BusinessMirror August 22, 2015

SYRIAN migrants wait in line to buy ferry tickets at the port in Mytlilene, Lesbos in Greece on Thursday. Greece this year has been overwhelmed by record numbers of migrants arriving on its eastern Aegean islands, with more than 160,000 landing so far. Story on B3-4. AP/VISAR KRYEZIU

Record number of migrants crossing sea Greece has been overwhelmed this year by record numbers of migrants reaching its eastern Aegean islands from the nearby Turkish coast, with more than 160,000 arriving since January. The number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean this year is about 265,000

158,456 104,000 1,953 SPAIN

+1,716 entered through its land border

ITALY

GREECE

Mediterranean Sea

94 DETAIL AREA MOROCCO

TURKEY

MALTA

Main routes EGYPT

LIBYA Source: UNHCR Graphic: Staff, Tribune News Service

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THREETIME ROTARY CLUBB OF MANILA JOURNALISM M AWARDEE 2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business Saturday 2014 Vol. No. 40 Vol. 10 No. 317 Saturday,18,August 22,102015

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STRONGER PUBLIC SPENDING, RISE IN INVESTMENTS, HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION IN APRILJUNE PERIOD TO PROPEL GROWTH

Moody’s sees 6.8% GDP rise in Q2

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HE country’s local output— measured as the gross domestic product (GDP)— was seen accelerating faster in the second quarter to 6.8 percent, according to Moody’s Analytics, the research subsidiary unit of the New York-based credit watcher Moody’s Investors Service.

INSIDE

ASTOUNDING PHL GOLD Come to the water

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EAR Lord, O let all who thirst, let them come to the water. And let all those who have nothing, let them come to the Lord.

Without money, without price. Why should you pay the price except for the Lord? And let all who seek, let them come to the water. And let all who have nothing, let them be filled with the spirit of the Lord. Amen.

BREAKING BREAD 2015, MGP ELKGROVE, CA, USA AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

In its weekly preview of economies from around Asia Pacific, Moody’s Analytics economist Katrina Ell expressed optimism the Philippines posted local output growth faster in the April-to-June period than in the first quarter, when the economy expanded by only 5.2 percent.

The independent research unit based its optimism of accelerated growth on quicker disbursement of

ENTERTAINING WITH PAIRINGS IS DOUBLE THE FUN »D2

BusinessMirror

Saturday, August 22, 2015

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THIS chunky gold bangle encrusted by garnet and cut glass comes from Surigao del Sur. FROM THE BANGKO SENTRAL NG PILIPINAS COLLECTION

AN ear ornament from Eastern Visayas shows a precise repetition of patterns on the circumference and a fluid design in the middle rendered in gold granulation.

‘TREASURES OF FORGOTTEN KINGDOMS’ THE complex loop-in-loop weave of this royal waistband with a rounded selvage effect indicate the superior artistry of early Filipino craftsmen.

Once more, with feeling

FROM THE AYALA MUSEUM COLLECTION. PHOTOGRAPHED BY NEAL OSHIMA

Mere weeks from now, astounding gold ornamentations from precolonial Philippines make their New York debut

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ROM September 11, 2015 to January 2016, New York will have the enviable opportunity to witness Filipino ingenuity in the ancient art of gold-jewelry design via a rare exhibit, entitled Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms. The exhibit, to be held at the Asia Society Museum, 725 Park Avenue, New York City, features some 120 intricately designed ornaments, with select ceremonial implements, as well as everyday utility objects, dating between the 10th and 13th centuries.

For the first time, prized collections from the Ayala Museum and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), as well as additional loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, the Lilly Library in Indiana and a few objects from the personal collection of Leandro and Cecilia Locsin, have been put together to bring to light the high level of culture of early Filipinos—long before Western colonization subdued many indigenous traditions and practices.

DEBUNKING AN OLD MYTH AS late as the early 1900s, when Western powers were flaunting their superiority over the rest of the world, human zoos existed in New York to amuse the public.

Recently unearthed black-and-white photos from the era showed Filipino tribesmen in loincloth huddled in a circle at Dreamland in Coney Island.

These indigenous tribes were reportedly put on display in human zoos where they were made to go about their daily lives in full view of the paying public.

Surely, such displays only reduced what little regard uninformed Americans had for Filipinos back then— further encouraging the misguided notion that early Filipinos “lived in trees”.

Hopefully, the exhibit will allow the American public, New Yorkers, in particular, a peek into a golden age in Philippine history before the arrival of Western powers. Indeed, the superior craftsmanship of each piece to be put on display reflects the Filipino’s vast knowledge of metallurgy, thriving gold mining and gold jewelry-making industries, and a society that functioned on a well-organized system of hierarchy from an era prior to the arrival and eventual colonization of the archipelago by Spain.

“This exhibition is important, because it provides stunning evidence that the Philippines had a sophisticated culture before Western contact. The

superior quality of the gold ornaments also dispels the Western stereotype of precolonial Filipinos as ignorant and primitive savages before the civilizing influences from Spain and America,” says Florina CapistranoBaker, former director of Ayala Museum and curator of the museum’s Gold of Ancestors exhibit.

For his part, Ayala Museum’s Fernando Zobel de Ayala believes that the exhibit will instill a greater understanding of Filipino culture, and a better appreciation of Filipino ingenuity from both Americans and Filipinos living in America. He says, “We are delighted to have this opportunity to exhibit this exceptional Filipino 10th- to 13th-century gold from the Ayala Museum and the Bangko Sentral collections at the Asia Society in New York. It will give Americans and visitors to New York the opportunity to get to know more about our rich culture, and I have no doubt that it will also give Filipino-Americans great pride to see these pieces from their country.”

Owing to the little historical background on these archaeological gold finds, Doris Magsaysay-Ho, Asia Society Philippine chairman, believes that Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms could inspire more study on Philippine culture, in particular. With the Philippines hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in November, the exhibit couldn’t have been timelier.

“While the Philippines has a lot of press coming out on economic issues, we thought there could also be a cultural story,” she says. “These artifacts are also very little known scholarship-wise, so with the opportunity to bring them to New York, we are holding symposiums that place the collection in the whole realm of historical scholarship in the Austronesian context.”

GOLDEN SPECTACLE PHILIPPINE Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms is a veritable treasure trove of some of the most spectacular gold jewelry and implements this side of the planet. Referencing the detailed illustrations of various Philippine ethnic groups, known collectively as the Boxer Codex (circa 1595), Philippine ornamentation seems to indicate a well-structured society. In those days, the pecking order dictated who wore gold: primarily the royalty and the ruling class.

Thus, the vast number of the precolonial gold treasures included in the exhibit are the accouterments of royalty and nobility, such as necklaces and chains made of thick gold ropes, and diadems from hammered

gold sheets. There are waistbands and belts fashioned out of braided gold with buckles embellished with gold granulation and shallow reliefs. One royal halter incorporates precise twisting, braiding, and the use of minute gold beads...executed in pure gold and weighing more than an incredible 4 kilos.

Part of the exhibit seems to indicate that gold was also the metal of choice for religious functions.

There are ritual bowls, implements and ceremonial weapons, as well as death masks and orifice covers used on corpses.

While these finds have been gathered from known sites of ancient Philippine polities, such as Butuan in northeastern Mindanao, Samar, Cebu, Leyte, Palawan, Mindoro, Marinduque and Luzon, they also reveal a thriving maritime trade with other countries in the Asian region, exemplifying the influence of Indians, Indonesians and the Chinese, among other peoples.

Organized by Asia Society Philippines, Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms opens with a gala dinner, to be followed by a lineup of activities designed to inspire greater awareness on Philippine culture.

Surrounding programming include academic lectures, a pop-up Philippine food bar, musical events, art and design exhibitions, a film festival and live cultural performances.

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. says, “This exhibit is an excellent opportunity to showcase our precolonial cultural heritage. This is going to be the first time that the Philippine pre-Hispanic gold will be seen in the States. This is an opportune time for other people to know more about the Philippines and get to know the rich cultural heritage of our country.”

ASIA SOCIETY AND ITS UNDERTAKINGS FOUNDED in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller III, Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. The society provides insight, generates ideas and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future in the fields of arts, business, culture, education and policy.

In arts, the Asia Society Museum presents a wide range of traditional and contemporary exhibitions of Asian and Asian-American art, taking new approaches to familiar masterpieces and introducing underrecognized art and artists. n

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RULES FOR SCREEN TIME Parentlife BusinessMirror

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Saturday, August 22, 2015

B S F Common Sense Media

THE Linis Lusog Kapusong Kabataan project also offered free dental checkups to its beneficiaries.

OU wouldn’t send your kid to a sleepover without telling the parents about your kid’s allergies or bedtime bugaboos.

Why not use the same logic with screen time rules?

We know it’s hard to do. It can feel like you’re being judgmental or don’t trust the other person to take good care of your child. But if you have strong preferences about what and when your child consumes media, you need to speak up even when you’re not around to supervise. Each situation calls for a different strategy.

(And don’t forget to empower kids to talk to caregivers about what they are and aren’t comfortable watching, playing or reading.)

Here are 10 ways to express your wishes to babysitters, friends and relatives:

DAY-CARE OR AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM n Assess the situation. If you have a choice of day-care or after-school programs, ask the director about his or her stance on media use before you sign up.

Say: “Do kids ever watch TV or play video games during the day?” But if you find out after the fact that your kids are consuming more media than you’d like— or you don’t like what they’re watching or playing—it’s time for a talk. n Be respectful but clear. Ask: “What’s your policy on TV/movie/etc. use when the kids are in your care?” n Find a solution that works for you. Try something like: “I’m not comfortable with my kids watching that much TV. What alternatives can we come up with?” If you still don’t get what you want, you can band together with other parents to present a unified front...or change caregivers.

THE BABYSITTER n Check in. Your kids might love the teenage babysitter who brings candy and lets them play on her iPhone, but when it comes to your house and your kids, it’s important to speak up for what you expect. Besides, if she wants more babysitting gigs, it’s helpful for her to know where you stand on everything from bedtime to posting pictures of your kids online. n Be specific about what is and isn’t OK. “I don’t want them watching any TV at all, but they

GMA KAPUSO FOUNDATION LEADS HEALTH PROGRAMS IN FIRST HALF OF 2015

can play 30 minutes of video games before dinner.” Or prepare them for the challenges you think they’ll face: “My daughter will probably ask you to read Goosebumps before bed, but please ask her to choose a different book instead. I don’t want her to have nightmares.”

RELATIVES n Be clear. Uncle Bob may love your kids, but have no clue that “Grand Theft Auto” isn’t your idea of age-appropriate gaming. And how about the aunt whose taste in books leans toward the romantic? Help relatives (and yourself) by speaking up about your media rules.

Say: “We’re only watching G-rated movies in our house right now.” Or: “I liked the book you got for Danny last year. He’s probably ready for the next in the series.” n Do damage control. If your sister tries to be cheeky and buys your daughter a “How to Flirt” book, explain to your daughter that you’ll have to keep it until she’s older, even if she gives you the stink eye.

YOUR SPOUSE n Stay flexible. You may have had a great plan for

how and when your toddler could watch TV or play with the iPad, but as she gets older, new choices open up. n Compromise. You have to agree on some basics so you can present a united front to the kids. Often one parent is more lax, and this can really irk the more restrictive partner. Hopefully you can work out something you both can live with. Just make sure to have this conversation behind closed doors. Try: “I’d like to start eating dinner at the table instead of in front of the TV. How do you feel about that?” n Fix mistakes. If one spouse breaks the agreement, hash out the issue after the kids are in bed.

“We agreed the kids weren’t ready for PG-13 movies.

I’m upset that you took them to see Jurassic World after we’d made that agreement. How can we talk to the kids about this change to our rules?” n Common Sense Media is an independent nonprofit organization offering unbiased ratings and trusted advice to help families make smart media and technology choices. Check out our ratings and recommendations at www.commonsense.org.

