BusinessMirror June 1, 2015

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E.M.B. COOL ON CAMPI APPEAL FOR 2YEAR GRACE PERIOD ON IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW VEHICLE STANDARDS

DENR won’t delay Euro 4 enforcement

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INSIDE

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is thumbing down the appeal of automakers to defer compliance with the environment-friendly Euro 4 fuel standards for new vehicles by two years, stressing that the cleaner-emission regulations have been delayed for far too long.

#NORMCORE NO MORE

Life

The newness of life

D

EAR Lord, when will our behavior become a living proof of the reality and universal effect of Your resurrection. Through our own and our neighbor’s love, we shall experience that the newness of life brought by You is not a myth or just a pious aspiration but a wonderful reality. We will also see that the Resurrection is not just an event of the past that concerns You alone, but an ever-present power, which recreates every human being from within, transforming each one from a weak sinner into a strong child of God who lives by the commandment of brotherly/sisterly love. Amen.

EXPLORING GOD’S WORD, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUI OUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

EDIE CAMPBELL in Vogue Paris

ALL ACCESS: THE SECOND COMING OF IAN VENERACION

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KAT A E MOSS by Corrine Day for The Face, circa 1990 AT

Monday, June 1, 2015 D1

THE Olsen twins schlepping about in socks and Birkenstocks

JOAN SMALLS

#normcore no more

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ELL, apparently, being bland, boring and basic can make you a style icon.

You just have to wear something conventional, nondescript and unpretentious. That aesthetic, that ethos is called “normcore,” a portmanteau of “normal” and “hardcore,” which refers to an attitude but not a particular look or code of unisex dressing that swept the fashion scene in 2014.

The term normcore was coined

by K-Hole, a New York-based trend forecasting group founded by Greg Fong, Sean Monahan, Emily Segal, Chris Sherron and Dena Yago. As brand consultants, the five wrote about the neologism in “Youth Mode: A Report on Freedom.”

Normcore moves away from a coolness that relies on difference to a post-authenticity coolness that opts-in to sameness. But instead of appropriating an aestheticized version of the mainstream, it just cops to the situation at hand. To be truly normcore, you need to understand that there’s no such thing as normal.

“Individuality was once the path to personal freedom—a way to lead life on your own terms. But the terms keep getting more and more specific, making us more and more isolated.

Normcore seeks the freedom that comes with nonexclusivity. It finds liberation in being nothing special, and realizes that adaptability leads to belonging. Normcore is a path to a more peaceful life.”

Though not as cringe-inducing as grunge or as exciting as the metrosexual, normcore as a way of dressing has nevertheless found its way into the style lexicon.

Urbandictionary.com defines normcore as “a subculture based on conscious, artificial adoption of things that are in widespread use, proven to be acceptable, or otherwise inoffensive. Ultra-conformists.”

Steve Jobs is often cited as the style reference, as are the tourists in

Times Square from Middle America.

Include Jerry Seinfeld (Is the dadbod a spawn?), Tina Fey in 30 Rock, Kate Middleton (when she dresses without the royal trappings and only outside England) and an unknown Kate Moss photographed by Corinne Day for The Face in 1990. If I understand the concept correctly, I will include as a normcore example the 100th anniversary US Vogue cover when supermodels wore casual sportswear white shirts and jeans by The Gap. Dressing “normal” is a reaction to the “peacocking to street-style photographers” phenomenon that happens usually at Fashion Weeks. As an anti-trend, I would look no further as beacons the supermodels on their days off, especially Joan Smalls, as they must find wearing couture so cloying that they revert back to the basics. Or the glorious Jo Ann Bitagcol when she’s behind the camera.

The New York Times has also weighed in: “Normcore [noun] 1. A fashion movement, c. 2014, in which scruffy young urbanites swear off the tired street-style clichés of the last decade—skinny jeans, wallet chains, flannel shirts—in favor of a less-ironic [but still pretty ironic] embrace of bland, suburban antifashion attire. [See Jeans, mom.

Sneakers, white.]”

For visualizing purposes, normcore would be, as per refinery29.com: a Nike adult sweatshirt and not an Alexander Wang pullover; a New Balance running shoe and not Nike wedge sneakers; a souvenir baseball cap and not a Stella McCartney cap; and Uniqlo chinos and not J. Crew printed stretch pants.

Normcore crept into the mainstream consciousness when Fiona Duncan wrote about it in February 2014 in New York magazine, in a piece titled “Normcore: Fashion for Those Who Realize They’re One in 7 Billion”: “[Normcore] is embracing sameness deliberately as a new way of being cool, rather than striving for ‘difference’ or ‘authenticity.’ In

fashion, though, this manifests itself in ardently ordinary clothes. Mall clothes. Blank clothes.”

Lorna Hall, head of market intelligence at trend forecaster WGSN, explained to Theguardian. com: “The normcore trend plays to the strengths of retailers that are good at the everyday basics people actually wear.” The clothes referred to are everyday wear like T-shirts, hoodies, short-sleeved shirts, (mom) jeans, chinos, khakis, baseball hats, sneakers and sandals.

Does it mean, then, that Filipinos, beholden to trends and fast fashion, have been adapting the normcore attitude since malls began sprouting all over the islands? Even more so when Bench and Penshoppe dominated the retail landscape, and reaching its apex when The Gap, Superdry, H&M, Forever 21 and Uniqlo took over our shopping budget?

I don’t think so. Even though we wear our “normcore” pedestrian clothes in our everyday lives, we do so because we are pragmatists living within our means, not out of an innate sense of style or even a working knowledge of the current style zeitgeist. I didn’t even notice my Twitter or Instagram feeds peppered with the hashtag #normcore alongside the vapid #OOTDs and #OOTNs. Didn’t our supposed Instagirls and selfie stickwielding boys get the memo?

Or, maybe, normcore has not really caught on among our style arbiters because the whole thing can be very confusing after all? The more identity-validating Vogue. uk explained: “Beyond the jargon, this original notion of normcore is predicated on the desire to fit in rather than stand out. But the team behind the term believes that it’s been misunderstood and misappropriated by the fashion press. On the phone from their Manhattan office, 25-year-old K-Hole co-founder Segal explains the thinking behind this hypernormalized styling: ‘There’s an exhaustion with trying to seem different. People are genuinely tired by the fact that to achieve status, you need to be different from everyone else around you.’”

“As envisioned by its creators, normcore [is] not a fashion trend, but a broader sociological attitude.

The basic idea is that young alternative types [have] devoted so much energy to trying to define themselves as

LIFE

The director of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), Environment Undersecretary Jonas R. Leones, appears to be standing firm on the DENR’s ruling to implement Euro 4 compliance for all new vehicles to be used or introduced in the Philippines starting January 1, 2016.

Another aspect of the implemen-

EMPLOYEE POWER BusinessMirror

Monday, June 1, 2015 E 1

SIX MYTHS ABOUT

DATTAA SCIENTISTS DAT DON’TT SCALE B S F

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EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES

IG DATA is about to get a big reality check. Our obsession with data and analytics technology, and our reverence for the rare data scientist who reigns over this world, has disillusioned many of us. Executives are taking a hard look at their budgets—drained by disparate tools they’ve acquired and elusive “big insights” they’ve been promised - and wondering, “Where is the return on this enormous investment?”

It’s not that we haven’t made strides in aggregating and organizing data, but that employees are still spending untold hours interpreting and manually reporting results. To solve this problem, organizations are contemplating even further investment, often in the form of data scientists who command big fees. But that’s not a scalable solution.

A few innovative executives have sought automated solutions in artificial intelligence (AI) that interprets data and unlocks hidden insights.

Why is this possible? Because AI is beginning to transform data and analysis into comprehensive, intuitive narratives.

Any organization where employees spend time on manual, repetitive tasks is a prime candidate for automated solutions. Take, for example, the manual process of performance reporting for mutual funds. Typically, marketing teams toil every quarter to document portfolio performance and add commentary. Today some funds are using advanced natural language generation platforms, powered by AI, to automatically write these reports in mere seconds. In medical billing, AI can scour thousands of billing records across hundreds of hospitals and generate narrative reports that immediately provide the desired analysis.

These reports can highlight changes to a hospital group’s insurance-provider portfolio that affect revenue and cash flow, while simultaneously identifying room for growth.

Wealth management is starting to see this benefit, too. AI is being embedded into advisory platforms, delivering personalized portfolio reviews and recommendations to customers in language they can understand.

All these new technologies share something that additional humans cannot provide: the power of scale. In the near-term, the adoption of AI within business intelligence platforms and customerfacing applications will accelerate. Eventually, AI will offer even more complex analysis and advice.

We’re at the beginning of the next phase of big data focused on making data more useful, more understandable and more effective.

B D M

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HEN Dr. Stephen R. Covey visited the nuclear-powered submarine I commanded, the USS Santa Fe Fe, he told me it was the “most empowering workplace he’d ever seen.” It was a bit ironic for me, because I’m sour on the word “empowerment.” To me, saying we need an empowerment program is like saying that the fundamental way we run our organization is dis-empowering—or is it de-empowering?

Empowerment means changing how your organization is designed and managed so that people can exercise their natural power.

Based on my experience, here are the six biggest myths about empowerment:

Myth 1: The route to empowerment is a program.

YOU can’t implement a bottom-up concept in a top-down way.

The first step needs to be a commitment from the group that they want more authority and more decision-making. If the team wants empowerment, you’re on your way.

If not, try again in six months.

Myth 2: You empower people

PEOPLE are already empowered.

Leaders give them the voice and authority to exercise the empowerment they naturally have.

What leaders do is push decision-making down the organization as far as possible so the decisions are made by those people closest to the information.

Myth 3: Empowerment is enough

LEADERS must ensure that their people have the requisite competence and clarity of purpose to make successful decisions. An empowering organization thus spends more time on training.

Employees without sufficient technical competence and organizational clarity cause chaos.

Myth 4: Your picture of empowerment matches your team’s

THE word “empowerment” doesn’t contain the ability to measure and affect it—two necessary components for improving it. Instead, use specific words to identify the level of empowerment you want, such as “explore options,” “come up with a plan” or “do what you think is best.”

Myth 5: During a crisis, it’s appropriate to revert to top-down command and control

IN fact, the more important and time-urgent the event, the bigger the relative performance gain an empowered team will achieve.

The best-performing teams in the military work in highly decentralized ways.

Myth 6: Blowing up your hierarchy will result in empowered people.

CLEAR AR role definitions allow the team to focus on getting the job done rather than worrying about the limits of their authority or responsibility. Use hierarchy to place greater obligation on those higher up to take care of their teams, and greater responsibility to ensure that those below them have the tools to make successful decisions.

Remember, in highly effective organizations, there are leaders at every level, not just at the top.

David Marquet is the author of Turn the Ship Around!

3 rules for experts who want more influence B D C

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N these days of social media chestthumping, everybody is calling himself an expert. The first rule of expertise, I’ve learned, is never to call yourself an expert. That’s for others to determine. But becoming a recognized expert in a world of pretenders is increasingly valuable.

The first step, of course, is truly knowing Your subject. Ramit Sethi— author of “ I Will Teach You to Be Rich ”— learned personal finance the hard way when he lost half his college scholarship in the stock market.

That’s when he started mastering the techniques he now teaches. Nate Silver, the presidential election prognosticator, taught himself statistical skills by creating a tool to track baseball players’ performance that he later applied to the Electoral College.

The second step is Sharing your knowledge, because if no one knows you’re an expert, it doesn’t really count.

Sharing your ideas in book form can be a powerful tool to build an audience.

Writing books is rarely lucrative, but they can pay off in other ways such as through speaking fees.

The final step is Cultivating a following.

As you create content over time, more people are exposed to your ideas.

Institutions can also begin to volunteer to spread your message further. Experts recognize that a direct link to their fan base is the real gold. “To me, the hottest and sexiest social network right now is your inbox,” blogger Chris Brogan said about email marketing. You have to build a following, and increasingly that’s your own responsibility.

In a world where too many people claim to be experts, it becomes even more important to be one, and ensure that the right people know it. When you’ve cultivated genuine expertise, shared your knowledge generously and raised your profile by reaching more people, you’ve become worthy of the title.

3D printing will revive conglomerates

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B R D’A

ONGLOMERATE RA S, at least RATE in the US, have a checkered history. Hailed in the 1960s as bastions of sophisticated management, they used cheap financing to acquire family-owned firms.

The discipline they brought to these often loosely run businesses drove much of the post-war productivity boom. Then, conglomerates fell out of favor in the 1980s and 1990s as focus came into fashion. True synergies across the diverse operations were often hard to see.

With 3D printing, however, industrial conglomerates are about to get a new lease on life. A single 3D printer can produce engine pumps one day and crankshafts the next. The technology’s flexibility introduces synergies where none existed before. For example, GE, a highly diversified manu-

manufacturer with this capability would take over many of the divisions. Eventually, 3-D printing will mature and become ubiquitous in manufacturing. Companies will send their digital files to an outside printer farm, which will work to keep the production lines running at capacity.

When printer farms become a readily available commodity in the marketplace, conglomerates will lose their advantage in manufacturing synergies. To survive, conglomerates will have to adapt their capabilities to a new kind of value creation. Conglomerates, after all, are just a management tool. In some contexts, they add competitive advantage. In others, they weaken it.

facturer, makes everything from locomotives to ultrasound scanners. The company has invested heavily in 3D printing technologies flexible enough to produce a variety of products. In Alabama, GE’s first additive manufacturing facility is set to make nozzles for jet engines. But over time, there’s no reason it can’t make parts for other GE divisions.

If jet sales are down, the Alabama plant could switch over to supplying parts for trains, medical devices or whatever division is selling strong. Running plants at full capacity is often a key to profitability in manufacturing.

The big question is whether midsize conglomerates can develop a 3D printer farm on their own.

They would need not only capital but also a good deal of technical expertise. Perhaps, the more likely scenario is that a large outside

MONDAY MORNING

Dorie Clark teaches at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is the author of Reinventing You and Stand Out.

Stuart Frankel is the CEO and a co-founder of Narrative Science, a company working on advanced natural language generation.

Richard D’Aveni is the Bakala professor of strategy at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.

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© 2013 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. (Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate)

MICROSOFT YEARS Perspective BusinessMirror

E4 Monday, June 1, 2015

Microsoft employees– past and present–look back over the years

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B M D | The Seattle Times

EATTLE—For August Hill, the job offer from Microsoft was a dream come true.

