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Liking a fiLm up to a point: the case of ‘BaLut country’ and ‘BamBanti’

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What your suitcase says h about you

Thursday, May 14, 2015 D1

By Ellen Creager Detroit Free Press

e bought it in 2009, a nondescript, $100 high Sierra small rolling suitcase.

Now, five years later, it’s seen the world. “It’s a little dirtier, and the main handle’s fabric is fraying and the wheels have gotten scratchier,” says owner Mike hetu of Grand Rapids, Michigan. It has faithfully accompanied him on trips to airport restaurants—“one hand on the luggage, one hand balancing food and drink”—and into countless airport shops, sidewalks, dark car trunks and even airport bathrooms.

“Yet the trusty carry-on has rolled behind me through 30-some airports and down hundreds of hotel hallways,” says the recruiter for Kendall College of Art and Design.

With luck, it will keep right on rolling.

OPEN AND SHUT CASE “IT has been squashed at the bottom of vans in the Atlas Mountains. It has been shoved on buses in Patagonia. It has been thrown on the train in Warsaw. It’s my travel buddy.

It has gone on more trips with me than my husband,” says Pauline Abbo of West Bloomfield, Michigan, about her $69 Jeep suitcase.

Incredibly, Paul Anton of Dearborn heights, Michigan, still regularly uses a perfectly good $40 three-suiter suitcase he received from his mother 48 years ago in 1967.

“It has received a few dents and scuffs but continues to serve me well in my travels,” he says.

It turns out that the best suitcase is not the newest or flashiest model. That marks you as a travel snob or a novice.

And it’s not the fanciest brand. That marks you as someone insecure.

The experienced traveler doesn’t follow the crowd. They find something reliable and stick with it.

“I still have the exact pieces I purchased in 1998,” says Barbara holdan of Bloomfield

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hills, Michigan, who has used her inexpensive Ricardo of Beverly hills luggage on at least 20 Caribbean trips and also to Paris, London, Florence, Venice and Rome. “I can’t imagine buying another carry-on.”

A LITTLE BEAT UP TRuSTeD luggage may be frayed or scraped.

But it gains character over time, like its owner. A perfect exterior just means that you haven’t lived enough.

“Resistant to scratching, the fabric covering did succumb to battery acid when my husband’s [fishing] trolling motor battery leaked,” says Michaela hector of her “beige and benign” rolling carry-on that has taken her all over the world as a courier. “But over time, the acid became patina, burnishing memories of places remembered.”

Sometimes the best suitcase isn’t even a suitcase.

“It’s a Kelty backpack that I bought in 1986 when I was planning a solo hiking trip to Glacier National Park,” says Mary Zahler of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. “Its red and yellow [exterior] is looking pretty dingy, but I love being able to put it on my back instead of pulling it behind me.”

And then, there’s the suitcase that transports you not only on trips, but through time. Susan Purrenhage of Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, still finds grains of rice in her American Tourister Tiara suitcase she used on her honeymoon in 1960. elizabeth Riggan of Farmington hills, Michigan, still uses a small coral pink case she bought in Paris when she was just 15: “It has become, without a doubt and completely by accident, one of my most prized possessions.”

And Sam Seabright of Rochester hills, Michigan, still travels with the soft, black collapsible suitcase he took everywhere around the world as a manager of safety and environment at Siemens for 16 years.

“I have retired, but my suitcase hasn’t,” he says. he fondly recalls packing it with clothes wrapped around a large plastic backtraining spine sample that he used for safety demonstrations.

“This always caused a stir at airport security,” he says of the spine. “It generated questions like, ‘Is that your dog?’”

What’s hottest daylight destination in Boracay?

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he sun is at its peak, the sea is glistening and reflecting the bright blue skies, everyone looks fabulous in their bikinis and boardshorts—Boracay’s kinetic energy and stirring beauty are best captured during daytime. however, almost every place in this island gets a little crowded during the summer season.

Finally, there is a place where you can relax, hang out or even strut your bikini body in style, as Station 1 welcomes the hottest daylight destination for all ages, the SandBar Beach Club Boracay.

Set in the powdery-white sand of Boracay is this exclusive chill-out place with 18 cozy beach beds for your ultimate comfort. While you can also relax in your hotel, chances are you’ll miss the fantastic outdoor

sceneries of the paradise and all the fun that it has to offer.

At SandBar Beach Club Boracay, comfort doesn’t need to be boring. It combines good food, refreshing drinks, exciting water sports and entertainment into one fantastic place. how about joining the Saturday Shindig, a daytime beach party every Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm? Meanwhile, every Sunday sees the club transformed into an ideal place for every family with its theme Sunday Magic, a children’s beach party from 11 am to 4 pm. experience priceless daylight fun in the hottest summer destination of the country, and head to SandBar Beach Club Boracay for a weekend of fun, adventure, relaxation, and good food with family and friends.

The SandBar Beach Club Boracay

life

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ICC urges israel to give material for preliminary Gaza probe BusinessMirror

World The

B3-3| Thursday, May 14, 2015 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

ICC urges Israel to give material for preliminary Gaza probe

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Fatou Bensouda said in an interview with the Associated Press that she hasn’t received any information yet from either side regarding last summer’s Gaza war and urged Israel and the Palestinians to provide information to her.

The Palestinians accepted the court’s jurisdiction in mid-January and officially joined the ICC on April 1 in hopes of prosecuting Israel for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict so they are certain to provide Bensouda with information.

Israel, however, has denounced the Palestinian action as “scandalous,” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that it turns the

ICC “into part of the problem and not part of the solution.” Bensouda said her office is “making attempts” to contact the Israelis and to reach out to the Palestinians.

“If I don’t have the information that I’m requesting,” she said, “I will be forced to find it from elsewhere, or I may, perhaps, be forced to just go with just one side of the story.

That is why I think it’s in the best interest of both sides to provide my office with information.”

Bensouda opened a preliminary examination in mid-January after the Palestinians accepted the court’s jurisdiction dating back to just before last year’s Gaza war in which more than 2,200

Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed. In Israel 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed. She stressed repeatedly that a preliminary examination is not an investigation, calling it “a quiet process” to collect information from reliable sources and both sides of the conflict. Bensouda said the prosecutor’s office will then analyze the information to determine whether four criteria are met: Do the crimes come under ICC jurisdiction? Are there any national legal proceedings dealing with those crimes, which could take precedence over ICC action? Are the crimes grave enough to warrant the intervention of the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal? Will it not be against the interest of justice if the ICC intervenes?

Once the analysis is made, she said, the prosecutor has three options—to open an investigation, not to open an investigation, or to seek additional information.

“It’s really difficult to say this is going to take two months or three months, or one year or 10 years,” Bensouda said, noting that in some instances like Libya the preliminary examination has been very short while in Afghanistan the preliminary probe has already taken 10 years.

Bensouda said she has already

received information “from others regarding the preliminary examination,” but refused to elaborate except to say that her office is also collecting information from confidential sources, identified groups and individuals and open sources.

On Monday the Israeli group Breaking The Silence that collects testimony from combat soldiers published accounts from last year’s Gaza war alleging indiscriminate fire by Israeli soldiers that killed Palestinian civilians.

Bensouda said her office was trying to get a copy of the report “to see how it can assist us in the preliminary examination phase.”

She said the report must be studied before her office can take a position on it. The preliminary probe has generated a lot of interest but Bensouda reiterated that the examination “will be conducted in the most independent and impartial way, devoid of any political considerations.”

She said prosecutors will be looking at the Gaza conflict but also at other issues—potentially Israel’s settlement construction on occupied Palestinian lands and alleged war crimes by Hamas, which controls Gaza, including its firing of thousands of rockets at Israeli residential areas from crowded neighborhoods. AP

A broader look at today’s business

ERUSALEM—The Holy Land’s Christians are excitedly preparing for next week’s canonization of two Arab nuns, bringing some joy to a tiny community that has had little to celebrate in recent years. Mariam Bawardy and Marie Alphonsine Ghattas, who lived in what was Ottoman-ruled Palestine in the 19th century, will be the first from the region to receive sainthood since the early days of Christianity. They will also be the first Arabic-speaking Catholic saints.

The nuns were born in Jerusalem and a town in what is now Israel, but come from an Arabicspeaking Christian community that has mainly identified itself as Palestinian for many decades.

President Mahmoud Abbas, a Muslim, will attend the canonization festivities at the Vatican on May 17, said Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser on Christian affairs to the Palestinian leader. “This canonization has a meaning for the whole Palestinian nation,” al-Bandak said.

“It’s a very important thing for Palestinians, whether they’re Muslim or Christian.”

In the birthplace of Christianity, Christians are a tiny minority, making up less than 2 percent of the population of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Although they have not experienced the violent persecution that has decimated Christian communities elsewhere in the region, the population has

gradually shrunk over the decades as Christians have fled conflict or sought better opportunities abroad. Pope Francis has raised the plight of Christians across the Middle East as a cause for concern.

At such a sensitive time for the region’s Christians, celebrations are in full swing. Worshippers filled the church of the Rosary Sisters Mamilla Monastery in Jerusalem on Saturday, kneeling down in front of the tomb of Ghattas and holding prayer beads during a solemn ceremony held for the two women.

The event opened a period of special prayers and Masses that will continue throughout the summer in the West Bank, Jordan, Leba-

non and Israel. Books, films, songs and hymns are already hailing the canonization, which local Church officials say is historic.