BRIDGING donors and beneficiaries, GMA Kapuso Foundation (GMAKF) continues to stand by its mission of uplifting the lives of underprivileged Filipinos through several health programs in the first half of 2015.

From January to June 2015, the foundation’s health programs served a total of 5,789 individuals with medical assistance from various places in the country.

“As we continue our endeavor in providing public service, we also keep in mind that health drives efficient productivity and should not be taken lightly,” GMAKF Executive Vice President and COO Mel Tiangco said.

“We are overwhelmed by the success of our health programs so far, and we look forward to more successful projects with more beneficiaries for this year and the years to come.”

The flagship Bisig Bayan medical assistance program of GMAKF provides medicines, surgical supplies, surgery, diagnostic and laboratory examinations, and referrals to appropriate agencies and institutions to indigent beneficiaries with various illnesses.

Among the programs and projects it has successfully taken on since the start of the year, include a visit in March to Barangay San Pedro Pateros, where it provided free PAP smear testing for 100 females in the community, this in celebration of Women’s Health Month.

Another 100 women were also screened in Mandaue Central School, Cebu. The activity, which served a total of 200 women, also included lectures on reproductive health care and self breast examination.

In May, a brand-new project, dubbed Linis Lusog Kapusong Kabataan, was launched in Catmon Elementary School, seeking to promote and teach students and parents proper hand washing, oral hygiene, nail cutting and headlice treatment. The activity served a total of 274 students.

Meanwhile, in June GMAKF celebrated the Prostate Cancer Awareness (PSA) Month by providing free prostate-specific antigen testing to 88 male residents of Santa Maria, Bulacan. Out of the 88 beneficiaries, seven got high PSA results and were referred to the Municipal Health Unit of Bulacan for further medical intervention. Alongside the screening, lectures on prostate care and management of prostate illness were also provided.

In the second half of the year, GMAKF, with its partner institutions and organizations, continues to carry on with its projects and programs that help address problems and uplift spirits across the country.

Baby registry program relaunched GAP recently relaunched its baby Gap gift registry with added benefits to parents, their friends and their baby.

Now with a minimum cumulative purchase of P7,500 made at the registry, parents will get to receive a Hello Baby Kit and a Gap Grow Card. Their friends who made purchases under the registry will get to receive 25-percent discount valid for a onetime purchase of regular items at any Gap store; and upon reaching P15,000 worth of purchases, both the parents and their friends will be given the Gap “VIP status”—giving them access to Gap exclusive offers and promotions. Around these parts, Gap is exclusively distributed by Casual Clothing

Retailers Inc., a member of SSI Group Inc. The Hello Baby Kit includes a Hello Baby Keepsake Case personalized with the child’s name; welcome coupon with 20-percent discount on all regular items; animal and alphabet stickers to decorate the case; a personalized luggage tag; bunting for a baby shower or the nursery; a personalized greeting card from Gap; a special package from Mayad Beginnings; and a book to record the baby’s first-year timeline.

The Gap Grow Card comes with a birthday discount for the child, which is valid for three years and earns one stamp for every P1,500 purchase of regular-priced items. After earning six stamps, the child is entitled to an exclusive gift.

Dr. Seuss book explores what came before ‘One Fish Two Fish’ B H R The Associated Press MORE over mockingbirds and watchmen.

There’s a new Yent in a tent in town.

Dr. Seuss’s new book, What Pet Should I Get?, features the same siblings seen in his Get? 1960 classic One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. The book went on sale two weeks after the release of Harper Lee’s long-awaited second novel, Go Set a Watchman.

But unlike some fans of Lee’s 1960 book, To Kill a Mockingbird, those who love Dr. Seuss are unlikely to be disappointed, says Donald Pease, author of two books about Seuss and an English professor at the author’s alma mater, Dartmouth College.

“It’s a classic Dr. Seuss treatment,” he said.

“What it does is it brings a child, actually a brother and sister, into relationship by way of a problem almost every child addresses in her or his life: What pet should I get?”

As the siblings ponder which animal to acquire—Dog? Cat? Fish?—they start to imagine more fanciful creatures: the aforementioned Yent, or a “thing on a string.”

All the while, they face the constraints of what their parents would allow. The final illustration, which shows two eyes poking out of a basket, leaves readers guessing about their choice. Pease suggests Seuss didn’t publish the book because he used it as a jumping-off point for One Fish Two Fish instead.

“In a sense, the pet shop is giving the children access to the difference between the world of pets they can encounter in a pet shop, and the world of creatures they can only encounter by opening the book equivalent of a pet shop: the archive of Dr. Seuss’s children’s books,” he said.

For example, in One Fish Two Fish, the children have a Gox, a Gack, and a Wump with one hump. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Geisel, grew up in Massachusetts, but it was at Dartmouth that he found his passion for writing and drawing.

“I began to get it through my skull that words and pictures were Yin and Yang. I began thinking that words and pictures, married, might possibly produce a progeny more interesting than either parent,” he told the Dartmouth alumni magazine in 1975. “It

took me almost a quarter of a century to find the proper way to get my words and pictures married. At Dartmouth I couldn’t even get them engaged.”

The Ivy League school is also where the Seuss pseudonym was born. When Seuss was a senior, he and his friends were caught drinking alcohol in his room during Prohibition. (“We had a pint of gin for 10 people, so that proves nobody was really drinking,” he recalled.) Part of his punishment included being booted off the staff of the campus humor magazine, but he got around the sanction by signing his cartoons with his mother’s maiden name and his own middle name: Seuss.

Unlike Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, in which the heroic Atticus Finch disparages blacks and condemns the Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw segregation in public school, the new Seuss book joins other Seuss classics, such as The Sneetches and Other Stories and Green Eggs and Ham in affirming equality, Pease said. In general, Pease said, the world that Seuss created didn’t have race or class distinctions but instead, celebrated differences.

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public funds underwriting a number of growth-boosting activities during the period, including the construction of public infrastructures.

“Stronger government spending, thanks to delayed stimulus getting under way, likely lifted investment and household consumption,” the Moody’s analyst said. “This boost will continue through the second half of 2015,” Ell said.

S “M’,” A

GO FAMILY FIGHTS OVER P2B SALE OF GOTESCO PROPERTY

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10 tips for talking to babysitters, relatives and even your spouse about your screen time rules

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EMBERS of the Go family, behind the establishment of Ever Gotesco shopping malls, are locked in legal battle over the sale to SM Prime Holdings Inc. of a 2.268-hectare property in Caloocan City, with an estimated value of P2 billion.

In a ruling penned by Associate Justice Stephen Cruz, the Court of Appeals (CA) granted the petition filed by siblings George and Vicente Go, chairman and vice president, respectively, of Gotesco Investments Inc.’s (GII) board of directors, seeking the reversal of the decision issued by the Regional Trial

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.3060

Court (RTC) in Manila on June 5, 2014, dismissing their complaint for intracorporate controversy and damages against their nephews Joel T. Go, Jonathan T. Go and Johann T. Go, and several others, identified as Welson Yap, Eduardo C. Tan, Evelyn C. Go and Lourdes Ortiga.

“We find it necessary for the trial court [as a commercial court] to conduct a full-blown trial on the merits to ferret out the truth surrounding the intracorporate controversy that is involved in the instant case,” the CA ruled. George and Vicente alleged that they are stockholders, C  A

REMEMBERING NINOY Members of the August Twenty-One Movement commemorate the 32nd death anniversary of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., the late father of President Aquino, on Friday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 1 in Pasay City. Holding the flowers to be placed at the Naia tarmac marker where Ninoy was assassinated upon his return from exile in the US are former Naia General Manager Reli German and former Sen. Heherson Alvarez. Story on A3. ALYSA SALEN

Oil poised for longest weekly losing streak since 1986 amid global glut

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IL headed for the longest run of weekly declines in almost three decades on signs the supply glut that drove prices to a six-year low will be prolonged.

Futures fell as much as 1.6 percent in New York, set for an eighthweekly drop. The US pumped crude in July at the fastest pace for the month since at least 1920, the American Petroleum Institute reported on Thursday. The nation’s stockpiles are almost 100 million barrels above the five-year seasonal average, weekly government data showed on Wednesday.

Oil has slumped more than 30

percent since this year’s closing peak in June, amid speculation the global surplus will persist. Leading members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) are maintaining output, while Citigroup Inc. predicts crude may slide to as low as $32 a barrel, a level last seen during the world financial crisis.

“The extent of excess supply is not something that demand is going to grow into in the near future,” Ric Spooner, a chief analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone.

“If we’re going to avoid downward pressure on prices, it’s going to have to come from production cuts.”

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October delivery lost as much as 67 cents to $40.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $40.79 at 1:43 p.m., Singapore time. The volume of all futures traded was about 26 percent above the 10-day average. The September contract expired on Thursday, after rising 34 cents to $41.14. Prices have decreased 5.4 percent this week.

Brent for October settlement declined as much as 62 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $46 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It’s down 6.2 percent this S “O,” A

n JAPAN 0.3739 n UK 72.6124 n HK 5.9727 n CHINA 7.2404 n SINGAPORE 33.0073 n AUSTRALIA 33.9512 n EU 51.5201 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.3456 Source: BSP (20 August 2015)

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Saturday, August 22, 2015

Moody’s. . .

Continued from A1

Exports, which was one of the underperformers in the first quarter, was seen to have delivered only a slight improvement in the second quarter, although its contribution to overall economic expansion should not be large or significant.

“Expor ts improved modestly with stronger global tech demand, but the sustained lull in energy prices is keeping exports and production of other hard commodity-related products fairly soft,” Moody’s Analytics said.

At the forecast rate of 6.8 percent in the April-to-June period, growth in the first six months translates to economic expansion averaging 6 percent.

While this clearly indicates that

PM Najib. . .

Continued from A8

1MDB. Najib has denied taking money for personal gain. The receipt of political funds was to meet the needs of the party and the community and wasn’t a new practice, the official Bernama news agency reported on August 9, Najib citing.

Party trustees

the economy continues to accelerate, the forecast rate of expansion is lower than that anticipate by the country’s economic managers who earlier projected growth ranging from 7 percent up to 8 percent this year.

When the government first reported on growth developments in the first quarter, various analysts and observers chastised the government for having held back on disbursing funds for critical public infrastructures ostensibly because they fear widespread corruption to diminish its impact on the lives of Filipinos. The Philippine Statistics Authority is set to announce the secondquarter GDP numbers on August 27.

“All donations in the past were made to the party’s fund operated by the trustees,” Mahathir wrote.

Najib “has openly said that since they received money from him they should support him. This is bribery,” he said.

Najib’s spokesman declined to comment on the remarks by Mahathir, who was premier for 22 years until 2003. Najib has counterattacked against what he described as a campaign to oust him by reshuffling his cabinet and removing Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who had called for “the real truth” on 1MDB. Former Attorney

General Abdul Gani Patail, who helped to lead a 1MDB probe, was replaced for health reasons, while a task force investigating the company has been dismantled.

No force

The task force comprised the central bank, police, the anticorruption commission and attorney general’s office. MACC said this month it was told by the attorney general that the task force was no longer needed and that each investigating party can conduct its own probe using its respective authority.

The prime minister has a grip on power with the help of his United Malays National Organisation, which leads an alliance and has governed Malaysia since 1957.

The Parliament web site shows Najib’s Barisan Nasional coalition holds 134 seats, the opposition has 87 and one is held by an independent.

Bloomberg News

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Go family fights over ₧2-B sale of Gotesco property. . . directors and officers of GII since its incorporation in February 1983 and that they continued to occupy the position in a holdover capacity.

However, the complainants discovered they were illegally retplaced as officers of the corporation based on the General Information Sheet (GIS) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2013.

