Business mirror 10 23 2014

Ebola report

NUMBER OF EBOLA CASES AND DEATHS as of Oct. 20 Country / State / Province

Probable/ suspected Confirmed

A Guinea

B Liberia

C Sierra Leone

E

F Senegal

H

1,217

Deaths

191

671

Cases

*

*

Deaths

*

*

Cases

433

932

1

19

Deaths

1

7

Cases

30

38

Deaths

*

*

Cases

0

1

Deaths

0

0

U.S.

Cases

0

3

-Texas

Deaths

0

1

Spain

Cases

0

1

-Madrid

Deaths

0

0

AFRICA

F

Total of confirmed and probable/suspected

862 deaths 1,519 cases 2,484 deaths 4,262 cases 1,200 deaths

2,977

268

Cases

Congo

G

302

Deaths

Nigeria

D

Cases

3,410 cases Nigeria has been declared free of Ebola

8 deaths 20 cases 49 deaths 68 cases

1 case

Senegal has been declared free of Ebola

1 death 3 cases

1 case * Exact data not available at this time

U N I T E D S TAT E S OF AMERICA

A

three-time States with cases rotary club of manila Graphic: Staff journalism Source: World Health Organization, Reuters awardee 2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. Media Award 2008

health&fitness

october poise Sports BusinessMirror

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| Thursdday, OCTOber 23, 2014 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

OCTOBER

POISE MADISON BUMGARNER and the Giants stop the Royals, 7-1, in World Series opener. AP

By Ben Walker The Associated Press

ANSAS CITY, Missouri—Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants put a sudden stop to the Kansas City Royals’ perfect postseason roll.

Bumgarner pitched shutout ball into the seventh inning, Hunter Pence homered early and the Giants showed off their October poise, shutting down the Royals, 7-1, on Tuesday night in the World Series opener.

From the start, the Giants simply did everything right to win their seventh-straight World Series game. There’s a reason Bumgarner and team in black and orange are trying for their third title in five years.

The Royals, meanwhile, looked nothing like the fresh team that had become baseball’s darlings by starting the playoffs with eight wins in a row— pitching, hitting and fielding all deserted them.

The fates seemed to change from the very first batter, in fact. Gregor Blanco led off with a soft line drive to center field and American League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Lorenzo Cain charged, then backed off as the ball fell for a single. It would’ve taken a near miracle to catch it, but that’s the kind of play the Royals had been making on a routine basis.

Moments later, Pence’s two-run homer highlighted a three-run burst in the first inning against James Shields. Nicknamed “Big Game James,” he once again failed to live up to that billing and left in the fourth when the Giants made it 5-0.

By then, Royals fans who had waited since 1985 for the Series to come to town had gone silent.

Or, worse, they were booing while small “Let’s go, Giants!” chants echoed through Kauffman Stadium.

Just like that, what many figured would be a tight matchup had turned into a mismatch. And it was a good omen for the Giants—the Game One winner has won 15 of the last 17 World Series.

The Royals will try to get even in Game Two on Wednesday night when rookie Yordano Ventura starts against veteran Jake Peavy.

Bumgarner added to his sparkling World Series resume, improving to 3-0 and extending his scoreless streak to 21 innings before Salvador Perez homered with two outs in the seventh.

“He’s special. He’s got that flair for the spectacular,” Pence said. “He never makes it bigger than it is. He just gets out there and competes.”

The 25-year-old called Bumgarner was in trouble only once. Down 3-0 in the third, the Royals loaded the bases with a two-out walk and cleanup man Eric Hosmer stepped to the plate, but grounded out on the first pitch.

Bumgarner went on to stretch his road postseason scoreless streak to a record 32 2-3 innings as the Giants cruised. He pitched threehit ball for seven innings, struck out five and walked one.

“He was dynamite. I mean, man, was he

ROYAL MELTDOWN

good tonight,” Royals Manager Ned Yost said.

“We had an opportunity in the third, and I was really impressed with the way he fed off our aggressiveness and just worked up the ladder to get out of that jam.”

Michael Morse, getting to play as the designated hitter in the AL park, had an runbatted-in (RBI) single that finished Shields, and reliever Danny Duffy walked Blanco with the bases loaded.

Rookie Joe Panik hit an RBI triple that bounced past usually reliable right fielder Nori Aoki in the seventh and scored on a single by October force Pablo Sandoval.

The Most Valuable Player of the 2012 World Series triumph, Sandoval also had an RBI double in the first that extended his postseason streak of reaching base to 24 straight games.

Pence also doubled and walked.

Before the game, the mood at the ballpark was positively giddy. Ushers greeted fans with “Welcome to the World Series!” and some hot-dog vendors high-fived each other behind the counter.

Yet the Giants wrecked that fun, and won for the 16th time in their last 18 postseason games.

“We didn’t expect to come in here and sweep the San Francisco Giants,” Yost said. “We knew that this was a series that was going to go deep. We know how tough they are. They swung the bats really well.”

The Royals had won 11 straight in the postseason dating to their 1985 championship run, one short of the record held by a pair of New York Yankees clubs.

But it was clear from the start that this would not be their night, and not even the little things went well.

Early in the game, Kansas City third base Coach Mike Jirschele retrieved a foul ball and tried to flip it into the stands.

Instead, his toss fell well short of reaching the seats.

The first Series game in the expanded replay era didn’t require a single video review. But all six umpires quickly huddled to discuss a foul ball that glanced off Perez’s bat on a bounce, and got it right.

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ANSAS CITY, Missouri—The Kansas City Royals had adopted the scrappy, intense attitude of Royals starter James Shields during their thrilling postseason run. They followed his cue on Tuesday night, too.

It just happened that Shields was tight from the very first pitch.

The veteran starter was pounded for five runs on seven hits and a walk, failed to record an out in the third inning and was pulled from Game One to a smattering of boos. Kansas City went on to lose, 7-1, to the San Francisco Giants in its first World Series appearance in 29 years.

The same free-spirited Royals that had swept through the playoffs looked more like the 100-loss cellar-dwellers that Kansas City fielded so many times over the years.

The only run the Royals scored came on Salvador Perez’s homer in the seventh inning.

Their crisp defense had fallen apart, right fielder Nori Aoki at one point whiffing on a flyball that went for a triple. Their daring base-running had been made irrelevant. Their bullpen, too. And an offense that struggled all season managed three hits off Giants ace Madison Bumgarner.

Meanwhile, their own ace failed to deliver.

Gregor Blanco tagged Shields for a leadoff single, Buster Posey added another single, and Pablo Sandoval doubled to right field before the game was 15 minutes old. Posey was thrown out at home on a nice relay throw by second baseman Omar Infante, but the Giants still had a 1-0 lead.

It became 3-0 when Hunter Pence homered on a full-count pitch in the next at-bat.

By the time Shields struck out Michael Morse to end the first, he had thrown 32 pitches. The anticipation that had built in the five days since the Royals won the AL pennant had evaporated, and a frenzied crowd that drove up ticket prices to an exhorbitant level had been silenced.

Shields, who shut out the Giants in August, set them down in order each of the next two innings. But even then, he was fortunate that several hard-hit balls found gloves.

His luck ran out in the fourth when Pence, who entered the game 0-for11 in his career against Shields, connected for a leadoff double. Brandon Belt walked and Morse added an run-batted-in single, forcing Royals Manager Ned Yost to make a long, stoic walk to the mound.

Shields trudged to the dugout as Danny Duffy trotted in from the bullpen.

It certainly wasn’t the outing the Royals expected of “Big Game James,” who has been credited with changing the losing clubhouse culture in Kansas City. But it also wasn’t the first time Shields had failed up to the nickname given to him by his high-school teammates.

After pitching marvelously down the stretch this season, Shields struggled in a wild-card win over Oakland. He fared a bit better against the Angels in the divisional round, but struggled again in the AL Championship Series against Baltimore.

Even he acknowledged his October troubles, though he remained optimistic.

“I haven’t pitched the way I wanted to. There’s no doubt about it,” Shields said before Game One. “I feel like I definitely could pitch better. With that said, I feel really good. My bullpen sessions have been really good, and I feel as good as I can feel right now.”

The positive vibes, for Shields and the Royals, didn’t last long on Tuesday night. AP starter James Shields is pounded for five runs on seven »hitsTHEandveteran a walk, fails to record an out in the third inning and is pulled from Game One to a smattering of boos. AP

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i.s. fighters seize weapons cache meant for kurds The World BusinessMirror

B3-6 Thursday, October 23, 2014

President Barack Obama expanded the campaign by authorizing air strikes in Syria in late September.

The US military also is flying large numbers of aerial refueling and surveillance and reconnaissance missions over Iraq and Syria, and it has about 1,400 US military personnel on the ground in Iraq.

There are no US troops in Syria. The US Air Force also has flown a small

The Iran-Iraq alliance highlights some of the complex political dynamics spawned by the emergence of the IS group as a major threat earlier this year.

The radical Sunni militia has captured and held large swaths of territory in eastern Syria and northwestern Iraq, including the major northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and threatens to expand southward toward Baghdad.

Now both Iran and the United States are essentially on the same side in backing Baghdad and opposing the IS group—although neither country acknowledges any sort of direct coordination.

Meanwhile, Iran continues to support embattled Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad, who Washington opposes. Rouhani, in his Tuesday comments, said greater regional cooperation among affected countries was the only solution to confronting the IS group.

“We have no doubt that boosting friendly relations between Iran and Iraq will secure the interests of both

countries and will serve the interests of the region,” he said. “Regional countries should confront terrorism in a united and coordinated way in order to uproot this phenomenon.”

Inside Iraq, insurgents continued their recent wave of attacks on Tuesday as a string of bombings in and near Baghdad killed 30 people.

Police officials said the deadliest attack took place on Tuesday afternoon when a double car bomb attack hit Habaybina restaurant in the Shiitemajority district of Talibiya in eastern Baghdad, killing 19 people and wounding 32 others.

Earlier, a bomb struck at an outdoor market in the southern district of Abu Dashir, a mostly Shiite neighborhood, killing four people and wounding nine, police officials said.

Later, a bomb that went off near a small restaurant in central Baghdad killed five people and wounded 12, the officials said. Another bomb exploded at a commercial street in the town of Madian, just south of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four. AP

This frame grab from a video uploaded by militants shows an islamic state group member looking through some items from a seized cache of weapons airdropped by Us-led coalition forces. AP

IS fighters seize weapons cache meant for Kurds

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EIRUT—Islamic State (IS) group fighters seized at least one cache of weapons airdropped by US led coalition forces that were meant to supply Kurdish militiamen battling the extremist group in a border town, activists said on Tuesday.

