Businessmirror 10 20 2014

BusinessMirror

three-time rotary club of manila journalism awardee 2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. Media Award 2008

www.businessmirror.com.ph INSIDE

D

EAR Lord, every day, many of us work hard to build our own dream empires.

We want to amass enough money or wealth to protect ourselves from whatever discomfort life may bring. We divert our passions and dreams hoping that a great career and a fat bank account will compensate and fill that void in us. Then one day we wake up, our loved ones begin to drift away, our health is deteriorating, all kinds of misfortune are before us. But it’s not too late because we know how to reflect and call on God, who is there waiting and ready to help us just on time. AMEN! MARIE L. FARLESS AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

>>

Monday, October 20, 2014

D1

T

❶ TWO LOOKS

FROM THE MARC JACOBS RUNWAY A long-sleeve sequined dress with sequinhemmed leggings and wool-blend scoopneck dress with matching leggings. MARC JACOBS

❷

CELINE brushed wool felt coat (left); ribbed knit top with button trim, stretch mikado skirt and brushed calfskin sandal.

CELINE

❸

❶

CROCODILE bucket handbag from the Row, an accessory from the fashion line dubbed “anonymous clothing” for its simplicity and lack of labels. THE ROW

❷

Is fashion moving beyond brands?

B B M Los Angeles Times

I

T was the show of the fall 2014 runway season.

Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, luxury fashion oracle, transformed Paris’ Grand Palais into the most banal of locales—a supermarket—and stocked the shelves with thousands of bespoke, Chanel-branded “groceries.”

Browsing the Coco Flakes, Jardin de Gabrielle canned peas, No. H20 Eau Minerale and Cambon jambon, I was reminded of Project Runway designer Christian Siriano’s collaboration with O-Cel-O on a line of cleaning sponges.

The partnership was announced in 2010, when fashion had started to creep into every corner of our lives, including the kitchen sink. It was on TV; on the big screen; at Starbucks, where designer coffee mugs were sold; even the drugstore, where Cynthia Rowley, Marc Jacobs and others imparted their aesthetics to Band-Aids and condoms.

And fashion’s infiltration of the culture has only continued to grow: A recordsetting Michael Kors initial public offering, a style blog star performing on Broadway, First Lady Michelle Obama cutting the ribbon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s renovated Costume Institute, a new high-low design collaboration landing every minute. Fashion needed to be taken down a notch. It was time to put down the platinum card, take a deep breath and get some perspective.

That’s what Lagerfeld gave us with his supermarket sweep. He played with the ubiquity of fashion in pop culture and the sanctity of Chanel as a luxury brand valued at more than $10 billion. When it came to accessories—the addictive salty snacks of the luxury diet—some models at the Grand Palais carried Chanel chain-link shopping baskets, and others had heavy Chanel padlock necklaces chained around their necks. He was poking fun at our insatiable appetite for luxury and feeding it at the same time.

Signs on the walls didn’t post discounts, but price hikes of “+30 percent” and “+50 percent.” And Lagerfeld wasn’t the only one winking at fashion’s feeding frenzy during the fall shows.

For several years now, streetwear labels

Brian Lichtenberg, Ssur and This Is Not New have been parodying luxury brand names and logos as symbols of status and wealth on slogan T-shirts, casual hoodies and hats (“Homies” instead of Hermès, “Ballin” instead of Balmain and so on).

Designers are skewering fashion and branding in general.

In his fall collection, Lichtenberg took aim at “white trash elements” Marlboro, Bud Light and Yamaha, twisting the brand names and splashing them on motocrossinspired sportswear.

Moschino designer Jeremy Scott had fun with McDonald’s golden arches, appropriating the fast-food symbol as a stand-in for the Moschino “M” on handbags and iPhone covers resembling French fry boxes, and designing shirtdresses and visors reminiscent of food service industry uniforms.

By making a capsule collection of some of the styles available the next day, Scott poked fun at the notion of fast fashion and beat knockoff artists at their own game.

London designer Anya Hindmarch also turned the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Expanding on her handbag hit from spring, a $1,595 riff on a Walkers potato chip foil packet made using 3D design technology and Italian metalworking craftsmanship, her Counter Culture fall collection included a series of clutches and totes emblazoned with Kellogg’s supermarket icons, Frosted Flakes’ Tony the Tiger and the Corn Flakes clucking cockerels among them.

For those who don’t want to be walking billboards for Kellogg’s, McDonald’s/ Moschino or Chanel, the fall offerings also include an alternative diet of understated fashion. Newly freed from his post as artistic director of mega-brand Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs went back to basics in his namesake collection, a palate-cleanser of spare-looking tunic tops and leggings with a futuristic flair, some with swirling bands of beading or undulating waves of chiffon bringing to mind the spare Western landscape of Georgia O’Keeffe country.

Michael Kors brought back the rich hippie look with haute slouch wear, including culottes and longer-length skirts anchored by chunky, nondescript clogs.

The Row’s Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen also reveled in ultra-luxe simplicity, or as they call it, “anonymous clothing,” showing austere tailored separates and chunky

layered knits. Simple 1960s shifts at Gucci and Vuitton; feminine coats, long skirts and camel sweaters at Céline; and sparelooking, polished leather bucket bags and satchels by Mansur Gavriel and Myriam Schaefer all suggest a growing desire for clothes that speak quietly and last longer.

Designers seem to want to reach women who have had their fill of fashion’s never-ending checkout counter, who don’t necessarily want to be recognized, labeled or photographed for a style blog. Call them the “normcore” crowd, the Generation Z kids raised on Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” and Lorde’s “Royals,” or today’s answer to the 1990s antifashion movement.

Fashion is poised for change, just as consuming and shopping are changing.

Some industry experts predict we could be entering a post-brand era. (Perhaps the hyper-commoditized Chanel show was meant to suggest a tipping point.)

There are countless studies that suggest that millennials place less emphasis on ownership and more on experience (which could be why many luxury fashion brands are entering the travel business).

Sharing, not shopping, is increasingly part of the culture, whether it’s on Instagram or through Airbnb and Uber.

And the idea is starting to filter into fashion. There are several web sites that let shoppers rent clothes, including RentTheRunway for formalwear, NextSuit for 30day business-

suit rental, and LeTote, an unlimited monthly wardrobe rental service starting at $49 that aims to be Netflix for fashion.

Other new platforms are letting people into the design process. The web site Tinker Tailor lets customers customize luxury apparel from 80 designers, including Marchesa and Rodarte.

With today’s renewed enthusiasm for customization and self-expression, in the future we may all be designers, if only for a Warholian 15 minutes. And big brands may no longer be at the top of the food chain.

Adidas just started offering a new service that lets shoppers emblazon sneakers with their own patterns, using an Instagram customization app. Print All Over Me is offering a similar service for apparel, and NailSnaps for nail decals.

Three-dimensional printing marketplace Shapeways is already assisting producers of millions of user-designed items, and Amazon just launched its online store offering customizable 3D printed products. When 3D printers become commonplace household items, making your own version of Coco Flakes could be as easy as booting up your computer. If we are all designers, why shouldn’t we all be our own brands too? Welcome to the era of Me-commerce. And for the record, I’ll be calling my perfume Booth No. 5. ■

❹ TWO BAGS FROM MYRIAM SCHAEFER Leather “Byron” handbag, (left); and striped leather Flag Bag. MYRIAM SCHAEFER

❸

❹

life

d1

BusinessMirror

Ayala Corp. secures SEC nod on ₧15-B preferred shares offer

Monday, October 20, 2014 E 1

next snapChat

By Walter Frick

orporate america wants in on the next “big thing” and is willing to pay for the privilege.

Fresh off its big win with alibaba, Yahoo! appears close to investing in the messaging app Snapchat, and it’s not alone.

Venture capital investment has reached levels not seen since the dotcom crash, and corporate money is playing a significant role.

A case can be made for corporate venture capital as a strategy, but research suggests that this is

probably the exact wrong moment to be using it.

First, the numbers. In late 2012, uS corporate venture capital amounted to roughly $1.5 billion invested each quarter. In the second quarter of this year it totaled just

over $4 billion. Corporate money used to account for 20 percent to 25 percent of all uS venture capital dollars, but this year that number has hovered around 30 percent. much of this activity is driven by highly active funds at firms like Intel, Google and Qualcomm. The number of corporate venture funds doing deals each quarter has increased about 50 percent since 2012. but research suggests the surge of dollars into venture capital will likely be followed by a dip in returns.

A paper last year by academics at the university of Virginia, Said business School and the university of Chicago confirmed that increases in capital committed to venture capital are negatively correlated with funds’ performance. not that starting a corporate venture capital fund is a bad idea. To the contrary, a 2013

Hbr article by Harvard business School’s Josh Lerner explains how firms benefit from placing such bets.

Firms can not only generate returns but also help identify and respond to competitive threats. but when I spoke to Lerner earlier this year, he agreed that firms should be wary of rushing in at the market’s peak. more prudent is to set up a fund in the next downturn, since such “contrarian” timing has historically been associated with higher returns.

For firms that are investing now, he suggested avoiding overheated sectors like social media.

The takeaway is that following the crowd is generally a bad ventureinvesting strategy. Investing in the next big thing may have to wait.

Walter Frick is an associate editor at the Harvard business review.

Get Your Pitch Noticed bY a Major Publisher

By Kelsey Libert

T

OdAy, editorial voices are outnumbered by public relations professionals by almost 5:1. The problem is that publishers are implementing strict spam filters to keep public relations pitches out of their inboxes. I conducted a survey with more than 500 leading digital publishers to find out what we can do to improve the noise-to-value ratio for people who want press.

Writers at nytimes.com, theguardian.com and cnn.com report they receive more than 38,000 e-mails a year. And 26,000 of those emails are sent from people trying to get news coverage. These writers also report that they “never” write a story based on a pitch. This epidemic, what I like to call the robot invasion, came about when public relations specialists started writing templated pitches to spam publishers for press, a tactic that when paired with high-authority publishers can be used to improve Google rankings.

Here’s the good news: Our survey found that 70 percent of publishers are open to getting pitched a set of ideas that fit their beat. Thirty-nine percent of writers said the perfect piece of content possesses exclusive research; 27 percent said breaking news; and 15 percent said emotional stories. nineteen percent stated that content relevant to their audience was most important.

The next step is how to display your data.

The most requested content format was articles (19 percent); followed by infographics (13 percent); mixed-media pieces (12 percent); data visualizations (11 percent); images (11 percent); videos (11 percent); and interactive maps (11 percent).

Sixty-four percent of writers surveyed think it is of some importance that you establish a personal connection before pitching, with 31 percent saying personal connections are “important” or “very important.” eightyone percent of writers want you to send your pitch via email. And only 15% of writers said they would continue reading your pitch if it had a grammar/spelling error in it.

What methods are best for rising above the noise? eighty-five percent of writers surveyed said that they open an e-mail based on its subject line, so it’s your best call-to-action.

Forty-two percent wanted the subject line to be formatted as Content Title, Type, while 29 percent requested a personalized subject line.

Forty-five percent of writers want your pitch to be short and to-the-point (less than 100 words), and 43 percent wanted a cursory explanation (less than 200 words). Sixty-nine percent of writers want to receive your pitch in the morning hours.

The more you can tailor your pitch to an editor’s specific needs, the greater your chances of rising above the deafening noise.

By VG Cabuag

C

Kelsey Libert is a marketing vice president and partner at Fractl.

how to (GraduallY) becoMe a differeNt coMPaNY

By Herman Vantrappen & Daniel Deneffe

A

Xiaomi, not Apple, is changing the smartphone industry

By Juan Pablo Vazquez Sampere

X

IAOmI, the four-year-old Chinese smartphone manufacturer, is taking the smartphone industry by storm. Though pundits claim that it is just a Chinese copycat of Apple, pointing out the strong similarities between its operating system (named mIuI) and Apple’s iOS, Xiaomi’s products rank among the best in the industry in terms of performance.

However, looking at the full extent of Xiaomi’s business model reveals just how different - and how disruptive - it is. For starters, unlike Apple, Xiaomi is not targeting premium customers; it’s mostly teens who are buying those high-quality phones, and hardly at a premium, since Xiaomi’s prices are at least 60% lower. How does Xiaomi pull that off?

The company keeps each model on the market far longer than Apple does. Xiaomi doesn’t renew its prod-

uct for two years and prices the phone just a little higher than the total cost of all its components. As component costs drop, Xiaomi maintains its original price and pockets the difference.

Its profit formula is the opposite of Apple’s, which collects its highest profits with the introduction of each model and needs to create new models to keep up those margins.

Xiaomi is close to meeting its target of selling 60 million phones in 2014 with a business model well

suited to expansion into other developing economies.

Far from being a copycat, Xiaomi presents a knotty challenge to the largest smartphone manufacturers.

As it expands by marketing to the emerging middle class, this disruptive competitor is going to change how the industry works.

number of recent headline-grabbing announcements of divestments and split-ups by companies such as HP (spinning off its PC and printer businesses), Ge (the sale of its appliances business to electrolux) and royal Philips (its separation into two autonomous companies, Lighting and HealthTech) are putting the spotlight again on the phenomenon of “core shifting”: how a company, through a sustained process of acquiring and divesting assets, changes the mix of its business portfolio and thus purposefully shifts the core of its activities.

What makes such a transformation successful? From our analysis of a number of core shifts and conversations with the CeOs who have undertaken them, we have drawn five keys to success: 1. Allow time and persevere. Pulling off a core shift takes many years, if not a decade. First, such transformations consume resources, both financial and human. A company needs the financial firepower to make the required acquisitions on top of the capital investments in its ongoing business.

It also takes management time to align all the teams, including those of the acquired businesses, to the transformation initiative. Second, finding value-creating acquisition and divestment opportunities requires patience.

Third, some stakeholder groups may want to see confirmation of the positive impact of a given move before consenting to continue on the chosen path.

2. Be clear about the destination yet flexible about the path. The company’s executive team should be clear and unrelenting about the vision for the company’s future and the rationale thereof. but the actual path to get there is unpredictable. What is important is to create options and exercise them as the right opportunities arise.

3. Go for the occasional megaacquisition. Acquisitions are part of a transformation. What really gives traction to a core shift is the occasional mega-acquisition that is emblematic of the vision and that catapults the company forward.

