BusinessMirror April 29, 2015

BusinessMirror

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

U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business TfridayNovember Wednesday, April18, 29,2014 2015Vol. Vol.1010No. No.40202

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Conditions ripe for expansion

SAMSUNG

GALAXY S6 IMPRESSES, BUT SOMETHING’S MISSING Those who already believe

EAR Lord, those signs were convincing only for those who could actually see, hear, and touch You. For those like Thomas, who did not enjoy such privileges, the simple report was not enough. Neither is it sufficient nowadays when people are eager for proofs more than ever. More is needed to help people become convinced that You are truly risen. This “more” are the faith and the witness of those who already believe. Amen.

EXPLORING GOD’S WORD, FR. SAL PUTZU SDB, AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

INSTAGRAM UPDATES USER GUIDELINES WITH MORE DETAILS, STRICTER TONE »D2

BusinessMirror

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

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D1

Samsung Galaxy S6 impresses, but something’s missing ➜CAN’T FIND WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR ONLINE? SEARCH BY LOCATION

THE Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge’s rounded glass screen on the vertical edges has a bit of extra functionality and a ton of visual appeal.

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B J R The Dallas Morning News

HE Samsung Galaxy S6 is a paradox.

While Samsung has produced a great phone and included some nice upgrades, it left out some of the Galaxy’s best features and hiked the price.

It’s the coolest (and best-looking) Android phone I’ve used, so let’s start with what I like about it.

Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S phones have always been on the cutting edge of features, but their design always felt a bit cheap, especially the very thin and flimsy plastic back.

Samsung must have read my mind, because the new S6 and S6 Edge are made of aluminum and glass. The plastic back of the Galaxy S5 has been replaced with Corning Gorilla Glass on the S6 models.

The phones both have a 5.1-inch screen with a resolution of 2,560x1,440 pixels for a pixel density of 577 pixels per inch.

In comparison, the Retina display of the iPhone 6 has 326 pixels per inch.

The S6 Edge has a rounded glass screen on the vertical edges, which has a bit of extra functionality and a ton of visual appeal. The Edge is a stunning phone to use and to hold.

The phones measure 5.59x2.75x0.27 inches, and they weigh just 4.6 ounces.

Inside, the S6 and S6 Edge are identical.

They both run Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with an octacore Exynos processor with 3 gigabytes of RAM and from 32 GB to 128 GB of storage.

They have 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth v4.1.

The main camera has a 16-megapixel sensor with optical image stabilization. The front camera has a 5-MP sensor.

The S6 can shoot 4K video (3,480x2,160 pixels) at 30 frames per second.

The 2600 mAh battery is good for up to 26 hours of talk, 13 hours of video playback, 12 hours of long-term evolution Internet use or 58 hours of music playback.

The phones feature built-in wireless charging with the optional wireless charging pad, and they also have a fast-charge feature.

Samsung says 10 minutes of charging can provide up to four hours of battery life.

The web site Droid-life.com did a fast-charging test. It started with the battery at 5 percent; with 15 minutes of charging the battery was at 32 percent. It took 40 minutes to reach 76 percent and 72 minutes to reach 100 percent.

Here are some comparisons: The glass and metal sandwich design is beautiful, and it’s drawing a lot of comparisons to the iPhone.

The sleep-wake button and the volume buttons mimic the iPhone, as do the headphone jack, charging port and even the speaker grille on the bottom.

The S6 and S6 Edge also have a home button on the front that doubles as a fingerprint reader to unlock the phone. The usual colors are available (black, white, gold) but you can also get a green S6 Edge or a blue S6.

It’s the most iPhone-like Galaxy S phone yet, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

The iPhone is popular, and if Samsung can improve on the iPhone’s features, that’s a good thing.

But in changing the design, Samsung has removed some of the core features that made the Galaxy S unique. Using glass for the back cover meant the end of the replaceable battery. Also gone is the microSD card slot for memory expansion.

That’s right, no more swapping out batteries or adding storage. Those two features have been hallmarks of the Galaxy S, and I’m betting some users are not happy about their absence.

The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are also not waterproof, like the S5.

The phone comes with a ton of bloatware (no surprise). There are folders full of preloaded apps from Samsung, Google, Microsoft and AT&T (which kindly provided the review unit).

At least it was mostly contained in those folders, so you can ignore it if you like. I didn’t get a chance to see what could be deleted.

Price: While the S6 is reasonably priced at $684.99 for the 32 GB version, the Edge screen bumps the price up to $814.99. Those are the cash prices from AT&T. I like those curved edges, but they add $130 to the price of the phone.

IN the old days of shopping, our folks knew exactly where to look when bargain-hunting for certain items. For instance, Quiapo was the best place to look for cheap but good-quality native handicrafts. Divisoria was the shopping destination for a wide variety of fabrics at very low prices. And if it’s shoes they were looking for, Marikina had the best and widest selection of locally made footwear.

But do you know that you can follow the same strategy when searching for preloved items online? OLX, the largest online buy and sell site in the Philippines (www.olx.ph), has a location feature that makes searching for items a lot easier and finding sellers that are near your area a lot more convenient. With the thousands of items being posted on the site daily, they’ve released an interesting overview of what Filipinos are buying on OLX. Check out what the top sold items are in your region: ■ Metro Manila is the leading seller of preloved mobile phones and smartphones.

■ Central Luzon has plenty of stylish footwear.

■ Soccsksargen offers a lot of unused garden items and supplies at a discounted price.

■ Most sellers of coins and collectibles are in Mimaropa.

■ Caviteños sell many preloved musical instruments and accessories.

■ Muntinlupa is the top seller of amplifiers and speakers.

To localize your searches, just enter the item you want to buy in the search bar, and change the location option according to your preferences. Locations are specific to regions, provinces and cities. Then, click on the search button and your results will be displayed.

This presents a quandary: Do you spring for the curved screen or do you spend that extra money on an S6 with 64 GB of storage for $784.99?

Interesting problem to have, I suppose.

If I were spending my own money, I’d opt for more storage and the flat screen of the S6.

Overall, the Galaxy S6 would be my choice for an Android phone. It has the features and the looks at the right price. The Edge is sexier-looking and is selling well, according to early reports, but I think that money is better saved or spent on more storage for its flat-faced sibling.

■ Pros: Beautiful design, fast charging, great camera ■ Cons: Expensive (Edge), missing features (replaceable battery, external storage) ■ Bottom line: The Galaxy S continues to evolve in mostly positive ways. ■

Twitter looks to broaden access with new home page B A K Los Angeles Times TWITTER is getting a makeover amid concerns that its user growth is slowing.

The social-media platform updated its home page on Wednesday, offering visitors the option to click on several popular topics without signing into an account.

Previously, home page visitors

were asked to log in to gain access to lists of scrolling tweets.

Now, visitors to Twitter.com can click on a popular topic— whether it’s National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing drivers and teams, cute animals or pop artists. They will then see a running list of tweets on the topic.

The San Francisco company recently reported strong revenue growth in the fourth quarter, but gains in active monthly users

missed even the sober predictions of Wall Street analysts.

In a blog post on Wednesday announcing the updated home page, Twitter said it was “making a big change for the many millions of people who visit every month who don’t log in, but still want to know what’s happening.”

Twitter said it’s introducing the new feature on US desktops first and plans to roll it out elsewhere in the future.

LIFE

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NEPAL TROOPS

READY AID FOR REMOTE VILLAGES

World The

B3-1 | Wednesday, April 29, 2015 Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

NEPALESE soldiers stack bags of grains at a relief staging area near Saturday’s massive earthquake’s epicenter in the town of Gorkha, Nepal, on Tuesday. AP/WA AP/W LLY SANTA NT NA NTA

Nepal troops ready aid for remote villages ORKHA, Nepal— Preparing to push into the most isolated areas of quake-devastated Nepal, soldiers packed food, water and other emergency supplies to be loaded onto helicopters on Tuesday in this small town near the epicenter of the powerful earthquake that has devastated this nation.

Gorkha, a little town that would barely count as a village in much of the world, is the transport and trading hub for surrounding tiny villages. It is now being used as a staging

post to get rescuers and supplies to those remote communities after Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, which officials say has killed at least 4,400 people.

Aid workers who had reached the edges of the epicenter described entire villages reduced to rubble.

“In some villages, about 90 percent of the houses have collapsed.

They’re just flattened,” said Rebecca McAteer, an American physician who rushed to the quake zone from the distant Nepal hospital where she works.

And yet, the timing of the earthquake—near midday, when most rural people are working in the fields—meant most villagers were spared of injuries when buildings collapsed, she said. So far, police say they have 373 confirmed deaths in the Gorkha district.

Most those injured, she added, were young people and the elderly, since most young men long ago left their villages in search of betterpaying work.