The cache of weapons included hand grenades, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, according to a video uploaded by a media group loyal to the IS group.

The video appeared authentic and corresponded to the Associated Press’s reporting of the event.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which bases its information on a network of activists on the ground, said the militants had seized at least one cache.

The caches were airdropped early on Monday to Kurds in the embattled Syrian town of Kobani that lies near the Turkish border.

The militant group has been

trying to seize the town for over a month now, causing the exodus of some 200,000 people from the area into Turkey. While Kurds are battling on the ground, a US-led coalition is also targeting the militants from the air.

On Tuesday IS loyalists on social media posted sarcastic thank you notes to the US, including one image that said “Team USA.” But the lost weapons drop was more an embarrassment than a great strategic loss.

The IS militants already possess millions of dollars-worth of US weaponry that they captured from fleeing Iraqi soldiers when the group seized swaths of Iraq in a sudden

sweep in June.

State Department Deputy Spokesman Marie Harf said the US had seen the video but couldn’t confirm its accuracy and was seeking more information.

On Tuesday the US Central Command said US military forces conducted four air strikes near Kobani that destroyed IS fighting positions, an IS building and a large IS unit.

Also on Tuesday Syrian government air strikes hit a rebel-held town along the country’s southern border with Jordan, killing at least eight people.

Activists with the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) and the Observatory said the number of those killed was likely to rise as there are more victims under the rubble.

The LCC said Syrian government planes dropped crude explosivesladen canisters on the town of Nasib on the Syria-Jordan border.

The air strikes are part of battles between Syrian government forces and Islamic rebel groups for control of the area.

Syrian government forces have been heavily bombing rebel areas in recent weeks, while the US-led coalition has been conducting air strikes against IS militants elsewhere in Syria. AP

EW YORK—It took a New York jury just a few hours to convict an Egyptian-born cleric this year on charges he tried to set up a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon, and now one of his alleged co-conspirators in the plot is on US soil after being extradited from Britain.

Fifteen years after prosecutors say Haroon Aswat got involved in the plot, the 40-yearold British citizen pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to charges that include providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda.

Aswat’s extradition sets the stage for another major terrorism trial in New York City civilian courts, where two already have wrapped up this year. In May a jury convicted cleric Abu Hamza Masri, also known as Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, in connection with the Oregon plot.

Masri’s conviction also included involvement in the abduction of Western tourists in

Yemen in 1998. He has not yet been sentenced.

Last month, a judge sentenced the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, Sulaiman abu Ghaith, to life in prison after his conviction in March in a closely watched New York trial.

Abu Ghaith was a spokesman for al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks, and he was convicted of using his role in the organization as a platform for conspiring to kill Americans and providing material support to terrorists.

Advocates of moving highprofile terrorism suspects to civilian courts and out of the backlogged US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have pointed to the Abu Ghaith and Mustafa trials as evidence that justice can be swift, even in cases that arouse post-September 11 passions.

Aswat is not accused of involvement in those attacks, but prosecutors say he was a key figure in trying to bolster a-Qaeda in 1999, when they allege he joined Mustafa and

several other men in setting up a terrorist training camp in the Oregon town of Bly. They chose the site in part because they thought it “looks just like Afghanistan,” prosecutors said.

Investigators began searching for Aswat after the discovery in 2002 of a ledger in an al-Qaeda safehouse in Pakistan that had been used by the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The ledger included names of al-Qaeda associates, including Aswat, prosecutors said. Aswat was arrested in Zambia, in southern Africa, in 2005 and was sent from there to Britain.

British authorities agreed last month to his extradition after receiving assurances he would receive treatment in the United States for paranoid schizophrenia.

If convicted of all the charges against him, prosecutors said, Aswat could face more than 30 years in prison.

Los Angeles Times/MCT

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of seagulls and wax figures A great comfort

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EAR God, we never tried to hide from You. Nor even thought that You cannot see us. Please know and understand us. If You see and hear the prayer of rebellious prophet, Jonah in a belly of a big fish, then You see and hear us whoever and wherever we are. So we are not afraid, it is actually a great comfort that You are always there. We hear Your Words. “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13) We continue to seek You, oh God. Amen.

OUR DAILY BREAD AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

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‘DRACULA’: AT LAST, LOVE »D2

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Thursday, October 23, 2014

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Of seagulls and wax figures B G R Lifestyle & Entertainment Editor

courtesy of my Sony Xperia Tablet Z. Other inflight options for Cebu Pacific’s long-haul passengers include prepaid baggage allowance of up to 40 kilos, seat selection, and Hot Meals (the selections include Beef Caldereta, Bistek Tagalog, Chicken Adobo, Chicken Barbecue, among others; pre-ordered Hot Meals come with dessert). Needless to say, I opted for the Pinoy classic—the adobo of course, which had that familiar and comforting blend mix of tartness and saltiness that my mother would have approved (although I imagine she would’ve suggested just a whisper of sweetness from your standard-issue sugar).

And then I was back in Sydney, “the state capital of New South Wales on the east coast of Australia.”

After a quick late but scrumptious lunch at The Brasserie of Grace Hotel, a partner of Cebu Pacific and Destination New South Wales (www.visitnsw.com) located within an elegantly restored, heritage-listed Art Deco building in the downtown area and its bevy of shopping destinations, we were off to one of Sydney’s major tourist attractions: Darling Harbour.

There, I could have spent an entire day just soaking in the early spring chill while marvelling at the lovely views offered by Port Jackson, also called Sydney Harbour—from the waterways and the iconic Pyrmont Bridge that serves as a reminder of Sydney’s past as a busy port of commerce, to the modern cityscape spread out just a short walk away, to the fascinating seagulls that lorded over Darling Harbour, never too shy to entertain you with all their squawking and walking—and remind you as well that, damn right, they own the place.

Instead, I and the rest of the media personalities invited to join Cebu Pacific’s maiden flight to Sydney, had only a few hours to sample the wonders to be had at Darling Harbour before we all settled in for the sublime Mediterranean dinner that awaited us at Nicks Bar & Grill, also in the harbour.

Adjacent to the city center, Darling Harbour (www. darlingharbour.com) has leisure and entertainment offerings aplenty, from the Harbour Shopping Center (which reputedly has a retail jet flight simulator) to the LG Imax Theater, the Star Casino and Entertainment Complex, Aboriginal Center and Tumbalong Park, among many others.

For our sampling, we first ventured into the wonderful marine world of the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium (sydneyaquarium.com.au), which is home to thousands of marine species on view in a variety of themed zones (Shark Walk, Bay of Rays, Discovery Rockpool, Great Barrier Reef). As we toured the aquarium’s shark facility, our affable guide informed us that the predators are fed twice a day and thus are never hungry—which you might take to mean that the sharks are not all that keyed up to hunt for prey for dinner, but, darling, I still wouldn’t suggest you dip your hand into the shark tank.

After a tour of the aquarium, we were off to Madame Tussauds—yes, the museum that first found fame in London with its waxworks of historical and royal figures, along with the usual suspects of global superstars in entertainment and sports, plus the gaggle of infamous personalities. Not surprisingly, its branch in Darling Harbour, just right beside the Sydney Sea Life Aquarium, includes life-sized wax incarnations

of Britain’s royal family, including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge. Also in the VIP mix are some US Presidents (Bill, Dubya and Barack), plus Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama.

Of course, Australia was well-represented at Madame Tussauds’, with Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Eric Bana (whom I seriously attempted to snog), Lleyton Hewitt, Kylie Minogue and Mel Gibson in the superstar guest list. Among the famous nonnatives you could have a selfie with—and these days, who wouldn’t?—there’s Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Brangelina, Johnny Depp, Katy Perry, Rihanna and, yes, Madonna—who, by the way, deserved nothing less than three wax incarnations (from her “Like a Virgin” period to “Sticky & Sweet” sensation to “MDNA” fabulousness).

And in case you’re interested in having your very own wax figure—well, at least a part of you, that is—an All-Inclusive Pass to Madame Tussauds (www. madametussauds.com/Sydney/) will give you a wax cast of your hand along with a small “Oscar” trophy and an official guidebook.

There is, however, more to New South Wales than Sydney and its modern delights, perhaps even more sublime than a shopping trip at the gloriously restored Queen Victoria Building. Up next are blue mountains, koalas and high tea.

■ Cebu Pacific operates four weekly flights between Manila and Sydney, every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The flight departs Manila at 12:15 am and arrives in Sydney at 10:05 am. The return flight departs Sydney at 11:35 am and arrives in Manila at 5:30 pm.

Cathay Pacific welcomes first arrival flight at Naia Terminal 3 CATHAY Pacific recently welcomed its first arrival flight, CX913 (HK-MNL), at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3, where the premium airline will now be carrying out its flights and operations. Present at the occasion, which included the ceremonial water canon salute, were Cathay Pacific Airways Country Manager Philippines Alan Lui; General Manager Airports Vivian Lo; and Passenger Services Manager Airports Charlotte Lim. Heading the cockpit crew of Cathay Pacific’s first arrival flight at Terminal 3 were Captain Gerard MacNeil and First Officer Ivan Bar. The move to Manila’s largest airport will give passengers a more comfortable traveling experience, as the 65-hectare Terminal 3 provides for larger departure and arrival immigration halls, more seating areas, smoother flow from airport

© 2014 MCT

Provinces with cases

© 2014 MCT

entrance and departure gates, and more diverse shopping and dining choices.

Dragonair, Cathay Pacific’s sister

airline, will maintain its flights and operations at Naia Terminal 1 until further notice.

Standout vacation at Boracay Regency REWARD yourself and your loved ones with a one-of-a-kind island getaway as the top-rate Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Spa (www.boracayregency. com), a Hennan resort, offers its irresistible Lean Season Package Promo.

Book a two-night, twin-sharing accommodation in a Deluxe Room for only P8,634 net per person and you’ll get complimentary buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus complimentary

life

round trip land and sea transfers via Caticlan. This promo is valid until November 9 only.

Enjoy a relaxing time in this renowned tourist destination as you bask in the beauty of Boracay’s white sand beaches and crystal-clear waters while enjoying a wonderful stay at the island’s first triple A-rated resort that offers splendid accommodations, great facilities, superb dining options and efficient service.