For example, umicore’s 2003 acquisition of PmG increased its revenues by 50 percent. Of course, it takes time to digest such acquisitions and restore the company’s financial firepower, which often results in a transformation pattern in which a period of consolidation follows a period of acceleration.

4. Communicate consistently and transparently. Clearly communicating the vision and its rationale is crucial to keeping everyone committed, whether they’re employees or external analysts.

Particularly important are the managers and staff of businesses earmarked for divestment. up-front communication about the company’s intention is essential to keep them motivated and prevent value destruction. The message is that the divestment should be beneficial to the business concerned.

5. Safeguard the short-term performance of the ongoing business.

While mergers and acquisitions transactions absorb much of senior management’s attention and attract great interest from financial analysts and the business press, the company’s operational performance will ultimately make or break the transformation. If short-term performance slips, pressure will mount and stakeholders will question the transformation’s long-term pertinence and/or viability. When it comes to shifting your business’s core, it usually pays to be tenacious, visionary, bold, transparent and results-oriented.

MONDAY MORNING Juan Pablo Vazquez Sampere is a professor of business administration at IE Business School in Madrid.

Herman Vantrappen is the managing director of Akordeon, a strategic advisory firm based in Brussels. Daniel Deneffe is a strategy consultant and professor of strategy and managerial economics at Hult International Business School.

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

E1

bishops scrap welcome to gays BusinessMirror

World The

B3-1 | Monday, October 20, 2014 • Editor:LynResurreccion

PoPe Francis (right), arrives with bishops and cardinals to attend an afternoon session of a two-week synod on family issues at the Vatican on october 18. AP

Bishops scrap welcome to gays in sign of split

V

ATICAN CITY—Catholic bishops scrapped their landmark welcome to gays on Saturday, showing deep divisions at the end of a two-week meeting sought by Pope Francis to chart a more merciful approach to ministering to Catholic families.

The bishops approved a final report covering a host of issues related to Catholic family life, acknowledging there were “positive elements” in civil heterosexual unions outside the church and even in cases when men and women were living together outside marriage.

They also said the church must respect Catholics in their moral evaluation of “methods used to regulate births,” a seemingly significant deviation from church teaching barring any form of artificial contraception. But the bishops failed to reach consensus on a watered-down section on ministering to homosexuals.

The new section had stripped away the welcoming tone of acceptance

contained in a draft document earlier in the week.

Rather than considering gays as individuals who had gifts to offer the church, the revised paragraph referred to homosexuality as one of the problems Catholic families face.

It said “people with homosexual tendencies must be welcomed with respect and sensitivity,” but repeated church teaching that marriage is only between a man and a woman.

The revised paragraph failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

Two other paragraphs concerning the other hot-button issue at the synod of bishops—whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can

receive Communion—also failed to pass.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the failure of the paragraphs to pass meant that they have to be discussed further to arrive at a consensus at a meeting of bishops next October.

It could be that the 118-62 vote on the gay paragraph was a protest vote of sorts by progressive bishops, who refused to back the watereddown wording and wanted to keep the issue alive.

The original draft had said gays had gifts to offer the church and that their partnerships, while morally problematic, provided gay couples with “precious” support.

New Ways Ministry, a Catholic gay rights group, said it was “very disappointing” that the final report had backtracked from the welcoming words contained in the draft. Nevertheless, it said the synod’s process “and openness to discussion provides hope for further development down the road, particularly at next year’s synod, where the makeup of the participants will be larger and more diverse, including many more pastorally oriented bishops.”

A coalition of small pro-life groups, Voice of the Family, said the outcome of the meeting had

only contributed to “deepening the confusion that has already damaged families since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.”

The gay section of the draft report had been written by a Francis appointee, Monsignor Bruno Forte, a theologian known for pushing the pastoral envelope on ministering to people in “irregular” unions. The draft was supposed to have been a synopsis of the bishops’ interventions, but many conservatives complained that it reflected a minority and overly progressive view.

Francis insisted in the name of transparency that the full document—including the three paragraphs that failed to pass—be published along with the voting tally.

The document will serve as the basis for future debate leading up to the October 2015 meeting of bishops which will produce a final report for Francis to help him write a teaching document of his own.

“Personally, I would have been very worried and saddened if there hadn’t been these... animated discussions...or if everyone had been in agreement or silent in a false and acquiescent peace,” Francis told the synod hall after the vote. Conservatives had harshly criticized the draft and proposed extensive revisions

to restate church doctrine, which holds that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered,” but that gays themselves are to be respected, and that marriage is only between a man and a woman. In all, 460 amendments were submitted.

“We could see that there were different viewpoints,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracis of India, when asked about the most contentious sections of the report on homosexuals and divorced and remarried Catholics.

German Cardinal Walter Kasper, the leader of the progressive camp, said he was “realistic” about the outcome. In an unexpected gesture after the voting, Francis approached a group of journalists waiting outside the synod hall to thank them for their work covering the meeting. Francis has rarely, if ever, approached a scrum of journalists, except during his airborne news conferences.

“Thanks to you and your colleagues for the work you have done,” he said. “Grazie tante [Thanks a lot].”

Conservative bishops had harshly criticized journalists for reporting on the dramatic shift in tone in the draft document, even though the media reports merely reflected the document’s content. Francis also addressed the bishops, criticizing their

temptation to be overly wed to doctrine and “hostile rigidity,” and on the flip side a temptation to “destructive do-goodness.” His speech received a four-minute standing ovation, participants said.

Over the past week the bishops split themselves up into working groups to draft amendments to the text. They were nearly unanimous in insisting that church doctrine on family life be more fully asserted and that faithful Catholic families should be held up as models and encouraged rather than focus on family problems and “irregular” unions.

Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of South Africa, who helped draft the revised final report, told Vatican Radio the final document showed a “common vision” that was lacking in the draft.

He said the key areas for concern were “presenting homosexual unions as if they were a very positive thing” and the suggestion that divorced and remarried Catholics should be able to receive Communion without an annulment.

He complained that the draft was presented as the opinion of the whole synod, when it was “one or two people.”

“And that made people very angry,” he said. AP

Catholics venerate Lima’s patron saint Slain journalist Foley ‘tried to see the good’

R

L

IMA, Peru—Thousands of people crowded into downtown Lima on Saturday to participate in a procession at the start of a five-day festival that carries a painting of the capital’s patron saint, the Lord of Miracles, on daily treks through the streets.

Believers, many of them dressed in purple, came to pay tribute and ask for miracles during the Andean country’s largest Roman Catholic event. They accompanied a huge copy of a 17th century mural of Jesus Christ from Las Nazarenas church where it is normally kept to the Cathedral of Lima, where it was to stay overnight.

Men hoisted a heavy silver platform holding the image while women in white veils perfumed the air with smoky incense and prayed with rosaries as the procession made its way through downtown. People living in apartment buildings along the way watched from windows decorated in purple and white.

The mural of Jesus on the cross was painted by an Angolan slave in Las Nazare-

Men carry an image of the Lord of Miracles, the capital city’s patron saint, through the streets of Lima, Peru, on october 18. AP nas church. After a devastating earthquake in 1655, the wall with the mural was one of the few parts of the church still intact.

Deeming this a miracle, people gave the image an additional name —“The Christ of Earthquakes.”

A replica was made to carry in the re-

ligious procession every October, which Peruvians consider the month of earthquakes. In the coming days, processions will carry the image past hospitals, markets and government offices before it returns to the Las Nazarenas church, where the original mural was created. AP

OCHESTER, New Hampshire—James Foley was a compassionate and capable journalist who tried to see the good in people, friends said on Saturday at a memorial for the New Hampshire man beheaded by the Islamic State group (IS) extremists.

Hundreds of people filled Our Lady of the Rosary Church on Saturday in Rochester during a Mass to celebrate his life on what would have been his 41st birthday. Afterward, friends and family paid poignant tribute to Foley.

“There seemed to be two absolutes in Jim’s life—his faith and his family—both of which gave him an incredible foundation,” longtime friend Jeremy Osgood said. “It was a wealth of strength and courage for Jim in his time of need.” Osgood became friends with Foley while growing up in Wolfeboro, in New Hampshire’s bucolic lakes region.

In this May 27, 2011, file photo, journalist James Foley poses for a photo during an interview with the Associated Press in Boston. AP

reading people and could blend into any group or situation.

“The wonderful thing about Jim is he used the ability to build up people and not tear them down,” Osgood said. “Whether you knew him for 30 years or 30 minutes you would consider him a friend.”

Foley was abducted in Syria in November 2012 and hadn’t been heard from since until a video showing his killing was posted on the Internet in August.

Members of the IS militant group said they killed him and other foreigners because of US intervention in the conflict in Iraq and Syria.

Since his death, his family has created the James W. Foley Legacy Fund to support reporters in conflict zones and the families of American hostages, as well as promote a global conversation about how governments can handle hostage crises. AP

world

Foley was a thoughtful student, a “smiling, wide-eyed boy” and good athlete who excelled in soccer, Osgood said.

Foley was also a student of human nature who had a knack for

he Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) is pushing for the merger of the country’s top investment promotion agencies (IPAs), as well as the abolition of the income-tax holiday (ITH), to better streamline the incentives being given to businesses and plug the government’s revenue leakage.

See “PIDS,” A2

More CoMpanies Want a pieCe of the

C

P25.00 nationwide | 7 sections 36 pages | 7 days a week

By Cai Ordinario

In a Policy Note authored by PIDS senior research fellow Rosario G. Manasan and supervising research specialist Danileen Kristel C. Parel, the state think tank said this proposal is also contained in Senate Bill (SB) 987, or the so-called Recto Bill.

The measure, the PIDS noted, is more favorable than SB 35, or the “Villar Bill.”

The Recto Bill advocated for the merger of the Board of Investments and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority to be called the Philippine Investment Promotion Administration (Pipa).

“Senate Bill 987 is better than SB 35 in the sense that it can reduce the redundancy rate more effectively because it provides incentives to a limited

more companies want a piece of the next snapchat www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, October 20, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 12

PIDS pushes abolition of ITH

SPANISH D4 FASHION BRANDS DEBUT AT PFW

BusinessMirror

n

STATE THINK tank ESPOUSES MERGER OF I.P.A.s TO PLUG REVENUE LEAK

is fashion moving beyond brands?

But it’s not too late

A broader look at today’s business

b3-1

onglomerate Ayala Corp. has secured the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission for its plan to offer Class “B” Series 2 preferred shares.

The company is offering up to 30 million in preferred shares worth P500 apiece for a total value of P15 billion. The offering involves 20 million in primary offer and 10 million in oversubscription option.

Ayala said it will use the proceeds solely to pay off its debts amounting to P15.77 billion. The company added it has a P1.46-billion loan from Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and P5 billion from Banco de Oro Unibank Inc. (BDO). Both loans are due this month.

On the other hand, Ayala has a P1.49-billion loan in corporate note from various lenders, which include the Government Service Insurance System and Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co., falling due in February 2018; and another P5-billion loan from BDO that will mature in November 2019.

Previously, the company earmarked the said proceeds for capital spending, mostly for its infrastructure projects.

“The change in plan is to provide investors more certainty in the use of proceeds. The additional debt that will be refinanced by the preferred shares will help us manage our maturity profile, and allow us to fix some of our floating obligations,” the company said in its recent disclosure.

See “Ayala,” A12

PESO exchange rates n US 44.8180

Grand-prize winner Nicole G. Raymundo-Delmonte (center), Land Bank of the Philippines information officer, receives the ceremonial car key as the grand prize during the BusinessMirror’s ninth anniversary celebration from Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua (fourth from left), founder and chairman emeritus of the ALC Group of Companies that owns the BusinessMirror. Delmonte is flanked by Miss Earth winners and the BusinessMirror executives Benjie Ramos (left), president; T. Anthony Cabangon (second from right), publisher; and Ricky Alegre (right), VP for corporate affairs and host of the event held on Friday at Genting Club, Resorts World Manila. ROY DOMINGO

I.C. chief dooc suspends securities borrowing and lending guidelines

By David Cagahastian

I

nsurance Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc has suspended the implementation of Circular Letter 31-2014, which allowed insurance companies to engage in securities borrowing and lending (SBL) transactions.

Dooc issued an advisory to defer the implementation of the circular pending the resolution of some issues raised in a recent meeting with the government’s financial experts.

“Please be advised that in view of the concerns raised in the last meeting of the Financial Stability Coordinating Council [FSCC] regarding repurchase agreements, including SBLs, the implementation of CL 31-2014 is deferred in the meantime that related issues are not yet resolved,” the advisory said.

The circular allows insurance companies to engage in SBL transactions, but as lenders only and not as borrowers.

Under an SBL transaction, an entity which has substantial ownership of a particular stock can lend this stock to an investor/borrower, who, in turn, sells this stock at a high price. The borrower would then have to buy back the stock at a lower price in the future to turn up a profit on his investment.

Under the suspended circular, insurance companies acting as lenders should demand collateral for the stocks or government securities that they will lend, and such collaterals can only be in cash, irrevocable and negotiable letters of credit issued by a commercial bank, or government securities or See “Securities,” A2

Macalintal wins landmark case on elderly discounts

T

Macalintal argued that he Department of Trade the 50-percent discount was and Industry (DTI) isby virtue of his contract with sued an opinion that the Accor, while the 20 percent 20-percent discount granted to is a benefit granted to him senior citizens under Repubby law as a senior citizen. If lic Act (RA) 9994 is “over and the 20-percent discount is above” the discounts offered already covered by the 50and sold by an establishment percent Accor discount, then to its clients under its paid-for MACALINTAL what he only gets from Accor membership or privilege cards. is 30 percent, and it is practically The position was contained in Accor enjoying his 20-percent disa letter-opinion dated October 15, count. Sofitel, through its lawyer, 2014, of the DTI, through Gerald said that extending both discounts C. Calderon, officer in charge of the to Macalintal would violate the Consumer and Trade Policy Diviprovision of the law prohibiting sion, addressed to the lawyers of “double discount.”

