Argentina imposes currency controls to stave off crisis

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Trying to put the brakes on a financial crisis that has engulfed Argentina in recent weeks, President Mauricio Macri imposed new restrictions on access to foreign currency.

The restrictions, which took effect Monday, are the latest move by a leader who came into office promising to open up the economy but is instead putting in place the types of measures he has long criticized as he heads into October’s presidential election.

His move reflects just how much Argentina’s economy has gone into a tailspin in the weeks since a nationwide primary last month, in anticipation of the presidential election, yielded a surprising result: The main opposition candidate, Alberto Fernández, had a surprisingly strong showing over Macri.

Fernández is running on a ticket with the former president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as his vice president. Investors fear that if he wins the October election, it would amount to a return to the interventionist economic policies that came to mark her back-to-back administrations from 2007 to 2015.

Imposing currency controls is a remarkable about-face for Macri, who was elected on the promise of liberalizing the economy, and celebrated when one of his first measures after taking office in December 2015 was to get rid of restrictions on the purchase of foreign currency and the free flow of capital.

But Macri’s push to open the economy was supposed to usher in a new wave of investment. That has not happened, and conditions have since spiraled.

So the new restrictions on capital “ended up being inevitable,” said Martín Kalos, chief economist of Elypsis, a local economic consultant organization. “Macri needed to take drastic and pragmatic measures for the crisis not to continue and worsen from here to December.”

“There are more people in the banks and that makes sense because in moments of crisis and uncertainty everyone is looking to protect themselves,” Kalos continued. “But there is no panic because the government has really made a point of guaranteeing that anyone who wants to withdraw their savings can do so.”

On Monday the new restrictions at least had some of the desired effect as the peso strengthened slightly.

Banco Galicia on Corrientes Avenue in Buenos Aires was fuller than normal Monday.

“I was surprised at how things were relatively calm,” said Walter Gastrell, a 78-year-old retiree, who went to the bank to see what the reaction would be to the currency restrictions. “With all the experience we’ve had with crises, this feels like history repeating itself.”

Gastrell said he was debating whether to take his own money out of the bank, fearing there may come a point when the government would limit withdrawals, as has happened before in Argentina.

The value of the peso has plunged around 25 percent since the primary amid a broad sell-off of Argentine assets and debt. Argentina’s Central Bank has also been hemorrhaging reserves as it has tried to shore up the peso.

Speaking in a television interview Sunday night, Hernán Lacunza, the economy minister, made clear the new measures were taken to prevent the crisis from worsening.

Amid the restrictions unveiled Sunday, Argentines are limited to buying no more than $10,000 a month in foreign currency while corporations require authorization to buy any foreign currency that is not for international trade.

Companies must also repatriate earnings from foreign sales within five business days.

The government “considered it necessary to adopt a series of extraordinary measures aimed at assuring the normal functioning of the economy, sustain the level of activity and employment and to protect consumers,” said the official announcement of the new controls.

“Capital controls are not ideal, but they are necessary if you want to put the brakes on the foreign exchange rate,” said Marina Dal Poggetto, executive director at EcoGo, an economic consultant group in Buenos Aires.

The key to know whether the measures are working will come in the next few days when data will show whether bank withdrawals that had been accelerating since the primary slow down, Dal Poggetto said.

Although Fernández has been highly critical of Macri’s running of the economy and the $57 billion line of credit he sealed last year with the International Monetary Fund, he has yet to detail what he would do to turn around the economy that has been mired in crisis since April 2018.

Many, however, are not optimistic that economic measures can solve what is essentially a political problem.

“You have a very weakened president and a candidate who is not the president yet,” Dal Poggetto said. “It’s difficult to build confidence.”

The new restrictions came mere days after Argentina said it would seek to defer payments on $101 billion of debt amid rising fears that the country may eventually end up defaulting on its debt. Argentina has defaulted on its sovereign debt eight times since it obtained independence from Spain in 1816.

These memories of default made Argentines worry about their deposits in recent weeks as friends exchanged text messages about the need to withdraw cash amid rumors of impending restrictions on withdrawals that have so far failed to materialize.