A broader look at today’s business n

Thursday, October 23, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 15

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

aesars Entertainment Corp., the largest operator of United States casinos, is seeking a license from the Philippine government to build a $1-billion resort in the country, betting on luring gamblers from across Asia.

Chairman Gary W. Loveman and Steven Tight, president of the Las Vegas-based casino owner’s international development unit, held preliminary talks with President Aquino last month in the US to discuss the possibility of building the resort in the Southeast Asian country, Tight said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

“There’s no major international brand currently in Manila,” he said. “There’s a chance to create something that will drive tourism, that will really put Manila on the regional tourism map.”

The Philippines awarded four licenses in 2008 and 2009 to casino operators owned by billionaires, including James Packer, Lawrence Ho and Enrique Razon, to build resorts in the 120-hectare (297acre) Entertainment City, a Las Vegas-style complex designed to compete with Singapore and Macau’s gambling markets.

Each Philippine licensee agreed to invest $1 billion over five years. The country’s gaming regulator hasn’t granted any new licenses under President Aquino’s

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Britain extradites terror suspect to New York N

IME can be unkind—not only to your face, your hairline and your gut, but also in that it rarely allows you to go back to correct a past mistake. Mine would be being the precious twit in 2001 who didn’t bring a snapper when I got invited to Sydney, Australia—just because I didn’t want to be readily singled out by the locals as one of those annoying tourists, although I quickly behaved like one (minus the annoying part I believe, but I can’t vouch for it) when I found myself staring out to the iconic Sydney Opera House across Darling Harbour.

Mercifully, the opportunity to correct that mistake came to me by way of an invitation from the country’s leading value carrier Cebu Pacific (www.cebupacificair. com), which launched its maiden flight to Sydney, Australia, in September.

It was an eight-hour flight that seemed fly by aboard one of the planes recently acquired by the carrier from the French company Airbus, a A330-300, which has a 436-seat configuration with well-stuffed and well-upholstered seats, and just enough room to make some shut-eye possible—if you are so inclined—without spurring another reclining-seat uproar that’s made headlines in recent months. (Hello, United Airlines!)

As with Cebu Pacific’s other long-haul flights, inflight Internet was available via CEB Air Wi-Fi ($12 for the entire flight) and while it was most tempting to live-tweet about this maiden journey, I settled on catching up with a bit of Hollywood entertainment

Boot covers that are waterproof and go to at least mid-calf

APEC IN BEIJING U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Sarah Bloom

Raskin (center) chats with Angel Gurria (left), secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Philippines’s Secretary of Finance Cesar Purisima before the opening ceremony of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Finance Ministers’ Meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, on Wednesday. Story on B3-3. AP/Andy Wong

BSP making sure ‘Rebidding of Calax deal consumer loans will JAPAN EXPORTS RISE to make PPP lose luster’ not get out of hand MOST IN 7 MONTHS

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number of resupply missions in Iraq and Syria. Kirby also said that in Iraq, local security forces are beginning to make some headway against IS forces, while in the Syrian town of Kobani the local Kurdish forces are in control of the majority of the area.

But the spokesman also said progress is slow and it is not possible to predict when a turning point will be reached. AP

Iran president pledges to back Iraq amid attacks

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Apron that is waterproof and covers the torso to the level of the mid-calf (and that covers the top of the boots or boot covers) should be used if Ebola patients have vomiting or diarrhea

Source: CDC Graphic: Lorena Iñiguez Elebee, Los Angeles Times

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Pentagon: Counter-IS campaign costs $424M

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grooming tips and tricks

EHRAN, Iran—Shiite powerhouse Iran has pledged enduring support for the Shiiteled government of Iraq in its battle against an ascendant Sunni insurgency spearheaded by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi on Tuesday that Iran has supported Baghdad “from the first day and will remain on that path until the last day,” according to a report by the official Irna news agency.

Later, the state news agency reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, told al-Abadi that he considered the security of Iraq and Iran “inseparable.”

It was Abadi’s first foreign visit since taking office in September.

“Choosing Iran as my first destination after taking office indicates the depth of ties,” he said, according to Irna. “Terrorism is a threat to all regional countries and we are sure Iran will stand by us.”

Disposible suit is secured with front zipper

U.S.-BASED CASINO OPERATOR IN TALKS WITH GOV’T FOR PAGCOR LICENSE

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Surgical hoods to ensure complete coverage of the head and neck

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ASHINGTON—The US military has spent $424 million so far in its military campaign against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

The Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said the cost has averaged about $7.6 million a day since the bombing began in Iraq on August 8.

Single-use, full-face shield that is disposable

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Countries in current outbreak Countries with past outbreaks

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BEIJING—A top Red Cross official says he is confident the Ebola epidemic can be contained within four to six months. The secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Elhadj As Sy, told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that the time frame is possible if there is “good isolation, good treatment of the cases which are confirmed, good dignified and safe burials of deceased people.” The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people since it emerged 10 months ago. Most of the deaths have been in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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Red Cross: 6 months to contain Ebola

Given the intensive and invasive care that U.S. hospitals provide for Ebola patients, the tightened guidelines are more directive in recommending no skin exposure when Personal protective equipment is worn.

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From the start, the San Francisco Giants simply did everything right to win their seventh-straight World Series game. There’s a reason Bumgarner and team in black and orange are trying for their third title in five years. The Royals, meanwhile, looked nothing like the fresh team that had become baseball’s darlings by starting the playoffs with eight wins in a row—pitching, hitting and fielding all deserted them.

Tightened guidance for U.S. healthcare workers

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By Bianca Cuaresma

he Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has started training a keen eye on fast-rising consumer loans, particularly the credit extended to finance auto and credit-card sales.

In a public forum in Makati City on Wednesday, BSP Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo said the close monitoring forms part of the larger effort to ensure consumer loans will not get “out of hand.”

Consumer loans are loans extended to individuals. Consumer loans as measured by the central bank, are the sum of all auto, credit card, residential real estate and salary loans.

Latest data show the banks extended P68.155 billion worth of consumption loans from April to June this year. Consumption loans grew 9.27 percent quarter on quarter, from P735.102 billion in the first quarter to P803.257 billion in the second quarter. “Right now we don’t see any risks on consumer loans together with credit-card receivables and auto loans. To sum it up and relate that to the total portfolio of the banking system, the number still is a very small amount,” Guinigundo said. ”The point that concerns us is the growth rate of consumer loans plus credit-card receivables and auto loans. It’s been rising,” he said.

This development is something the BSP is monitoring carefully to ensure consumer loans do not get out of hand.

He also said there are prudential measures in place to regulate consumer loans, such as the implementation of a maximum ceiling and collateral valuation.

PESO exchange rates n US 44.7750

A

shipping container is loaded from a truck onto a container ship at a shipping terminal in Tokyo, Japan. Stronger exports would support an economy that shrank the most in more than five years after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised the sales tax in April for the first time since 1997.

Japan’s exports climbed the most in seven months in September, supporting a rebound in the economy as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe weighs another sales-tax increase.

Overseas shipments rose 6.9 percent from a year earlier, the finance ministry said in Tokyo on Wednesday, compared with the median estimate for a 6.5-percent increase in a Bloomberg News survey of 27 economists. Imports grew 6.2 percent, leaving a trade deficit of ¥958.3 billion ($9 billion).

Stronger exports would support an economy that shrank the most in more than five years, after Abe raised the sales tax in April for the first time since 1997. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has signaled support for yen declines, saying a weak currency that’s in line with the economy is a plus overall.

“This is positive news for the Bank of Japan [BOJ],” said Junko Nishioka, chief Japan economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. in Tokyo and a former central bank official.

“Today’s data supports the BOJ’s view that exports are gradually picking up and that this will continue.”

The yen has fallen 8.3 percent against the dollar over the past year and had its biggest monthly drop in September since January 2013. The currency was at 107.02 per dollar at See “Japan,” A2

By Butch Fernandez & Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

he Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program of the government is now under fire due to President Aquino’s statement on the possible rebidding of a multibillion-peso expressway project, casting shadows over the integrity and the transparency of the PPP framework.

President Aquino on Wednesday said he is inclined to reopen the bidding for the P35.4-billion CaviteLaguna Expressway (Calax), as this would be the better option over favoring one group to another.

“There are private-sector individuals or companies that are willing to provide us the infrastructure we need and to deliver a premium to us.

So how do we meet the attainment of the goal of getting the best deal for our people?” he said at the annual forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines on Wednesday.

“I am inclined to think that a rebid will be the proper course of action on

AQUINO: “There are private-sector individuals or companies that are willing to provide us the infrastructure we need and to deliver a premium to us. ”

this particular issue,” the President quickly added.

He said his administration will have some explaining to do if it accepts the earlier P11.6-billion winning bid made by Team Orion of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Land Corp., and forego the belated P20.105-billion offer of San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

The most diversified conglomerate in the Philippines was disqualified from the auction for the deal due to a defective bid security, prompting the group to file a petition before Malacañang to reconsider its offer.

It has been four months since the Executive issued a statement Continued on A2

n japan 0.4187 n UK 72.1594 n HK 5.7732 n CHINA 7.3148 n singapore 35.2393 n australia 39.3799 n EU 56.9404 n SAUDI arabia 11.9343 Source: BSP (22 October 2014)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Caesars eyes $1-B resort in PHL

Japan. . . continued from a1 9:33 a.m. in Tokyo. The Topix index of shares gained 2 percent.

iPhone imports

Abe will consider the health of the economy in the third quarter in his decision due by the end of the year whether to proceed with an increase in the sales tax to 10 percent next October. He raised the levy by 3 percentage points in April, as the government tries to curb the world’s heaviest debt burden.

Cars, steel and ships were the largest contributors to the rise in exports, with the value of motor vehicle shipments up 7 percent on year, iron and steel products up 14 percent, and ships jumping almost 40 percent.

A 21-percent increase in liquid natural gas imports was the largest factor in

news@businessmirror.com.ph

the rising inbound shipments, followed by an almost 12-percent increase in telecommunications equipment. China accounted for 85 percent of these imports, with Apple Inc.’s new iPhones, which are produced there, going on sale in Japan in mid-September.

The economy’s rebound last quarter is probably not strong, partly due to the negative effects from bad weather, according to Economy Minister Akira Amari. The government cut its economic assessment for a second straight month on Tuesday, citing decreasing production.

The International Monetary Fund this month cut its 2015 outlook for global economic expansion to 3.8 percent from 4 percent. The fund said Japan would grow 0.8 percent next year, a cut from the July forecast. Bloomberg News

Continued from A1

term, which started in 2010, said Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. Chairman Cristino Naguiat, who this week confirmed Mr. Aquino’s discussion with Caesars.