Sofitel Hotel, Ponce Enrile Reyes & While the case was amicably setManalastas Law Offices, in an antled by Sofitel and Macalintal, part swer to the latter’s request for an of the settlement agreement was that opinion on the issue. both parties would seek the opinion The request stemmed from a case of the DTI on the issue. Thus, on filed by senior citizen-lawyer RomuAugust 15, 2014, Sofitel’s law firm lo Macalintal against Sofitel Hotel, wrote the letter to the DTI with the when the latter allegedly refused to concurrence of Macalintal grant him his aforesaid 20-percent In its opinion, the DTI clarified discount as a senior citizen over that “the prohibition on double and above the 50 percent granted discounting is applicable only when him as a member of Sofitel’s Accor the giving of discount is for the esAdvantage, where a member, like tablishment’s promotion [and] a DTI Macalintal, pays an annual membership fee of P8,800.

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4216 n UK 72.0942 n HK 5.7773 n CHINA 7.3195 n singapore 35.2149 n australia 39.3727 n EU 57.3939 n SAUDI arabia 11.9479 Source: BSP (17 October 2014)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Monday, October 20, 2014

Macalintal wins landmark case on elderly discounts Continued from a1 permit is applied and secured before an establishment can proceed with its promotional scheme.”

Macalintal said that “since the Accor card is not a promotion approved or permitted by the DTI,

then the double-discount provision does not apply. This DTI opinion should now serve as a wake-up call, if not a warning, to hotels and eateries with paid-for privilege cards not approved by the DTI that even with the discount under such cards, the senior citizen is still entitled to his

20-percent senior discount.”

Macalintal added that the said opinion could be taken as “a landmark ruling which validates and confirms my oft-repeated position that even if an item or service is claimed by an establishment to be ‘on promo,’ a senior citizen is still entitled to his 20-per-

cent discount if such ‘promo’ is not approved or permitted by the DTI.” While the DTI was cautious in saying that its “opinion is merely advisory in nature and not binding upon the parties, who may contest the same before the courts”, Macalintal said that the said opinion “has a very

news@businessmirror.com.ph

persuasive effect, considering that it is the DTI which is tasked by law to issue guidelines and policies on how the law on senior -citizen rights should be implemented.”

“The DTI’s opinion is surely a welcome development for all senior citizens who are holders of

membership or privilege cards they purchased from certain five-star hotels, since it is very clear that they may claim both the 20-percent senior citizen’s discount and the discount under their membership contracts with the said establishments,” Macalintal said.

PIDS. . . continued from a1

number of enterprises, thus, eliminating those that will still invest even without the incentives,” the policy note stated.

Manasan and Parel said under SB 987, only export and domestic enterprises in the 30 poorest cities nationwide will qualify for fiscal incentives. Under SB 35, the authors said, those qualified to seek incentives include domestic enterprises and domestic strategic enterprises. The authors explained that SB 987’s proposal will limit the grant of fiscal incentives and lessen incentive redundancies.

Further, Manasan and Parel said this will also promote the spread of industries and promote economic growth in less-developed areas in the country. The authors also said the abolition of the incometax holiday (ITH) under SB 987 is favorable. In lieu of this, the bill advocated for the reduction of Corporate Income Tax (CIT).

However, Manasan and Parel said the CIT must be recalibrated, since the current 15 percent was on the high side compared to international standards.

“The reduction of CIT rates also has to be time-bound. Some might argue that by setting time boundaries to the reduction of CIT rates, it might just be like the ITH that would attract footloose industries, but would exit the market after the CIT rate-reduction period has lapsed,” the authors added.

The study noted that there are 140 laws granting fiscal incentives in the Philippines. These gave birth to various kinds of incentives in effect in the country, such as ITH, which meant no taxes for a period of time; investment allowances and tax credits; reduced CIT rates; accelerated-depreciation scheme; exemptions from indirect taxes; and export-processing zones.

There have also been redundancies in the implementation of incentives. In 2004 the government’s foregone revenues due to these incentives reached P43.18 billion, or around 1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in that year.

“While fiscal incentives serve as a promotional tool for investment, other determinants of the attractiveness of a country to investments cannot be compensated for by just the granting of incentives,” the study stated.

“The overall investment climate, which includes the presence of infrastructure, cheap labor, and consistent and predictable policy and regulatory environment, is deemed to be more important than the provisions of fiscal incentives,” it added.

In the second quarter of 2014, the Philippine Statistics Authority said the total approved investments through IPAs of both foreign and Filipino nationals reached P257.8 billion.

Filipinos continued to dominate investments approved during the quarter, sharing 86 percent, or P221.8 billion, worth of pledges. The bulk of the investments committed by the foreign and Filipino nationals is intended to finance activities in electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply, contributing P167.1 billion, or 64.8 percent, followed by real-estate activities at P25.4 billion, or 9.9-percent share; and manufacturing, at P24.6 billion, or 9.5-percent share.

US. . . continued from a12

Kerry is hosting Yang in his hometown for two days of discussions ahead of Obama’s trip to Beijing for a summit of Asia Pacific leaders in November. On Friday Kerry opened his home in Boston’s tony Beacon Hill neighborhood to Yang for a dinner. Kerry and Yang finished their talks with a tour of the Adams’ family home in nearby Quincy, where the second and sixth presidents of the US, John and John Quincy Adams, lived.

The senior State Department official said the informal nature of the discussions allowed for a more robust discussion than the formally structured dialogue that the sides normally have.

The meetings follow talks in Washington earlier this month between Kerry and China’s foreign minister during which they aired differences over Hong Kong. After his meetings with Yang on Saturday, Kerry will travel to Indonesia for the inauguration on Monday of its new president, Joko Widodo, who won a July election.

On Tuesday Kerry will go to Berlin to meet with Germany’s foreign minister before returning to Washington. AP

Securities. . . continued from a1

equity shares listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange. But the FSCC deemed it prudent to recommend the suspension of the circular pending the resolution of issues regarding repurchase agreements entered into by insurance companies, such as SBL transactions.

Regulators have pursued the participation of the country’s insurance companies in securities borrowing and lending activities to give more depth to a market that basically lacks participants and liquidity that makes such a market vibrant. Even now, the market suffers from a lack of supply of securities for borrowers who need them for strategic hedging reasons.

The FSCC is composed of representatives from the Department of Finance, the Insurance Commission, the Bureau of the Treasury, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

Its primary objective is to establish and enabling environment that fully supports market innovation but at the same time mitigates any build-up of systemic risks, factoring in international standards and the country’s particular needs and situation.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Monday, October 20, 2014 A3

CA orders P15-M lawsuit filed by ‘Morong 43’ vs GMA to proceed

T

By Joel R. San Juan

HE Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered a full-blown trial of the P15-million damage suit filed against former President Gloria MacapagalArroyo by six members of the socalled Morong 43, who claimed they were illegally arrested and tortured by the military four years ago on suspicion of being communist rebels.

In a 12-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Victoria Isabel Paredes, the CA’s Special Eleventh Division affirmed the resolution issued by Branch 96 presiding judge Afable Cajigal of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Quezon City, which denied the motions filed by Arroyo seeking the immediate dismissal of the complaint for damages with application for a writ of preliminary attachment filed against her and several ranking military officials.

The appellate court held that the trial court did not commit grave abuse of discretion that would warrant the dismissal of the case.

“Petitioner’s arguments that she should not be held liable for damages as the alleged acts or omissions were in the performance of her official duties as President and Commanderin-Chief; the instant case is a suit against the State; and she should not be liable under the principle of damnun absque injuria are defenses, whose validity and merits should be threshed out in a full-blown trial and not in a motion to dismiss,” the CA ruled.

“Even assuming that a petition for certiorari is the proper remedy, petitioner has not demonstrated how assailed orders were issued in a capricious, whimsical, arbitrary or despotic manner in the exercise of its jurisdiction as to be equivalent to lack of jurisdiction,” it added.

Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Isaias Dicdican and Agnes Reyes-Carpio.

The case stemmed from the complaint filed by medical practitioners and volunteer health workers Dr. Merry Mia Clamor,

House to probe substandard condition of OFWs in Qatar

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

A

LAWMAKER has recently filed a resolution urging the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs to conduct an investigation on the alleged substandard condition of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in workplaces in Qatar, which is speeding up the infrastructure projects for the 2022 World Cup. House Resolution 1425, authored by Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela City, citing a report from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said 85 Filipino workers have died while working in the infrastructure projects in Qatar since 2013.

The resolution said the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has also reported that 1,200 migrant workers have already died in the last four years since Qatar was awarded the rights to host the World Cup. The OFWs in Qatar are paid less than what they were promised in their original employment contract, the resolution said.

“The OFWs are made to live in inadequate and unsanitary accommodations. They are forced to work long hours and not provided with proper safety devices in the work place,” it said.

The resolution also said the employers confiscated the passports of OFWs after they had arrived in Qatar.

“Their passports were returned to them only after they signed fake documents showing that they are receiving their original salary as stipulated in their original contract,” Gatchalian’s resolution said.

It said the Qatar government is implementing the “Kafala system,” which requires all unskilled workers to have their employers as their in-country sponsor, responsible for their visa and legal status.

It added the Kafala system prevents OFWs from leaving Qatar without the sponsor’s permission, saying “the employer’s consent is also required if the OFWs will apply for another job, acquire a driver’s license, rent a home or open a bank account.”

According to the lawmaker, there are huge infrastructure projects in Qatar after it won the rights to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup. “The current trend shows that Qatar will be ramping up its hiring of foreign workers to build the stadiums and other infrastructure projects that will be required to host the World Cup,” he said.

The ITUC has warned that more foreign workers will die under the present substandard living conditions and unfair labor practices in the workplaces in Qatar, Gatchalian added.

Dr. Alexis Montes, nurse Gary Liberal, Ma. Teresa Quinawayan, Reynaldo Macabenta and Mercy Castro, who were among the 43 individuals arrested by military troops and policemen during a raid at Silungan Seminar House in Morong, Rizal, on February 6, 2010.

They claimed that the raiders herded them out of the seminar facilities at gun point, subjected to a search without

warrant, tied their hands with plastic wires and blindfolded them for more than 36 hours.

The complainants claimed that they were detained at Camp Capinpin and were repeatedly interrogated and subjected to various forms of torture.

They added that they later learned that their arrest was carried out pursuant to the Internal Security Operation

Plan Bantay Laya or Oplan Bantay Laya, a counter-insurgency program allegedly approved by Arroyo.

The victims said they were informed that a search warrant had been issued by the Imus, Cavite RTC upon the request of Philippine National Police-Rizal provincial office against a certain Mario Condes, with the place to be searched identified as “Barangay Maybancal,

Morong, Rizal.”

They said their arrest was illegal, considering that the training facilities raided were owned by Dr. Melecia Velmonte of de la Paz Street, Maybangkal, Morong Rizal.

In her motion to dismiss, Arroyo said the civil complaint failed to state a cause of action against her and that the case was one against the state.

Economy

A4 Monday, October 20, 2014 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Palace prays for early consensus on emergency powers

M

By Butch Fernandez

alacañang on Sunday prayed for an early consensus among lawmakers to quickly pass the joint resolution on emergency powers sought by President Aquino to avert a looming power-supply crisis as Congress returns to work this week.

Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. said the Palace is hoping for a speedy approval of the urgent measure that will enable the government to enter into emergency contracts for additional capacity to plug an anticipated energy-supply

shortage likely to trigger recurrent brownouts in Luzon by early 2015.

Congress is scheduled to conduct hearings this week on the proposed emergency-power resolution, which Palace and energy officials hope would be fast-tracked for approval

before the Senate and Congress adjourn sessions again at the end of the month (October 31) for another 16day recess and will resume work on November 17, before taking another break for the Christmas holidays on December 20.

The Senate and the House of Representatives, ending a three-week recess, will reopen for business conducting plenary sessions and committee hearings this week to “attend to pending important measures amid a tight schedule.”

In a statement on Sunday, Senate President Franklin Drilon assured that senators intend “to make the most out of our schedule, in order to make progress on our growing list of legislative agenda,” before congressional sessions adjourn for the All Saints’ Day break on October 29, two weeks from now.

“We have a lot of pertinent bills

on our list, and a number of these proposed legislation require immediate passage. We will make every second of our remaining time in session count. We will give it our best shot,” he said.

Drilon said senators were expected to start the week by passing on third and final reading Senate Bill (SB) 2042, which prohibits “the development, production, stockpiling, use of chemical weapons and providing for their destruction,” in order to safeguard the country from the threats and hazards of chemical weaponry.

He indicated that the Senate is also nearing approval of its version of the Fair Competition Act, SB 2282, as the senators are done introducing amendments to the measure.

According to Drilon, the Fair Competition Act was part of a package of priority economic measures

which Congress would pass within next year, in order to improve the Philippines business climate, boost investment, and ensure macroeconomic and fiscal sustainability in time for the Asean Economic Community in 2015.

The senators, he added, are likewise ready to start amending SB 2400, which seeks to establish the Sugarcane Industry Development Fund.

Other Senate measures in advanced stages of legislation include prolabor bills, such as SB 29, or the Anti-Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 2013; SB 161, which provides security of tenure for all casual and contractual government employees who have rendered the prescribed years of service; SB 12, which provides retirement benefits to barangay officials, health and day-care workers;

MRT 7 faces roadblock

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

he construction of a masstransit system that would connect Bulacan to Quezon City might hit a roadblock if the government would breach certain provisions in the multibillion-peso transport mode’s concession agreement.

The government’s plan to transfer the P1.4-billion Common Station’s location to TriNoma Mall from SM North Edsa may hinder San Miguel Corp. (SMC) from immediately starting the construction of the P62.7-billion Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 7.

Under the general design of the multibillion-peso commuter rail, the common alignment for the three mass transit systems in Metro Manila should end at SM North Edsa, and not TriNoma as proposed by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said his office is just taking cue from the previous administration’s breaching of the MRT 7 contract, when the state decided to construct the line that connects MRT Line 3 in North Edsa to the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 in Monumento.

Currently, the government is proposing the transfer of the common station that would link the three overhead railway lines to the Ayala-owned mall, a move that would breach the MRT 7 contract, which provides that the alignment should end at SM North Edsa.

“You could say that there was already a breach in the contract,” he said in a chance interview.

“What’s clear there is MRT 3 and MRT 7 are located in SM. But this was signed at the time when the LRT 1 North Extension Project was already constructed.”

The transportation chief said his office has discussed the plan with officials of diversified conglomerate, who, he said, are open to both options.