The soft-spoken developer started his career deep in the guts of software programming for a telephone company in Saint Louis, working to make it easier for developers to build programs out of standardized chunks of data.

BILL GATES (left) and Paul Allen relocated Microsoft to Bellevue, Washington, in 1979. BARRY WONG/SEATTLE TIMES/TNS

“This was a chance to see software development at a huge level,” Hill said. “Microsoft, was, golly jeepers. Who was bigger?

Who was doing as much?”

Hill arrived in 1998, the year that Microsoft, by Wall Street’s gauge, hurdled above General Electric to become the world’s largest company. He was one of the 4,800 employees Microsoft added that year, many to do things the company hadn’t envisioned when it was born as a builder of programming languages in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Microsoft, based outside Seattle in Redmond, didn’t invent word-processing software, server tools, video-game consoles or even the original operating system that it used to power the first IBM PCs. But the company grew into a giant by evolving to tackle new markets with concerted catchup efforts piloted by generations of tech’s best and brightest (and a few well-timed acquisitions).

As Microsoft quietly celebrated its 40th birthday last month, Satya Nadella, the company’s third chief executive, is piloting an effort to keep the company relevant in its fifth decade, even as consumers grow less willing to pay for programs, such as Windows, that make computers tick. Microsoft, in a fierce competition for eyeballs with rivals in Silicon Valley, is increasingly offering some of its core products free and banking that its customers will pay for other services.

In the words of one analyst, the current shift to mobile and Web-based devices is the biggest challenge Microsoft has ever faced. The Seattle Times asked two-dozen current and former employees and observers about their lessons from Microsoft’s past efforts to tap new markets, offering a ground level view of the company’s ups and downs over four decades.

“It was an adventure,” said Rob Short, who was among a group of defectors from a button-down East Coast computer builder

who joined Microsoft in 1988, when the company was growing at a startuplike pace at its new campus.

“The budgeting process was you talk to Steve [Ballmer], and he’d say, ‘You can hire up to 200 people. If you want more than that, come talk to me,’” Short said. “We’d spend months poring over little details in budgets at our old place.”

For all of Microsoft’s ubiquity in modern offices, the company then was a relative unknown to big business.

Susan Hauser, now a vice president in charge of Microsoft’s corporate sales and partnerships group, joined the company’s New York City outpost in 1989.

The team’s task was to try to persuade companies to adopt the company’s operating systems and office-productivity products. During her first years at Microsoft, the island of Manhattan—the heart of American big business—was divided in two. Hauser was responsible for courting potential customers south of 42nd Street.

A colleague handled the northern half.

Hauser found that Wall Street’s exacting standards meant Microsoft would have to increase its sales and customersupport organization.

“We’re going to need better response time,” Hauser said of the feedback she received then. “We’re going to need people on site.”

Microsoft evolved to meet the challenge. Hauser and her team, selling the sturdier operating system built by Short’s group, relentlessly courted chief information officers, making clients out of the likes of media conglomerate Time Warner and big Wall Street broker Merrill Lynch.

A company that had grown in its early days by anticipating the needs of PC manufacturers, microchip makers and home programmers had added another important

constituency: people who buy technology to power the workplace.

Microsoft along the way built a network of thousands of software resellers and partners. Hardware builders were brought along with early glimpses at the company’s software and other partnerships.

Ballmer, the company’s sales chief before he was CEO, used to say “you have to convince the other guy he’s going to get rich working with you,” Short said. “You hear all these stories about Microsoft as a monster coming around and killing everybody in sight, but the actual partnership strategy was very, very clever.”

40 years of Microsoft 1975

1980 Jan. 1979 April 1975 Microsoft Bill Gates and Paul Allen relocates to found Microsoft in Bellevue, ending Albuquerque, N.M., to build software for MITS, the year with less than $2 million in an early personalrevenue and 30 computer maker. employees.

1995

Feb. 1983 Allen, recovering from Hodgkin's disease, resigns from the company.

1985

1990

March 1986 Microsoft goes public in an initial public offering that raises $61 million.

March 1987 Microsoft surpasses Lotus as the largest PC software maker, a title it hasn’t relinquished.

1990 Microsoft’s revenue crosses the $1 billion mark.

Aug. 1995 Microsoft launches Windows 95, the biggest-ever, software launch.

Nov. 2001 Microsoft and the Justice Department reach a settlement in the antitrust case.

May 1998 Justice Department files an antitrust suit against Microsoft.

2000

Jan. 2000 Gates steps down as chief executive but remains chairman.

Steve Ballmer becomes Microsoft’s second CEO.

Computing portal

IN Redmond, Yusuf Mehdi was helping to guide Microsoft’s efforts to keep the attention of technology consumers.

Mehdi grew up a few miles away from Microsoft’s first offices in the state. He was on the team that shepherded the launch of Windows 95, the operating system that helped the company close in on its long-held goal of putting a computer on every desktop. Mehdi later oversaw the marketing of Internet Explorer as Microsoft threw its weight behind a bid to catch up with the companies that were defining the growing Web. “I’m a little bit the Forrest Gump of Microsoft,” Mehdi jokes, comparing his winding path through the company to the way Tom Hanks’s character in that film seemed to stumble into important moments in American history.

Microsoft, with the aid of Windows and a relentless pursuit of the Internet, in the 1990s grew to become the world’s primary portal to computing.

“Microsoft has this ability to focus in,” said Ryan Hamlin, who helped build the MSN Web platform in the 1990s. “When we did that, Microsoft was very good at it.”

Mehdi spurned job offers from Silicon Valley.

“People here talk in these aspirational tones, but they mean it,” Mehdi said. “‘We’re on a mission. We’re going to do X.’” Along the way to X, Microsoft missed a few.

After years spent working on database crunching software, August Hill, the Saint Louis import, was assigned to the developers chasing Apple’s first smash hit of the 21st century: the iPod. Microsoft’s Zune music player eventually boasted more powerful hardware than Apple’s product, but it wasn’t quick enough.

Apple had moved again, striking gold with the iPhone.

“We were just a little late,” Hill said.

“If we’d been there a year prior, two years prior, it could have been a different thing.”

How did Microsoft, which pours billions of dollars each year into wide-ranging technology research, fail to capitalize on some of the seismic consumer-technology shifts of the 2000s?

“All successful companies get somewhat complacent,” said Michael Cusumano, a professor with MIT’s Sloan School of Business who has followed the company closely for decades.

Cusumano said the company was hampered by its focus on the PC. It also was distracted as its executives battled US government antitrust charges in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“When you grow so big, the material changes,” Hamlin said. “Innovation gets squeezed because you have so many people working to solve the same thing. It creates an internal frustration: Who is going to lead? Why are you leading? Why can’t my team lead?”

There were other cultural shifts.

“Cautiousness took over,” said Patti Brooke, who did stints at Microsoft in the 1990s and 2000s in a range of strategy and product-development roles. “A lot of the strategy for the company became protecting the franchise.”

While that approach may have contributed to Microsoft’s misses in consumer technology, it paid dividends for Microsoft’s relationship with big business. Backwaters that produced database software, business-collaboration tools and developer-focused server software grew into billion-dollar businesses.

“People wonder when Facebook comes, and the iPhone hits, and Google grows up,

Aug. 1981 IBM introduces its entry into the PC market, which runs on Microsoft-Disc Operation System(MS-DOS).

Nov. 1983 Microsoft announces Windows two months before Apple launches Macintosh. Windows is released two years later.

$1 billion

Nov. 2001 2005 Microsoft launches Xbox, which would become the company’s biggest consumer hit of the decade.

Nov. 2006 Microsoft introduces Zune, an ultimately doomed challenge to Apple’s iPod. June 2008 Gates steps down from day-to-day role at Microsoft to focus on his charitable foundation.

May 2010 Apple hurdles Microsoft to become the most valuable technology company by market capitalization.

2010 June 2009 Microsoft launches Bing, competing with Google.

Dec. 2009 Microsoft settles nearly a decade of European antitrust struggles.

Nov. 2010 Microsoft launches Windows Phone 7, a dramatic departure from previous operating systems in interface design.

Feb. 2010 Microsoft debuts its Azure cloud-computing platform.

18,000 jobs

Aug. 2013 Ballmer says he plans to retire.

Oct. 2008 Microsoft launches Webbased version of Office.

Jan. 2015 Microsoft outlines its vision for Windows 10.

2015 Feb. 2014 Satya Nadella is named Microsoft’s third chief executive.

July 2014 Nadella announces Microsoft’s largest-ever layoff: 18,000 jobs. Plans are to reorient the company toward its fast-growing cloud computing units.

Revenue (in billions)

Employees 150,000

$100

120,000

80 60

90,000

40

60,000

20

30,000 0

0

’87

’89

’91

’93

’95

’97

’99

’01

’03

’05

’07

’09

’11

’13

’15

Note: 2015 revenue is an estimate compiled by Bloomberg. All years ending June 30. Employee count is as of March 31, 2015.

Sources: Seattle Times archives, Microsoft, Bloomberg Graphic: Kelly Shea, Seattle Times/ TNS

‘Hey, are you still on the front foot of innovation?’” said Mehdi, now an executive at Xbox. “At the same time, we were hitting these other trends. We built a gameconsole business out of nothing. We built a server business out of nothing.”

The company set up shop in Washington in 1979, ending that year with about $2 million in sales and 30 employees. In its most recent fiscal year, Microsoft pulled in $86 billion. The company employs 118,000 people.

a company known for insularity more open to the technology and ideas of others.

“Every team across Microsoft must find ways to simplify and move faster, more efficiently,” Nadella said in a June memo last year outlining his strategy.

A month later, Nadella announced the biggest restructuring in Microsoft history, an effort to streamline the company’s new mobile-phone hardware business and build a more efficient company. Microsoft would also lay off 18,000 people.

Hill, who had worked on the development of Xbox since Microsoft pulled the plug on Zune, was told he was among those being let go.

“My wife and I were looking at the book of our life, and we turned the page and said, ‘Hey, there’s a new chapter here,’” Hill said.

“We didn’t expect that.”

Hill, who has since started a franchise of small-business information technology company CMIT, is among those optimistic about Microsoft’s future under Nadella.

“I like the ideals and I like the direction,” Hill said. “I’m happy to see where Microsoft ends up going.”

Where will the company be in another 40 years? For some, that hinges on the ability of Nadella and company to make the place an appealing stop for technology’s most talented minds.

“It isn’t the technology. It isn’t the products or services. They all come and go,” Mehdi said. “What won’t change is we’ll still get the best and brightest. If we keep that, this place is going to be around for a long, long time.” TNS

PERSPECTIVE Cultural shift

MICROSOFT is deep in the trenches of its latest reboot.

Smartphones and tablets powered by rivals’ software have dethroned Windows as the dominant gateway between humans and computers. Microsoft is trying to navigate a transition to software sold and accessed on the Web without losing its giant customer base.

“This is probably a bigger challenge than any they’ve encountered so far,” said Rick Sherlund, a Wall Street analyst who’s covered the company since it first sold stock to the public in 1986.

Nadella, the 47-year-old who took the helm of Microsoft in February 2014, redoubled the company’s efforts to expand its presence on mobile devices—even if those devices aren’t made by Microsoft. He is also continuing the “all in” bet his predecessor Ballmer made on building the infrastructure to power modern Web-accessed programs and data storage.

He’s tried to make Microsoft more nimble, and has overseen a move to make

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E4

tation of Euro 4 standards pertaining to the quality of fuel is slated to take effect in the country a month from now. It mandates the use of a cleaner-fuel standard that allows a maximum sulfur content of 50 parts per million (ppm). The prevailing Euro 2 used by vehicles in the country today has a cap of 500 ppm.

C  A

Business groups reject House-approved Timta

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OR EIGN and local businessmen rejected salient features of the proposed Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (Timta), including the electronic-filing (e-filing) requirement of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR); the slapping of “steep” penalties for nonsubmission of incentive claims during the prescribed period; and an extension of the BIR’s assessment period. In a position paper released to the media on Sunday, 14 local and foreign business groups, representing 35,000 businesses in the country, identified the provisions they want to scrap in the House of Representatives’s version of the contentious Timta.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 44.6500

Local and foreign businessmen opposed the e-filing of income-tax returns (ITRs), saying that such practice “may change from time to time, depending on the applicable or existing regulations of the BIR.” The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Finance (DOF) agreed on a mandatory e-filing for all investment-promotion agencies (IPAs)-registered enterprises for up to six months, after the annual April 15 deadline.

Board of Investments (BOI) Governor Lucita P. Reyes said e-filing could burden small and medium enterprises without much access to computers, as well as the instability of the BIR’s online system.

IN this October 3, 2014, file photo, residents bang pots and pans as they stage a “noise barrage” to protest possible eviction at the Fort Bonifacio Tenement Building in Taguig City. The building was the housing program of the late President Diosdado P. Macapagal in 1967 and was occupied by about a thousand family-beneficiaries from different urban-poor communities in 1967. The sign reads, “We Love Tenement, Nobody Leaves!” AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ

B J M N.  C  C N. P First of four parts

A

SK schoolchildren what are the basic needs, and you’ll readily get this answer—food, clothing and shelter.

For Filipinos belonging to some 5.5 million households, however, that third component is probably missing. Shelter, or the lack thereof, remains as one of the top national concerns to this day, and is steadily worsening if you keep a head count of the growing number of Filipinos who do not own a house every year.

But how do you totally solve a problem, the magnitude of which you are not even aware of?

This is the daunting task staring the government and the private sector in the face, as they

attempt to provide solutions to the country’s housing-backlog riddle.

No official definition

THE chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development, Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez of the Third District of Negros Occidental, said the country’s housing backlog is estimated at 5.5 million units—a figure that would vary, depending on who or which agency you are talking to.

Benitez admitted that there is no official estimate yet on the country’s housing backlog.

The reason is elementary: “Currently, we don’t have an official definition of housing backlog,” Benitez admitted.