Caesars approached the government to seek a license and approval for the lease of the land next to Ninoy Aquino International Airport, about 4.7 kilometers (2.9 miles) from Entertainment City, Tight said.

“We’re in the process of evaluating everything,” Naguiat said when asked if the regulator will give out new licenses. The government may consider raising the investment requirement of new

entrants to $1.5 billion, he said.

“If we will bring in someone new, there has to be value added,” Naguiat said. President Aquino, in a forum with reporters, said on Wednesday the government is reviewing Caesars’s application.

South Koreans, Chinese

Caesars is seeking to build a resort with shops, restaurants and an entertainment district that could showcase international performers such as Celine Dion and Elton John, Tight said.

The company hopes the project would complement a casino resort it’s building in South Korea, Tight said. Caesars plans to build a net-

‘Rebidding of Calax deal to make PPP lose luster’ Continued from A1

that it will review the petition of SMC, which is chaired by Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., the uncle of President Aquino. The President explained his decision to welcome the petition of the food-to-infrastructure firm, citing the foregone revenues from the premium offer of SMC. “What is the fundamental issue there? The position there was a typographical error or a lack of four days in the bid security document,” Mr. Aquino said. “San Miguel, itself, stated that their bid security was good for 180 days as opposed to 176.”

Since Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., the infrastructure arm of SMC, was disqualified from the bidding, the bid documents were returned to the bidder. The bid was

then opened in front of the media.

“They said that their bid would have been over P20 billion, if I remember it correctly, versus the winning bid of about P11 billion,” he said.

“Now, if we accept the winning bid at this time when there is an allegation that there was a much superior bid, then we will have to explain to the people the P9-billion difference that we forego.”

He said the government will ultimately decide based on whether “we get a premium of P20-billion allegedly from one bid, or an P11-billion premium from another bid.”

“Now, at the end of the day, we have to protect the people’s interests,” he said, pointing out that the proposal for the government to actually undertake the project defeats the whole purpose of his cornerstone

infrastructure program.

However, rebidding the project puts the PPP Program in a bad light.

Team Orion said it found Mr. Aquino’s statement as distasteful, as the prospect of rebidding the deal despite an above-board auction held in June is contrary to good governance.

The tandem of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Land Inc. pointed out that such a move would remove the trust of the investors in the cornerstone program of the Aquino administration.

“We are very concerned with the Office of the President’s current inclination to pursue a rebid of the Calax Project because of the severe negative impact this decision would have on investor confidence in the PPP Program and on the integrity of the entire bidding process,” the group said in a joint statement is-

sued a few hours after the President announced the prospect of staging another auction.

Team Orion warned the government of losing the two big companies as partners in plugging the leakage in the country’s infrastructure.

“We will not participate if government decides to rebid the project because there is no legal basis for this course of action given the fact that the original DPWH-led process was conducted above board, transparently and within the framework of the build-operate-transfer law,” the tandem emphasized, referring to the Department of Public Works and Highways.

The tandem urged the government to “respect the well-established process and uphold its own rules, and award the project to the highest com-

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EASTERLIES AFFECTING LUZON AND VISAYAS. (AS OF OCTOBER 22, 5:00 PM)

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Partnership

company on a possible casino project and is seeking a “large scale” domestic partner for the resort, Tight said.

Entertainment City will have four casinos, including Solaire Resort & Casino by Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp. City of Dreams Manila, a venture owned by Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. and Philippine billionaire Henry Sy, is slated to open by this year.

The two remaining licenses are held by an affiliate of Kazuo Okada’s Universal Entertainment Corp. and a venture of Genting Hong Kong Ltd. and Philippine billionaire Andrew Tan.

plying bidder, so we can begin building much needed infrastructure.”

Optimal, for its part, is calling on Malacañang to declare its bid for the deal as compliant and accept its multibillion-peso offer.

“We support the position of team Orion, who submitted a lower bid of P11. 6 billion that the project should be awarded to the highest bidder,” the infrastructure company said.

“This huge undertaking will have a big impact on the country for many years to come and we believe government should have the best options available to it in order to make sure they get the best deal.

However, we will respect any decision from Malacañang as far as this matter is concerned, even as we vow to continue to follow the due process of law,” it added.

The project is a 47-kilometer thoroughfare that would start from the Manila-Cavite Expressway in Kawit, Cavite, and end at the South Luzon Expressway (Slex)-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna. It would consist of nine interchanges and a toll barrier before the Slex.

The third PPP project under the DPWH, the expressway is seen to decongest traffic along the CaviteLaguna road network.

Construction of the multibillionpeso expressway is seen to start by October next year. It is expected to be completed by September 2017.

Since the infrastructure program’s inception in 2010, the government has awarded seven contracts so far.

The government hopes to finish at least eight projects before President Aquino steps down from office in 2016.

OCT 26 SUNDAY

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Caesars is working with a local

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work of casinos in Asia and is also interested in the market in Vietnam, he said.

A Philippine resort would benefit from the increasing number of South Korean travelers to the country as well as tourists from southern China, according to Tight. More than 20 percent of tourists in the Southeast Asian country came from South Korea in the first seven months of the year, according to the tourism department. This was followed by the US, which contributed 16 percent of the total, while China ranked third with 9 percent.

OCT 24

5:57 AM

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MANILA BAY

3:53 AM

0.14 METER

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24 – 30°C Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

METRO CEBU 25 – 30°C CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 23 – 31°C ZAMBOANGA CITY 24 – 33°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms.

23 – 30°C

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Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rain showers.

Watch PANAHON.TV everyday at 5:00 AM on PTV (Channel 4).

METRO DAVAO 24 – 32°C

Weekday hourly updates: 6:00 AM on Balitaan, 7:00 AM & 8:00 AM on Good Morning Boss!, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM on News@1, 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM, and 6:00 PM on News@6

www.panahon.tv

SABAH CELEBES SEA

@PanahonTV

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The Nation BusinessMirror

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Thursday, October 23, 2014 A3

US officials surrender Pemberton to Philippine military

T

HE government took custody on Wednesday of the American marine who was accused of killing a Filipino in Olongapo City last week after he was taken to Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in Quezon City, where he will be detained by US officials.

Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton was turned over by US officials to the Philippine military at around 8:45 a.m..

He will be detained at the facility of the Mutual Defense Board-Security Engagement Board inside the camp.

Pemberton, of the 2nd Marine Battalion of the US 9th Marine Regiment, was received by US and Filipino officials, including Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, Armed Forces chief

of staff; Visiting Forces Agreement Commission Commissioner Eduardo Oban; and Col. Mike Wylie of the joint operations division of the Mutual Defense Board (formerly Joint US Military Assistance Group).

He will be detained in an airconditioned container van parked inside the compound. The van will be guarded by American personnel but the perimeter will be secured

by Filipino troops.

Catapang said the turnover of Pemberton from the American landing dock assault ship USS Peleliu that was moored at Subic Bay, which had served as his temporary custodial facility, meant that the government had officially taken custody of the accused American marine.

However, Catapang said the confinement of Pemberton inside Camp

Aguinaldo will only be for the duration of the preliminary investigation of the case that he was facing in connection with the death of transgender woman Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in a motel in Olongapo City on October 11.

“The decision to detain Pfc. Pemberton to this facility was mutually agreed upon by both governments through their embassies,” Catapang said. Rene Acosta

Economy

A4 Thursday, October 23, 2014 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Govt eyes lump bidding for 6 PPP airport projects

T

By Cai U. Ordinario

HE national government plans to lump the bidding of the operation and maintenance (O&M) contracts of six key airports, according to the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center.

On the sidelines of the first Philippine Investment Conference, PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao told reporters that the bidding of the six airports will be done in two tranches.

T hese a ir por ts are in t he Laguindingan, Bohol, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and Puerto Princesa.

The Laguindingan and Bohol airports were approved in a National Economic and Development Authority Board meeting prior to the

one conducted last Friday.

“The target is December or January for the bidding of the airports, the issuance of the invitation to prequalify to bid [ITPB],” Canilao said.

“Each airport kasi medyo maliit siya so to attract more investors, during our market sounding, mas gusto nila ’yung mas mataas na passenger throughput,” she added.

By lumping the bidding for the six airports, Canilao said it is possible

that a single private entity can win all the six airport O&M and development projects.

But, Canilao clarified, that the rules of the bidding process will be finalized by December before the ITPB is issued.

However, she said the bidding process for the six airports will likely follow the procedures implemented in the bidding of the PPP for school infrastructure projects (PSIP), which was also done in two phases.

The PPP Center data showed t hat t he P16.42-bi l l ion PSIP Phase 1 was undertaken by Citicore Holdings Investment Inc.Megawide Construction Corp. Inc. and BF Corp.-Riverbanks Development Corp.

The P3.86-billion PSIP Phase 2, meanwhile, is being undertaken by Megawide Construction Corp. Inc. and the Consortium of BSP & Co. Inc and Vicente T. Lao Construction.

Implementation of MPIC’s Connector Road proposal ‘legally possible,’ DPWH’s Singson says

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

he P18-billion Connector Road project proposal of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) may still be implemented under its existing franchise for the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex), a Cabinet official said.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson disclosed that during the last discussion of the Cabinet, President Aquino asked his office to finalize the road-linkage project for it to be implemented as quickly as possible.

“We’ve been asked to finally sort out the legal aspect: Whether it is best to implement the project on a joint venture or it follows the original proposal under the build-operate-transfer law. Both are possible, both are legally possible,” he said in a chance interview.

Singson admitted, however, that his agency is at a loss on which of the two options would best suit the implementation of the project.

“We are in discussion with MPIC. We are quite puzzled as to their preference. At the end of the day, we have to respect what the proponent is saying,” Singson noted.

The deal is currently in limbo due to the opinion of the Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who emphasized the need for the project to be reverted back to an unsolicited proposal and undergo a competitive challenge.

However, Singson clarified that the justice department was clear in its opinion that the project may still be implemented under the franchise extension method.

“The DOJ [Department of Justice] said the project could be imple-

mented either way. The important thing here is there needs to be a new supplemental toll operations agreement, as in all other expressways,” Singson clarified.

To recall, the group of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan submitted the expressway project to the public works agency as an unsolicited proposal in May 2010. It was duly approved by the highest planning body of the government in 2013.