“We had a discussion and their position was indifferent as to the location of the common station, as long as their revenues won’t be affected negatively by the transfer of the common station,” he pointed out.

“I hope they’re neutrality is genuine.”

The agency commissioned a Japanese consultant to review the profitability of both locations, and initial results showed that TriNoma is a slightly better option for SMC. “We presented the initial figures to them, but we are still required to sit down with them to flesh out the details of the study,” Abaya noted.

The common station is one of the most controversial rail deals being undertaken by the government. The transfer of the station, being mulled by the transportation agency, has effectively hindered the award of the P64.9-billion LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension deal to its winning bidder.

Two property giants are also at war on the location of the common alignment, as this would provide added foot traffic to their malls.

The transfer of the station, however, is currently being held back by a temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court in view of a petition submitted by the Sy-led mall operator.

Malacañang acts to solve Metro Manila’s traffic woes

P

resident Aquino and his Cabinet have addressed “some vital aspects” of Metro Manila’s traffic problem in approving two major infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) at the marathon National Economic and Development Authority Board meeting last week.

Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. confirmed on Sunday that these include the Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue-Makati Avenue-Paseo de Roces vehicle-underpass project, totaling P1.271.75 billion; and the Metro Manila interchange construction project, estimated to cost P4.007 billion.

Coloma said the Makati underpass project is expected to be completed in 2016, adding that detailed engineering studies are being finalized prior to the start of project implementation before the end of 2014.

“This project aims to facilitate movement of vehicles to and from the Makati Central Business District that accounts for one of the highest volumes of vehicular traffic in the metropolis,” the Palace official said on Sunday.

He added that in Quezon City, the DPWH will also build three grade-separated inter-changes, namely, the Edsa-North Avenue-West Avenue-Mindanao Avenue interchange; the Circumferential Road 5-Greenmeadows-Calle IndustriaEastwood interchange; and the Edsa-Roosevelt AvenueCongressional Avenue interchange.

To be started in 2015, the DPWH expects these three projects to be completed in four years,” Coloma said.

Butch Fernandez

House to pass proposed 2015 budget on Oct. 29

T

ENVIRONMENT ADVOCATES Permanent International Association of Navigation Congresses (PIANC) Secretary-General Louis Van Schel (second from right) converses with (from left) PIANC Vice President Yutaka Sunohara, Philippine Ports Authority General Manager lawyer Juan Sta. Ana and University of New South Wales Associate Prof. Ron Cox during the first PIANC-PHL Workshop held in Manila. The workshop is titled “Improving Maritime Waterborne Infrastructure to Meet Climate Change Challenges.” ALYSA SALEN

SMC-backed Universal LRT Corp., meanwhile, is currently under the process of financially closing the MRT 7 deal.

The deal is expected to be closed by year-end, while the construction of the 44-kilometer road and rail transportation will begin immediately after this. It is seen to be completed by 2018.

The rail component of the MRT 7 project involves the construction of a 22.8-km rail-transit system that is

envisioned to operate 108 rail cars in a three-car train configuration with a daily passenger capacity ranging from 448,000 to 850,000.

It will have 14 stations, starting with the North Avenue Station in Edsa passing through Commonwealth Avenue, Regalado Avenue and Quirino Highway up to the proposed Intermodal Transport Terminal in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

The road component of the project, meanwhile, involves the

construction of a six-lane access road from San Jose del Monte to Balagtas, Bulacan North Luzon Expressway Exit.

The 25-year concession agreement between ULC and the government was signed in 2008, but was delayed due to the proponent’s failure to secure financial closure.

San Miguel Holdings Corp., a unit of the food-to-infrastructure firm, owns a 51-percent controlling stake in ULC.

DENR leads meetings with IPs, local communities for biodiversity conservation

T

and SB 1386, or the amendments to the Public Employment Service Office Act of 1999.

Also in the period of interpellation is SB 2269, or the amendments to the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program. The bill seeks to amend an existing provision in the AFP Modernization Program that will allow the country to purchase major equipment or weapons systems, so long as they are also used by the armed forces of the equipment’s country of origin, or by the armed forces of at least one country.

Additional Senate bills also in the period of interpellation are SB 2210, which seeks to institutionalize the Poverty Reduction through Social Entrepreneurship Program; along with SB 2414, which amends the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998.

With Recto Mercene

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) through its Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) will hold two national conferences aimed at empowering indigenous people’s (IP) tribes and local communities as the government’s biological diversity conservation partners.

The second National ICCA Conference is scheduled on October 21 to 22, while the National Conference on Local Conservation Areas (LCAs) is set on October 23-24.

Both events will be held at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria in Pasig City.

Co-organized by the DENR-BMB, the Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation Inc., the Protected Area Management Enhancement Project of the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation, and the New Conservation Areas in the Philippines Project, the conferences will tackle challenges faced by IP tribes and local communities in protecting the environment and benefiting from such conservation efforts.

DENR-BMB Director Theresa Mundita Lim said, “The conferences would highlight the need to conserve not only our natural resources, especially within ancestral domains, but also the traditional and age-old practices of IPs that are worth emulating or replicating because they demonstrate a deep regard or respect for Mother Nature and what she has to offer.”

The conference on ICCA, with a theme “Pagpapalakas sa Tradisyunal na Pamamahala ng Lupaing Ninuno at Pangangalaga ng Samu’t Saring Buhay,” will bring together some 250 participants, including IP leaders from major island and ethno-linguistic groups, support organizations, government agencies, academe, private sector and other entities supporting ICCAs. Among those invited to deliver their messages are Chairman Leonor Oralde-Quintayo of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. of Ifugao, representing Congress.

ICCAs are territories that have been voluntarily conserved by IPs and local communities through effective means such as customary laws or traditional practices. These territories may be sacred spaces or ritual grounds, indigenous territories and cultural land and seascapes, wetlands and fishing grounds, migration routes of mobile IPs, among others.

The LCA conference will feature local initiatives and experiences of selected local government units (LGUs) in environmental protection, particularly biodiversity conservation, with the theme “Diversifying and Strengthening Participatory Governance in Biodiversity Conservation.”

Some 200 participants are expected for the conference, which is open to all LGUs as Secretary Mar Roxas of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) had earlier issued a nationwide

invitation to all LGUs. “The conference would hopefully inspire other LGUs as we pay tribute to progressive ones who have, with or without national government support, exercised good governance and successfully managed their resources, after recognizing the link between healthy ecosystems and local economic progress,” Lim said.

She added that participating LGUs can learn from the conference how to implement projects within their areas of jurisdiction, in compliance with the proposal of biodiversity conservation as a criterion for earning the DILG Seal of Good Governance.

LCAs are areas designated by LGUs for protection purposes, usually through local ordinances. These may be identified as habitats of unique or threatened species; natural ecosystems ideal for ecotourism purposes; areas highly vulnerable to natural hazards, such as erosion or landslides; headwaters of local water districts; and remaining closed and regenerating natural forests.

The conferences’ co-conveners include the NCIP, Foundation for Philippine Environment, Philippine Association for Intercultural Development, the Bukluran ng mga Katutubo para sa Pangangalaga ng Kalikasan ng Pilipinas, and the Koalisyon ng Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas for the ICCA Conference; and the DILG, the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, the Department of Tourism and Haribon Foundation for the LCA Conference.

HE House of Representatives will pass the proposed P2.606trillion national budget for next year on October 29, the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations said on Sunday.

Liberal Party Rep. Isidro Ungab of Davao, chairman of the committee, in a text message, said the majority of the lawmakers is expected to approve the House Bill 4968, or the 2015 General Appropriations Bill, on third and final reading on October 29 and immediately transmit the maeasure to the Senate for its own deliberations.

“We can’t have it passed tomorrow [October 20, resumption of the session]. The committee only finished its tasked last Thursday and the staff are still encoding the amendments. We also have to give allowance for printing. Our target date for third reading is on October 29 [before the Congress’ All Saints Day break],” he said.

The Congress will take another two-week break from November 1 to 16. Ungab reiterated the proposed 2015 budget does not contain provisions similar to the voided porkbarrel fund.

He also said the proposed P2.606trillion allocation for next year is in “fulfillment of the Aquino administration’s commitment to further facilitate rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth in the country.”

The 2015 budget is 15.1 percent higher than the current year’s P2.265 trillion, representing 18.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and reflecting the jump in the administration’s growth assumption of 7 percent to 8 percent for 2015.

Per sectoral allocation, social services continue to take the lion’s share of the proposed 2015 budget, attesting to the administration’s continuing pursuit of its anti-poverty goals. Social protection and welfare services—which include the provision of basic education and universal health care—account for 37.1 percent of the proposed expenditure program, with P967.9 billion now devoted to the sector.

The social-services budget is 15percent, higher than the P841.8 billion that currently supports social services under the 2014 National Budget, and will allow the administration to strengthen its K to 12 program, as well as the Universal Health and Conditional Cash-Transfer programs.

Meanwhile, economic services are still a major mover in the President’s inclusive growth campaign, with the 2015 proposed budget directing P700.2 billion toward this sector. This comprises 4.9 percent of the country’s GDP and accounts for 27 percent of the expenditure program for the next fiscal year. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

SMC’s Albay power unit Aleco faces rough sailing

By Manly M. Ugalde Correspondent

L

EGAZPI CITY—Nearly a year after taking control of the Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco), San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) energy unit continues to face strong resistance, particularly from the Aleco Union Employees Organization (Aleo).

Aleo has earlier called on the 230,000 consumers of Aleco, which has been renamed as the Albay Power Energy Corp.

(Apec), to boycott the power firm for its purported failure to restore power in the province by September, following the onslaught of Typhoon Glenda in July.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda and other customers had also questioned the high power rate imposed by the firm.

But Apec’s new general manager, Manuel Imperial, said the company has instituted the necessary changes to resolve the problems encountered by its customers.

Imperial said in a radio interview that Apec has hired a new company, which will initially resort to manual meter reading.

He said Apec’s customers with unpaid and questionable electric billings would pay only their average monthly consumption until August. Imperial said the company will deliver accurate billings starting September.

Aleco also continues to hold “silent protest rallies” against Apec for its purported refusal to honor the Return to Work Order issued by the Department of Labor and Employment for 80 Aleco employees who participated in a series of rallies in 2013.

Aleco’s privatization was pursued by the National Electrification Administration and was supported by five Albay lawmakers and Salceda in their bid to revive the power cooperative.

SMC won the bidding for Aleco after declaring that it would assume its P4-billion debt, and that it would rehabilitate the ailing power cooperative.

Monday, October 20, 2014 A5

PCCI seeks government’s help to lower port charges

By Catherine N. Pillas

T

he country’s largest business organization, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Pcci), is seeking government intervention to lower port congestionrelated fees imposed by shipping lines.

“There was an imbalance of containers when there was congestion at the ports. Now that the problem has subsided, shipping lines continue to

charge high fees. It’s opportunistic,” Alfredo M. Yao told reporters in a chance interview on the sidelines of the recent inauguration of Richprime

Global Inc. Corporate Center.

Yao said the congestion-related additional charges are doubling companies’ costs, and government intervention is necessary for importing firms to maintain competitiveness.

“If the government does not intervene, the fees will not go down,” he said in the vernacular.

According to data obtained by reporters, a 20-foot standard, dry cargo container is slapped with $150 per unit for empty equipment imbalance and handover charges, while a 40-foot-high cube container van, based on 6 twenty-footequivalent units, is charged $200.

Also, companies are charged $250 for a 20-foot cargo dry container and $500 per 3 units of 40-foot-high cube container

for “operation cost recovery.”

The empty equipment imbalance surcharge is imposed by shipping lines to recover costs related to removing large quantities of empty containers, which will not be used for export.

The charge is not necessarily applied in all trades or at all times, but only in instances when there is a trade imbalance that will result to expenditures on the part of the shipping lines for transferring empty containers from one place to another.

Handover charges refer to the costs and administration of releasing containers for import. Operation-recovery costs, meanwhile, are those that arise from delays caused by slow vessel and container turnaround.

Therma South’s Mindanao power plant nears completion

By Butch D. Enerio Correspondent

C

AGAYA N DE ORO CIT Y—A 300-megawatt (MW) power plant currently under construction in Mindanao is nearing completion and is likely to meet its target to start commercial operation in the first half of 2015.

Therma South Inc. (TSI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp., said in its report to the Department of Energy that the power plant in the boundary of Davao City and Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur, is 90-percent complete as of September.

“We are anticipating the completion of this project, and looking forward to being able to make a significant contribution in

alleviating the Mindanao power crisis,” TSI President Benjamin A. Cariaso Jr. said.

Cariaso said the project would provide Mindanao a reliable baseload power plant that will supply its increasing power requirements. Distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in Mindanao have already signed power-supply contracts with TSI as of September. The Energy

Regulatory Commission has already approved 13 of the 22 contracts.

Customers with approved contracts can immediately source power from TSI once the plant starts operation.

Once operational, TSI will deliver much-needed power to the major cities of Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Butuan, General Santos, Tagum and Kidapawan.

Tourism

A6 Monday, October 20, 2014 • Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

Growing tourism ties between PHL, Canada

TOURISM Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. shakes hands with Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder during a visit to the Department of Tourism office.

C

ANADIAN Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder recently called on Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. to discuss the growing tourism traffic between Canada and the Philippines.

According to statistics from the Department of Tourism (DOT), Canada is the seventh-largest source of tourists to the Philippines in the fi rst seven months of 2014. More than 86,000 Canadians visited the Philippines, generating almost P5 billion in tourism receipts, making Canada one of the largest markets in terms of visitor expenditure.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Tourism Commission recorded more than 46,000 Filipino tourists visiting Canada from January to July this year.

In June the Philippines and Canada signed an expanded Air Transport Agreement, allowing for more flights between the two countries.

There were close to 430,000 one-way passenger trips taken between Canada and the Philippines in 2013, up 22.5 percent since 2008. The Philip-

pines remains the only member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with direct links to Canada.

Th rough its development assistance program, Canada is also helping the Philippines improve its tourism potential. The Canadian government is contributing Cad$7 million to a technical assistance project of the Asian Development Bank. The project provides technical assistance to the DOT to improve the competitiveness of the tourism sector, as well as the efficiency of the labor market through the implementation of an enhanced Hotel and Resorts Quality Assurance and Accreditation system and improved tourism services.