“The immediate need is getting support to where it’s needed, but there will be a lot of work rebuilding,” said McAteer, who was heading back

soon to the center of the quake zone.

Thomas Meyer, an engineer with the International Nepal Fellowship who accompanied McAteer to the devastated villages, noted the disaster’s aftermath would stretch long into the future.

“This is a long-term emergency,” he said. “This will need major attention for the next five years. People have nothing left.”

Across central Nepal, including in Kathmandu, the capital, hundreds of thousands of people are still living in the open without clean water or sanitation.

Chaos reigned at Kathmandu’s small airport, with the onslaught of relief flights creating major backups on the tarmac. Four Indian air force aircraft carrying communication gear, aid supplies and rescue personnel were forced to return to New Delhi on Monday because of airport congestion, tweeted Sitanshu Kar, India’s defense ministry spokesman.

The United Nations says it was releasing $15 million from its central emergency response fund for quake victims. The funds will allow international humanitarian groups to scale up operations and provide shelter, water, medical supplies and logistical services, UN Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters on Monday.

Trucks carrying food were on their way to affected districts outside the hard-hit and densely populated Kathmandu valley, and distribution of the food was expected to start on Tuesday.

Citing government figures, Haq said an estimated 8 million people have been affected by the quake in 39 of Nepal’s districts, and more than 1.4 million need food assistance, including 750,000 who live near the epicenter in poor quality housing.

The UN humanitarian country team for Nepal is coordinating international relief efforts with the

COFFINS ARRIVE AT INDONESIAN PRISON AS EXECUTIONS NEAR Obama, Abe to work on trade

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ILICAP, Indonesia—Ambulances carrying coffins arrived on Tuesday at a prison island and relatives paid final visits to their condemned loved ones in a sign that Indonesia will imminently execute eight foreigners and one Indonesian man, despite an international outcry and pleas for mercy.

(See related story in B3-2).

The nine inmates, all convicted on drug charges, were given 72-hour notices over the weekend that they would be executed by a firing squad, prompting a flurry of last-minute lobbying by foreign leaders.

The United Nations has argued that the inmates’ crimes are not egregious enough to warrant the ultimate punishment.

Among the condemned are two Australians—Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 3 —whose emotional families made what could be their last visit to Besi prison on Nusakambangan Island, where the prisoners are scheduled to die.

Sukumaran’s sister, Brintha, wailed in agony and had to be carried through a crowd of media waiting at the ferry port to the island.

Chan received a visit from Febyanti Herewila, an Indonesian Christian pastor who became his wife in a marriage ceremony on the island on Monday.

A dozen ambulances, nine carrying coffins, were driven onto the ferry to Nusakambangan. On the dashboard of one ambulance was a piece of paper bearing the name of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman who is among those scheduled to die.

deal amid opposition in US

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A WORKER arranges coffins on Sunday that will be delivered to the prison island of Nusakambangan onto a truck, ahead of the imminent executions of drug convicts on death row, at a church compound in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia. AP Over the weekend, authorities asked the nine inmates—the two Australians and Veloso, as well as four Nigerian men and one man each from Brazil and Indonesia—for their last wishes and gave them a 72-hour notice of their executions.

On Tuesday Australia’s foreign minister defended Prime Minister Tony Abbott against online criticism that he had not done enough to save the lives of Sukumaran and Chan.

Australian actors including Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton and Bryan Brown have launched an online video calling for Indonesia to show mercy to the two men.

President Aquino appealed to Wido-

do on Monday to spare the life of Veloso, the Filipino drug convict, in a meeting on the sidelines of an annual summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Malaysia.

Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao also appealed to Widodo to spare Veloso’s life.

“I am begging and knocking at your kind heart that your excellency will grant executive clemency to her by sparing her life and saving her from execution,” Pacquiao said in a live interview from Los Angeles with Philippine network GMA News.

Veloso’s two sons and her mother were seen arriving at the prison for a final visit. AP

A S H I N G TO N — P r e s i d e n t Barack Obama and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will work to strengthen economic ties further while confronting stiff resistance from the US president’s own political party to a massive new Pacific Rim trade deal.

Trade is one of the top agenda items for Abe’s state visit to the US as the two countries work toward a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that would further open vast Asian and Pacific rim markets to US exports.

Abe’s visit comes as Obama’s negotiators work to complete the trade agreement, and as Obama seeks authority from Congress to put the deal, once completed, on a fast-track to approval later this year. Obama is pressing for the trade agreement and the negotiating authority against mounting pressure from liberals and labor unions who fear trade agreements can cost American jobs.

The US and Japan are the agreement’s biggest participants and the talks between the two countries would go far in advancing the broader negotiations. But while Obama and Abe won’t be ready to announce a trade breakthrough, officials on both sides say they will likely declare they have made considerable progress in closing remaining gaps. The toughest stick sticking points are US tariffs on Japanese pickup trucks and barriers in Japan on certain US agricultural products.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting and the pomp and circumstance of a state visit, Obama took Abe to the Lincoln Memorial on Monday afternoon. Obama played tour guide, leading the Japanese leader up the steps into the memorial where they examined the Gettysburg Address sketched into the marble walls.

Also on Monday, Japanese and US foreign and defense ministers meeting in New York approved revisions to the US-Japan defense guidelines.

The new rules boost Japan’s military capability amid growing Chinese assertiveness in disputed areas in the East and South China Sea claimed

by Beijing. The changes, which strengthen Japan’s role in missile defense, mine sweeping and ship inspections, are the first revisions in 18 years to the rules that govern USJapan defense cooperation.

Indeed, China’s economic and military footprint serves as a major back backdrop for Abe’s visit.

Obama has undertaken an effort to rebalance the US role in Asia and has argued time and again that without a trade agreement with Asian countries, China will step into the breach.

“If we don’t write the rules, China will write the rules out in that region,” Obama said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “We will be shut out—American businesses, American agriculture. That will mean a loss of US jobs.” AP

government and a clearer picture of needs should emerge within the next 48 hours, he said. The immediate priority is search and rescue, and removing debris to find survivors still trapped, he said.

Buildings in parts of the capital, Kathmandu, were reduced to rubble, and there were shortages of food, fuel, electricity and shelter. As bodies were recovered, relatives cremated the dead along the Bagmati River, and at least a dozen pyres burned late into the night.

Conditions were far worse in the countryside, with rescue workers still struggling to reach mountain villages three days after the earthquake.

The quake was centered in a rugged, isolated part of the Gorkha district, about 20 kilometers from the town of Gorkha. Reaching the actual epicenter, though, would require at least a full day’s drive over very rough roads, and then a day or more of walking. AP

B31

BusinessMirror

W, A , 

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

PACQUIAO TO THROW TONS AND TONS OF PUNCHES

BUT NO KNOCKOUT? B G B | The Associated Press

OS ANGELES—Manny Pacquiao and trainer Freddie Roach have spent the past two months trying to solve the biggest puzzle in modern boxing.

How does anybody hit Floyd Mayweather Jr., a fighter whose perfect career is built on being nearly impossible to touch?

Pacquiao and Roach will reveal their answer in detail on Saturday night in Las Vegas, when the fighters meet in the richest bout in boxing history. But clues to a strategy for breaking Mayweather’s impenetrable defense were evident in Pacquiao’s final workout at Roach’s Wild Card gym in Hollywood on Monday.

Pacquiao was a whirlwind of motion from the moment he stepped in the ring, throwing dozens of punches in combinations against Roach’s mitts and chest protector. While Roach took a much-deserved break, Pacquiao shadowboxed across the canvas,

MANNY PACQUIAO AND FREDDIE ROACH WILL REVEAL THEIR SECRET IN DETAIL ON SATURDAY NIGHT IN LAS VEGAS, WHEN THE FIGHTERS MEET IN THE RICHEST BOUT IN BOXING HISTORY. BUT CLUES TO A STRATEGY FOR BREAKING MAYWEATHER’S IMPENETRABLE DEFENSE WERE EVIDENT IN PACQUIAO’S FINAL WORKOUT AT ROACH’S WILD CARD GYM IN HOLLYWOOD ON MONDAY. peppering the air with hundreds of rapid-fire punches long after his workout could have been over.

“You can beat Floyd Mayweather if you outwork him and never give him a chance to do the things he does best,” Roach said. “Manny is punching real hard, but I want him to outscore [Mayweather] in every round. I think we can win a 12-round decision. We want to throw a ton of punches.”

Pacquiao is betting on aggression, activity and punch volume to defeat Mayweather, according to the fighter and his longtime trainer. The eight-division world champion has trained fiercely to fight 12 rounds of nonstop offense against the preeminent defensive fighter of his generation.

“I’m not really looking for a knockout,” Pacquiao said. “We’re not looking only for a knockout, but for throwing a lot of punches, and also making sure that every round, we’re ahead on points.”