Bawardy was a mystic born in 1843 in the village of Ibilin in what is now the Galilee region of northern Israel. She is said to have received the “stigmata”—bleeding wounds like those that Jesus Christ is said to have suffered on the cross—and died at the age of 33 in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where she founded a Carmelite order monastery that still exists.

Ghattas, born in Jerusalem in 1847, opened girls’ schools, fought female illiteracy, and cofounded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Rosary. AP

Japan defense export hopes dimmed by latecomer status

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OKYO—A year after Japan eased a longstanding ban on military exports, barely a trickle of deals has formed for its powerhouse manufacturers who are reckoning with latecomer status in a crowded global industry.

Following Japan’s defeat in World War II, its defense manufacturing industry was confined to the domestic market apart from some joint projects under the Japan-US security alliance.

Partly in response to China’s rising military assertiveness, Japan last year loosened restrictions on technology transfers and sales of military equipment.

Industrial giants, such as Kawasaki Heavy Industries seem poised for a windfall but ambitions are hitting a wall. So far, the only known deals in the pipeline are the possible sale of Soryuclass submarine technology to Australia and ShinMaywa Industries’ US-2 amphibious aircraft for India.

After decades of near isolation from the global defense industry, “Japan is not up to speed with global trends,” said Toru Hotchi, director of the Defense Ministry’s Equipment Policy Division and Japan’s go-to person for procurement.

Hotchi shares with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the mission of selling Japan’s defense equipment.

He travels to industry fairs and

visits foreign militaries to study global defense and weapons trends.

He also fields contacts from foreign governments and companies seeking opportunities from Tokyo’s “Japan can make anything, in principle, except for nuclear weapons,” Hotchi said in an interview. “The potential is high.” Japan’s home market is only worth about ¥1.5 trillion ($12.5 billion) annually.

Big-ticket sales overseas could enable its defense contractors to scale up, increasing profits and slashing costs for the Ministry of Defense as it stretches its budget to upgrade outdated hardware and beef up defenses against China.

The MAST (Maritime Systems and Technology) exhibition opened on Wednesday in Yokohama, showcasing Japanese and foreign military products, including aircraft, weapons and associated naval and aerospace technology—anything that can be used in maritime security and surveillance, as well as disasters and rescue operations.

Giant foreign contractors like Lockheed Martin and Babcock and military officials from “friendly” nations are there, too. Japanese manufacturers exhibited at last year’s MAST expo in Istanbul, Turkey, but will have a much larger presence in Yokohama, said Warren Edge of the Paris-based exhibition organizer. AP

he foreign-currency earnings sent back home each month by more or less 10 million overseas Filipinos could slow enough to put the country’s balance of payments (BOP) in danger, according to two of the more influential foreign lenders in the country on Wednesday. This is a potentially bad development for the $272-billion economy, whose continued expansion is fed for the most part by consumption activities made possible by the remittances.

See “Remittances,” A2

IN this May 9 photo, a nun stands by the tomb of Marie Alphonsine Ghattas, a nun who lived in what was Ottoman-ruled Palestine in the 19th century, at Church of the Rosary Sisters Mamilla in Jerusalem. Two nuns from the Holy Land, Mariam Bawardy and Marie Alphonsine Ghattas, will be the first from the region to receive sainthood since the early days of Christianity. They will also become the first Arabic-speaking Catholic saints. AP/DUSAN VRANIC

World

B3-3

STAYING ALIVE BusinessMirror

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| Thursday, May 14, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

BULLS’ RALLY FALLS SHORT

By KC Johnson

Chicago Tribune

LEVELAND—Pau Gasol sat on the bench in street clothes, his strained left hamstring sidelining him for a second straight game.

Taj Gibson sat in the locker room, ejected for a flagrant-two foul during an entanglement with Cavaliers’ guard Matthew Dellavedova.

Derrick Rose winced and wobbled, suffering a recurrence of the Game One right-shoulder stinger and missing his final 11 shots.

And yet here the Bulls were, having trimmed a 17-point, fourth-quarter deficit to two in the final minute of a 106-101 loss to the Cavaliers on Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

Missed shots happen, although Jimmy Butler surely would have preferred squaring up more on his open three-point attempt with 45 seconds left.

Missed rebounds hurt more, which is why Joakim Noah sat with a vacant look on his face, explaining his failure to corral LeBron James’s miss with 23 seconds left that led to Iman Shumpert’s offensive rebound and an intentional foul of Kyrie Irving, whose two free throws made it a four-point game with 16.4 seconds left.

“I wish I could get that back,” Noah said. “I was trying to get [Tristan] Thompson off the glass. LeBron is coming and you know you have to always make sure he doesn’t get to the basket and then get back to Thompson. Just disappointing.”

That’s a fitting word for another gut-wrenching loss, one in which the Bulls led by 10 early despite Butler’s early foul trouble. In NBA history, the Game Five winner of a tied best-of-seven series has prevailed 81.7 percent of the time. The series resumes with Game Six on Thursday at the United Center.

“Big plays,” Coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It comes down to the rebound there, the open shot. I like the fight we had to come back. The second quarter was a big problem for us. Jimmy getting in foul trouble hurt us. The guys coming in have to get it done. We have play a lot tougher than we did.”

Indeed, Butler’s early foul trouble and later more from Gibson before his ejection led to underwhelming reserve appearances. James attacked Butler like a freight train, scoring 24 of his 38 points in the first half and adding 12 rebounds, six assists and three steals.

James tied Michael Jordan for first all-time with 51 playoff games with at least 30 points, five rebounds and five assists.

“Ain’t no difference,” said Butler, who scored a

team-high 29 points. “He just made some shots. I feel he has come out aggressive each game. I have to be more aggressive and I can’t foul early like that and find myself on the bench.”

Rose doubled over in pain in the third quarter after scrambling for a loose ball with Kyrie Irving, who shook off his various aches and pains for 25 big points. Rose stayed in the game but scored just two of his 16 points in the second half.

“It was nothing. I just missed a lot of shots,” Rose said. “Just trying to loosen my arm a little bit but no excuses.”

Gibson exited with 10 minutes, 25 seconds left. He fell on top of Dellavedova

STAYING James Harden lives up to his superstar billing, as did LeBron James, who led Cleveland to a 106-101 win against Chicago, which put the Cavaliers up, 3-2, and within one win of advancing in the playoffs.

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OUSTON—Houston’s James Harden shook off illness to record a triple-double and lead the Rockets to a 124-103 win against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday that kept the series alive and trimmed the deficit to 3-2.

Harden lived up to his superstar billing, as did LeBron James, who led Cleveland to a 106-101 win against Chicago, which put the Cavaliers up, 3-2, and within one win of advancing in the playoffs.

Harden had 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists and Dwight Howard added 20 points and 15 rebounds as the Rockets bounced back from two lopsided losses.

“I’m all right,” Harden said when asked about his health. “We won, so that’s all that matters.”

The Rockets hadn’t lost three straight all season, and with their season on the line they ended their skid to send it back to Los Angeles for Game Six on Thursday.

Houston used a 36-point second quarter to take a commanding lead and withstood a third-quarter surge by

Los Angeles to lead by 14 entering the fourth.

Blake Griffin had 30 points and 16 rebounds, and Chris Paul added 22 points and 10 assists for the Clippers.

“They were more focused,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “They played like they were the desperate team and we didn’t play very desperate.”

Harden’s triple-double was Houston’s first in the postseason since Steve Francis in 2004, and earned the respect of his teammates.

“This is win or go home and I’m pretty sure he wants this as bad as we all do and he showed that tonight,” Howard said.

Trevor Ariza added 22 points for Houston and Corey Brewer had 15.

McHale toyed with the starting lineup after losses by 25 and 33 points, inserting Josh Smith in place of Terrence Jones. Smith finished with nine points and seven rebounds, while Jones provided a spark off the bench with 12 points.

after Aaron Brook scored and got his leg caught between Dellavedova’s legs. Officials used video review to eject Gibson, who insisted he didn’t kick Dellavedova.

“I was surprised,” Gibson said. “I really just tried to release my foot from him. As soon as I got up off the ground, I felt somebody tugging on my leg. I looked down and he’s locking my leg.

“I can’t argue with the officials. Once an official makes a decision, that’s what it is. I have to respect it, get off the court in a timely fashion. My opinion doesn’t matter. The refs reviewed it. They didn’t see what everybody else saw.

So I have to respect it.”

Brooks shoved J.R. Smith in the back during the ensuing scrum but avoided discipline for now.

There’s no avoiding what’s facing the Bulls, the need to win two straight games or end their season at James’s hands for the fourth time in six postseasons.

“We’re disappointed we lost,” Noah said. “But we’ll have great resiliency and fight and be ready.”

»

CHICAGO’S Mike Dunleavy (34), Derrick Rose (1) and Taj Gibson (22) yield to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in Game Five. AP

ALIVE “I just wanted to shake things up a bit and...see if we could get more ball movement,” McHale said.

In Cleveland James scored 38 points and Kyrie Irving added 25, as the Cavaliers held off Chicago’s charge in the fourth quarter.

Showing no ill effects from a sprained left ankle, James added 12 rebounds, six assists and didn’t have a turnover in 41 minutes to ensure the Cavs will again play at home this season.

“LeBron was just outstanding, every element of the game,” Cavs Coach David Blatt said.

“You can’t pick a thing he didn’t do at the highest level.”

Cleveland can

wrap up the best-of-seven series with a win in Game Six on Thursday back at United Center in Chicago, where the teams exchanged buzzer-beating victories last weekend.