Canada also supports tourism development in the Philippines by funding the Local Governance Support Program for Local Economic Development, which is an $18-million, eight-year (2008 to 2016) bilateral project implemented in partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

MANILA PAVILION HOTEL TO UNVEIL NEW ALCUAZ FUNCTION ROOMS T HE Manila Pavilion Hotel is now pleased to accept commitments to host weddings, corporate meetings, soireés and other social events with the opening of its new Alcuaz Function Rooms in November.

The visually interesting Alcuaz Function Rooms, which are on the third floor of the hotel, can accommodate up to 300 people and can be arranged in a variety of ways to suit a guest’s needs, whatever they may be.

The function rooms pay homage to National Artist for Visual Arts Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, who made the Manila Pavilion Hotel his atelier and residence for many years. He stayed in a corner suite of the hotel, and his favorite fine-dining restaurant was the old Rotisserie. His memory continues to live on in the function rooms that bear his name.

“Federico Aguilar Alcuaz was more of a family [member] to us than a guest. He definitely left a significant mark in this hotel,” Manila Pavilion Hotel General Manager Christopher Park said. “The completion of the new Alcuaz Function Rooms compliments our newly renovated rooms. For those who are planning to have a special

event, we are very excited to give them a grand affair that is attuned to their desires,” he added.

The function rooms were overseen by Ilustre & Associates, Architects. They restored the rooms to their original elegance and incorporated modern elements, resulting in a contemporary design that is highlighted by rich and vivid artwork.

Shades of brown and beige are found throughout the interior, with black and red as accents. Alcuaz’s paintings, which are displayed on the walls, are illuminated by energyefficient and eco-friendly lights.

Located at the heart of the capital, the Manila Pavilion Hotel is very accessible to the city’s various attractions, deluxe shopping venues, historic Intramuros and Manila Bay and its famous view of the sunset.

A member of the Waterfront Hotels & Casinos family, the Manila Pavilion Hotel is committed to creating grand aff airs of every kind for their guests, and truly redefi nes Filipino hospitality with its innovations and relentless pursuit of excellence.

For more information, visit www.waterfronthotels.com.ph.

2

m&Entertainment BusinessMirror

tourism@businessmirror.com.ph • Monday, October 20, 2014 A7

1

2

3

Location, niche market ensure good fortune for Microtel UP Technohub B M. S F. A | Special to the BM

T

HE opening of the newest hotel of international hotel chain Microtel by Wyndham could not have come at a more inauspicious time. It was in the thick of retrograding Mercury, a night after the “Blood Moon,” and it was hotel No. 13.

And, yet, these seeming unfavorable factors that would normally keep superstitious people inside their homes and pray their rosaries, failed to faze Jose Mari del Rosario, president of Microtel Inns & Suites (Pilipinas) Inc. and Microtel Development Corp., as he expressed confidence in the new hotel’s strategic location and target market.

Located at the UP-Ayala Technohub in Quezon City, and just a stone’s throw away from HSBC’s global service center, this Microtel not only has a captive market among the business-process outsourcing offices and technology incubators in the area, but will also cater to the University of the Philippines and nearby Ateneo de Manila University and Miriam College, government agencies around the Quezon Memorial Circle and along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City Hall, and even the House of Representatives in the Batasang Pambansa complex.

The hotel is, likewise, accessible to specialty hospitals, such as the Philippine Heart Center for Asia, National Kidney Institute, and Lung Center of the Philippines.

After cocktails, which gathered many VIPs from the national and local level, the private sector, and

academe, the hotel was formally launched with high-octane dancing from its service staff, which kept many guests tapping their feet and shaking their shoulders to the music.

Del Rosario then proceeded to thank Microtel’s partners for the new hotel—Aviso Holdings Inc., Grupo Alfaro Inc. and Andorra Investments Corp.—as well as its constant patrons and government executives, like Mayor Herbert Bautista of Quezon City and Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr., who were both guests at the launch. (The hotel opened on the eve of Quezon City’s 75th founding anniversary.)

He also gave a glimpse of the hotel chain’s future projects, with a new brand—Tryp by Wyndham—in the offing.

Interviewed on the sidelines of the launch, del Rosario said the new hotel offers “a surprisingly quiet and peaceful refuge for business meetings or guests who wish to escape the stressful demands of the city,” despite being close to busy Commonwealth.

Although considered as a threestar hotel, Microtel UP Technohub features close to five-star amenities with spacious rooms “to entice guests to stretch and breath in quiet luxury,” he stressed.

The six-story building has 120 clean and secure rooms that look out either to a garden quadrangle or to the city. Every room has queen-sized beds with chiropractor-approved mattresses, rated on American Chiropractic Association standards, ensuring a relaxing night’s sleep.

On the roof deck is a swimming pool for guests to swim in or lounge around. When we went up to check it out, it had a positively relaxing vibe, almost magical even, as the full moon cast interesting lights and shadows on the water.

The hotel’s modern design complements the industrial and environmental elements present in the thriving commercial-development area. Arch.

Luis Nakpil said, “Each Microtel is individually designed; no two Microtels are alike. For this one, we designed it so it could blend with

4

the urban landscape.

Millie’s Restaurant, one of only three in the country, serves as the hotel’s official dining facility. “Millie” is del Rosario’s late mother, who loved traveling. At this particular branch, “there are international books and magazines displayed on shelves, reflective of her tastes and travel experiences,” explained Dandi Galvez, Microtel’s marketing and communications manager.

There is a function hall above the restaurant that can accommodate 200 people and is perfect for meetings and corporate events, as well as wedding receptions and social gatherings. There are also three meeting rooms that can accommodate 30 people.

Microtel by Wyndham pioneered the no-frills limited-service hotel concept in the Philippines that tar-

gets the mid-market. “Our approach is back-to-basics and focuses on providing consistently clean, comfortable and secure accommodations at value rates. The Microtel brand standards also dictate that all hotels shall be new construction only, so Microtel offers freshness and newness that travelers appreciate,” del Rosario said.

The hotel’s well-knit team of experienced and competent professionals are obviously passionate about satisfying their guests, and are strongly committed to delivering excellent customer service and value-priced accommodations and services at international standards.

With the unprecedented growth in domestic travelers, the Microtel chief said, he only sees good fortune for the hotel chain in the years to come.

1 MICROTEL UP Technohub offers a quiet sanctuary for meetings, conferences and staycations.

MICROTEL INNS & SUITES (PILIPINAS) INC.

2 BIEN TAN (from left), director, Aviso Holdings Inc.; Billy del Rosario, executive vice president, chief strategy officer, Phinma; Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez of Aviso Holdings Inc.; Mark Lapid, chief operating officer (COO), Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority; Jerry Lorenzo, president and chief executive officer (CEO), Andorra Investments; Mayor Herbert Bautista of Quezon City; Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte of QC; Jose Mari del Rosario, president and CEO of Microtel Inns & Suites (Pilipinas) Inc.; Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr.; Roberto Laviña, COO and senior vice president, Phinma; Arch.

Luis Nakpil; and (not in photo) Jojie Ignacio, director and vice president, Aviso Holdings Inc., toast the opening of Microtel UP AyalaTechnohub during its launch on October 10.

STELLA ARNALDO

3 MICROTEL UP Ayala-Technohub’s roof-deck swimming pool presents a gorgeous view of the city or the evening skyline.

MICROTEL INNS & SUITES (PILIPINAS) INC.

4 MICROTEL UP Ayala-Technohub’s double

room features two queen-sized beds that are endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association for a restful sleep.

MICROTEL INNS & SUITES (PILIPINAS) INC.

TheElderly A8 Monday, October 20, 2014 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

TO PROVIDE RETIREES AND OLDER PEOPLE PLACE TO SOCIALIZE AND KEEP HEALTHY

1st SM Senior Hub opens in Makati

A

Last year Teresita Sy-Coson, daughter of the founder of the SM Group of Companies, gave the building a once-over and came up with the idea of making the site the Senior Hub, a place where ambulant seniors can spend their leisure time socializing with peers and keeping physically and mentally fit at the same time.

This adult day-care and recreational center, the first of its kind in the country, had its soft opening on October 1.

The SM Foundation sees the hub as “an excellent venue for socialization and peer support. The ‘seniors’ will have therapeutic, educational and recreational activities, like arts and crafts, fitness and wellness, games and leisure, that will improve their social, mental and physical health.”

The building features modern amenities, said Juris Umali Soliman, the hub’s executive director who conducts the tours for guests.

The furniture is modular, making them easy to move. The interior brings in light and fresh air, and each floor is surrounded by plants.

Located on the first floor is Earth 56, the first branch of Earth Kitchen, a new restaurant based in White Plains, Quezon City, recently chosen by the Philippine Tatler as

among the country’s best. The restaurant serves organic food, freely using the rosemary, tarragon, basil, thyme and other herbs grown in the hub’s organic garden.

Earth Kitchen also makes its own ice cream, serving goat cheese, tableya, green tea and pastillas, a favorite of Felicidad T. Sy, the family matriarch who visits the hub three times a week.

On the second floor is Club 65, which manages the arts, dance and crafts sessions, and fun center for the exclusive use of the hub’s seniorcitizen members. The floor features a home theater complete with La-ZBoys for watching movies or lounging, a game area with tables for bridge and poker games and electronically operated mahjong tables, and a quiet area for reading and writing.

The third floor is called the Arts and Fitness floor, with a gym operated by Life Fitness. There are fitness and dance classes—including ballet, Soliman said—conducted by Arts in Makati, and art classes by Fidel Sarmiento, the president of the Art Association of the Philippines.

Interested parties can arrange for group or individual lessons, onetime deals, short-term engagements or continuous sessions, Soliman said.

By Cheridine P. Oro-Josef, MD, FPAFP, FPCGM

right to health

O

SM Senior Hub trustee Imelda Elido (left) joins fellow trustee and Executive Director Juris Umali Soliman at the roof-deck where the hub maintains a garden. nonie reyes

Lessons can range from box making to pottery, tai-chi and ikebana.

There is also an informationtechnology area, where “oldies can be techies” with their tutor seminarians, who are whizzes with electronic gadgets.

The fourth floor is the Wellness floor, where David’s Salon operates a barbershop, a beauty salon and a massage area. The alternative non-invasive therapy section provides acupuncture, acupressure, reflexology and similar services and treatment. The section is headed by Dr. Alfonso Lagaya, who was once director general of the Department of Health’s Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care. Appointments can be made; the section also welcomes walk-ins.

Dr. Isagani Rodo, a geriatrician, super vises the facility’s nurses and caregivers.

The roof-deck on the fifth floor is the Music Center, featuring a parlor grand piano, a karaoke area and a social hall that can accommodate 75 persons. Also on this floor is the Our Lady of Lourdes chapel that offers a place for prayer and contemplation.

Hub chaplain is Fr. Bong Lo, chaplain of SM Megamall’s chapel.

Soliman said the hub’s first Mass will be held on October 25, with plans to conduct Masses once a month.

She said the hub welcomes nonseniors and other adults, who are charged P100 per visit. Discounts are only given to seniors.

The hub is a membership club, whose monthly fee of P3,000 entitles members use of the facilities and a P1,000 cash card for consumables for services and food in the hub.

At present, Club 65 has “a dozen very enthusiastic members,” Soliman said. The SM Foundation hopes to maintain a 100-member club.

Soliman said the elevator transporting members, staff and guests from floor to floor is big enough for a group of 12 or during emergencies, for a stretcher and two wheelchairs.

Soliman would not say how much the design and construction of the hub cost, only that “it is money the foundation does not hope to recover.”

When asked about expansion plans, she said, “We want to perfect the operation of this hub first before we can even think of expanding.”

“For now, our main goal is to make the hub a home away from home for our members,” she said.

Social pension to cover 37,000 indigent elderly in Western Visayas

I

LOILO CITY—The Department of Social Welfare and Development is targeting to cover 36,920 indigent senior citizens in Western Visayas for the social-pension program before this year ends.

The figure is broken down as follows: Aklan, 4,824; Antique, 4,554; Capiz, 5,100; Guimaras, 1,430; Iloilo, 12,915; and Negros Occidental, 8,097.

Judith Marte, focal person of the Social Pension program, said all the documents of these target beneficiaries are now being assessed and validated by their Central Office for confirmation and approval.

She said these target beneficiaries, who are 77 years old and above, are all registered under the National Housing Targeting System for Poverty Reduction as validated by the local government units.

The program covers 21,164 indigent senior citizens in the region, including the 242 indigent senior citizens who were victimized by Supertyphoon Yolanda last year.

As of third quarter of this year, 8,704 indigent senior citizens, or equivalent to P44,428,500 were already paid off by their P500 monthly stipend.

Marte said the provision of Social Pension for indigent senior citizens is mandated by law as stated in Section 5 of the Republic Act 9994, otherwise known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.

She also said the program is an additional government assistance to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of elderly persons to help improve their living condition. PNA

Geriatricians: Specialists in elderly care

By Efleda P. Campos

FEW years back, the SM Foundation bought an old five-story building at 56 Jupiter Street in Makati City. It used to house small offices, including a photocopy service, a dental clinic and an ancillary permit-issuing section of the Department of Trade and Industry whose international unit is located across the street.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Honoring Baguio’s elderly

The Blessed Association of Retired Person Foundation Inc. gives the 2014 Gintong Tala Senior Citizens Luminary Awards for Outstanding Leadership and Exemplary Service to several outstanding elderly citizens of Baguio City. This year’s awardees include Rev. Fr. Manuel A. Castro, City Administrator Carlos Canilao, Emerterio Cesario G. Manatan, Dr. Jimmy F. Cabfit, Dr. Remedios K. Taguba, Isaac L. Espiritu, Peter L. Ng, Nicolas Cawed, Reynaldo Nauyac Lopez, Bot Monroe G. Taclawan, Ramon Dacawi and Dolphy Lachica. MAU VICTA

N October 16 and 17, the Philippine College of Geriatric Medicine (PCGM) held its third annual convention with the theme “The Changing Horizon in Geriatric Medicine” at the Century Park Hotel, Manila.

For two days the convention gathered specialists in elderly care to tackle issues encountered by older patients. The organization also invited other allied medical providers, as well as interested persons who are taking care of the elderly.