The 2013 GIS reflected Joel, Jonathan and Johann as president, vice president and treasurer, respectively, of the GII; Yap, Tan and Evelyn as directors and Ortiga as corporate secretary.

The 2014 GIS of the corporation, however, showed the same set of stockhold-

Oil. . .

ers, officers and directors were restored to where they were prior to undertaking the 2013 amendment.

Thus, the complainants asked the Manila RTC to direct their nephews and the other respondents to cease and desist from exercising powers and function over the corporation, including the rights of ownership of the subject property in Caloocan City.

They also asked the trial court to declare null and void the acts of the defendants, including the sale of the 2.268-hectare property to SM Prime Holdings.

On June 5, the Manila RTC dismissed the complaint for lack of legal and fac-

Continued from A1

week. The European benchmark crude traded at a premium of $5.21 to WTI, compared with a front-month spread of $6.55 on August 14.

US crude output climbed 8.8 percent from a year earlier to 9.52 million barrels a day in July, the industry-funded API said in its monthly report. Production of natural gas liquids, a by-product of gas drilling, gained 10 percent to a record 3.37 million.

Opec’s two South American member-nations are “outlining a single strategy to defend the position of oilproducing countries,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said on state television alongside his Ecuador counterpart Xavier Lasso. They plan to submit proposals to the Vienna-based group, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil.

In China a manufacturing gauge fell to the lowest level in more than six years, signaling the economy may need further policy support to stem a deepening slowdown. The preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index from Caixin Media and Markit Economics was at 47.1 for August. The Asian nation is the world’s largest oil consumer after the US. Nineteen of 41 analysts and traders, or 46 percent, were bearish on WTI in a Bloomberg survey on Thursday. Ten were bullish on futures, while 12 said they’re neutral. Bloomberg News

tual basis and said the case was either a nuisance or harassment suit.

The court also gave weight to the claim of the defendants that they were not stockholders and directors of Gotesco based on the 2014 GIS. The trial court held that the relief sought by the complainants was already mooted by the 2014 GIS. This prompted the Go brothers to elevate the case against their nephews before the CA. In their petition for review, the elder Go argued the trial court committed serious error when it held that the mere filing of the 2014 GIS rendered the claims of petitioners moot and academic.

Continued from A1

They also said the trial court erred when it declared the brothers have no cause of action against their nephews.

They noted that the complaint before the Manila RTC revolved around the issue that none of them have assigned, transferred, or waived their rights of ownership over their shares of stock in favor of their nephews.

The petitioners claimed that the 2013 usurped their rights as directors and caused damage to their rights and those of the other corporate stockholders.

In an amended petition for review, brothers also claimed that their nephews sold the Caloocan lot, while the 2013 GIS Continued on A8

What a Chinese population boom would mean for the stock market

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hinese diaper makers, health-care providers and education companies would be among the biggest winners if President Xi Jinping shifts his economic policy priority to population growth.

Xi’s economic planners may, for the first time, emphasize “population policies” over gross domestic product in the country’s next development blueprint, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

A successful transition would boost earnings at companies, including Hengan International Group Co., a diaper maker based in Fujian province, and Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co. While investor bets on a baby boom proved, too optimistic after the ruling Communist Party relaxed its one-child policy in November 2013, the first contraction in China’s workingage population in at least two decades last year is adding pressure on policy-makers to take more drastic steps.

Xi’s focus on the problem could lead to rule changes regarding health, pensions, social

welfare and possibly lifting the caps on children some families can have, the person said.

“Health-care companies will be among the first beneficiaries of a baby boom,” said Steve Wang, the chief China economist at Reorient Financial Markets Ltd. in Hong Kong. “Chinese families spend a lot of money on children’s health and education.”

Companies that make drugs for children include Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings Co. and China Resources Sanjiu Medical and Pharmaceutical Co. Xueda Education Group, New Oriental Education and Technology Group and Guangdong Qtone Education Co. are among education companies targeting children and teenagers.

Consumer firms with products for children include Want Want China Holdings Ltd., Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. and Goodbaby International Holdings Ltd. “A bigger population should translate into higher demand,” said Bernard Aw, a strategist at IG Asia Pte. in Singapore. Bloomberg News

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Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Saturday, August 22, 2015 A3

Advocates say Freedom of Information bill dead

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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

ESPITE President Aquino’s “appeal” to the leaders of Congress to pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, advocates of the transparency measure gave up hope that the bill will be passed into law under the current administration.

“The FOI bill is dead. We put the blame squarely on President and the leadership of the House of Representatives,” the Right To Know, Right Now (RTK RN) Coalition, which composed of 19 organizations, said in a news conference on Thursday.

Vincent Lazatin, executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Network, said that President Aquino and the leaders of the lower chamber did not provide decisive support for the passage of the bill.

“From our years of campaigning

for the passage of the FOI Act, this we know for certain: without decisive support from the President and the leadership of the House of Representatives, the bill will not pass,” Lazatin said, citing the statement of the coalition.

He said the President made them believe the daang matuwid tack of President Aquino would lead to the passage of the FOI bill.

The FOI bill, which already passed the Senate and currently pending for plenary deliberations at the House, is pushing for greater

access to public or government documents.

“On at least two occasions before he took oath as President, he promised that the passage of the FOI bill will be among his administration’s priorities. Aquino is turning out to be no better than his predecessor on FOI,” he said.

In 2011, the Philippines joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multilateral initiative led by the US that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to scale up transparency, accountability and public participation.

“Now entering into the final months of his term, the Philippines remains the only one of the eight founding members of the OGP that has enacted the FOI Act. We have not seen credible proof of his [Mr. Aquino] personal push for the measure,” Lazatin added.

He also noted how President Aquino failed to push for the FOI’s passage in his six States of the Nation Address (SONA). “[Instead] FOI buried in page 38 of the 43-page budget message.

If it can be included in the budget

message, why can’t be said openly for all to hear in the two-hour-long SONA?” Lazatin said.

In the same news conference, Nepomuceno Malaluan, coconvener of the coalition, said that, while the FOI bill again meets its death in the hands of President Aquino and the House leaders, the coalition fight for an effective, working and living FOI, lives on.

“For us this fight will now take the road of FOI practice. In the past year, the coalition has already been systematizing the coordination and documentation of experience in our information requests relating to our respective advocacies,” he said.

“We will scale this up to include administrative and judicial interventions to address the problems that we thought Congress, with decisive push from the President, would address, though, a comprehensive and progressive legislation. In this fight we will also engage the constitutionality mandated independent accountability institutions, such as the Civil Service Commission, the Commission on Audit and the Office of the Ombudsman,” he said.

Malaluan said the coalition will use FOI practice to bring to the surface the real cause why the country’s politicians have defaulted, copped out, or resisted the passage of FOI Act all this time.

“As starting point we are revisiting the 2007 to 2009 COA [Commission on Audit] audit of PDAF [Priority Development Assistance Fund]. We demand that the COA and the agencies that implemented the PDAF projects afford us access not just to the main audit report, but also to all the underlying paper trail to transaction that COA has found anomalous, so that the people may fully see how we were defrauded of public funds,” he added.

Members of the the RTK RN Coalition include the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Social Watch Philippines, Partidong Manggagawa, Action for Economic Reforms, PAL Employees Association, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Filipino Migrant Workers Group and Father Robert Reyes.

Clean-air activists say Metro traffic jam a health risk A

N e nv i ron me nt a l g roup chided Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya for saying the monstrous traffic jam in Metro Manila “is not fatal.”

Leo Olarte, a medical doctor and the chairman of the Coalition of Clean Air Advocates of the Philippines, said on Friday the vehicle gridlock worsens all the deadly effects of unabated motor-vehicle emissions on the health and lives of our people in the metropolis.

“The fatal effects of air pollution, from the millions of motor vehicles plying daily our streets, includes life threatening human diseases, such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, particularly hypertension, heart attack and even sudden death,” Olarte said.

Olarte issued his statements after Abaya, a Cornell University alumnus, was quoted in news reports as saying the worsening traffic problem in Metro Manila “may be ruining the day for thousands daily, but at least it’s not fatal.”

According to Olarte, motor-vehicle traffic aggravates all the risk factors in dangerous diseases.

“If you’re a patient with cardiovascular ailments [or predisposed to it] the intensive particulate matter [PM] or soot exposure that you can be subjected to, when caught in monstrous traffic jams for several hours, can possibly trigger life threatening episodes of heart attack, stroke and even sudden death right there and then even when your inside your airconditioned cars,” he explained in a statement on Friday.

Olarte added that 80 percent of the deadly air pollution in the National Capital Region can be directly traced to unabated emissions of motor vehicles and definitely stagnant traffic multiplies exponentially the dangerous effects of these air pollutants on our people. He cited data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, an agency parallel to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Olarte blamed rampant corruption, particularly in the no show or nonappearance emission testing process both in public utility and private motor vehicles under the control of the Land Transportation Office (LTO), which is under the DOTC, as a major reason Metro Manila is plagued with smoke-belching motor vehicles that pollutes the air.

“We are continuously appealing to the good secretary to act decisively on this crucial public health concern on traffic and air pollution (that continuously threatens us all in the metropolis) by ordering LTO Chief

Alfonso V. Tan Jr. to do his job and put an immediate stop to the nonappearance or no show motor-vehicle emission scam under his nose. Lets all join hands and seriously work for clean air in the Philippines” Olarte said.

In the House of Representatives, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City and party-list Rep. Maximo B. Rodriguez Jr. of Abante Mindanao have filed House Bill 4299, requiring vehicle owners with more than one motor vehicle to pay higher registration fees.

Under the measure, additional rates for the annual registration of a second vehicle shall be charged the amount of P5,000, a third vehicle P7,000 and P10,000 for a fourth and each subsequent vehicle.

In their explanatory note, the legislators, citing data from LTO, said that the number of vehicles increased from 5,891,272 registered vehicles in 2008 to 6,220,433 in 2009 and to 6,634,855 in 2010 for an average increase of 6.2 percent per year.

According to the lawmakers, there are too many vehicles plying the roads and there are not enough roads for them which results in heavy traffic causing numerous negative effects to all aspects of the lives of the Filipino people.

The authors, also citing World Health Organization (WHO), said all these vehicles cause too much air pollution, which harms the health of the people, adding that as much as 65 percent of the pollutants in the Philippines are from mobile sources.

“WHO statistics showed that carbon monoxide has the biggest pollution load contribution of 50 percent, mainly due to the increasing numbers of gasoline-fed vehicles, including cars comprise of 13.58 percent and motorcycles/tricycles cover 47.88 percent,” they said.

The lawmakers added that a 2004 report of the Department of Health (DOH) revealed that considerable morbidity and mortality due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases could have been prevented with better air quality in Metro Manila in 2002.

They also cited another report by the Asian Development Bank in 2005 that particulate matter caused premature death and chronic respiratory illnesses and the health cost was estimated to be US$430 million per year.

“With technology for alternative or renewable sources of energy still very inefficient and expensive, there is a need to devise new ways that could help lower the number of vehicles roaming the streets of the country,” the legislators said. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

SNAKE EYED

Residents dry their albino python pets after giving them a bath while working at their auto accessories shop at the financial district of Makati city east of Manila on August 21, a national holiday to commemorate the 32nd death anniversary of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. AP

Aquinos bring Butz’s ashes at Ninoy’s marker in airport

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O commemorate the 32nd death anniversary of assassinated Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., members of his clan gathered at the tarmac of the international airport bearing his name.

Ninoy Aquino was qunned down on August 21, 1983, upon arriving from self-exile in the United States.

The present Terminal 1, originally named Manila International Airport Authority, was given its present name on August 17, 1987, by virtue of Republic Act 6639, to honor Aquino.

On Friday photographs and the urn bearing ashes of his brother Agapito “Butz” Aquino were placed at the bronze marker of Ninoy by his

grandchildren, Emilio, 14, and Martha, 10. Agapito died on August 17, while confined at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center.

