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Mindanao-based real estate and agro-industrial developer Damosa Land has become the first securities issuer to successfully register under the streamlined guidelines for selling or offering investment contracts through rental pool agreements.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has approved Damosa Land’s rental pool program, making it the first securities issuer to successfully register under the streamlined guidelines for Securing and Expanding Capital in Real Estate Non-Traditional Securities (SEC RENT).

Rental pool agreements are defined by the SEC as investment contracts, where a property developer sells or offers units in real estate projects, such as condominiums, hotels, or resorts, to the public.

Under these arrangements, buyers contribute their units to a rental pool, which is managed and operated by the company or a third-party operator.

The buyers, in turn, are entitled to receive a share in profits earned by renting out the units to third parties.

The SEC RENT was implemented through SEC Memorandum Circular 12, Series of 2024. It streamlines the registration process for securities of real estate firms involved in selling or offering investment contracts through rental pool agreements.

The SEC en banc, in a meeting on Sept. 26, resolved to render effective Damosa Land’s registration statement covering 100 certificates of participation in the condotel project of TRYP by Wyndham Samal, subject to its compliance with remaining requirements.

The certificates, which are valid for 20 years starting from the date of the operation, cover 94 standard class condotel units with an offer price of P50,000 each, four deluxe class units worth P75,000 each and two suite class units with an offer price of P100,000 each.

All units in TRYP by Wyndham Samal will be enrolled under a mandatory condotel rental pool program.

The SEC said that each unit will automatically be included in the rental pool upon purchase, allowing it to be marketed, rented and managed as hotel accommodation for hotel guests without transferring ownership.

There will be a new feature in announcing the decision on a coach’s challenge in the PBA’s Golden Anniversary season that reels off at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Sunday. The previous practice was the public address barker would simply announce the verdict without explaining why. This time, the calling referee will take to the microphone, announce the decision and explain why. While the announcement is being made, the large-screen video monitor in the venue will replay the contested action to show why the decision was made. The audio-visual connection may not be perfect at first but both PBA and broadcast coverer TV5/CignalTV will work closely to deliver the best possible synch for fans to appreciate the justification of the decision.

PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said it’ll be a challenge for referees to polish their communication skills. They’re not trained to be public speakers but with this innovation, they’ll get used to not just explaining a decision to the crowd but also communicating it to be understood. PBA head of operations Eric Castro said 23 referees are on the roster this season, one less from the starting lineup previously. Of the 23, three are rookies.

Marcial noted that another change is players on the court will now be allowed to huddle with their coach ‘on the bench area’ but will remain standing during a challenge review. The challengeable calls are act of shooting or sideline throw-in, traveling, flopping, eight-second violation, backcourt violation, 24-second shot clock remaining, blocking or charging, blocking or flopping and charging or flopping.

Still another innovation related to a challenge is in the course of a review, a violation is spotted and will be called ‘provided it took place in the same play phase.’ The situations where this will apply are third party contact, blocking or charging, foul on out-of-bounds or last touch call or all kinds of fouls, including charging and blocking. This follows the NBA practice. As an example, if a challenge is made on a last touch call and the review will spot a foul on the play, it will be called even without a challenge on the contact.

Marcial said in the last two minutes of the game, the referees may review a conversion, whether a two, three or four-pointer or free throw, on the immediate deadball. If the shot isn’t reviewed at that point, it may no longer be reviewed. This eliminates the controversy that happened during Game 1 of the Philippine Cup Finals last season where Mo Tautuaa’s shot with 56 seconds left was nullified on a table officials’ review with 6.2 ticks to go, creating confusion as it impacted the outcome.

Philippine billiards icon Django Bustamante will be the captain of Team Asia for the secon edition of the Reyes Cup set later this month.

Bustamante, a former world champion who was also a rival of Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes, will be the non-playing captain of Team Asia, opposite ‘Double J’ Jeremy Jones, who will take the helm for Team Rest of the World.

In the inaugural season of the Reyes Cup, Team Asia, made up of Johann Chua, Carlo Biado, Ko Pin-yi, Duong Quoc Hoang and Aloysius Yapp, brought home the championship against Team Europe, composed Jayson Shaw, Mickey Krause, Eklent Kaçi, David Alcaide and Francisco Sánchez Ruíz.