Agreeing on the official definition of “housing backlog” is one of the main objectives of the Housing Summit that was launched by Congress and C  A

S “T,” A

n JAPAN 0.3601 n UK 68.3636 n HK 5.7588 n CHINA 7.2002 n SINGAPORE 33.1133 n AUSTRALIA 34.0814 n EU 48.887 n SAUDI ARABIA 11.9067 Source: BSP (29 May 2015)

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Monday, June 1, 2015

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The basic needs: Food, clothing and... continued from a1

other stakeholders on May 27.

Benitez said once an official definition has been crafted, he is certain that the backlog would go well beyond his 5.5-million-unit estimate, making him concede that “the dream of every Filipino to have his own house is still far from reality.”

He also warned that the country’s shelter inadequacy will continue to increase if a national housing planning program will not be implemented.

Main cause of housing problem

The lack of decent housing escalates despite the fact that several international treaties, conventions and other standards, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights, and even the 1987 Philippine Constitution, recognize the right to adequate housing as a fundamental right, which all people are entitled to.

The Philippine Constitution not only mentioned of the Filipinos’ right to adequate housing, but also that of the right against forced evictions.

“For the past many decades, the housing backlog has been increasing for just only one reason—affordability. People cannot afford to own a house and lot, or a housing unit, because they cannot afford it.

If you will make quality and affordable housing units that everybody can afford, everybody can have his or her own house,” Benitez said.

“The issue of affordability affects the majority of our population. Both the informal and formal sectors are unable to afford the available housing units and loans provided by the government.”

He said Region 3 (Central Luzon), Region 4 (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon) and the National Capital Region (NCR) account for about half of the 5.5 million housing needs.

In Metro Manila alone, Benitez said, there are about 600,000 informal settlers.

“Sad to say our people cannot afford a decent housing unit because of affordability issue. Take the NCR as example: the NCR median monthly salary is about P18,000 and, according to studies, you can only afford about 25 percent or 26 percent of that P18,00 for housing, which translates to more or less P4,000. So if you look around Metro Manila, do you think you can rent a unit for P4,000?” he said.

Socialized housing

Noel “Toti” M. Cariño, vice president of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Association (Creba), said the problem of inadequate housing, especially for the marginalized sector, will persist if the government would continue tightening regula-

tions for housing developers and, at the same time, passing the brunt of the task of providing socialized housing to the private sector.

According to the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, known as Republic Act 7279, socialized housing is specifically geared toward the low-income segment of society. RA 7279 reads: “Socialized housing refers to housing programs and projects covering houses and lots or home lots only undertaken by the government or the private sector for the underprivileged and homeless citizens which shall include sites and services development, long-term financing, liberalized terms on interest payments, and such other benefits.”

Creba also estimates that the country’s housing backlog is now at 5.5 million units, with socialized housing taking up 600,000 units. Part of the challenge for developers to meet this gap, aside from financing for home buyers, is the stringent regulatory compliance imposed on the private sector, Cariño said.

In RA 7279, under its balanced housing provision, developers are obligated to develop an area for socialized housing equivalent to 20 percent of either their main project’s cost or the project’s area.

This provision is a thorn on the developers’ side, as one of the compliance methods to the 20-percent rule entails a joint-venture partnership,

with either a housing agency or a local government unit (LGU)—a situation that often leads to the private sector carrying the greater share of responsibility.

“While we have embraced the 20-percent socialized housing rule, it also behooves us that, in that law, there are requirements for the partnership between national government and private sector to bring about the 20-percent requirement.

This is a problem, as the government should do its part in providing the road access, the water access and basically the infrastructure that would make the socialized housing area livable,” Cariño lamented.

Oftentimes, housing units for the poor are situated far from their workplaces, or are inaccessible, leading the inhabitants to illegally squat in Metro Manila and have their designated housing rented out.

Homeless population

Homeless International and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights said around 22.8 million people reside in slum areas in the Philippines.

The two agencies said 1.2 million of these 22.8 million are children who live either by peddling goods or begging on the streets, 70,000 of them coming from Metro Manila alone.

Because of this report, international web site the List25.com has

ranked the Philippines as No. 1 in the “25 Cities with Extremely High Homeless Populations.”

Included in the 25 Cities with Extremely High Homeless Populations are New York City; Los Angeles; Moscow; Mexico City; Jakarta; Mumbai; Buenos Aires (Argentina); Budapest (Hungary); São Paulo (Brazil); San Francisco; Seattle (Washington); Athens; San Diego (California); Tampa (Florida); Rome; Washington; Chicago; Tokyo; Baltimore (Maryland); Rio de Janeiro; Dublin (Ireland); Indianapolis (Indiana); Denver (Colorado); and Lisbon (Portugal).

Increasing population

The Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights), in its study on the housing problems in the Philippines, said Metro Manila has joined the ranks of cities in the world with populations exceeding 10 million.

With this, PhilRights said the demand for affordable land and housing remains a huge challenge both to the government and the private sector.

The population of the Philippines has been steadily growing for many years. In 2014 it is the 12th most populated country in the world.

In July last year the Commission on Population marked the birth of the 100-millionth Filipino.

PhilRights, citing the Annual Pov-

erty Indicator Survey of the government, also said four of 10 Filipino families do not have their own house and lot.

“Such a scenario is evidenced by the proliferation of informal settlers in urban and peri-urban areas throughout the country, as well as by the increasing number of families sharing dwelling units,” it said, adding, “this scenario further aggravates the deteriorating quality of life of the poor, as cramped spaces result in higher incidence of sickness and violence that mostly affects women and children.”

According to PhilRights, besides poverty and increasing population, there are several issues contributing to the housing problems of the country.

It said these include high transaction costs due to the confusing and unclear land-use policies; noncooperation of landowners to engage in the Community Mortgage Program; and misinterpretation and/or nonimplementation of LGUs of the provisions set forth by the Urban Development and Housing Act and its implementing rules and regulations.

It added that most LGUs do not have shelter plans and programs that would facilitate proactive planning and results-based targeting of their local shelter concerns, resulting in nonappropriation of budgets, thus, increasing land and housing backlogs. To be continued

Economy

A4 Monday, June 1, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Changes in DOE leadership seen influencing future of energy sector

I

By Lenie Lectura

t’s been a month since Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla announced his resignation and Malacañang has yet to pick a suitable replacement. So, is he pushing through with his resignation?

“I mentioned to him that I can only stay up to end-May. His reply was that they are still working on my replacement and he asked for a little bit of time,” Petilla said in an interview on Friday.

Petilla had to again ask President Aquino early last week if he could already leave his post. During their conversation, Petilla said there was no mention of how long he will stay put.

What is definite, he stressed, is that he is leaving the Department of Energy (DOE) and that, as a courtesy to the President, he agreed to stay longer until a new energy chief is appointed.

“I am better off resigning because If I don’t, I lose credibility. It’s not because I am running, that’s why I am pushing for my resignation. It’s because I would like to stand by what I told the President. My deadline has nothing to do with running for a higher position,” he said.

Petilla, in his resignation letter, cited “personal and family reasons,” as to why he wanted to quit his job.

He, however, did not deny that he

is considering running for higher office in 2016.

“I am keeping my options open.

What position, if you ask me, I can never say until the last minute that I have made up my mind,” he said.

Petilla had told the President as early as last year that he wants to pursue his personal plans and that his desire to resign from his post was delayed because he had to deal with so many issues in the power sector.

“I could not then, because there were so many issues to deal with.

There was the Meralco rate hike, power restoration after [Supertyphoon] Yolanda [international code name Haiyan] and the power situation for the summer of 2015,” he recalled.

In December 2013, Petilla resigned after he failed to make good on his promise to energize the areas in the Visayas that were badly hit by a tropical storm. President Aquino did not accept his resignation then.

“Now, there are those saying that I resigned because the emergency power I was seeking was not given.

Worse, they said I resigned because I was not among those picked to be included in the ‘Magic 12’ of the Liberal Party. None are close to the truth,” Petilla, who was appointed in October 2012, said.

Candidates

The President is already looking at potential candidates to replace Petilla.

For now, there are four candidates vying to be the next DOE chief.

First is former Energy Secretary Raphael Perpetuo M. “Popo” Lotilla.

The second candidate is current National Transmission Corp. (Transco) President Roland T. Bacani.

The third, concurrent DOE Undersecretary Zenaida Y. Monsada, is also a top candidate. Monsada, a veteran in the energy sector, is Petilla’s top pick.

The fourth candidate is National Power Corp. (Napocor) President Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita. “The list is still the same but no decision has been made yet,” he said when asked if the President had trimmed the list.

Lotilla served the agency from March 2005 to July 2007. Prior to his appointment as energy secretary, Lotilla was the president of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM). He also briefly served as PSALM COO before he became president. He also served at the National Economic and Development Authority, from January 1996 to January 2004, as undersecretary.

Lotilla did not categorically say if he was interested in replacing Petilla.

Bacani, in a text message, said he would “seek the guidance of my Boss

up there” when asked if he would consider if and when he will be offered to replace Petilla.

To accept or not

Petilla said “no one in his right mind” would accept the position given the following reasons: First, there’s a pay cut.

Second, the stint is good for a couple of months before a new administration assumes power.

Cabinet secretaries come and go as they serve at the pleasure of the Philippine President.

Third, whoever is appointed is prohibited to join the energy sector for up to two years after his stint as DOE secretary.

Last, he said, it takes “strong personality and technical expertise” for someone to lead the agency as complicated as the DOE. “They are looking for a person who can do the political side and, at the same time, do the technical side. So that’s going to be a problem. But that doesn’t mean the President can’t pick. I am just stating the qualities that fit this job which nobody, I think, at this point in time, is 100-percent willing,” Petilla said.

But whoever is chosen, Petilla is giving an unsolicited advice. “You will be forever compared. He or she must be prepared because that person will face so many issues and arguments are not far behind.”

Business as usual

Petilla is not the only one in the energy sector who is leaving soon.

Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chairman Zenaida C. Ducut is up for retirement in July.

Rumors are ripe that ERC Commissioner Josefina Patricia Magpale-Asirit, who served as DOE undersecretary from 2010 to 2012, will sit as the next ERC chairman. Asirit’s family ties with Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras, her uncle, and Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes A. Magpale, her mother, make her a “very strong

candidate,” industry stakeholders pointed out.

For the PSALM, the state firm tasked to dispose the assets of Napocor, it is still uncertain if its president, Emmanuel R. Ledesma Jr., will stay to lead the agency after he has fully served his 90day suspension.

Ledesma was appointed by President Aquino in September 2010.

He was suspended by the PSALM board, which is chaired by Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, on allegations of corruption and abuse of discretion, among others.

Many in the power sector believe that Ledesma will not be able to come back, citing “the rift between him and Purisima.”

Industry stakeholders could not stress enough the importance of these three key positions in the power sector.

“They are all heads of key agencies that play important roles in fostering the energy sector.

Industry players are on a waitand-see attitude, as whoever will be the next DOE secretary, ERC chairman and PSALM president will determine the future of the energy sector,” a top official of one of the major players in the power sector commented.

Some observed that if there is one industry player that will benefit from the possible promotion of Asirit and the recent appointment of former Board of Investments Governor Geronimo D. Sta. Ana to the ERC as one of the commissioners, it is the Aboitiz group.

Sta. Ana and Asirit are from Cebu. When sought for comment, Manila Electric Co. President Oscar S. Reyes said he sees no disruption with the resignation of Petilla, retirement of Ducut and Ledesma’s suspension.

“Meralco has been here for many years. It has witnessed several changes in the administration and, yet, business is still usual. We expect the government to continue to function. We will work closely with

the relevant government agencies, as we believe they will still be able to perform their respective tasks.”

AboitizPower CEO Erramon I. Aboitiz, meanwhile, strongly urged the government to craft effective policies that will not only benefit the consumers but protect the business interests of the private sector, as well.

“The government has got to have a target or policy to work on moving forward,” he said when asked for comments on the DOE’s plan to have a fuel-mix policy.

“What happens to the competitiveness of somebody’s power plants if the private sector, on its own, is allowed to make decisions as to what fuel to use or what technology to use and still remain competitive in this market?

“From the national perspective, it makes sense to have some policy diversification. But how to achieve that has to be determined and worked on,” Aboitiz said.

The plan to put in place a fuelmix policy is meant to promote a more diverse source of electricity in the country, Petilla said.

More important, the said policy will reduce the country’s reliance on coal-fired power plants and promote the use of potentially cleaner and cheaper fuel sources in the power-generation industry, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Based on data from the DOE, geothermal power accounts for 41.4 percent of the fuel input mix in the country’s power-generation sector, followed by coal at 28 percent; natural gas, 15 percent; and hydro, 11.4 percent. The balance is supplied by fuel oil, diesel, biomass, biodiesel, solar and wind.

The government has been pushing for the use of LNG primarily to replace the projected depletion of the Malampaya natural gas field by 2024.

Petilla said his department would be open to studying the recommendations of industry stakeholders.

Philippines, Qatar upgrade air deal

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

C

ivil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Executive Director Carmelo L. Arcilla said the Philippines and Qatar have agreed to increase the number of flights between their capitals to 14 per week from the current eight in their recent air talks.

“The parties also agreed on unlimited flights between Doha and other airports in the Philippines, except Manila. Previous entitlements outside Manila were 14 per week to Clark and 14 per week to Cebu,” he added.

Currently, Qatar Airways operates eight times per week to Manila and seven times per week to Clark.

These came from the last round of air talks between the two countries held in 2009.

Local low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific will start operations between Manila and Doha on June 5.

There are about 250,000 overseas Filipino workers in Qatar.

Legacy carrier Philippine Airlines President Jaime J. Bautista said local carriers are suffering from unfair competition against Gulf carriers—at least in their

operations in the Middle East and Europe.

Gulf carriers, Bautista said, are threats to his company’s business, as these companies offer lower fares due to government subsidy. Today, quite a few Gulf airlines serve destinations from Manila—with a layover to the Middle East—to Europe.

“Now, if we give more entitlements to Middle Eastern carriers, what they will do is to carry passengers from Manila to Europe. They can offer cheaper fares, although there is a layover,” Bautista said in a May 20 interview.

CTA order clarifies ruling on tax-deficiency assessment appeals

By David Cagahastian

T

he Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has ruled that there is only one 180-day period for the commissioner of internal revenue, or her authorized representative, to decide on a taxpayer’s tax-deficiency assessment protest, and that the taxpayer should institute his appeal before the CTA within 30 days after the lapse of the 180-day period even if he elevates his administrative appeal to the commissioner.