Pacquiao has built his remarkable career on otherworldly quickness and old-fashioned volume punching, both outmaneuvering and outworking nearly all of his opponents over the past 10 years. He has never faced a fighter with Mayweather’s skills in defense and counterpunching, but Roach believes Mayweather has never dealt with an opponent as relentless as the southpaw Filipino congressman.

“Our volume of combinations is much higher than Mayweather’s,” Roach said. “Mayweather waits for you to finish your combination and throws back with the big right hand or the check hook, and we’re not going to be there for that. We’re going to be in and out, and I plan on Manny outscoring him that way.”

Roach also seems confident Pacquiao can move better than Mayweather in a 12-round fight, a remarkable prediction based on observation. The trainer believes Mayweather’s legs will fade in the second half of the fight, particularly if Pacquiao chases him around the ring for the first half.

Evidence of the decline in the 38-year-old Mayweather’s legs is debatable, but Roach insists he saw it in Mayweather’s two most recent fights against Marcos Maidana. The hard-hitting Argentine seemed to land more clean shots on Mayweather than anybody in recent history through persistence and volume, although Mayweather has scoffed at the notion.

“Mayweather’s legs are shot, and you saw it twice last year,” Roach said. “He’s not becoming more crowd-pleasing. He just can’t move like he used to, so he has to exchange more. As long as we can hit him and then move, Mayweather can’t touch us.”

Roach has closed Pacquiao’s sparring sessions to the media, an unusual tactic for the duo. Roach said it’s because they’re working on a detailed game plan that includes “a little bit more of a surprise. Stuff he hasn’t seen before.”

But Roach has echoed Pacquiao’s decision to downplay the possibility of a knockout. Mayweather has rarely even been in trouble in his career, much less stopped, while Pacquiao hasn’t stopped anyone in his last nine fights since 2009.

“I can’t count on him knocking this guy out, because he really has never been a big puncher at 147 [pounds],” Roach said. “That’s because by fight time, most of the guys he’s fighting have been 160, and they’re just bigger guys.”

But Roach wants Pacquiao to be ready to fight from the opening bell, something that shouldn’t be hard with the likely frenzy in the MGM Grand Garden.

“For some reason, I have an idea that [Mayweather] is going to come out really quick on us and try to knock Manny out in the first round,” Roach said. “I think he’s been watching the tape of Manny getting knocked out [by Juan Manuel Marquez]. Mayweather does have that big overhand right, or that long right hand. I think he’s going to use that against us. We’re prepared for that one also.

“I think Mayweather will come right after us. I hope he does.

We’re ready.”

MANNY PACQUIAO holds his youngest child, Israel, as they arrive at the Delano Las Vegas Hotel, after breaking camp at Los Angeles. AP

‘CONCENTRIC’ SECURITY SET UP FOR MEGAFIGHT L

AS VEGAS—Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather hadn’t even decided how much it would cost home viewers to watch their fight when the head of the Nevada Athletic Commission started planning security for their big bout.

Five times in the 10 weeks since the two welterweights set a date for their long-awaited fight, commission chief Francisco Aguilar has convened state, federal and local police, fire, tourism and fight officials for one thing: to keep hundreds of thousands of people outside the ring safe.

Boxing, particularly in big matches like this one, poses a special challenge to Las Vegas officials.“We’re not preparing for a fight night. We’re preparing for a fight week,” Deputy Las Vegas Police Chief Gary Schofield said, pointing to a series of events, including Friday’s weigh-in at the MGM Grand hotel. As a security and crowdcontrol measure, advance tickets ($10 face value) will be required for the first time.

He described a security plan of concentric circles. The Athletic Commission handles security inside the ring. The hotel and police have responsibility for the arena and hotel, which is Las Vegas’s biggest, with 5,005 rooms.

Police, along with state and federal agencies, are in charge outside—“all the way out to the airport, Interstate 15 and the neighborhoods,” Schofield said.

“The overall goal is to maintain the integrity of the event,” Aguilar said. “Las Vegas is a brand. To protect the brand, you have to protect the event.”

Fight nights haven’t always gone so smoothly.

In 1993 “Fan Man” James Miller guided his powered parachute to land next to a Caesars Palace outdoor ring where Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe were brawling. Ringside fans and security pummeled Miller, who was arrested for the stunt.

In 1996 rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting, after Mike Tyson knocked out Bruce Seldon at the MGM. In 1997 bedlam erupted inside and outside the ring when Tyson was disqualified for biting Evander Holyfield’s ears. Thousands of people stampeded through the MGM Grand hotel lobby.

Last year a scuffle in the elbow-to-elbow crowd leaving a Mayweather-Marcos Maidana fight—and a loud noise that officials blame on a partition falling to the floor, not a gunshot— spurred a panicked stampede in a food court area outside the arena. Officials said about 50 people were treated for minor injuries.

“We’ve had times when it doesn’t quite go according to plan,” Schofield acknowledged.

“We’ve learned.”

Officials won’t say much about the details of how they’ll protect the scene and the army of celebrities in town.

But Deputy Clark County Fire Chief Erik Newman said about 300 firefighters in his department will be on duty or standby. “I think we’ll have the most millionaires and billionaires in one place in the country,” Newman said.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported last week that virtually all

150,000 hotel rooms in the city were sold for fight weekend.

Las Vegas police have almost 2,500 sworn officers. They’ll get help this week from the Nevada Highway Patrol, neighboring Henderson and North Las Vegas police and federal agencies, ranging from the FBI to the Department of Homeland Security.

“We’re a community that knows how to handle large events,” Schofield said. “We do them a lot.”

Indeed, Las Vegas draws 340,000 people for its annual New Year’s Eve fireworks party on the Strip, 200,000 to a weekend-long Electric Daisy Carnival and almost 120,000 for a Nascar race.

Tim Jeffery, vice president of security for the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, said fight fans and tourists will notice lots of security officers in bright yellow-green shirts on pedestals, but won’t see behind-the-scenes preparation.

Ticketholders won’t be able to bring bags or backpacks and will pass through metal detectors, Nevada Athletic Commission Executive Director Bob Bennett said.

People without a fight ticket will be cleared out of the shopping area between the arena and casino. Afterward, ticket-holders will be directed out of the arena through the closest door to their seat.

Newman, the deputy fire chief, said he sees after-fight events and overcrowding at clubs and hotels as the biggest security challenge. “There will be a lot of people outside,” Bennett said. “The access to alcohol and partying around town could create some turmoil.” AP

SPORTS

‘RECLAMATIONS THREAT TO REGIONAL SECURITY’

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Sports L

NEW HOME FOR HYUNDAI CARS IN LAGUNA

THE Hyundai Logistics Center (HLC) was inaugurated by Hyundai Automotive Resources Inc., the official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the country. The 10-hectare site, which features state-of-the-art and innovative facilities, is the new home for all Hyundai cars. HLC is also home to the Global Dealership Space Identity (GDSI) model showroom. GDSI is the new standard of Hyundai Motor Co. for all dealerships worldwide, paving the way for a unified design for all showrooms in any part of the world. The goal of GDSI is to strengthen the Modern Premium brand identity, and to provide quality customer service. The new GDSI dealerships will be labeled as “Centers of Excellence” of Hyundai. Story on B1. TET ANDOLONG

C  A

A

BUT NO KNOCKOUT? C |

HE rise in the country’s import receipts amid the prevailing low oil prices should prompt businesses—particularly those in the industry sector—to start expanding their operations, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said.

GREEK PM: INITIAL DEAL IN BAILOUT TALKS ‘VERY CLOSE’ THENS, Greece—Greece’s prime minister voiced hope that bailout talks between the cash-strapped country and its international creditors are “very close” to an initial deal, and ruled out early elections if the dragging negotiations fail.

Alexis Tsipras told private Star TV that he believes a first agreement can be struck by the end of next week, which can then be ratified by Greece’s European partners.

“I think that by the 9th of May we will have an agreement” that will allow release of some bailout funds, he said in a three-hour interview screened just before midnight on Monday.

Since its election in January, Tsipras’s radical left-led government has been locked in increasingly fraught talks with other European countries that use the euro currency—which provide the bulk of the bailout cash that has kept Greece afloat for five years.

At stake is a final €7.2-billion ($7.8-billion) rescue loan installment, which will enable the country to keep up payments to its European creditors and the International Monetary Fund—as well as to state employees and pensioners. Greece’s cash reserves are perilously low, and failure to meet its obligations could potentially trigger a chain of events eventually forcing the country to abandon the euro. AP

WORLD

B C U. O

“The persistent low oil price will further boost importation of petroleum crude and other mineral fuels for the succeeding period, which bodes well for the industry sector,” Neda Officer in Charge (OIC) and Deputy Director General for Programming Rolando G. Tungpalan said.

The country’s import bill rebounded to a growth of 11.2 percent in February, from a contraction of 12.4 percent in January. Last year inward shipment of goods increased by 1.7 percent.