Now, there will be a much greater challenge for Team Asia, as they battle some of the best pool players from outside the continent.

‘It is such an honor to be named captain of Team Asia, especially here in the Philippines. The Reyes Cup means so much to our fans, and I will do everything I can to lead our team to defend the title Efren claimed,’ Bustamante said.

‘Last year was special, but this year we know the challenge will be even greater. Jeremy is a great champion and competitor, but I am ready to keep the Cup in Asia,’ he added.

For his part, Jones said that his long playing experience ‘is a real privilege.’

‘Team Asia will be tough, especially with Django at the helm, but we’re coming to Manila with one mission: to make history and take that trophy back with us,’ he said.

With captains confirmed, attention now turns to the final player qualification spots, to be decided at the Hanoi Open Pool Championship from October 7-12.

Wildcard selections will follow shortly thereafter.

Loan growth in the Philippines eased to its slowest pace in nine months as lending to businesses moderated in August despite resilient consumer demand, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Preliminary figures showed that loans disbursed by universal and commercial banks, net of their reverse repurchase placements with the BSP, expanded by 11.2 percent year-on-year in August, slower than the 11.8 percent increase in July.

The August reading marked the weakest growth in nine months or since the 11.1 percent pace in November 2024. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, outstanding loans rose by just 0.4 percent.

Bank loans reached P13.62 trillion in August, higher by P1.37 trillion compared to the P12.25 trillion recorded in the same month last year.

The BSP monitors bank loans because these are a key transmission channel of monetary policy.

Bank loans to residents expanded by 11.6 percent, also slower than the 12.4 percent increase recorded in July. Meanwhile, loans to non-residents posted a smaller contraction of 5.9 percent from the 8.1 percent decline a month earlier.

Borrowings intended to finance production activities grew by 9.9 percent, decelerating from 10.8 percent in July.

The rise in disbursements to the volatile real estate sector quickened to 11 percent in August from 10.7 percent a month ago with P2.77 trillion, followed by the electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply sector with a slower increase of 28.1 percent to P1.7 trillion.

The growth in loans extended to the wholesale and retail trade sector slowed to 8.1 percent with P1.51 trillion. Lending also increased for financial and insurance activities (6.9 percent) and information and communication (7.5 percent).

On the other hand, loans to the manufacturing sector fell by 5.5 percent to P1.21 trillion, although this was better than the 6.3 percent decline a month ago.

Consumer loans remained a bright spot, sustaining strong growth of 23.9 percent in August from 23.6 percent in July. The BSP noted that credit card, motor vehicle and salary-based loans continued to drive this segment.

Credit card loans soared by 29.7 percent to P1.07 trillion from P827.43 billion. Auto loans went up by 19.4 percent to P513.06 billion, while salary-based general-purpose consumption loans inched up by 6.4 percent to P164.5 billion.

‘Looking ahead, the BSP will ensure that domestic liquidity and bank lending conditions remain consistent with its price and financial stability mandates,’ the central bank said.

Separate BSP data showed that the growth in domestic liquidity stood at 6.6 percent in August, higher than the 6.2-percent increase in July. Money supply stood at around P18.6 trillion.

The local stock market advanced for the second straight session as investors continued to take advantage of affordable share prices following a recent seven-day slump.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index closed yesterday’s session at 6,039.76, higher by 0.23 percent or 13.73 points.

The broader All Shares index also improved by 0.13 percent or 4.67 points, finishing at 3,659.29.

Philstocks Financial research manager Japhet Tantiangco said the local market extended its gains as investors continued with their bargain hunting.

‘The positive cues from Wall Street driven by Fed rate cut hopes help in Thursday’s session,’ he said.

All sectors were in the green, except for property which declined by 1.2 percent.

Total value turnover thinned to P5.56 billion from the previous day’s P6.8 billion.

Foreigners were net sellers with net outflows at P762.05 million.

Market breadth was negative as decliners edged out advancers, 95 to 89, while 65 issues were unchanged.