The drama wasn’t quite as high in Game Five, but it was close and it was intense.

Jimmy Butler scored 29 and Mike Dunleavy 19 for Chicago. Derrick Rose scored 16, 12 in the first quarter, but the star guard shot just two-of-15 in the final three quarters and aggravated a shoulder “stinger” he sustained in Game One. Fueled by an altercation that led to the ejection of Chicago’s Taj Gibson, the Cavs led by 17 with 6:09 left and then had to hold off a furious comeback by the Bulls, who got within 101-99 on Butler’s three-pointer with 1:18 left.

Cleveland, though, got a huge offensive rebound

by Iman Shumpert before Irving, playing on a sprained right foot and sore left knee, made four free throws in the final 17 seconds.

The Bulls were missing big man Pau Gasol, who sat out his second straight game with a strained left hamstring and didn’t sound confident before Game Five that he’d be ready by Thursday.

They also played the final 10:25 without Gibson, ejected for kicking Cavs guard Matthew Dellavedova. AP

»

JAMES HARDEN’S triple-double prevents the Rockets from heading toward the exit. AP

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SAUDI INCREASED OIL OUTPUT IN APRIL AS U.S. DRILLERS CUT RIGS

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P25.00 nationwide | 6 sections 30 pages | 7 days a week

By Bianca Cuaresma

Holy Land Christians celebrate sainthood of Arab nuns

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TfridayNovember 18,2015 2014Vol. Vol.10 10No. No.217 40 Thursday, May 14,

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In separate notes made available just days before the scheduled data release on overseas Filipino worker (OFW) remittances for March, ING Bank Manila and Standard Chartered both flagged risks attendant to lower-thanforecast remittances in recent months.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) show

THE president of the anti-racism campaign Global Watch, Tokyo Sexwale (right), and head of Palestinian Football Association (PFA), Jibril Rajoub, speaks to the media in front of the separation barrier on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah on May 7. Fifa said it will host the leaders of the Israeli and Palestinian soccer federations within days, seeking an agreement before the governing body’s congress this month. The PFA wants Israel suspended from world soccer because its security forces restrict movement of players in the West Bank and Gaza. AP/NASSER NASSER

NITED NATIONS—The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) warned Israel on Tuesday that if it doesn’t provide reliable information for her preliminary probe into possible war crimes in Palestinian territories she might be forced to decide whether to launch a full-scale investigation based on Palestinian allegations.

FROM FRANCE TO RID OFF SKIN PROBLEMS

‘Remittances to continue slide’

what your suitcase says about you EAR Lord, it is indispensable that we realize the truth of Your statement that, “apart from You we can do nothing.” This may hurt our pride, and we may be tempted to consider it an exaggeration. The fact is that this is the sober truth. Rather than feeling hurt in our pride for not being “totally independent and self-sufficient,” we should rejoice in the fact that God has given us the privilege to be joined to You, the fruitful vine. Only those who accept this truth /gift in all humility and live accordingly will live a fruitful life. Amen.

» ‘MIRACLE’ WATER

INTERNATIONAL BANKS SEE LOWER-THAN-EXPECTED CASH INFLOWS FROM OVERSEAS FILIPINOS IN JAN-JUNE

INSIDE

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BRINGS THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE TO PHL

BusinessMirror

three-time rotary club of manila journalism awardee

The sober truth

» DR. ERIC YALUNG

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audi Arabia boosted crude-oil production for a second month to the highest level in at least three decades, helping to raise the output of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), as US supply growth showed signs of slowing.

The Middle Eastern country increased crude output by 13,700 barrels a day in April to 10.308 million, according to data the country communicated to the Opec’s secretariat in Vienna.

Prices collapsed by almost half last year, as Saudi Arabia led the Opec in maintaining production rather than cede market share to booming US supply. The group has become more unified about keeping its output target because prices are now rising, according to Kuwait’s oil minister. Crude in New York has surged more than 40 percent from its March low, as US drillers pulled a record number of rigs from fields.

PESO exchange rates n US 44.7960

Bloomberg News

Students lobby for f.o.i. bill Student-activists dramatize their call for the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill by rappelling from a tall structure at the University of the Philippines Diliman while unfurling a huge banner voicing their demand. The FOI bill is also among the reform measures being pushed by the business community. Nonoy Lacza

Megaworld reports 12% Ayala Land’s Q1 hike in recurring income profit grew 19%

By VG Cabuag

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roperty developer Megaworld Corp. on Wednesday said its recurring net income grew 12 percent in the first quarter to P2.35 billion.

Residential sales from the various townships across the country remained strong and leasing income from the firm’s office and retail portfolio continued to grow at the start of the year, the company said in a statement.

The company added that it reported the recurring income for the first quarter as it had no one-time gain for the period, unlike last year when it gained some P604 million when it acquired properties.

Last year it booked a net income of P2.69 billion. “We are on track in achieving consistent quarterly doubledigit growth, and we remain optimistic to hit and even surpass our growth target for the year,” said Francis Canuto, the company CFO. Consolidated revenues of Megaworld, which now includes Global-Estate Resorts Inc., Empire East Land Holdings Inc. and Suntrust Properties Inc., amounted to P10.47 billion for the first quarter, up 12 percent on a recurring basis from P9.34 billion of the same period in 2014.

Megaworld’s rental income from office developments and malls soared to a See “Megaworld,” A2

A

yala Land Inc., the country’s second-largest property developer, said its continued expansion has resulted in a 19-percent growth in net income in the first quarter of the year.

Its net income reached P4.1 billion for the period, higher than last year’s P3.5 billion.

It posted consolidated revenues of P25.1 billion from its property development and commercial leasing operations. Last year it raked in P22.74 billion in revenues.

“Our first-quarter results provide a good takeoff point toward the achievement of our targets for the year. We continue to introduce new estates and products in various geographies that will allow for sustained growth in 2015,” said Bernard Vincent Dy, the company president and CEO. “We remain See “Ayala,” A2

n japan 0.3736 n UK 70.1864 n HK 5.7783 n CHINA 7.2144 n singapore 33.5450 n australia 35.7510 n EU 50.2029 n SAUDI arabia 11.9456 Source: BSP (13 May 2015)

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News

BusinessMirror

Thursday, May 14, 2015

House panel set to OK Timta next week

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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

he Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (Timta), one of the Aquino administration’s priority measures, will be passed by the House Committee on Ways and Means next week, the panel chairman said on Wednesday.

House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman and Liberal Party Rep. Romero S. Quimbo of Marikina said his panel is now finalizing the measure for approval next week.

“Next week it [Timta] will be out of

Remittances. . .

that remittances grew by only 0.5 percent in January although this rebounded at a lower-than-expected rate the following February to 4.2 percent.

Trend remittance growth ranged from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent in recent years. Also, as noted by Standard Chartered, remittances grew an average 4.6 percent the past six months, which was slower than the 6.1-percent clip posted in the same period last year.

The forecast slowdown in remittances was traced to slower global output in most countries around the world and particularly to the performance of host countries where the most number of OFWs are engaged in productive labor.

the committee.”

Quimbo said the House of Representatives will pass Timta on final reading before Congress’s sine die adjournment on June 11.

Earlier, the Joint Foreign Cham-

ber warned that Timta would hurt the country’s competitiveness as an investment destination.

Also, the Department of Trade and Industry had warned that the measure could open the incentivesgranting process to legal challenges.

Quimbo, meanwhile, said the

Senate and the House have already deleted the provision under Timta creating the Tax Expenditure Account in the annual General Appropriations Act. They have also removed the provisions that require investmentpromotions agencies to appear before Congress and ask for budgetary tax subsidy. These are the major concerns of local and foreign business groups in the proposed measure.

Liberal Party Rep. Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo of Camarines Sur, author of Timta, or House Bill 2942, said the proposal should be passed as it promotes transparency and accountability in the grant and administration of tax incentives to business entities, private individuals and corporations.

February’s,” ING Bank said. The slowdown in remittances was not a one-off development and likely to continue in the first half, according to the foreign lenders.

“We see downside risks in the near term, as remittances from Europe, Asia and the Middle East decline.

We expect an increase only in the second half as stronger US growth improves remittance flows from the US,” Standard Chartered Bank said.

According to the British-owned lender, the decelerating remittance flows is a threat to the country’s current-account balance although, for the moment, this continues to be supported by still- positive services export growth. The current-account

balance has remained in surplus for several years already and indicative of an economy that has effectively become a net lender to countries posting current-account imbalances.

“More important to the Philippines is the pace of OFW remittances. These remittances form part of the structural inflows that keep the current account in surplus,” ING Bank said.

It quickly added a narrower trade gap would “partially offset” the slowdown in the growth of OFW remittances.

The government has worked on the assumption the foreign-currency earnings of millions of OFWs were to expand by at least 5.5 percent this year. The BSP will release the March OFW remittance data on May 15.

QUIMBO: “Next week it [Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act ] will be out of the committee.”

Continued from A1

In countries making up the euro area, a rather large concentration of OFWs may be found in Italy, Spain and even Greece, whose economies report fairly large unemployment numbers and have problems boosting their local output.

Standard Chartered said remittance growth likely slowed again in March to 3.3 percent from 4.2 percent in February. The Manila unit of ING Bank also said a slower remittance growth was likely in March although its analysts did not cite any specific number.

“If the pattern of OFW remittance growth in 2008 and 2009 is replicated, March 2015 remittance growth could be slower than

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Ayala. . .