If there are pediatricians managing medical cases for children and adolescents, there are doctors specifically trained to handle and manage diseases of the elderly; they are called geriatricians.

Geriatrics is now a component society of the Philippine College of Physicians and a specialty society of the Philippine Medical Association. After years of training as Adult Medicine specialists, doctors now may choose to undergo specialty training in Geriatrics. At present, only one hospital offers this kind of training in the Philippines, although the college explores the possibility of opening new training centers.

Older persons are considered as one of the vulnerable sectors of society, who need special care and management. The aging body experiences physiologic changes, which are distinct and requires specialty care. Geriatricians look into these physiologic changes and correlate them with existing acute or chronic diseases experienced by the elderly. They also review medications and note on possible side effects of chronic drug use and interactions, which are very common in this population.

Geriatricians, in general, are very passionate about taking care of our lolo and lola. They manage the elderly in the hospital with other specialists. They offer a unique management, working hand in hand with other health providers in the hospitals. They do home visits of those who are chronically ill and bedridden. The goal of geriatric care is to address diseases appropriately, minimize functional losses, maintain physiologic balance and ensure quality of life as they age.

You may contact a geriatrician at the PCGM office, Room 117 PMA Building, North Edsa, at 384-8923 or e-mail at pcgm2011@yahoo.com.

More PHL farms now tilled by aging farmers—DAR chief

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

F

ARMING is profitable and various government programs are aimed at strengthening the social and financial capital in the agriculture sector to win back the youth into farming said Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio R. de los Reyes.

De los Reyes expressed concern that farms are now being manned by aging people in their late 50s, while their sons and daughters opt to find greener pastures elsewhere.

De los Reyes said various studies reveal that the average age of Filipino farmers is 57, which goes to show that most of the youth have shunned tilling the soil as a profession or business undertaking.

“The best way of getting our youth back into farming is to show them that they can get money out of it,” de los Reyes stressed in his speech at the “Social Business Summit 2014” held at the Gawad Kalinga’s “Enchanted Farm” in Angat, Bulacan, recently.

He believes that if farmers would be able to develop their social capital by forming themselves into a cohesive organization, which, in turn, would help enhance their financial capital through easy access to credit, the youth will be lured to do business in agriculture.

He said most financing institutions prefer to deal with a credible farmers’ organization, rather than with individual farmers because it is easier to deal with one group compared to a number of individuals.

De los Reyes said the government has established a production creditassistance program with insurance

package to enable the farmers to have a starting capital for farm inputs and protect them from possible losses in case of calamities.

“One major requirement of this credit assistance is for our farmerbeneficiaries to organize themselves into a credible organization,” he said.

De los Reyes said it is also vital to teach farmers how to plant and show them what to do to make farming more profitable, so that the youth might consider taking a second look at it as a profession.

He said the government has linked up with academe and business sectors to provide farmers new farming methods to enhance farm productivity and offer value-added schemes, like processing their raw products into finished products to increase their market value.

“Being an organization brings a lot of opportunities to our farmerbeneficiaries. It helps them purchase farm inputs at a much lesser cost, while giving them the opportunity to transact business with big business firms in need of raw farm products,” de los Reyes said.

The ability of a farmers’ organization to buy in bulk enables it to purchase farm inputs for its members, like seedlings and fertilizer, among others, at wholesale prices, which an individual farmer could not avail himself of because he only buys for his own needs.

De los Reyes said an organization of farmers could plan ahead what crop to plant to meet the volume requirements of a big business firm that it had transacted with to be its supplier of raw farm outputs.

Social-pension coverage for all poor older citizens pushed

T

ACLOBAN CITY—The City Social Welfare Development Office (CSWDO) is pushing for wider social-pension coverage among poor senior citizens in this city.

CSWDO recorded 813 senior citizens qualified as beneficiaries of the social pension, but only 102 listed in the National Housing Targeting System (NHTS) are entitled to receive

the said allowance.

Social Welfare Assistant Luz Peñaranda said they want to include all poor elders to the social-pension program not just those considered as the poorest through NHTS listings.

“As much as possible, the office wants that all social pensioners from previous years can also become beneficiaries this time,” Peñaranda said.

NHTS is a comprehensive listing of who and where the poor are in each locality.

“We really wanted to include all, but we need to conduct a survey to identify them,” she added.

The official explained that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWSD) guidelines are based on the Commission on

Audit policy that the recipients are only those who are tagged in the NHTS survey.

The Tacloban CSWDO urges the national government to conduct another survey so that all indigent senior citizens in the city could receive social pension.

“Their office should conduct another survey, because this is just our

little way of helping our seniors,” Peñaranda said.

CSWDO said the distribution of social pension on the previous years is not done quarterly due to fund disbursement delays.

The office encourages social pensioners, who are not listed in NHTS to visit the DSWD office for clarification. PNA

Regions BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Asian HR center calls attention to killings of Philippine activists

D

By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—A Hong Kongbased human-rights center for Asia issued a global appeal directed to the Philippine government to look in to the recent killing of four activists in the country.

Saying one of the activists was slain for her opposition to an oil-palm plantation in Bukidnon, the Asian Human Rights Commission called on netizens worldwide to write letters to President Aquino and other Filipino officials and to various United Nations special rapporteurs on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, “for their intervention” in the killing of Gildegardo Hernandez in Quezon, Marcel Lambon in Bukidnon, Jefferson A. Custodio of Leyte and Librado Adoptante of Camarines Sur. The four were all killed in August this year by government militia or by armed men believed connected with the government intelligence units.

On August 6 Hernandez was waiting for a ride along CandelariaSan Juan Diversion Road in Candelaria, Quezon, “when an unknown

man on a motorcycle got off, and shot him.” When Hernandez fell on the ground, the gunman and his backup driver fired more shots, hitting him on the head, chest and face.

Hernandez was working for the relief delivery operation for the survivors of Typhoon Glenda. The operation that was scheduled the following day was organized by the Southern Tagalog People Corps, the Kalipunan ng Samahang Magbubukid ng Timog Katagalugan and hosted by the Pamatid-CQ, a local peasant organization headed by Hernandez. Hernandez’s death was followed by another killing in Impasug-ong, Bukidnon on August 14, when a a member of the Special Civilian Armed Auxiliary shot Marcel Lambon, a council member of a tribal organization in the town.

The SCAA was under the Army’s 8th Infantry Battalion, according to sources of AHRC. The AHRC said Lambon was an active campaigner against the expansion of an oil-palm plantation in Impasugong. The group also said that “prior to her death, the military has since been frequently visiting her home and place of employment, and she was summoned for questioning.”

On August 23, Custodio, 25, a member of the Municipal Farmers Association in Carigara (Mufac), was shot dead in Barangay Punong, Carigara town, Leyte, by two men riding an unmarked motorcycle. Custodio was in the village distributing farm tools to farmers in the upland village of Carigara when the two men wearing ski masks shot him in the arm and chest, killing him instantly. The Mufac was engaged in the rehabilitation of communities affected by Supertyphoon Yolanda by providing the farmers with shelter materials, seeds and seedlings, and farm tools, the AHRC said. The government apparently suspected the organization as linked to the underground organizations that on July 2, “prior to his death, soldiers from the 78th Infantry Battalion and police from the Regional Mobile Group arrived in Capoocan, Leyte, hunting for the members of the Mufac” the AHRC said. “The soldiers stationed themselves in the village

hall, in the outposts of village watchmen, and in the chapel. They also held meetings with village residents and told them they were prohibited from joining street protests,” the AHRC said. But the AHRC said that a more gruesome killing was inflicted on Adoptante Sr. on August 26 in Baao, Camarines Sur. Adoptante was a coordinator of Bayan Muna, an organization long suspected by the military as a highly linked to communist guerrillas.

Adoptante, along with his wife, Gemma and 12-year-old daughter, Sally, was on his way home from his checkup at the hospital when a gunman stopped him and shot him. When Adoptante fell on the ground, the gunman fired two more shots into his head. He also sustained gunshot wounds on the chest. “The police arrived half an hour later with members of village council.

They were heard to have said: ‘Ah si Ka Mayon! [Ah, this is Ka Mayon]’ implying they are familiar with the identity of the victim,” the AHRC said.

The group said that “since 2006, members of the 42nd Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army and the Civilian Auxiliary Force Georgraphical Unit had previously been to the Adoptantes’ home of the looking for Adoptante.” The AHRC said that the military “wanted Adoptante to clear his name as they suspected him as a member of the New People’s Army, a rebel group.”

Monday, October 20, 2014

A9

Bishop, mayor cite partnership for rise of Angeles City park

A

NGELES CITY—“It’s a dream come true. This is the accomplishment of a partnership.”

Thus said the Most Rev. Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David in his speech shortly before joining Angeles City government officials and workers, businessmen, volunteers and village officials in a “boodle fight” at the People’s Park here on Friday afternoon.

David, auxiliary bishop of San Fernando who is based at the Holy Rosary Parish Church here, expressed gratitude for what he called “the genuine partnership between the public and private sectors for the development of the People’s Park at the old railway of the Philippine National Railways [PNR].”

“It’s not only the gardens in our homes that must be beautiful but all the gardens and parks as well, especially those which are in public places,” David said.

Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said “at least 95 percent of the funds used for the park came from the private sector,” adding that “we would have waited for at least one year before we can even start to build the park if we will use public funds.”

“I am very happy when I see children playing at the park.

What will they do or what will the parents bring their kids if there is no park here?” said

Pamintuan, who was joined by his wife Herminia, businessmen Rogie Ayson and Bernie Cruz and some 150 others in the boodle fight.

Pamintuan lauded David “for initiating the transformation of the dirty old railway into a park.” He added that the bishop had asked the city government last year to restore the old railway station “for historical purposes.”

David adopted a section of the park which will be filled with ornamental plants.

Alexander “Alex” Cauguiran, point person for the People’s Park, said P350,000 in cash was donated to them. He added that about P1 million in cash and materials were used for the park since it was started in July 2014.

In his speech, Cauguiran mentioned all the institutions and people who helped put up the park, which is at Barangays Agapito del Rosario, Claro M. Recto, Lourdes Sur East and Lourdes Sur. Cauguiran hailed the transformation of the 2-kilometer PNR railway and its area from a “very dirty place to a park filled with ornamental plants, vegetables, sports and recreational activities.”

He said the boodle fight was done to thank “all the small and big efforts of the makers of the park.” Joey Pavia

Opinion BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, October 20, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial Why CNN Philippines and H&M are important

T

WO events occurred very recently that clearly showed how the Philippines has changed, and will continue to change, for the better in the future.

But first, a brief digression: Several months ago, Nine Media Corp., operator of television station 9TV, formerly known as RPN-9, became part of the ALC Group of Companies. Former Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, the BusinessMirror’s chairman emeritus, is now the chairman of Nine Media.

Last week it was announced that, beginning in January 2015, 9TV will be rebranded as CNN Philippines. The new station will allow CNN International programs to be aired on free television, as well as provide Filipino content to CNN International.

CNN is the undisputed leader in global news gathering and reporting, and is available in more than 200 countries and territories.

Also last week, Swedish multinational retail-clothing company Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) opened its first store in the Philippines, specifically in SM Megamall. H&M has stores in 54 other countries. The company generated over $20 billion last year and employs more than 100,000 people worldwide. Its fastfashion concept quickly brings clothing designs from the catwalk to the retail market.

The first of six H&M stores opened to long lines of eager shoppers, despite the fact that many of the company’s offerings are very expensive, by local standards. Furthermore, the store is not some small cubicle-type operation in an expensive mall; the H&M store in Megamall measures 3,000 square meters.

CNN Philippines and H&M have only one thing in common: They are both very significant and important global brands.

It took H&M about four years to finally begin operations here, and this is not some joint venture with a local partner or made possible through a licensing agreement. H&M’s monetary investment is really insignificant in its big financial picture. However, a publicly listed company like H&M does not want to go back to its shareholders with a line like this: “Our stores in the Philippines? Big mistake. Sorry.”

On the other hand, CNN has no financial interest in CNN Philippines, as foreigners cannot own local media. CNN will actually be paid for training local production and reporting staff. But CNN has something even more important than money at stake: its name and reputation.

Imagine what would happen if there was a “CNN Thailand” during the recent military coup. It would have been shut down or taken over. Its broadcasts would have been censored. That is something CNN would never accept. Several Filipinos may have risen to great heights in international news organizations, but having CNN Philippines means Filipinos working for a Philippine company based in the Philippines, but representing and wearing the CNN logo.

While the service crew at the local McDonald’s wear a multinational brand, a bad burger in Baguio City does not affect a customer in London. Bad reporting by CNN Philippines would affect the CNN brand in Atlanta, Washington, New York and elsewhere.

H&M allows a high-quality global brand to come to Filipino consumers. CNN Philippines allows our country to become global news watchers and use international standards of journalism.

All these considered, we must say that last week was a pretty good week for the Philippines.

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Publisher Editor in Chief

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Jun B. Vallecera

News Editor City & Assignments Editor Special Projects Editor

Dionisio L. Pelayo Vittorio V. Vitug Max V. de Leon

Online Editor

Ruben M. Cruz Jr.

Research Bureau Head Creative Director Chief Photographer Editorial Consultant Chairman of the Board & Ombudsman President VP-Finance VP-Corporate Affairs VP Advertising Sales Advertising Sales Manager Circulation Manager

Dennis D. Estopace Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes Romeo M. del Castillo Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Benjamin V. Ramos Adebelo D. Gasmin Frederick M. Alegre Marvin Nisperos Estigoy Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Rolando M. Manangan

The importance of following Lotto-ticket guidelines Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

L

AST week it was reported that a man had tried to claim a P12.39-million Lotto jackpot prize from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) with a ticket so badly damaged that it was unreadable.

In an affidavit submitted to the PCSO, Antonio Mendoza said he had bought a Lotto ticket from an outlet in Calaca town, Batangas province, for the October 2 Lotto 6/42 draw, with three six-number combinations. “ The following morning,” he said, “it [came] to my knowledge that I won in the said draw, but to my shock,” his oneyear-old granddaughter “accidentally crumpled” the ticket.

Mendoza’s daughter ironed the ticket, but “to her amazement and dismay, the number appearing thereon got ‘blackened,’ rendering the numbers unreadable.”

Lotto tickets are printed on thermal paper, which easily reacts to heat.