Under the recommendation of Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya, the National Economic and Development Authority Board moved to amend the existing supplemental toll operations agreement of the firm to hasten the choice of the project’s mode of implementation.

Under the revised supplemen-

SINGSON: “We are in discussion with MPIC. We are quite puzzled as to their preference. At the end of the day, we have to respect what the proponent is saying.”

tal toll operations agreement, Manila North Tollways Cor p.

(MNTC), the corporate vehicle for the implementation of the Connector Road, would connect the thoroughfare to the two-segment Harbor Link Project. This effectively eliminates the long process of placing the unsolicited offer under a competitive challenge.

MNTC is a joint venture between Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and state-run Philippine

National Construction Cor p., which holds the franchise for both the Nlex and South Luzon Expressway.

Singson said his office should be able to resolve the issue on the venture’s implementation within the week.

“This week we should be able to resolve that because the President feels that is a solution to the port congestion. We all agreed that it’s a solution. Unfortunately, there are these legal snags,” the Cabinet official lamented.

Sought for comment, MNTC President Rodrigo E. Franco noted that his firm is still studying which of the two implementation methods would be the better option.

“We are studying the options as both have issues. We need to do a comparative analysis

again,” he said.

The connector road, or Segment 10.2, is an 8-kilometer mainline road that will run from C-3 Road in Caloocan to Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Santa Mesa, Manila. It will also have 2.6-km port area spur road that will run from C-2 Road to R10 in Tondo, Manila.

The expressway is expected to facilitate the seamless exchange of goods and services between the two ends of the country’s capital.

This would aid truck operators and freight services firms to pick up shipped goods from the ports in Manila and deliver them to markets.

It was expected to be completed by the time President Aquino steps down from office, but issues hounding the project delayed it by a year.

briefs ppp center sets australia road show

THE government will conduct a public-private partnership (PPP) road show in Australia before the year ends to gain more support for its key infrastructure thrust.

PPP Center Executive Director Cossette V. Canilao said the investment campaign aims to attract more participants to bid for the deals currently being rolled out.

“We’re making them aware—the investors—that we already have a good PPP platform [and] we have a track record, and it’s time that they look at the Philippines,” she said.

The government will market roughly $20.822 billion worth of projects, the bulk of which is under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

“We will present some of our projects that we are planning to work on, the legal and regulatory framework, and all the works that we have accomplished,” Canilao said.

Last week the highest planning body of the government approved five gateway development deals, involving the upgrade of the following airports: Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and Puerto Princesa. The National Economic and Development Authority Board also approved the P18.99-billion Davao Sasa Port Modernization deal.

Currently, the government is auctioning off the P2.5billion Integrated Transport System Southwest Terminal; the P4.5-billion ITS South; the Light Rail Transit Line 2 Operation and Maintenance deals; and the P24.4-billion Bulacan Bulk Water Supply.

Just recently, the PPP Center called on European, Japanese, Singaporean and North American companies to invest in the Philippines’s key infrastructure thrust.

Lorenz S. Marasigan with Jae Denise Adolfo

construction stakeholders to explore trade, investment opportunities in cambodia, myanmar STAKEHOLDERS in the construction industry are set to embark on a mission to Cambodia and Myanmar by the end of the month to explore business and investment opportunities, as well as mark the Philippines’s presence in the said markets.

A news statement released by the trade department on Wednesday said that the Philippine Overseas Construction Board (POCB) of the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP), in collaboration with the private sector, led by the Philippine Constructors Association Inc. (PCA), will conduct a five-day construction mission to Cambodia and Myanmar from October 21 to 25.

PCOB Chairman Isidro A. Consunji, also president and chief executive officer of DMCI Holdings, will head the mission composed of 25 large contractors and engineering design/consulting firms.

According to Supervising Undersecretary for CIAP Prudencio M. Reyes Jr., this is the second construction mission conducted this year by the POCB. Reyes said that this undertaking aims to strengthen market presence of the Philippine construction industry players in Cambodia and Myanmar, which are potential growth areas in the Asean region. The CIAP official added that “this is an opportune time for Philippine

companies to explore business and investment potentials of these countries.”

Reyes, likewise, noted the success of the mission in the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste conducted by POCB from February 19 to 21 paved the way to one POCB registered contractor to bag a $30-million road-project contract. Catherine N. Pillas

infra center seeking p300-m to P500-m addl budget for services of advisers, consultants THE Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center has submitted a request to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for a P300 million to P500 million additional funding for the Project Development and Monitoring Facility (PDMF).

On the sidelines of the first Philippine Investment Conference on Wednesday, PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao told reporters that the P550 million worth PDMF has already been fully allocated to date.

Canilao said the additional funding will be used to procure advisers and consultants for four new PPP projects that are part of the PDMF pipeline.

“We’re asking [for a] supplemental budget from the DBM so mukha namang ibibigay nila. [We are finaling the amount] but those that we’re going to issue is the request for proposals for four or five projects until the end of the year,” Canilao said. “Allotted na ’yung PDMF natin that’s why we’re asking for additional funding.”

The four or five projects may include the Road Transport IT Infrastructure Project Phase 2; Naia Development Project; Plaridel Bypass Toll Road Project; Central Spine roll on, roll off Project; and the Clark Green City Food Processing Terminal Project.

Canilao added that the fund may also receive additional funding from the Asian Development Bank, as well as the Canadian and Australian governments, which have already extended support to the PDMF when it was created.

This additional assistance, Canilao said may be extended next year as soon as the ADB, Canadian International Development Agency and the Australian Government’s Ausaid obtain approval from their governments.

The PDMF is a revolving fund used to procure consultants and technical advisers, as well as prefeasibility studies for PPP projects.

After a PPP project is awarded, the winning bidder is required to reimburse the cost to the PDMF only if the project awarded to them received funds from the fund.

The current pipeline of projects qualified for PDMF funding also includes the Manila East-Rail Transport System Project; Manila Heritage and Urban Renewal Project; Tri-Medical Complex Project; Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center Modernization Project; and the R1-R10 Link Mass Transport Project.

The previous and current recipients of funding from the PDMF include 27 projects including the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project; Clark International Airport Project; C-5 Transport Service Development Project; and the Manila Bay-Pasig River-Laguna Lake Ferry Services Project, among others. Cai U. Ordinario

Economy BusinessMirror

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Protect gains of ‘sin’ tax law prior to 2016 review–Nvap

A

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco | Corrrespondent

GROUP of cancer survivors called for continued vigilance to protect the gains of the “sin” tax law, as the measure, considered as one of the country’s landmark legislations on tobacco control, is set for review in 2016.

New Vois Association of the Philippines (Nvap) said Section 11 of Republic Act 10351 mandates the Congressional Oversight Committee to review the impact of the sin-tax law four years after its implementation.

“During the sin-tax deliberations in 2012, the tobacco industry has made exaggerated claims of rampant smuggling, failure to curb smoking targets, and massive loss of tobacco farmers’ jobs if Congress passed this law. None of those happened. Instead, we saw the health budget improving, smokers started quitting and health-care services getting better because of increased funding from the sin tax,” Nvap President Emer Rojas said.

Rojas said these gains from the sin-tax law should be continuously protected in light of the 2016 review, because the tobacco industry may again try to undermine current achievements from the measure in a bid to pursue its business interests.

Data gathered by the Bureau of Internal Revenue show that collections from higher

taxes in tobacco and liquor in 2013, or the first full year of the law’s implementation, reached P51.2 billion.

Money collected from the tobacco levy also boosted the Department of Health’s (DOH) annual budget to P90.5 billion, or three times its budget in 2010. As a result, more than 1.5 million poor Filipinos, or 300,000 indigent families, are now holders of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) cards.

A recent DOH survey noted that higher taxes imposed on cigarettes has led to a reduction in the number of poor adult smokers, from 38 percent to 24 percent in 2013. Meanwhile, the population of young smokers aged 18 to 24 was halved a year after the law’s passage.

“While we acknowledge that some smokers have just shifted to cheaper brands of cigarettes, this is not due to a failure of the sin-tax law to reduce consumption but more so because of the two-tier tobacco tax system,” Rojas said.

The global health treaty Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recommends

the implementation of higher taxes and graphic health warnings as two of the most effective ways of curbing the tobacco epidemic.

“The adoption of strong guidelines on tobacco taxation is a public-health victory, as it is one of the most effective measures to reduce tobacco consumption. We are very excited about this development because implementing higher tobacco taxes means saving more lives,” said lawyer Irene Reyes, executive director of Heath Justice.

The government has recently passed the graphic health warning law in July, imposing the placement of pictorial warnings covering 50 percent of the bottom of cigarette labels.

The law’s passage is expected to strengthen the country’s tobacco-control system and address the country’s high smoking rates and deaths related to cigarette use.

It is estimated that more than 17 million Filipino adults smoke, with 10 tobacco users dying every day, or close to 90,000 every year, from smoking-related diseases.

The Philippines is a signatory to the FCTC, which held its sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) in Moscow from October 13 to 18.

Last week the delegates, representing nations covering 90 percent of the world population, adopted powerful guidelines on tobacco taxation. At the same time, the parties rejected the Interpol’s application to observe the treaty because of its alleged ties to the tobacco industry and ejected representatives from tobacco firms that requested to watch the proceedings at the health summit.

Thursday, October 23, 2014 A5

Filipinos now cook less at home, survey shows

By Cai U. Ordinario

F

ilipinos may now be cooking less at home owing to the fastpaced lives they now live, according to the latest Nielsen Shopper Trends Report released on Wednesday.

Nielsen said fewer shopping baskets containing food items that need to be prepared and cooked at home. There was a 13-percent decline in monthly grocery spend of Filipino respondents in 2014 compared to 2012.

This means Filipino shoppers only spent P4,700 on an average in 2014, from a monthly spend of P5,400 in 2012.

“Driving this cut in grocery spend is the spike in the number of consumers who are dining out and the increased frequency in eating out of home. In the report, 25 percent of consumers eat out at fast-food restaurants at least once a week, a contrast to a year ago with only 14 percent,” Nielsen said.

As a result, Nielsen said, “ready to eat” and “quick and easy” meals are only a fad but a long-term trend.

Further, consumers are choosing to purchase fresh food from nearby stores or vendors who sell their wares near consumers’ homes.

Nielsen said this is the reason supermarkets are aggressive in expanding in both regular and small formats near residential areas.

Even ambulant vendors selling

an assortment of products such as vegetables are setting up closer to neighborhoods.