Sandra Menéndez, a 54-year-old accountant, said there were more people than normal at the branch of the Santander Río bank she had just visited but that it was nothing new.

“There were a lot of people last week as well,” she said, describing it as “the Argentine psychosis” to always seek refuge in the U.S. dollar at times of economic uncertainty.

Menéndez lost “the equivalent of a small apartment” in savings during the 2001 crisis, when Argentina defaulted on some $100 billion in debt amid a spectacular economic collapse. But for now, she continues to have faith in the financial system.

Some are bracing for more pain.

“The situation can definitely get worse,” said Valeria Armesto, a 40-year-old photographer who was leaving Banco Galicia with her two children, ages 6 and 8. “You never know with this government.”


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Venezuela opposition plans to get oil money from US fund

CARACAS -- Venezuela's opposition on Wednesday said it would use a US-based fund to receive some of the country's oil income in a key step to bankroll its efforts to dislodge President Nicolas Maduro.

The fund would receive income accrued by state-run oil firm PDVSA's US unit Citgo Petroleum Corp since last month, when US President Donald Trump recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state, opposition legislator Carlos Paparoni told Reuters.

Guadio, head of Venezuela's National Assembly, last month declared himself to be the South American country's interim ruler.

White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday the United States would consider lifting sanctions on senior Venezuelan military officers if they recognize Guaido as interim leader. "If not, the international financial circle will be closed off completely," Bolton wrote on Twitter.

Aside from one senior general, who recognized Guaido in a video and urged others in the military to do the same, most of Venezuela's top military officers have not defected from Maduro.

Citgo, the eighth-largest US refiner and Venezuela's top foreign asset, is in the middle of a tug of war as the United States has made aggressive moves to remove it from Maduro's control and imposed sanctions on OPEC-member Venezuela's oil industry.

"This is already quite advanced, I hope that next week it can be announced by our representative in the United States," Paparoni said, though he did not give details about the nature of the US-based fund or the financial institution involved.

Pressure is building on Maduro, a socialist, to resign amid an economic crisis marked by widespread shortages and hyperinflation. Maduro was re-elected last year in a vote critics have called a sham.

Yon Goicoechea, a member of Guaido's policy team, told Reuters that Guaido was in contact with PDVSA's international partners and they were willing to keep operating in Venezuela. He did not identify the partners.

Guaido's team is planning for a post-Maduro government with an emergency arrangement to supply fuel domestically, given widespread shortages across Venezuela, Goicoechea said.

Most Latin American and European countries also recognize Guaido, although Italy so far has not. Guaido has reached out to Italy's ruling coalition seeking its support.

Maduro, who retains control over the state, denounces Guaido as a US puppet who is seeking to foment a coup against him. He is supported by China and Russia, while Slovakia on Wednesday joined Italy in defying the coordinated action of European Union nations and the United States.

GOLD SALES

The opposition has also sought to prevent the government from selling gold, believing that it is using the proceeds to try to stay solvent as the sanctions cut off other revenue streams.

But Maduro's government last year sold 73 tons of gold to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates without the required approval of the opposition-led National Assembly, Paparoni told a news conference. Abu Dhabi investment firm Noor Capital bought the largest amount, 27.3 tons of gold, and a Turkish firm bought 23.9 tonnes, Paparoni said.

"We will keep working so that not one more gram of gold can be sold," Paparoni said.

Venezuela had gold reserves of 132 tons between the central bank's vaults and the Bank of England at the end of November, according to central bank data.

Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Noor Capital said it "does not engage in any illegal or prohibited transactions."

In recent days, at least 5 tankers carrying gasoline, gasoil for power generation and naphtha have been ordered to unload at Venezuela's ports as fuel inventories dwindle. PDVSA issued court orders for most of the tankers to discharge, according to shipping and PDVSA sources.

Guaido asked Italy's ruling coalition leaders in a letter to meet with his representatives as he seeks their explicit backing. Italy's hard-right League has expressed strong support for Guaido, but coalition partner the 5-Star Movement has not, making Italy the only major European Union nation not to recognize him as Venezuela's interim head of state.

League leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's office on Wednesday said he would meet Guaido's envoys on Feb. 11.