In the case of Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Sarangani Resources Corp., the CTA en banc has ruled that the judicial remedy of the respondent had already prescribed because it did not take its appeal to the CTA within 30 days after the expiration of the 180-day period during which the commissioner of internal revenue, or her authorized representative, should decide on a protest to a tax-deficiency assessment.

The respondent protested a tax-deficiency assessment, then submitted all relevant documents in support of the protest on March 19, 2009, from which date, the commissioner of internal revenue, or her duly authorized representative, would have 180 days, or up to September 15, 2009, to decide the protest.

On July 15, 2009, a regional director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) partially granted the respondent’s protest. The respondent, in turn, elevated its protest to the commissioner on August 28, 2009.

The CTA said at the time that the protest was elevated to the BIR commissioner, the commissioner had only 18 days out of the 180-day period within which to render a decision on the protest on September 15, 2009. Thus, the respondent should have only until October 15, 2009, to perfect an appeal with the CTA. But what the respondent did, instead of filing an appeal before

October 15, 2009, was to submit additional documents to the BIR commissioner, and counted another 180-day period, or until April 23, 2010, after which the respondent filed a petition for review with the CTA to appeal the BIR commissioner’s inaction.

“It must be stressed that Section 228 of the Tax Code, as amended, provides for only one 180-day period for the BIR commissioner, or her authorized representative, to decide the protest. Thus, Revenue Regulations 12-99, which implements Section 228, does not provide for a fresh or separate 180day period for the commissioner to decide the appealed decision of her authorized representative,” the CTA decision said.

Due to the late filing of the appeal with the CTA, the CTA Special First Division’s decision partially granting the respondent’s prayer to cancel the tax-deficiency assessment of the BIR was reversed, and the respondent’s petition was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

Tourism

A6 Monday, June 1, 2015 • Editor: Carla Mortel-Baricaua

BEYOND THE ON THE STREET

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TEXT DM PHOTOS BY LON LIWEN

l Chupacabra brings the holein-the-wall nightlife one finds in many Asian cities

It’s a Friday evening, and the scene at El Chupacabra is once again vibrant. Perhaps Makati’s top dive bar now, it is packed; a waiting list of 12 guests looks on anxiously and forms a queue that extends down traffic-clad Felipe Street. Catchy Latino pop songs play faintly in the background as groups enjoy rum cokes, conversation, and the occasional carnitas taco or three. The guests are varied and are seated in tables packed close to each other: office clerks, out-of-place socialites, artistas, European backpackers, young expats, and middle-aged expats invariably with their local girlfriends. Inside, the walls are painted a bright red, intentionally vandalized, while Latin American paraphernalia adorn the cozy place, including a portrait of surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Smoke rises from a grill; the smell of food is prominent. There is no airconditioning, and passing automobiles come unnervingly close to the tables, but customers remain undeterred, suspending comfort for—what is by Manila standards anyway—quite an unusual night out.

Named after the mythical goatsucker that reportedly roams the border of the US and Mexico, El Chupacabra opened in January this year, and its cheap beer ethos, authentic street tacos, and gritty ambiance earned it a cult following almost immediately. Over the months as word has caught on, it has boomed in popularity. Now, it is consistently full on a nightly basis, bringing in a highly diverse range of patrons. The place does not allow reservations, so it is advisable for guests to come in before 6 p.m. to hold down a table, a particularly crucial practice on weekends.

The drinks here are cheap: beers go for P45 (P35 before 7 p.m.), margaritas and sangria are reasonably priced, and a big shot of rum costs P35.

Street food, meanwhile, is one of the main draws of the place. The most famous items are undoubtedly the street tacos (prices ranging from P80 to P120), which are vast in variety, authentic and hot-of-the-grill delicious. Staple fillings include carnitas and carne asada. The one must-try is the San Francisco-style sisig taco, which, as may be surmised, consists of lean meat, not fatty pork head meat, in the manner of one of the newest food trends in America’s favorite City by the Bay. The eponymous newcomer, the Chupacabra Spicy Goat Taco—aka Taco de Chivo—is quickly establishing itself as a crowd favorite. The ingredients of the street taco are fairly basic: homemade corn tortilla, meat or vegetable filling, cilantro, chopped onions and guacamole. They are best paired with a spritz of lime and the Chupacabra signature hot sauce aptly called “Atomic,” which add a welcome zing to the already tasty Mexican snack.

The barbecue options are also good pulutan. The grilled boneless chicken skewer in particular has a thoroughly unique, tasty marinade that is slightly spicy, and definitely a bargain for P50. The pork barbecue is as tasty and comes in two sizes, a P20 stick and the jumbo P40 stick. The nachos, Chupacabra hot wings, San Francisco sisig all manage to hit the spot.

On paper, El Chupacabra may not sound like the most appealing venue, especially for those used to being pampered in glitzy bars at The Fort and Greenbelt. Here, there is no air-conditioning, no inhouse DJ, and the bathroom is a bit on the dingy side. One of the most notorious red light districts in the metro is on a parallel street, and parking can be a Herculean challenge.

Yet somehow, it works. And works well.

Good food and drinks play integral roles, but the main reason for El Chupacabra’s success is its one-off uniqueness. The street hole-in-the-wall nightlife culture is one that has never truly thrived in Manila, at least not to the degree that it has in other Asian cities.

Bangkok alone has world-famous streets known for their bustling street-style establishments full of laidback energy, monochrome seating and cold beer.

El Chupacabra, therefore, has arrived at the right time, a time when people are pining for a casual place to go at night that isn’t the flashy but slightly antiseptic The Fort, where dressing up isn’t an issue, and seeing the same faces in the same trendy bars is not an annoying problem.

When you think about it, El Chupacabra is a gritty street rebellion against the traditional (and some might say, elitist) restaurant/bar conventions. It is a kind of democratic space that people are responding to, from famous TV chefs to the quite a few local celebs and top models, sitting side by side with us regular folk. Their apt slogan puts it all together nicely: “At El Chupacabra there are no strangers, only friends who have not yet met.”

FISH taco

BEEF burrito

THE Baler 400 Monument marks the 400-year celebration of Baler’s foundation

B J F | Photos by Normarei Villamater, Camille Noceda

W

HEN Baler transformed from a sleepy fishing village town into a major surfing oasis, it has become a staple on every surfer’s travel bucket list.

CHUPACABRA hot wings

It’s the birthplace of the country’s surfing culture, after all, and anyone who gets acquainted with its swells and breaks is bound to return here again and again. But beyond the waves, there are a multitude of activities and attractions that one will surely enjoy while in town. To give you a head-start, we listed down some of them:

able price. And that’s not the only catch; its instructors are also very skilled and they can get you hooked with surfing in just an hour! Each one-hour session costs about P350, which is just a small price to pay compared to the exhilarating experience you’d feel once you successfully ride your first wave.

THERE are several spots around this coastal town that are worth checking out. One of which is Lindy’s Point, located just north of Sabang Beach.

It’s the perfect spot to learn how to surf, as the waves here are friendlier compared to other surfing points. It is also less crowded with a quieter environment, thus an ideal spot for first-time surfers.

For surfing lessons, Freedom Surf School offers sessions at a very afford-

OF course, breaks and swells are not all there is in this charming capital of Aurora. It’s also the best place to learn about historical events that chronicle the country’s colonial past. After all, you can’t be in the water all the time, so might as well follow the footsteps engraved in the town’s streets. They’d lead you to some of the historical landmarks that make Baler more than just the birthplace of our country’s surfing culture.

Catch waves

GRILLED bonesless chicken skewer

PartÊofÊthisÊ articleÊwasÊoriginallyÊ publishedÊinÊtheÊ DecemberÊ2014ÊissueÊ ofÊViewÊTravelÊandÊ LifestyleÊMagazine.Ê ForÊmoreÊstoriesÊaboutÊ fabulousÊdestinationsÊ inÊtheÊPhilippines,ÊtheÊ latestÊissueÊofÊViewÊ MagazineÊisÊnowÊoutÊ atÊmajorÊbookstores.

THE Santa Isabel chapel at Ermita Hill

Visit landmarks

THE Museo de Baler

Your tour should begin at the footsteps starting right in front of Baler Church’s doorway. This church played a significant role during the Siege of Baler, as it was where Spanish officers and their men hid when Filipino revolutionaries attacked them during the Philippine revolution.

SABANG Beach is a favorite spot for both hard-core and novice surfers.

m&Entertainment BusinessMirror

tourism@businessmirror.com.ph • Monday, June 1, 2015 A7

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served here in a coconut shell.

Another must-visit local restaurant is Thelma’s Kitchenette, known to serve the best halo-halo in town. As pastillas is used as main ingredient, it gives a syrupy taste that completes the whole confection. Aside from this summer sweet, other dishes worth trying include pako salad, fried frog (which tastes just like fried chicken!), sinigang na baboy sa ube, crispy kare-kare, binagoongang liempo and calderetang suso.

When it comes to having a full breakfast or a heavy meal, drop by Trenchers Kitchenette on Quezon Street.

It may look like an ordinary roadside eatery, but once you sit down at one of its tables, you would be amazed at the variety of offerings which include value sizzling meals, unlimited lugaw and soup, rice meals, and all kinds of cold desserts, which are perfect summer treats.

Nature’s best

THE Dicasalarin Cove’s famous lighthouse

THELMA’S Kitchenette offers the best pako salad in town.

This church was originally made of nipa and wood, but was reconstructed right after a tsunami completely wiped out the structure on December 27, 1735. It was rebuilt with stones during the term of then-Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon.

From the church, cross the street

and swing by the Doña Aurora House, the wife of President Quezon who was ambushed in 1949 while in a convoy to Baler. The house is designed like a traditional bahay-kubo and inside there are a variety of things to be seen: photographs and images of Doña Aurora and President Quezon, antique house-

DOÑA Aurora Quezon’s house

hold items, such as a sewing machine, bags and a charcoal iron. The presidential car is also on display in the garage underneath the house.

Next stop is the Quezon Park, which boasts of lavish surroundings with its abundance of trees and plants.

The atmosphere is so green and calm that you’d want to spend the rest of the day here, taking in the cool surrounding and fresh air. Adjoining the park is Museo de Baler, a repository of all things Baler, as well as testaments to the enduring relationship between the Philippines and Spain.

Among the significant memorabilia that can be found here include old photographs and illustrations that detail Aurora’s history; documents from the Franciscan missionaries who founded

a settlement in Baler and conducted the first census on the locals; and a number of murals detailing the municipality’s important events since its founding in 1609.

Food trip

WHILE Baler may not be as popular as Pampanga when it comes to culinary delights, still it has a number of restaurants that would surely sit well with a foodie’s palate.

La Cez Bamboo Grill and Restaurant offers Filipino favorites with a twist.

One of its best-sellers, the chicken binakol, is a must-try, as it guarantees a 100-percent satisfaction. It is a chicken soup that uses coconut water and meat for a sweetish flavor. Unlike chicken binakol served in other restaurants, it is

SOME of nature’s finest creations are actually found in this charming coastal town. There’s Daguisit Falls, which is one of the town’s most photographed spots, not because it is located in the roadside of Barangay Zabali but because it readily welcomes passersby with its splashes and sprays. A few minutes away from the falls is Diguisit Beach, which boasts of creamy-white sand, perfect waves and deep-blue waters. Diguisit Beach is the place to be if you want a moment of complete solitude. Except for sea urchins and occasional beach bums, only the gigantic rock formation on the shore accompanies you as you watch daylight fades into night.

There’s also Dima-dimalangit Islet that looks just like another huge rock formation from afar. But once you get closer, you’d realize that it’s really a small island, blanketed with lush trees, shrubs and greens. This place is a mustvisit for seasoned divers, as it offers reefs that raise the ante when it comes to diving adventures.

Now if you want to see the most ravishing vista of the Pacific Ocean and the whole town of Baler, a climb to Ermita Hill is a must. As the highest point in Baler, it serves up unforgettable views, plus interesting stories for travelers. Locals say this hill was responsible for saving the lives of seven families when a powerful tsunami crashed into the whole town in the 1730s. To commemorate the tragic incident, the locals built life-sized sculptures at the foot of the hill. The sculptures depict how those seven families climbed to safety.

For those who have been in constant search of a perfect tropical paradise, Dicasalarin Cove is where one should head to. Largely left untouched, Dicasalarin Cove is one of those rare spots that you don’t want others to discover lest they spoil the endless stretch of pristine white-sand beach, or the emerald green and blue waters that look impossibly clear and clean. Indeed, it’s one of those last paradises on earth that, perhaps, is not meant to be discovered given the ordeal that one has to go through before reaching it.

Hidden amid the thick and lush forest, Dicasalarin Cove can only be reached after traversing the steep and narrow one-way zig-zag road leading to it. Only four-wheel vehicles are allowed to pass, because going uphill is really no easy drive. But those are small prices to pay since what awaits you is a scenery that transcends beauty. To fully appreciate the scenic splendor that is Dicasalarin Cove, a climb up to its lighthouse is in order.

Just make sure that you have enough strength to go up the 175 steps leading to the top.

HSMA LAUNCHES

2015 VIRTUS

AWARDS T

HE Virtus Awards will be the biggest and most prestigious sales and marketing competition in the travel and tourism industry.

Organized by the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association (HSMA), in partnership with the Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippines, the awards honor excellence in three individual sales and marketing categories—Associate, Manager, Leader —covering positions in room sales, events management, catering, reservation, public relations and communication, and revenue management.

The multicategory initiative also recognizes a Marketing Campaign of the Year, built around a single, unified theme, using at least two different types of media.

The HSMA is 38 years old. Currently compromising 60 hotel and resort properties nationwide in its roster of members, HSMA is committed to growing business for its members by fueling sales, inspiring marketing and optimizing revenue. With a strong focus on education, HSMA has become the industry champion in training and developing sales and marketing professionals through workshops, seminars and conferences, with focus on selling skills, marketing trends, creativity, communication, change management, current events, economy and travel forecasts.

“The Virtus Awards comes at a most opportune time. With the establishment of the Asean Community by 2015, the prioritization of the country’s travel and tourism industry opens a unique window of opportunity for local stakeholders to benefit from, as well as to cope, with the challenges of regional integration,” said Rose Libongco, overall chairman for the Virtus Awards.