ICTSI remained as the session’s most actively traded stock, ending flat at P486 percent, followed by BDO Unibank and Ayala Land which dropped by 0.22 percent and 1.64 percent, respectively, to P138 and P24.

Among index members, SM Investments recorded the highest jump with a 2.03-percent increase, while SM Prime lost the most, declining by 2.18 percent.

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong cried foul over a plot to ease him out of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure or ICI as he lamented a ‘deep seated’ corruption in government.

Discussing his brief stint in the ICI, Magalong did not mince words in calling out ‘corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, Department of Public Works and Highways officials and contractors who made a cottage industry or a livelihood program’ out of ghost DPWH projects or substandard works.

Magalong also described as ‘shameless, callous and hypocritical’ the claim of former Ako Bicol congressman Zaldy Co that his resignation from the House of Representatives is the ‘ultimate sacrifice.’

‘There’s no transparency whatsoever. They’re just so comfortable doing it that they’re not afraid. Lately, a congressman involved, Zaldy Co, said he did not abandon it, that it was a sacrifice. My God! You stole from national coffers and you will say it was a sacrifice on your part and not an abandonment?’ Magalong said, referring to Co’s fellow Ako Bicol Rep. Alfredo Garbin’s statement that ‘Co’s act of resignation is not an abandonment, but a sacrifice.’

‘Is that how low our standards in Congress are already? Is that how shameless we are? How insensitive, callous and hypocritical. It is insulting to the Filipino mentality,’ he added.

Magalong said corruption is so ‘deeply rooted,’ noting a padded national budget following the ‘insertions’ of the lawmakers’ pet projects in the General Appropriations Act, even when these are not found in the executive spending plan in the National Expenditure Program.

For him, this has resulted in thousands of ghost projects, including a province that has up to 9,000 anomalous projects.

‘I had found out that it was so widespread and the magnitude so overwhelming, one cannot dispose of the thousands of cases in just a year. The Filipino people are not stupid, but they make us look stupid that we would not catch them out. It is insulting,’ Magalong said.

Hitting too close to home

Magalong, during a Senate science and technology committee hearing to discuss Baguio’s best anti-corruption practices and give inputs on Sen. Bam Aquino’s proposal to legislate ‘blockchain’ technology yesterday, said he was quietly pushed out of the ICI because his investigations upset powerful people.

‘I think I struck a nerve,’ he said, suggesting that his work ‘may have hit too close to home’ for some involved in alleged irregularities.

Magalong also expressed his ill feelings following a Malacañang press conference that cast doubt on his dual role as ICI special adviser and mayor as well as questioned his independence.

‘I was really surprised when suddenly I was asked in a press conference without even consulting me, and it was hastily arranged, to say I am not an investigator, but a special adviser,’ he said, referring to a Sept. 26 briefing of Palace press officer Claire Castro.

Castro had said that Magalong was appointed adviser, ‘not an investigator’ and that his role in the Discaya couple’s Baguio project could undermine the ICI’s independence. She was referring to a P110-million tennis court contracted by Curlee and Sarah Discaya, which was allegedly found to be substandard.

‘They called out conflict of interest, but it is them who made a workaround for me to be legal adviser. Suddenly, here comes a below the belt accusation that the Discayas have an anomalous tennis court project. That was too much. It’s like you are making me appear corrupt, which I will not take sitting down,’ Magalong said, citing his record of fighting corruption in government.

In a chance interview after the hearing, Magalong said he would rather not name anyone, but called out Malacañang’s ‘anomalous press conference’ and the ‘below the belt’ accusations against him.

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) is set to auction off a wide range of assets, including farmland, residential and commercial properties as well as equipment, through its electronic public bidding platform on Oct. 29 to 30.

The bidding portal will accept offers starting 9 a.m. on Oct. 29 until 1 p.m. the following day. All submitted bids will be opened at 2 p.m. on Oct. 30, the state-run deposit insurer announced.

Up for sale on an as-is-where-is basis are 34 vacant agricultural lots, 15 vacant residential lots, eight residential lots with improvements, three agricultural lots with improvements and several mixed-use properties. The inventory also includes two commercial lots, two vehicles and a generator set.