The PCSO has strict guidelines for ticket-validation procedures, among them: “No ticket, no vali-

Is Asia ready for another wild ride?

William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd floor of Dominga Building III, 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725. Fax line: 813-7025.

(Advertising Sales) 893-2019; 817-1351, 817-2807.

(Circulation) 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. E-mail: news@businessmirror.com.ph.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

regional offices n DXQR - 93dot5 HOME RADIO CAGAYAN DE ORO STATION MANAGER: JENNIFER B. YTING E-MAIL ADDRESS: homecdo@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Archbishop Hayes corner Velez Street, Cagayan de Oro City CONTACT NOs.: (088) 227-2104/ 857-9350/ 0922-811-3997 n DYQC - 106dot7 HOME RADIO CEBU STATION MANAGER: JULIUS A. MANAHAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homecebu@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Ground Floor, Fortune Life Building, Jones Avenue, Cebu City CONTACT NOs.: (032) 253-2973/ 234-4252/ 416-1067/ 0922-811-3994 n DWQT - 89dot3 HOME RADIO DAGUPAN STATION MANAGER: RAMIR C. DE GUZMAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeradiodagupan@ yahoo.com ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Orchids Hotel Building, Rizal Street, Dagupan City

CONTACT NOs.: (075) 522-8209/ 515-4663/ 0922-811-4001 n DXQM – 98dot7 HOME RADIO DAVAO STATION MANAGER: RYAN C. RODRIGUEZ E-MAIL ADDRESS: home98dot7@gmail.com ADDRESS: 4D 3rd Floor, ATU Plaza, Duterte Street, Davao City CONTACT NOs.: (082) 222-2337/ 221-7537/ 0922-811-3996 n DXQS - 98dot3 HOME RADIO GENERAL SANTOS STATION MANAGER: AILYM C. MATANGUIHAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homegensan@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Ground Floor, Dimalanta Building, Pioneer Avenue, General Santos City CONTACT NOs.: (083) 301-2769/ 553-6137/ 0922-811-3998 n DYQN - 89dot5 HOME RADIO ILOILO STATION MANAGER: MARIPAZ U. SONG E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeiloilo@yahoo.com ADDRESS: 3rd Floor, Eternal Plans Building,

Ortiz Street, Iloilo City CONTACT NOs.: (033) 337-2698/ 508-8102/ 0922-811-3995 n DWQA - 92dot3 HOME RADIO LEGAZPI STATION MANAGER: CLETO PIO D. ABOGADO E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeradiolegazpi@ yahoo.com ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Fortune Building, Rizal St., Brgy. Pigcale, Legazpi City CONTACT NOs.: (052) 480-4858/ 820-6880/ 0922-811-3992 n DWQJ - 95dot1 HOME RADIO NAGA STATION MANAGER: JUSTO MANUEL P. VILLANTE JR. EMAIL ADDRESS: homenaga@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Eternal Garden Compound, Balatas Road, Naga City CONTACT NOs.: (054) 473-3818/ 811-2951/ 0922-811-3993

Printed by brown madonna Press, Inc.–San Valley Drive KM-15, South Superhighway, Parañaque, Metro Manila

dation;” “Check the original ticket for signs of mutilation, i.e., torn tickets, or signs that it has been exposed to heat, water [or] oil prior to validation in the terminal;” and “ticket validation can be done through the use of the ticket [inserting it in the input hopper] or through the keyboard by entering the ticket serial number [TSN].”

The TSN is among the information printed on a Lotto ticket. It is the 16-character alphanumeric code found on the lower-right portion, and is unique for each ticket sold.

The other data are the name of the game (Megalotto 6/42, Grand Lotto 6/55 and so on), the chosen six-number combinations, the price paid for the ticket, the terminal code, the Lotto agent code, the draw code, the draw date, and the date

and time the ticket was purchased.

There is also a bar code number that contains all the above information.

As per the existing validation process of the PCSO, “online or system validation of winning tickets will be [done] through…either the TSN [manual entry or keyboard entry of TSN into the lottery terminal], or BCN [bar code scanning through the lottery terminal’s scanner].”

In the case of Mendoza’s ticket, nearly all the information was unreadable by visual examination and by machine. If, at least, the TSN had remained readable, the code could have been keyed into a terminal, and the ticket could have been validated.

The back of each PCSO Lotto ticket lists several game rules, one of which is this: “Prizes will not be paid if the ticket is altered, defaced, torn, damaged or has failed any of the validation tests of the PCSO.” That makes it clear to Lotto players that a damaged ticket will not be accepted.

In addition to the game rules and reminders printed at the back of each Lotto ticket, the PCSO regularly reminds the public on the nightly live televised game draws to “take good care of your tickets. Do not allow them to get wet or be exposed to heat. Lotto

F

ROM Ebola to debt to deflation, fear once again stalks the global economy.

With bewildering speed, concerns about credit defaults, slowing demand and political instability have eclipsed exuberance over America’s falling jobless rate and Alibaba’s record-breaking initial public offering. The most-asked question isn’t where to make profits, but where to find a safe haven from the coming storm.

Could it be Asia again? Sadly, unlike during the most recent global recession, even this region finds itself in an increasingly dangerous position this time around.

That’s not to say Asia doesn’t have enviable fundamentals. Even with China’s worsening data, the stalling of “Abenomics” in Japan and structural headwinds that challenge officials almost everywhere, Asia may yet ride out renewed turbulence better than the West, just as it did in 2008. If one thinks of investment destinations as beauty contestants, Asia is still, hands-down, the least ugly candidate.

But the region’s growth over the last six years has been driven more by asset bubbles than genuinely

sustainable economic demand.

Already, we are seeing structural slowdowns from Seoul to Jakarta.

These strains will become even more pronounced as Europe’s debt troubles reemerge and the United States Federal Reserve’s record stimulus loses potency. Asian policymakers also have less latitude going forward to support growth.

“A full recovery of demand in the West, sufficient to pull Asia out of its malaise, remains a distant prospect,” says Qu Hongbin, Hong Kongbased co-head of Asian economic

research at HSBC Holdings. “Rather, reviving growth in Asia, whether in China, Japan, India or anywhere in between, requires deep structural reforms: pruning subsidies, spending more on quality infrastructure, boosting education, opening further to foreign direct investments and, perhaps, most important of all, introducing greater competition in local markets. These are politically tough choices to make. But they will grow only more difficult the longer they are put off.”

Admittedly, Asia has done considerable heavy lifting since the region’s own crisis in 1997. For a reality check, I consulted with Callum Henderson of Standard Chartered in Singapore, who arguably published the first comprehensive history of that period, Asia Falling. One parallel between then and now worries Henderson: a huge devaluation in the Japanese yen that pressured exchange rates around the region.

But the differences are far more striking. Asian currencies are now generally unpegged; many governments have sizable current-account surpluses and huge foreign-exchange-reserve cushions; and the investor base now reflects longer-term real money, as opposed to fickle “hot” money. While risks abound, Hender-

tickets are heat-sensitive.”

To make it easy to remember how to treat your Lotto tickets, think of them as cash or some other important document, like a passport. Keep your Lotto tickets in your wallet or in some other safe place where they cannot be exposed to heat, water or other things that can damage them, or be lost or stolen. nnn

THE Sixth ManilART, Manila’s hottest contemporary art fair that opened at the SMX Aura Convention Center in Taguig City on October 16, closed on October 19 on a positive note.

The art fair showcased Philippine contemporary art, and 28 of the best galleries in the country participated in it. Works from Europe and Southeast Asia were displayed during the fair.

One of the most popular events at ManilART was the walking tour, which provided in-depth information about the featured works, galleries and artists—a true learning experience for all those who wanted to know more about contemporary Philippine art.

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

son concludes, “This is not 1997.”

Still, those risks are flaring up in hurry. What worries economist Glenn Maguire of Australia & New Zealand Banking Group in Hong Kong is how rapidly commodity prices are receding from the gains of recent years (commodity prices, in general, are at a five-year low).

“Certainly, the global or regional economy does not seem to be slowing as quickly commodity prices are falling,” Maguire points out.

Asia did a remarkable job steering around the worst of Wall Street’s crash in 2008. But it did so with fiscal stimulus and monetary policy that stretched national balance sheets and boosted asset prices in artificial and unsustainable ways.

“We are stuck in a narrow and disappointing growth range across Asia,” Hongbin says. “The temptation is to blame the West for its tired consumers. But that is to miss the real problem. Slowing productivity growth is what really ails the region, prompting its dependence on credit to sustain demand.”

Asia may, indeed, look like the least ugly region as global markets cascade lower. But it is high time policymakers looked into the mirror and addressed their own economic blemishes.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

The fairy tale called workplace meritocracy

The puerility of it all

By Emily Amanatullah

Teddy Locsin Jr.

Chicago Tribune (TNS)

S

ATYA NADELLA, the chief executive officer of Microsoft, did all women a favor when he offered advice that discouraged female employees from asking for raises. Although he quickly retracted his comment, what remained was the spectacle of a smart, well-intentioned male executive getting it wrong.

And that is an invitation for all of us to talk about the fairy tale called workplace meritocracy.

Trusting that your merits will be rewarded in absence of self-promotion and politicking is naive. I should know. My research focuses on women, negotiations and the gendered obstacles facing women who strive for equitable salaries, promotions and raises.

We all want to believe that, if we perform well, our efforts will be rewarded equitably. In an ideal world, the recommendation from Nadella that women shouldn’t need to ask for more because the system will parcel out the rewards fairly would be great. I welcome that day, but we are far from getting there.

As I think Nadella quickly realized when he backpedaled from his original statement, this unjust system is not being perpetuated with malicious intent, but almost more viciously by well-intentioned people, who are unaware of the systematic bias pervasive in the way we do work and allocate rewards.

It is almost a necessity in most work environments that, in order to achieve the best monetary and career success, self-promotion and politicking come into play. Unfortunately, women are punished for engaging in such behaviors. On this level, Nadella was right to recommend that women shy away from asking for more. The work of many gender researchers consistently shows that women who initiate negotiations and assert their self-interests are socially punished for doing so, incurring what is known as the backlash effect.

It’s a double-edged sword. Women are systematically punished for these behaviors, yet, these behaviors are necessary for career success. This results in lower pay and fewer opportunities for women relative to men.

Now if we could avoid the need for self-promotion and actually judge based on objective, unbiased evaluations of performance, then we may be on to something and start moving toward gender parity. However, it’s hard to change something we don’t even realize we are doing.

Take, for example, a laboratory experiment in which Mark and Mary had equivalent qualifications and were negotiating a salary for the

same job. Mary incurred significant backlash (both work-related and social) relative to Mark, despite engaging in the same negotiation behavior. This result has been replicated multiple times.

The research also showed that men and women were guilty of perpetuating this systematic bias, either through backlash against women who negotiate assertively or by implicitly accepting, rather than challenging, this flawed system of rewards.

So what should we do?

We need to bring this unconscious bias into our deliberative thinking and, instead of trying to address gender inequity by ignoring gender, confront it head on. Managers must ask themselves, “Would I treat a man and woman the same in this context?”

Companies should start using performance evaluations that reduce subjectivity and self-promotion, which would help eliminate the need to negotiate for more—for example, 360-degree performance evaluations in which employees are rated by their peers and timetables for raises and promotions.

We must also value the unique benefits that women bring to the workplace, rather than finding ways to squeeze them into a cookie-cutter view of success commonly equated with masculinity. We need to seriously reform parental leave standards to value child-rearing, rather than outsourcing or delaying, as is the case with companies such as Facebook and Apple that will pay to freeze women’s eggs. This sends a message that women should be sacrificing their prime childbearing years for the sake of their careers.

But most important is the acknowledgment of the bias. It is imperative to recognizing its pervasiveness and combating its persistence.

I thank Nadella for bringing these issues into the spotlight, so that open discourse can be made toward changing the way performance is evaluated and rewards are allocated in hopes of limiting, if not eliminating, gender bias in the workplace. That’s a fairy tale worth hearing.

Emily Amanatullah is an assistant professor of management in the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.

Why does Myanmar keep persecuting Rohingya Muslims?

F

OR years, the government of Myanmar has treated its Rohingya Muslim people as intruders—an impoverished minority among a Buddhist majority, considered illegal immigrants, restricted in where they can live and work.

The United Nations considers them one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Even as Myanmar has liberalized its political system, moving from military rule to democracy, the government has declined to ease its treatment of the Rohingya, despite being constantly urged to do so by the human-rights community and United States officials.

Now Myanmar is responding to the continued calls for change with a proposed “Rakhine State Action Plan.” But what the government claims is an attempt to address the statelessness of the Rohingya only further institutionalizes its discrimination against them.

Currently, the Rohingya are not eligible for full citizenship, unless they can meet the nearly impossible requirements of the country’s 1982 Citizenship Law— including tracing their family history in Myanmar back to the days before British colonization in 1823. Few have the necessary documents to do so. Most of the 1 million Rohingya live in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state; an estimated 180,000 of them were driven from their

homes there by waves of sectarian violence against them in 2012, ending up in squalid displaced-persons camps.

Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be immigrants from Bangladesh and West Bengal, even though most are not recently arrived. They are the descendants of families that lived in Myanmar well before it became independent in 1948. Some historians believe there are Rohingya who are indigenous to Rhakine state, but most Rohingya originally migrated from the Bengal region in the 19th and 20th centuries. In any case, they are not foreigners and should not be treated as such.

The government’s misguided new plan would require all Rohingya to declare themselves as Bengali (which they say they are not) and then try to prove they’re eligible for citizenship by the standards of the 1982 law. Those who fail to meet the standards would be put into what Myanmar calls “a resettlement zone.” Those who refuse to go through the process would be assigned to a displacement camp.

This is not a path to citizenship; it’s a path to indefinite detention. Myanmar should scrap it and revamp its citizenship law to recognize the historic roots of the Rohingya in the country.

Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Free fire

T

HE Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) is the worst document in the history of the written word.

Very badly conceived and written, the deal doesn’t deserve a line-by-line refutation. But since it is sure to be passed, thanks to the Aquino administration’s promised largesse, someone should do it, so Filipinos of Christian and Muslim persuasions will know what they are in for and for what they will be done in.