As the world's countries line up to support either Maduro or Guaido, the United Nations warned against using aid as a pawn. The United States has sent food and medicine to Venezuela's border, even though it is unclear how it will get past the objections of Maduro.

"Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has doubled its budget in Venezuela in recent weeks and is also helping Venezuelan migrants in neighboring Colombia and Brazil, ICRC President Peter Maurer said in Geneva.

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Pushing for Maduro to go, White House says don't trade Venezuelan gold

CARACAS/WASHINGTON -- The White House warned traders on Wednesday not to deal in Venezuelan gold or oil following its imposition of stiff sanctions aimed at forcing socialist President Nicolas Maduro from power.

National security adviser John Bolton tweeted that traders should not deal in gold, oil or other commodities "being stolen" from the Venezuelan people, even as opponents of Maduro's government worried that a Russian plane in Caracas was preparing to ship gold out of the country.

US President Donald Trump spoke to Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaido, by phone on Wednesday, reiterating support for his "fight to regain democracy."

On one side of the tussle for control of Venezuela, an OPEC member that has the world's largest oil reserves but is in dire financial straits, Guaido and Western backers led by the United States are insisting on an immediate transition and fresh elections.

On the other, Maduro, with backing from Russia, China and Turkey, says he will remain for his second six-year term despite accusations of fraud in his re-election last year and the economic meltdown.

Venezuela's struggle to pay its debts even to allies Russia and China amid a sharp drop in oil output has been exacerbated by the new sanctions, which will make it very hard to sell oil to its main client, the United States.

In that context, the unusual arrival in Caracas of a Boeing 777 plane from Moscow on Monday led to speculation Maduro's government was preparing to ship more gold reserves out of the country, following shipments last year of $900 million of gold to Turkey last year. Those shipments were part of a strategy to increase the Central Bank's liquidity.

Venezuelan lawmaker Jose Guerra, a former Central Bank economist, told the National Assembly his understanding was that the plane would take some gold reserves to Russia when it leaves. The Central Bank did not respond to a request for comment.

Sources have told Reuters private military contractors who do secret missions for Moscow were in Venezuela.

Elliott Abrams, the US envoy for Venezuela, said the United States was looking around the world for more assets of the Maduro government, including gold holdings and bank accounts

The Kremlin said this week it expected Venezuela to pay its debts. Russia, which like China has loaned and invested billions of dollars in OPEC member Venezuela, called on Guaido to drop his demand for a snap election and instead accept mediation.

But given the failure of previous rounds of dialogue between the government and opposition, including one led by the Vatican, opponents are suspicious, believing Maduro uses them to quell protests and buy time.

Guaido's envoy to the United States, Carlos Vecchio, said the only dialogue they were interested in would be a negotiation for Maduro's departure and new elections. Government officials insist the next presidential election will be in 2025.

FRESH PROTESTS

Responding to a call by Guaido, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across Venezuela on Wednesday, some waving Venezuelan flags while drivers of cars and buses honked in support.

"I want this government to go, it has been a total humiliation for the country" said Lucy Cordoba, 51, a government worker in the poor hillside town of Petare at the edge of the capital, where she said trash had not been collected for a year and water was scarce.

Cordoba said her children were among the more than 3 million Venezuelans who have left the country in the past couple of years. One went to Peru, and another to Dominican Republic.

More than 40 people have died so far in and around the protests that began a week ago, the UN human rights office said. Hundreds have also been arrested, including children.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump and Guaido agreed to maintain regular communication after Venezuelan authorities opened an investigation that could lead to Guaido's arrest.

Oil prices rose nearly 3 percent on Wednesday, as investors remained concerned about supply disruptions because of Venezuela

Maduro, 56, says Guaido is staging a US-directed coup against him. Facing the biggest challenge to his rule since replacing Hugo Chavez six years ago, Maduro told Moscow's RIA news agency on Wednesday that Trump ordered "the government of Colombia and the Colombian mafia to kill me," reprising an accusation of assassination plots that he has often made over the years.

Bogota and Washington have routinely denied that.