The maiden competition was launched on May 28 at the Diamond Hotel in the presence of Tourism Promotions Board COO Domingo Ramon “Chico” Enerio III, general managers and directors of sales and marketing of member-hotel and resort properties, and the media.

Deadline of entries is on September 15. Stalwarts of the travel and tourism industry, members of the academe and thought leaders in the fields of advertising, public relations, media and digital marketing comprise the panel of judges. Judging of short-listed entries is set on October 15.

Information on the 2015 Virtus Awards is available at www.hsmaph.com.

FEASTS FROM THE FILIPINO KITCHEN

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REPARE your taste buds for an outstanding gastronomic feast to celebrate the country’s Independence Day at Diamond Hotel Philippines. From June 3 to 14, the hotel’s Corniche restaurant buffet will present Feasts from the Filipino Kitchen, featuring the famous Philippine lechon as prepared by homegrown culinary personality Dedet de la Fuente Santos of Pepita’s Kitchen Feasts from the Filipino Kitchen highlights the culinary expertise of Dedet de la Fuentes Santos of the famous Pepita’s Kitchen, who has become an icon for making delicious lechon innovations that have reached as far as Singapore and New York. She is popularly referred to as the Lechon Diva, because of her modern style of stuffing lechon with different mix of rice, and even noodles. At present, her private degustation dining that originated in her home is being made available to a wider market, in collaboration with the culinary team of Diamond Hotel.

The buffet spread will offer flavorful lechon variations, from the classic Lechon de Leche to imaginative Stuffed Lechon variations with truffle rice, binagoongan rice and more. The food fiesta will run at Corniche with the lunch buffet at P2,150 net per person, while dinner buffet is at P2,550 net per person.

To add more excitement, guests with a minimum P5,000 net spend at the buffet will be entitled to a raffle stub for a chance to win roundtrip airline tickets for two to Boracay.

For inquiries, e-mail bizcenter@diamondhotel.com.

TheElderly BusinessMirror

A8 Monday, June 1, 2015 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Priest eyes Bohol center for poor

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By Oliver Samson | Correspondent

FTER building over 100 core houses for the quake survivors in Bohol, a priest who lost his ability to walk has initiated the construction of a center for seniors, orphans, out-of-school (OOS) youth, physically challenged persons or persons with disability (PWDs), and battered wives in the province.

Proposed to be called Pope Francis Centrum of Mercy and Compassion, the facility will consist of an orphanage, a home for the aged, a women’s crisis intervention house, and a center for the physically challenged and OOS youth, Fr. Fernando “Dodong” Po said.

The center can accommodate 30 orphans, 24 elderly, 12 women, 24 PWDs and OOS youth.

“The crisis intervention center is for battered and abused women,” he said. “After having gone through the intervention process in a safehouse, the women may be transferred to this center before going home to their families.”

The total cost of the construction was estimated at P36 million, Po said. The site-development plan and the estimate of the cost of expenses were provided by Arch.

Eufracio Araneta.

Aging Catholic nuns get care at Jewish ‘old people’ home

This May 15 photo shows a chapel that was created for aging Roman Catholic nuns who are living at the Jewish Home Lifecare geriatric care complex in the Bronx borough of New York. Three orders of Roman Catholic nuns that traditionally took care of their own aging sisters have sent 58 members to live at the elderly care complex that was originally a nursing home for Jews. The orders’ decision reflects a trend that has left the church in America with more nuns over age 90 than under age 60. AP

The construction fund will be made available by the BuildAid of England, he added.

BuildAid, a construction charity group formed in 2005 following the tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004, funds and constructs its own projects.

The Rotary World Help of Canada will provide the center with furnishings and furniture, Po said.

The center, believed to be the first in the country, “is a concrete response to the call of Pope Francis for mercy and compassion during his pastoral visit to the country last January,” he said.

It will be “a community, indeed, of the least, the last and the lost whom we should care for,” he added.

Mr. and Mrs. Bonnie Gable and Ghodon Hobbis of Rotary World Help of Canada assured that the Pope Francis Centrum of Compas-

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FR. Fernando “Dodong” Po (in wheelchair) and Fr. Dari Dioquino at the Saint Joseph the Worker Parish Cathedral in Tagbilaran City, Bohol. OLIVER SAMSON

sion and Mercy will be realized.

T he facilit y w ill r ise on a 3,605-square-meter property in Barangay Looc, Panglao, Bohol,

that Po’s family is donating.

“This is really a huge project,” he noted. “I leave it all in the hands of God.”

5,000 indigent senior citizens in Iloilo to receive social pension

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LOILO CITY—The city government here kicked off the distribution of the social pension of 5,000 indigent senior citizens on Thursday.

The initiative, dubbed as Welfare Assistance to Indigent Senior Citizens in Iloilo City, is a replica of the social pension program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, according to its focal person Merlyn Jison.

Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog started the project in December 2014 in what he called the local government unit pension, Jison said.

Last year the city government released P2.5 million for the project.

Each qualified indigent beneficiary is entitled to P1,000 a year which is given twice a year, she added.

This year’s distribution kicked off in Molo district on Thursday with 700 qualified beneficiaries.

On May 29 500 indigent senior citizens from Mandurriao district will receive their pension.

Meantime, from June 2 to 5, the distribution will cover the districts of City Proper (June 2) with 1,250 recipients; June 3, Arevalo with 350; June 4, Jaro district with 1,150; and Lapaz and Lapuz, June 5 with 700 and 350 beneficiaries, respectively.

The city government has allotted P2.5 million for the social pension.

Qualified senior citizens were chosen based on the recommendation of the Federation of Senior Citizens Association of the Philippines. Their names were submitted to the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs and the City Social Welfare and Development for validation. PNA

news@businessmirror.com.ph

TWO-DAY RETIREES’ LIFESTYLE EXPO

The first Manila Retirees Lifestyle Expo was inaugurated on May 27 at the Glorietta Activity Center, Palm Drive, in Makati City. Opening the expo, the very first “mature lifestyle expo tailored to gather and honor foreign retirees, local seniors and the baby boomers,” are (from left) Kellie Timko, American Women’s Club president; Lalduhthlana Ralte, Indian ambassador to the Philippines; Veredigno P. Atienza, Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) general manager; Masahiko Ieda, PRA Japanese Club chairman; and Bruno Cornelio Jr., Special Resident Retiree’s Visa member and former United States Agency for International Development senior development officer. NORIEL DE GUZMAN

EW YORK—For 98-yearold Sis. Angela Rooney, it was one of the most jarring moves of her life.

She always thought she would live out her days as she had for decades, in a convent under the timehonored Roman Catholic tradition of younger nuns dutifully caring for their older sisters.

But with few young women choosing religious life, her church superiors were forced to look elsewhere for care, and in the past year, have sent Rooney and dozens of other nuns to Jewish Home Lifecare, a geriatric-care complex in the Bronx founded as a nursing home for elderly Jews.

“I wanted my convent, my great big chapel, my Stations of the Cross,” Rooney said. “The very name ‘Jewish Home’ turned me off. I don’t think anyone came here with a heavier heart than me.”

Rooney and 57 other sisters, ages 73 to 98, have since adjusted nicely to their new accommodations and neighbors, becoming an active part of classes and continuing their ministry with good deeds like holding the hands of dying patients on the hospice floor.

“This is home now,” said 83-yearold Sis. Grace Henke. “When we first came, we were fish out of water.”

It’s an unusual situation that reflects a reality of US Catholic nuns in the 21st century: Fewer young women are devoting their lives to religious orders, and those who are already nuns are aging and facing escalating health-care needs.

There are now more sisters over age 90 than under age 60, said Mary Gautier, a researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The center’s 2009 study found that 80 percent of US nuns were over 60.

“Their model of caring for their older sisters is no longer sustainable,” said Robin Eggert, president of the Realm consulting group, which has worked with several nuns’ orders to find solutions.

Eggert said a number of women’s religious orders have partnered with outside organizations offering skilled nursing, assisted living and other levels of care, but, “We’ve never done Jewish before.”

The Sisters of Charity of New York has seen its numbers decline from a 1960s peak of 1,350 to 270 today, and no new sisters had joined in the US in 20 years. It was the first order to put out a request for proposals that was answered by the nonprofit Jewish Home Lifecare.

Two other orders based in Manhattan—the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary and the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary—followed.

Several of the nuns now living at Jewish Home, including retired teachers, social workers and nurses, said they were very happy after some original hesitation.

“We’ve almost all, 95 percent, accepted and acclimated. Those who were resistant have kind of calmed down,” 92-year-old Sis. Rosemarie Bittermann said.

“It certainly fit our needs,” said Sis. Loretta Theresa Richards, 86.

“We can stay together, we have our own little chapel. They went out of their way to find a space for us to have Mass. I have to say it was so nice. I was a little reluctant because I took a vow of poverty.”

Some things are different, however. While Jewish Home Lifecare is now nondenominational—most residents are Christian—its Jewish heritage remains apparent, with a resident rabbi and kosherstyle meals in the independentliving residences.

“I miss the bacon,”Richards said.

Added Sis. Maria Goretti Mannix, 83: “I notice that we never get ham or pork chops. The food is good, though.”

The nuns’ care is funded through a combination of government insurance, the New York archdiocesan health plan, payments from the order itself and the individual sisters’ scant assets. AP

Bad construction, safety checks blamed for fatal China fire

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EIJING—A preliminary investigation into a nursing-home fire that killed 38 people in central China has blamed poor building construction and lax safety checks, Chinese authorities reported.

The State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on May 27, that investigators found the bungalows of the Kangleyuan Rest Home in central Henan province were built with steel sheets stuffed with flammable materials.

The government watchdog group also found poorly designed fire exits and insufficient emergency response and electrical systems.

Chinese authorities responded to the tragedy by ordering safety checks at nursing homes, kin-

dergartens and other facilities around the country. They’ve also pledged to punish those responsible and detained 12 people so far in connection with the blaze, including the rest home’s legal representative. Four county officials have also been suspended from their duties in connection with the fire, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The fire broke out on Monday night in the privately run home for the elderly and prompted calls for investigations from top Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping.

Pictures of the fire site released

by Xinhua showed sections of the facility had completely burned down.

The fire engulfed a part of the facil-

ity reserved for people completely dependent on caregivers.

Six people were also injured in the blaze, including two in serious condition.

A photo of the fire scene released

by Xinhua showed that many sections of the facility appeared to have completely burned. Xinhua said the cause of the fire was unclear.

“I was in my bed at the time.

Suddenly, I saw a worker run out of a room on fire and he shouted ‘Run! Run!’ to me, so I dashed out,” Guo Xin, 78, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Another survivor, 82-year-old Zhao Yulan, said only two of the 11 people living in her room made it out alive, Xinhua reported. Some of the remains of people killed in the

fire were burned beyond recognition, the news agency said.

The fire destroyed a part of the home housing people who were completely dependent on others for care. Xinhua quoted 80-year-old resident Chen Runsheng as saying not enough caregivers were working at the facility.

Premier Li Keqiang called on officials across the country to “draw lessons from the accident, checking all potential safety hazards to avoid similar incidents,” Xinhua said. Fire officials were ordering inspections of nursing homes, kindergartens, child-care centers, hospitals and what Xinhua called “welfare houses” across the country.

With a rapidly aging population and under-resourced social securi-

ty net, China faces increasing pressure to provide safe and affordable care for the elderly. Xinhua cited figures showing a severe shortage of caregivers in the country, with 220,000 working in homes for the elderly, while 10 million are needed.

“The tragedy is a sore reminder” that facilities for the elderly are still far behind where they should be, Xinhua said in a commentary on the blaze. The shortage means some people “have no other choice but to live in poorly equipped nursing facilities,” it said.

In 2013 a disgruntled resident set fire to a home for the elderly in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China, killing himself and 10 others. AP

The Regions BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Monday, June 1, 2015 A9

Sangley airport project hangs with administration change

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By Lorenz S. Marasigan

HE multibillion-dollar Sangley airport-development project will not be implemented by the Aquino administration, as it will have to undergo several approval processes before being placed on the auction block.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya admitted that the Department of Transportation and Communications now lacks the needed time to bid out the airportconstruction project within the term of President Aquino, but his hopes are still high that this administration could still aid the next in resolving the problems of the Ninoy Aquino

International Airport (Naia).

The least that he could do, the transport chief said, is to get the $11-billion project approved by several bodies under the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

“Bidding it might be difficult. At least, what we could do for whoever will replace us is to get a Neda Board

approval, and make clear the direction of the government,” he said in an interview. “This will allow business and other stakeholders align their plans on that position.”

But the project has yet to receive the approval of any of the Neda’s sub-committees: the Cabinet Committee and the Investment Coordination Committee.

What remains to be approved is the feasibility study of the project itself. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) has committed to submit the report this month, the Cabinet official said.

Despite this hurdle, Abaya added that his office will no longer entertain unsolicited proposals from private groups, as these offers only attract unwanted rumors and issues.

“We are better off as a government to solicited, competitive and transparent bidding,” he said.

Pursuing unsolicited proposals is tedious, as these offers, under law, should be subjected to a competitive dispute, or more commonly known as a Swiss Challenge. A competitive challenge essentially allows other groups to dispute the initial proposal and offer a better deal. The original proponent, however, has the right to match the highest offer to pursue with the project.

Two groups have offered to pursue the construction of a $10-billion airport to replace the aging Naia. Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. proposed to construct a 1,600-hectare international gateway somewhere in the south of Metro Manila. The airport, which would have doubled the capacity of the Naia, would have included the construction of a low-cost carrier terminal, a train system and a dedicated tollway.

Solar Group-backed All-Asia

House set to pass Charter amendments resolution, BBL bill

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

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HE House of Representatives is eyeing to approve this week two controversial measure— the proposed amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution and the proposed Basic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR).

House Majority Leader Neptali M. Gonzales II said that lower chamber may vote on Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 1 on final reading and starts the plenary deliberations for the BLBAR within the week or before the sine die adjournment of Congress on June 12.

“So long as we have a substantial number [of members] on the floor, let us say there are 259 of 289 members who responded to the roll call then we may vote for the passage of RBH 1,” he said.

“For the [BLBAR], the sponsorship speech will be tomorrow [Monday], then we will determine if we can start the interpellation the same day; otherwise, we may start the interpellation on Tuesday,” Gonzales added.