We cannot expect the Supreme Court (SC) to be bold enough to strike it down, as it did with former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s (GMA) United States- and Japanesesponsored memorandum of agreement, because the High Court has been threatened by President Aquino with jurisdictional castration through Charter change if it doesn’t tow the line on this one and retracts its decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program.

For example, the document uses new and undefined words, like “modality,” “asymmetry” and “subsidiarity,” instead of terms of the legal art with long-accepted meanings from their actual use across recorded judicial history, which are best suited to a legal document.

The hope behind these new words, or neologisms, is that, by picking words that can mean anything, they will give away nothing; yet, they can give up everything, if push comes to shove.

One side gives away so much that the next administration must ignore it. (For that matter, the current administration won’t be able to enforce it, because the Christians

won’t stay unarmed and peaceful for long. Ilonggos in the South were just as brutal as the Muslim rebels.

They sliced off the soles of a prisoner’s feet and made him walk until he dropped as unflinchingly as the Muslims did. Trust Southerners, here or in America, to give as good

One last thing Dong Puno

MY VIEW POINT

I

N my continuing effort to find meaning in what I do, I have finally decided that, in the end, life’s ultimate condition is either you are sick or you are willing to go and explore many possibilities.

By “sick”, I don’t mean having an ordinary cold; I mean another condition that is life-changing. By sick,

I don’t mean anything that changes your life’s tempo. I also don’t mean cancer, because saying that may be

Monday, October 20, 2014 A11

as they get, on or off the battlefield.)

The other side can take so much under the indeterminate terms of the deal that it will be tempted to take more, so that, in the end, only the Army will decide the meaning unless the loose wording in the CAB invites foreign intervention—say, to add to the Malaysian Federation—or permits the establishment of an American military base there to protect it from national intervention. The US State Department has been sponsoring the giveaway of Philippine territory to Muslims when giving them Texas would be better, since it is hot, dry and oily—features that are congenial to Muslims.

The deal will be abused by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and, regardless of enactment, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) will want a deal of its own. After all, the MNLF had the distinction of fighting our Army in

set-piece battles, while the MILF merely ambushed our patrols, castrated their prisoners and put bullhorns to their mouths to magnify their screams.

The Army won’t take out the competition to the MILF because it doesn’t do other people’s dirty work for them.

At the end of it all, nothing will stand between disempowered Christians and over-empowered Muslims, who will probably invite the Islamic State to wreak havoc in our North. Meanwhile, Muslim women will lose gender equality and Filipinos and Christians will pray in peril of their lives to save their souls in what was once and is no more, thanks to the Philippine government negotiating panel, a one and indivisible secular republic. Of this one, GMA is surely guilty. She started it all, and Noynoy, as her unwitting acolyte, faithfully followed.

self-fulfilling, in the sense that what we want to avoid may strike us.

To hear about what those with cancer go through is truly horrifying. Aside from the hair loss, one is shocked by what they are made to bear, such as an awareness of the loss of place, of time and of a primary function, which needs sharpening at that point. There is one consolation, though: It will not last forever. There is an ending, but it will not come quickly. In some cases, the sufferer lives for three more years; in others, four or five. It is best that we leave this to those who have to go through it.

The idea of going and exploring many possibilities is more painful, in that it has to do with one’s purpose in life. For example, an audience must wait for a writer to finish his or her introduction to a new program. It comes down to potential and the ability to suffer economically. The writer must bear it, because the ability to survive means something. It is unusual for one to thrive in a career without suffering from something.

Thus, one has to be both patient and capable. You are only one. If you botch it, it is gone forever.

Ebola didn’t have to kill my uncle, Thomas Eric Duncan

By Josephus Weeks

The Dallas Morning News (TNS)

O

N September 25, my uncle, Thomas Eric Duncan, went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. He had a high fever and stomach pains. He told the nurse that he had recently been in Liberia. But he was a man of color with no health insurance and no means to pay for treatment, so within hours he was released with some antibiotics and told to take Tylenol.

Two days after being released, he returned to the hospital in an ambulance. Two days after that, he was finally diagnosed with Ebola.

Eight days later, he died alone in a hospital room.

Now, Dallas suffers. Our country is concerned—greatly—about the lack of answers and transparency coming from a hospital whose ignorance, incompetence and indecency have yet to be explained.

I write this on behalf of my family because we want to set the record straight about what happened and ensure that Thomas Eric did not die in vain. So here’s the truth about my uncle and his battle with Ebola.

Among the most offensive errors in the media during my uncle’s illness are the accusations that he knew he was exposed to Ebola; that is just not true. He lived in a careful manner, as he understood the dangers of living in Liberia amid this outbreak. He limited guests in his home; he did not share drinking

cups or eating utensils.

And while the stories of my uncle helping a pregnant woman with Ebola are courageous, Thomas Eric personally told me that never happened. Like hundreds of thousands of West Africans, carefully avoiding Ebola was part of my uncle’s daily life.

And I can tell you with 100-percent certainty: Thomas Eric would have never knowingly exposed anyone to this illness.

The biggest unanswered question about my uncle’s death is why the hospital would send home a patient with a 103-degree fever and stomach pains who had recently been in Liberia—and he told them he had just returned from Liberia explicitly due to the Ebola threat.

Some speculate that this was a failure of the internal-communications systems. Others have speculated that antibiotics and Tylenol are the standard protocol for a patient without insurance.

What we do know is that the hos-

pital’s error affects all of society. Its bad judgment or misjudgment sent my uncle back into the community for days with a highly contagious case of Ebola. And now, officials suspect that a breach of protocol by the hospital is responsible for new Ebola cases, and that all health-care workers who cared for my uncle could have been exposed.

The hospital’s error set the wheels in motion for my uncle’s death and additional Ebola cases; the hospital’s ignorance, incompetence or indecency has created a national security threat for the United States.

What is most difficult for us— Thomas Eric’s mother, children and those closest to him—to accept is the fact that our loved one could have been saved. From his botched release from the emergency room to his delayed testing and delayed treatment and the denial of the same experimental drugs that have been available to other cases of Ebola treated in the US, the hospital invited death every step of the way.

When my uncle was first admitted, the hospital told us that an Ebola test would take three to seven days.

Miraculously, the deputy who was feared to have Ebola just last week was tested and had results within 24 hours.

Nine days passed between my uncle’s first emergency-room visit

and the day the hospital asked our consent to give him an experimental drug—but the hospital was never able to access that drug for my uncle. (Editor’s note: Hospital officials have said they started giving Duncan the drug Brincidofovir on October 4.)

He died alone. For our family, the most humiliating part of this ordeal was the treatment we received from the hospital. For the 10 days he was in the hospital, they not only refused to help us communicate with Thomas Eric, but they also acted as an impediment. The day Thomas Eric died, we learned about it from the news media, not his doctors.

Our nation will never mourn the loss of my uncle, who was in this country for the first time to visit his son, as my family has. But our nation and our family can agree that what happened at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas must never happen to another family.

In time, we may learn why my uncle’s initial visit to the hospital was met with such incompetence and insensitivity. Until that day comes, our family will fight for transparency, accountability and answers, for my uncle and for the safety of the country we love.

Josephus Weeks is a US Army and Iraq War veteran who lives in North Carolina.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, October 20, 2014

U.S., CHINA VOW TO MANAGE RIFTS AHEAD OF OBAMA state VISIT TO BEIJING

T

he US and China pledged on Saturday to overcome mistrust, manage their differences and cooperate on key issues, like combating terrorism and the spread of the Ebola virus, as President Barack Obama prepares to travel to the Chinese capital next month.

Meeting in Boston, Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said the relationship between the two countries is mature enough to discuss disagreements while building on areas of shared interest.

“There are many issues that China and the United States are cooperating on, even as we have some differences that we try to manage effectively,” Kerry told reporters as he began a second day of talks with Yang.

Yang, noting that Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping had made improved relations a priority, agreed.

“We believe that we should continue to work together to deepen our mutual trust and to put our efforts to major areas of cooperation while, on the basis of mutual respect, we can properly handle many kinds of difference between us,” he said.

Washington and Beijing have recently clashed over matters including territorial disputes between China and its neighbors in the South China Sea, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, alleged Chinese cyber spying and human rights.

A senior State Department involved in the meetings said those issues were discussed in a noncombative but direct and candid way, in which Kerry believed Yang had given him a “full and careful hearing.” The official said any progress in those areas would likely be incremental. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the diplomatic exchange by name.

Kerry noted that the two countries are working together on efforts to rein in nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and have a common goal in curbing Islamist extremism, climate change and Ebola.

China is among several countries the Obama administration has implored to step up efforts to fight the Ebola virus by contributing more to the international campaign to stop its spread from the source in West Africa.

See “U.S.,” A2

Brownout-free summer still not guaranteed even with ILP

By Lenie Lectura

T

A red alert means there is supply deficiency. The scenario could change if ILP is in effect during a yellow alert, which means there is “thin” power reserve.

However, Petilla said the price impact of this scenario would be

higher than during a red alert. Petilla explained that more ILP participants are needed during yellow alert, because “they are on standby and, in effect, participating in the program even if supply, albeit thin, is still efficient.”

“Unless we change the protocol, we run it on yellow alert. But if we run it on yellow alert, the price impact will be higher because you need more ILP participants. If we get a massive number of participants, then we can go to yellow. That stabilizes the grid, but the price impact is still there,” Petilla said. He said, though, that the government, at least for the House of Representatives, is willing to pay for the difference.

“The proposal of the House is basically for the ILPs to be there but the government will pay for the difference.

So you can run it on yellow and not have a massive price impact, because the government will subsidize price difference,” Petilla added.

Under the ILP, customers with large loads, like commercial establishments, will be asked to operate their own gensets if the grid opera-

tor projects a need to augment generation capacity in the Luzon grid.

Through this, the aggregate demand for power from the system will be reduced to a more manageable level, helping ensure the availability of supply during the season.

With the ILP, power supply from the grid that will not be consumed by participating customers will be available for use by other customers within the franchise area. Targeted ILP participants are those with large embedded generation capacities, such as malls, large business establishments and factories.

Meralco earlier said its customers may pay extra 7.5 centavos per kilowatt-hour in monthly generation charge so the utility firm can compensate participants for the power-generation capacity that they are willing to deload.

Meralco needs to compensate its ILP participants for the expenses, particularly fuel, they will incur when they operate their own gensets, instead of sourcing power from the grid.

the said securities locally. The said preferred shares do not have any dilutive effect on the earnings per common share of the company, since it is not convertible to common shares, Ayala said.

The said shares will pay a dividend rate based on five-year and seven-year sec-

ondary market rate of bond papers plus a spread. The indicative dividend rate for the five-year term is placed at 4.85 percent and 5.35 percent per year, plus a spread of between 1.25 percent and 1.75 percent. On the other hand, the indicative rate of the seven-year term is at 5.0506 percent and

5.5506 percent, with a spread of between 1.35 percent and 1.85 percent.

The company has the option to redeem in whole, but not in part, the Class B series 2 share. BPI Capital Corp., BDO Capital Corp. and First Metro Investment Corp. were picked as the deal’s underwriters.

he government admitted that it could not still guarantee a brownout-free summer even if its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) is implemented in full force.

“If we run on ILP, I can guarantee you there will be brownouts but it will not be severe,” Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla said over the weekend.

Petilla meant an hour, at the very least, of power outage.

“For ILP, the protocol right now is only when there is a red alert issued. As example, I need 300 megawatts [MW] so I call on ILP participants to turn on their generation sets [gensets]. How long do you think they will turn on their gensets to provide 300 MW? It will take Meralco [Manila Electric Co.] more than an hour. So, at least, one-hour transition blackout,” Petilla said.

Ayala. . .

continued from a1

Class B shares are available both for purchase of both local and international investors, but the company will only sell

PETILLA: “If we run on ILP [Interruptible Load Program], I can guarantee you there will be brownouts but it will not be severe.”

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST OCTOBER 20, 2014 | MONDAY

TODAY’S WEATHER Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is the result of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere tradewind convergence; widespread cloudiness, occasional thunderstorms, precipitation and moderate to strong surface winds are associated weather conditions.

WEDNESDAY

24 – 33°C

25 – 32°C

TUGUEGARAO

22 – 32°C

23 – 33°C

OCT 23

THURSDAY

BAGUIO CITY 15 – 22°C

TAGAYTAY CITY 22° – 28°C

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

TUESDAY

OCT 22

WEDNESDAY

OCT 23

THURSDAY

25 – 32°C

24 – 31°C

23 – 30°C

25 – 32°C

23 – 33°C

TACLOBAN

23 – 30°C

25 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

23 – 33°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

23 – 33°C

23 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

25 – 33°C

24 – 33°C

25 – 32°C

24 – 33°C

24 – 34°C

23 – 33°C

BAGUIO

16– 22°C

15 – 21°C

15 – 21°C

SBMA/ CLARK

24 – 33°C

25 – 33°C

24 – 33°C

ZAMBOANGA

TAGAYTAY

LEGAZPI

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 25 – 32°C

OCT 21

METRO CEBU

21 – 28°C

22 – 29°C

TACLOBAN CITY 23 – 30°C

METRO CEBU 25 – 32°C CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 23 – 31°C ZAMBOANGA CITY 24 – 33°C

PUERTO PRINCESA

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

23 – 29°C

23 – 31°C

SUNRISE

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

5:48 AM

5:33 PM

3:07 PM

2:38 AM

23 – 29°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 30°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 30°C

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

METRO DAVAO

TUGUEGARAO CITY 23 – 33°C

METRO MANILA 24 – 32°C

TUESDAY

OCT 22

METRO MANILA

LAOAG

SBMA/CLARK 24 – 32°C

OCT 21

INTERTRPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE AFFECTING VISAYAS AND PALAWAN. (AS OF OCTOBER 19, 5:00 PM)

LAOAG CITY 23 – 33°C

www.businessmirror.com.ph

24 – 32°C

HALF MOON NEW MOON

OCT 16

3:12 PM

24 – 32°C

23 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

OCT 24

CELEBES SEA

2:24 PM

7:11 AM

0.72 METER

Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rain showers.

24 – 31°C

22 – 30°C

22 – 30°C

Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms.

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

HIGH TIDE

MANILA BAY

5:57 AM 0.17 METER Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

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

METRO DAVAO 25 – 33°C

LOW TIDE

@PanahonTV