Continued from A1

focused on our strategy of developing large-scale integrated mixed-use estates. By doing so, we hope to ensure our growth and help enhance the local economies, where our estates are located, particularly in generating livelihood and employment opportunities.” The company said a balanced interaction among all the components of its developments— from homes to offices and retail— will drive its business prospects and will make these communities sustainable due to consumer activity.

Ayala Land said it spent a total of P18.6 billion for project and capital expenditures in the first quarter of 2015, representing about a fifth of the target of P100.3 billion for the full year.

Property development, which includes the sale of residential lots and units, office spaces, as well as commercial and industrial lots, reported revenues of P15.9 billion in the first quarter of 2015, 18 percent higher compared to the P13.5 billion last year.

Revenues from the residential business reached P13.1 billion, also 18 percent higher year-onyear, driven by completed projects and a strong sales push across residential brands.

Megaworld. . .

Ayala Land Premier, which caters to the luxury segment, posted earnings of P5.8 billion from substantial sales in high-value lots and condominium units.

These include The Courtyards in Cavite and Arbor Lanes in Arca South, among others. Alveo, which caters to the upper end of the market, posted P3 billion in revenues due to the contribution of its new and existing projects such as Verve Residences and Maridien in Bonifacio Global City, Veranda in Arca South and Solinea in Cebu.

Meanwhile, Avida, which serves the middle-income market segment, reported P2.7 billion in total revenues from sales in its various Avida Towers and Avida Settings projects. Affordable brand Amaia posted revenues of P783 million driven by sales of Amaia Steps in Nuvali and Amaia Skies in Avenida. BellaVita, a socialized housing brand, posted a mere P80 million in revenues from projects in General Trias, Alaminos and Pililia.

Reservation sales in the first quarter of 2015 remained strong totaling P23.4 billion, equivalent to an average monthly sales take-up of P7.8 billion. VG Cabuag

Continued from A1

record P1.99 billion, some 16 percent higher than the P1.71 billion posted in the same period last year.

Earlier this year, Megaworld announced that it expects its rental income to reach P10 billion by 2016, as it further expands its office and mall portfolio in various townships.

To date, Megaworld has launched 17 integrated urban township developments across the country.

In 25 years, the Megaworld Group has developed over 342 completed residential and office buildings covering a total area of around 6.4 million square meters.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror Special Feature

Thursday, May 14, 2015 A3

Economy

A4 Thursday, May 14, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

CA upholds DOTC purchase of China coaches for MRT 3

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By Joel R. San Juan

HE Court of Appeals (CA) has sustained its decision not to issue an injunction that would have stopped the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) from acquiring additional light-rail vehicles (LRVs) for the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) 3 from another supplier.

In a six-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Maria Elisa Sempio Diy, the CA’s Fourteenth Division affirmed its July 31, 2014, resolution denying the plea of Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC) and MRT Holdings II to bar the DOTC from awarding the contract for the manufacture and supply of 48 brandnew LRVs to Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock of China.

The appellate court did not give credence to MRTC's claim that the procurement of LRVs from Dalian Locomotive could lead to higher risks of train collisions and cause huge damage to the MRT 3 railway commuter system.

MRTC entered into a build-lease-transfer (BLT) agreement with the DOTC in 1997 to construct and maintain a light-rail transit system for Edsa, eventually known as MRT. It branded the petitioners’ claim as “speculative.”

“Further, we, likewise, find that the arguments raised by petitioners in support of their motion for reconsideration are a mere rehash of the arguments in their allegations in support of their prayer for injunctive relief incorporated in the instant petition for review, which had already been thoroughly considered

by this Court,” the CA ruled.

“The issuance of the writ of preliminary injunction had the effect of granting the main prayer of the complaint such that there is practically nothing left for the court to try except the plaintiff’s claim for damages,” the appellate court added.

In its petition for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or a writ of preliminary injunction, the MRT 3 builders said the DOTC undertook the procurement through public bidding of additional LRVs for the said line without its consent or waiver of its right of first refusal in violation of their BLT agreement.

The petitioners claimed that its right for capacity expansion of the MRT 3 under the BLT is “clear and unmistakable” and that the recent opinion issued by the Department of Justice declaring its right of first refusal to be void was obviously given to justify the DOTC’s actions.

They noted that the DOTC’s procurement of LRVs from Dalian deviates from the principle of having a single point of responsibility which underlays the construction, operation and maintenance of the MRT 3.

Thus, the petitioners warned that if the new LRVs are allowed to run without the necessary adjustment and upgrade to the system, the riding public would be exposed to high risks of train collisions and loss of lives.

The CA said the case is now deemed submitted for decision following the submission of the parties’ respective memoranda.

BusinessMirror

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SMEs crucial to end poverty, inequality

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By Cai U. Ordinario

mall and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in ending poverty and income inequality in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) region.

Dr. Bokhwan Yu, deputy dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), said SMEs can pave the way for poverty reduction by providing much-needed employment opportunities for the poor.

“One solution to solve poverty and achieve inclusiveness is through the development of SMEs, which have the potential to provide jobs to people. However, SMEs must be able to participate in the global value chain to benefit more from greater integration,” Yu said.

Yu added that over 5 million people

are still living the below poverty line in Asia alone, with income inequalities also rising in recent years.

He said supporting SMEs is just one possible solution to arrest the situation. Yu said this is where the importance of not only cooperation but also research for development comes in.

The 2015 Apec Study Centers Consortium (ASCC) Conference, Yu said, provides an opportunity for researchers in the region to share knowledge and find solution to make growth more inclusive.

“Achieving inclusive growth in the region is hampered by various issues and there is no single solution to solve all these problems,” Yu said.

Deputy Director General Rolando G. Tungpalan of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said research for development must continue and thus receive support from governments, private sector, academe and civil society.

In the case of the Philippines, Tungpalan said the Philippine A pec St udy Center Net work (PASCN) has provided policy recommendations that aided policymakers in formulating national plans and strategies.

The PASCN, which is being led by state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), have produced a number of scholarly publications containing research studies on competition policy, coalition building and Apec, China’s economic growth and the Asean, edu-

cation and globalization, sustainable tourism, and the Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, among other topics.

“Without a doubt, the Apec Education Leaders’ Initiative launched in 1993 and the motivation behind the establishment of the Apec study centers in the different Apec membereconomies have lived on. The study centers are steadily gaining ground and will continue to do so with the support of the Apec Secretariat,” Tungpalan said.

The ASCC Conference provides an opportunity for academics and scholars to discuss and exchange ideas on the Apec themes and to identify areas for regional collaboration among the Apec study centers.

Outcomes of the conference may serve as inputs to the different Apec working group discussions and may be integrated in the Apec Leaders’ statement. There are over 50 study centers in 20 of the 21 Apec member-economies.

Lawmaker presses for Sangley Point devt for general aviation, small aircraft

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

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O address the air-traffic congestion in the country’s prime gateway, a leader of the House of Representatives has recently filed a resolution urging the immediate development of the Sangley Point in Cavite into an airport for general aviation and small commercial aircraft.

In House Resolution 2076, Liberal Party

Rep. Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental, chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development, said the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) has been perennially beset with worsening delayed flights due to air-traffic congestion.

Benitez, a member of the House Committee on Transportation, citing the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), said the Naia runway is accommodating more than 40 landings and takeoffs per hour, especially during the peak hours of 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., instead of its 36-flight capacity.

He said one of the possible solutions to decongest Naia is by transferring the operations of general aviation and hangars, as well as small commercial planes with 30 passengers or less, to another runaway and instead service only the larger aircraft.

“The Miaa [Manila International Airport Authority] said that general aviation and hangars occupy at least 44 hectares of the Naia complex and private planes account for about 17 percent of total landings and takeoffs at the airport runway,” he said.

According to Benitez, the DOTC has already confirmed the necessity of a third runway in Metro Manila and floated the idea of utilizing Sangley Point in Cavite for general aviation given its proximity and can have an integrated airspace with the Naia.

Also, the lawmaker said a study of Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) showed that Naia’s congestion suggests that there is practically no more room for growth.

“The airport is forecasted to hit its maximum capacity by 2018 or 2020 according to Jica. Same study also revealed that Naia’s annual passenger forecast by 2020 is at 49.8

million and will increase to 75 million by 2030,” he said.

Benitez’s resolution also said that the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) reported a P7-billion annual loss of airline companies due to air-traffic congestion.

“Caap identified additional cost from fuel consumptions, engine maintenance, as well as flight delays as those accounted to the said foregone revenues due to congestion,” he added in his resolution, which is currently under a committee deliberations.

Benitez added that “it is incumbent upon the government to urgently address the air-traffic congestion problem as it has proved to be detrimental to the country’s economy with the losses incurred in aviation industry’s profits. In addition, improving the airport services will definitely result to a boost in our local tourism as airports serve as the gateway to our country.”

Pork tales

A butcher at a Quezon City public market puts up an attractive display of pork cuts before the anticipated arrival of customers and market goers. Latest reports from the field indicate a slight increase in the price of pork. Nonoy Lacza

briefs body of filipino envoy killed in pakistan crash arrives home The body of the Philippine ambassador who was among those killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan last week arrived in his home country on Wednesday, with honor guards and his weeping family receiving his flag-draped casket at Manila’s airport.

Ambassador to Pakistan Domingo Lucenario Jr.’s remains were ferried home by a Pakistani military aircraft, accompanied by his wife and son and Pakistan’s minister of commerce, Khurram Dastgir Khan. Filipino honor guards carried the coffin out of the plane and onto the tarmac.