“In smaller stores, which have limited assortment, manufacturers and retailers should ensure that shelf space is assigned not just to their top-selling products, but that they also have products that address the needs of various category segments,” Lou-Ann Navalta, Nielsen’s Shopper Insights leader in the Philippines, said.

“For instance, most people just buy regular cola drinks but this does not mean that is all you should have in your neighborhood store as shoppers sometimes feel the urge to buy diet, flavored or imported drinks. Proper assortment is critical so as not to turn off shoppers,” Navalta added.

The Nielsen Shopper Trends report is a syndicated annual report that Nielsen conducts across 54 markets globally. It provides a comprehensive overview of retail environment trends and an understanding of shopping behavior across the different trade channels.

The report was conducted between February 27 and March 28, 2014, and interviewed 1,783 males and females aged 15 to 65 years old.

The respondents come from class ABCDE homes in urban locations throughout the Philippines who were either main decision-makers or key influencers when it comes to household grocery shopping.

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Thursday, October 23, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial

Big bank loans

S

OME people may argue that modern-day banks are completely different from their predecessors.

This is true, considering that a century or so ago, banks printed currencies. Banks have always accepted deposits for safekeeping and acted as lenders.

But in the last 50 years, banks have seen their lending function change dramatically. Fractional-reserve banking, or the ability of banks to lend more money than what they have in deposit, has been a game-changer for the banking industry.

However, letting a borrower take out a loan against the value of a hard asset is what most banks in the Philippines traditionally do, and it has kept our banking system sound and stable.

For example, your brother-in-law borrows money from you to open a food kiosk. You might consider that a loan, but, in reality, you are a partner in his business, as the repayment of the loan is dependent on the profitability of the kiosk.

Alternatively, if he wants to borrow money to buy a new gold wristwatch and you are not paid back in cash, at least you can get the hard asset (the watch). This is a secured loan, which is less risky.

Everyone is very concerned about local banks extending too much credit, especially after learning that a top local bank expects its consumer loans to grow by 20 percent this year. The mix of the loan growth will be about 40 percent for housing loans, 40 percent for auto loans and about 20 percent for unsecured credit-card financing.

Each of these types of loans carries its own risks, and also its own profitability. The riskier the loan, the higher the income the bank gets.

While we know that major local banks are not going to deliberately overexpose themselves to potentially bad debt, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is supposed to do everything it can make sure they don’t go on a foolish lending spree.

A few days ago, the BSP released new, stricter rules for “too big to fail” banks, requiring them to increase their capitalization. This comes on the heels of much closer monitoring of the banks’ loan portfolio and borrowing mix.

These are all critically important, and the BSP needs to constantly be on top of the lending situation. The nation’s economy depends on its vigilance.

But as the BusinessMirror Banking & Finance columnist George S. Chua so smartly wrote last week in his piece “Zero-percent down!”: “Make use of auto loans as sparingly as possible.” While banks are loaning against a hard asset that they can recover, consumers are borrowing against their future earnings.

It is up to the BSP to help protect the country from bad bank-lending practices. It is up to all of us, as individuals, to protect the Philippines from bad borrowing practices.

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John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

HE next time you want to buy a book on stock-market investing, immediately look and see how much of it is devoted to selling, not buying. If at least half of the book is not about selling, do not waste your money on it.

All the experts devote chapter after chapter about their brilliant ways to pick stocks that are going to go higher. They show you formulas, graphs and strategies that are guaranteed to make you wealthier. Some of them might even work. But here is an easier way: Take the stock-price section of the BusinessMirror and tape it on a wall, get five darts and throw them at the page, and go out and buy equal amounts of those issues.

If that method is not scientific enough for you, here’s one that requires a formula: Pick your favorite number, between one and 10. Take the alphabetical list of the 30 issues in the Philippine Stock Exchange Composite Index (PSEi), count down

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by your favorite number and buy equal amounts of five issues. I like seven, because a numerologist once said it is what my name adds up to in the great cosmic code.

Picking the number seven and buying those five issues would have seen your portfolio up by 17 percent this year.

I guess I should warn you that not all favorite numbers are going to equal the same results. Maybe you should ask for your stockbroker’s favorite number so you can have someone to share the blame.

Now that you are invested in five stocks, what do you do next? Go back to the stock-market book and look for instructions on when to sell them.

Often, but not always, you will be told that you need to sell when a stock price gives you a certain percentage profit. Twenty percent sounds good.

But one particular PSEi issue of my picks is up 50 percent this year.

Another is up 100 percent in 2014.

Your peso profit with a 20-percent gain would have been less than half of the potential profit.

Maybe selling is more complicated and difficult than buying, and that is why the experts do not say much about selling in their books. But selling is the only part of stock-market investing that matters. Until you sell, you do not have a profit (or loss). It is only the score at the end of the game that counts, as De La Salle University recently found in its game with Far Eastern University.

Here is an idea on when to sell for a profit. The best rule is to sell when the price stops going up. That does not require a formula and is probably too simple for the experts to include in their books, but it works.

Also, it does not require a chapter to explain, and that is probably why I am not rich and famous like all the others. My book of stock-market advice would be more like a pamphlet, or maybe like a flyer for a new mas-

The real hostage crisis in the South Ariel Nepomuceno

Romeo M. del Castillo

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Selling is for winners

DECISION TIME

A

FTER being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) for six months, German couple Stefan Okonek and Henrike Dielen were finally freed last weekend. Unfortunately, at least 11 more hostages of the kidnap-for-ransom group are yet to be rescued. Because of its continued kidnapping of foreigners and holding them hostage in southern Mindanao, the Philippines continues to suffer the consequences, even long after those foreigners are released.

News about people being held hostage by the ASG has become too common. We have already lost count on how many kidnappings have taken place in the islands of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi. Underreported by the media are similar abductions in nearby Sabah, with the kidnappers bringing their captives to Mindanao. And who can forget the embarrassment the country felt when tourists in worldrenowned Malaysian island of Sipadan were taken hostage in April 2000?

The obvious victims

THE trauma the captives felt will stay with them as long as they live. Their fears will not disappear, and there is no compensation large or retribution strong enough to heal the wounds inflicted on the hearts of the relatives of those hostages who were brutally murdered.

The months the kidnapped lost

to their ordeal would never be recovered. The opportunity to enjoy a simple vacation, to practice their professions or become involved in their advocacies (bird-watching, caring for the health of rural folk, administrating aid, teaching or preaching), was ruined. It is certain that they would never go back to the forsaken islands and jungles they were once held in.

Understandably, they might even try to forget our entire country. The physical abuses, rapes, psychological torture and demands of ransom would keep haunting the kidnapped and their relatives.

The bigger victim

THE Philippines is actually the bigger victim of all these kidnappings.

The damages these inflicted on the entire nation are immense, even immeasurable.

The first damage is the one done to

our tourism industry. Many foreigners would definitely not prioritize the Philippines as a tourist destination.

To them, the entire archipelago is too risky to spend a vacation in with their families or friends. No amount of the talent and managerial skills of Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. could overcome the negative publicity that such abductions generate. Despite that, the former advertising guru and his entire team are doing an excellent job. The number of tourist arrivals in the country is significantly improving. But imagine if Jimenez and his team were not confronted with the challenge that kidnappings pose. It’s possible that our tourism traffic would be even comparable to that of Malaysia and Thailand. We could beat them in hitting their recorded average of 2-million tourist arrivals a month.

The second is the one inflicted on the country’s investment climate.

For investors, ensuring the safety and security of their personnel is of paramount concern. It is unfair and unfortunate that the world mistakenly assumes that remote islands in Mindanao are actually the Philippines.

Include this in the list of things that investors must also consider, such as the perceived inconsistencies in our economic policies; the allegedly looming energy crisis; the supposedly rising crime rate in the metropolis; the constitutional limitations on the foreign ownership of companies; and corruption in various government agencies. Looking at all these, investors would probably prefer to build their

sage place that somebody puts under your windshield wiper.

Sell when the price stops going up.

If the price starts to go higher again, buy back into the stock. Almost all the issues my lucky number seven picked went up, then went down for a couple of weeks, and then went up again.

In the last 43 weeks, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has triggered four simple sell signals by going down for two weeks or more. Had you sold at the end of the second down week, you would have profited from the time you bought. Furthermore, if you had waited for a two-week move higher (a buy signal) to buy back, you would have continued to profit from PLDT’s 23- percent gain from January to the last sell signal at P3,330.

And speaking of books, if you like to have a signed copy of my book Outside the Box, you may order directly through my website.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

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

businesses in neighboring countries.

And the third is the one impairing our country’s ability, not just the government’s, to stop these kidnappings once and for all. Our people seem to be resigned to the fact that kidnapping groups like the ASG could boldly and violently continue their activities, which they obviously profit from.

Urgent need for solutions

THE government has no choice but to address this crisis. Immediate and long-term solutions to this complicated problem must be clearly formulated and implemented.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines, now in the middle of its modernization program, can provide the chance to control the terrain these kidnappers tread on and allow longterm economic and political solutions to be applied. Under the leadership of new Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr., who is a respected Mindanao veteran, troops can be effectively mobilized to pursue these criminals. They can help restore the opportunity for the government to reconstruct our neglected southern territories.

A peaceful and worry-free Mindanao is vital to achieving progress for the entire country. The real hostage in this continuing kidnapping crisis is the entire Philippines. It is now the time to relentlessly and seriously work on regaining its freedom.

Ariel Nepomuceno is the deputy commissioner for the Enforcement Group of the Bureau of Customs.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Is Hong Kong China’s future?

Created in love and for love Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr. William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

H

OPES that Hong Kong would, one day, transform China in its own image now seem foolish and futile. Beijing appears intent on making the former British colony look more like the mainland, with a closed political system dominated by the Communist Party. For Chinese President Xi Jinping, however, the future may look a lot more like Hong Kong’s present than he would like to admit.

Mainland leaders have downplayed hopes of any concession in talks between student-leaders and government officials in Hong Kong, which were scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Any sign of weakness, they fear, will have a spillover effect in China itself, encouraging citizens to take to the streets with their own political demands.

Yet, the drama currently playing out between Hong Kong’s billionaire tycoons, its urban underclass and a government ill-equipped to maintain social harmony has to look awfully familiar to Xi. He, too, faces a situation where anger over growing inequality has little outlet except in street protests.