Earlier, Gonzales admitted that there will be possible lack of quorum during the voting of these two measures.

He said they cannot prevent those lawmakers, who are against the measures, to question the attendance of the members who are not present during the upcoming votings.

At least 147 lawmakers should be present in the plenary before putting the proposed Bangsamoro law into vote, while at least three-fourths, or 197, votes are needed for RBH 1 to pass the final reading at the lower chamber.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., for his part, appealed to all congressmen to attend the remaining session starting Monday, for them to vote on the two measures.

The resolution, filed by Belmonte and Sen. Ralph G. Recto, proposes amending the economic provisions on the 60-40 rule that limits foreign ownership of certain business activities in the country.

The resolution will include the phrase “unless provided by law” in the foreign-ownership provision of the Constitution, particularly

land ownership, public utilities, natural resources, media and advertising industries.

Under Article XII of the Constitution, foreign investors are prohibited to own more than 40 percent of real properties and businesses, while they are totally restricted to exploit natural resources and own any company in the media industry.

Meanwhile, Congress is eyeing to pass the proposed BLBAR, which seeks to stop the conflict in Mindanao, on June 11, or before the sine die adjournment of Congress on June 12.

The BBL aims to create the new Bangsamoro juridical entity, replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Palace plays down no-election card

MALACAÑANG played down fears of a no 2016 elections scenario looming amid fresh efforts in the Administration-controlled House of Representatives to tinker with the 1987 Constitution.

Malacañang Communications

Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. said there is no basis for such a no elections scenario just because lawmakers are discussing possible options to amend the strict economic provision in the Constitution through Congress as a constituent assembly in order to relax restrictions on foreign ownership of businesses here.

“Ang batid po natin ay hinggil sa mga probisyong pangkabuhayan ang isinusulong na pagbabago sa Saligang Batas at ito po ang inaksyunan na sa Camara de Representantes, at hindi naman po diyan kasali ang mga political issues,” Coloma said, referring to existing term limits that ban incumbent officials from seeking reelection once they have served their full terms.

Coloma added: “Kaya sa tingin po natin ay walang batayan ang mga dudang naipahayag hinggil sa umano’y ‘no election’ scenario,” said Coloma.

Under the 1987 Constitution ratified during the term of the late President Corazon Aquino, elected top officials have limited tenures, including the President, who has a single six-year term with no reelection.

Resources and Reclamation Corp., meanwhile, proposed to develop the the Philippine Air Force’s Danilo Atienza Airbase and reclaim a portion of the Manila Bay to construct a world-class international airport that would ease the congestion at the Naia.

While the Tieng-led company wanted to pursue the deal itself, the foodto-infrastructure company’s desire was for the government to adopt its feasibility study. The group of businessman Ramon S. Ang, however, failed to officially present the proposal to the transportation department.

The government is pursuing the deal to modernize the aviation sector in the Philippines, particularly in its capital, Manila, where the four terminals of the Naia are already congested.

Jica has predicted that this year would mark the start of the main gateway’s dark days. The airport

is expected to handle some 37.78 million passengers, way beyond its 30-million-annual-passenger capacity and a few notches up from its maximum capacity of 35 million passengers per year.

The Japanese consultants had proposed that the new international gateway be constructed in Sangely Point in Cavite to meet the parameters set by the transportation agency.

The future airport will boast of four runways, which can handle 700,000 aircraft movements per year. It will have a rated capacity of 130 million passengers annually.

The deal is expected to be implemented under the government’s key infrastructure program, mixed with funding from official development assistance.

Commercial operations of the new airport should start by 2025, just about 10 years from now.

Con-con is ‘win-win’ formula for BBL–Puno

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ORMER Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno Jr. believes that the decades-old peace problem in Mindanao cannot be resolved through simple enactment of a law, but requires changing the constitution.

In a radio interview over the weekend, Puno said it would be better to discuss the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) in a constitutional convention (Con-con) that may be convened for the purpose of revising the 1987 Constitution.

“Constitutional convention is a better platform to seek and discuss [ways] to have peace in Mindanao,” said Puno, who is spearheading a new movement calling for the convening of a Con-con to propose changes in the Constitution.

Puno said that the BBL, which is currently pending in Congress, may end up as a “compromise legislation that would really need strengthening,” or revised in the future. “[But if the framework for the]

BBL is agreed upon in the Concon, the solution to the problem in Mindanao will be permanent because it is already enshrined in the [revised] Constitution,” Puno pointed out.

He said this will be a “winwin” formula.

Puno said that enacting the BBL will not guarantee peace in Mindanao since it is perceived to be addressing only the concerns of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Once signed into law, Puno said critics of the BBL are also expected to question its constitutionality before the Supreme Court.

“So, there will still be no peace in Mindanao. We have that dilemma.

What is the way forward? We must not give up on peace in Mindanao,” Puno said.

He said it is for this reason, among others, why his group is launching a new movement called “Bagong Sistema, Bagong Pagasa: An Advocacy for System Change” on June 6. Rene Acosta

Salceda to present Albay Green Economy concept in New York summit Support for Jalaur River dam project snowballs

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EGAZPI CITY—Albay Gov. Joey Salceda will present his Albay Green Economy program at the Sixth World Cities Summit Mayors Forum (WCSMF) in New York from June 8 to 10.

He will share his province’s best practices in local governance in the forum. Pioneered by the governor, and anchored on environment protection and enhancement, the green-economy program is now a globally acclaimed strategy for sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

WCSMF, a flagship event of the biennial World Cities Summit, serves as a global platform for city leaders to discuss urban challenges and share best practices. It was organized by Singapore in 2010 and since then had attracted more than 150 cities worldwide and has gained support from business leaders, international organizations, foundations and the academic sector.

In a letter to Salceda, WCSMF 2015 Chairman Lee Yi Shyan, said they look forward to the governor’s “valuable contributions to the forum’s discussions, underscoring the priority given by city leaders to increasing opportunity and equity, and the pivotal role of city leadership in effective governance and influencing the sustainable pathways of the future.”

The green economy gains for Albay are summed up thus: Zero casualty during disasters, increased forest cover by 88 percent in seven years; increase in mangrove areas from 700 to 2,400 hectares; increase in rice production—despite weather disturbances—from 147,291 metric tons in

2008 to 200,088 MT in 2013; 250 megawatts of geothermal power contribution from a 650-MW potential; investments in environment protection; and enhanced ecotourism which hiked foreign tourists inflow from 8,700 in 2006 to 339,000 in 2013.

Under Salceda, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has adjudged Albay as Best Province in Local Governance among the country’s 80 provinces.

Its disaster-management body, the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office is a pioneer in Asia, which earned for the province its Galing Pook Award for Outstanding Governance Program on Disaster Preparedness, and the Gawad Kalasag Hall of Fame Award for Best Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council for three consecutive years.

Salceda also chairs the Luzon Area Development Coordinating Council (LADCC), a cluster of eight RDCs comprising 38 provinces and 771 cities and towns in mainland Luzon.

As LADCC chairman, he initiated the formulation of the 2045 Luzon Plan under which the 2015-2045 Spatial Development Plan Framework is based. He is also credited for two giant projects in Albay that address the urban challenge of disaster risk reduction—the P4,4-billion Guinobatan-Camalig-Daraga-Legazpi (Guicadale) Economic Township, a huge government-initiated geostatic intervention of moving people and firms out of harm’s way into safe development communities; and, the P4.7 billion Bicol International Airport (BIA) at the heart of Guicadale. PNA

Somco moves to speed up traffic flow at Skyway

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N analyzing the traffic situation at the Skyway System with a view to effect traffic enhancement measures, the Skyway operator, Skyway O&M Corp. (Somco), found that traffic build-up on the at-grade and elevated sections of the Skyway System is often caused by traffic congestion outside its area of jurisdiction.

Traffic slowdown on local and national roads in its immediate vicinities like Alabang, Sucat, Bicutan, Taguig, Pasay, Makati City and Edsa tends to spill-over into the tollway.

During peak hours and days when traffic volume hits its highest, queuing at the toll plazas and road incidents and stalled vehicles also could also build up traffic inside the tollway.

To ease traffic between 5 and 8 p.m., peak traffic hours at the southbound (SB) Bicutan and Sucat at-grade sections, Somco opened alternative exits along West Service Road under the elevated toll plazas at Doña Soledad and Dr. A. Santos avenues.

Signs leading to alternative exits are up. Meanwhile, to facilitate traffic flow during peak hours and occurrence of road incidents, traffic counterflow is being implemented at the Skyway Main Plaza A and B at the Alabang elevated portion from 4 to 9 a.m for northbound (NB) traffic, and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. for SB.

RELIGIOUS, government and private sector leaders express support for the construction of the Jalaur River dams to speed up the development of Iloilo. (From left), Msgr. Exel Jaen, Iloilo Provincial Legal Officer Dennis Ventelacion, National Irrigation Administration (NIA) 6 Regional Manager and JRMP II Project Manager Gerardo Corsiga, Korean Rural Community-Joint Venture (KRC-JV) Dam Designer Seung-ha Ryu, EDCF Manila Deputy Director Eunseok Roy Kim, Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, NIA Administrator Florencio Padernal, Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, Mines and Geosciences Bureau Western Visayas Director Leo van Juguan, National Economic and Development Authority Western Visasyas Assistant Director Raul Anlocotan, Masaroy tribe elder Romulo Caballero.

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LOILO CITY—Support for the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Stage II (JRMP II) widens and continues to increase following the success of the recent National Peoples Forum for JRMP II, which was initiated by the project proponent, National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

Led by Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, an Ilongo; NIA Administrator Florencio F. Padernal; Iloilo Gov. Arthur D. Defensor Sr., who was represented by lawyer Dennis Ventilacion; Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog; and mayors of the towns covered by JRMP II, more than 500 people representing tribesmen, farmers, irrigators associations, non-governmental organizations and government agencies convened at the Iloilo Convention Center to call

for the project’s immediate implementation.

Also present were experts from the Korean Rural CommunityJoint Venture; Sueng Ha Ryu, the dam design expert of South Korea who designed the JRMP II dams; and Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) Manila Deputy Director Eunseok Roy Kim to answer queries surrounding the funding and construction aspects of the JRMP II project.

“The Jalaur [project] is the most important and biggest project in the history of the province of Iloilo and of the NIA Region 6.

The immediate implementation of this project is critical for it will uplift the lives of farmers in the province,” Drilon said.

“By supporting this project, we are supporting the future of our province and the future of our children,” he added.

Mabilog called for unity among all stakeholders for the faster implementation of the project.

“Here in the City of Iloilo, we are almost complete. We have electricity, roads, commercial buildings, businesses, but only one thing is lacking, and that is water,” Mabilog said.

“We strongly believe that the Jalaur dams will be a big help economically to the people of Iloilo,” Kim said. “JRMP II is the biggest project in EDCF’s history in the Philippines, and we look forward for the construction to begin soon,” he added.

Evan Teruel, president of Parokya Guadalupe Irrigators Association, also expressed support for the project. He said that they don’t have any objections and want the project to start soon, because they need water for their farmlands.

A10 Monday, June 1, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial Shut down Metro Manila?

O

F all the natural disasters that we may face, an earthquake is probably the most terrifying.

In an earthquake-prone area like the Philippines, it is only a matter of time before we experience one. It could come a moment from now or in a hundred years. There is never a warning, and that is part of what makes it so scary. It could last a moment with no more force than a passing truck rumbling by, or could bring devastation and death to thousands.

There is no effective way to “prepare” for an earthquake. The best that a person or community can do is to prepare for the aftermath. While proper construction can make some buildings relatively earthquake-safe, we all know that, if the earthquake is large enough, safety may be more a matter of chance and destiny than preparation.

Government has an obligation to do all that it can to try to mitigate the effects of a major earthquake. However, the sad reality is that preparation is a monumental task that may or may not have a great positive impact. Not only does the earthquake cause direct damage, but fires and, as we saw in Japan, a tsunami can make all the preparations futile.

The prophet Isaiah in the Bible describes an earthquake this way: “The earth staggers like a drunken man.” The image of a person out of control and uncontrollable is pretty accurate.

It is good that the government is being proactive in teaching local leaders down to the barangay level about what they can do before and after an earthquake to reduce loss of lives and property damage. But the latest idea of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to shut down Metro Manila for a “drill” is flawed.

The MMDA proposes an earthquake drill that would run from 3 to 8 p.m. on July 30. The plan is to suspend work and school, close all businesses, shut down all power-supply and telecommunication lines, and keep all modes of transportation grounded during the earthquake simulation.

That sounds like conditions on a normal Good Friday holiday, except the part about no electricity or cell phones.

The MMDA is proposing the Metro be shut down because, “We need actual simulation to feel the real effects of the disaster.” We are more interested in what the MMDA would propose to be done if a large earthquake struck at rush hour on a payday-Friday during a rainstorm. It is unlikely that an earthquake would hit when everyone is at home waiting for it to come.

The new MMDA web site on preparedness, bepreparedmetromanila.com, is a great idea filled with good information. But, until the MMDA can give us a clear idea of what is going to be accomplished with the shutdown of Metro Manila, we are not in favor.

PCSO visits Camarines Sur, Albay Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

T

HE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) made a productive trip recently to Camarines Sur and Albay provinces to visit the branch offices there and preside over other agency activities.

On May 22 we—PCSO directors Betty B. Nantes and lawyer Mabel V. Mamba, and myself, along with other officials and staff—traveled to Naga City to inaugurate the PCSO branch office that was transferred to the new Jesse M. Robredo Coliseum.

The space was offered to the PCSO at a token rent of P1 per year, a form of partnership that the agency is entering into with an increasing number of local government units (LGUs) to make PCSO services more accessible to our kababayan all over the country.

While there, we also turned over an ambulance to the city health officer. Two other municipalities, Calabanga and Ocampo, are scheduled to receive their ambulances soon.

We also handed an endowment fund check for P1 million to the Camarines Norte Provincial Hospital.

Our special guest on that occasion was Rep. Ma. Leonor GeronaRobredo of the Third District of Camarines Sur. We were gratified to learn from her that the province and its residents are receiving con-

sistently good services from the personnel of PCSO Camarines Sur, headed by Nelly Loyola.

“In our experience,” she said, “your agency is very efficient, and we have never had any patients whom we’ve referred to you come back to us to complain about your services.”