The Neda said the increase in import receipts was due to the 21.5-percent increase in capital goods, followed by raw materials and intermediate goods at 16.7 percent, and consumer goods at 12.2 percent.

BusinessMirror

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P.  |     | 7 DAYS A WEEK

NEDA URGES BUSINESSES TO EXPAND AS IMPORT BILL RISES AMID LOW OIL PRICES

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OUTHEAST Asian leaders said they have “serious concerns” about land reclamation in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, noting the practice could undermine security in the region.

The statement, released by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) at the close of a summit of the leaders of its 10 member-states in Kuala Lumpur, didn’t mention any country by name. China has angered several Asean members, including the Philippines and Vietnam, with its claims to almost all of the South China Sea and moves to create artificial islands in the waters.

“We share the serious concerns expressed by some leaders on the land reclamation being undertaken in the South China Sea, which has eroded trust and confidence and may undermine peace, security and stability in the South China Sea,”according to the Asean chairman’s statement, which was dated Monday and released to the media on Tuesday.

While Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is hosting the gathering and thereby serving as Asean chairman, the statement reflects S “R,” A the consensus of the body.

PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 44.2480

Megaworld to open two hotels this year B VG C

M

EGAWORLD Corp. on Tuesday said it will open two new hotels this year in its townships in Iloilo and Newport City in Pasay.

The company said the two hotels will add a combined 631 rooms this year, and boost Dr. Andrew L. Tan’s exposure to the country’s hotel sector.

Richmonde Hotel Iloilo will open in June, while Belmont Luxury Hotel Newport City in Pasay will start receiving guests by the second half of the year.

Richmonde Hotel Iloilo occupies eight levels of the 12-story Richmonde Tower in the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

The business hotel will be the first

Richmonde Hotel outside Metro Manila and will have 151 guest rooms.

Megaworld has commissioned architectural firm Gettys to design the hotel’s façade, grand lobby, restaurant and guest rooms.

Gettys took inspiration from the city’s agricultural roots for the hotel’s design concept, the company said.

“Finally, we are bringing a new hotel experience for Iloilo, where business, indeed, meets sophisticated pleasure. The people of Iloilo can now be proud of having a hotel that truly provides first-class standards.

We will certainly set the bar of hotel lifestyle in Western Visayas,” said Carmen Fernando, managing director, Prestige Hotel and Resorts Inc., the

hotel management company of Richmonde Hotel Iloilo and a subsidiary of Megaworld.

On the other hand, the 10-story Belmont Luxury will open in Newport City and will be located in front of the new Marriott Grand Ballroom and a walking distance from Resorts World Manila, Tan’s casino venture in partnership with Malaysia’s Genting.

The hotel will have 480 suites, it said.

“We have been experiencing an increasing demand for hotel rooms in Newport City because of its proximity to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and, of course, the presence of Resorts World Manila. Belmont Luxury Hotel Newport will primarily cater to S “M,” A

■ JAPAN 0.3716 ■ UK 67.3986 ■ HK 5.7096 ■ CHINA 7.1131 ■ SINGAPORE 33.3268 ■ AUSTRALIA 34.7698 ■ EU 48.1772 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 11.7992 Source: BSP (28 April 2015)

A2

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

News

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Conditions ripe for expansion Continued from A1

“This good performance suggests robust economic activity in construction and manufacturing and is likely reflective of upbeat domestic demand, particularly in private consumption and investments. We expect this to remain favorable over the near term,” Tungpalan said.

“If a similar trend in importation for the succeeding month continues, it will secure government’s expectation of a strong Gross Domestic Product growth for the year,” he added.

Tungpalan said the Philippines appears to have bucked the downward trend in merchandise imports of most Asian economies.

Electronic products, the country’s main import and export, accounted for over a third, or 34.8 percent, of total imports.

Import receipts from electronic products

Reclamations. . .

amounted to $1.85 billion, a 42.4-percent growth from last year’s $1.3 billion.

Among the major groups of electronic products, Components/Devices or Semiconductors had the biggest share of 28.8 percent.

It posted a growth of 43.9 percent to $1.535 billion in February 2015, from $1.067 billion in February 2014.

The increase in Philippine imports, the Neda official said, can be attributed to a strong consumer base and improved employment opportunities. The Philippines’s top 3 import sources are China, with 16.3 percent of total imports; the US, including Alaska and Hawaii, with 10.7 percent; and Taiwan, with 8.4 percent.

Imports from China amounted to $865.59 million, an increase of 47.8 percent from $585.79 million in February 2014.

Shipments from the US grew 13.3 percent

Continued from A1

Asean, which has a policy of noninterference in the internal affairs of member-nations, has often been criticized for failing to take a united stance on key issues facing the region, including the disputes in the South China Sea. During the 2012 Asean meeting in Cambodia, leaders failed to issue a joint communiqué for the first time in the bloc’s 45-year history due to disagreements over the South China Sea. Much of the region is heavily dependent on investment and trade with China, which asserts sovereignty over about four-fifths of the sea, according to a so-called nine-dash-line map it drew in the 1940s.

China agreed to talks with Asean over a code of conduct for the South China Sea in July 2013, but little progress has been made.

The Asean statement “urged that consultations be intensified” on the code of conduct and said the foreign ministers of member-states had been instructed to “urgently address this matter.”

All parties should exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities in the sea and not resort to threats or the use of force, according to the statement. “We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation in and over-flight over the South China Sea,” it said. Bloomberg News

to $567.88 million, from $501.26 million in February 2014.

Import receipts for Taiwanese goods reached $449.20 million. It posted a 32.7-percent hike from its February 2014 value of $338.49 million.

By economic bloc, East Asia—China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan—was the biggest source of the country’s imports in February 2015, as it accounted for 40.9 percent of the total imports valued at $2.18 billion. It increased by 16.5 percent from $1.87 billion in February 2014.

Commodities imported from Asean member-countries were valued at $1.31 billion, up 8.6 percent, representing a share of 24.6 percent. Imports from European Union were valued at $658.49 million. It accelerated by 3.5 percent, compared to the year-ago value of $636.08 million.

ING Bank. . .

Continued from A8

remains high for now, especially with market expectations of a late 2015 Fed rate hike,” ING Bank said in its latest issue of Manila Views and Cues.

Latest data from the BSP show the Philippines accumulated a firstquarter surplus of $877 million, a reversal from the $4.475-billion deficit in the first-quarter last year.

Aside from expectations of a late Fed hike, ING Bank also said structural flows were to remain steady during the year and should add support to the country’s BOP position.

The structural flows pertain to the remittances of millions of overseas Filipino workers and receipts from the business-process outsourcing operations in the country.

The peso, meanwhile, was seen to look for keys in the form of a so-called forward guidance particularly, following the conclusion of the meeting convened by the US Federal Open Market Committee this week.

In particular, ING said the peso was likely to test the lower end of the 44-to-44.90-per-dollar range over the near term.

Bianca Cuaresma

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Impoverished Filipinos as drug couriers scandalize legislators

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party-list lawmaker on Tuesday asked the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs to investigate the case of Mary Jane Veloso, and the increasing incidence of overseas Filipinos being penalized in other countries on charges of drug trafficking.

Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna, in a resolution, said Congress should come up with immediate and effective measures to protect overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from the drug-mule business.

“In the light of the Veloso case, it is of utmost urgency for Congress to investigate so-called drug mules who are unwittingly being used by drug syndicates, and the modus operandi of the same, to forewarn the public, especially those applying for jobs through the Internet. Congress must also look into [measures taken by the Philippine government to adequately protect and assist OFWs like Veloso and soon-to-be OFWs from becoming victims of criminal syndicates,” he said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The resolution will be tackled at the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs, headed by acting chairman and United Nationalist Alliance Rep. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao of Sarangani, Colmenares said.

Veloso, 30, an OFW from Nueva Ecija, was convicted by an Indonesian court in 2010 and was scheduled to be shot by firing squad over the new few hours, for allegedly smuggling 2.6 kilograms of heroin.

“Coming from a poor family, Veloso was in dire need of money to support the schooling of her children and accepted without question all the promises, money and empty suitcase given by her neighbor [and] alleged recruiter Kristina Sergio. Veloso was illegally recruited to work as a domestic help originally for Kuala Lumpur. From Kuala Lumpur, she was told by her recruiter to go to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and hand carry a suit-

case, not knowing that it was stuffed with illegal drugs. Veloso was imprisoned in Yogyakarta for five years,” the resolution said.

The resolution, citing news reports, said Veloso may have not defended herself well: “She was not given a lawyer or translator when the police were interrogating her in Bahasa in Indonesia, which she did not understand.”

