BusinessMirror July 21, 2015

TIMELINE

THE START. Fidel Castro’s rebels take power, as dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba on January 1, 1959. The United States soon recognizes the new government. But relations begin to sour as Americans criticize summary trials and executions of Batista loyalists. In 1960 Cuba nationalizes US-owned oil refineries, after they refuse to process Soviet oil. Nearly all other US businesses are expropriated soon afterward.

STANDOFF: The US declares an embargo on most exports to Cuba in October 1960 and breaks diplomatic relations in January 1961. Three months later, Castro declares Cuba a socialist state —just a day before the doomed US-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion meant to topple Castro.

Meanwhile, US agents are organizing repeated efforts to assassinate the Cuban leader.

SHOWDOWN AVERTED: In October 1962 a US blockade forces removal of Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba, after a standoff brings the world near nuclear war. US President John F. Kennedy agrees privately not to invade Cuba.

FAILED NORMALIZATION: US President Jimmy Carter tries to normalize relations with Cuba shortly after taking office in 1977,

FIVE DECADES LATER, U.S.CUBA DIPLOMATIC TIES RESTORED

2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business Saturday 18,July 201421,Vol.2015 10 No. Vol. 40 10 No. 285 Tuesday,

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P300B GOV’T FUNDS SIT IDLE IN BSP VAULTS AS OF MAY

State spending disappoints anew

INSIDE

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ONEY is literally coming out the ears of Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) officials, the national government having achieved a budget surplus 41 percent higher in May alone and 16 percent higher in the first five months, courtesy of proceeds from the controversial coco-levy funds.

WOOD FURNITURE World change

ES, Lord, our power to change the world lies in the many extra effort, things we do, think and say every day.

As well as the energy and intention in which we perform them. If everyone in this world offers all we do in the form of prayers for the intention of peace, love and hope, our world would be one in grace, happiness and mercy.

World change is, indeed, in everybody’s hands, the reason God created us to continue His creation. Amen.

LIP PRINTS, DOLORES RILLERA AND LOUIE M. LACSON

Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Life

BOX OFFICE: ‘ANT-MAN’ TOPS WEEKEND WITH $58-MILLION OPENING, ‘TRAINWRECK’ DEBUTS AT NO. 3 »D2

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Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Break the rules with wood furniture

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

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HIRE PROS FOR HOME REPAIRS

B M C G | Tribune News Service

B C. D B Tribune News Service

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EAUTIFUL wood furniture is an essential ingredient of a well-decorated home. But for too long, the old rules of how to decorate with wood pieces have hampered our creativity when we are curating our living spaces. Ask any of the nuns who had the misfortune of teaching me in high school: I love to break rules. Here are three long-held maxims we can tell good-bye: Old rule: Buffets belong in the dining room.

New rule: Buffets are fabulous all over your home!

Don’t get me wrong—I love having a buffet in the dining room. In my Atchison, Kansas, home, where I had a formal dining room with more elbow room, my buffet was well used for entertaining and as a stage for seasonal displays. But why ground a piece of furniture this beautiful to just one room?

It’s time to let buffets go out and play. If you have space in your dining room, definitely feature a buffet there, to serve its traditional role of table service and dish storage. Then, consider adding an additional buffet or two to other spots in your home.

Buffets look fabulous in foyers. They add nice visual weight to ground a two-story entry and give you a spot to add some nice ambient lighting with lamps. They are also perfect for your living room, topped with a spectacular painting, a gallery, sunburst mirror, or your flatscreen TV. Old rule: Wood pieces should match.

New rule: Mix up your finishes.

Years ago, furniture was sold in matched sets and each wood piece in your living room, dining room or bedroom looked the same. I never went for the matchymatchy look, preferring to pick wood pieces that add their own voice to the chorus of the space.

I work with customers every day who are OK with the individual wood pieces not matching, but they still worry the finishes are supposed to be the same color. For example, if they have dark stained wood in a room, all the pieces need to have the same stain color.

Thankfully, there is no “right” or “wrong” anymore. The only voice to listen to is your own. Personally, I like a wide contrast in my home, swirling together traditional stains with painted pieces.

If you like a lot of contrast in your spaces, select wood furniture in a wide range of finishes. Just make sure the pieces work together harmoniously to avoid visual chaos. If you prefer a low-contrast look, select a few pieces with subtle tone difference, like stained cherry, mahogany and pine pieces together in the room.

If you like high-contrast decorating, let your wood pieces be a part of the story. I’m loving the trends I’m seeing of folks becoming DIY warriors, snatching up old furniture bargains and giving them a new life with a few coats of peppy paint, like turquoise or orange.

Old rule: Stick with one style, traditional or contemporary.

New rule: Wed contrasting wood pieces.

Another rule we’ve tossed out of the window: All your furniture should reflect the same style. Traditional.

Transitional. Contemporary. Blah blah blah. Rooms that mix in different styled furniture can be exciting.

A lot of my friends and customers are inheriting family pieces, fabulous, well-made hutches or dining tables that are in a different style than their existing furnishings. They worry the pieces won’t blend in. In my book, that can be a plus.

The trick for pulling off an eclectic look is to use a

keen eye to ensure the space as a whole isn’t a chaotic cacophony of distracting voices. You want the dissimilar pieces to work together to give a richly layered, intriguing, evolved-over-time vibe.

One way to tie the diverse pieces together and help them harmonize, not fight, is to create continuity with the room’s color palette. Select a few colors and repeat them through your upholstered furnishings, window coverings, accents and floor coverings.

AS a home inspector I often see what can happen when repairs are made by an underqualified worker.

When I was a builder I would arrange the timing for the different trades to work on each job. I would always schedule the electrician just before the drywall was hung because some trades might accidentally cut the wires. On more than one occasion the person who cut the wire tried to repair the wires using electric tape. I have found homes where the repairmen had their own crews do the work usually performed by a professional plumber, electrician or heating contractor.

In one home I found the ductwork was incomplete and was just lying on the ground in the crawl space.

The people had lived in the home for months not knowing why the home was so hard to heat. At another home the owner complained of rattling in the water pipes.

We found that the person who installed the copper supply pipes had dragged the pipes across the crawl space floor and pea gravel had been pulled into the pipes. A plumber would have known better.

When someone wants to work on your home to do electrical, plumbing, heating or air-conditioning, etc., ask to see his or her license.

If the license belongs to the owner of the company, make sure the people they send to your home are qualified, licensed if required and insured.

When you hire a company or contractor, make it a point to always work from a written contract you both sign and have agreed to. Any and all changes that arise during the work must be in writing and signed by both parties. Ask for references and call the numbers they provide. If they’re proud of their work, you should be given a long list of happy clients.

OVIALAND Inc., a subsidiary of the Malate Construction and Development Corp., recently signed a contract with Home Funding Inc. and Argosy Finance Corp. covering Ovialand’s latest premier development in Santo Tomas, Batangas, the Terrazza de Santo Tomas.

Fatima Vital, business unit head of Ovialand Inc. said, “We want to establish ourselves as a developer that provides competitive packages to customers. With Home Funding and Argosy Finance services, we will be able to extend our financing to longer terms and adjust our affordability as well.”

Home Funding and Argosy Finance Senior Vice President Carlos Cervantes believes that aside from Ovialand’s expertise in housing development, the company takes a proactive stance in forging alliances with financial institutions specializing in housing finance, using unique and innovative financial products that would increase their sales and customers base.

The specialized financing structures to the housing developer will involve a partnership in in-house financing and securitization.

Home Funding and Argosy Finance structure,

C. Dwight Barnett is a certified master inspector with the American Society of Home Inspectors. E-mail him with home improvement questions at d.Barnett@ insightbb.com.

This article was adapted from Mary Carol Garrity’s blog at www. nellhills.com. She can be reached at marycarol@ nellhills.com.

A TYPICAL scene at the Tandang Sora Public Market in Quezon City. ED DAVAD

LIFE

securitize and sell housing finance receivables and contracts to sell, enabling Ovialand (www. ovialand.com/) to focus on their core business of ovialand.com/ property development and sales.

Show BusinessMirror

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

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Special to the BM

‘Ant-Man’ tops weekend with $58-million opening; ‘Trainwreck’ debuts at No. 3

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MTRCB SPONSORS SCRIPTWRITING CONTEST

THE Senior Citizen Committee of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) is sponsoring a scriptwriting contest centered on empowering senior citizens. Through this contest, the committee aims to improve and reshape the image of Filipino senior citizens as they are portrayed in films and on television shows. The committee hopes to show that when senior citizens are aware of their rights as individuals and as members of family and of society, they can empower themselves and others.

Scriptwriters may opt to choose young people as the main characters of the story but their lives have to be intertwined with the elderly. In addition, the story should highlight the significance of the elderly to the family and community, and to society as a whole. The top 3 entries will be chosen with the top entry getting P30,000. Secondand third-place entries will get P20,000 and P10,000, respectively. The MTRCB may later help find producers of the winning full-length screenplay to make into a film or a movie-for-television.

The scriptwriting contest is open to all Filipino citizens (currently residing in the country) aged 18 and above. Board members of the MTRCB, including their immediate family members or relatives to the second degree are not allowed to join the contest.

The following are the entry submission requirements: (1) A contestant may submit only one entry each of a full-length screenplay on the theme of empowering senior citizens, not to exceed two hours; (2) The entry should be written in spoken Filipino (Taglish allowed), double-spaced, clean and legible, on 8 1/2"x11" bond paper, and with 1-inch margin on all sides; (3) Entries must not bear neither the author’s real name nor a pen name on any page, only the title of the full-length screenplay; (4) Instead of a pen name, the entries will be numbered; (5) Entries must be accompanied by a notarized affidavit that states the script is original and owned by the contestant, and has never been published or produced for film or television, nor has it been previously awarded in any contest. It should not have been or should not be submitted to another contest of more or less the same period of time; and (6) Entries should be enclosed in a sealed envelope, with an accompanying affidavit bearing the title of the screenplay, the author’s real name, address and contact numbers. A three- to five-sentence biodata should also be included.

Entries may be submitted in person at the MTRCB office at 18 Timog Avenue, Quezon City, and must have one hard copy. Entries may also be snail-mailed or couriered, with the postmark honoring the deadline. They may also be submitted online, with the notarized affidavit scanned and sent as an image attachment, while the information on the author should be in a Word .doc file separate from that of the screenplay, with both also sent as attachments. Online submissions may be e-mailed to mtrcbcontest@gmail.com.

The deadline for submission is at 5 pm on August 31.

Copyright shall be retained by the writer. The awarding ceremony will take place in October.

B S H Los Angeles Times

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Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

Juno Temple, 26; Justin Bartha, 37; Josh Hartnett, 37; Jon Lovitz, 58.

Charm, dedication and practical improvements will ensure your success this year. Don’t worry too much about what others do. Take the path that promises to help you get ahead mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Choices should be made based on what will bring you the most in return, not on what is best for others. It’s OK to be selfcentered. Your numbers are 1, 13, 17, 25, 28, 34, 48.

domestic distribution.

“Amy Schumer is a star. And I think Judd has a way of presenting new talent in a way that absolutely gets people motivated to check them out.”

The comedy stars Amy Schumer as a magazine writer struggling with monogamy after meeting a downto-earth sports doctor (Bill Hader). The film costars Brie Larson, World Wrestling Entertainment star John Cena, Vanessa Bayer, Mike Birbiglia, Ezra Miller, Dave Attel, Colin Quinn, Tilda Tilda Swinton and National Basketball Association superstar LeBron James.

Females again flexed their box-office might, turning up in masses to see the comedy. An estimated 66 percent of audiences were female and 63 percent were ages 30 and up. Many critics and audiences hailed Schumer’s big-screen debut as hilarious. Moviegoers gave the film an “A-” rating on CinemaScore. It racked up an 85-percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Coming in at fourth, Pixar’s Inside Out added $11.6 million in its fourth weekend at the domestic box office.

Its total North American haul is $306.3 million, making it the third-highest-grossing Pixar movie of all time behind Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo.

U Universal’s Jurassic World crossed the $600-milion mark in North America, adding $11.4 million in its sixth weekend in release.

In limited release, Woody Allen’s dramatic comedy Irrational Man debuted in five locations with $188,100, a per-theater average of $37,623.

If estimates hold, the box office will be up 30 percent from the same period last year. Year-to-date, the 2015 box office is already up 8.9 percent.

that will bring people back in.”

Moviegoers gave it an “A” grade from audiencepolling firm CinemaScore. Males made up the majority of audiences (58 percent) and 55 percent of audiences were over the age of 25. Internationally, Ant-Man collected $56 million in 27 markets, making the global haul a strong $114 million. An estimated $9.2 million of the global total came from IMAX screens.