Lucenario’s two weeping daughters, other relatives, Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and colleagues were at the airport. The family wept as they hugged each other. AP

amlc ‘misled’ c.a. on binay bank accounts—lawyer

There are only five accounts that mentioned the name of Vice President Jejomar C. Binay and not 242 as reported in the media (not the BusinessMirror), “even based on the purported copy of the Freeze Order being circulated by Ernesto Mercado.”

This was the statement of the Binay family’s lawyer, Claro Certeza, who said it is also apparent from the purported copy of the Freeze Order that the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) deliberately misled the Court of Appeals by omitting the fact that Binay received campaign contributions in the amount of P231 million and incurred expenses in the amount of P218 million through his designated banks accounts. “This are all duly reported in his Statement of Campaign Contributions and Expenses filed with the Comelec [Commission on Elections],” Certeza said.

“The AMLC was also not truthful with the Court of Appeals because it deliberately concealed the fact that Binay and his wife, Elena, were earning additional income from their respective businesses in addition to the Vice President’s salary.” Recto Mercene

Economy BusinessMirror

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Malampaya gas supply begins to normalize

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he Malampaya gas power facility is producing more gas now compared to last Sunday, but there is still no word yet when supply will normalize.

According to an official of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), Unit 2 of Kepco Philippines Inc.’s 1,200megawatt (MW) Ilijan combined cycle plant is now up and running.

“The natural gas plants have reported receiving more gas supply last night [Tuesday], so that Ilijan’s Unit A-2 was put back on line, while another unit of First Gas was switched back to natural gas,” Lawrence Fernandez, Meralco Utility Economics head, said on Wednesday.

The Malampaya facility accounts for 40 percent of the Luzon grid’s requirements. It supplies natural gas to Ilijan and to the 1,000-MW Santa Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas plants of First Gas, a subsidiary of the Lopezes’ First Gen Corp.

Based on the December 2014 supply month, natural gas-fired plants accounted for around 60 percent of the energy supply of Meralco, while coal-fired plants accounted for around 37 percent.

The remaining 3 percent is a mix of oil-based and Wholesale Electricity Spot Market-sourced energy.

Fernandez said on Monday that Malampaya has reduced natural gas supply to Ilijan and the power plants owned by First Gas. As such, Unit 2 of Ilijan went offline. Ilijan Unit 2 can generate 200 MW of power.

Moreover, five of the six units of First Gas shifted to liquid fuel to

FERNANDEZ: “The natural gas plants have reported receiving more gas supply last night [Tuesday], so that Ilijan’s Unit A-2 was put back on line, while another unit of First Gas was switched back to natural gas.”

continue operations.

The Meralco official said that four First Gas units are still on liquid fuel as of Wednesday morning.

Liquid fuel is more expensive than natural gas. However, First Gen President Francis Giles Puno said the company still has cheaper supply of fuel left. “When we were preparing for the Malampaya shutdown the price of liquid fuel went down. It was, at that time, close to gas,” he said.

“We have, I think, about one week of supply on base-load. In the meantime, we will order additional fuel, just in case,” he said.

In case they need to order additional fuel soon, Puno said the gas sellers, which in this case is the consortium that runs the Malampaya facility, would have to pay for any additional cost.

“What will happen is the difference will be covered by the gas sellers because, in the first place, we are supposed to be running on natural gas,” said Puno, adding that their power plants are still able to deliver to Meralco its power requirements.

Thursday, May 14, 2015 A5

First Gen trims list of bidders for $1-billion LNG facility to 6

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By Lenie Lectura

he Lopez-owned First Gen Corp. has trimmed the list of potential contractors that will build its ambitious $1-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal facility.

LNG is natural gas that has been converted into a liquid state for easier storage and transportation.

Upon reaching its destination, LNG is regasified so it can be distributed through pipelines as natural gas.

First Gen is actively exploring the potential of an LNG regasification terminal that will allow it to import LNG from overseas. First Gen President Francis Giles Puno said this will address the depletion of Malampaya gas, which is expected

10 years from now.

“The availability of natural gas has benefited key industries in other markets. We see the supply to power and industrial users as the growth of future market demand for LNG,” he said during the company’s stockholders’ meeting.

The front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of the planned regasification terminal is expected to be finished this year, Puno said. After which, it will proceed to award the

engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract by middle of next year before actual construction takes place late 2016 or early 2017.

“We are just fine-tuning the technical details of the FEED. It will be finished this year. We already have short-listed potential contractors that are very capable of building a world-class facility,” said Puno, adding that the entire facility could be running by end-2019 or in 2020.

From 12, the list of interested EPC contractors is now down to six.

“They are international players and not small companies, so this is a testament that they can deliver the project on time,” Puno added.

First Gen will take in a partner for its proposed project. A decision will be made this year. “We must proceed to announce a partner. We will probably take half of it,” said Puno, referring to the equity stake it would have to share with a potential partner.

Aquino sets review of bonuses granted to GOCC officials and employees

By Butch Fernandez

Lenie Lectura

A

briefs p6.71-b quick-response funds ready for disaster relief IN anticipation of possible calamities in 2015, such as Typhoon Dodong (international code name, the national government has allotted P6.71 billion worth of quick-response funds (QRFs) under various departments and agencies in the 2015 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“The administration’s disaster-management strategy is already in place to address Typhoon Dodong, with funds allocated to different frontline agencies under their respective budgets. These funds will enable us to quickly respond— with the appropriate resources and manpower—to the damage caused by the recent typhoon,” Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said.

The departments and agencies that have QRFs are the departments of Agriculture, Education, Health, National Defense (including the Office of Civil Defense), Social Welfare and Development, and Transportation and Communications, as well as the National Irrigation Authority. PNA

cdc to remit p400-m cash dividend to natl government

The Clark Development Corp. (CDC) is set to remit a total of P400 million in cash dividends to the national government, a record for the governmentowned corporation.

In celebration of the GOCC Day (government-owned and -controlled corporation) in Malacañang on Wednesday, the CDC announced the remittance to the Bureau of the Treasury, which has been the highest single-year remittance

by CDC so far.

The remittance of dividends is in compliance with Republic Act 7656 (or the dividend law), which requires GOCCs to declare and remit at least 50 percent of their annual net income to the National Treasury. It is remitted to national coffers to fund various projects and programs of the government.

CDC’s total remitted dividends since 2006 stands at P1.345 billion. CDC has continued to improve on its financial standing. Its cash position has been recorded at an all-time high at P2.277 billion at the end of 2014. Catherine N. Pillas

govt eyes 5% g.i.t. for domestic ecozone locators

The government eyes to give 5-percent gross income tax (GIT) as incentive to locators in domestic economic zones being pushed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).

Peza Director General Lilia B. de Lima told reporters on Wednesday that the government is now refining the proposal for domestic ecozones.

“Many companies want to come here but want to sell in the domestic market,” de Lima said, noting that both local and foreign investors are eligible for incentives in locating in domestic ecozones.

She added that the domestic ecozones aim to help firms in dealing with business processes in the local government unit (LGU).

She explained that from the 5-percent GIT, 2 percent will go to the LGU and 3 percent will go to the national government. PNA

congressmen no longer ‘squatters’ at batasan complex

After 37 years, the National Housing Authority (NHA) on Wednesday officially transferred the title of the land of the Batasan Complex to the House of Representatives.

After the signing of the memorandum of agreement for the conveyance of the title of the Batasan property between the House of Representatives and the NHA, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that lower chamber is no longer considered an “informal settler” on the 19-hectare land in Quezon City.

"We have land title now following this agreement," Belmonte said.

He added that with the land title the chamber practically cannot be evicted from the property.

“As long as we don’t hold title to this property, legally speaking, even if we’re the powerful House of Representatives, we’re still subject to changes that could be done through presidential action. Now that the title has been vested in us, under the Constitution, this is already in the nature of a private property of the House,” he said. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

He declined to identify potential partners but said “it [the partnership] could be a combination of foreign and Filipino partners.”

First Gen has yet to make a final investment decision on the LNG project. “We have to go through the formal tendering process, so based on that, we can determine if it’s okay to go ahead,” Puno added.

Currently, First Gen has an installed capacity of close to 3,000 megawatts (MW), half of which is renewable, and the other half of which is natural gas.

First Gen, which operates the Santa Rita and San Lorenzo gas-fired plants in Batangas province with a combined capacity of 1,500 MW, expects to switch on its third gas-fired plant, the 97-MW Avion, in the second half of this year. A fourth, the $600-million San Gabriel plant with a 414-MW capacity, will be put up in the second half of 2017 or early 2018.

Thriving export products A worker at Roberts Automotive and Industrial Parts Manufacturing Corp. in Canlubang, Laguna, conducts

final quality inspection on locally assembled exhaust pipes and mufflers for Toyota Vios and Innova cars before export to China and Japan. The Philippines has built a reputation as a reputable assembler and fabricator of various car parts across Asia. Roy Domingo

Developers shun ‘Payanig’ property auction

By Joel R. San Juan

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boitiz Land and Filinvest have shied away from participating in the public bidding for the 18.5-hectare “Payanig sa Pasig” property due to existing legal dispute on the ownership of the property.

The decision of Aboitiz Land not to vie for the property has been hailed by BLEMP Commercial Philippines Inc., which is claiming full ownership of the property by virtue of two original titles in its possession.

“Far beyond any legalities or official proceedings, I think this boils down to a matter of common sense,” BLEMP lawyer Dennis Manalo said.