So far, Chinese authorities have been able to defuse the tens of thousands of such demonstrations that take place every year. That task is only going to get harder, though, as technology evolves faster than the commissars can keep up. For every WhatsApp and WeChat the censors know about and can monitor, scores of new messaging programs are constantly emerging. During the term of Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao, smartphones were in their infancy. Now they’re ubiquitous, challenging the Communist Party with every text, tweet and status update.

At the same time, China’s leaders are actively trying to make parts of their economy look more like Hong Kong’s. A free-trade zone established in Shanghai is meant to compete directly with Hong Kong for financial services. This week’s party plenum in Beijing is focused on reinforcing the “rule of law,” seen as key to the city’s commercial success. And Xi’s big-bang reforms are designed to shut down China’s smokestacks and recreate Hong Kong’s prowess in services.

Xi cannot expect to make this transition without opening up China’s economy and society. How will the mainland emulate Silicon Valley’s success if entrepreneurs, such as Alibaba’s Jack Ma, aren’t part of the big conversations—and controversies—of the day? What value is research from a bank analyst who must hide suspicions about China’s

So far, Chinese authorities have been able to defuse the tens of thousands of such demonstrations that take place every year. That task is only going to get harder, though, as technology evolves faster than the commissars can keep up. For every WhatsApp and WeChat the censors know about and can monitor, scores of new messaging programs are constantly emerging. data or the balance sheet of a stateconnected company?

Only by becoming more like Hong Kong can the mainland thrive as information- and knowledge-based industries trump sweatshops. Only by loosening restrictions on the media can China make its political system and business sectors accountable.

Only by getting out of the way can the government spur the job creation needed to narrow inequality.

The challenge will be to maintain political control during the transition. As a new paper by former United States Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Harvard University’s Lant Pritchett shows, that may simply be impossible.

Even as China dismantles the model that produced an astonishing 36-year growth streak, Summers and Pritchett point out, the “transition itself may create an adjustment period of slow growth.” While necessary in the long run, the shift will vastly lower gross domestic product growth rates—to about 3.9 percent annually for the next two decades, Summers and Pritchett reckon. (A new Conference Board report provides a similar estimate for growth after 2020.) That presents a direct threat to the Communist Party’s legitimacy, which is contingent on growth in the neighborhood of the 7.3-percent China reported on Tuesday These are profoundly difficult balancing acts for Beijing to manage. If he wants to see what’s in store, though, Xi should pay close attention to what’s happening in Hong Kong.

Pentagon doesn’t need more global hot spots

C

ONSERVATIVE members of the United States Congress may not be ready to acknowledge the reality of climate change, but the Pentagon sees it for what it is: A threat to national security.

Last Monday the Pentagon issued a report assessing the immediate dangers of climate change. The military is no longer treating it as a theoretical threat in the distant future that will loom only after the glaciers have melted. Unlike ideology-driven politicians, the military must deal with reality as it finds it, regardless of how unpleasant it may be.

Surveying the contemporary landscape, the Pentagon lists a Pandora’s box of social and political ills resulting from conditions generated by climate change: terrorism, infectious diseases, poverty, conflicts caused by food and water shortages, and mass refugee migrations.

Any of these challenges would be daunting, even without the prospect

Thursday, October 23, 2014

in the US of rising sea levels, extreme droughts and violent storms.

Because the US military is one of the first responders whenever and wherever there is a regional crisis in the world, it must plan for these possibilities, too. The fact that political unrest is the No. 1 ingredient for war, the likelihood that climate change will stimulate the necessary conditions for international chaos is high.

Some will dismiss the Pentagon’s concern on this subject as an attempt to prop up US President Barack Obama’s agenda as he tries to build support for a United Nations agreement on climate change, which could be drafted in Peru in December and signed in Paris next year.

More likely is the Pentagon doesn’t want to be stretched any more than it already is. Weather-related disasters that trigger more war and unrest would certainly do that.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS

Alálaong Bagá

H

AVING God as his savior and granter of victory, the psalmist expresses his love for Him and extols Him (Psalm 18:2-3, 3–4, 47, 51). Jesus teaches that the whole law and the prophets depend on loving God with one’s entire being and on loving one’s neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:34–40).

Loved and loving ONLY here in Psalm 18 do we find, in the whole Bible, this tender word for love (raham in Hebrew) being used in reference to our human love for God. It is used four times in this psalm; three times it refers to the tenderness of God’s love for us, and properly so, because the Hebrew word comes from the word for “womb,” denoting the intimate love of a mother for a child in or from her womb. Used for God’s love for us, the word expresses the elemental connection with something that comes from one’s very being; it signifies the mysterious love of God for us, His people.

This extraordinary love of God is experienced by the psalmist, who calls Him his strength amid the very grave dangers and challenges he faced. God is his rock, his fortress, his stronghold—an impregnable bulwark against all attackers. God is his shield and horn of salvation, protecting him from all harm. God

is his deliverer from every disaster and defeat. Indeed, God is his savior.

God is the One who showed loving kindness to His anointed and granted great victory to His king. Based on so much love received from God, the psalmist lovingly cries out, “Praised be the Lord!” and triumphantly exclaims, “The Lord lives!” and confidently proclaims, “I love You, Lord!”

Loving God with one’s whole being

THE Pharisees wanted to cut Jesus down to size with a trick question based on the labyrinth of the law: Which commandment in the law is the greatest? In the maze of more than 600 commandments, the question would spark an endless debate that would put Jesus to a test. Whatever commandment Jesus chooses would surely be challenged by someone; whatever commandment He might appear to downgrade would reflect badly on Him. All commandments

were binding because all came from God, although some were evidently more important than others.

Jesus did not choose one commandment. But He articulated the fundamental principle of the whole Mosaic Law, the principle underlying the prophets. He endorsed the summons that make up the Shema, the most significant prayer in the Jewish faith (Deuteronomy 6:5): “The Lord is our God...therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Loving God must entail the total engagement of a person, occupying one’s entire being. It is not just an act of superficial loyalty.

Loving others as one loves self

JESUS offers two commandments for all to reflect and live by. The second is like the first, not second in importance, but essentially interconnected in forming the basis on which the whole law and the prophets depend.

It is from Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The two are not identical, though inseparable: Loving God with one’s entire being necessarily flows into and demands its expression in loving others as oneself, as also taught by God. Without getting bogged down in the messy arguments on which of the commandments are very important or not so important, Jesus is pointing out that our whole religious tradition is dependent on this commandment of love, and flows from the love of God and love of others.

A7

In bringing together the two Biblical admonitions in the context of the Shema, Jesus is proclaiming that there is no other God but the Lord as the controlling theme of His own teaching. The primacy of God means the primacy of love. It is essential that we live in relationships of love with God and our neighbor. Love is the inner space, the center within the person from which the doing of the commandments and rules of life must flow, from where we should be doing whatever we do. It is doing it from the heart. It is to do...because we love.

Alálaong bagá, like the psalmist, we are the recipients of God’s unbounded and totally unmerited loving kindness. God created us out of love and from nothing. We are loved because the source we came from is love. And we live in the image of the Creator only in as much as we love, and we shall be fulfilled only when we dare to love. When we are directed to love God and one another, we are simply being in accord with our nature; fashioned out of love, it is our nature to love and be loved. And we show we love God by loving what He loves; we love God in the way we love our fellow human beings, especially those who have so little of love. Our love must be kindly and generous like God’s.

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.

OECD convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters Atty. Esther M. Weigand

Tax law for business

I

N previous years, tax evasion was a problem to be solved within the limits of a nation’s jurisdiction. However, with the current trends in international trade and commerce, as well as the proliferation of advanced technologies that bring people in different nations together, tax evasion is now a dilemma to be solved between nations. Thus, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Council of Europe came up with “The Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.”

This convention is a comprehensive instrument, signed by various countries or jurisdictions, seeking to curb all forms of tax evasion and avoidance through international tax cooperation among states. Through the adoption of a protocol in 2010, the amended convention was opened for signature on June 1, 2011. Recently, Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares signed the amended convention on behalf of our government, making the Philippines the 68th signatory to it.

The amended convention’s main objective is to promote administrative assistance between states in tax matters. It comprises all mutual assistance activities in tax matters, which can be carried out by the public authorities, and is not covered by criminal law and not intended to punish criminal tax offenses. The judicial authorities of a state, therefore, cannot use the provisions of the convention for any criminal case pending before them. Thus, in the Philippines, assistance may be requested by administrative agencies, such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue, but not by the courts, such as regional

trial courts or the Supreme Court, where criminal cases are pending.

The administrative assistance under the convention covers a wide range of taxes, from income taxes or taxes on profits to capital gains taxes, estate or inheritance taxes, value-added or sales taxes, excise taxes and any other tax that may be imposed by a state, except for customs duties.

Regarding such taxes, the convention provides for various forms of assistance between states who have participated therein. One form of assistance is through the exchange of information under Section 1 of the convention, which may be availed of upon the request of another state, automatically or spontaneously, even without any prior request of another state or through the furnishing of information obtained in cases of simultaneous tax examinations in different states, and obtaining information through tax representatives of one state who are present at a tax examination in another state.

State parties should exchange information that they can foreseeably determine to be relevant to: 1) the assessment

It would be interesting to see how the provisions of the convention would be enforced while ensuring that the provisions of our domestic laws are maintained and respected, specifically those relating to taxpayer’s rights. Would the Philippine government invoke a taxpayer’s right to privacy and due process when it receives such a request, or place premium on the rule of reciprocity and grant the request outright, since, under the convention, a state cannot ask for a form of assistance that it is not ready to grant to other states? This, we have yet to find out. and collection of tax, and the recovery and enforcement of tax claims; and 2) the prosecution before an administrative authority or the initiation of prosecution before a judicial body. If the information is not foreseeably relevant to these matters, then the convention does not allow any exchange of information.

The state from whom the information is to be obtained may declare that, according to its own domestic laws, it would first inform the taxpayer concerned before any information about him or her may be divulged. However, once such foreseeably relevant information is obtained, it may be used as evidence before a criminal court, if there is prior authorization by the state supplying the information, but such prior authorization may be waived by the state parties.

Thus, through the process of exchange of information between states, Japan, for example, can request the Philippines to provide it with information regarding any ongoing tax assessment or investigation being conducted against Mr. Juan de la Cruz. If the

Philippines provides Japan with information stating that he has an ongoing tax investigation, this may then be used by Japan as evidence in any criminal case it may file against him, provided that the Philippines agrees to such use, or agrees with Japan to waive such prior authorization.