With such positive word of mouth, Hollis is confident about the film’s future.

“At the end of the summer, I think we’ll look back and have this be among those surprise hits,” he said. “I expect we’ll have a big, long run.”

Meanwhile, Universal U Pictures had three films in the top 5 this weekend domestically, the first time the studio has accomplished such a feat since 2003.

Minions fell 57 percent in its second weekend weekend to second place. It added $50.2 million to its domestic gross, making its haul to date $216.7 million.

The animated film, featuring the voice of Sandra Bullock as supervillain Scarlet Overkill and costars Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney and Steve Coogan, was produced by Universal and Illumination Entertainment for $74 million.

U Universal’s Trainwreck, directed by Judd Apatow, had Trainwreck a better-than-expected opening, coming in at No. 3 with a solid $30.2 million. The film, which cost $35 million to make, is Apatow’s fifth feature and second-highest opening after the $30.7 million opening for Knocked Up in 2007.

“I thought it was going to outpace what tracking indicated,” said Nick Carpou, Universal’s head of

a

d

g

Keep a clear head and a tolerant attitude.

You will meet opposition if you try to push others to do things your way. Work alone if possible and you will accomplish far more.

Accept that difficulties are inevitable and keep moving forward.

A changing situation must be handled with care. Don’t let emotions interfere with doing what you know in your heart is best for everyone. Use discipline to guide you in the right direction and you won’t have any regrets.

b

You’ll be surprised what you find out if you listen and do your research on the people or companies you are dealing with.

Your insights will help you make choices that are bound to result in advancement. When opportunity knocks, take action.

e

If you go about your business and do things your way, others will take interest and join in. Book a trip or do research online until you find something that motivates you to head in an entirely new direction.

h

A change in your earning power is apparent if you make a proposal, set up an interview or offer something unique that is trendy and can fill a need in your community. Don’t hold back when you have so much to offer.

c

Call the shots rather than yield to what others tell you to do. Take hold of whatever situations you face and offer practical, sound suggestions. Your direct, clean approach will attract followers and favors.

f

Someone will not be honest with you about their motivations and interests. Be careful not to reveal too much when discussing your plans with others. A sudden change in your personal finances is best handled cautiously. Don’t shirk your responsibilities.

Put an end to your relationships with people who don’t give back. You have to rid yourself of hangers-on or those willing to let you do all the work. Greater opportunities will surface if you work alongside other enthusiastic participants.

Plan a day trip or get involved in community activities that will open up doors and give you a say in what takes place in your neighborhood or within your family.

Sharing personal experiences will help you make good choices.

You will face opposition in your personal life if you are indulgent or uncompromising. Don’t let your emotions take over when you need to think matters through carefully and calculate the outcome you want to accomplish.

Participate in events that will allow you to show off your skills. An original idea you have will interest someone in forming a partnership. Speak from the heart and you will get what you want and more. Love is highlighted.

I

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REPORTEDLY costing $130 million to make, Ant-Man stars Paul Rudd as a lesser-known comic-book hero who can shrink in size while enjoying increased strength.

Pulling in $58 million at the North American box office on its opening weekend, the movie is off to a good start.

UPERHERO film Ant-Man topped the weekend with $58 million, marking the 12th consecutive Marvel film to open in first place.

Going into the weekend, Ant-Man was expected to open with up to $65 million, much like Marvel’s 2011 titles Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor.

Thor However, Disney adjusted its tracking expectations on Saturday evening, after news of severe weather in parts of the Midwest and rain in Southern California, which likely slowed weekend grosses.

Instead, the film’s opening is on a par with Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk Hulk, which launched with $55 million in the United States and Canada in 2008.

It went on to collect $134.8 million domestically and $236.4 million worldwide.

“You always want to be as big of an opening as possible, but there was a weather impact, not just for our movie, but the market overall,” said Dave Hollis, head of distribution at Disney. “We’re off to a good start.”

Ant-Man, which reportedly cost $130 million to make, is about a lesser-known comic-book hero. The film stars Paul Rudd as the titular character, a thief named Scott Lang and the second superhero to take the name Ant-Man. Lang is given a second chance by the original Ant-Man (Michael Douglas). Together, they help protect the secret behind the Ant-Man suit, which enables its wearer to shrink in size while enjoying increased strength.

“It’s going to take a little more time for this one to find every part of its audience because of it being a lessknown character,” Hollis added. “But I think the most encouraging thing that we’ve heard is that plenty of people are commenting on how surprised they were by how much they liked it. It’s those kind of endorsements

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j

k

AUTOMATED ELECTIONS A student gets assistance from

l

Get involved in social circles and try your hand at something you might like to do in order to earn an income. Consider new opportunities and make arrangements to get the skills and knowledge required to move forward.

You are resolute, determined and possessive. You are loyal and patient.

‘ 1 11 15 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 27 28 29 32 35 39 40 41 42 44 45 48

Removes paint, in a way Jest Some short films Japanese sashes Things for losers only?

React to a horror film Adjusts, as a clock Type of influence Fatty foods, to dieters Pac-Man noises Thanksgiving pie Possessed Silo contents Tardy Lamb’s lament “Don’t worry” “Bleah!”

Bad emotion to have Follows a recipe direction Legendary singer Charles With tongue in cheek Used the + key Have ___ in the matter

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The Universal Crossword/Edited by Timothy E. Parker 51 Persona non ___ (unwelcome one) 52 Ornamental pitcher 53 Radar image 57 Exactly 60 “...happily ___ after” 61 Bathing places for some 62 Compass direction 63 Trumpeter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Musical number Wild ox of puzzledom It’s hot off the presses Plumbing problem Franklin or Kingsley Class exercise Lacking citizenship Small altercation Bridge support Govt. check issuer Bound together Domicile Bathing beauty Gossip center?

18 22 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 36 37 38 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

Oompah band need When doubled, Mork’s goodbye Rock genre, briefly A head OSS replacement “Rings on ___ fingers...”

Bearded antelope Grassland Back of the boat Digit that gets socked Crumbly soil It’ll fight for you Wake-up times, typically Socially challenged?

Not straight Produce, as an egg Witty comeback Month in the Jewish calendar “No surprises, please” Discredited veep Took the wheel Female equivalents of knights “Cool!” old-style Dog tag datum

50 Automobile type 53 Smudge 54 Sainted pope called “the Great” 55 Doctrines 56 “Check this out!”

58 Bailout key 59 Crumb

Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

SHOW

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YOUNG GUNS’ RACE TO TOP C1

YOUNG GUNS’ RACE TO TOP

BusinessMirror

UNITED States’s Jordan Spieth smiles as he stands on the 18th during the third round of the British Open Golf Championship. AP

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IRELAND’S Paul Dunne lines up a putt. AP

B D F The Associated Press

AINT Andrews, Scotland—For a place dripping with centuries of history, Saint Andrews got more than it could have wanted on Sunday.

Jordan Spieth punched his golf bag in frustration after a careless bogey, perhaps sensing the British Open was slipping away. Just like that, and because this is what Spieth does in big moments, he salvaged his bid for a Grand Slam. He made three straight birdies. He took 10 putts on the inward nine. And when he walked off the 18th green, he had a six-under 66 and was one shot behind with one round left.

“I’m going to play to win,” Spieth said. “I’m not playing for a place. I don’t want to place third tomorrow. I want to win.”

But if there is history in the making at the home of golf, it no longer has to come from just Spieth.

Fans who filled the two-story grandstand and watched from the tops of buildings on Golf Place witnessed a moment not seen at Saint Andrews in 88 years—an amateur in the lead going into the final round of the British Open.

Paul Dunne, the 22-year-old from Ireland, rolled in putts like this was the prestigious Saint Andrews Links Trophy for amateurs instead of the oldest championship in golf. He played bogey-free for a 66 and shared the lead

with former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day. Bobby Jones is the last amateur to win the British Open in 1930, when he came from one shot behind in the final round. He was the last amateur to lead after 54 holes three years earlier at Saint Andrews, and he won the claret jug that year, too.

Can it happen again?

“It’s surreal I’m leading the Open, but I can easily believe that I shot the three scores that I shot,” Dunne said. “If we were playing an amateur event here, I wouldn’t be too surprised by the scores I shot. It’s just lucky that it happens to be in the biggest event in the world.

“Hopefully, I can do it again tomorrow,” he said. “But whether I do or not, I’ll survive either way.”

The way the weather-delayed Open ended on Sunday, expect just about anything.

Oosthuizen, the last player to lift the claret jug at Saint Andrews in 2010 and a runner-up at the US Open last month, birdied three of his last five holes for a 67. Day is just as big of a threat. He shot 67 and shared the lead for the second straight major, and he has challenged in four of them since 2011.

They were at 12-under 214, one shot ahead of Spieth with plenty of others that cannot be dismissed. Fourteen players were separated by three shots. Half of them were

major champions, and there was yet another amateur among them—21-year-old Jordan Niebrugge of Oklahoma State.

Such an opportunity might not come around again for Spieth. Only three other players won the first two legs of the Grand Slam since the modern version began in 1960. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods only got one shot at it, and none ever started the final round of the British Open so close to the lead.

And so it was Spieth, a 21-year-old Texan with an uncanny sense of occasion, who brought the gray, old town to life in a mixture of sunshine and rain. He rolled in birdie putts on the 10th, 11th and 12th holes to share the lead.

He saved par from the high grass on the 13th, stuffed his approach to 4 feet for birdie on the 15th and made another tough par save on the Road Hole at the 17th.

A victory would send him to the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship with a shot at the Grand Slam, and at worse put him in elite company. Ben Hogan in 1953 is the only other player to capture the Masters, US Open and British Open in the same year.

“Only one person has ever done it be-fore. That opportunity very rarely comes around,” Spieth said. “And I’d like to have a chance to do something nobody has ever done.... To be able to go into the last

DAY HOPES TO SEIZE LATEST S CHANCE TO WIN 1ST MAJOR

AINT Andrews, Scotland—Jason Day is tied for the lead after 54 holes of a major.

Been there before.

Yet, unlike at last month’s US Open, Day is feeling good about his chances heading into the final round as he looks to win his first major title at the British Open.

A month ago the Australian managed to haul his weary body into the final pairing at Chambers Bay despite collapsing because of vertigo in the second round and suffering bouts of dizziness in the third. Unsurprisingly, he faded out of contention and closed with a 74.

It’s a new Day at Saint Andrews. Back fit and in full control of his body, he was bogeyfree on Sunday in a five-under 67 that put him tied with South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen and Irish amateur Paul Dunne on 12-under 204.

“To be able to come back pretty much three weeks later and play the way I’ve been playing...I feel healthy and I feel up to the challenge,” Day said.

He’d better be.

Day will be playing in the second-last pairing alongside Jordan Spieth, an American who is 18 holes away from the third leg of a Grand Slam. Spieth is a stroke back in fourth place and “heavy favorite” for the title, according to Day. “Everyone knows it,” Day said. “He’s just

I

Spieth ready to embrace historic chase

major and accomplish something that’s never been done in our sport is something that only comes around to a couple people ever. And I’d like to be one of those people to have that happen.”

Rarely has the Old course been as easy as it was on Sunday.

One day after raging wind off the Eden Estuary caused a 10-hour delay and forced a Monday finish, the flags were soaked from passing showers and limp from no wind.

The leaderboards were loaded with birdies, and seven players had at least a share of the lead at some point in the third round.

That’s what made Dustin Johnson’s collapse so

shocking.

With a oneshot lead after powering his way around Saint Andrews for 36 holes, he was the last player in the field to make a birdie on Sunday, and that wasn’t until the 15th hole. He followed with three straight bogeys for a 75 to fall five shots behind.

Spieth, the youngest professional in the field, seemed calm despite the historic moment in front of him.

His goal at the start of the week was to treat the British Open like any other tournament he was trying to win. Even during the long delay on Saturday, he said he hasn’t thought much about the slam.

There is no escaping it now, and Spieth doesn’t see that as a problem.

“If I have a chance coming down the stretch, if it creeps in, I’ll embrace it,” he said.

“I’ll embrace the opportunity that presents itself. As far as handling it, I don’t look at it as a negative thing. I look at it almost as an advantage. Why should it add more pressure in a negative way?”

playing phenomenal golf. If you look at the run that he’s had this year, it’s been amazing.”

Just don’t see that view as a sign of weakness from Day. The 27-year-old Queenslander is relishing the opportunity to become the first Australian since Greg Norman in 1993 to lift the claret jug, something he believes would put him in a group of “immortal” players.