However, speculation about military action against him was fueled this week when Trump national security adviser John Bolton carried a notepad with the words "5,000 troops to Colombia". US Major General Mark Stammer, the commander of US Army South, was in Colombia on Wednesday, US embassy officials said.

In response to Guaido's invitation to army officers to join his cause in return for an amnesty, Maduro has made daily visits to troops, whose pledges of allegiance are televised. He is not expected to stand down while he has the backing of senior military officers.

"Do you want to be a coward," he yelled in a call and response session with hundreds of soldiers on Wednesday.

"No, president," they shouted back.

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IMF studying Argentina request for early help as peso crashes

BUENOS AIRES -- The International Monetary Fund said it was studying a request from Argentina to speed up disbursement of a $50 billion loan program after a collapse in investor confidence in President Mauricio Macri's government sent the peso tumbling more than 7 percent on Wednesday.

It was the biggest one-day decline in the peso since the currency was allowed to float in December 2015. It closed at a record low of 34.10 per US dollar and is down more than 45.3 percent against the greenback this year, prompting massive central bank interventions.

Nerves are frayed in Latin America's No. 3 economy as it struggles to break free from its notorious cycle of once-a-decade financial crises. The last one, which was punctuated by a 2002 debt default, tossed millions of middle-class Argentines into poverty.

The run on the peso prompted Argentina to turn to the IMF for the $50 billion credit line earlier this year. As part of the deal, Argentina's government pledged to speed up plans to reduce the fiscal deficit.

But given the peso's continued depreciation, which makes the country's dollar-denominated debts more expensive to pay, investors are increasingly concerned that the IMF help may not be enough.

"We have agreed with the International Monetary Fund to advance all the necessary funds to guarantee compliance with the financial program next year," Macri said in a televised address on Wednesday. "This decision aims to eliminate any uncertainty."

"Over the last week we have seen new expressions of lack of confidence in the markets, specifically over our financing capacity in 2019," Macri said.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde responded by saying in a statement that the multi-lateral lender's staff would "reexamine the phasing of the financial program." She said that the "more adverse international market conditions" had not been "fully anticipated" when the IMF and Argentina reached the deal in June.

"Authorities will be working to revise the government's economic plan with a focus on better insulating Argentina from the recent shifts in global financial markets, including through stronger monetary and fiscal policies," Lagarde said.

Argentina has $24.9 billion in peso- and foreign currency-denominated debt payments due next year, according to official data.

Speaking to reporters after the IMF statement was issued, Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne said the government would reduce the size of its financing program, but did not provide specifics

UNION TO PROTEST BELT-TIGHTENING

If Macri was trying to calm investors, it did not work.

"The market is saying: 'Just the fact that you are engaging in this conversation makes me very, very nervous,'" Daniel Osorio, president of New York-based consultancy Andean Capital Advisors, said in a telephone interview.

The peso's decline has contributed to a jump in inflation, which hit a 12-month rate of 31.2 percent in July. In response, the central bank has hiked interest rates to 45 percent and sold more than $13 billion in reserves, including $300 million in an auction on Wednesday.

All that, combined with the budget cuts promised to the IMF that will slow down public works projects, is contributing to a recession that will result in an economic contraction of 1 percent this year, according to the government. That could hurt Macri's re-election prospects in next year's presidential race.

The June signing of the IMF deal reduced the need for costly bond market funding and briefly steadied the peso. The government has since announced more than $2 billion in budget savings, a process Macri promised to continue.

"We will accompany the IMF support with all necessary fiscal efforts," said Macri, who was elected in 2015 on a free market platform after eight years of deep government intervention in the economy under previous President Cristina Fernandez.

Argentina's biggest labor group, the CGT, said on Wednesday it will call a 24-hour general strike on Sept. 25 to protest Macri's belt-tightening measures. Two smaller union groupings said they will go on a 36-hour strike on Sept. 24 to protest the IMF, which many blame for the 2002 crisis.

"I know that these tumultuous situations generate anxiety among many of you," Macri said. "I understand this, and I want you to know I am making all decisions necessary to protect you." 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Maduro wins as rivals call for new Venezuela elections

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Nicolas Maduro was unsurprisingly declared winner of Venezuela's election Sunday in a poll rejected as invalid by his rivals, who immediately called for fresh elections to be held later this year. 