With this example, it can be seen that the implications of the process for the exchange of information between nations has far-reaching effects, which may ultimately lead to criminal liability in one state for any tax matter that may arise in another. However, as to the Philippines, the convention has yet to enter into force, since it has yet to be ratified by the Senate.

It would be interesting to see how the provisions of the convention would be enforced while ensuring that the provisions of our domestic laws are maintained and respected, specifically those relating to taxpayer’s rights. Would the Philippine government invoke a taxpayer’s right to privacy and due process when it receives such a request, or place premium on the rule of reciprocity and grant the request outright, since, under the convention, a state cannot ask for a form of assistance that it is not ready to grant to other states? This, we have yet to find out.

The author is a junior associate of DuBaladad and Associates Law Offices, a member-firm of the World Tax Services Alliance.

The article is for general information only, and is neither 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. For comments or questions about the article, e-mail the author at esther.weigand@bdblaw.com.ph or call 403-2001, local 340.

A new leader begins in key Asian democracy

I

NDONESIA on Monday inaugurated a new president, Joko Widodo, who has a humble background and, significantly for a country still building democracy, succeeds another civilian-elected president.

The 53-year-old Widodo was elected on July 9, defeating Prabowo Subianto, a retired special-forces general. That was a significant development in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most-populated nation at 250 million. Its political past since inde-

pendence in 1945 includes 53 years of being ruled by military dictators Sukarno and Suharto, followed by democracy in 1999.

The new president brings useful experience to office, having been the governor of Jakarta, the region that includes the capital. At the same time, his party and its allies control only 47 percent of the seats in the parliament, which will present a challenge.

Indonesia has prospered through its exports of coal, gas, oil and timber

to China. At the same time, its problems include a high level of corruption; poverty and a formidable gap between its rich and poor; stressed infrastructure; and a policy of popular, but economically ruinous energy subsidies. Widodo will bring a strong mandate and considerable skill to tackling these issues.

The rest of the world should applaud Indonesia, with an 87-percent Muslim population and a history of military rule, for installing in office,

for the next five years, a civilian and for avoiding, for the most part, major violence by Islamist extremists.

Indonesia could be a very useful friend for the United States in Asia.

Alternatively, trouble there could pose a serious regional problem. US President Barack Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia and he is popular there. He should not be shy about building on that tie to this important nation.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Thursday, October 23, 2014

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Manila likely to resume truck ban after holiday-season rush M

By Catherine N. Pillas

anila Mayor Joseph Estrada reminded businesses on Wednesday that the lifting of the truck ban is “indefinite,” and was only meant to help ease port congestion in time for the increased volume of trade during the Christmas season.

The former president maintained that the city will implement anew the truck-ban ordinance once trade volume, which seasonally spikes during the holidays, normalizes.

“If I consider the truck ban is needed, I’ll impose it. It’s indefinite.

But because it’s the Christmas season, we have to lift the truck ban so as not to disturb the flow of goods

coming from abroad,” Estrada said in an interview with reporters at the sidelines of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 40th Philippine Business Conference and Expo, held at the Manila Hotel.

Estrada lifted the Manila daytime truck ban in September, amid calls from various business organizations, whose mounting costs—resulting from slower delivery cycles of imports and exports—are taking a toll on their competitiveness and productivity.

The truck ban aggravated the congestion of Manila’s ports, resulting in a logjam of incoming and outgoing cargo in the country’s main trade gateway, effectively ballooning the costs of firms.

Philippine Exporters Confedera-

ESTRADA: “If I consider the truck ban is needed, I’ll impose it. It’s indefinite. But because it’s the Christmas season, we have to lift the truck ban so as not to disturb the flow of goods coming from abroad.”

tion Inc. President Sergio R. OrtizLuis Jr. was earlier quoted as saying that an electronic firm had to shut down, as it was losing as much as $1 million a day.

Electronic firms, in general, were

Long-term benefits seen from wave of BSP reforms

By Bianca Cuaresma

losing anywhere between $20,000 and $100,000 a day.

The congestion had far-reaching effects, as the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) cited the pileup in the ports as among the factors that had an inflationary effect on the prices of goods and commodities.

Estrada imposed the daytime truck ban in February in view of the worsening traffic situation in Manila and banned eight-wheeler trucks with gross weight of 4,500 kilos from plying the city’s streets from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Estrada, when asked if the truck ban may be imposed anew in the first quarter, said: “It depends, we will study it further.”

THAILAND, PHL MAY SHARE PRODUCTION OF TOYOTA MODEL T

he Philippines may get a share in the production of a Toyota model currently being made in Thailand, as Japanese investors are looking for alternative manufacturing sites given Thailand’s vulnerability to flooding.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) President Alfredo M. Yao said this was discussed in a recent meeting of the Philippines-Thailand Business Council facilitated by PCCI. Officials from the Thai unit of Toyota said a model currently produced in their country may also be assembled here on the desire of the mother unit to find other manufacturing sites.

“They’re looking at integrating, because they are being affected by the decision of Japanese investors to come here because of the flooding [in Thailand]. The [mother unit] is looking at other alternative places,” said Yao in an interview with reporters during the first day of PCCI’s three-day 40th Philippine Business Conference and Expo at the Manila Hotel.

Yao said the specifics—such as the model and timing of the production—are still being finalized.

He, however, said the visiting Thai Toyota officials met with their Filipino counterparts to discuss the possible expansion of Toyota in the Philippines.

The move may lessen production in Thailand, thus, reducing the risk of substantial loss in production in case a massive flood hits the country again. Toyota operates three assembly plants in Thailand, where the Camry, Vios, Yaris hatchback and the Hilux, among other models, are being produced.

Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. Vice President for Corporate Affairs Rommel Gutierrez has not responded to inquiries on the matter.

Yao said the massive flooding and political situation in Thailand present opportunities for the Philippines to expand its local production of vehicles.

Based on the discussions, the unspecified model may be produced here both for the domestic and export markets. Catherine N. Pillas

In this file photo, Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. officials lead the market launch of the new Toyota Avanza.

ICTSI to spend another $400M in 2015 for construction of ports

R

AZON-LED International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) is spending roughly $400 million in capital expenditures next year to continue expanding its port operations in different parts of the world, a ranking company official said.

ICTSI Treasury Director Arthur R. Tabuena said the capital investments for 2015 would be at the same level as this year’s outlays. The firm earmarked $310 million in capital expenditures for this year, paired with another $120 million in other investments.

“We are still working on our budget for next year. But it will be in the same range as this year, only because we are not finished building. We still have six projects to develop for the next three years,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

“We are not finished developing our terminals, and it usually takes two years to build.”

Tabuena was referring to the greenfield projects in Latin America, and another in Australia.

“Australia requires $407 million in capital over the next three years. So maybe a little of that will be spent this year, and some next year,” the executive said. “We also have projects in Iraq and Congo and Honduras, and we have to

finish some final touches in Argentina.”

The firm has operations in several markets, namely, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cayman Islands, China, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Uruguay and Venezuela.

At home, the port firm operates the Manila International Container Terminal, as well as ports in Subic Bay Freeport Zone (Cubi Point); Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental (Mindanao Container Terminal); Tagum City (Hijo Port); and in Bauan, Batangas (Bauan International Port).

The Razon-led firm’s net income surged by 21 percent to $105.6 million in the first semester from $87.4 million in the same period in 2013, as revenues from port operations grew by 23 percent to $510.3 million, while consolidated cash operating expenses rose 29 percent to $221.0 million.

Shares of ICTSI added P3.20, or 2.92 percent, to close at P112.70 apiece on Wednesday.

Lorenz S. Marasigan, Jae Denise Adolfo

T

he local banking system could reap long-term benefits from the wave of reforms the regulators have rolled out in recent months but could have a tough time meeting the higher and more stringent capital mandates.

Analysts at Maybank particularly said compliance to the more immediate capital measures should prove problematic.

On the capital reform measures, Maybank ATR Kim Eng said both big and small lenders could have a hard time meeting the new minimum capital mandates and the corollary order for so-called systemically important banks to inflate their buffer or reserve funds as manifested by their common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio.

Going forward, all banks must observe substantially higher minimum capital designed to sustain their continued existence in the face of more stringent regional or even global competition. Because some of these banks are considered too important and too big for the economy such that their failure could have far-reaching and unpredictable consequences, further fortification measures were likewise instituted to address vulnerable areas.

Maybank said that in the case of strengthening systemically important banks, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) required capital buildup was “higher than expected.”

Applied to the top three banks in the country, BDO Unibank Inc., Metrobank and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) will need to increase their CET1 ratios to lower or near the new threshold by the BSP based on the data as of end-June this year, according to Maybank.

“Banks have been strengthening their capital ratios in the last three years and have buffers of 4 to 5 percentage points. However, these may not be enough to meet the required increase, as well as support their growth strategies,” Maybank said.

Maybank also said the big banks will “easily meet the new capital requirement” as they have already raised their respective capital bases in accordance with Basel 3 guidelines.

“Of 21 universal and 15 commercial banks, we identified two nonlisted local banks that might need to increase capital to meet the new condition,” Maybank said.

“Existing foreign banks and those keen to open Philippine branches also have to comply,” the bank added.

Thrift banks, meanwhile, were seen having a harder time complying.

In particular, 44 thrift banks should not be able to comply immediately based on their reported capital as of end-March this year, according to Maybank.

“These are mostly stand-alone banks not affiliated with a bigger bank and will have to raise additional capital themselves,” Maybank said.

Aside from the long-term returns of the new reforms, Maybank also said these will spur more consolidations in the industry.

Getting a second term not among P-Noy’s priorities

P

resident Aquino on Wednesday maintained that tinkering with the Constitution to lift term limits so he can run again is not his priority, but indicated he was not yet ready to endorse Interior Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II of the ruling Liberal Party as his candidate in the 2016 presidential elections.

Reminded at a Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines forum about his desire to preserve reforms

and programs of his administration, Mr. Aquino replied “no,” when asked if he was still thinking of running for president to extend his term.

“Honestly.... No, can I just reiterate for the nth time; when we look at the Constitution, the priority is, to me, the issue of judicial overreach. Second, the members of Congress, meaning the House and the Senate, think the economic provisions have to be looked into,” President Aquino said.

At the end of the day, Mr. Aquino added, “I think I have stated this publicly, [that] even if I were to get a second term, I am only human, right? All of us will be called

by God at some point in time. It cannot rest in just one individual.”

The President pointed out that “the empowerment of the people and their ability to get a candidate who really responds to them is, I think, the legacy that one would have.”

Butch Fernandez