Day said he’d learnt lessons from a bunch of near-misses at the majors, starting at the US Open in 2011, when he tied for second behind Charl Schwartzel. He had a share of the lead late on Sunday at the Masters in 2013 until he missed out on the playoff between Adam Scott and Angel Cabrera, and he finished tied for second at the US Open later that year.

Then came Chambers Bay, where— somehow—he was tied with Branden Grace, Dustin Johnson and Spieth with 18 holes remaining.

Day said he will need to engage more with his caddie, Colin Swatton, before shots and be “fully involved in the process” of each shot.

In short, have more clarity under the most extreme pressure.

“In previous starts where I was in contention, I was kind of out of sync,” Day said. “I wasn’t really talking to Colin that much. I was just getting up there and trying

to hit it on the run.”

Four words uttered by Tiger Woods will also be a source of inspiration for Day in his latest bid for a major.

They were in the same group for the first two rounds and chatted as they walked down No. 18 late Saturday. As they walked off the green minutes later, Day said that Woods shook his hand and told him: “Go get it done.”

“To be able to hear that come from that person, it gives you a boost of confidence just to know that you’re doing the right things,” Day said, “that someone that good really believes in your skills.”

After completing a round that contained five birdies and a missed 8-foot putt for another birdie on the last, Day let his mind wander back to the 18th hole and the “best walk in golf.” Over the famed Swilcan Bridge, up the fairway and toward the clubhouse with Saint Andrews Bay in the distance.

“That little piece of immortality and glory that comes with winning the claret jug at the home of golf at Saint Andrews,” Day said, “it would be an unbelievable piece of experience that no one could ever take away from you.” AP

AINT Andrews, Scotland—Jordan Spieth was coming off three straight birdies when he trotted off the 13th tee, heading straight to a portable toilet reserved for players only.

Kicking the door playfully, yet firmly, it popped open. His surprised caddie quickly popped out, clearing the way for the boss to go in.

Nothing, it seems, gets in the way of this kid when he wants something. And right now there’s nothing Spieth wants more than his name on the claret jug that goes to the British Open winner.

His six-under 66 on Sunday didn’t crown a new Open champion, or give him the modern Grand Slam no one has ever won.

There’s still a day to go on the Old course, and a Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship to be played before we start talking about Spieth in terms of golf history, or perhaps even golf immortality.

But on Monday he’ll play for a third straight major championship win at the tender age of 21. Judging from recent history, there’s no reason to think he won’t get it done.

Not after an impeccable back nine that pulled him to within a shot of the lead.

Not when he’s so coolly confident that he’s embracing the idea of what might be instead of worrying about the magnitude of what it would be.

“I’d like to have a chance to do something nobody has ever done,” Spieth said. “To be able to try and go into the last major and accomplish something that’s never been done in our sport is something that only comes around to a couple people ever. I’d like to be one of those people to have that happen.”

He’s Tiger Woods without the hysteria of Tigermania, and he’s now on the verge of doing something even Woods wasn’t able to do. The run Spieth is on is so special it brings back memories of Woods in 2000-2001 when he held all four major championships— though not in the same year—in what became known as the Tiger Slam.

Look at him, and he seems as nondescript as any other young player in what has become a homogenous game. Look closer, and he burns with the fire that only the greats can somehow find a way to channel.

Spieth won the Masters after leading from almost the moment he stepped on the first tee, then added the US Open when Dustin Johnson three-putted the last hole. He’s not about to be overcome by the moment on Monday, something that those in front of him may not be able to honestly say.

“Right now I feel even more calm than the Open, when I was certainly feeling better than the Masters,” Spieth said. “I just think I have a little more experience in this position than I did.”

That experience showed when Spieth three-putted from off the green on the ninth hole for a bogey that pretty much ruined any positive feelings he had about his front nine. He was so upset that he went over and punched his golf bag in anger.

Woods used to do the same kind of thing when he needed to refocus. Woods also used to do the kind of thing Spieth did next—reel off birdies on the next three holes.

“Walking off of nine green was as frustrated as I’ve been in a tournament other than off of 14 yesterday morning,” Spieth said.

“I don’t normally ever display frustration. I did both times.”

By the time he got to the 18th hole, Spieth was in a much better mood. He and Sergio Garcia shared a laugh when Garcia nearly played out of turn, and many in the crowd cheered when he pulled out a driver to replace his 3-wood off the tee.

“Tiger who?” someone screamed out.

Indeed, there was a feeling in the air that in a land of royals, this was golf’s new king. People crowded 10 deep behind the fence on the 17th to watch, while John Daly and his fiancée were among those sitting on the veranda of the Old course hotel to catch a glimpse. AP

SPORTS

Jason Day plans his next »puttAUSTRALIA’S on the 15th hole. AP

a precinct staff during mock elections conducted at the Pamatasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila using the Tapat Election System, an alternative solution to the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) or Optical Scan System, which is a fully automated election system and is a combination of the OMR, a printer and a vote counter. ALYSA SALEN

Peso resilience backfiring on exporters

Sports

| TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

SPIETH, AMATEUR DUNNE EYEING HISTORY AT SAINT ANDREWS

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DO YOU STILL SHOP IN A‘PALENGKE’? 7 OF 10 PINOYS DON’T

C  A

‘ANTMAN’ AND ‘TRAINWRECK’ OPEN D2

SPECIAL REPORT

The levy funds are assets collectively worth P71 billion, whose management had been transferred to the account of the BTr under Executive Order 180.

This much money helped boost revenue collection in May to P242.53 billion, or a record-high 41 percent, and brought the five-month

Premier housing developer Ovialand Inc. signs contract with Home Funding Inc. and Argosy Finance Corp.

FATIMA OLIVARESVITAL (from left), Ovialand Inc. business unit head; Giovanni Olivares, Malate Construction and Development Corp. president; Ricardo Lazatin, Home Funding Inc. and Argosy Finance Corp. president; and Carlos Cervantes, Home Funding Inc. and Argosy Finance Corp. senior vice president.

States Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross, accusing him of subversion.

That stifles incipient efforts to improve US-Cuba ties under President Barack Obama.

BREAKTHROUGH: Obama and Raul Castro announce on December 17, 2014, they are restoring diplomatic ties and exchanging prisoners, including Gross and the remaining three members of the Cuban Five spy ring.

REMOVAL FROM TERRORISM LIST: The Obama administration formally removes Cuba from a US terrorism blacklist as part of the process of normalizing relations between the Cold War foes.

AGREEMENT NOTES EXCHANGED: Pending issues are resolved and the US and Cuba exchange diplomatic notes agreeing that the date for the restoration of full relations will be on July 20.

DIPLOMATIC TIES RESTORED: Agreement between the two nations to resume normal ties on July 20 comes into force just after midnight on Sunday and the diplomatic missions of each country are upgraded from interests sections to embassies. AP

BusinessMirror

THREETIME ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDEE

Y

reestablishing diplomatic missions and negotiating the release of thousands of prisoners. But conflicts over Cuba’s military mission in Africa, tension caused by a flood of Cuban refugees in 1980 and the election of Ronald Reagan end the rapprochement.

CUBA ALONE: The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union devastates the Cuban economy, but the country limps along, first under Fidel and then, after he falls ill in 2006, under his brother Raul, head of the Cuban military.

EXILE CLASHES: Cuba’s hostile relations with many Florida-based migrants repeatedly lead to confrontation. In 1996 Cuban jets shoot down two planes operated by the Brothers to the Rescue group dedicated to saving migrants found at sea, killing four. In 1999 US-based relatives fight to keep Elian Gonzalez, rescued at sea at age 5 after his mother dies. US officials finally wrench him away and send him back to his father in Cuba in 2000.

PRISONERS: The US arrests five Cuban spies in 1998 and Cuba mounts an international campaign to free them, saying that they were defending the island against US-based terror attempts. In December 2009 Cuba arrests United

C1

PESO EXCHANGE RATES

N the 1990s Philippine exporters would burn an effigy of the central bank governor when the peso was too strong. While it hasn’t yet come to that, companies say that the currency’s resilience is harming their competitiveness.

Supported by ample foreignexchange reserves and remittances from Filipinos living abroad, the peso has weakened only 1.2 percent this year, compared with drops of 3.6 percent for Thailand’s baht, 7.2 percent for Indonesia’s rupiah and 7.9 percent for Malaysia’s ringgit.

US 45.2620

JAPAN 0.3648

Philippine shipments trailed estimates to fall 17.4 percent in May from a year earlier, the biggest decline since 2011.

“It certainly erodes our competitiveness,” said Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., whose membership accounts for about 70 percent of overseas sales. Although the drop in exports cannot be blamed on the peso, “the slump would be mitigated if our exchange rate was competitive,” he said.

The peso’s resilience to the pros-

UK 70.6314

HK 5.8402

CHINA 7.2892

pect of US interest-rate increases is coming just as signs China’s economy will slow more than expected threatens the exports of countries throughout Asia. Over the last 12 months, only the Hong Kong and Taiwanese dollars and the Chinese yuan have performed better than the peso among 24 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

The Philippine currency has strengthened 20 percent against the euro; 22 percent against the Australian dollar; and 18 percent

Second of three parts

N a survey conducted by the BM, 100 out of 153 respondents, or nearly 70 percent, said they prefer buying groceries in supermarkets rather than in the public market.

This has caused stall owners like Dindo Reyes to go bankrupt. Reyes, who once sold goods in Imus Public Market in Cavite, is now looking for other possible sources of income after he has decided to close shop.

Reyes is one of the many stall owners in public markets that have lost their livelihood due to Filipinos’ increasing preference for convenience.

“Times have changed. The supermarket offers almost everything offered by the public market,” said Al Faithrich Navarette, chairman of the Business Economics department of the University of Santo Tomas.

A study by state-run Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) noted that the increase in dualincome families in the country has led to a greater demand for convenience among Filipino consumers.

“This may be the reason some Filipinos prefer one-stop shopping to minimize time and energy, regardless of the

additional cost. It may not be surprising at all to see supermarkets displacing small retailers and growing larger in size, since consumers themselves search for convenience,” the study read.

Experts said concerns over the safety of meat are also among the reasons behind consumers’ increasing preference for shopping in supermarkets.

In the case of public markets, delivery of goods starts very early in the morning. Those who can shop early are almost always guaranteed of getting fresh and quality meat from wet markets.

“People sometimes recommend the public market only if you could arrive early so you could buy directly from the delivery, or if you know how to check meat,” Navarrete said.

“The general convention is to switch to supermarkets if you don’t know how to do the other two. You’re going to be extra sure about the quality, but sometimes the prices are higher in general.”

Despite the increasing preference of Filipino consumers for one-stop shopping in supermarkets, Navarette said public markets remain an important part of the country’s economy.

For one, many small businesses, such as eateries or carinderia, continue to procure their goods from public markets.

C  A

C  A

SINGAPORE 33.1008

AUSTRALIA 33.4086

EU 49.0233

SAUDI ARABIA 12.0689 Source: BSP (20 July 2015)

A2 Tuesday, July 21, 2015

BMReports BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Do you still shop in a ‘palengke’? 7 of 10 Pinoys don’t C  A

But quantifying the contribution of public markets in gross domestic product (GDP) may be difficult, given the dearth of studies that focus on these areas. Past studies said the share of public markets in economic output goes largely unnoticed because microenterprises, such as sari-sari stores, are not always covered by surveys of establishments.

“In fact, should people show interest in studying it [public markets], private corporations and companies would be the ones to be capable of researching them. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to grasp the entire phenomenon in a country-wide scale,” Navarrete said.

The PIDS study conducted by Digal said that, while the retail sector contributes more than 10 percent of total GDP,

this figure may be underestimated because the majority of microenterprises in the Philippines are not covered by the Census of Establishments.

“Data is hard to gather because some establishments and stalls decide not to register at all,” Navarrete said.

“Their reasons are reasonable: it is too costly, it would take a lot of documents, and the money you could use to start treatment or buying essential commodities would have to be used in business or investments. If you could start selling right away, why would you bother to complete those requirements, right?” he asked.

Despite the difficulties facing vendors in public markets, enterprising Filipinos still try their luck at selling goods in these areas. Some Filipinos are wont to say that they would rather sell vegetables in wet markets than resort to robbery to feed their families.

FEWER people flock to the Dagonoy market in San Andres, Manila. NONIE REYES Setting up sari-sari stores or a small shop in a public market requires minimum capital and skills. Those who do not have the requisite college degree often become part of the so-called underground economy to survive.

But increasing land values may have been a major factor behind the exponential rise in the price of stalls in public markets. Vendors lament that the rent has risen 400 percent in recent years. “In the past, we only had to pay P2,000 a month. Now, a stall

Peso resilience backfiring on exporters. . .

against the Japanese yen over the same period.