“The Philippine Embassy did not ensure that a translator help her during the trial. Veloso was convicted and sentenced to death on October 11, 2010, by the District Court of Justice of Sleman in Yogyakarta. The embassy did not provide her with a lawyer during trial. Veloso’s death sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeals of Yogyakarta on February 10, 2011,” Colmenares said.

In August 2011 President Aquino, on behalf of Veloso, submitted an appeal for clemency to thenIndonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In January 2015 new Indonesian President Joko Widodo rejected a batch of clemency appeals, which included Veloso’s, it added.

But Colmenares, citing Veloso’s family, claimed that Veloso only got verbal assurance that the government will look into the case and doing all it can, contrary to claims that the government assisted Veloso “from the very start.”

The resolution, meanwhile, said that Veloso is one of 6,000 Filipinos forced to work overseas due to lack of employment opportunities and goodpaying jobs in the country, according to data of the Migrante, a non-governmental organization.

According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), 710 Filipinos languish in jails located in different parts of the world, particularly in Asia, the US and the Middle East, for acting as drug couriers of high-profile international syndicates.

The PDEA said that, in China alone, 205 Filipinos were caught while carrying illegal drugs and 28 of them are in death row. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Wednesday, April 29, 2015 A3

People smuggling most rampant in Southeast Asia

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By Cai U. Ordinario

outheast Asian countries, like the Philippines, continue to be the world’s biggest source, transit point and destination for migrant smuggling, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In a report, titled Migrant Smuggling in Asia: Current Trends and Related Challenges, the UNODC said the majority of the smuggling taking place is within the region.

However, migrant-smuggling routes also reach countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

“The cross-border movement of people in Asia is expected to grow rapidly and at unprecedented levels, in part due to new infrastructure projects and the opening of borders,” UNODC Regional Representative in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Jeremy Douglas said.

Douglas also said smuggled migrants would be even more difficult to identify among the increasing number of regular migrants that accompany regional integration.

The report also found that criminal networks are creatively exploiting gaps between demand and regular migration, with smuggling fees to get to some destinations now reported as high as $50,000.

It also found that a significant number of migrants use smugglers to cross borders in their quest to seek a better life, but only end up in human-

trafficking situations.

The UNODC said that, far away from home and working illegally, smuggled migrants have little ability to assert basic rights and become vulnerable to abuse, trafficking and exploitation.

“In addition, the production and use of fraudulent documents are widespread,” Douglas said.

“People [who] make use of smugglers face increased risks to their health and safety.”

The UNODC called on countries to comprehensively address migrant smuggling, embedded in wider trafficking, migration and development policies—in line with the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.

To address the situation, the report recommends strengthening data generation and understanding, and improving national laws and policies while protecting the rights of migrants, as well as building operational capacity at border crossings to identify, investigate and prosecute smuggling and trafficking networks, and the protection of victims.

This will require international cooperation and political will, as well as the development of affordable, accessible and safe avenues for legal migration.

Retired military, police push for a Lacson-Poe tandem

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ormer Sen. Panfilo Lacson is poised to run in the 2016 presidential elections, as a group of retired military and police officers came out with a manifesto signifying support for Lacson’s presidential bid. The group is pushing for a Lacson-Sen. Grace Poe tandem in 2016.

Lacson said that his record speaks for itself, and that Filipinos deserve a leader in the truest sense of the word.

In an interview, Lacson urged rivals to “walk the talk,” like he does, by not accepting the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund during his 12-year stint as senator.

Lacson vowed not to go the way earlier political leaders did, saying he would avoid the mistakes committed by former Presidents Erap Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

On his plans, Lacson said he will push for an independent commission against corruption similar to the Independence Commission Against Corruption of Hong Kong and Singapore, and a separate jail or detention facility on Caraballo Island exclusively for corruption convicts.

Economy

A4 Wednesday, April 29, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

briefs PHL Fund-raising drive for nepal quake victims launched

The Radio Veritas and Caritas Manila on Tuesday launched the “Caritas Damayan Kapanalig,” a national fund-raising campaign to help the thousands of earthquake survivors in Nepal.

Radio Veritas President and Caritas Manila Executive Director Fr. Anton Pascual made an appeal to those who are “Good Samaritans” to help those who were affected by the Nepal earthquake and are still shocked of what happened.

As this developed, Nepalese students in the Philippines studying at the Aguinaldo International School made a special appeal to the Philippine government and to the Filipino public to extend aid to their country, which was hit last Friday by a powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

all funds accounted for, opapp assures THE Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (Opapp) assured the public that P1.14 billion of funds allocated in 2013 for the government’s peace and development program, dubbed as the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan, or Pamana Program, are all accounted for.

“These funds were used to sustain the ongoing projects of the government in conflict-affected and conflict–vulnerable communities in different parts of the country. It was unfortunate that some of the funds were unused as of end-2013, or liquidation reports were incomplete by end-2013 because utilization of funds started late in 2013 as the use of these funds were stopped late 2012 during the Supreme Court’s deliberations on the case regarding the Disbursement Acceleration Program [DAP],” Opapp Assistant Secretary for Programs on the Bangsamoro Howard Cafugauan said.

Prior to being a subject of a news report, the Opapp has been taking actions on the observations by the Commission on Audit.

“Funds that are not being used, such as the P250 million given to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the use of its AFP Engineering Brigade for road repairs and construction in Maguindanao province, are due to the implementing agency’s decision to ensure no controversy would affect the project because they are meant to benefit communities that are conflict-affected. The funds remain intact with the AFP as of press time,” Cafugauan added. PNA

palace releases addl p50m for zamboanga siege-displaced families ZAMBOANGA CITY—Malacañang has approved the request of the city government for the additional allocation of P50 million to support requirements at the recovery or temporary shelters here.

Dr. Elmeir Jade Apolinario, assistant city administrator, who heads the Temporary Shelter Cluster, said part of the P50 million will be spent to settle the obligation of the local government on utilities with the Zamboanga City Water District (ZCWD), Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) and private firms that have been carrying out dislodging of latrines at the different evacuation and transitory sites.

Thousands of people are still housed at evacuation and transitory sites in this city.

They were among the more than 100,000 people displaced during the 21-day September 2013 siege in this city.

Apolinario said the funds have been downloaded to the Department of Budget and Management and the city government is working in coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Office of Civil Defense to comply with the funding requirements. PNA

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IT-BPM seen to sustain growth this year and beyond

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By Roderick L. Abad

TOP call-center executive on Tuesday said the local information technology and business-process management (ITBPM) industry will sustain its growth this year and beyond given the renewed investor confidence in the country.

Every indicator shows that the industry and all stakeholders will benefit with its continued expansion, according to Capital One Philippine Support Services Corp. (COPSSC) General Manager Paul Townsend.

In fact, he said that 2014 has been

a great year for the local IT-BPM industry, accounting for 6.2 percent of the nation’s total gross domestic product (GDP) while reaching the 1 million full-time employment as of September last year.

“But 2015 promises to be a better

year for the industry,” he said, while noting the result of a recent study indicating its constant success.

As per Tholons’s 2015 list of Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations in the world, Metro Manila is at a strong second, next to Bangalore in India.

Meanwhile, Cebu is ranked eighth as the six other Philippine cities in the top 100 cities cited in the report.

Townsend said the high rankings of the country’s major and emerging cities indicated that the Philippines continues to be the preferred investment destination for companies, especially those coming from the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

To wit, he revealed that more than 1,100 global organizations are

present and doing business here.

“With this number, current infrastructure and government support, the Philippines is undoubtedly an emerging global leader in the IT-BPM industry,” Townsend said.

Bright prospects are, likewise, ahead for the global in-house centers (GICs) this year, thus contributing to the growth of the industry and the economy. Tholons shows that there are currently over 130 GICs in the Philippines—more than 65 of which belong to the Fortune 1,000 list.

Bullish on the future of the local IT-BPM sector, the full-service strategic advisory firm for global outsourcing and research projected that it will rise by around 15 percent to 18 percent in terms of revenue between 2014 and 2016.

Next year industry revenue is seen to reach $25.5 billion from $24.5 billion last year, while employment is seen to increase from 1.3 million to 1.4 million in the same period.

Given the continued investment by the government in the IT-BPM sector, as well as continued investor interest in the country, it is poised to partake 14 percent of the global industry share.

Even more compelling is the prospect for revenue to double by 2020, amounting to around$48 billion.

“The inroads to success have been laid,” Townsend said. “We just need to fortify it and ensure that we meet these targets by keeping the industry on track. We must not lose sight of the end goal and that is to establish the Philippines as the undisputed leader in the IT-BPM industry.”

LP stalwarts: No pressure on Sevilla to quit Customs post DOE’s Petilla eyes Senate or House slot in 2016

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

L

awmakers from the Liberal Party (LP) on Tuesday downplayed the claims of a member of United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) that former Customs Commissioner John Phillip P. Sevilla resigned from office because of an alleged pressure for him to produce a P3-billion contribution quota for LP’s campaign kitty.