During the ceremonies, former Vice President Teofisto T. Guingona Sr. was awarded the “Ninoy Aquino Medal of Valor,” while Butz was also given a medal of valor and a posthumous award for leading the August Twenty One Movement. Atom was one of the organizations that led the People Power movement and brought into presidency Ninoy’s wife Corazon in 1986.

The awarding ceremony were attended by former Rep. Heherson Alvarez, former President Joseph

Estrada’s media relations officer Aurelio German, Edsa People Power Commission member Christopher Carrion and MOF Co. (Subic) Inc. President Fernando Peña.

The ceremonies began with a eucharistic celebration followed by an exhibit and floral offering at Ninoy’s marker at the departure curb. After a flower offering at the tarmac, a plaque was erected at the exact spot where Ninoy’s body lied sprawled following the shooting. The celebration ended at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, where guest and friends of Ninoy visited his bronze bust at the departure level was erected. Recto Mercene

P1.45-million bail restores Enrile freedom, faith in justice system

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P1.45-million bail restored Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s freedom, albeit temporary, and faith in the Philippine justice system.

Enrile was freed on Thursday night after posting at the Sandiganbayan a P1-million bail for plunder and P450,000 bail for his 15 counts of graft.

“My faith in the probity and justness of our judiciary has been vindicated. I will go back to my work and serve no interest except the interest of the country,” the senator said.

Enrile said he also plans to visit Sen. José Pimentel Ejército Jr. (Jinggoy Estrada) at Camp Crame.

Enrile, martial-law enforcer for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was the third lawmaker arrested in connection with a P10-billion porkbarrel scam.

Ejercito, together with Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., is currently detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center inside Camp Crame in Quezon City. They were arrested after the Office of the Ombudsman said they took undue advantage of their official position to illegally divert, in connivance with certain respondents, their respective pork-barrel allocations to the so-called non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operated by Janet Lim Napoles, in exchange for “kickbacks” or commissions.

The commissions amounted to P242 million for Revilla and P138 million for Ejercito, according to the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman said Enrile illegally allotted more than P172 million of his pork barrel to bogus NGOs of Napoles.

Republic Act 7080, or the Plunder law, provides that a public official can be charged with the nonbailable offense of plunder if he “amasses, accumulates or acquires ill-gotten wealth through a combination or series of overt criminal acts” an aggregate amount or total value of at least P50 million.

Enrile’s lawyer Joseph Sagandoy said in a statement the senator “immediately post[ed] the required bail so he can again actively perform his duties and responsibilities as a senator.” “[His plunder case] will practically go back to square one since the Supreme Court [SC] also granted his motion for bill of particulars last week,” Sagandoy said.

“The prosecution will have to amend the information against him or provide the required details and particulars of the charges against him. Otherwise, the case may be dismissed,” he added.

The SC has granted the bail petition of Enrile for humanitarian reasons. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Troops scour Sulu, Basilan for Abu Sayyaf after clash

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OVERNMENT troops continue to scour the provinces of Sulu and Basilan as it pursue local terrorists who clashed with elite soldiers in the two provinces on Wednesday wherein at least 20 members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) were killed, and which also resulted in the escape of two kidnap victims who are Coast Guard personnel.

Brig. Gen. Alan Arrojado, commander of the Joint Task Group Sulu, has ordered all military forces in Sulu to track down Abu Sayyaf members in the province and strike them “in their lairs,” even as Army Scout Rangers pursue the more than

200 terrorists who clashed with them on Wednesday afternoon at Barangay Buanza, Indanan.

“Operating troops are still in the area, continuing to replenish supplies and ammunition for the pursuit operations,” Arrojado said.

In Basilan, members of the Joint Task Group Basilan were also running after Abu Sayyaf members who clashed on Wednesday morning with soldiers that resulted in the death of five terrorists and an enlisted personnel.

The military had been hard pressed against the order of Defense Secretary

Voltaire T. Gazmin to finish off the ASG problem in the two provinces, which was characterized by the continued abduction of people for ransom payment.

On Friday Arrojado identified 10 of the 15 ASG members who killed during the firefight with elements of the 1st Scout Ranger Battalion at Sitio Marang, Barangay, Buanza, wherein four soldiers were also wounded. They were identified as Joy Juliyon, Arapat Bagadi, Majindi, Sarman Aidarud, Mandi, Arapat Hadjiri, Dunni Ammin, Salman Wahid, Majindi Kamlun and Runni Said.

Seven other terrorists also wounded.

They were identified as Abdel de la Cruz, Sherwin de la Cruz, Mawalil, Duni, Bidah, Lasis Jihili and Kapatud Sarman.

Arrojado also identied the four wounded soldiers as Pfc. Elvin Bacalargio, Johnrie Melegrito and Johnzen Tagumpay and Cpl. Earl Bompat.

The Scout Rangers under Lt. Col. Eugene Boquio initially encountered at least 80 ASG members, led

by Commanders Yasser Igasan and Alhabsy Misaya at Sitio Marang, but as the firefight rages, the number of terrorists grew to more than 200 following reinforcements from the Asg. Rene Acosta

Economy

A4 Saturday, August 22, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

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COA: Senators hired ‘pricey’ consultants with ‘questionable’ qualifications in 2014

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By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

he Commission on Audit (COA) has revealed that several Senators have hired pricey consultants.

The COA, in a 2014 annual audit report, said that consultants hired by some senators got “a rate as high as P94,000 per month.”

The agency also asked the upper house to justify the incurrence of consultancy services beyond the monthly budgetary allocation, the sudden increase of expenses for consultancy services and the hiring of pricey consultants.

“Several senators’ offices incurred consultancy services expenses for calendar year 2014 beyond the agency’s itemized senator’s monthly budgetary allocations,” the COA audit report stated.

The agency also questioned the qualification of consultants as vouchers for payment of salaries did not attach “resume or any other documentary information on the qualification of the hired consultants.”

“Furthermore, the degree of accomplishments of the consultants could not be evaluated because the offices claimed that the services rendered were confidential in nature,” the COA report added.

Earlier, Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes said that his co nsultant, who is also his brother, received P74,000 in monthly pay.

National Budget Circular 433 of 1994 defines a consultant as one “contracted to render professional services, requiring highly specialized or technical expertise in a field of special knowledge or training” which regular staff members cannot provide.

The COA also said that consultancy services for Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, Office of the President Pro-tempore Ralph G. Recto; Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile; and committee chairmen was P506,262 per month in 2014.

Those without committee chairmanship, like Senator Vicente Sotto III, who is acting minority leader, gets P493,499 monthly for the same services.

“Analysis of the subsidiary ledgers for Consultancy Services, which mostly consist of expenses for consultancy services of different offices of Senators, revealed that there were several offices which incurred consultancy services expenses in excess of the monthly budgetary allocations,” COA said.

According to COA, in 2013 the Senate paid consu ltant w ith P188.9 million.

“However, review of the budget allocation for consultancy services of offices revealed that the total annual budget earmarked for the said account had no corresponding annual increase or adjustment. As a result, the expenses incurred for these yeras exceeded the budget allocated,” the COA said.

The COA, meanwhile, asked the senators to submit resumes of every hired consultant and rationalize the Senate’s consultancy services expenditures in line with its fiscal program.

DSWD probes complaints on shelter-aid distribution

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ACLOBAN CITY—Social Welfare Secretary Corazon J. Soliman is personally looking into grievances relative to the release of emergency shelter assistance (ESA) to Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) survivors in Leyte province.

Soliman was in Leyte on Thursday to personally check the problem in Alangalang town where some residents have questioned the local government for having them signed documents ahead of actual release of financial aid.

“People thought that they were asked to sign the payroll without getting the money, but I found out that those papers are actually to validate if the recipients are still living in their respective villages nearly two years after the disaster,” Soliman told reporters.

The Cabinet member said that there could have been no problem had the local government adequately informed residents the purpose of gathering signatures.

“They did the validation before the payout, unlike in other areas where validation and payout are being done on the same day,” she explained.

The DSWD will also probe on the complaints in Mayorga town, where local officials decided to slash the funds for listed recipients and share some amount for some families not included in the original list of ESA grantees.

“We will look into this because under the guideline, those who are not in the list should wait for the next release. There’s only one

guideline. If local government units have other guidelines, we will investigate,” the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) chief said.

Soliman confirmed that the DSWD and some concerned local governments have also removed on the list some families who got housing units from non-governmental organizations.

According to the DSWD rules, eligible to receive the ESA are families whose houses were either totally or partially damaged located in safe or in controlled areas; families who are renting or sharing houses provided they are listed in the official DSWD list; families whose heads are employed, but do not have access to housing loans.

Also qualified are regular employees of government and private sectors with fix monthly salary below the P15,000, provided they have not received the same assistance from other agencies, and individuals who are considered lone survivors due to the typhoon provided he or she is included in the master list of beneficiaries.

Those families with totally damaged houses will get P30,000 cash each, while those with partially damaged house get P10,000 each.

The central government has allocated P8 billion for ESA in typhoon-ravaged areas, including the P2 billion released in 2014, representing the first tranche.

Local government units were asked to complete the cash distribution to beneficiaries before the end of this month. PNA

Sikat Pinoy products Two lady shoppers rummage through a collection of native products like bags, hats and wall decorations on display and sale at the Sikat Pinoy National Art and Fashion Fair at the Megatrade Hall in SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City. NONOY LACZA

ARMM bares start of P329.8-million seaport, road projects in Basilan, Sulu

By Edwin O. Fernandez Philippines News Agency

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OTABATO CITY—Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Thursday announced the start of P329 million worth of seaport expansion and road projects in Basilan and Sulu.

Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman said the projects are expected to help restore normalcy in the two provinces hounded by terrorism and violence.

Believing that development helps erase conflict, Hataman and ARMM Public Works Secretary Engr. Don Mustapha Loong signed the contracts for the projects which were awarded to winning bidder.

The projects include expansion and improvement of the seaports in Lamitan City in Basilan and in Jolo town in Sulu at a price tag of P194

million to be implemented by LG Lagascar Inc. Also signed were contracts for the concreting of a road network in Basilan province worth P135.8 million. It will be undertaken by Santiago Inc. To ensure transparency and accountability, Hataman and Loong both urged the public, non-governmental organizations, including the media, to keep an eye on the projects.

“The public should get involved, we are spending government money and public scrutiny is necessary to avoid corruption,” Hataman told reporters. “Even suspicion should not be an issue if government projects are implemented above board.”

He assured all projects in the ARMM are subjected to public bidding in accordance with Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA) to guarantee efficiency and transparency in project implementation.

Funds for the projects were

taken from the ARMM’s 2015 infrastructure subsidy.

The ARMM public works office allocated P145.5 million for the repair of Lamitan City seaport, while P48.5 million for the repair and rehabilitation of Jolo seaport and gateway.

In Basilan, road concreting has started for the P38.8 million TipoTipo-Sangkuyut road; the P27.1 million Sangkuyut-Bohe Suyat road; the P11.6 million Materling-Tong Bato road; and P58.2 million AmaloyMatata-Bucalao road, all in the town of Ungkaya Pukan.

Hataman assured the people of Basilan that the road concreting projects will continue despite threats from extremist Abu Sayyaf Group, which repeatedly attempted, but failed, to disrupt government projects in the island province.

Government forces will help secure private contractors in completing the development projects. PNA

‘Businesses still need convincing on AEC open-market commitments’

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UALA LUMPUR—With just four months to go before the realization of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), members of the grouping have yet to fully convince businesses of their commitments to adapt regional economic integration which opens up a larger market beyond borders.

This is especially true for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Regus Group Companies’ country manager for Malaysia, Vijayakumar Tangarasan, said that despite the ambition to create a single economy with a free flow of goods and services, investment, capital and skilled labor, companies and entrepreneurs are still skeptical towards the acceptance of Asean countries on the expansion of regional companies to their markets.