Peso overvalued

“THE dollar value of our exports to those destinations would naturally shrink,” said Emilio Neri, an economist at Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) in Manila. “To some extent, the peso is overvalued.”

While economic growth slowed to a three-year low in the first quarter as government spending faltered, the Philippines saw its currentaccount surplus double from a year

earlier on strong remittances from Filipinos working overseas and callcenter growth. Gross domestic product (GDP) still increased 5.2 percent from a year earlier, compared with 4.71 percent in Indonesia and 3 percent in Thailand.

Business-process outsourcing (BPO), which includes call centers, is also making a bigger contribution to the Philippine economy. BPO revenue will rise 18 percent to $21.3 billion this year, according to the Information Technoloy and Business Process Association of the Philippines.

‘Healthy surpluses’

THE peso is in a good position to weather external disturbances, said Leslie Tang, a foreign-exchange strategist at Malayan Banking Bhd. in Singapore, “The healthy surpluses in the current account, strong growth f u nd a ment a l s suppor ted b y healthy overseas remittances and ongoing domestic reforms, especially in the fight against corruption and cronyism” are aiding the peso, said Tang.

Maybank forecasts the currency

costs P10,000,” Reyes said.

While consumers prefer shopping in supermarkets because of the availability of more items, Navarrete said public markets help ensure that prices would remain stable. He said public markets play a critical role

when it comes to price variations and supply.

“In essence, the public market could be a ‘price regulator’ to ensure that supermarkets do not sell products at a very high price,” Navarrete said.

“For example, if the price of the supermarket is costly relative to the public market’s cost, then people would naturally go to the latter.

If public markets didn’t exist and only supermarkets had products, buyers would not have a say whether or not they plan on changing prices very quickly.”

But the increase in business costs and the declining interest of consumers to shop in public markets are making it more difficult for vendors to stay afloat. Reyes said government support is needed to help public markets survive and stay relevant in the changing times.

To be continued

C  A

will weaken just 0.1 percent from its current level of 45.25 a dollar by the end of the year. That compares with the median estimate for a 0.5percent drop in a Bloomberg survey.

“We become more competitive under a strong dollar scenario,” said Alfredo Yao, chairman and president of Zest-O Corp., which makes fruit juices and ships product to North America and Europe.

Not all local exporters are uncomfortable with the peso’s relative resilience.

“I suppose we don’t feel much

disadvantage,” said Jackson Laureano, president of Fitrite Inc., which exports fruit preserves, noodles and coffee. “What we prefer is for the exchange rate to be stable so we can plan better,” he said in an interview in Manila.

‘Maintain competitiveness’

FOREIGNEXCHANGE reserves that amount to 26 percent of GDP, compared with 12 percent in Indonesia, will help keep the peso steady when the US raises interest rates.

That’s likely to happen this year, Fed-

eral Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen told the US Congress last week.

The Philippine currency has outperformed most of its peers on the back of healthy reserves and currentaccount surpluses, BPI’s Neri wrote in a research note released this month.

“There is a need, however, to maintain competitiveness in the Asean space as exports, and now the BPO sector, have become more integral to our economy,” he said.

“Remaining ahead of the pack is bad news for US dollar earners.”

Bloomberg News

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

SBMA ready to coexist with military base

Comelec chief fails to reveal fallback plan if SC junks voting-machine deals

C B H E Correspondent

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UBIC BAY FREEPORT—Despite its mandate to convert and develop into civilian and commercial use in what used to be a US naval base here, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is ready and willing to coexist with a military base that the government is set to establish in this free port.

SBMA Chairman Roberto V. Garcia said in a media interview here on Monday that he sees no problem for a mixed civilian and military use of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

“We’re a government agency, and for reasons of national security we have to cooperate with the national government,” Garcia said.

He added the return of Subic as a military base is understandable “because Subic simply offers the best defense position” for the Philippines and its allies in view of Chinese aggression on the West Philippine Sea. The Philippine government announced last week that it would reopen Subic Bay as a military base to allow quicker response to Chinese movements in disputed waters.

Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino said the government would station fighter planes and frigates in Subic as part of a defensive posture.

Garcia confirmed the plan on Monday, saying that under a memorandum of agreement signed last year with the Department of National Defense (DND), the SBMA has set aside 13 hectares for the proposed Philippine military base in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

This will be in the Cubi Point area, that is at the southwest apron of the Subic Bay International Airport, an area that used to be the air terminal of the courier giant Federal Express before it relocated to China.

Garcia said it would take at least six months for the government to refurbish the facilities, considering

the sad state the terminal has fallen into after FedEx’s departure in 2009.

“As I understand it, the proposed base will be what they call in military parlance a ‘forward operating base’ because it is near a potential source of conflict. But mainly it will be a training base,” Garcia said.

He added that the use by American forces of the proposed Philippine base would not violate the Constitution because the visiting foreign troops that may be hosted in the base would be here only on a rotational basis.

He also said that Philippine allies like Japan and Australia, which are also seeking to sign a visiting forces agreement similar to the existing pact with the US, might also be hosted in the proposed Subic base.

Aside from the air base at the Cubi Point, the Armed Forces will also use the Alava, Bravo and Boton wharves here for the naval assets, Garcia said. As of now, Subic is already the home port of the country’s two frigates that were acquired from the US last year.

Garcia clarified, however, that the SBMA-DND agreement would only be implementable once the Supreme Court gives the green light to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which provides for greater access by foreign allies of Philippine military bases.

On the economic side, Garcia said the SBMA will not be generating any income from hosting a Philippine base. “But local companies that can provide services to the military, as well as the local hotels and restaurants, would surely benefit from Subic’s hosting of a base,” he added.

Garcia added that under the agreement with the DND, the military would have priority in using facilities here only in case of national emergency.

“So I think, this would not prejudice the interest of our business locators in the free port,” Garcia said.

De Lima still undecided on candidacy for senator B J R. S J

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USTICE Secretary Leila M. de Lima on Monday said she is still undecided on whether to run for the Senate in next year’s elections and that she is not used to pressure and mudslinging in politics.

De Lima, however, said she is “heartened and humbled” by the individuals and groups that are pushing her to try her luck in the Senate.

One of those pushing for de Lima’s candidacy is lawyer Dahlia Salamat who formally launched #Lima2016 on Monday, urging her to run for the Senate.

Salamat said the group was “a voluntary movement of individuals and groups committed to pursue democratic governance and a rights-based reform agenda.”

“Tinitingnan ko muna kung kaya ko ba talaga pumasok sa mundo ng pulitika kasi hindi ako sanay diyan. Well, kung

trabaho syempre kaya ko po iyan pero ang environment itself, I would not know if I’m cut out for it,” de Lima told reporters in a text message.

De Lima also denied involvment in Salamat’s activities although some of those behind the group are her friends and sorority sisters at San Beda College.

“Aware ako sa activity nila pero hindi ako involved diyan. It is purely an initiative of volunteers, some of whom I know, friends, sorority sisters, and some I do not know,” she said.

Prior to her appointment as justice secretary, de Lima was an election lawyer and head of the Commission on Human Rights during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo. She quickly joined the Aquino bandwagon when then-Sen. Benigno Aquino III announced his candidacy for president in 2009. With Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, July 21, 2015 A3

B J R. S J

OMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista on Monday refused to disclose the poll body’s contingency plan for next year national and local elections in the event that the Supreme Court (SC) ruled against the legality of the ongoing parallel public biddings for the repair of the old Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines and for the lease with option to purchase of new Optical Mark Reader (OMR) units.

During Monday’s Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel, a weekly media forum, Bautista assured that the Comelec will abide by any ruling of the Court although all its efforts are geared toward automation.

Three petitions have so far been filed before the SC questioning the constitutionality and legality of several processes being undertaken by the Comelec for next year’s elections.

One of the petitions was filed by several bishops led by Archbishop Rolando Tirona seeking

to declare null and void Comelec Resolution 15-0444.

The said resolution canceled the lease of Election Management System and Precinct-Based Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) in the amount of P32 million and procurement of Voter Verification System in the amount of P727 million.

It also realigned the Comelec’s unobligated balances from its 2014 Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses for Sangguniang Kabataan elections and SK registration for its

capital outlay requirement for 2016.

Another petition was filed by the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (Cenpeg) assailing Comelec Resolution 15-0355 which approved the conduct of parallel bidding for the refurbishment of existing PCOS machines and new OMR units with a total budgetary requirement of P14 billion.

The petitioner argued that there is no legal basis for conducting a parallel or simultaneous bidding, and that the same is contrary to public policy.

The Court earlier directed the Comelec to file its separate comments on the Tirona and Cenpeg petition.

On Friday former Elections Commissioner Augusto “Gus” Lagman and several other advocates of clean and honest elections asked the SC to stop the poll body from awarding the contract for the lease with option to purchase 23,000 OMR machines to be used in the May 2016 national and local elections.

Lagman also asked the Court to issue a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary injunction enjoining the Comelec from implementing its decision issued on June 29, granting the protest, as well as declaring that the joint venture of Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) and Jarltech International Corp. as having the lowest calculated responsive bid in connection with the public bidding for the 23,000 OMR machines.

The petitioners argued that the

Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion in granting Smartmatic’s protest, considering that the latter is no longer eligible to engage in the country’s electoral process.

The Comelec-Special Bids and Awards Committee issued a resolution recommending the issuance of the notice of award in favor of Smartmatic-TIM Corp. for the provision of 23,000 OMR. “Secret pa ngayon…backup units eh, wala pa.... Ang dapat lang gawin eh sagutin ang mga petitition na iyon....

At this point our direction is toward automation, iyan ang nakasaad sa batas. Kailangan nating sundin ang batas,” Bautista said when asked about the poll body’s back up plan in case the parallel biddings were nullified.

“Kunwari pinagbawal kaming gawin ang isang bagay siyempre we have to act accordingly, basta ang aming direction is automated elections in 2016,” he added.

When asked on the possibility of tapping a new system as a backup plan, such as the Transparent Election System being pushed by the poll watchdog group, AES Watch, the poll chief pointed that the Comelec is unlikely to “experiment” with the next presidential elections.

“As we have said before, I don’t think we want to experiment with the system that we will be using in 2016.

I think they have some good features.

But as I pointed out, for 2016, mahirap ng gamitin ang mga untried and untested systems,” Bautista said.

Aquino unveils new e-passport system B B F

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RESIDENT Aquino on Monday unveiled the new e-passport system during simple rites at a highly secured government printing plant in Batangas, demonstrating real-time processing of applications submitted online from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila and Philippine consulates in Hong Kong and Doha, Qatar.

Arriving by presidential helicopter, Aquino visited the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Production Unit’s high-security printing plant in Malvar, Batangas, where he unveiled an inaugural marker before getting the first e-passport, billed as one of the administration’s legacy projects Aquino would highlight at his last State of the Nation Address before a joint session of Congress on July 27.

According to APO Chairman Mila Alora, the history of the APO Production Unit, a government-recognized printer tasked to handle the printing of excise stamps and other official documents, shows a remarkable transformation: from being saddled by debt and inefficiency, the agency was able to reform itself by implementing both short-term and long-term measures aimed at improving performance.

With the recent acquisition of new printing equipment and the streamlining of processes, APO officials are confident that the plant will be able to commence the production of e-passports as targeted, by January

PRESIDENT Aquino observes the live demonstration of the new ePassport System and Program during the introduction of the new Philippine travel document at the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Production Unit Inc. high-security printing plant at the Lima Technology Center on Apolinario Mabini Street, Malvar, Batangas, on Monday. MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU

2016, under a system where regular processing for the head office and National Capital Region offices will be shortened from 15 to 10 working days, while express processing will be shortened from seven to five working days.

Monday’s event featured the

unveiling of the historical marker of APO Production Unit’s security printing plant and a live demonstration of the new e-passport system, highlighted by the release of the first e-passport for Aquino. The program, likewise, showcased the APO Lima security printing plant’s capability

to conduct the security printing of e-passports, accountable forms, excise stamps and identity documents for the government.

A Malacañang statement said the facility and process also stand to benefit the some 10 million Filipino workers abroad.

Afad lauds Marquez move to decentralize gun licensing B C L C Philippines News Agency

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GROUP of firearms and ammunition dealers on Monday expressed relief on the announcement of the newly installed National Police chief, Director General Ricardo Marquez, that he would decentralize the firearms-licensing process to ease

the burden of license renewal on the part of gun owners.

In a statement, the Association of Firearms and Ammunition Dealers (Afad) President Joy Gutierrez-Jose hailed the move of Marquez to decentralize the gun-licensing system to allow gun owners to renew their licenses in the different regional offices of the National Police.

She also congratulated Marquez on his appointment as National Police chief by President Aquino.