“Why would anyone be interested to buy something, if the person selling it cannot prove ownership of the item being sold. Would you buy a car from me if I did not have the original receipt (OR), certificate of registration (CR), clearances, or any notarized Deed of Sale on hand? That would be ridiculous, right?” Manalo added.

In its notice of public bidding, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) advised interested parties that the property was being auctioned off on an “as-is-where-is” basis due to the ongoing cases involving its ownership.

It added that potential buyers were responsible for conducting their own due diligence.

Amid questions about PCGG’s legal right to bid out the Payanig property, its chairman, Andres Bautista, was named as the new chairman of the Commission on Elections on May 4.

Whether the PCGG will proceed

with the auction in light of this development remains to be seen.

“Even if a so-called winner comes out of this bidding, they can never own the property, because it is covered by the titles TCT#337158 and TCT# 469702. BLEMP has full ownership and possession of those titles, therefore, the land belongs to them,” Manalo stressed.

It can be recalled that in 2011, the Supreme Court declared null and void the auction sale of the controversial 18.4891-hectare Payanig property conducted by the Pasig City government in 2005 due to nonpayment of real property taxes.

The SC also nullified the P389.02 million real property tax assessment and the warrants of levy on the said property issued by the Pasig City government.

However, it partially granted petition filed by the Pasig City government as it allowed the latter to issue to PCGG new real property tax assessments covering only the portions of the properties actually leased to various taxable individuals and entities and only for the period of such leases.

Sometime in 1986, Jose Campos, a known crony of the late strongman former President Ferdinand Marcos and the controlling owner of MidPasig Land Development Corp. and Independent Realty Corp., voluntarily surrendered the said corporations and their assets to the PCGG, including the Payanig property for being part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family.

In return, Campos and his associates were granted immunity from suit.

Big business groups eye Guimaras’s RE potentials

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LOILO CIT Y—Big business groups are starting to give a second look on the potentials of the island province of Guimaras after it succeeded in putting up wind turbines to assure enough power supply in the island.

The renewable-energy (RE) facility is owned by private firm Trans Asia Corp. in utilizing wind power to supply more than 27 megawatts of energy.

This was announced by Guimaras Gov. Samuel Gumarin after four initial corporations have sent inquiries at his office on possible investments and business locations for mostly agritourism projects in the island.

Gumarin said he welcomes the business interest of the corporations and is inviting more investors to come and see the potentials of the island, including its more than enough power supply and water sources.

Among the early inquiries are from big businessmen Henry Chuesuy of a hotel chain in Boracay Island; Felix Tiu of Centennial Resort Hotel in Iloilo City; Severino Lim of the posh Anhawan Resort in Oton, Iloilo; and Antonio Ang of San Miguel Corp.

The island has also its share of white-sand beaches, coves and adventure areas for hiking and biking.

It has currently 1,300 hotel rooms and not enough for the influx of tourists especially during the summer season. PNA

fter receiving over P36 billion worth of checks representing annual dividends from earnings of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs), President Aquino on Wednesday ordered an immediate review of all executive bonuses granted by GOCCs to top officials.

Winding up his speech at the 2015 GOCC Day turnover rites at Malacañang on Wednesday, Mr. Aquino directed Governance Commission on GOCC (GCG) Chairman Cesar Villanueva, Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima and Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad to conduct the review of executive bonuses “within one month.”

“I want to review the bonuses accruing in the past years,” the President said, “to make sure other deserving GOCC workers are not forgotten.”

Mr. Aquino explained the review is intended to ensure the GOCC executives’ bonuses are all within the law and are fair to all their employees.

At the same time, President Aquino said his administration is still hoping to double or approximate 200 percent of the Arroyo-era total GOCC dividends of P84 billion in nine years, boasting that the GOCCs have already accumulated over P100 billion in his five years in office. Under the GOCC law (Republic Act 7656), all GOCCs are required to “declare and remit at least 50 percent of their annual net earnings as cash, stock or property dividends to the national government” on or before April 30.

According to Malacañang, the GOCC Dividends Day started in 2010, under the Department of Finance, to give due recognition to the GOCCs for the dividends that would be remitted to the national government in compliance with RA 7656. The Palace recalled that approximately P29 billion was remitted in 2010, with annual remittances rising to P32.3 billion in 2014.

On Wednesday’s Palace rites, Mr. Aquino received a total of P36.36 billion from the GOCCs, which continued to post robust remittances to the National Treasury, up from P32.13 billion dividends posted in 2013.

The GCG reported to the President that the Land Bank of the Philippines topped the list of GOCCs with the highest dividends at P6.254 billion, while the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. posted the highest total remittance amounting to P10.137 billion, joining eight other GOCCs in the so-called Billionaires Club of state agencies that declared over P1 billion in annual dividends last year.

A6 Thursday, May 14, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Unemployment as strategy for deployment

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S it simply neglect or is it deliberate?

As far as massive unemployment figures go, there is little doubt as to the crime of neglect on the part of the government.

Employment is a basic constitutional mandate. How and why unemployment has reached such staggering highs in the recent twenty-year span needs thorough study.

It is doubtful, however, that neglect is the only reason. Any administration that knows fundamental economics will swear to buying power’s contribution to the overall economic state of the nation.

There is, of course, that nagging thought that while the government may be up and about trying to provide employment to most Filipinos, its idea of “employment” that is affordable and cheap—at least to government coffers—is something that can be found elsewhere.

Let’s face it, the more there is unemployment in the country, there are more chances that Filipinos will move heaven and earth to find it in foreign soil. This brings some to conclude that unemployment may have become a strategy of the government to force Filipinos to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

To explain: Over 15 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), to date, haggle for their daily living on foreign soil, with an average 6,000 leaving the country each day. According to militant youth and student organization Anak Bayan, that’s about a fourth of our labor force.

This translates to $26 billion in remittances, plus P150 million in processing-fee revenue per year. Let’s not even go to whatever taxes these OFWs pay for goods purchased and sent by balikbayan mail. These remittances have buoyed the Philippine economy like no other industry in the market today. In fact, it has safeguarded an economy bereft of manufactured products and empty of investments for years.

As far as the government is concerned, deploying millions of Filipinos overseas is a very lucrative industry. Hence, the country has a labor-export policy that pushes OFWs to gun for the mighty dollar.

The government spends very little for its labor-export policy—about P260 per OFW per year. Top this with a legal-assistance budget cut of a little over P100 million and further cuts in budget for OFW concerns of P600 million, and what do OFWs get in return? Nothing by way of government support. Close to a hundred OFWs are languishing in death row in several foreign prisons, seven of whom had already been executed.

No industry to date can compare with the level of foreign currency being brought in by OFWs year-in, year-out. The least the government could do is spend and build a support structure for Filipinos abroad, one that is solid enough to alleviate the risks of working in foreign soil.

05142015

Tax wars John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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HILE hoping that it has never happened to you personally, to understand the situation that most developed nations are facing right now, imagine receiving your monthly credit-card statement. And you do not have the money to pay it.

For years you have been using your credit line to get you from paycheck to paycheck. Because you have always been able to pay the monthly amortization on time, the bank has increased your credit balance.

Now you find yourself stretched too thin. While it would be nice just to ignore the bill, you need that credit card to buy your daily gasoline just to get to work. That P1,000 note that you keep for emergencies in the back of your wallet comes out first. If the required payment is large enough, you might take some money out of your kid’s educational savings account.

Finally, the money allotted for next week’s groceries goes to pay the bill.

But it is even worse for the political leaders trying to meet their government’s debt obligations than it is for you trying to pay your creditcard bill. These government officials not only face losing their comfortable jobs, but they also have to worry about the people rioting in the streets, as has happened too often

in the last years.

Governments are in a mad scramble to raise cash and to keep their populations under control.

An easy way to control the people is by attacking their money. It only takes a law or two made in the “public good.” In this case, going after people’s money achieves control and raises cash. What could be sweeter?

The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or Fatca, requires foreign banks to monitor bank accounts of both US citizens and current or former US residents. The government wants to make sure no one has any money outside of their reach. But it is not just the US that is going after peoples’ money. France has passed rules that limit any cash payments to €1,000.

However, the most effective method for both control of the population and grabbing all the money a government can is through taxation.

The Australian government is aggressively pushing for a bank-deposit

tax that will tax the amount people put into their savings account, not just a tax on the earned interest.

Think about that. You are income taxed when you make it. You are value-added taxed when you spend it. Now you are deposit taxed when you save it.

The lyrics to the 1966 song “Taxman” by The Beatles’s member George Harrison now sounds like a prediction; “Be thankful I don’t take it all-Cos I’m the taxman.”

Governments are not only waging a tax war on their citizens but on other governments. Global companies doing business in multiple countries are facing an onslaught of new rules so that every nation gets their cut of the pie.

Apple, Google and Microsoft are the principle targets. These companies set their corporate structure so that their net income goes to countries where the income-tax rates are lower.

American companies shield an estimated $1.9 trillion income offshore, safe from the US taxing authorities.

But here is the irony. The US originally supported this type of move but now has backed away since it potentially will reduce US tax revenues from these companies, as the foreign nations where these do business will get a larger share.

Indonesia intends to open another front in its “own Tax War” against other regional neighbors. It will lower corporate-tax rates from the current 25 percent to 17.5 percent. This is to keep foreign companies from doing

The job-killing-robot myth

By Dean Baker Los Angeles Times/TNS

A

RE robots displacing millions of workers? Many people seem to think so.