The properties, which range in size to as much as 8.2 hectares, are scattered across 19 provinces, including Aklan, Batangas, Cebu, Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Laguna, Leyte, Negros Oriental, Pangasinan, Sultan Kudarat and Zamboanga del Norte. The vehicles and generator, meanwhile, are located in Oriental Mindoro.

Interested buyers may register once via the PDIC’s e-bidding portal or by accessing the ‘Assets for Sale’ icon on the PDIC website. A catalog with detailed descriptions, requirements and bidding conditions is also available online.

The agency reminded bidders to conduct due diligence on the assets, such as verifying ownership, status and physical condition, before making an offer.

Winners of agricultural properties will need to submit within 15 days a Certification from the Department of Agrarian Reform stating that the land is not covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and that no Emancipation Patent or Certificate of Land Ownership Award has been issued.

They must also file an Affidavit of Aggregate Landholdings confirming that their total landholdings do not exceed the five-hectare legal limit.

As receiver of closed banks, the PDIC sells remaining assets to help settle claims of uninsured depositors and other creditors.

Proceeds from closed bank asset sales go to funds managed by PDIC for creditors’ claims, while revenues from corporate asset sales are added to the Deposit Insurance Fund.

Several officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, including those who have been fired or suspended, are now undergoing what amounts to lifestyle checks.

Their assets have been frozen by the courts upon the recommendation of the Anti-Money Laundering Council. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is working with the AMLC and state prosecutors to determine if tax returns match declared incomes. The Bureau of Customs and Land Transportation Office are also providing inputs in determining if assets are ill-gotten.

Now we know that it isn’t impossible to carry out this type of inter-agency cooperation in trying to ferret out illegally amassed wealth.

Such multi-agency cooperation need not wait for a law against racketeering, which legislators have refused to craft as much as they have resisted proposals for regulating campaign finance, easing bank secrecy rules and curbing political dynasties.

President Marcos ordered the lifestyle checks in the final week of August, with an initial focus on DPWH officials and employees implicated in the flood control scandal.

Inevitably, he was urged to lead by example. In response, Malacañang said the President is ready to undergo a lifestyle check. The Office of the Vice President issued a similar statement, saying OVP officials and employees are also ready.

Now that the DPWH officials face asset checks, Malacañang can make good on its statement and start expanding the initiative.

A good start will be the release of the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth of the President since he assumed power. Several SALNs are needed to assess any wealth increase or reduction in the past three years. Malacañang has said scrutiny of SALNs is part of the lifestyle checks.

With the President getting the ball rolling, Cabinet members can follow, since they are tasked to oversee the lifestyle checks in their respective agencies.

There’s no need to wait for an order from the Office of the Ombudsman, which has not prohibited anyone from voluntarily making one’s SALN public.

There’s also no need to wait for a formal request from any entity such as media organizations. The three representatives of the Akbayan party-list plus a former member of the group who is currently sitting in Congress released their SALNs to the public with no one formally requesting it.

Before the previous ombudsman turned the SALN into a top-secret document, it was an annual routine for officials starting with the president and all members of both chambers of Congress to release their SALNs, or at least make public the amounts they declared as assets, liabilities and net worth. It’s time to restore this practice.

This week I attended an embassy reception, for the first time in months – not only because I like the ambassador, but also to find out if the Filipino party crowd had thinned since the flood control scandal erupted.

Sure enough, for the first time since I began attending such receptions ages ago, I didn’t spot any senator or prominent congressman in the crowd. No Cabinet secretary or well-known local government official either.

An analyst joked that no one wanted to be caught getting off a Mercedes Benz-Maybach S-Class backed by a security convoy of several identical black Benz SUVs. I actually spotted such a Benz fleet parked outside one house in Forbes Park just last week.

These days, folks avoid being seen strutting in Manolo Blahniks, holding a Hermes clutch while flashing a Patek Philippe wristwatch along with a huge Paraiba tourmaline ring.

If you can’t flaunt those ultra-luxe baubles at parties, why attend?

In the hotel basement parking area I spotted a Maserati and a Lexus. I wondered if those were among the luxury vehicles now being hunted down for seizure by the state.