It can be recalled that several organizations complained against the previous set up that required them to renew their firearms license only at the National Police’s Firearms and Explosives Office Headquarters at Camp General

Rafael Crame, Quezon City, that entailed big sacrifice for gun owners from far-flung areas.

Last month the National Police, under the leadership of Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, approved the streamlining of licensing process to have alternatives to the requirements in the renewal of the document.

Economy

A4 Tuesday, July 21, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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Palace buoyed by survey citing number of hungry Pinoys down

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B B F

ALACAÑANG, encouraged by the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing the number of hungry Filipino families have gone down by 12.7 percent in the second quarter of 2015, vowed to step up poverty-reduction efforts during President Aquino’s final year in office.

“Recent results show that selfrated hunger has been on a downward trend these past quarters,” Deputy Spokesman Abigail Valte said on Monday. “We hope that this will continue, as the administration further ramps up its efforts to implement programs and policies that will contribute to a better overall quality of life for our citizens.”

In a news statement, the Palace acknowledged that the SWS June 5 to 8 survey among 1,200 adults nationwide showed that 12.7 percent of the respondents, representing 2.8 million families, admitted having “experienced hunger at least once in the past three months.”

The SWS, likewise, took note

briefs NEW FUEL PRICE SLASH TAKES EFFECT ON TUESDAY

OIL firms on Tuesday slashed the price of petroleum products, owing to the continued softening of international oil prices.

A P0.20 per liter price rollback for gasoline and kerosene and a P0.50 per liter reduction in diesel takes effect on July 21, the oil companies said in separate announcements.

On Tuesday last week, gasoline prices went down by P0.60 per liter and P1.60 per liter for diesel and kerosene.

A week prior to that, or on July 7, the price of gasoline went down by P0.70 per liter. Diesel and kerosene prices also declined P0.65 per liter.

The series of price cuts reflect the continued downward trend of petroleum prices in the international market.

“Overall, Dubai crude decreased week-on-week by about $4.60 per barrel. Likewise, MOPS gasoline decreased by $2.00 and diesel by about $5 per barrel,” the Department of Energy said. Lenie Lectura

2GO GOES EVEHICLE

LOGISTICS firm 2GO partners with electric vehicle local manufacturer EMotors Inc. to cut its carbon footprint by using the latter’s ZÜM electric threewheel vehicles, or e-trikes.

EMotors President Elizabeth H. Lee said the company will supply 2GO’s electric fleet requirements which will be distributed to ports where 2GO is operating.

“2GO has identified and separated ‘necessary emissions’ from those that could first be reduced or eliminated, by replacing select transport services with zero-emission electric vehicles,” Lee said.

“We are proud to partner with innovative and fast-growing companies like 2GO who took the initiative to ‘jump the curve’ to the next level by consciously integrating the ZÜM electric vehicles in their operations, acting as a platform for community and customer engagement, while building on its brand that is good for business,” she added.

As a local e-vehicle maker, EMotors targets to partner with both private and public sectors for the use of e-vehicles in the country to lower carbon emission and contribute to a more sustainable environment. PNA

that the survey result indicated that the latest figure on hungry Filipinos was 0.8 percent lower than the first quarter’s 13.5 percent (equivalent to 3 million families), which the Palace cited as “the lowest since May 2005’s 12 percent.”

According to the Palace, the latest SWS survey also “showed that 10.8 percent, or about 2.4 million families, experienced “moderate hunger” (experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months), while 1.9 percent (431,000 families) said they experienced “severe hunger” (experienced hunger “often” or “always” over the same period).

But Valte said the Palace welcomes

the SWS’s self-rated survey on hunger, which she pointed out, was “a significant drop in the number of families experiencing involuntary hunger: from 16.3 percent in June 2014 to 12.7 percent.

“According to the SWS, this is the lowest recorded rate in 10 years, since May 2005,” she added.

The Palace official recalled that since President Aquino took office in 2010, the administration had been pushing for inclusive growth where “no one was to be left behind.”

For instance, Valte cited the government’s so-called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino (PPP) Program covering more than 4 million household beneficiaries.

“The PPP Program is an example of the government’s commitment to the Filipino people, as it embodies concrete investments in human development, empowering beneficiaries and their families to better care for themselves,” she said, adding that “this is consistent with recent survey results on unemployment and underemployment, which have gone down under this administration.”

Valte explained that because of government efforts to ensure consistency of food supply, “inflation has been kept down and practices of basic commodities have remained relatively steady.”

DBM: P179.7-B SPF released in January-to-June period

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HE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released 44.3 percent, or P179.7 billion, of lump sum or special purpose funds (SPFs) from the 2015 national budget to fund local projects and salaries and pension of government personnel.

The DBM disbursement report in June showed that only P226.1 billion is left from the total P405.7 billion lump-sum funds for 2015.

Of the total releases, the DBM report also showed that the biggest lump-sum release in terms of amount was for the support of government corporations at P66.4 billion, or 66.7 percent, of the actual budget.

At the same time, the highest release in terms of percentage was 90.5 percent for the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority at P1.98 billion from the total P2.18 billion worth of allocation.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said the early release of SPF is

part of the fiscal management reform measures to fund projects that will sustain economic growth.

He said under the program General Appropriations Act as Release Document, “the DBM made the majority of funds available to agencies at the very start of the year.”

“The remaining allotments are earmarked for later release, once agencies have complied with conditions or have requested the funds,” Abad said.

Meanwhile, the second-biggest SPF release in terms of amount was P48.2 billion for the Pension and Gratuity Fund which is 38.1 per cent of the total allocation.

Miscellaneous and Personnel Benefits also obtained the third highest release from the SPF allocation in terms of amount at P43. 7 billion, or 37.2 percent, of the total allocation. The DBM also released 74.3 percent, or P7.9 billion, of SPF share for International Commitment Funds. Estrella Torres

FOOD SPECIALTY

Tacloban City delicacy products like binagol and moron sell like hotcakes at the city downtown center amid spate reports of food-poisoning incidents in various parts of the country. Authorities have cautioned consumers, especially students, on the consumption of street foods. ROY DOMINGO

New battery technologies seen to make solar power affordable B J M S  E L P Special to the BM

T

HE continued development of new battery technologies can make solar power more affordable for Filipinos, according to a policy note released by the Philippine Center for Economic Development.

In the policy note titled Solar Power’s Dawning and Promise for Inclusive Green Growth, former Asian Development Bank lead economist Ernesto M. Pernia said technological advancements in batteries for solar power rose by 70 percent in the past five years. Continuing these innovations in the next decade, Pernia said, could reduce the price of solar panels by another 70 percent.

“Development of technologies, particularly batteries, to store electricity is called for. Fortuitously, over the last five years, the costs of battery storage have dropped by about 70 percent,” Pernia said.

“In fact, such companies as SolarCity are already packing solar panels with batteries. In another 10 years or so, with ongoing battery research, the price could fall further by 70 percent due to improvements in technology and manufacturing,” he added.

Pernia said this is crucial since accessible and affordable electricity is

considered a poverty-reduction tool.

If solar panels can be made affordable through new battery technologies, the government can help more poor Filipinos get out of poverty.

The economist urged the national government to work on this by promoting large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic panels to be installed by private companies.

“The National Renewable Energy Board and the Energy Regulatory Commission will have to seriously reconsider the FiT [feed-in tariff] rates toward unburdening the consuming public, while making solar power, and other REs [renewable energies] for that matter, competitive in the energy market,” Pernia said.

Currently, solar energy is expensive in the country. Pernia’s data showed that the range of government-approved FiT rates for the solar power is P8.69 per kilowatthour (kWh).

Even the FiT rates for other renewables are high. Pernia said the FiT for wind power is P8.53/kWh; biomass, P6.63/kWh; and hydro, P5.90/kWh. However, the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) opposed the energy department’s plan, saying that solar power’s disadvantages to consumers outweigh its advantages for solar-energy developers and foreign-equipment suppliers.

The FEF said the new solar projects

will have an additional P0.32/kWh to the consumer’s electricity bills.

“We are not against renewable energy per se, but against the obscene prices that must be borne by the Filipino consumers due to the exorbitant feed-in tariff rates and duration [20 years] given to renewable-energy developers,” FEF stated.

Meanwhile, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines) supports the Department of Energy’s move, saying that solar power will be cheaper in the long run.

WWF added that the increase in cost will only be a maximum of P0.5/ kWh for the additional 450 MW of solar plants.

According to the International Energy Agency, solar power will become the single largest source of power by 2050, comprising 27 percent of electricity worldwide.

Lack of electricity has always been a global problem. A Brazilian energy expert said that about 2 billion people worldwide lack electricity and almost 3 billion are dependent on dirty fuels, such as firewood and animal dang used for cooking and heating.

However, the companies investing on solar panels, in partnership with local banks, are looking for ways to finance and produce affordable solar power, making it accessible for the poor.

Infracom OKs 16 new projects for feasibility-study funding B C U. O

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HE Infrastructure Committee (Infracom) on Monday disclosed that 16 new projects are qualified to tap into the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) feasibility fund.

The projects cover various sectors such as energy, irrigation, fishports, biorefineries, rail and the Bataan-Cavite Natural Gas pipeline project.

However, only P147 million of the P400million fund remains, and only two to three projects may be able to access fund on a firstcome, first-serve basis.

The P400-million worth feasibility studies fund was designed for official development assistance (ODA) and locally funded projects which needed financing for feasibility studies.

Since 2014 the fund has financed the feasibility studies of seven projects that received some P257.74 million.

Of these seven projects, four projects are already undergoing feasibility studies. These are the Kabulnan-2 Multipurpose Irrigation and Power project that received P46.92 million and the Appropriate Waste-to-Energy Technology project which received P48.55 million from the fund.

The list of four projects also include the

nonrevenue reduction and control projects and concept designs for the sanitation projects and the establishment of a commercial sweet sorghum plantation and construction of a sweet sorghum syrup processing plant which received P72.63 million and P13.64 million from the fund, respectively.

The feasibility study for two other projects will soon be awarded to consultants. These projects are the Ilocos Norte Irrigation Project Stage II and the Nationwide Fish Ports project, which received funding of P30.52 million and P15.48 million from the fund, respectively.

The last project, the Mindanao Railway, is still waiting for the submission of consultants.

The project is set to receive P30 million from the fund.

In 2013 Neda Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan said the fund will help speed up the implementation of government projects.

Balisacan said that usually, the government waits for donor funding for feasibility studies, which he said, takes time away from feasibility studies.

The time consumed by agencies in undertaking projects will be shortened with the presence of the feasibility studies fund. The Neda noted that start-up delays and high cost overruns as among key issues in implementing ODA-funded projects.

SUNDAY FISHERMEN

A group of bikers park their bicycles along the Marikina Riverbanks in Marikina City while trying their luck in catching a fish from the river with the use of fishing rods on Sunday. PNA

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

PPA’s Sta. Ana says port logjam is ‘thing of the past’ B L S. M

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ILL history repeat itself?

Businesses, according to observers, are now trembling in fear due to the possibility of yet another round of logjam at the ports in Manila, as shipments start to surge in the third quarter for the holiday season.

The feared repeat of the year long terminal congestion that started in February last year is expected to start

by August or September.

The bottleneck, despite being a sign of an expanding economy, has contributed to the sluggish expansion of the local output last year, pulling down the projected 6.5-percent increase in gross domestic product to 6.1 percent.

It also affected businesses in a myriad of negative ways, as it forced enterprises to hike their operational costs to meet public demand and avoid more losses from spoilage.

But the government is not convinced, stressing that port congestion problems is a “thing of the past.”

Philippine Ports Authority General Manager Juan C. Sta. Ana allayed fears of a possible round of logjam, as the two terminals in Manila are now ready to handle an anticipated inflation in cargo volume.

“The two Manila ports are more than ready to handle the anticipated rise in cargo volume in the coming months brought about by the Christmas season and the upcoming national elections,” he said.

Sta. Ana added that Manila South Harbor and Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) have reached optimum ideal capacity.

“This makes them ready for the anticipated surge in activity starting the holiday season this year up to next year’s national elections,” he said.

The two ports are operating “even better prior to the pre-port congestion level in February 2014,” the port chief added.

Yard utilization at South Harbor and MICT is now at 55 percent to 59 percent, or about 44,000 to 48,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

“Port productivity has really gone up to all-time highs resulting in faster turnaround time for cargoes and vessels to and from the port,” he said.

The easing in the situation at the ports came despite volume in the Port of Manila posting a doubledigit growth.

Port operators have also taken steps to prevent backlogs at the

ports, with the Razon-operated terminal engaging “1 Stop of Australia” to implement Terminal Appointment Booking System (TABS), which has targeted September for the system’s first run.