“They are not going to easily let you in and need to be open in accepting regional businesses,” he told Bernama on Friday.

Regus, a global workplace

provider, operates in 900 cities in 120 countries.

Vijayakumar said that each country may want to protect local businesses, raising concerns over the introduction of a nontariff barriers’ mechanism which could upset the outcome of the AEC. Such concerns were raised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak during the Asean Summit this April, which emphasized the threat of “pricing nationalism” to the AEC’s implementation.

He said such barriers were deemed as counter productive and could affect the overall goal of the AEC which is to make Asean a meaningful economic community.

While acknowledging that some countries need to protect local businesses to allow them to grow, Najib said member-states must not allow domestic pressure to affect the AEC’s goals.

There was also a suggestion from a banker with a regional presence

that the removal of nontariff barriers could be done in areas where the member-states are competitive, but not in those that could undermine their development.

The banker said such a move would need deeper discussion to define the specific areas of strengths and weaknesses, so as not to deter the development of the AEC nor that of the economies of member-states.

With over 90 percent of the integration measures completed, Asean officials are confident of reaching the 95 percent mark by yearend. The remaining five percent is to be implemented next year as priority measures.

However, there is still a mountain of work to do to convince businesses, especially SMEs, as indicated earlier.Without the participation of the SMEs, the full impact of the AEC will not be seen. As a single economic entity, the AEC will not be able to compete with China’s growing dominance. PNA/Bernama

briefs Senate urged to end Binay probe LAW experts urged the Senate on Friday to end its probe on Vice President Jejomar C. Binay and his family, saying that the objective of proceedings have turned into “in aid of election” rather than in aid of legislation.

Former Integrated Bar of the Philippine (IBP) National President Vicente Joyas and University of the Philippines law professor Harry Roque Jr. said the probe, which had already spanned 23 hearings in the space of 12 months, was obviously no longer being made for lawmaking purposes.

“This Senate investigation is no longer in aid of legislation but in aid of election. The senators are fishing for evidence,” Joyas said.

The former IBP head believes that the proceedings were being used to harass political rivals and for other personal agenda of some senators.

Roque agreed with Joyas in criticizing the Senate proceedings against Binay and his family.”It has become an institutional hatchet machinery vs Binay which demeans the oversight function of the Senate,” he stressed in a text message. He believes it is now time to seek Supreme Court intervention to stop the Senate probe.

Joel R. San Juan

B.O.C. should invest in CCTV–Recto Sen. Ralph G. Recto has proposed that whenever personnel of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) open a balikbayan box, the inspection must be duly recorded by a closed-circuit television (CCTV).

He said that the BOC, with a budget of P3.2 billion this year, could not invoke that they don’t have the money to finance the purchase of monitoring cameras.

Last year, the Customs collected P1.01 billion every day, according to Recto, who added that of this year’s revenue goal of P436.6 billion, means the bureau should be collecting P1.2 billion per day.

“With this amount of money, it can certainly pay for a CCTV system, or what we can call Customs closed-circuit TV, so that whenever its personnel will open a balikbayan box, that inspection is duly recorded by a camera.” Recto Mercene

Escudero presses govt to upgrade facilities, services in public hospitals Sen. Francis G. Escudero said the government should improve the facilities and services in public hospitals and health clinics across the country if it expects the universal health-coverage plan under the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to work.

The senator, who used to chair the Senate Committee on Finance, said P13.5 billion and P13.2 billion were allocated in 2014 and 2015, respectively, for the government’s Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) under the Department of Health.

Through the HFEP, rural health units, barangay health stations and local government-run hospitals should be able to acquire the necessary equipment and hire highly trained health professionals that would make them more responsive to the population’s health needs. The HFEP would also help them meet the accreditation requirements of PhilHealth, which would allow more indigents to seek treatment in public health-care facilities.

“If the government is really serious about the health of its people, it needs to properly equip public health facilities, especially in areas where local governments do not have sufficient budget for health spending,” Escudero said.

Recto Mercene

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briefs Cebu earmarks P2B for 2016 infra projects CEBU CITY—Gov. Hilario P. Davide III said that some P2 billion has been earmarked for roads and other infrastructure projects in the province in 2016.

Of the total amount, P421.5 million will be the World Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Program and P1.6 billion from the Department of Public Works and Highways.

In his Report to the People, Davide said the provincial government released this year P204 million for various projects in the barangays and towns.

He said the province also “facilitated the disbursement” of P3.56 billion from national agencies to help towns still recovering from Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” which devastated central Philippines on November 8, 2013.

Davide also said that when he assumed office in 2013, the district hospitals had 77 outsourced doctors and 180 outsourced nurses.

Since then, the Capitol has directly hired 117 doctors, 50 of them specialists and 399 nurses.

Ten of the district hospitals, including those in Bantayan Island and San Francisco town in Camotes Island, now have obstetrics and neonatal facilities, he reported.

He said digital X-ray and ultrasound will be available by October in the provincial or district hospitals in Argao, Balamban, Bogo, Carcar and Danao.

He also promised dialysis machines for the provincial hospitals in Carcar and Danao cities. PNA

Wholesale price of construction materials in Metro Manila shrank 1% in July–PSA

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By Cai U. Ordinario

he wholesale price of construction materials in Metro Manila continued to post negative growth in July 2015, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA said the Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index (CMWPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) posted a contraction

of 1 percent in July.

In July 2014 the PSA said the CMWPI posted a growth of 2.4 percent. This placed the year-to-date

contraction of 0.7 percent in the January to July 2015.

“The downtrend was primarily due to the further decreases in the annual rates of fuels and lubricants index at -17.1 percent and cement index, -0.8 percent,” the PSA said.

It added that slower increments were noticed in the indices of plywood, lumber, galvanizediron sheet, glass and glass products, doors, jambs and steel casement, electrical works, plumbing fixtures and accessories, and painting works.

Meanwhile, higher growths were observed in sand and gravel index at 2.3 percent; concrete products index, 1.6 percent; hardware

Petilla lauds Davao DEL Sur electric coop’s continued success DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur—Former Energy Secretary Jericho L. Petilla was all praises for the continued successes achieved by the Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Dasureco), the lone power distributor in the province.

“Dasureco is well-run and with that, we become progressive,” said Petilla, who was the guest speaker during the recently concluded third Barangay Captains Forum from August 12 to 13 here with a theme: “Dasureco and LGUs: Partners in Driving True Inclusive Growth.”

Petilla said the electric cooperative has been very successful in providing the people, even those in remote areas of the province, with enough power supply.

Dasureco again received a Triple A performance rating, the third time in a row, by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) during the 22nd NEA-Electric Cooperatives Consultative Conference held in Manila Hotel on August 5.

The Triple A rating is the highest score given to power cooperatives that are fully compliant to all four operation parameters namely financial, institutional, technical and reportorial requirements. PNA

index, 2 percent; structural steel index, 1 percent; and tileworks index, 0.9 percent.

“The rest of the commodity groups retained their June rates with the machinery and equipment rental index posting a zero growth,” the PSA said.

On a monthly basis, data showed that wholesale prices of selected construction materials in NCR went down by 0.4 percent in July.

This was attributed to the decreases in the monthly rates of fuels and lubricants index at -4.5 percent and cement index, -0.1 percent.

Slower monthly gains were likewise seen in the indices of sand and gravel and plumbing fixtures and

accessories at 0.2 percent.

“A series of price rollbacks was seen in gasoline and diesel. Prices of cement were also lower during the month. However, prices in plywood, lumber, tiles, gravel, and some plumbing fixtures and accessories were on the uptrend,” the PSA said.

The CMWPI is a variant of the general wholesale-price index that measures the changes in the average wholesale prices of construction materials.

It is used for the computation of price escalation of construction materials for various government projects as indicated in Presidential Decree 1594.

Salazar gets things going as new ERC chairman

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Road repair to resume this weekend in Pasig, Parañaque The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will continue its road reblocking and repair activities this weekend along areas of Pasig City and Parañaque City.

In its advisory, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said the DPWH will be doing road repairs and reblocking from 10 p.m. on Friday until 5 a.m. on Monday at the following areas: Northbound: 1. Along C-5 Road between SM Warehouse to FR Cement going to Lanuza Street, innermost lane Southbound: 2. Along South Super Highway, East Service Road, Parañaque City Emerson Carlos, assistant general manager for Operations of the MMDA, said DPWH-National Capital Region Director Reynaldo Tagudando has recommended the reblocking and repair of the said areas for maintenance purposes.

Motorists are advised to avoid these areas and take alternate routes. PNA

Saturday, August 22, 2015 A5

Glut Workers of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) company unload newly refilled LPG tanks to a consumer store in Baguio City on Friday. LPG price in the uplands remain stable as global oil prices headed for the longest run of weekly declines in almost three decades amid a supply glut. Mau Victa

Working long hours may increase stroke risk

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ONDON—Working 55 hours or more per week might be associated with greater risk of stroke and developing coronary heart disease compared with working a standard 35 to 40 hour a week, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal The Lancet.

The study was led by researchers from University College London. They did a systematic review and metaanalysis of published studies and unpublished individual-level data examining the effects of longer working hours on cardiovascular disease.

Analysis of data from 25 studies, involving 603,838 men and women from Europe, the US, and Australia, who were followed for an average of

eight-and-a-half years, found a 13percent increased risk of incident coronary heart disease in people working 55 hours or more per week compared with those putting in a normal 35 to 40 hour a week.

Meanwhile, analysis of data from 17 studies, involving 528,908 men and women, who were followed up for an average of 7.2 years, found a 1.3 times higher risk of stroke in individuals working 55 hours or more a week compared with those working standard hours.

More important, the researchers found that the longer people worked, the higher their chances of a stroke. For example, compared with people who worked standard hours, those working between 41 and 48

hours had a 10 percent higher risk of stroke, and those working 49 to 54 hours had a 27-percent increased risk of stroke.

“The pooling of all available studies on this topic allowed us to investigate the association between working hours and cardiovascular disease risk with greater precision than has previously been possible,” said Prof.

Mika Kivimaki, who led the study.

The researchers said increasing health-risk behaviors, such as physical inactivity and high alcohol consumption, as well as repetitive triggering of the stress response, might increase the risk of stroke, although the causal mechanisms of these relationships need to be better understood. PNA/Xinhua

By Lenie Lectura

he Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), now led by a new chairman, vowed to fast track the processing of cases filed with the agency.

“Just the other day, we decided on no less than 15 cases,” said ERC Chairman Jose Vicente Salazar, a former undersecretary at the Department of Justice (DOJ) prior to his appointment at the ERC. “While there are priority cases, all undecided cases for many years now are also going to be in our priority list,” Salazar added. The agency is short in manpower, one of the reasons why it has a backlog of cases. The ERC’s total workforce remains at 220 for many years now.

Plans to increase the workforce, raise the salaries of employees and provide them with more benefits will be pursued, Salazar vowed.

“We are lobbying with the DBM [Department of Budget and Management] to provide us with additional plantilla of personnel, so that we can also address the policies of the DOE [Department of Energy],” said Salazar, who cited that aside from a case backlog, the ERC is also mandated to craft rules on certain DOE policies.

The ERC, he said, needs to hire more personnel that will “bring in fresh perspective, equipped with the technical and legal capabilities.”

“We are pushing for a 25-percent increase in salary of our personnel.

This has been pending since 2001.

We are also trying to find ways to provide transport service and provide them with health cards,” said Salazar, who added that an adjustment in the salary of the current workforce would translate to about P20 million.

The new ERC chairman also

vowed to instill “dedication, competence and transparency” in the commission with the cooperation of the four ERC commissioners namely Geronimo Sta. Ana, Gloria Victoria Yap-Taruc, Josefina Patricia Asirit and Alfredo Non. “We are all here. There is a strong desire to collaborate the objectives of the commission. This is going to be a more energetic team,” he said.