Reeling under a devastating economic crisis, only 46 percent of voters turned out to cast ballots in an election boycotted by the opposition and condemned by much of the international community, but one that hands Maduro a second term until 2025.

"We do not recognize this electoral process as valid, as true," his main rival Henri Falcon told a news conference, even before the result was announced. 

"For us, there were no elections. We have to have new elections in Venezuela." 

Maduro hailed his victory for another six-year term as a "historic record" in a speech to thousands of cheering supporters outside the official Miraflores Palace in Caracas.

"Never before has a presidential candidate taken 68 percent of the popular vote," he said, to applause.

"We won again! We triumphed again! We are the force of history turned into a permanent popular victory," said Maduro.

The official result gave Maduro 67.7 percent of the vote, with Falcon a distant second at 21.2 percent. In the last opinion polls before the vote, the pair were running neck-and-neck.

Third-placed Javier Bertucci, an evangelist preacher who polled around 11 percent, joined in the call for new elections.

Maduro, the political heir to the late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, has presided over an implosion of the once wealthy oil producer's economy since taking office in 2013.

Hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, rising crime and broken water, power and transportation networks have sparked violent unrest, and left Maduro with a 75 percent disapproval rating.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled the South American country in a mass exodus in recent years.

Wearing a bright red shirt that identifies him as a "Chavista," the president arrived early at a Caracas polling station along with his wife, former prosecutor Cilia Flores.

"Your vote decides: ballots or bullets, motherland or colony, peace or violence, independence or subordination," said the 55-year-old former bus driver and union leader.

The comments reflected previous ones by the socialist leader that Venezuela is the victim of an "economic war" waged by the conservative opposition and outside powers such as the United States aimed at toppling him.

As the polls opened, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the "sham" election.

Small queues of voters, mostly Maduro supporters, formed at some polling stations, but others appeared half empty, AFP correspondents reported from several cities.

Falcon, a 56-year-old former army officer who failed to gain the endorsement of the main opposition, accused the government of coercing voters.

In a news conference held before the official result announcement, he pointed particularly to so-called "red points" -- street stalls set up by the ruling Socialists near polling stations -- allegedly to offer handouts in exchange for votes.

The former governor of Venezuela's Lara state also said polling centers had remained open after the scheduled closing time, and that his monitors were expelled from some of them.

Hundreds of Venezuelans took to the streets in several Latin American capitals, including Bogota, Buenos Aires and Lima -- as well as in Madrid -- to denounce the vote.

The biggest protest was in Chile's capital Santiago, where more than 1,000 demonstrated against the election. Chile granted 73,000 visas to Venezuelans fleeing the country last year.

The Chilean government rejected a result that "lacks all legitimacy and does not meet any of the minimum and necessary requirements to be a democratic and transparent election, in accordance with international standards."

'A DOG'S LIFE'

"I am not taking part in this fraud," said retired teacher Maria Barrantes, 62. "What we are living through is a disaster."

"For the first time in my life, I am not going to vote because we are living a dog's life, without medicine, without food," said Teresa Paredes, a 56-year-old housewife.

But Rafael Manzanares, 53 and living on government handouts, said he believed Maduro's claim that "things are bad because of the economic war" against the country.

Aware of the popular mood, Maduro had vowed an "economic revolution" if reelected.

Falcon promised to dollarize the economy, return companies expropriated by Chavez and allow humanitarian aid, something the president rejects.

'FURTHER INSTABILITY'

Falcon said fresh elections could be held in November or December, when they are traditionally contested, but they were moved up this year by the country's all-powerful and pro-government Constituent Assembly, catching the divided and weakened opposition off-guard.

The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposition coalition has won support from the United States, the European Union and 14 countries of the Lima Group who called for the vote to be postponed.

Maduro is accused of undermining democracy, usurping the power of the opposition-dominated legislature by replacing it with his Constituent Assembly and cracking down hard on the opposition. Protests in 2017, still fresh in the collective memory, left around 125 people dead.

The MUD's most popular leaders have been sidelined or detained, the boycott their only remaining weapon.