All is not lost for the conspicuous consumers; they can still use their hard-stolen money to splurge on luxuries under the radar of the envious scrum. A public works employee, for example, has reportedly just plunked a cool P2 million in advance payment for dental implants.

But overall, the fun has been taken out of wealth flaunting by the obscenely rich.

This embarrassment over the ostentatious display of fantabulous wealth has descended on the country practically overnight.

It happened after the systematic looting of public coffers for personal purposes came to light, in the most public way, beginning with that privilege speech by Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

That kind of public shaming could not have happened if the offenses imputed on thieves had been kept under wraps, with the plunderers invoking presumption of innocence and presumption of regularity in their official acts.

This is another reason why public hearings are so important.

The bicameral conference in the previous 19th Congress has been dubbed the Chamber of Secrets, where magical things happened to the national budget that would put to shame Voldemort, the villain ‘who must not be named’ in the Harry Potter series.

It turns out that there were several Chambers of Secrets in the budget process, among them the House ‘small committee’ where no minutes were kept. The chair of the Senate finance committee at the time, Grace Poe, says she did not take part in any small committee for the budget. She did disclose that P26 billion was inserted for AKAP or the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program, with the Senate agreeing after P5 billion was allotted to its members and P21 billion went to the House.

Poe faced the Independent Commission for Infrastructure a week ago. But the ICI session with her was closed to the public, although she answered questions from the media afterward. The Discayas also faced the ICI and gave a ‘tell all, plus plus’ (as per the couple’s lawyer).

We may never know the full details of what Poe, the Discayas or sacked public works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo told the ICI. The commission is starting to be seen (unfairly, according to its defenders) as the latest addition to the Chambers of Secrets.

Another chamber is the Supreme Court, which did not bother holding oral arguments on a case so vital as the impeachment of the vice president of the republic. The SC, whose members probably believe they are indeed gods unaccountable to no one, were in such an admirable rush to resolve that case it even used among its premises for its decision a non-existent news report. Our country faces a plague of ghosts.

The record of the judiciary in resolving cases is one of the reasons why there is such dismay over the decision of the ICI to hold its hearings behind closed doors.

Defenders of the ICI want critics to give the commission a chance, saying its method is similar to Special Counsel investigations in the US. But all along, legal illiterates like me thought it would be patterned after the Philippines’ Agrava Fact-Finding Board on the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, whose hearings were open to the public. Perhaps President Marcos should have clarified this matter when he organized the ICI with the promise of promoting transparency.

The ICI wants the nation to wait for its findings to be known as the details are processed through the usual legal channels.

It’s a reasonable request, if only our legal system wasn’t in such a mess. Those who want ICI sessions to be opened to the public don’t want to wait for months or even years to find out how we lost trillions in tax money to thieves. As the cases crawl along at the usual glacial pace in the judicial mill, the looters will be demanding (as is their right) presumption of innocence. They will be working to unfreeze their assets to finance their legal battles, and possibly buy their way back to politics. They could employ delaying tactics in court, after which they can move to have the case dismissed for inordinate delay, or else claim advanced age and cognitive decline to end their prosecution.

As we have seen, that’s a ginormous amount of money we’re talking about here, which can be deployed for magical political comebacks.

The various Chambers of Secrets could be perceived, unfairly or not, to be complicit in this.

We can wait for the new minority in the Senate to present another witness, even without Lacson’s by-your-leave, against the guy Senator Chiz refers to as he who must not be named.

Escudero must also be a Harry Potter fan. He might want to amplify calls for open hearings by the ICI. But it can’t be a selective call, covering only he who must not be named. Open hearings will be the quickest way for Escudero to refute the accusations against him, hit back at his critics and bolster claims of innocence.

The gods of Padre Faura – and their retired colleague in the ICI – may want to take inspiration from God’s order: let there be light.

Face-to-face classes at all levels at the De La Salle University (DLSU) in Manila were suspended yesterday following a bomb threat.

The University Student Government received the threat through email on Tuesday night, warning DLSU students not to go to school the next day.

After sweeping the campus, the Manila Police District found no bomb.

The DLSU management said in-person classes and on-site work resume today, with tightened security in place.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno called on the DLSU to look into the bomb threat, saying it could have been a prank.