Robredo added that the ambulance that the PCSO donated to Naga City will be useful to the residents, some of whom, for the lack of rescue vehicles in the area, have to hitch a ride in private cars during medical emergencies.

“The PCSO is an important part of the lives of the poor,” she said.

“The significance of the services that the agency delivers cannot be overemphasized.”

The following day, May 23, we were in Legazpi City, where we were joined by PCSO Chairman Erineo S. Maliksi, and Director and lawyer Francisco G. Joaquin III. In a ceremony that was also attended by Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda and LGU officials and staff,

we turned over six ambulances to the municipalities of Camalig (represented by Mayor Carlos Irwin G. Baldo Jr.) Manito (Mayor Caesar S. Daep); Polangui (Mayor Cherilie M. Sampal); Guinobatan (Mayor Ann Y. Ongjoco), Daraga (Mayor Carlos V. Baylon); and to the Provincial Health Office of Albay.

Under the PCSO’s Ambulance Donation Program, an LGU can request units every five years.

Fourth-to sixth-class municipalities can avail themselves of the ambulances under a 100-percent donation, while first- to thirdclass municipalities can enter into a 60-percent PCSO and 40-percent LGU sharing scheme.

These ambulances and rescue vehicles are of great service to the residents of LGUs, especially those in remote areas far from a hospital or health center.

But where does the PCSO get the funds to buy and give away ambulances?

From the PCSO’s popular Lotto and other number games, 55 percent of revenues go to the Prize Fund, 30 percent to the Charity Fund and 15 percent to operating expenses. It is from the Charity Fund that programs, such as ambulance donation, individual medical assistance and others, are funded.

Shares from revenues from Lotto are also given to municipalities, cities and provinces that host PCSO outlets. For the period July to December 2014, the PCSO released around P1.5 million for the province of Albay. Around P532,000 of that

went to Legazpi City alone.

The PCSO and LGUs can work together for win-win situations that benefit the public. In terms of revenue growth, LGUs can host more PCSO Lotto outlets. This would result in more funds for PCSO’s Charity Fund, so we can give away more ambulances, while LGUs will receive higher shares from Lotto.

In addition, there would be business opportunities for entrepreneurs, and there would be jobs for tellers and other employees of Lotto outlets.

While in Legazpi City, we also attended a gathering of personnel of the 12 branches under the PCSO’s Southern Tagalog and Bicol region department to celebrate the PCSO’s 80th anniversary.

We commend the hard work of our branch managers and personnel in the 12 branches there: Leticia Renomeron, head of Batangas branch; Paloma Malinao in Cavite; Flora Obina in Laguna; Rolando Batislaong Jr. in Palawan; Lady Elaine Gatdula in Quezon and Marinduque; Ma. Cecilia Cruz in Rizal; Augusto Tordillos in Oriental Mindoro; Laila Galang in Albay; Doris Olondriz in Sorsogon; Nelly Loyola in Camarines Sur; and Estrella Abasolo in Camarines Norte.

In partnership with both the government and the private sector, the PCSO seeks to continuously improve its service delivery to our fellow Filipinos nationwide.

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II is the vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

The $150,000 purse and other ‘wife bonuses’

T

By Gina Barreca | The Hartford Courant

HERE’S a new book giving primates a bad name. It’s not doing women much good, either. Primates of Park Avenue, recently excerpted by The New York Times, caused a ruckus.

It’s focused on a small group of überprivileged, educated Manhattan women who get “wife bonuses” from their conspicuously powerful husbands for staying lithe, keeping the domestic staff in good order and rearing high-achieving children—think Pretty Woman, except Julia Roberts has a law degree she doesn’t use.

So, we asked ourselves: Is this an enviable position, one we’d secretly covet?

The other question we asked was this: What’s a “marriage bonus”? Is that a joke? Do you serve at your spouse’s pleasure, is it pay-per-lap-dance thing, or is it a “go ahead, Toots, buy yourself a bathrobe” deal?

The author, “Wednesday” Martin (her real name is Wendy, but I guess she liked the Addams Family), snagged our attention with money and sex but kept it by sounding scholarly. Using the language of a disinterested observer, for example, when discussing her neighbors on the Upper East Side, Martin announces, “It didn’t take long

for me to realize that my background in anthropology might help me figure it all out, and that this elite tribe and its practices made for a fascinating story.”

Don’t you always love it when the folks next door reach that conclusion?

Martin appeared to study the world through the lens of academic discourse.

Sprinkling references to the Agta women of the Philippines and !Kung women of Africa next to stories of spin classes and play dates made her sound distant, erudite and objective.

Martin presented the Upper East Side’s tribe’s transactional marriages in such a way that my friend Alan Hochbaum calls them “tennis relationships” because “love means nothing.”

The commodification of children makes Lisa, a New York business writer, wonder, “Surrounded by extremely loud children, it depresses me to wonder how many of them were conceived ASAP to seal such marriage mergers.”

Christopher P. Larsen, a stay-athome dad, suggests that they’ve gone

from being “friends with benefits” to “employees without benefits”—except for the husbandly handouts, and that maybe the subjection is what “turns these guys on.”

Fifty Shades of Green, anyone?

But a long interview with Martin in the New York Post followed on the heels of the piece in the Times and tripped her up.

Martin confessed she was a “total buy-in” to the life she studied. “Something about these arrogant women, who pushed and crowded me like I didn’t exist, made me want a beautiful, expensive bag.”

Really? It made me want to join a union.

Martin felt a Hermés Birkin, a pocketbook that sells for up to $150,000, would help her self-esteem. So her financier husband bought her one. Martin felt better.

Look, for 150K, you can hire a college graduate to carry your stuff for two years. You wouldn’t need a purse.

This is when I stopped taking Martin seriously. It was as if Jane Goodall had morphed into Mildred Pierce’s daughter.

The interview with a Queen-BeeWanna-Be who whined for a purse clashed with the voice of authority

making opprobrious pronouncements about “those women.”

Martin says she “went native” (a remarkably insulting term). Now living across town surrounded by women with “postmenopausal gray hair” who don’t “care about the last 10 pounds,” the author misses the “immaculate and conservative and clean,” tribe she left a good 12, maybe 15, minutes away.

Martin’s book does not reflect the lives of most women in Manhattan any more than Mob Wives illustrates the lives of most women on Staten Island.

A college friend who loves living on the Upper East Side declares Martin’s landscape unrecognizable. “I’ve never met one of the creatures described in the Primates book,” says Elizabeth Kadin.

“Guess going to work, using public transportation and shopping at Ann Taylor Loft keeps me insulated from them.”

Others are less generous. “I hope the women she infiltrated and betrayed and whose values she seems to share eat her for lunch,” wrote my friend Margaret, who then added, “However, they probably don’t eat lunch.”

Wednesday Martin would probably remind them that, especially if they don’t care about those last 10 pounds, they could always eat cake.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

The secret story of capital spending

Monday, June 1, 2015 A11

Transcendental brutality Teddy Locsin Jr.

Paul Donovan

T

HE absence of a strong capital spending improvement has been one of the lamentable stories of the post global financial crisis recovery. Investment growth is often still below precrisis investment growth, seven years after the crisis.

Even with interest rates at record lows in developed economies, companies seem reluctant to invest in the future.

What makes the weakness of capital spending even more confusing is the fact that in many countries the number of businesses has continued to grow, without any interruption in that pace of growth.

More businesses should mean more offices, more office furniture, more computers and more machinery— but in recent years there have been more businesses but less capital spending. This just seems weird.

One possible answer to this conundrum lies in the fact that in many economies there has been an increase in self-employment and small businesses. For example roughly three quarters of the businesses that exist in the United Kingdom today do not employ anyone (because they are selfemployed people running their own business or consultancy). This trend has increased significantly in the years since the global financial crisis. So there are more businesses, but very often the increase has been due to a rise in “one person” businesses, or at least businesses with a very limited number of employees. Data is hard to come by, but small businesses account for at least half the private-sector capital spending that takes place in an economy.

Along with this trend there has been something of a seismic change in how technology works. Fifteen or 20 years ago a computer meant a desktop computer—some kind of hulking beast that could not be moved without considerable physical effort, and which was purchased by a company and inevitably located in a fixed location in a company’s offices. Today, of course, we have laptops and tablets, and these are ideal forms of technology for a small business or consultant.

They are also highly portable and do not have to be held captive in an office environment.

But, if a small business is being run from a tablet computer, who buys the tablet computer and what else is it used for? One can readily imagine the business owner having to cruelly wrench the tablet from the protesting hands of a 5-yearold child before getting down to their inventory management. A tablet computer is suitable both for managing company accounts and for playing “Angry Birds”— its versatility is, of course, part of what makes it so useful. However

this versatility also introduces an element of confusion into the economic data.

Small business employees can make use of the existing stock of technology that they already own in a personal capacity. When they come to replace the technology—to purchase the latest tablet computer or upgrade to the newest smartphone—the chances are that the purchase will be classed as consumer spending and not as capital spending. People are using their own capital for work—you buy the computer, so your employer does not have to.

It is not just technology. We do not have to become coffee shop dwelling hipsters to recognize that blurring the distinction between home life and business life will mean less corporate spending on office space, less corporate spending on office furniture and less corporate spending on other equipment.

What is happening is more than just a reclassification of capital spending by companies into consumer spending by individuals.

What is happening is a more efficient use of the capital stock in an economy. Rather than working at a computer in an office and having a laptopsitting idle at home during the working week, the laptop is now fully used (economists would describe this as an increase in capital utilization). The office space is redundant, or can be used by someone else.

For economists and investors alike this means two things.

First, capital spending may never “normalise” because at least some capital spending is masquerading under the pseudonym of “consumer spending.” Second, capital spending may never normalise because we are merging corporate and consumer capital into one form of investment and using the whole lot more efficiently.

It should be noted that the research for this article was done on a personal laptop, using a personal internet connection, at my own desk in my own home.

My employer did not pay a penny toward any of the capital used in the production of this research.

Paul Donovan’s latest book The Truth About Inflation was published by Routledge in April 2015.

W

Free fire

HEN it comes to truly tragic humanitarian crises, who responds aside from the Philippines time and again?

No one.

Oh sure, a fashionably spun humanitarian crisis with photo ops will get a showbiz reaction anytime. But a crisis that cannot be covered without risk, is sure to be dirty and difficult will always be passed over for crises where you can turn up wearing makeup and a sari under good lighting.

So it has been with the Rohingya boat people crisis. There’s been plenty of talk but only one concrete offer of help—ours. A boat crisis has one solution only: not talk but permission to come ashore.

But aside from the only Christian country on the planet, only common folk respond. That is because common people are simple people and simple people think simply about such things as life and death: how to save the one and avoid the other.

So it was with the Indonesian fishermen from Aceh who chanced upon the long missing boat of Rohingya refugees. The sight of them brought tears to the fishermen’s eyes as they reached out to help.

“They came close to us,” said fisherman Muchtar Ali, breaking down again in tears. “They were shouting, calling for help. We looked at the boat and—Wow!—there were so many people onboard.” The stench must have been unbearable. Other

fishing vessels in the area quickly responded. The migrant boat was towed closer to shore and then the passengers were loaded into trawlers so they could be taken ashore without violating the ban against letting refugee boats touch shore.

The Rohingya, says Agence France Presse, were starving and near dead from exposure after Malaysian gunboats repeatedly towed them back out to sea; finally telling them at gunpoint to stay away or they would kill them all. The Thai navy at least gave the boat people provisions but told them also to stay away.

Why did the Indonesian fishermen help? Simple. “We must help fellow Muslims,’ Muchtar Ali said.

“How can we not help destitute people like this? It would be a big sin.”

Listen to that, it would be a big sin.

And here I was thinking that a sin is not taking communion on Easter.

That’s the sort of simple thinking that prompts the Philippines, alone in the world, not to wring its hands but reach out with them. We do not need a big green statue the color of asparagus to tell the huddled masses that we will not turn them away at immigration, be they Jews fleeing Nazis at turned away by the US before reaching Ellis Island; Vietnamese fleeing the American debacle in

The Chinese presumption Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan

S

legally speaking

HOULD we declare war with China? This is the question that I have frequently been asked in many Kapihan fora that I attended. At first blush, the answer would have been obvious. I imagine myself riding in a wave of Filipino pride with guns blazing.

But then we have to revert back to the basic principle enshrined in the 1987 Philippine Constitution that we cannot declare a war. The Philippine Congress can only declare the existence of a state of war.

These are two different animals in the international law zoo. We can only defend but we can never be the aggressor.

Tony Benn, a member of the British Parliament for almost half a century and a very eloquent speaker, once said that “All war represents a failure of diplomacy.”

So if one would ponder whether we could even as much as declare

the existence of state of war, I would have to be candid and say that we are not at that point yet.

The optimist in me would like to believe that we shall never reach that point. The reason is obvious.

War is madness. With the destruction that war entails, we lose more by going to war than we can ever hope to build or achieve. This is the reason almost all countries try to behave themselves in such a way that they can only dabble in the specter of war but not cross the point of no return.

Like most Filipinos, I don’t like what’s happening in the West

their country; Rohingyas set adrift by savage Buddhists; indeed, anyone needing a place of greater safety.

Oh, and by the way, this is why the Vatican has always condemned Buddhist transcendental meditation as a discipline totally bereft of

moral scruple and religious value.

If we don’t hear from that social climber, the Dalai Lama, on this issue by berating his fellow Buddhists for their barbarism, then clearly Tibet is better off as a province of China.

Philippine Sea. I believe those islands and reefs and shoals, where we staked our claim, are truly and rightfully ours or at least belong in our exclusive economic zone.

That China is building what it calls “civil infrastructure” on what is ours makes me angry, just like everyone else. This makes me understand the frustration of the proponent of the question to take up arms but we need to temper this frustration with reason and resolve the matter in the most pragmatic approaches. These approaches remain to be diplomacy and rule of law.

Succinctly, China’s claim is outrageous and preposterous. But while we as a nation may claim to have the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, the reality is that we cannot mount a full scale retaliatory act to manifest our defiance over this obviously unjust and unreasonable acts of aggression of China.

As a nation with very little military muscle to flex in order to defend our national integrity and sovereignty, we just have to put our faith that we will win the case pending before the Permanent

Court of Arbitration. The process of litigating our claim already began on January 22, 2013, when the Republic of the Philippines instituted arbitral proceedings against the People’s Republic of China under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the “Convention”), “with respect to the dispute with China over the maritime jurisdiction of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea [WPS].”