LP Secretary-General Mel Senen Sarmiento of Samar said UNA is apparently lost in a time warp that they think that they are still living under another regime, when the so-called quota system was practiced at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Earlier, UNA interim president and Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco said Sevilla refused to raise P3 billion for the campaign kitty of the LP, that’s why the group pressured the Customs commissioner to resign.

Sarmiento added that it is also interesting to note that UNA seems to be very familiar with the so-called quota system, a practice, which “was reportedly prevalent in the past but has long been shut down by the Aquino administration.”

He said the LP would welcome a deeper investigation on the lobbying claims of Sevilla, as he pointed out that even the former Customs commissioner never mentioned about the so-called P3-billion contribution quota.

Sarmiento added that Sevilla was only complaining about an alleged pressure being exerted by members of the Aquino cabinet for the appointment of another BOC official to another post.

“Obv iously, UNA was only putting words into former Commissioner Sevilla’s mouth because there was no mention of a so-called P3-billion contribution for LP. He was complaining about lobbying of a certain position but did not mention specific cases of corruption,” Sarmiento added.

E

Choose your greens An aerial view of a thriving vegetable market at Kayang Hilltop in Baguio City on Tuesday. Vegetable farmers and traders have reported bountiful harvest this summer, enough to ensure stable supply of nutritious greens to the local and lowland market. Mau Victa

“This so-called P3-billion quota claim of UNA is an outright lie.

Commissioner Sevilla has made no such claim as the interim head of UNA; it is the responsibility of UNA to prove this allegation, ” the lawmaker said.

Sarmiento added that the would welcome any investigation about the previous claims of Sevilla, despite his decision to retract them, as the party is also as curious as everyone else on what really triggered his decision to resign.

Meanwhile, LP Rep. Edgar Erice of Caloocan has accused Tiangco of lying by insisting that Sevilla quit after being compelled to raise P3 billion in campaign funds.

“LP has absolutely nothing to do with the resignation of Sevilla and the return of former Customs chief Alberto D. Lina to his old post. The LP does not need dirty money to pursue the presidential politicians’

campaign next year,” Erice said.

“There is no place for dirty money in LP and those who have plenty of it are in the company of Tiangco,” he added.

It seems BOC Intelligence Group chief Jessie Dellosa is now feeling the pressure to relinguish his post following the appointment of Lina as head of the BOC. In a strongly worded statement distributed to the members of the media, Dellosa admitted that there are calls for him to resign following the resignation of Sevilla last week.

He, however, did not identify those calling for his ouster.

Dellosa admitted that Sevilla’s resignation prompted him to assess whether it is still worth to remain in his post and pursue the reforms that have been initiated over the past 16 months.

But he finally decided to continue with his post and block any

efforts to bring the bureau back to its dark past by some groups with vested interest.

“I will stay despite the call to resign. I will not allow the shrewd and the scheming to ease me out of the bureau on the often-cited principle of delicadeza,” Dellosa said.

“I will stay to defeat the designs of individuals and groups with vested interests. Magagamit lang tayo kung tayo ay magpapagamit,” he added.

A BOC insider said Dellosa was specifically instructed upon his appointment to be at the frontline of the fight against smuggling and other irregularities in the bureau.

“I think he is being pressured to resign from his post because if he leaves, then it would be easy for some groups to use the BOC as milking cow for the coming elections,” the source said. With Joel R. San Juan

By Lenie Lectura

NERGY Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla is interested in seeking a higher office in 2016 but has not yet made up his mind.

As of this writing, Petilla said he is seriously considering it. “I am thinking about it. I can’t stay in this position forever. Eventually, I have to go,” Petilla said in an interview ahead of a news conference scheduled on Wednesday.

The energy chief, who was appointed in 2012, is eyeing a slot in the Senate or House of Representatives. Petilla was formerly the governor of Leyte under the Liberal Party for three consecutive terms since 2004. Petilla said he has to quit his job this October, at the latest, should he decide to run. “If I am serious about it, it is difficult to still be here and make preparations. It would be unfair to use my current position. So, I can’t have two at the same time. The moment you declare, you are already a candidate,” he said.

Petilla is aware that he is not as popular as other candidates, who, among them, are from show business. Moreover, an unresolved power problem hounding the country is not going to make him a favorite candidate either.

“The question that needs to be answered here is this: Is there something I can contribute? If you feel that you can contribute more than the other candidates—and I know that’s enough for you to run—then that answers it all,” a confident Petilla declared.

The Department of Energy has faced many challenges under Petilla’s term, one of which is his recommendation to the President to seek for emergency powers to address an anticipated power crisis.

“I pushed for it. Everyone was caught off- guard andthat’swhytheyallwantedtoscrutinizeme.Why did I do that? To prove that government is here to do something. They keep on saying ‘wala naman ginagawa ang gobyerno’ so now thatthe government is doing something.... It’s difficult to be in this position but everyone knows that I am doing something and not just sitting here and wait for my term to end,” the energy chief lamented.

Petilla is confident that he has inspired the Energy Regulatory Commission in creating a competitive and healthy environment for the private sector.

Subic emerges as ‘port of choice’ among Central, Northern Luzon shippers

By Henry Empeño Correspondent

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UBIC BAY FREEPORT—More companies in Central and Northern Luzon are now shifting to the Subic Bay Freeport in transshipping their goods because of easy access, lower cost and uncongested container yard.

Several shippers, including big exporters in the neighboring Clark Freeport and importers in the Northern Luzon area, said during the Second Subic Bay Maritime Conference and Exhibit here last Friday that Subic is now their “port of choice.”

The conference, organized by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and the Subic Bay International Terminal Corp. (SBITC), drew some 500 delegates from shipping firms, trucking and forwarding consortiums, customs brokers, import/export-related corporations, and other port users from Metro Manila, Central and Northern Luzon, as well as Southern Luzon.

Vincent Gottman, operations manager of the Clark-based toymaker Hansa Creation, said his firm began manufacturing plush animal products in

Clark in 1994 and had since been shipping in raw materials and then exporting finished products to various zoos and wild parks worldwide.

“Since using Subic, our deliveries always arrived on time,” said Gottman, adding that they never encountered any problem when they started shipping through Subic.

Gary Algodon, procurement manager of San Miguel Brewery, meanwhile, said the firm’s port operations had moved its transshipment to Subic because of the ease in moving goods in and out of the container yard, and Subic’s accessible location for Northern Luzon operations.

Because of this, the company is now moving through Subic 80 percent of its product supply in Luzon, with only 20 percent contracted to Manila.

“Hopefully, this year, we can make that 100 percent,” Lagadon added.

For his part, Anthony Eugenio, operations manager of Atlas Brokerage and Express Padala Inc., said receiving balikbayan boxes from the United States in Subic has the same cost as in Manila.

However, he pointed out that in Subic, there

is “no problem about traffic and port congestion that might put the company’s service to test.”

Meanwhile, Cris Venzon, president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Peci) in Region 3, announced that Peci is supporting the initiatives of the SBMA in improving the Port of Subic.

“We want to ship out [our products] through Subic,” Venzon said, also pointing out that the major road networks leading to Subic are now undergoing widening and improvement to address the imminent increase in the volume of trucks and forwarders going to Subic from various origins in the region.

The observations made by shippers and port users here were echoed by Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, who was keynote speaker in the event.

“Most people are moving north and the number is up tremendously,” said Almendras, who is also head of the Cabinet Cluster on Port Decongestion.

Almendras said the transformation of Subic from a mere seaport with well-maintained fa-

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman Roberto Garcia (center), flanked by United States Agency for International Development Compete Project Chief of Party Enrico Basilio (left) and Subic Bay International Terminal Corp. Vice Chairman Francisco Delgado IV, fields questions during the panel discussion portion of the Second Subic Bay Maritime Conference and Exhibit at the Subic Bay Freeport. Henry Empeño

cilities into an international seaport hub was hastened by the role Subic played as alternative port at the height of the port-congestion crisis and truck ban in Manila.

“The important part of the success in moving resources is the port. And when we turned to Subic in those times of crisis, there is no turning back,” he said.

Shopping

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, April 29, 2015 A5

AN AMAZING TOY KINGDOM SUMMER

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UMMERTIME is playtime at Toy Kingdom with its new collection of amazing toys for more fun in the sun.

Inspired by well- loved characters such as Sofia the First, Frozen, Avengers, Hello Kitty, Cars, Mickey & Minnie, these are perfect for some splashing in the pool, lounging outdoors or hitting the streets.

There are cool inflatable swimming pools as well as frame pools that are easy to assemble and come in huge sizes for the entire family. Toy Kingdom also has swim essentials and splashers as well as beach toys, water guns and bubble blasters for a real water fun adventure.