Salazar has delegated each of the four commissioners certain tasks in order to harmonize the work at the agency. “Commissioner Non will be in charge of finance. Administration will go to Commissioner Taruc. Commissioner Asirit will still tackle legal matters, while Commissioner Sta. Ana will deal with special projects, like reorganization or restructuring of the ERC,” he said. When asked what he can contribute to the agency, Salazar said that aside from being both a lawyer and an engineer, he is certain that “my values are right.”

Salazar already had exposure to the energy sector during his stay at the DOJ. He was the former chairman of the DOE-DOJ Task Force on the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998 from 2007 to 2013.

During that same period, Salazar was also a board member of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp. and the representative of the DOJ to the state firm’s Board Review Committee and Board Audit Committee.

“The task of providing our countrymen with reliable energy supply at competitive rates is a major challenge. Our aspiration is to get all the stakeholders working together to achieve that goal,” Salazar, who replaced retired ERC chairman Zenaida G. Ducut, said.

South Rail Line seen to boost Bicol tourism by as much as 30%

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EGAZPI CITY—Albay Gov. Joey S. Salceda has expressed strong confidence that the P171-billion South Rail Line (SRL) of the North-South Railways system, which construction starts next year under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, will further boost Bicol’s tourism by as much as 30 percent.

This expected boost forms part of the predicted 24 percent economic returns the new railways system will bring to the countryside when fully operationalized The 653-kilometer railways project gained traction in the past four years with Salceda’s vigorous push with the PPP Center, the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), the Philippine National Railways and the National Economic Development Authority (Neda).

The DOTC recently started the bid process for the project, the govern-

ment’s single-biggest undertaking so far under the PPP. In its August 11 advisory to prospective bidders, the DOTC has set the prequalification conference on August 20 and submission of qualification documents on October 15.

Qualified bidders will be notified on October 30 and the DOTC will release the bid documents and draft concession agreement on November 6. A prebid conference is set on November 20 this year, and submissions on March 28. The notice of award will be issued on April 27 next year.

The winning bidder will “design, construct, install, commission, finance, operate and maintain” the 56km commuter rail from Tutuban to Calamba City in Laguna, and the 478km long-haul rail from Calamba City to Legazpi City, according to the PPP Center project brief. The long-haul line has two possible extensions—a 58-km rail line from Calamba City to

SALCEDA

Batangas City and a 117-km line from Legazpi City to Matnog, Sorsogon.

Salceda, one of the most ardent proponents of the SRL, said the new railways project completes Albay’s multimodal transport model—air, sea, road and rails—and is expected to unlock the huge potentials of Bicol, particularly of Albay, Bicol’s regional center and hub.

“Tourism will receive the biggest boost from the new railways. It will

increase tourist flow—domestic tourism by 30 percent and foreign arrivals by 10 percent—since a train ride from Manila to Legazpi City is an attraction by itself,” he said.

This is specially so for Albay, Bicol’s tourism hub, considered among the fastest- and hottest-growing tourism destinations in the country with a 330,000 recorded foreign arrivals in 2013, from only 8,700 in 2006. With a faster and more reliable land-transport system, Salceda said, more tourists will come to enjoy Albay’s iconic sites and newly discovered ecotourism destinations, which are presently selling like hotcakes.

The new railways system involves seven train sets, 66 stations and 10 daily trips that will ferry some 316,000 passengers per day, when it opens in 2020.

The project was proposed by the Bicol Regional Development Council and endorsed by the Luzon

Regional Development Committee, which he chairs for nine and six years, respectively now. It was approved by the Cabinet on February 15, following three years of consultations with the DOTC, the Neda and the PPP Center.

It will reduce by half the present 12 hours Manila-Legazpi travel time, and at the proposed P1,300 fare per passenger, it will provide reliable and comfortable transport system for commuters between Manila and Bicol, particularly students, workers, traders and vacationists.

Aside from travel convenience, Salceda said the project will also boost and expand tourism attractions with the fascinating rural and green Bicol scenery starting from Sipocot town in Camarines Sur, and in Naga City, where Mayon starts to become visible, up to Albay, where the volcano’s majestic splendor grows even more enchanting. PNA

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Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Dancing on the Titanic

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N spite of all the criticisms leveled at the Philippine political class, you have to give them credit for their perseverance and focus.

August has already seen a wave of “nonpolitical” advertisements, apparently paid for by private citizens only interested in the future of the country. “Non-campaign” trips around the country are only to greet and meet with long lost friends and relatives. When we watch and listen to these politicians, everything is in great shape for the country and there is really nothing to worry about.

And, of course, the nation is very fortunate to have these individuals looking out for the people.

It is all well and good to take an optimistic attitude, especially when someone is on the non-campaign trail for public office. However, to continually go before the people—the bosses if you will—and constantly say to them variations on “Don’t worry; be happy” is insulting.

The closest we get to ever hearing about the real and serious problems of the country are general comments about long-term conditions, such as systemic poverty and economic growth that is not experienced by all the people.

It comes down to statements like “I know there are too many poor people and that will certainly be my top priority.”

But everyone knows that these are conditions that are not going to be solved in the near future. It is unrealistic in the short term. Further, there are more immediate situations that no one in politics wants to address. Nobody seems to appreciate the wisdom in the old saying, “Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves.”

Next week the second-quarter economic numbers are going to be released.

We are not optimistic about those numbers for several reasons.

Agricultural growth in the second quarter was bad—there is no other way to characterize it. Agricultural production from April to June 2015 contracted by 0.37 percent, compared to the same period last year when production grew by 2.73 percent. Excuses as to why this happened are completely worthless.

Industrial production decreased 7.30 percent in June of 2015 over the same month in the previous year. This is particular negative, considering the data for May also showed a 7.3-percent decrease from 2014. Partly as a result, Metro Manila job hiring was flat with the same number of those getting jobs as those losing them.

Consumer confidence decreased to negative 16 in the second quarter of 2015, from negative 10 in the first quarter of 2015. The politicians’ speeches are not making the people more optimistic. Business confidence was up from the first quarter, but down from the second quarter of 2014.

Residential property take-up of units offered under preselling in Metro Manila decreased by 38 percent in the second quarter from the same period in 2014, even worse than the 23-percent fall in first quarter of 2015.

If the second-quarter economic data comes in below expectations, remember which “noncandidate” has been speaking about that possibility and offering some solutions. The answer should be easy: none of them.

The typhoon is coming but it will pass John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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N July 21 I wrote in my column: “I believe that we will see a historic high, and maybe historic highs, before the end of October.” The title of that column was “The PSE is going higher.” The original title included the word “Maybe.” I should have stuck with that.

The best part of this business is the opportunity to be wrong. That keeps you humble and smarter. Of course, if you are an “expert,” you are never wrong. It’s the markets that are wrong, not you. Fortunately, I am not an expert.

The run-up to the September 30 change of economic cycle that I have been writing about has brought the global market typhoon that I expected.

However, I did not foresee a tsunami coming. Live and learn, won’t we?

But it is China’s fault.

The policy of “pegging” a currency —keeping the exchange rate in a narrow band—always fails. That is what caused the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis, thanks to South Korea and Thailand. A currency peg is like trying to build an embankment to control the direction of a river. You have to spend a lot of effort and money to make it work. Eventually, the river always wins.

Either the activity becomes too

costly and not worth the effort, or the river becomes so strong it overcomes the levee and floods anyway.

Earlier this year, the Swiss National Bank’s decision to keep the Swiss franc artificially low against the euro was just not worth the cost. They let go of the peg and the franc went up 20 percent.

Recently, China decided its peg was costing too much in lost trade and the yuan is down 3 percent against the dollar. China is still trying to keep a loose peg of the renminbi (RMB) to the US dollar (USD), but that will, likewise, go completely soon.

The problem is that when a major currency—and the RMB is a major currency—drops its peg, other currencies are affected. The Malaysian ringgit, Thai baht, South Korean won, Indonesian rupee and Singapore dollar have all been hit by the Chinese devaluation: all of them lost value against the US dollar.

The Philippine peso is holding up well.

The reason the peso is not falling is because the Philippine economy is nicely balanced between the RMB and the USD. On the trade-weighted effective exchange rate index—measuring the amount of which currency is used for trade—most Asian currencies are strongly dependent on the value of the RMB, not the USD. For South Korea, RMB transactions account of 28 percent of all trade, versus 13 percent for the USD. Thailand uses the RMB on a trade-weighted basis of 18 percent to 11 percent of the USD. Amazing that it might seem, the Philippines’s trade-weighted use is perfectly balanced—15-percent RMB and 15-percent USD. What we lose on one, we gain on the other.

So I have been looking at the howling winds and with the stock market down 10 percent from the historic high, I should be seeing panic and investors capitulating and throwing in the towel. Instead, the experts and some of the stock brokers are publicly saying they are still seeing a light, warm summer shower.

One prominent local broker is more realistically calling for a likely move of the Philippine Stock Exchange Index from its current 7,280 level to 7,000 and perhaps, lower. Their 8,000 projection, like mine, is now just a summertime dream—but only for the near future.

The end of September marks a critical economic and confidence cycle change.

Here is what that means in Filipino terms, not some grandiose global idea.

Confidence in government’s ability

to bring economic sunshine is over. The Philippine economy is in a downtrend and the next economic numbers will confirm that. In 2010 we were told that the government would spend billions on infrastructure and local companies geared up for that, reserving cash for the public-private partnership (PPP) projects. Nothing substantial happened. Funds that could have been used for business expansion have been sleeping and in the next months will be released, not for government projects but for the private sector.

The USD will be pushed higher as more governments look for cash and move near debt default. The move into the USD will eventually wind up in stock markets, as there is no other reasonable alternative this time around in an economic downturn, and with interest rates near zero regardless of what the Federal Reserve might do.

Stronger economies, like the Philippines, will sustain growth as private capital moves back to the private sector, instead of waiting on the government for ideas like PPP. That will be reflected in the local stock market, and prices will go higher. But how long will it take and from what level will it start from are the difficult questions. For now, keep your umbrella ready.

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.

China wants great power, not great responsibility William Pesek

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BLOOMBERG VIEW

orty-three years after Richard Nixon made his famous visit to China, that country has seemingly decided to take a page from the former US president’s Treasury Department. As China lowers the value of the yuan, the country’s economic policymakers are mimicking the blasé attitude of Nixon-era Treasury chief John Connally, who dismissed international complaints about US monetary policy with a curt remark: “It’s our currency, but it’s your problem.”

To be fair, Japan has acted with similar self-interest since late 2012, when its 35-percent devaluation began. But that raises a prickly question: What options do Asia’s smaller economies have when the region’s two biggest seem intent on passing their own vulnerabilities onto everyone else?

China will be watching closely for the region’s response, for economic as well as political reasons. Beijing’s designs for regional leadership have always depended on winning the loyalty of its neighbors in order to reduce America’s financial, diplomatic and military role in Asia.

Vietnam has already initiated a devaluation of its own, lowering the value of the dong by 1 percent on Wednesday in order to keep pace with China. Less clear are

the potential responses of South Korea, Indonesia or the Philippines.

China claims it’s just doing what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) asked in moving to a more market-determined exchange rate. But markets have taken so badly to China’s 3-percent devaluation because no one really believes President Xi Jinping’s government when it says bigger drops aren’t coming.

Take the Bloomberg News report that China’s wealthiest investors have been the quickest to bail out of plunging stocks. China would surely deny Communist Party cronies are getting tipoffs on when it’s best to sell, but investors would be forgiven if they felt skeptical.

