is actually one really big problem.
17:43.4
And that kind of leads to
17:45.4
why we are at this state right now,
17:47.4
why our learners can't read
17:48.4
even though they're already in fifth grade or fourth grade,
17:51.4
because they really just go through the system.
17:53.4
And somehow, yes,
17:55.4
in many of our conversations,
17:57.4
teachers do say that
17:58.4
sometimes they're left with no choice.
18:00.4
And that's also because they're victims
18:03.4
of this whole entire system
18:05.4
that's really very disjointed.
18:08.4
they don't have time to diagnose
18:13.4
in the classroom properly.
18:14.4
And then at the same time,
18:16.4
if they're handling, say, 60 students,
18:19.4
how do you expect them to remediate
18:21.4
and help a student catch up, right?
18:23.4
But then they're also faced with a challenge that,
18:25.4
hey, if I'm going to fail this student,
18:28.4
that's going to mean additional more students
18:31.4
in the same year level for the next school year,
18:34.4
which is going to be a problem in my classroom.
18:36.4
And then there is also this misunderstood concept
18:40.4
of no student, no learner left behind,
18:43.4
which if you were to take it literally,
18:50.4
would really mean not failing any student, right?
18:53.4
So it's really this whole complex system of problems,
18:57.4
of lack of support and lack of resources.
19:01.4
And at the end of the day,
19:03.4
students just go through the system.
19:05.4
It's also, I think, context and perspective
19:09.4
for our government officials.
19:10.4
You know, this State of the Nation Address
19:12.4
comes at a very critical time,
19:14.4
very interesting time.
19:15.4
We have a new Education Secretary, of course,
19:18.4
who's just started.
19:20.4
Plus, this comes ahead of the midterm elections next year.
19:23.4
So I guess my question to you is,
19:25.4
number one, has the group, has PBED,
19:28.4
already coordinated or spoken with
19:30.4
the new Education Chief, Sunny Angada?
19:34.4
what do you think is the single best reform
19:38.4
that is doable in the local
19:40.4
and national government level right now?
19:42.4
The first thing you think,
19:44.4
a low-hanging fruit that the new Secretary
19:46.4
can take advantage of?
19:48.4
So first, we've actually spoken to Senator Sunny,
19:52.4
and PBED was also one of the first organizations
19:55.4
to really come out and support the nomination
19:58.4
for him to become Education Secretary.
20:01.4
We've also worked with him and have dialogued with him
20:04.4
many, many times because we interact in the EDCOM.
20:10.4
And we have presented, you know, like our,
20:13.4
the areas we feel can make the most impact.
20:17.4
And the biggest way to really make the most impact
20:21.4
is to make sure that we focus on the basics.
20:24.4
So really look at, you know, literacy,
20:26.4
numeracy, foundational skills at the early level,
20:29.4
early grades, grades one to three.
20:31.4
Make sure the teachers are able to teach
20:34.4
and, you know, are given all the resources
20:37.4
and are given all the support that they can
20:39.4
to teach the foundations and the basics.
20:42.4
And maybe just a second point, if pwede, Tawan.
20:47.4
Second point, because you asked about like
20:49.4
what kind of reforms could be done
20:51.4
at the national and local level,
20:53.4
is really to also make sure or to try
20:55.4
to really look at which areas,
20:58.4
which aspect of education delivery and decision making
21:01.4
can be devolved or can be decentralized.
21:04.4
Because with such a really massive education system
21:07.4
of 28 million learners, close to a thousand teachers,
21:10.4
decisions made at the national level
21:12.4
in terms of like what specific subjects to teach
21:15.4
for electives, for example,
21:17.4
or what books to use and procuring them
21:20.4
is just going to take so long.
21:22.4
And if we are looking at this massive reform
21:24.4
to happen fast, decisions should be made
21:27.4
and there should be flexibility to be made on the ground.
21:30.4
And even as specific as decisions
21:33.4
that could be made in the classrooms
21:35.4
and in the schools by principals themselves.
21:39.4
On that note, thank you very much for the perspective.
21:41.4
It is a tall order that we can be sure of.
21:45.4
But you know, we've got a new secretary.
21:47.4
Hopefully, he will deliver.
21:48.4
Thank you very much, Justine, again.
21:50.4
Always a pleasure to speak with you.
21:51.4
Thank you for the time and the insights.
21:52.4
We'll see you soon.
21:53.4
Thank you. Thank you so much.
21:55.4
And that's your Business Outlook.
21:57.4
I'm Michelle Long.
21:58.4
The world tonight comes your way
21:59.4
at the top of the next hour.
22:00.4
Keep it here on ANC.
22:03.4
We'll be right back.