Despite holding the world's largest oil reserves, the country faces ruin, with the IMF citing a 45 percent drop in GDP under Maduro.

The crippled oil industry lacks investment and its assets are increasingly prey to debt settlements as the country defaults.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Brazil approves dengue vaccine

Brazil became the first South American country Monday to authorize the world's first-ever dengue fever vaccine, which its French manufacturer says has the potential to save hundreds of lives here.

The tropical disease, a flu-like illness carried by mosquitoes, killed 839 people this year in Brazil and infected more than 1.5 million.

The sprawling South American country's decision to allow the new vaccine, called Dengvaxia, is a coup for French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, which has now gotten the green light from regulators in three countries.

Mexico became the first country to allow the vaccine on December 9, and the Philippines followed suit last week.

Sanofi has requested regulatory approval in 20 countries across Asia and Latin America.

The vaccine is a potential "blockbuster" drug for the company, which estimates it could generate more than $1 billion a year in revenue.

The Brazilian government said regulators must still set a price per dose, a process that takes about three months on average.

A separate review would have to be carried out for the vaccine to be incorporated in the national vaccination plan, a health ministry official told AFP.

Scientists have long been stumped by dengue, which has four separate strains.

Clinical tests -- carried out on 40,000 people from 15 countries -- have found Dengvaxia can immunize two-thirds of people aged nine years and older, rising to 93 percent for the more severe form of the disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Dengue infects as many as 400 million people per year, and the deadliest form kills 22,000 per year, says the World Health Organization.

It was once considered a disease of the tropics, endemic in only nine countries.

But globalization, urbanization, climate change and air travel are helping it to move into more temperate zones. It is now endemic in more than 100 countries.

The WHO says cases have risen 30-fold over the last 50 years, with more than half the world's population potentially at risk.

The 20 countries where Sanofi Pasteur hopes for regulatory approval have a total population of two billion people -- 200 million of them in Brazil.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Anne Curtis poses in South America for mag covers

MANILA – Kapamilya star Anne Curtis wears local brands as she appears on the two covers of the September 2013 issue of the local fashion magazine Mega, which were both shot in South America.

The first cover features a close-up of Curtis against the background of Machu Picchu in Peru, while the second saw the actress posing in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

On the Rio de Janeiro shoot, Curtis wore a two-toned corset dress by Bo Parcon, a jacquard printed Eric delos Santos jacket worn as a skirt, and metallic gold pumps by Primadonna, which the actress endorses.

On its website, Mega dubbed its September edition as its “biggest issue” yet.

Curtis was in South America not only to pose for the magazine, but also to shoot scenes for a fashion documentary being produced by Mega.

The documentary by Michael Carandang, the Filipino producer of “America’s Next Top Model,” is set to be released this month.

A teaser trailer, which showed Curtis in different areas of South America with Brazilian-Japanese model Daniel Matsunaga and other personalities, was uploaded on YouTube last August.

Curtis is on a roll this year as she is set to be the first Filipino celebrity to be featured in a special episode of the entertainment show “E! News Asia.”

She is currently one of the hosts of the ABS-CBN noontime program “It’s Showtime,” and is dubbed as the Philippines’ top product endorser.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Anne Curtis visits South America for fashion docu

MANILA – Kapamilya star Anne Curtis recently went to South America to shoot scenes for a fashion documentary being produced by Mega magazine.

The documentary by Michael Carandang, the Filipino producer of “America’s Next Top Model,” will be released next month.

A teaser trailer for “#MakingMega: Anne Curtis in South America” was uploaded on YouTube last week, showing Curtis in different areas of South America with Brazilian-Japanese model Daniel Matsunaga, among others.

A regular fixture on fashion and entertainment magazines, Curtis modeled the creations of Filipino fashion designer Francis Libiran on “America’s Next Top Model” last year.



Libiran was chosen as a featured designer on the show.

Dubbed as the Philippines’ top endorser, Curtis is the first Filipina to be featured on the popular entertainment show “E! News Asia.” The episode will be aired on September 29, the Fil-Australian actress announced on her Twitter account.

Last year, she shot the Hollywood film “Blood Ransom,” which is set to hit theaters in 2013.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com