Recently, for instance, The New York Times ran an oped claiming that “the machines are getting smarter, and they’re coming for more and more jobs.” Last week the Wall Street Journal sounded the alarm that “robots are taking over corporate finance departments.” The story goes that we can look forward to an ever greater problem of unemployment as technological advancement allows machines to replace a growing percentage of the work force.

It’s a scary story. But, first of all, it’s not new. Second, although robots are “coming for” some jobs, that fact does not explain the current economic situation. Robots are a distraction from very real problems.

On the first point, concerns about machines creating mass unemployment date back centuries. The term “Luddite” refers to textile workers in the early 19th century who smashed the machines that threatened to make their skills redundant. When I was young, Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano was a must-read tale of a society in which machines did all the work and people were unnecessary. So we have seen this script many times before.

Turning to the evidence, if technology were rapidly displacing workers

then productivity growth—the rate of increase in the value of goods and services produced in an hour of work— should be very high, because machines are more efficient. In the last decade, however, productivity growth has risen at a sluggish 1.4 percent annual rate. In the last two years it has limped along at a pace of less than 1 percent annually.

By comparison, in the post-World War II “Golden Age,” from 1947 to 1973, productivity grew at an annual rate of almost 3 percent.

And let’s not ignore that the rapid productivity growth of the Golden Age was associated with low unemployment and strong wage growth. So even if we did see a big uptick in productivity growth, there is no reason to assume that this

would be bad news for (human) workers.

The other scary robots story that won’t seem to die is that even if technology isn’t hurting everyone and making all humanity redundant, it is responsible for growing inequality.

The economist David Autor popularized this “hollowing out of the middle” narrative, which holds that many of the jobs that used to support a middle-class living standard, like manufacturing and clerical work, are disappearing because of technology. As a result, less-skilled workers are scrambling for an ever-smaller number of jobs and falling behind their better-educated peers.

But the data don’t support that theory either. If Autor’s story were true, we would expect to see higher demand for high-skilled jobs relative to less-skilled jobs. That’s not happening. Instead, there’s been a modest decline in the relative demand for almost all occupations above the bottom 25 percent to 30 percent. In the years since 2000, most of the job growth has been in occupations at the bottom end of the wage distribution, with the share at the middle and top both declining.

Inequality is real, but it has more to do with the wages certain occupations command than the myth that machines are lowering the quantity of work that’s

business in Singapore, which has a lower tax regimen and attract business to Indonesia. Singapore loses; Indo wins.

This new taxation scheme by Indonesia will provide a boost to their already record-high foreign direct investment of $37 billion in 2014, a 16-percent increase from the previous year. President Joko Widodo’s administration understands that in addition to making doing business in the country easier, the bottom line for most companies is their “bottom line.” Incentives are transitory but for the longer term, a lower tax rate makes a huge difference in their decision where to do business.

The Philippines, on the other hand, takes a more “peaceful” approach in the tax war between nations, having the highest corporate-tax rate of any of our neighbors, even 50 percent higher than Thailand and Vietnam.

But perhaps not wanting to be totally out of the “war,” the Philippines also levies the highest individual rates—based on income—of all our neighbors. This includes people from the poorest 10 percent through the richest 10 percent of Filipinos. We know who the losers in this battle are going to be.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

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available for the less-skilled.

Still, the robots story is important because it perpetuates another myth: that inequality is something that just happened, when, in fact, it’s the consequence of specific policies.

If robots are the problem we could feel bad about it, and maybe look to help those who are on the losing side of the great human-android war. But few would want to be Luddites standing in the path of technological progress. Opposing mechanization seems futile. On the other hand, if the rise in inequality over the last 35 years is due to government action or inaction, then we might try to bring about change.

The list of policies that have led to inequality is long. It includes a trade policy designed to whack the middle class; Federal Reserve Board policy that fights inflation at the expense of jobs; a bloated financial sector that relies on government support; and a system of labor-management relations that is skewed against workers.

If we really want to address the causes of inequality, we have to get over the robots-are-taking-our-jobs story, move beyond handwringing or Luddism, and accept the harsh reality that people, or their policies, anyway, are to blame—not technology.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Inclusive growth: Vital for sustainable devt of Asia-Pacific region

The Lord, the most high

HE level of global debate about sustainable development is reaching new heights as the United Nations gears up for member-states to negotiate the post-2015 development agenda at a landmark summit to be convened by the General Assembly in September.

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G

Amid these debates, it is vital that we keep in view the prerequisites for sustainable development. Maintaining quality, robust, sustained and inclusive economic growth is critical as we adopt the new sustainable development agenda.

Deliberations about the specific sustainable development goals to be adopted must be reinforced by sound global economic governance and focused domestic policy frameworks, improving the inclusiveness of growth to advance the economic, environmental and social welfare of our people and the planet.

The benefits of growth have to be more widely distributed, because inclusive growth is the cornerstone of sustainable development. Mainstreaming sustainability considerations in policymaking will, in turn, support inclusivity.

The Asia-Pacific region, with its strong growth performance and economic dynamism, has achieved a remarkable reduction in extreme poverty, along with broader development. However, much work remains. The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2015, launched this week by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap), forecasts for 2015 and again for 2016 only a singlepercentage-point rise in levels of economic growth in the region’s developing countries.

The changing dynamics in regional growth trends are driven by many factors, prominent among these is the economic rebalancing of China, which is expected to register a lower growth rate of 7 percent in 2015—a stark contrast to investment and export-led growth averaging 9.7 percent over the last decade. Authorities are managing the transition well however, and are counting on domestic consumption-led growth.

While the unprecedented decline in the international oil price of almost 40 percent between the end of June 2014 and the start of May 2015 offered the region a window of opportunity and some relief to the large community of oil importers, it also created economic tremors in Russia and its neighbors.

In terms of regional impact, the slowdown in some of the larger economies is being partially offset

by India’s growth, which we expect will accelerate to 8.1in 2015 from 7.4 percent last year, as the new Government of India translates its reform commitments into action.

Work has also intensified in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), with members set to establish the Asean Economic Community (AEC) by the end of this year, which should boost growth prospects for the subregion and the wider Asia and the Pacific. Within Asean, Indonesia is set to see its growth increase to 5.6 percent in 2015 from 5 percent in 2014.

The good news is that there is still much scope to catalyze higher growth, with much of the region’s output below its potential, and in some cases even below precrisis levels. Better growth is contingent, however, on strong and sustained domestic reforms. Structural weaknesses, such as infrastructure shortages; excessive commoditydependence; low productivity and social deficits also keep some developing economies in the region from realizing their full growth potential.

The irrefutable lesson of recent decades is that although economic

Sing praise to God

growth is vital and necessary, it is not sufficient to create shared and sustainable prosperity. This requires shifting the focus of development policies to address not only “inequalities of income” but also “inequalities of opportunity.”

This distinction is important, because different kinds of deprivation reinforce each other. Reduced access to adequate health care, basic nutrition, clean drinking water, better sanitation and quality education, for example, impacts employment prospects, widening the gap even further between haves and have-nots, and creating a vicious spiral of inequality.

For sustainable development to succeed, growth must be made more inclusive, by addressing social and environmental deficits. Escap has introduced an innovative new multidimensional inclusiveness index—a composite measure of 15 core indicators that track the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development in 16 countries, which together account for 92 percent of the region’s population and 88 percent of its gross domestic product.

Inclusiveness measurements confirm that while the region as a whole has made progress over time, within several countries economic and social transformation is still lagging. Despite significant progress in improving access to universal primary education, for example, there are still several countries where more than half of all children of secondary school age are not even enrolled. In India’s lowest income quintile, girls receive on average, only half as many years of education as boys. In Pakistan, the gap is even more glaring.

A similar picture emerges in health services. Only about 59 percent of the region’s population are able to access basic sanitation, and close to 800 million people lack access to these facilities in South and South-West Asia alone. Of particular concern are large and widening income inequalities in many countries, as well as disparities in access to critical public goods, such as education and health services across the region. Deteriorating environmental conditions and frequent natural disasters are also making it more difficult for socioeconomic progress to be sustained.

As the region prepares for the post-Millennium Development Goals future, inclusiveness must be integrated and mainstreamed in policymaking to meet these outstanding development commitments and to implement the new sustainable development agenda.

It is essential for governments to launch integrated and welldesigned packages of inclusive policies to boost opportunities for decent employment and job security, equitable access to finance, and to provide adequate access to basic services such as education, health, energy and water. Addressing the shortcomings of inclusive growth, together with prudent and consistent management of risks to growth, has to be a key part of our transformation for the sustainable future we want.

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar is the undersecretary-general of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. She is also the UN’s Sherpa for the G-20 and previously served as governor of the Central Bank of Pakistan and vice president of the Mena Region of the World Bank.

in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come.

And he put all things beneath His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of one who fills all things in every way” (Ephesians 1:20-23).

In Mark’s gospel, the Gospel, the good news, is Jesus himself, at the very start, he wrote, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (Mark 1:1). The heart of the proclamation to every creature is Jesus who is the salvation of all creation.

Hence, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” This underlines the centrality of Jesus, not of some creedal formula however sublime. Jesus came among us and His presence meant that the kingdom of God is at hand and the fulfillment of the prophecies of old (1:14-15). This event demands of us repentance and faith, faith and trust in the person of Jesus, reorienting oneself totally according to Him, living in communion with Him. Baptism is the symbol and sacrament of such a new life of personal intimacy with Jesus. To refuse to entrust oneself to Him cannot but mean rejection of salvation, condemning oneself to eternal separation from God.