The government’s obsessive efforts to censor deadly explosions at a toxic-

material warehouse in Tianjin have only fed suspicions that Xi’s team is obfuscating on economic matters, too. As Patrick Chovanec of Silvercrest Asset Management told me in a Twitter exchange, China is facing an “erosion in trust in government [stock bubble, Tianjin blast, etc.]” both at home and abroad.

Former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made reference to China’s reality-challenged growth targets in an August 18 speech. Rather than setting unattainable goals like 7-percent growth, he said, Beijing would do better with international investors if it offered targets that don’t stretch credulity.

Others have made similar points about China’s local-government debt. As best JPMorgan Chase can tell, Chinese municipalities face a debt-service burden of about $156 billion this year. What can’t be known (aside from the true debt figure, of course) is the extent to which rising interest payments and falling land revenues are affecting the solvency of local governments.

Beijing still believes money can buy the trust and soft power it craves, which explains the new $100-billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank it has sponsored. But as long as analysts don’t feel the Chinese government’s pronouncements are genuinely reliable, skepticism about the yuan will only grow.

Xi should start by informing the world how low, exactly, the yuan might go. Beijing would win further goodwill

by reassuring governments and investors that it is trying to efficiently resolve the country’s looming crises in debt and stocks. The absence of such guarantees suggests Beijing is inclined to do the opposite, leveraging the country’s massive state-owned enterprises and banks to meet the government’s own growth targets and exporting its deflation pressures.

Finally, China must act like a true stakeholder in Asia. Until now, China hoped to reap the benefits of becoming a rising power without the responsibilities that accompany that status. Rather than establish clear rules for diplomatic engagement in disputed areas of the South China Sea, China has preferred to play the bully. That has allowed it to get its way in the short term, but will win it little affection in the long run.

China’s desire to have it both ways also can be seen in the country’s push for the IMF to grant the yuan reservecurrency status without first achieving the transparency such a distinction normally requires. The same goes for China’s contention it has no influence over a North Korea dependent on its money.

Or Beijing’s exporting of polluted air as far as the US mainland.

This is China’s moment to show it can be a trusted steward of a global economy that has lost its way. And the yuan is a good place to start. But, by defining its self-interest so narrowly, China is failing to make a positive first impression.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

The usual victim of injustice

‘Laudato Si’ Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

Cecilio T. Arillo

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HE title aptly describes the sad and vexing experience of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, the Harvard-trained lawyer, who led the 1986 Edsa Revolution that swept to the presidency the mother of President Benigno Aquino III.

Now at 91, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile is the oldest member of the 16th Congress and is affiliated with the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, also the party of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, his co-accused in the plunder case. It is obvious that the people doing the cruel job on him are obsessed in trying to silence him by putting him in prison the rest of his life, as reflected by the number of graft and plunder cases filed against him.

They do this without realizing that they cannot imprison Enrile’s mind and his legacy.

In 1990 Enrile was imprisoned without bail on a nonexistent crime of “rebellion complex” filed by then-Justice Secretary and now Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, after Enrile criticized President Corazon Aquino for: 1) Abolishing the 1973 Constitution, under which she took her oath of office and ran the country under a dictatorship.

2) The wholesale release of the ranking members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Light-A-Fire terror group.

3) The massive graft and plunder in her government.

4) Scrapping the Ministry of Energy and the subsequent privatization of the energy industry that saw the dissipation of multibillion-peso assets and the subsequent increases in oil prices and electricity rates.

5) Saying that “the Constitution has been violated, laid aside or ignored in many decisions of the President. The laws have been set aside whenever their execution would affect those orbiting around the President. The full force of the law is exerted only when and if those involved are perceived to be political enemies or sympathetic to the opposition.”

6) The failed move to allow American forces to again occupy Clark, Subic and other US bases in the Philippines, an issue which is again the subject of current debate that arose from the proposed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement and in which Enrile has again consistently showed his antibases stand for, he said, “reasons of history, national sovereignty, political independence, national security, and sound domestic and foreign policy.”

7) A litany of other issues on political, social, economics and national security that affect many people today, and whose details will not fit even in another 300 more columns.

Exactly 29 years ago today, Enrile found himself again in a similar, but in a worst, situation, this time accused 16 times of a nonbailable and bailable offenses, using the same body of evidence, one case of plunder and 15 cases of antigraft.

Last Tuesday, after more than a year in prison at a hospital in Camp Crame and deprived of his lawmaking rights and oversight functions as an elected senator, the Supreme Court (SC) en banc finally granted his petition for bail of P1 million for plunder and P30,000 per count of antigraft cases, or a total of P1,450,000, after the prosecution failed to explain before the justices as to when, where, how and why he committed specifically the crimes of plunder and corrupt practices act.

Enrile’s lawyer, Joseph Sagondoy, said they posted the required

bail so the lawmaker can again perform his duties and responsibilities as a senator.

“We greatly appreciate having our father back in our home and in our care. It is our intention to help him through the defense of his honor and decades of serving his most beloved country,” said Jack Enrile, the senator’s only son.

He added: “The Supreme Court has once again demonstrated its wisdom and abiding commitment to justice at a time when our country is rife with political maneuverings.”

In May 2001, in President Arroyo’s time, Enrile was also indicted for no specific offense by the police and the military for the unsuccessful siege of the Palace by pro-Estrada forces. He was released a day later. He ran for reelection as part of the opposing coalition and lost; many believed he was cheated just like his son, Jack, in the last senatorial election.

In 2004 he ran again for the Senate under the banner of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino.

He actively campaigned against the imposition of the Purchased Power Adjustment (PPA) on consumers’ electric bills, and continued to criticize the government for this erroneous policy.

Due to his persistent stand against the PPA, the SC ordered a multibillion-peso refund in favor of the consumers. The public responded positively, guarded his votes and elected him for three nonconsecutive terms.

Now at 91, with a remarkable physical stamina and a sharp memory, Enrile is the oldest senator of the 16th Congress and is affiliated with the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, also the party of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, his co-accused in the plunder case.

It is obvious that the people doing the cruel job on him are obsessed in trying to silence him by putting him in prison the rest of his life, as reflected by the number of graft and plunder cases filed against him without realizing that they cannot imprison his mind and his legacy.

Besides, t he issues Enr i le brought forth are the same pestering problems that are still valid today. In fact, many of these issues have remained unresolved and have worsened with the passage of time, particularly the country’s energy and national-security problems, as both have correlations to the country’s degenerating economic situation, in particular, and the country’s national survival in greneral.

What is unsettling is that if this can happen to Enrile, Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr., how much more to ordinary people?

To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio. arillo@gmail.com

Part Two Note: We continue the reprint as a series of the Holy Father Pope Francis encyclical Laudato Si (On Our Care for Our Common Home).

United by the same concern

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hese statements of the popes echo the reflections of numerous scientists, philosophers, theologians and civic groups, all of which have enriched the Church’s thinking on these questions. Outside the Catholic Church, other churches and Christian communities—and other religions, as well—have expressed deep concern and offered valuable reflections on issues which all of us find disturbing. To give just one striking example, I would mention the statements made by the beloved Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with whom we share the hope of full ecclesial communion.

Patriarch Bartholomew has spoken, in particular, of the need for each of us to repent of the ways we have harmed the planet, for “inasmuch as we all generate small ecological damage,” we are called to acknowledge “our contribution, smaller or greater, to the disfigurement and destruction of creation.” He has repeatedly stated this firmly and persuasively, challenging us to acknowledge our sins against creation: “For human beings…to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the Earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air and its life—these are sins.” For “to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God.” At the same time, Bartholomew has drawn attention to the ethical

and spiritual roots of environmental problems, which require that we look for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity; otherwise, we would be dealing merely with symptoms. He asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice; greed with generosity; wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which “entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs.

It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion.” As Christians, we are also called “to accept the world as a sacrament of communion, as a way of sharing with God and our neighbors on a global scale. It is our humble conviction that the divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet.”

Saint Francis of Assisi

I do not want to write this Encyclical

Saturday, August 22, 2015

without turning to that attractive and compelling figure, whose name I took as my guide and inspiration when I was elected bishop of Rome.

I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically.

He is the patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology, and he is also much loved by nonChristians. He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and outcast. He loved, and was deeply loved for his joy, his generous self-giving, his openheartedness. He was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and interior peace.

Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human. Just as happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason.” His response to the world around him was so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection. That is why he felt called to care for all that exists.

His disciple Saint Bonaventure tells us that, “from a reflection on the primary source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he would call creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister.’” Such a conviction cannot be written off as naïve romanticism, for

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it affects the choices that determine our behavior. If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.

What is more, Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of His infinite beauty and goodness. “Through the greatness and the beauty of creatures one comes to know by analogy their maker” (Wisdom 13:5); indeed, “His eternal power and divinity have been made known through His works since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20).

For this reason, Francis asked that part of the friary garden always be left untouched, so that wild flowers and herbs could grow there, and those who saw them could raise their minds to God, the Creator of such beauty. Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise.

To be continued To know more about the programs of Caritas Manila, visit www.caritas. org.ph. For donations, call 563-9311.

For inquiries, call 563-9308 or 5639298. Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846.ph.

For comments, e-mail veritas846pr@ gmail.com.

Are e-cigarettes a ‘gateway’ to teen smoking?

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By Amina Khan | TNS

OS ANGELES—Even though teenage-smoking rates have plunged in recent decades, teen use of electronic cigarettes has been on the rise in the last few years. Now, a new study involving more than 2,500 students at 10 Los Angeles schools has found that teens who began using e-cigarettes were far more likely than their peers to start smoking traditional cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products.

Although they don’t establish a causal link, the findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama) have some experts worrying that e-cigarettes might lead more young people to take up the habit.

“What is extremely worrisome is that these findings further indicate that e-cigarette use by our nation’s youth, which is a major concern in itself, may also be a gateway to smoking,” American Heart Association Chief Executive Nancy Brown said in a statement. “This new study truly underscores just how dangerous of a habit e-cigarette use can be, especially if it is leading to teens taking up additional tobacco products.”

E-cigarettes heat a liquid laced with nicotine and other chemicals to generate a vapor that can be inhaled.

That method, known as “vaping,” presumably sounds better than traditional combustible tobacco products, which are burned to produce a smoke filled with chemicals, many of which are known to cause cancer.

The problem is, there isn’t enough evidence yet to say whether, on balance, the devices are helpful or harmful, scientists say.

“E-cigarettes raise many questions for which there are few answers,” Dr. Nancy Rigotti of Massachusetts General Hospital, who was not involved in the paper, wrote in an editorial. “The evidence base is limited because e-cigarettes entered the marketplace without being regulated as either drugs or devices.”

Many think that e-cigarettes might allow smokers to transition away from traditional cigarettes,

which contain cancer-causing substances. Others argue that e-cigarettes, which often appear to be marketed to youths, could act as a sort of “gateway device” into smoking traditional cigarettes, full of those carcinogenic materials.

That’s a serious matter, given that nearly 90 percent of adult cigarette smokers first started smoking before age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A recent study showed that the number of high-school smokers tripled in 2013 and 2014, and another showed that teens who vaped also smoked regular cigarettes.

But such studies have looked at a snapshot of these two behaviors, and have not watched to see how they change over time—which would better describe the relationship between the two activities.

So for this study, a team led by researchers at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine tracked the behavior of 2,530 students attending LA high schools who said they had never before used any combustible tobacco products.

The scientists focused on high-school freshmen, given that ninth-graders, fresh out of middle school and now exposed to new pressures and older adolescents, are at a critical turning point in their lives.

“The first year of high school is a vulnerable period for initiating risky behaviors,” the Jama study authors wrote.

The researchers asked the students whether they had ever tried e-cigarettes—222 had already tried e-cigarettes at that time. Then they

The findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association have some experts worrying that e-cigarettes might lead more young people to take up the habit. TNS

followed up six months later and 12 months later to see if they had ever smoked regular cigarettes or other tobacco products (including cigars and hookah) during the previous six months.