Surely, our claim is strong. It is backed up by an overwhelming evidence so convincing that China is afraid to go to the arbitration court to justify its claim. So what is all these Chinese presumption that they own almost everything in the WPS when they cannot even muster the courage to face us in the arbitration court.

The more we look at it, the more we see that the Chinese presumption, as said by the annotators on the Rules of Evidence, are like the “bats of the law fleeting in the twilight but disappears in the sunshine of actual facts.” It’s all it is—an unfounded presumption with, apparently, no legal legs to stand on.

The US must recognize China’s stature and engage accordingly

T

By Dante Paradiso |Tribune News Service

HERE is the old notion, attributed to Lu Xun, perhaps, China’s most celebrated modern writer, that the Chinese consider foreigners to be either superior or inferior, but never equal. It is fair to say that, however, China’s leaders assessed their country’s relative capabilities during its long economic and military overhaul, they do not now lack for confidence.

US policies toward China over the past 40 years have largely been predicated on the theory that if we help China unlock its vast economic potential, China will eventually look more like us: capitalist and republican. In fact, China’s leadership took the opposite lesson from China’s success: the People’s Republic became wealthy and strong by not tilting westward.

It is time for us as a country, public and private sector alike, to respect China fully for the global political, economic and military force it has again become. It will disrupt the status quo more than any other nation. We should discard outmoded ideas that the US can counter, contain, or manage China and, instead advance a positive, proactive agenda that lays out clearly what we want from

the global reordering China has precipitated. Two key areas must be addressed: currency policy and freedom of navigation.

China often appears in our news feed for actions that contest US economic or military leadership even though US-China economic and cultural ties are vast, including beneficial trade and the fact that the largest population of people of Chinese descent outside of Asia lives here in the states.

US-China relations are intertwined with complex Asian regional dynamics and shifting global power equations, and China’s internal economic and environmental challenges are well-documented, yet we rightly take note when China’s state media calls for a de-dollarized world or when China engages in “land reclamation” in the South China Sea.

China will disrupt the status quo for three reasons. First, this is an inflection point. It is unprecedented that the country with the secondlargest economy and largest military does not see its treasure appropriately reflected in global finance, and still seeks monopoly of force over everything it deems its territory. China still relies on the US Federal Reserve to protect its stores of value and on US forces to provide overarching security for global commerce. US forces still have freedom of maneuver in some areas China considers sovereign. But these conditions will change.

Second, China’s political system is incompatible with ours, something often glossed over until problems arise. The government’s role in the economy colors the “rules of the road” for fair competition. Last, China still grapples with the effects of foreign interventions over the past 200 years that, alongside internal divisions, left the country weakened. By dint of history, the US is implicated in many questions that China’s leadership says must be resolved to complete China’s “rejuvenation.” We should not mistake tactical patience for flexibility. On the spectrum

from cooperation to confrontation, coordination or de-confliction may often be the maximal outcome when our interests overlap. If the US is not clear in its aims, and ignores or misreads China’s, there will be conflicts.

The dollar’s reserve currency status is central to US power. It guarantees that our country has nearly unlimited liquidity and access to capital, ensures others are vested in our success, gives sanctions teeth, and provides unparalleled flexibility in monetary policy. China does not have these advantages. Its currency is loosely pegged to the dollar, trading against a basket of currencies in a controlled band. The global financial crisis underscored for China that it could little influence US policy decisions that affected its assets.

More than any other currency, the renminbi will disrupt the dollar’s reserve status. China has taken steps toward floating the renminbi, which our government has encouraged to rebalance trade. China proceeds cautiously to avoid negative short-term consequences to its export-driven economy. However, it has discussed with the International Monetary Fund adding the renminbi

to the Special Drawing Rights currency basket, perhaps, in tandem with full convertibility. As the world shifts holdings from the dollar (and other currencies) to the renminbi, and more transactions are closed in renminbi, pressure will rise for a new global currency regime that more accurately reflects China’s stature as the second largest economy.

Complacency is not an option. We, in the US, should conceive a new currency regime that ensures the US retains optimal monetary flexibility.

Our government should actively consult with major trade partners on a new arrangement. The alternative is that China takes bold steps, in coordination with others, and we will react to changed circumstances rather than frame the discourse.

Likewise, US power relies on global force projection to protect US interests, though the US often resists the role of world policeman. As China asserts itself and its blue-water navy comes online, China may not grant, or will impose costs for, access to places where the US now enjoys freedom of maneuver. The US must address what security posture best guarantees that we continue to

benefit from global trade: what access we really need, where and why.

The US Pacific Command leader testified recently that China as a “net provider of security” could be beneficial, but cautioned China’s initiatives often “complicate” Pacific security. There is also this complication: while we spent years hunting terrorists, China built capabilities to defeat us militarily, both through asymmetric and conventional means. As the US has grown more reliant on digital communication, China has worked on cyber warfare. Matched against China’s economies of scale in conventional capabilities, the US should no longer assume it has clear military superiority. In Asia allies will play an important role in the regional security architecture, but beyond Asia, the US must decide what the next iteration of the Pax Americana should look like. China will be in many places and work with many partners we do not expect.

It is time to reconceptualize the global currency regime and the bottom-line objectives of the US security umbrella for global trade. Let’s lead the discussion.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Monday, June 1, 2015

Timta. . .

Continued from A1

Businessmen also proposed to reduce the penalties for failure to submit application for incentives with the BOI and other IPAs, from forfeiture of incentives to fines ranging between P1,000 and P50,000.

“Forfeiture of incentives for merely failing to timely file an application for incentive claim is unduly harsh and disproportionate to the minor infraction, and hence, confiscatory,” the businessmen said in their letter.

Also, the groups are appealing for the removal of the provision to extend BIR’s assessment by another 18 months, on top of the three years given to the revenue agency under existing laws.

“Both IPA-registered enterprises and regular corporations are bound by law to file their annual ITRs on the same date, that is, April 15, hence, the three-year prescriptive period for the BIR to make an assessment from the filing of the income tax return is already a reasonable period. Both are bound by the same deadline for the filing of their respective audited financial statements,” the group said.

“The 1997 National Internal Revenue Code [NIRC] imposes upon the BIR a time period within which to make an assessment and enforce collection. Beyond this statutory period, the BIR loses its right to issue an assessment or enforce collection,” they added.

Extending the BIR’s period of assessment by 18 months is a concession of the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee to the DOF and DTI. Originally, the assessment period of the BIR was only three years.

The 18-month period would allow companies to file claims for incentives with the BOI after filing their ITRs and enable the

BOI to validate their incentive claims.

Reyes said the validation period is needed in order to assess the amount of incentives that registered companies are entitled to, as not all the incentives that companies claim are approved. The BOI disallows incentives on activities that are not related to the companies’ main registered activity, like the interest income of a company.

Aside from these recommendations, businessmen also want to clarify the extent and scope of the reporting in the Tax Incentives Information section in the Department of Budget and Management’s Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF).

“The information to be published should also include such matters as the employment generated, the amounts invested [and hence risk assumed], the products/services made available to the economy/public, and even all the other taxes actually paid by the concerned taxpayers/entities,” the businessmen suggested.

Last, the businessmen also asked for a clear delineation of the responsibilities of the BOI and the BIR. “In many instances [and this has become a consistent practice of the BIR] the BIR disallows incentives even if these are already approved by the BOI or IPAs. The BOI and relevant IPAs have exclusive jurisdiction to determine eligibility for investment incentives. In at least two decided cases, the Supreme Court held that the BIR cannot question the incentives given by the BOI/IPAs as this is beyond the BIR’s authority. Notwithstanding these decided cases, the BIR continues to encroach on the BOI/IPAs jurisdiction to determine eligibility for incentives,” they said. Catherine N. Pillas

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Farmers ask SC to scrap P-Noy’s coco-levy EOs A

By Joel R. San Juan

PETITION has been filed before the Supreme Court (SC) seeking to stop the Palace from implementing two executive orders (EO) issued by President Aquino for the privatization and utilization of multibillion-peso coco-levy fund.

The petition was filed by coconut farmers, led by the Confederation of Coconut Farmers Organization of the Philippines (CCFOP)—the biggest organization of coconut farmers in the country. In their petition, the coconut farmers sought the nullification of EOs 179 and 180 that dwell on the inventory and privatization, as well as the reconveyance and utilization, of coco-levy assets, respectively.

CCFOP Executive Director and Spokesman Charlie Avila said the two EOs would result to new plunder of coco-levy funds.

“The Aquino government has no regard for the moral nature of the coco-levy assets,” Avila said.

The two EOs, according to Avila, violate the SC ruling issued on January 23, 2012, which held

that the said funds are “owed by the government to be used only for the benefit of all coconut farmers and for the development of the coconut industry.”

While they do not object to inventory of all coco-levy assets and investments, Avila said the government should not hastily privatize them—being just the trust owner of the assets.

“The privatization hang-up of the government via its EO 179 is a complete abandonment of its duties as trustee of the coco-levy assets and is indubitably contrary to the Supreme Court ruling and the moral philosophy of trust ownership,” Avila argued. The petitioners stressed that Mr. Aquino usurped the authority of Congress in ordering the allocation and use of the cocolevy funds, which they said should require law passed by Congress.

“The President cannot just arrogate unto himself, without legislative authority, the power to allocate, use and administer the billions of pesos of coconut funds and assets. The two chambers of Congress are doing this right now as it is their right and duty, but the President would preempt them with these assailed EOs for how many billions of reasons and for what urgent purposes only his ruling party knows—although the farmers have their ‚‘2016’ suspicions,” Avila pointed out.

“Nor can he arrogate unto himself the exclusive authority of the Judiciary to execute its final and executory decisions as this would violate the principle of separation of powers, essential to a democracy.

But the President’s men would not be bashful at all in showing undue haste to transfer the coco-levy funds to their control. This is Disbursement Acceleration Program all over again. When will he stop mocking the other coequal branches of government by arrogating to himself their corresponding exclusive authority?” he added.

Avila lamented that the government failed to consult the coconut farmers before coming out with the EOs. The petitioners also cited the Court‘s previous ruling, which

DENR won’t delay Euro 4 enforcement. . .

This was announced through a Department Administrative Order (DAO 2015-04) released in late March, which details the type of vehicles that need to comply with Euro 4 standards and the corresponding emission limits.

The DAO contained a provision stating that all new vehicles to be used or introduced in the country must comply with the standards by January 2016, which means vehicle engines must already be Euro 4-compliant. This immediately elicited backlash from automakers.

“Campi [Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers in the Philippines Inc.] wrote a letter to the DENR to clarify the DAO. They replied that by January 2016, new vehicles should comply with Euro 4. They mentioned that the new vehicles cover even current models,” Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC) Vice President for Marketing Froilan Dytianquin said in a text message to the BusinessMirror.

“This will be a problem for all brands since we are not ready to introduce Euro 4 for these vehicles, since it will take time to develop Euro 4-compliant engine. That is the underlying reason for the two years required for transition to Euro 4 for current

models,” the MMPC executive added.

Automakers are asking the DENR to keep its pledge of giving a two-year grace period from the January 1, 2016, deadline to allow them to make adjustments on model offerings and deplete the current inventory of models.

Leones reasoned, however, that the previous agreement was made during a predecessor’s time, and that circumstances have changed so car manufacturers may have to bite the bullet.

“Our point is that most of the countries surrounding the Philippines are already using Euro 4. Why is it in the Philippines it is still Euro 2? It’s high time that the country switches to Euro 4. Our compliance should have started in 2005. Sacrifices need to be made because we need to protect the environment. Manila has the worst air quality and 80 percent of the air pollution is from vehicle emissions,” Leones said in a phone interview.

Leones also clarified that the July 1, 2015, deadline is for compliance to fuel distribution of petrol companies, not on automakers.

“July 2015 pertains to loading of the Euro 4 fuel. Car companies can still import Euro 2, but by

nullifed two EOs (312 and 313) signed by former President Joseph Estrada, on the utilization of the coco-levy funds.

They said the two EOs were nullified for violation of the Philippine Constitution, by deviating from the special purpose of the coco-levy funds. The Court held then that an EO cannot be above a presidential decree or a republic act.

Instead, the group said a law should be passed to constitute the coconut-levy funds and assets more explicitly into a Coconut Industry Trust Fund, and to provide the administrative structure that will manage the trust funds and ensure that its use will benefit the coconut industry and the coconut farmers.

The coco-levy funds are valued at P73.4 billion in hard cash, which are currently held in trust with the Bureau of the Treasury and various other companies, and billions more in noncash assets, which are now also held in different companies, such as the United Coconut Planters Bank, CIIF Oil Mills Group, Coco Life, UCPB-Gen and Cocochem.

Last year the SC granted the bid of the government to get hold of the proceeds from the 24-percent block of shares or 753,848,312, in San Miguel Corp. that the Supreme Court earlier forfeited in favor of the government.

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January 2016, all vehicles coming in should already be compliant in terms of engine and fuel,” Leones clarified. The EMB director also clarified that there will be no “retroactive application,” meaning the need to have Euro 4-compliant engines will only apply to new vehicles to be sold and imported starting January 2016.

Leones said the enforcement of the standards on vehicles by January 2016 is meant to maximize the matching of the fuel standards with the vehicle engine. Leones said that, while the granting of the two-year grace period is ultimately the decision of Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje, his endorsement of the request will play a role in the decision-making.

Environment vs economy

Highlighted as a modern case of environmental protection butting heads with economic development, the carmakers’ dilemma should be defended exhaustively, the EMB director said.

“I’m not saying that it’s impossible for the request [the grace period] to be granted but, right now, there has to be a very strong justification on their [the car companies] part. It should have a heavier impact than the issue of public health and general welfare,” Leones said.

The DENR undersecretary said should there be any justification, it should be on the economic impact on the public if they disallow the two-year grace period.

The automotive industry has been touted as the backbone of the country’s manufacturing industry, with the work force numbering to 500,000, according to Campi.

The industry also contributes to the national budget in terms of annual payment of duties and taxes of over P30 billion and recorded total exports of about $3.4 billion in 2013.

Campi will continue its appeal for a grace period, Dytianquin said.