Proclaim the gospel to all

Signs confirming the word

Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

By Dr. Shamshad Akhtar

OD is Lord over all the earth and all the nations; sing songs of joy and of praises (Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9). Ascended to God’s glory, Jesus the Lord sends His disciples to the whole world to preach the gospel to every creature and in His name to work wonders (Mark 16:15-20).

THE Psalm celebrates the enthronement of God, the Lord of all the earth, as peoples sing praise to Him; He reigns over all the earth. He is the Most High, the awesome, above any other “god” or power envisaged by man.

Ascended into heaven, Jesus “mounts His throne amid shouts of joy.” He is the “great king over all the earth.” As He said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” (John 12:32). And the visionary testifies, “I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is them, singing, ‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’” (Revelation 5:13). Paul summarizes it all to the Ephesians: God “worked in Christ, raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand

AN inspired summary of what followed in the Christian community after Jesus was raised to heaven, Mark’s “mini-Acts of the Disciples”, his last six verses speak of the final mission entrusted by the Risen One to His disciples to “proclaim the gospel to every creature.” They are to “go to the whole world” to do this.

And what they are to share and communicate to the world is not a body of doctrines, but the very person of Jesus.

The king can do wrong Atty. Ron Erwin L. Esquivel

Tax law for business

I

N the past, men were governed by princes who dictated the course of human activity. Their words were the law and they were presumed to be infallible. They were never wrong and they were above all.

Today, monarchs exist as a form of symbol but the people are governed by other kind of princes, exercising their power through a permanent medium.

They are the representatives of the sovereign people where government authority emanates, and exercising their power through a medium called the government, an intangible entity but more or less permanent.

The government is a perfect entity, or at least presumed to be, created to administer the course of the state and the interactions of the people. Just like princes, the government is presumed to be infallible and correct, most of the time. It is a mighty being that cannot be sued without its consent. It cannot even be held accountable for the acts of the administration, or the people behind the

Thursday, May 14, 2015

government and in control of running it.

However, as we see through history, nothing stays permanent. Even the longstanding principles and rules do change to adapt to the changing needs of society.

More so, when a principle or rule violates the rights of the people, rights which the government is bound to protect. And as Machiavelli once said, “he who becomes a prince through the favor of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed” So when is the time when the government may be held accountable even through the negligence of its agents?

In G.R. 172509 which was promulgated on February 4 involving assessment of deficiency documentary stamp tax, the Supreme Court (SC) stated that

THE disciples of Jesus are literally to be the body of Jesus, His embodiment and sacrament in the world. Their words must be in accord with and replicating His Word, their actions imaging and concretizing His love, their service an extension of His service to all. As Christians, they must live a life of union with the Christ, with Jesus the Lord as His kadiwa and kindred spirits. Without authentic faith, they cannot possibly do their ap-

the Court is “mindful of the rule in taxation that estoppel does not prevent the government from collecting taxes; it is not bound by the mistake or negligence of its agents. The rule is based on the political law concept that “the king can do no wrong,” which likens a state to a king: It does not commit mistakes, and it does not sleep on its rights. The analogy fosters inequality between the taxpayer and the government, with the balance tilting in favor of the latter. This concept finds justification in the theory and reality that the government is necessary, and it must, therefore, collect taxes if it is to survive. Thus, the mistake or negligence of government officials should not bind the state, lest it bring harm to the government and ultimately the people, in whom sovereignty resides.”

However, the SC, applying the old case of Republic v. Ker & Co. Ltd., 124 Phil.

822 (1966), further stated that the noestoppel rule stated above is not absolute as procedural matter and injustice obtain the case. It stated that “the procedural matter consists in the failure to raise the issue of prescription at the trial court or administrative level, and injustice in the fact that the Bureau of Internal Revenue [BIR] has unduly delayed the assessment and collection of the DST in this case.” The Court ruled that “the fact that it took more than 12 years for it to take steps to collect the assessed tax, the

pointed task. But in the spirit and name of Jesus, they can accomplish their mission of evangelizing all peoples, accompanied with signs of wonder and might.

Jesus explicitly promised that those who believe in Him will be accompanied by wondrous deeds confirming the word they proclaim. Jesus indeed is victorious over death and now reigns over His new creation reborn in baptism. He is present in the world in a new way, in His new body, the Church, which carries on what He began. He continues to heal and to comfort the suffering through His followers He has endowed with the gifts of healing and consolation. He continues to forgive and to welcome through His ministers of forgiveness and reconciliation.

He did not leave us alone; we have His power to do marvels as He did when He walked the earth. We have each other in Him. We are His body, His Church, loving, serving, sharing life to all.

Alálaong bagá, the exaltation of Jesus in His ascension into heaven is not just about His return to glory together with the Father. It is also about the Church, His disciples, continuing His mission.

Our songs of praise of Him now must be in the form of our faithful proclamation of the Gospel to everyone, accompanied by the wondrous deeds of our loving service to everyone.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio-streaming on www. dwiz882.com.

BIR definitely caused untold prejudice to petitioner, keeping the latter in the dark for so long, as to whether it is liable for DST and, if so, for how much.”

Despite the necessity and for purposes of survival, the government cannot hide in the cloak of immunity to allow injustice to prevail. Though mighty and infallible, it must accept mistake, even though committed by its agents in order to serve the people it was ordained to protect. By doing so, it avoids oppression and cures inequality.

This is the clear message of the SC and the position they want to maintain in order to balance the disparity between the forces at play. After all, the protection of the rights of the people is the foundation of the existence of the government.

Atty. Ron Erwin L. Esquivel is a junior associate of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices, a member-firm of World Tax Services Alliance.

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter.

Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at Erwin.esquivel@bdblaw. com.ph or call 403-2001 local 313.

Don’t leave indigenous peoples behind in SDGs

By Victoria Tauli-Corpuz UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

U

NITED Nations member-states are meeting throughout the year to finalize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will set the global development agenda for the next 15 years. The goals are supposed to be universal and aspire to “leave no one behind.”

But indigenous peoples (IP), who are among the poorest and most marginalized people on earth, are all but invisible in the latest draft of the SDGs. As an indigenous woman and the UN special rapporteur on the rights of IP, I am deeply concerned that almost all references to IP have been deleted, as we have learned from experience that unless we are explicitly included, we are likely to be excluded.

IP face systemic discrimination and exclusion in almost every country they live in. Without specific targets and indicators to measure and report on the realization of their rights, this inequality is likely to continue in the 15-year implementation of the SDGs. The Millennium Development Goals, which were also supposed to be universal, failed to address indegenous peoples’ poverty: they still make up just 5 percent of the global population but account for 15 percent of the world’s poorest

people. If the SDGs aim to do any better, and achieve their aspiration to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere,” they must also address the indegenous peoples’ unique development needs and challenges.

Chief among these is that many IP do not have legal title to the lands they have lived on for generations. This insecurity has resulted in encroachment by governments and corporations, as well as forced evictions of countless communities from their ancestral lands.

Because their lives, livelihoods, cultures and identities are intrinsically tied to their territory, this loss often deprives IP of their income and self-sufficiency, and threatens their very identity and survival. Securing legal recognition of indegenous peoples’ land rights has other benefits, too: it decreases poverty, supports food security, and encourages long-term economic and environmental benefits. But despite progress in some regions, there has been a sharp slowdown in the overall global recognition of indegenous peoples’ and communities’ land rights since 2008.

The current SDG draft recognizes the land rights of individuals (men and women) but does not take into account the estimated 1.5 billion IP and forestdwelling and forest-dependent local people who govern 6.8 billion hectares of land through community tenure arrangements.

Currently governments only recognize about 513 million hectares of these lands. The SDGs should, therefore, include an indicator to measure recognition of collective land rights, and reinstate a deleted provision requiring that governments obtain the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of IP before handing over their lands. This is particularly critical given that “development” for many IP has been more of a threat than a promise. An analysis of around 73,000 mining, agricultural and lodging concessions in eight countries revealed that more than 93 percent of these developments involved lands inhabited by IP and local communities.

Development projects in countries that lack strong safeguards often rob them of their lands and livelihoods—but rarely do they deliver on the promise of shared economic development.

In Indonesia, for example, palm-oil corporations have engulfed over 59 percent of community forests in West Kalimantan, yet the industry contributes less than 2 percent to Indonesia’s gross domestic product and has not increased rural employment.

Inequality has risen, and indegenous peoples’ land rights have been transferred to corporations on a large scale. The consequences of insecure land tenure extend beyond indigenous communities: Indonesia is now the world’s fourth-largest emitter

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of greenhouse gases, with almost 80 percent of emissions stemming from deforestation, land-use change, and the draining and burning of peatland.

On the other hand, deforestation rates are dramatically lower in areas where IP have legal recognition of their land rights. Despite suffering some of its worst impacts, IP can actually offer some of the most promising solutions to climate change. Community forest rights in Nepal, for example, improved the health of the forest to the point where it absorbed 180 million tons of carbon. It is no coincidence that traditional indigenous territories overlap to a large degree with biodiversity hot spots.

Because many IP live in rural areas and are politically and physically distant from the centers of power, it is all too easy for us to become invisible.

We fought for the global recognition of our rights in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indegenous Peoples’. We had to fight to be called “IP,” a term that recognizes us as peoples with distinct identities and cultures who have the right to self-determination.

As they stand now, the SDGs are a step backward from these achievements. IP have been all but erased from the development agenda. Include us, so that we can protect our traditions and territories for our children and protect the planet’s biodiversity for all the world’s children.

Don’t leave us behind.