The pullout of containers had also been stepped up as a result of a collaboration among consignees, the Bureau of Customs, and the International Container Terminal Services Inc. Less storage resulted in more yard space at the ports.

The port chief, however, acknowledge that there will still be some “glitches” in yard productivity in the coming months, but assured the public that measures are now in place to prevent the repeat of the congestion this coming peak season.

“While we anticipate some glitches, we can easily address it particularly now that we have almost zero vessels waiting at anchorage and the number of cargoes coming out of our gates has been steady,” Sta. Ana said.

He added: “Barring any major policies implemented outside the ports, we will never see another scenario just like last year where port operations really hit rock bottom.”

Ports suffered from massive backlogs after the Manila city government imposed a daytime truck ban beginning late February 2014.

Effects of the congestion were felt long after the ban was temporarily lifted in September.

But the actual congestion problem was only fully addressed about a year after. It caused spikes in consumer prices, and created a dent on the government’s efforts to improve the country’s competitiveness ranking.

In the first four months of 2015, total cargo volume handled by PPA ports reached 66.6 million metric tons (mmt), 6.3 percent higher than the 62.63 mmt posted in the same period the year prior.

Domestic cargoes registered a 6.9-percent hike to 27.75 mmt from 25.97 mmt last year, while foreign cargo increased by 5.97 percent to 38.85 mmt from 36.66 mmt a year ago.

Imports rose 7.69 percent to 22.21 mmt from 20.63 mmt in 2014, while exports increased by a slower 3.75 percent to 16.63 mmt compared to 16.03 mmt posted in 2014.

Among the Manila ports, MICT continued to handle the largest volume of foreign boxes with 650,629 TEUs, followed by South Harbor with 280,736 TEUs.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015 A5

Govt urged to rechannel CCT dole-out fund to job generation

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B J M N.  C

HE government should divert to job creation the huge budget for the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), two lawmakers said on Monday.

House Independent Bloc Leader and Lakas Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez of Leyte and House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna party-list Neri Colmenares said the billions of pesos cash dole-out scheme for the poor should instead be used to enhance

the skills of Filipinos.

“Let us teach our people how to catch fish and not to continuously depend on government’s resources through the CCT. It is the primary duty of the state to ensure that quality and decent jobs are given to Filipinos. The need for livelihood

and jobs are the real concerns now and this is a long-term solution to address the widespread poverty,” Romualdez said.

Colmenares, for his part, said the national government’s flagship CCT had always been questionable.

He said that the dole out is essentially legalized "vote buying because it is a means to influence voters and not a means to alleviate poverty.”

“The budget should instead be used for creating jobs and implementing genuine land reform. This would benefit the poor more than the hundreds of billions spent for CCT,” Colmenares said.

The proposed P3.002-trillion national budget next year is 15.2 percent higher than the 2015 national budget and comprises 19.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Retail price of construction materials up 0.1% in June–PSA B C U. O

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE

A flower shop owner sprays water to refresh what remains fresh rose stocks at her stall in Dangwa, Manila. According to shop owners, supplies of flowers have seen a significant decline following continuous southwest monsoon rains in Northern Luzon where most of the flower farms are located. ALYSA SALEN

MMDA expands Metro Manila’s preparation for the ‘big one’ B C M-C Correspondent

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HEN the “big one” hits Metro Manila, traffic enforcers will not only be manning and supervising traffic: Some of them will do the job of an embalmer as well.

This was revealed by Metropolitan Manila Development Author-

SKYWAY PROJECT

ity (MMDA) Chairman Francis N. Tolentino following the signing of the memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Mortuary Association (PMA) on Monday.

Tolentino said at least five MMDA traffic personnel will be trained by PMA as embalmers and will be subjected to accreditation by the Department of Health.

Under the agreement, the PMA

The biggest chunk of it will be allocated for the Department of Education (P436.5 billion) and DSWD (P107.6 billion).

The Department of Budget and Management said that P62.35 billion—under the DSWD’s 2016 budget—has been allocated for the program.

The 4Ps is a conditional cash transfer program of the government aimed at eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, among others.

The program provides cash grants to targeted poor Filipino families based on sustained, verified compliance with certain health and education conditions. Such conditions include sending children to school, ensuring they receive regular checkups and participating in family planning and nutrition.

will submit to the MMDA a list of funeral vehicles that they will be using in retrieval operations so that these could be exempted from the number coding scheme.

According to Tolentino, the services of morticians and funeral parlors are very crucial as they will be in charge of the management of the dead.

“We need to establish definite

roles for every sector involved in disaster preparedness and management, as each and everyone should be ready to provide necessary services to the public in times of disaster,” Tolentino said.

The MMDA has been continuously meeting with local government units (LGUs) and concerned government agencies in preparation for the Metrowide earthquake drill.

Apart from LGUs, the MMDA also sought the participation of the Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines and Bureau of Fire Protection.

For its part, the National Telecommunication Commission is in charge with the information dissemination by conducting text blast two hours before and two days before the drill.

Photos above show the ongoing construction of the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 (MMSS-3) Project along Araneta Avenue in Quezon City on Sunday. The MMSS-3 Project is an elevated expressway, which begins from Buendia Avenue in Makati City to A. Bonifacio Avenue and Balintawak, Quezon City, a distance of about 14.82 kilometers. PNA

ONSTRUCTION retail prices in Metro Manila picked up slightly in June, according to the recent Construction Materials Retail Price Index (CMRPI).

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed that retail prices of construction materials inched up 0.1 percent in June this year, higher than the contraction of 0.2 percent in May and lower than the 1.1 percent posted in June 2014.

The slight increase was due to the pick up in the carpentry materials index at 2.5 percent; plumbing materials index, 0.7 percent; and tinsmithry materials index, 0.3 percent.

Construction materials that tempered the increase in prices were the indices of electrical materials and miscellaneous construction materials which posted contractions of 1.5 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively.

“The indices for masonry materials and painting materials and related compounds correspondingly moved at their last month’s rates of 1.6 percent and 2.5 percent,” the PSA said.

On a month-on-month basis, construction material prices in the National Capital Region (NCR) inched up 0.3 percent in June faster than the 0.1 percent posted in May 2015.

The monthly increases in the carpentry materials index, electrical materials index, plumbing materials index, and tinsmithry materials index caused the uptick in the CMRPI. “Add-ons were noted in the prices of plywood, lawanit, electrical wires and selected wiring devices, sanitary and plumbing fixtures and corrugated GI sheets during the month. Downward price adjustments were however, observed in cement, paints and steel bars,” the PSA said.

The increment in the index of painting materials and related compounds decelerated to 0.2 percent. Decreases were correspondingly noticed in masonry materials and miscellaneous construction indices at -0.2 percent and -1 percent.

The CMRPI is a variant of the is a variant of the General Retail Price Index. It measures the changes in the average retail prices of construction materials.

T he ma rket ba sket of t he CMRPI is composed of 102 commodities and classified into seven major groups.

These groups are carpentry materials, electrical materials, masonry materials, painting materials and related compounds, plumbing materials, tinsmithry materials, and miscellaneous construction materials.

A6 Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

China’s biggest problem

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HINA’S most serious economic problem is not its collapsing stock markets. It is neither its “ghost cities” nor property sector. The fact that thousands of businesses have gone under in the last years, as export growth and balance of trade have been erratic, is only a symptom. Even China’s declining economic-growth rate is not the greatest challenge facing the country.

China’s biggest economic problem is that all of these are so tightly connected that there is no room for minor economic disruptions.

For the first two months of 2015, China’s property sales fell 16.3 percent—the biggest in three years—against a drop of 7.6 percent for all of 2014. However, by April, conditions have been picking up. After several months of falling property prices as sales decelerated, the downtrend started to slow down. Prices in Shanghai and Beijing fell 4.7 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, from 2014, compared with 5 percent and 3.7 percent in March. From March to April, prices actually increased slightly in both cities by 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

In the middle of March, the Shanghai stock market suddenly started moving higher and accelerated in April, just about the same time as the property sector started falling off a bit.

The stock market kept booming until the middle of June, when the current devastation of falling prices began. This is not a coincidence. Neither is it coincidental that since the stock-market peak in June, the property market is also changing.

Funds were not used to buy property, but were instead diverted into the stock market as it began to take off. But the relationship between real estate and share prices has been going on for a long time. The Shanghai stock market doubled in value from the middle of 2014 and started going higher just about the same time as the property sector started going down.

Now, because of the huge borrowing that funded the stock market, investors are forced to sell property to pay their stock-market debt. Property sales are up dramatically in June from the previous months.

Part of the problem is the prevailing get-rich-quick mentality from the elementary-educated farmer to the experienced investor. Money flows very quickly from one asset class to another and, further, there is not enough money in the system to support a bull market in both. Loan growth in China has been falling since 2012 and economic growth since then has not created enough new wealth.

China’s biggest economic problem is the “hot money” behavior of its investors and the lack of money to support that attitude.

Certainly we are all interested in getting rich as quickly as possible.

But in the Philippines, there is much more prudent thought and behavior involved when it comes to investments.

A businessman’s take on the economy Manny B. Villar

THE ENTREPRENEUR First of a series

I

’M not an economist, but I keep abreast of economic reports, such as the quarterly performance in terms of the gross domestic product (GDP). Thus, my views on the economy are based largely on personal observation and experience, a kind of hands-on take on the economy.

Economists, both from the government and the private sector, were dismayed by the GDP growth of 5.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015, which was lower than expected. The government has been targeting an average growth rate of 7 percent to 8 percent for this year, to rebound from the 6.2-percent GDP growth in 2014 after posting 7.2 percent in 2013.

The performance in the first quarter also drew pessimistic reaction from some groups. But other quarters, not just the government, remained confident that the economy could still recover.

The World Bank, in its flagship report “Global Economic Prospects,” expects the Philippines to post strong growth in 2015 and in the next

couple of years despite the multilateral institution’s lower forecast for the global economy. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also does not see any need for additional stimulus to prep up the economy after the slowdown in the first quarter, given the good prospects for the remainder of the year.

The slowdown was attributed mainly to the lower spending by the government, particularly on capital projects like infrastructure. Public construction during the first quarter of 2015 dropped by 24.6 percent to P56.37 billion compared with P73.93 billion in the same period in 2014.

As I noted in previous discussions, the private sector took up the slack, as private construction increased by 16 percent to reach P279.3 billion

The PSE is going higher John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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HILIPPINE politics continue to crowd out other issues in most newspapers. The two words that I take away from all the talk are “corruption” and “experience.” However, I firmly believe that the situation is going to get much more “exciting” and, at some point, the potential candidates will be forced to talk about another issue in specific terms—economics.

Economic issues for the political class in the Philippines usually come down to two words: poverty and “poor.” Maybe I am too cynical, but it seems like every politician’s ultimate campaign motto is, “I’ll promise to end poverty so that the poor will vote for me.”

The election will take place in May 2016 and, by then, we will have three more quarters—and one complete year—of economic data to look at. Remember that the first quarter of 2015 gross domestic product (GDP) growth was below expectations at 5.2 percent.

The latest GDP forecasts for 2015 are 6.2 percent from the International Monetary Fund and 6.4 percent from the Asian Development Bank. Standard & Poor’s is predicting 6 percent.

Everyone, if pressed hard enough, will disclose his or her personal choice for president. That is relatively easy to do

when the election is some eight months away. Many things will change between now and next year. So let me offer this food for thought: Who would you vote for in May 2016 if 2015 GDP growth came in at 5 percent and the first two quarters of 2016 showed even slower economic growth?

Edward R. Dewey was an American economist who died in 1978. I mention his death because he was old enough to remember World War I and the aftermath, through the Great Depression and the boom of the 1950s, as well as the 1973 oil shock that changed the planet.

He used gold coins as a young adult, then witnessed the US dollar become only a piece of paper.

Dewey was the chief economic analyst of the US Department of Commerce during the Depression and was part of the study commissioned by then-

compared with P240.6 billion in the first quarter of 2014. This indicates something positive. While economists worry about the lower GDP numbers and the issue of underspending by the government, those in business—the investors, the CEOs, the tycoons— who really are the major players in the economy, maintain their aggressive stance, unfazed by the not-so-pleasing economic report.

I call it excitement, a word that is not part of the economist’s lingo, but it is something obvious to a businessman like me. It explains why private construction grew by double digits, while public construction shrank, also by double digits, in the first quarter.

Excitement is also reflected in the skyline of Metro Manila, and even in the provinces, which is fast changing.

Interesting things are happening in the private sector and we see a lot of aggressive moves by the big players, the tycoons. The continuing improvement in the business climate, brought about by higher credit ratings for the government, the liberalization of the banking industry and the lifting of the European ban on Philippine carriers and, of course, the bright prospects for the economy, among other factors, further stimulate the aggressiveness in the private sector.