Kids can also enjoy an amazing ride with Toy Kingdom’s collection of wheels, pedal toys and cruisers.

There are bikes, trikes and scooters that come in different colors and sizes.

There’s also more fun outdoors with play sets and furniture.

These hot finds and more summer treats are available at all Toy Kingdom Express outlets in SM Department Stores and Toy Kingdom stores in most SM Supermalls. Also visit www.toykingdom.ph.

CARS Push Handle Trike features a steel frame and wide training wheels. Also features padded seats for your child’s comfort and standard grips and pedals for your little riders.

OCEAN Fun 3-ring Pool. This 59x21size pool will surely delight kids with its wonderful sea-life design

CARS 2 wheel scooter with an alloy deck and rear wheel brake for your kid’s safety.

CARS Puff n’ Play inflatables as adorable playmates for swimming. Collect your three favorite characters such as Lightning McQueen, Francesco Bernoulli and Mater.

HELLO Kitty Beach ball for fun days under the sun.

FROZEN Color n’ Play Activity Playland. Relive Elsa and Anna’s whimsical tale through this enchanting play land. Includes 20 soft flex balls, a fun ball toss roof, 4 erasable markers and an additional white panel for your little girl’s coloring activity.

A6 Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Pacquiao-Mayweather: Impact on the Philippine economy

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t is only a slight exaggeration to say that the entire Filipino nation is behind Manny Pacquiao, eight-division world boxing champion, in his fight against undefeated American boxer Floyd Mayweather on Sunday, May 3, 2015, beginning 10 am, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

The massive support represents an outpouring of national pride in the achievements of a Filipino poor boy turned international hero, by dint of ability, hard work and dedication. It is also a sincere reciprocation of the poor boy’s own identification with the dreams of his countrymen for a better life for themselves and their children.

Beyond the great honor it brings to all Filipinos and the nation, this boxing event, in a word, will contribute to the expansion of the country’s gross domestic product, at least in the medium-term.

For starters, it is said in the media that Pacquiao will earn at least $80 million from the fight and take home, after US taxes, trainer’s fees, training expenditures, etc., something like $40 million or P1.80 billion. How much of that amount Manny will spend in the Philippines we do not know. Whatever it is it will constitute an expansion of consumption expenditures. Manny may well go into investment but we shall not follow him there.

In addition, some of us will be purchasing shirts, shoes, sporting goods and mementos bearing the Pacquiao image; manufacturers will be launching commercials linking their products to the great sportsman; many people will be paying to watch from hotels, restaurants, resorts; city and municipal governments will be paying for huge television screens to show the fight to constituents; homes will be paying “pay-per-view” of the fight; and crowds of tourists will be arriving, spending money for board, lodging and tourist items.

All this will represent new income for manufacturers, owners of franchises, shops, media, hotels, restaurants and resorts, and their employees. These income recipients will spend their money on consumption items and so will the second-round recipients, and so on. At the end of the day, these expenditures will have generated output bigger than the original expenditure.

How much bigger will be determined by the consumption multiplier. If this multiplier is, say, three, the total impact on the economy will be three times the original expenditure. Further, if the expansion series of the multiplier takes five iterations before it approaches zero and the velocity of money is two, then the total output is produced within 2.5 years.

In numbers, this is saying that, if the total original expenditures is P10 billion, it will expand to P30 billion, in a period of 2.5 years.

It is said that an athlete carrying the hopes of his countrymen is at a handicap and is likely not to perform well. Not Manny. From the beginning of his celebrity he has dedicated his fights to the Filipino people, even composing a song for it, “Para sayo itong labang ito, bayan ko.”

Pacquiao is a national icon in more ways than one. Our hopes for a victory are with him in this important event, already dubbed the Fight of the Century.

The five-year guaranteed period Susie G. Bugante

All About Social Security

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o you know that if you are a Social Security System (SSS) retirement pensioner, your pension is guaranteed for five years?

Under the Republic Act (RA) 8282 or the Social Security Act of 1997, if a retiree-pensioner dies within 60 months from the date of retirement, his primary beneficiaries (legal spouse and minor children) shall continue to receive the basic and dependents’ pension. But, in

the absence of primary beneficiaries, his secondary beneficiaries (parents, legal heirs) shall receive a lump sum amount equivalent to the pension for the remaining balance of the fiveyear guaranteed period.

Say for example, a member retires at the age of 60 with a monthly pen-

sion of P5,400. On the 45th month since the start of his pension, he, unfortunately, passes away. His spouse had died before him and his two children are already more than 21 years old. What will happen to his pension? Considering that his pension is guaranteed for five years and his parents are long gone, his legal heirs—i.e., his children—will receive the remaining balance of the five-year guaranteed period or 15 months times P5,400. The total amount of P81,000 will be divided equally between his two children.

The same is true for total permanent disability pensioners. Their pensions are also guaranteed for five years, just like those of the retirement pensioners. In the absence of primary beneficiaries, a lump-sum amount

equivalent to the remaining balance of the five-year guaranteed period times the pension amount, shall be paid to the secondary beneficiaries.

Should the retirement or disability pensioner die beyond the five-year guaranteed period and he or she has no primary beneficiaries, there are no more benefits forthcoming, except for the funeral grant of P20,000.

For more information about the SSS and its programs, call our 24-hour call center at (632) 920-6446 to 55, Monday to Friday, or send an e-mail to member_relations@sss.gov.ph.

Susie G. Bugante is the vice president for public affairs and special events of the Social Security System. Send comments about this column to susiebugante.bmirror@gmail.com.

Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016: Transforming economies, realizing rights Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Inter press service

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NITED NATIONS—Our world is out of balance. It is both wealthier and more unequal today than at any time since the Second World War.

We are recovering from a global economic crisis—but that recovery has been jobless. We have the largest cohort ever of educated women, yet, globally, women are struggling to find work. Unemployment rates are at historic highs in many countries, including those in the Middle East and North Africa, in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in southern Europe.

Where women do have jobs, globally they are paid 24 percent less than men, on average. For the most part, the world’s women are in lowsalaried, insecure occupations, like small-scale farming, or as domestic workers—a sector where they comprise 83 percent of the workforce.

Why isn’t the global economy fit for women?

In our flagship report Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016: Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights, we investigate what this failure means—and propose solutions.

We take a fresh, holistic look at

both economic and social policies and their implications for the entire economy. We look particularly at the ‘invisible’ economy of unpaid care and domestic work that anchors all economies and societies.

Conventional measures, like gross domestic product, have historically been blind to a large proportion of the work women and girls do, and unhearing of the voices of those who would wish to allocate public resources to their relief, for example through investments in accessible water and clean energy. We suggest the need to apply a human-rights lens to economic problem-solving. We propose specific, evidence-based solutions for action by both government and the private sector, to shape progress toward decent, equally paid jobs for women, free from sexual harassment and violence, and supported by goodquality social services.

Our public resources are not flowing in the directions where they are most needed: For example to provide

safe water and sanitation, quality health care, and decent child- and elderly-care services. Yet, water is essential, families still have to be nourished, the sick still have to be tended, children brought up, and elderly parents cared for.

Where there are no public services, the deficit is borne primarily by women and girls. This is a care penalty that unfairly punishes women for stepping in when the State does not provide resources, and it affects billions of women the world over.

Data from France, Germany, Sweden and Turkey suggest that women earn between 31 and 75 percent less than men over their lifetimes. We need policies that make it possible for both women and men to care for their loved ones without having to forego their own economic security, success and independence.

Our globalized economy seems to be working at cross-purposes with our universal vision of women’s rights; it is limiting, rather than enabling them. Where there is no choice, there are few rights.

But there are solutions. The report proposes a number of specific ways in which to mobilize resources to pay for public services and social transfers: For example by enforcing existing tax obligations, reprioritizing expenditure and expanding the overall tax base, as well as through international borrowing and development assistance.

Global corporations also have a

central role to play by being employers that offer equal pay and opportunities. Shareholders can and should ask corporations to act with responsibility to the countries in which they operate. Annual tax revenue lost to developing countries due to trade mispricing, just one strategy used by corporations to avoid tax, is estimated at between 98 and 106 billion dollars. This is nearly 20 billion more than the annual capital costs needed to achieve universal water and sanitation coverage.

With the right mix of economic and social policies, governments can make transformative change: They can generate decent jobs for women and men and ensure that their unpaid care work is recognized and supported. Well-designed measures, such as family allowances and universal pensions, can enhance women’s income security, and their ability to realize their potential and expand their life options.

Finally, macroeconomic policies can and should support the realization of women’s rights, by creating dynamic and stable economies, by generating decent work and by mobilizing resources to finance vital public services.

Ultimately, upholding women’s rights will not only make economies work for women, it will also benefit societies as a whole by creating a fairer and more sustainable future.