The scientists found that 30.7 percent of students who had ever used e-cigarettes at the start of the study had also used combustible tobacco products at the six-month mark. In the same time period, only 8.1 percent of those who had never used e-cigarettes at the start of their freshman year had smoked tobacco.

This pattern held at the 12-month mark, as well.

The findings show a link between the two habits, but not a cause. That means it’s possible that there’s some other underlying factor that might be contributing to both behaviors.

And the results can’t distinguish between students who may have just tried a few cigarettes and those who ended up as regular smokers, Rigotti noted.

“The latter is the greater concern, and the current study cannot determine whether e-cigarette exposure was associated with that outcome,” she wrote. “Similarly, the single-exposure measure, lifetime e-cigarette use, did not permit the authors to look for a dose-response relationship between the degree of

prior e-cigarette use and subsequent smoking, which could have strengthened a causal inference.”

Further work will be needed to determine whether there is a causeand-effect relationship between vaping and smoking, the study authors said.

Regardless, experts said, this doesn’t mean that children should be taking up e-cigarettes at all. But many e-cigarette products appear to be marketed toward youths, they added.

“Knowing the long-term consequences of tobacco use, it is mind boggling to think that anyone would assume e-cigarette use is acceptable among children, when for many it can function as an entry drug,” Dr. Kim Allan Williams, president of the American College of Cardiology, said in a statement. “This research provides one more piece of evidence that what common sense tells us is likely true: Inhaling an addictive chemical is not good for anyone.”

Brown, of the American Heart Association, urged the federal government to take action to regulate the products.

“These findings are yet another wake-up call to the Food and Drug Administration that final regulations are needed now to protect our kids from tobacco,” Brown said in a statement.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, August 22, 2015

Property sector to gain from weak yuan, peso

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roperty-advisory firm CBRE Philippines has seen the local real-estate sector to benefit from the devaluation of Chinese yuan and Philippine peso.

CBRE Philippines Chairman, Founder and Chief Executive Rick M. Santos, at a news briefing on Thursday, said the weakening of Chinese and Philippine currencies is a big advantage for business- process outsourcing (BPO) firms to locate in the Philippines.

Santos mentioned that this means robust demand in office spaces, as more BPO firms will invest and expand in the country.

“We see outsourcing demand from Europe, the US and Australia. The weakening peso translates to high-

er value of their revenue,” he said.

Recently, Chinese authorities moved for devaluation of the yuan to make their exports cheaper, which will further push growth to its national economy. With the move of the world’s second-largest economy to devaluate its currency, Philippine peso, along with other Asian currencies, also weakened.

On Wednesday peso finished trade at 46.35 against a dollar.

“The Philippines continues to be an attractive outsourcing destination as a result of the robust demand

for office space,” CBRE Philippines Director Morgan McGilvary, on the other hand, noted. “The Philippines continues to enjoy steady influx of BPO companies setting up headquarters in the country,” he added.

In particular, total officeoccupancy rate in five central business districts (CBDs), which include Makati City, Fort Bonifacio, Alabang, Quezon City and Ortigas, reached 97.1 percent in the second quarter of 2015.

McGilvary said most of these office take-ups were from the BPO sector. Aside from Metro Manila, key BPO locations in the country, such as Clark in Central Luzon and Cebu in the Visayas, have high occupancy rates as of second-quarter 2015.

Office-space occupancy rate in Clark reached 98.37 percent, while Cebu was at 91.62 percent.

The country’s lease rate for office spaces, which is still the

lowest in Asia, also attracts demand in office spaces. For Metro Manila, lease rates only grew by 0.81 percent in second-quarter 2015 from firstquarter 2015. Lease rates in Metro Manila CBDs range from above P400 to around P1,500 per square meter (sq m).

Rental growth rate in Cebu, on the other hand, decreased by 0.05 percent due to low lease rate of the newly opened Skyrise Beta of Skyrise Realty and Development Co. Lease rates in Cebu range from a little below P400 to nearly P800 per sq m.

CBRE noted that the lowest office-lease rate in the country is in Clark, at P456.74 per sq m.

Aside from Metro Manila, Cebu and Clark, property developments catering to office-space demands are now rising in next-wave cities, including Baguio City, Iloilo City and Davao. PNA

Go family fights over P2-B sale of Gotesco property. . . was, in effect, thus, the sale should considered null and void pursuant to Section 40 of the Corporation Code.

The cited provision requires the concurrence of the stockholders, representing two-thirds of the outstanding capital stock of the corporation to attain validity.

The petitioners insisted the alleged falsified 2013 GIS facilitated the sale of the contested property.

According to the petitioners, the filing of the 2014 GIS to reflect once more the original set of officers did not render their

claim moot and academic, as this did not correct the misrepresentations committed by their nephews.

Nevertheless, the nephews said their uncles assigned and transferred in favor of their father, Jose Go, all their rights and claims over the contested property by virtue of the memoranda of agreement shown in court. In ruling in favor of George and Vicente, the CA held that the case should be considered intra-corporate in nature, due to respondents alleged action of selling the corporate asset while they

were exercising powers as stockholders and officers of GII. The CA noted that the Supreme Court previously ruled it was necessary to show what are claimed to be fraudulent acts,if the complainant wishes to invoke the court’s special commercial jurisdiction.

It added that fraud in intra-corporate controversies must be based on devices and schemes employed by the board of directors, business associates, officers or partners, which may be detrimental to the interest of the public, stockhold-

Continued from A2

ers or partners of any corporation. “The petitioners, having alleged that the sale of GII’s property was entered into by the respondents through the employment of devices and schemes tantamount to fraud, which has an effect detrimental to the interests of the corporation and its stockholders, the trial court should not have dismissed petitioners’ complaint as a nuisance suit but should have taken cognizance of the same,” the CA ruled. Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Fernanda Lampas-Peralta and Ramon Paul Hernando.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

The hunter is now the hunted: Govt raises bounty for ‘Pamana’s shooter

By Manuel T. Cayon Mindanao Bureau Chief

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AVAO CITY—A manhunt has been organized by Davao Oriental authorities for the shooter of a Philippine Eagle named “Pamana,”apparently due to pressure being exerted by the international community on the country’s commitment for the habitat.

Local officials went down to the villages to compel barangay officials to start investigating gun holders in the area, and putting up a bounty.

While the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has put up a P100,000 bounty, alongside a P50,000 tender from Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon, environmentalists and Philippine Eagle Conservation Camp officials have also turned to a known fund-raising web site to raise funds for the bounty.

Carlo P. Rabat, mayor of Mati, Davao Oriental, has directed officials to start tracking and inquiring into all hunters and gun holders in the area who might have been responsible for the shooting of Pamana inside Mount Hamiguitan.

The mountain was declared a heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), which accompanies with it a string of national and local government commitment for protection of its flora and fauna.

Rabat gave instructions to the officials of barangays Lanca, Luban

and Cabuaya, all along the eastern foothills of Mount Hamiguitan.

Aside from the government bounty, environmentalists and Philippine Eagle Conservation officials turned to the crowd-funding web site, Indiegogo, to raise funds, targeting $10,000.

It has not posted how much was raised already from 15 funders, but it posted a sticker that said it has raised $1,463 in one day.

The story that goes with the solicitation campaign said that Pamana, Tagalog for “heritage,” a rare Philippine Eagle, was shot dead and recovered on August 16, after a much-publicized #FlightToFreedom on June 12, Philippine Independence Day.” “She was found dead by Philippine Eagle Foundation biologists 1 kilometer away from where she was released in Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary, a Unesco World Heritage site. The necropsy report revealed that there was a 5-mm bullet hole in her right chest,” it said.

It described the Philippine Eagle as “majestic, one of the world’s largest birds of prey, stands 1 meter high and has a wingspan of 2 meters, the broadest in the world. It is also the only blue-eyed bird of prey known to man and found only in the Philippines.

It is the national bird of the Philippines and it is critically endangered.”

It said “the fund-raising was intended to identify the person[s] behind the senseless killing, prosecute the perpetrators, and protect the remaining 400 pairs left in the wild.”

Key Chinese manufacturing PM Najib tells index falls to 77-month low critics to back

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EIJING — China’s manufacturing contracted by an unexpectedly large margin this month, a survey showed on Friday, adding to signs of economic weakness.

The preliminary version of the Caixin purchasing managers’ index, formerly sponsored by HSBC Corp., fell to a 77-month low of 47.1 in August, from July’s 47.8, on a 100-point scale. Numbers below 50 indicate a contraction. That was weaker than most analysts expected.

Output, new export orders and employment all declined at faster rates than in July. The preliminary figure is based on responses from 85 to 90 percent of companies surveyed for the index.

“There is still pressure on the front of maintaining growth rates,” said He Fan, chief economist for Caixin Insight Group, a Chinese financial news publisher, in a statement. “The government needs to fine tune fiscal and monetary policies to ensure macroeconomic

stability and speed up the structural reform.” China’s economic growth held steady at 7 percent in the latest quarter ending in July, its weakest performance since the 2008 global crisis.

Retail sales growth has weakened and July exports fell by an unexpectedly large 8.3 percent.

“The old-style policy easing in the past three quarters haven’t been felt by the real economy yet,” Citigroup economists Minggao Shen and Serena Wang said citing in a report.

Chinese policy-makers also have to contend with the possibility of capital outflows caused by expectations of more devaluations of the yuan following last week’s surprise change in exchange rate policy.

Shen and Wang said they expect Beijing to respond with two interest rate cuts in the next year and a reduction in minimum reserves banks are required to hold, a move that would free up more money for lending. AP

Euro-zone economy resilient in face of Greek crisis–survey

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ONDON—The 19-country euro-zone economy was resilient in the face of the recent crisis in Greece, which saw the country on the brink of a euro exit, a closely watched survey showed on Friday.

Financial information company Markit said its purchasing managers’ index for the euro zone—a broad index of business activity—rose to 54.1 points in August from 53.9 the previous month.

Anything above 50 means the economy is expanding. Markit estimates the economy to be growing at a quarterly rate of 0.4 percent, slightly ahead of the 0.3 percent recorded in the second quarter.

The increase was largely due to a pickup in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, and in some of the countries that have been at the forefront of the region’s debt

crisis over the past few years. France, though, was a laggard once again.

Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, said the survey suggests that the euro zone is still experiencing “one of its best periods of economic growth and job creation” over the past four years, “highlighting the resilience of the economy through last month’s rollercoaster events of the Greek debt crisis and the ongoing negotiations to tie up the full details surrounding the third bailout.”

In July Greece’s future in the euro currency was under threat until Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras backed a third international bailout for the country. The final touches to the €86 billion ($93 billion) rescue deal were completed this week and the first funds arrived in Athens. AP

off as Mahathir seeks ouster vote

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alaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said no one should try to interfere with or hijack his leadership, as former premier Mahathir Mohamad called for a vote of no confidence against him.

Najib said on Facebook on Friday it was up to the people who elected him “to give and to take away” his mandate, and the right doesn’t fall to any “individual, however eminent.” On his blog on Thursday, Mahathir said Malaysians were worried and angry, and alleged abuse of power and corruption by Najib’s administration.

Najib has denied impropriety amid accusations by some members of his party and the opposition after it was disclosed 2.6 billion ringgit, or $624 million, of political donations ended up in his private accounts in 2013. He has also resisted calls from the 90-year-old Mahathir to step down over the performance and allegations of irregularities of a state investment company.

“As prime minister, it is my responsibility to make the right decisions for all Malaysians,” Najib said in a Facebook posting. “It is a sacred trust, and no one should attempt to interfere with or hijack that obligation to lead.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on July 3 that about $700 million may have moved through government agencies and companies linked to debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd. before ending up in accounts bearing Najib’s name. The Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission said the money in Najib’s accounts was from donors in the Middle East, and not from See “PM Najib,” A2