Excitement reflects how the tycoons feel about the future of the Philippine economy. It is indicative of the

strong investor confidence, as well as their optimism about their business prospects. The excitement is not limited to local investors, as we see the influx of foreign brands, which enhances the attractiveness of the Philippines as an investment hub.

The excitement affects many industries, particularly tourism, the hotel industry, the retail business and related sectors. The excitement also reflects the changes in the domestic market, including the rising purchasing power of Filipinos. The tycoons are continuously expanding their operations and reach through acquisitions or organic expansion, and are taking their capital to many provinces outside the metropolis.

All of these changes can only be good for the Philippines, which still needs to take leaps and bounds to reach the stage of economic development where every family will be able to live comfortably, without worrying whether there will be food on the table for the next meal.

I will discuss the exciting things that are happening in some industries and economic sectors in more detail in the succeeding columns.

President Herbert Hoover to find out what caused the Great Depression. Every economist that Dewey spoke to gave a different reason. Dewey then went on to spend the rest of his life studying cycles.

His studies with several important collaborators, such as sales guru “Og” Mandino, covered many fields to prompt Dewey to write in 1967, “More than 500 different phenomena in 36 different areas of knowledge have been found to fluctuate in rhythmic cycles.”

Of course, his ideas are totally dismissed by “real” economists primarily because, if the world operates according to rhythmic fluctuations that come on schedule, that would put many experts out of business. If an ordinary person could predict, for example, when the next full moon would come by counting its rhythmic cycle, we would not need wizards and shamans to protect us. Oh yeah... we all can predict the next full moon.

But, of course, economics depends on a huge interplay and the interdependency of human actions, as well as external events, and with the total free will for humans to take any action, rhythmic cycles would be impossible.

But the problem is that those cycles clearly exist. Sunspot activity follows regular cycles that then correlate to temperature and climate changes. Temperature and climate changes determined agricultural and economic success, that then correlated to the rise and fall of ancient empires back to the Sumerians.

And every ancient government had its own economic experts.

Economist Joseph Schumpeter said that there were four economic cycles: Kitchin, Juglar, Kuznets and Kondratieff. Kondratieff Waves are used in some stock-market analysis. The idea of the Fibonacci numbers sequence is really nothing more than a rhythmic wave and regularly repeats itself.

Several “cycle guys” are calling for a major downturn in the global economy beginning at the end of September.

Believing that the stock market does forecast the future several months out, I think that recent downside market action since April only serves to confirm the change in cycle that is going to happen at the end of September. I believe that local stock prices have told us to expect many negative things happening in August and September, as a preview of the real economic damage that will occur in the fourth quarter.

As the bad economic news begins to build and with some major damage to the debt market, as the Federal Reserve does not significantly raise interest rate, if at all, the only option for money to be profitable will be the stock markets, including the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). I believe that we will see an historic high, and maybe historic highs, before the end of October.

(To be continued) For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@gmail.com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical-analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Are we prepared for Asean integration?

Ernesto M. Hilario

ABOUT TOWN

B

Y the end of this year, the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will proceed with regional integration by creating the single-market Asean Economic Community (AEC).

Transforming the region into a highly competitive market for global trade was first discussed by Asean leaders in a summit in Kuala Lumpur in December 1997, with 2020 as the target date. In their Bali summit in October 2003, they agreed to push through with this plan. Four years later, in November 2007, they reached consensus on bringing the AEC closer to reality much earlier—2015.

For the Philippines, the question that must be answered is: Are we prepared for regional economic integration and fierce economic competition?

If we are to believe Gerardo Sicat, former director general of the National Economic and Development Authority and ex-World Bank senior executive, the Philippines would be put at a disadvantage since it has yet to implement the reforms needed for it to take advantage of the expected greater free trade under the AEC. As Sicat explained, free trade will “enhance the competition among the traders and producers within the region…. Those countries with the freest and most flexible policy mechanisms will gain the most, while those burdened with domestic restrictions will be slowed down by those restrictions since they could prevent or cause investments from happening.”

Leaders of local and foreign-business groups also agree that much still has to be done to make the Philippines adapt to greater free trade under a single regional market. The Philippine Business Group-Joint Foreign Chambers (PBG-JFC), consisting of 18 of the biggest and most active local and foreignbusiness organizations in the country, in a letter to President Aquino dated May 15, listed eight proposals for prompt Executive action and seven more proposals requiring swift congressional approval so that we can improve our competitiveness, attract more foreign investments and boost the Philippine image in the international community.

Among the PBG-JFC’s proposals are the formation of a public-private energy council to solve the power crisis; reducing the Foreign Investment Negative List of industries, where foreign participation is limited; and fast-tracking the implementation of critical infrastructure projects.

The PBG-JFC is also urging the passage of several priority bills in the third and last regular session of the 16th Congress. These are the Fair Competition Act, Freedom of Information Act, and comprehensive reforms in the personal and corporate income-tax system.

The business community is also asking the government to approve Resolution of Both Houses 1 (RBH 1), authored

by House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., which, it says, will encourage more foreign investors to come in.

The government cannot simply dismiss nor ignore the recommendations of the PBG-JFC as this is the umbrella group of practically all of the country’s largest business groups. They include the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Employers Confederation of the Philippines, Philippine Exporters Confederation, Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, American Chamber of Commerce, European Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc. The recommendations of the PBG-JFC make sense because, for one thing, the Philippines is trailing behind the Asean frontrunners—Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia—in attracting foreign direct investments (FDI). As we pointed out in a previous column, Vietnam has already overtaken us in enticing FDI and is poised to leave us biting the

dust with its recent decision to lift caps on foreign investments. The Philippines has also been unable to match our Asean neighbors as far as per-capita income is concerned. We remain in the ranks of low-middle income countries, while our neighbors Thailand and Malaysia have moved up to the category of upper-middle economies.

The PBG-JFC proposal that should merit swift congresssional action is Belmonte’s RBH 1, which seeks to lift the 60-40 rule in the 1987 Charter. This provision requires Filipinos to own at least 60 percent of local businesses and for their foreign partners to own a maximum of 40 percent of these firms.

Another business group, Philippines Inc., an alliance of some of the most respected leaders in the country, has also thrown its support behind RBH 1: “By relaxing the limitations on foreign ownership, the Philippines will be able to maximize its benefit from the Asean integration and create much-needed jobs for the Filipino people…. To realize inclusive growth, the country needs to further accelerate the velocity of growth by instituting a more open policy regime that nurtures a globally competitive investment climate that must be sustained beyond political timelines.”

Belmonte’s resolution calls for adding a five-word phrase—“unless otherwise provided by law”—to seven economic provisions of the 1987 Charter to allow greater participation of foreigners in Philippine businesses. With the insertion of this phrase, RBH 1 will remove restrictions or caps on foreign investments through simple legislation that needs to be approved by both the Senate and the House, and later subjected to a plebiscite.

RBH 1 will not only make the Philippines more attractive to investors, it will also make us more adequately prepared for Asean economic integration.

Starting off on the wrong foot THIS project is well-intentioned, to be sure. We’re referring to the hydroelectric power project in Rodriguez, Rizal, which, when completed, is expected to provide 500 megawatts to 1,000 MW of pumped storage power capacity for peaking use in the Luzon grid and to supply water to Metro Manila. But good intentions must also be matched with good deeds at all times. We’re informed that the project implementor, San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders (SLRB), may have begun to jeopardize other development activities in the area, particularly the reforestation projects of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Recent inspections of the area at the summit of Mount Puro showed that large tracts of forest land had been cleared by heavy equipment used to build an access road. Many crushed saplings were also sighted.

A complaint was lodged with the DENR Provincial Environment and Natural Resources of Antipolo City, which led to the issuance of an order for SLRB to suspend their operations.

This order apparently went unheeded as subsequent inspections showed that other areas were cleared as well, at the expense of reforestation efforts. The project site is the Marikina watershed, which is the source of the Marikina River. Every typhoon season, the Marikina River threatens to overflow its banks. The reforestation projects in the area are intended to stem the flow of water into the river during the rainy season.

Now that the rainy season is here once again, we shudder to think of what would happen if another strong typhoon like Ondoy would hit the area, just like in 2009.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A7

Malnutrition and obesity: Two faces of the same coin Edgardo J. Angara

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ALNUTRITION is a sinister public health hazard. A recent Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report shows that up to 13.5 percent of the Philippines’s population will likely be undernourished in 2016, while 33.6 percent of Filipino children 5 years and under today are stunted. The Food and Nutrition Research Institute’s (FNRI) National Nutrition Survey (NNS) even shows that wasting or thinness among children under 5 increased from 6.2 percent in 1989 to 7.9 percent in 2013.

Malnutrition not only stems from inadequate food intake. At the other end of the problem is obesity, which is excessive caloric intake. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that obesity

is the newest form of malnutrition.

The FNRI’s eighth NNS shows that the prevalence of obesity among Filipinos rose from 16.6 percent in 1993 to 31.1 percent in 2013.

Among children aged 0 to 10 years

old, 5 percent are overweight, while among youth aged 11 to 19 years old, 8.3 percent are obese.

According to a FAO report, obesity attributable to the shift of Filipinos to an “urban diet” and widespread sedentary lifestyles because of increasing urbanization.

Today, Filipinos exhibit a pattern of increased intake of fats and oils, sugars and syrups, meats and processed food, and a decline in fruit and vegetable consumption.

This poses a significant and alarming health hazard as obesity, according to the WHO, is a leading risk for global deaths with fatalities of at least 2.8 million each year. Globally, the FAO estimated in 2010 that the cost of all noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular problems—both related to obesity— reached $1.4 trillion (P45 trillion).

Undernourishment and over-

Samsung’s win is South Korea’s loss William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

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ONG before the South Korean media began indulging in anti-Semitism, Samsung’s recent effort to pull a fast one on its own investors was already firmly in insult territory.

The company’s affront extended both to shareholders and to the Korean public.

The bid by Samsung’s de facto holding company, Cheil Industries, to buy Samsung C&T at a laughably below-market price was a naked power grab by the company’s founding Lee family. But, Samsung dominates South Korea that it managed on Friday to convince the subsidiary’s shareholders to ignore their own interests.

The merger marks a defeat for South Korean President Park Geunhye, who won office in late 2012 with promises to rein in the familyowned companies that stifle Korean innovation. Friday’s vote was Park’s economic waterloo, the moment her government decisively lost the fight against the oligarchs.

It’s also a defeat for activist investor Paul Elliott Singer. Last

month Singer began publicizing his 7.12-percent stake in Samsung C&T, the group’s construction subsidiary, in order to block Samsung group’s proposed deal. Foreign hedge funds are always controversial in Korea, where they’re often derided as “vultures” and “parasites” picking at the nation’s hard work for a quick profit. But Singer was confronted with particularly nasty attacks from Samsung’s sympathizers; media reports referred to him as the face of the “Jews of Wall Street” and their “ruthless and merciless” ways.

The attacks harkened back to 1997, when then-Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad blamed a shadowy Jewish cabal led

by George Soros for crashing his

economy. In its dealings with international investors, Malaysia is still trying to move beyond the ugliness of that moment. Unless Samsung heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong and Park condemn the attacks on Singer, corporate Korea won’t easily move on from this episode, either.

To be sure, Singer, like every hedge-fund manager, was motivated by profit, not altruism. But his critical assessment of Samsung’s cozy merger was spot-on.

Now that it’s likely to go through, the deal will embolden Korea’s other family conglomerates—known as chaebol—to act even more selfishly than they do already. It’s also sure to perpetuate the so-called Korea discount, which depresses stock valuations relative to developed-market peers. That’s the price for the sort of dodgy corporate governance regularly displayed by Samsung, Hyundai and other Korean companies.

Corporate Korea needs to understand shareholder skepticism is a normal part of business, not an existential threat. Unfortunately, Korean companies are often abetted by a national media quick to indulge in xenophobia. Last year Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo spent $10 billion, three times the assessed value, on land for a new corporate headquarters.

nourishment make up two faces of the same epidemic that dampens our long-term prospects for prosperity. This public health hazard is a barrier to our future prosperity. For it hits our young. We may be reaping a demographic dividend from our young population, but could end up squandering it if we remain unable to provide proper nourishment to our people.

Recently, Sen. Sonny Angara filed a Senate resolution calling for an investigation into what he described as “unchanging patterns of malnutrition.” Hopefully, some light could be shed on the true state of food and nutrition security throughout the country. Policy-makers, together with the health community and the private sector, must pay urgent heed to this problem.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.

When shareholders cried foul—including Norway’s Skagen Funds, the biggest holder of Hyundai preferred stock—they were castigated by the media as meddling foreigners.

These issues contribute to Korea’s other economic problems, including its inability to innovate.

In recent months, much has been written, including in the New York Times, about Korea’s latest startup boom centered around Seoul’s Gangnam district. It’s not all hype; venture capitalists from Silicon Valley are indeed eyeing the country’s new mobile and Internet businesses.

But they will all almost certainly hit Korea’s chaebol ceiling. With deep pockets and even deeper political connections, the country’s dynastic companies can easily scoop up any potential disruptor that enters the playing field.

Game-changing ideas regularly die inside the rigid, top-down, riskaverse institutions that dominate Korea’s economy. So does any sense of corporate self-awareness. The Lees are pulling off this merger because it benefits the family, not Samsung’s shareholders or the group’s some 500,000 employees. South Korea’s problem isn’t foreigners or Jews. It’s an economic system that insults its people’s intelligence.

Metro Manila flooding is everybody’s fault MAIL

Please e-mail your letters to the editor to opinion@businessmirror.com.ph.

Letters chosen for publication in this section are edited for brevity and clarity.

EVERYONE reading this letter will know what it’s like when I say that this happens every year: When in Metro Manila, tag-ulan is all about—in the following order— the rains, the floods, the cancellation of classes, the outbreak of diseases, the vehicle breakdowns, the injuries and deaths, the cleanup afterward, and finally, the complaining citizens.

Speaking of complaining citizens, many people out there are, right now, at their desks ranting about the local government units for their slow response on cleaning the sewers of our trash, which, many say, escalated the flooding. But, the problem with garbage and flooding goes way deeper than that, I’m afraid.

Our sewage system in the metropolis is a very important aspect in city planning: to ensure that during the heaviest of rains, our sewage infrastructure remains effective and functions well.

However, the sewage system in Metro Manila is currently being

METRO Manila flood rescuers carry residents on a rescue boat along flooded areas in Marikina City in this file photo taken on August 9, 2012. AP

treated like a large garbage bin; our trash clogs the water system and this has been a perennial problem that costs us billions of pesos every year.

Rich and poor alike, we all contribute to the problem and aggravate it each time we throw garbage anywhere anytime. Did we even stop and think that our actions would affect everybody in Metro Manila?

It’s a common misconception that when trash is washed away by floodwater, it’s gone for good. But most everyone knows that even cigarette butts will never go away that easily.

What more when it comes to plastic bags and empty plastic bottles? Not to mention the cardboard boxes and discarded paper?

A densely populated city like ours

is plagued with the same problems all big Asian cities have to contend with. One of these headaches happens to be the struggle about proper waste disposal and management. We should ask ourselves this: Am I doing the right thing, not because I felt like doing it, but because I know it’s my responsibility to do it?

We can all complain and rant about how our government is so slow in responding to our perennial rainyday problems. However, it is not just the people in the government who need to change. We, the citizens, must change as well. We should start taking responsibility for our own garbage. When done wrongly, one man’s trash isn’t another man’s treasure; it’s another man’s problem.

We all talk about our rights, but do we talk about our responsibilities as well? If we do not change our old habits now, then there is no doubt we will be all responsible for the flooding problems that our children, and our children’s children, will have to suffer.

So, before it’s too late, let us all be responsible citizens. Let’s show to the world that we can be role models.

Let us do our share in cleaning our streets by throwing our trash where it belongs: in the trash bin, not in the sewer pipes.

In the end, prevention is better than cure. Never wait for the floods to come, and to expect the government to do what we are supposed to do in the first place.

Francis Albert Atienza

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Infracom okays 16 projects for Neda feasibility funding

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B C U. O

HE Infrastructure Committee (Infracom) on Monday disclosed that 16 new projects are qualified to tap into the National Economic and Development Authority’s (Neda) feasibility fund.

The projects cover various sectors, such as energy, irrigation, fishports, biorefineries and rail, as well as the Bataan-Cavite Natural Gas pipeline project.

However, only P147 million of the P400-million fund remain. Only two to three projects may be able to access the fund on a first-come, firstserved basis.

The P400-million feasibilitystudies fund was designed for official development assistance (ODA) and locally funded projects that need financing for feasibility studies.

Since 2014 the fund has financed the feasibility studies for seven projects. They used up P257.74 million of the fund. Of these seven projects, four are already undergo-

BALISACAN said that, usually, the government waits for donor funding for feasibility studies, which, he said, takes time away from feasibility studies.

ing feasibility studies. These are the Kabulnan-2 Multipurpose Irrigation and Power project, which received P46.92 million; and the Apr ropr iate Waste-to -Energ y Technology project, which received P48.55 million.

The list of four projects also includes the nonrevenue reduction and control projects, and concept designs for the sanitation projects and the establishment of a commercial sweet-sorghum plantation and construction of a sweet-sorghum syrup-processing plant in the Philippines, which received P72.63 million and P13.64 million respectively.

The feasibility studies for two other projects will soon be awarded to consultants. These projects are the Ilocos Norte Irrigation Project Stage II and the Nationwide Fish Ports project, which received P30.52 million and P15.48 million from the fund, respectively.

The last project, the Mindanao Railway, is still waiting for the submission of papers from the consultants. The project is set to receive P30 million from the fund to finance its feasibility study.

In 2013 Neda Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan said the fund will help speed up the implementation of government projects.

Balisacan said that, usually, the government waits for donor funding for feasibility studies, which, he said, takes time away from

the feasibility studies.

The time consumed by agencies in undertaking projects will be shortened with the presence of the feasibility-studies fund.

The Neda cited start-up delays and high-cost overruns as among key issues in implementing ODAfunded projects.

The Infracom is composed of the director general of the Neda as chairman; the secretary of Public Works and Highways, as cochairman; and the executive secretary and the secretaries of transportation and communications, finance and budget and management, as members.

Infracom advises the President and the Neda Board on matters concerning infrastructure development, including highways, airports, seaports and shore protection; railways; power generation, transmission and distribution; telecommunications; irrigation, flood control and drainage, water supply and sanitation; national buildings for government offices; hospitals and related buildings; state colleges and universities, elementary and secondary school buildings; and other public works.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

B.O.P. POSTED BIG REVERSAL IN H1 TO $1.68B SURPLUS B B C

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HE country’s transactions with the rest of the world proved to be resilient in the face of major global developments that caused volatility in international financial markets in the first half of the year.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Monday that the country’s balance of payments (BOP) hit a surplus of $1.68 billion in the first half of the year.

The country’s BOP in the first semester is a significant turnaround from the $4.144-billion deficit seen in the same six-month period last year. The BOP surplus in June hit $485 million, the second-largest monthly surplus for the year.

This was a reversal of the deficit seen in May this year, at $58 milion.

It was also a reversal of the $24-million deficit seen in June 2014.

BSP Gov. Amando M. Tetangco Jr. told reporters that the BOP surplus was largely driven by national government-loan proceeds deposited to the BSP, as well as the foreign-exchange opera-

tions of the central bank.

BSP Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo said the BOP surplus was derived from the continued favorable outturn in both cash remittances and business-process outsourcing (BPO) revenues.

“These two structural flows have supported the current-account surplus since 2003. Tourist receipts and other services income also contributed to both the currentaccount and overall BOP surpluses for the first several months of 2015,” Guinigundo said.

Although Guinigundo admited that the BOP surplus will be challenged by “market volatilities on account of the US Federal Reserve tightening and the fallout from Greece’s continuing difficult saga of survival and stabilization, and China’s stock-market crash and weak economic growth,” he expressed positive sentiment on the BOP turnout for the rest of the year. “We are confident our BOP target of $2 billion will be achieved by end-December 2015,” Guinigundo said.

Iran open for business soon I RAN will soon be open for business. That means more oil going out, but also everything from airplanes to cars going in, with Asian manufacturers set to be among the biggest winners.

Take cars, for example. Iranians are sure to snap up Asian cars that were unavailable 36 years ago, when the Islamic revolution swept what was then the Middle East’s biggest auto market. The country bought over 1 million units prior to the imposition of sanctions, according to Anna-Marie Baisden, the London-based head of auto analysis at BMI Research.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for

Asian automakers,” she said of the imminent end to the trade restrictions. “There’s quite an appetite for foreign brands with good quality.”

And it’s not just the likes of Toyota and Hyundai that will benefit. The Korean International Trade Association reckons Iran’s construction market will expand to $154.4 billion in 2016, from $88.7 billion in 2013. South Korea is set to boost sales of steel products, petrochemicals and machinery, as the Islamic Republic rebuilds its crumbling infrastructure, according to the association. It also expects exports of auto parts, mobile phones, refrigerators and other home appli-

ances to increase.

Iran’s biggest trading partner last year was China, which stood aloof from sanctions to purchase the country’s oil, followed by the United Arab Emirates, whose proximity to the Islamic Republic allowed easy access to Iranians wanting to buy foreign goods.

Three of the next four biggest— India, South Korea and Japan— are in Asia.

The oil- and gas-rich country’s growth will accelerate to 5.2 percent per annum in 2016 to 2019, from just 2 percent this year, the Economist Intelligence Unit estimates.

Bloomberg News

State spending disappoints anew. . .

collection also 16 percent higher to P922.16 billion. But even as revenue flows increased in double digits, government spending failed to live up to expectations in a budget year when the deficit was supposed to widen to ensure growth, not just this year, but for the long haul.

Government spending in May alone grew by a mere 9 percent to P175.19 billion and only 6 percent over five months to P835.7 billion.

As a result, the nation’s budget stood as a surplus P55.6 billion higher in May to P67.3 billion. The year-to-date balance also stood as a surplus totaling P86.4 billion or P77.9 billion higher than a year earlier.

Also as consequence of this development, the hoped-for government-led growth this year will now have to be taken up by the private sector, according to Gil Beltran, chief economist at the Department of Finance (DOF).

“Domestic investment growth will instead be private sector-led,”the told the BUSINESSMIRROR in a telephone interview.

Elsewhere, public funds that may not be deployed this year in any of the 50 big-ticket, growth-boosting infrastructure programs will merely end up at the vaults of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, as consequence of the Treasury Single Account program initiated

by Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad.

As much as P300 billion worth of national government funds end up idle in the vaults of the central bank, where they can do no harm in the form of inflation.

At the same time, this presents a huge opportunity loss for the $272-billion economy unable to use this much money for productive growth-boosting undertakings, such as the multiproject Public-Private

Partnership Program of the government, according to B USINESS M IRROR sources.

The national government posted a budget surplus of P67.3 billion in May, which brought the January-to-May surplus to P86.4 billion, the DOF said.

The surplus is already P77.9 billion higher than the budget surplus registered for the same five-month period last year.

The DOF attributed the surplus to higher revenue collections and not to the lower spending by the government, which caused local output, or the gross domestic product, to slow down last year to 6.1 percent.

Total revenues for May amounted to P242.5 billion, bringing the total revenues from January to May to P922.2 billion, or a 16percent growth from total revenues collected for the same period last year.

The bulk of revenues was collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which collected P596.3 billion from January to June. The BIR, as usual, missed its revenue collection targets, but the collection represented a 9-percent growth from collections in the same period last year.

The Bureau of Customs collected P147.1 billion from January to May. The DOF noted that, despite the steep decline of oil prices, total agency collection still grew by 1 percent. This was traced to the 15-percent increase in the collection of duties from non-oil commodities.

The BTr, for its part, contributed P60.4 billion in revenues from January to May, or 8 percent higher than its revenues for the same period last year.

Other offices made a big one-time contribution in May, with the P60.1-billion

C  A

remittance to the general fund representing the proceeds from the sale of San Miguel Corp. preferred shares adjudged to belong to the government because these were bought using coco-levy money.

The expenditures of the government from January to May grew by 6 percent, with interest payments constituting less of the total expenditures, suggesting that more cash was being spent for other projects aside from merely paying interest on government debt.

The total disbursement from January to May amounted to P835.7 billion.

Interest payments amounted to P136.9 billion, constituting only 16 percent of the total expenditures by the government for the same period, a lower ratio than the 18percent ratio of interest payments in relation to total expenditures registered for the same period in 2014.

Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said the debt management and collection efforts of the government allowed the country to raise the money for projects that have social and economic impact, despite external developments like the Greek default in debt payments that have affected the economic growth of other countries in Asia.

“Various volatile events in the global landscape serve as stark reminders of the importance of the hard work of reform carefully sustained by prudent fiscal management. We continue to build ample safeguards protecting the country from shocks that pose risks to our upward trajectory. Protecting our fiscal health over time enables everyday Filipinos to reap the dividends of higher and more durable growth,” Purisima said. David Cagahastian