Progress for women is progress for all.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Japan’s economy needs shock therapy BLOOMBERG VIEW

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apan has been conducting the most audacious monetary experiment in modern economic history, but there are plenty of signs the experiment has not been audacious enough. When Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), convenes the bank’s policy meeting this week, he will have to convince his colleagues that it’s time for another round of shock-and-awe.

It’s been 179 days since the last time BOJ took the markets by surprise. Last October 31 Kuroda rebooted Japan’s quantitative-easing (QE) program to the tune of $700 billion. That massive injection is a key reason the Nikkei is now at 15year highs.

But even as investors have bid up Japanese stocks, deflation has made an untimely return. The BOJ’s main gauge showed inflation slowing to zero in February. In March household spending dropped 2.9 percent, the 11th straight monthly decline.

Wage gains remain stingy, a sign that spoils from the weak yen aren’t trickling down. And the disappointment over the slow pace of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s structuralreform program is so widespread that Fitch’s decided on Monday to downgrade Japan’s credit rating to “A” from “A+”.

It’s easy to see why Kuroda might be reluctant to double down on QE. The yen’s 30-percent plunge is enriching export giants like Toyota and Canon, but slamming smallto-midsize companies facing higher import prices. As the BOJ expands its monetary base, says Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, the new head of Japan’s second-biggest business lobby, the “effect hasn’t trickled down, and I don’t think they can invigorate things with such unnatural actions.”

But having gone down this unprecedented policy road, the BOJ has no choice but to push on. When he took the top BOJ job in March 2013, Kuroda staked his legacy— and the BOJ’s very credibility— on achieving 2-percent inflation for consumer prices by 2016. That target is still very far away. All indications point to deepening deflation, with the prices of oil and other commodity prices weakening and disposable income stagnating. As Fitch complained, “Japan’s macroeconomic performance is a rating weakness.”

Moreover, the political pressure on Kuroda is mounting. There’s been plenty of discussion in the media about tension between Kuroda and Abe, who worries the BOJ is being too timid about adding fresh liquidity.

Abe’s team was also taken aback

by Kuroda’s April 23 comment— a gaffe, really—that BOJ staffers were studying the technical details of exiting QE. The very next day, Abe advisor Kozo Yamamoto unloaded.

“I’m worried the BOJ’s attitude is wavering,” he told Bloomberg News.

“I wonder if Kuroda is being affected by fukumaden,” a phrase that means “den of conspirators.”

Abe is also making the case by tapping 45-year Toyota veteran Yukitoshi Funo to be the central bank’s newest board member. Funo, who is thought to be very dovish, is expected to replace a policymaker who voted against the last round of QE. There’s another reason the BOJ is essentially trapped into its QE program: financial markets. The slightest hint the BOJ’s easing experiment is winding down would send bond yields sharply higher— and the Nikkei plunging. Japan, it’s easy to forget, is the world’s most indebted nation, with a shrinking population to boot.

The glue holding its financial system together is 10-year bond yields at 0.28 percent. Were they to rise above 1 percent, it could trigger financial panic. For better or worse, the BOJ stepped onto a monetary treadmill last October—one that will be much harder to exit than some policymakers appreciate.

Kuroda should have the courage of his earlier convictions this Thursday. The BOJ should ramp up its annual government bond purchase by $100 billion or $200 billion (or more), while pumping more cash into real-estate and exchange-traded funds; asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities; and “zaito bonds,” which state-run companies sell to fund projects.

Kuroda also should pledge massive purchases of regional-government IOUs to shore up Japan’s struggling hinterlands.

By going big, Kuroda could stem what he has called Japan’s “deflationary mind-set.” Even a little more monetary shock-and-awe might be able to carry the country a very long way.

INSURANCE FORUM

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very nonlife insurance company must set aside and maintain an amount corresponding to the legal reserves required under Section 219 of the Amended Insurance Code.

Thus, Section 219 states: “Every insurance company, other than life, shall maintain a reserve for unearned premiums on its policies in force, which shall be charged as a liability in any determination of its financial condition. Such reserve shall be calculated based on the 24th method.”

Under the previous Insurance Code, Section 213 provided: “Every insurance company, other than life, shall maintain a reserve for unearned premiums on its policies in force, which shall be charged as a liability in any determination of its financial condition. Such reserve shall be equal to 40 per centum of the gross premiums, less returns and cancellations, received on policies or risks having not more than a year to run, and pro rata on all gross premiums received on policies or risks having more than a year to run: Provided,

that for marine cargo risks the reserve shall be equal to 40 per centum of the premiums written in the policies upon yearly risks, and the full amount of the premiums written during the last two months of the calendar year upon all other marine risks not terminated.” Thus, in calculating the unearned premium reserve, the Philippines shifted from the 40-percent method to the 24th method. The 40-percent method simply imposed a flat rate of 40 percent as the reserve requirement.

Apparently, the move was to keep the Philippines aligned with other Asian countries. Before we proceed, we will have to understand the concept of earned and unearned premiums. In determining the earned premium, the length of the policy and the time period that has elapsed will have to be determined. Thus, if pre-

Egypt’s judiciary: A willing participant in repression

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By Sharif Abdel Kouddous | Los Angeles Times

gypt’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, was sentenced last week to 20 years in prison without parole on charges related to the killing of 10 protesters. The verdict came five months after a court dropped charges against Morsi’s predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, over the killing of hundreds of protesters who rose up against his 30-year reign in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.

The contrast is instructive.

Egypt’s judiciary, touted as independent by government officials and their sycophants, has shed any remnant of neutrality.

During the Mubarak era, judges displayed at least some degree of independence, forcing the regime to periodically resort to exceptional courts like military tribunals or state security courts to get the rulings it wanted.

But after the 2011 uprising, and the tumultuous events that followed, state institutions panicked, adopting a siege mentality in the face of what they perceived as an existential threat. The judicial system no longer even attempts to uphold

the rule of law or administer justice to its citizens; its main purpose now is to protect the state, primarily the army and police.

Judges routinely hand down harsh sentences, not just against outspoken government critics, but also to anyone perceived as a threat to the ruling regime. Islamists, activists, human-rights advocates, civil-society workers, journalists, trade unionists, students, street children and the LGBT community have all been targeted.

Meanwhile, police and public officials have received acquittal after acquittal. Despite the killing of hundreds of protesters by security forces, you would be hard-pressed

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24th method: Unearned premium reserve calculation Dennis B. Funa

William Pesek

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

to find a single police officer behind bars. Despite the rampant corruption and violence of the Mubarak regime, former government administrators have all been released from prison.

In the heady days after the 2011 revolt, Egypt’s story was in the streets; mass mobilizations were a potent political force. Four years later, as a journalist covering Egypt, I feel like a court reporter. The prisons are bursting; the trials are constant.

Many trials are held in a converted lecture hall at the Police Institute inside the sprawling Tora prison complex. This is, by no means, a public courtroom. There are three security checks to get inside, and often only lawyers and journalists are allowed access. Family members must wait outside among police dogs and army tanks.

The caged defendants’ dock that is standard for Egyptian courtrooms has been outfitted with thick, soundproof glass, making it impossible to hear, or properly see, the accused. During recesses,

communication with defendants is conducted through improvised sign language.

During the trial proceedings, defense lawyers do what they can. In the face of evidence that is almost uniformly based solely on police testimony, they present video and witnesses, they reference procedural law and cite the constitution, and make detailed closing arguments. But their efforts usually make little difference.

The attorney Mahmoud Bilal, who spent months representing defendants in three concurrent, protest-related cases, watched helplessly as his clients all received prison sentences ranging from two years to life.

“My colleagues and I have completely lost faith in the judiciary, but what we do is at least contribute to unveiling the violations in these cases, and make it harder for judges to issue political verdicts,” he told the local news outlet Mada Masr this month.

The rulings span the gamut from the shocking to the absurd.

mium has been paid for a one-year home insurance and nine months have elapsed, then the insurer has earned premium equivalent to threefourths of the premiums paid, representing the nine months. The rest of the paid premium would, of course, be the unearned premium. To give it a definition, unearned premium is “that portion of premium which is not earned by the insurer, i.e., the amount of premium that relates to the policy period that has yet to be utilized or is still an ongoing concern or being the unexpired future periods of cover.” And pursuant to Section 219, a reserve has to be established for the unearned premiums, which shall be charged as a liability. It is an actual liability in the balance sheet.

There are different methods of computing the reserves for unearned premiums. Among these are the flat-rate method, the pro rata temporis method, and the fractional value method that includes the 1/8th method, the 1/12th method, and the 1/24th method or the 24th method.

Different jurisdictions require different methods. Some jurisdictions require no method at all, like the United States. The Philippines now requires the 24th method.

For a definition of the 24th method, we shall adopt that given by the Accounting and Reporting

for the Non-Life Insurance Industry (Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 27), which states: “[It] is a method for computing an unearned premium reserve. It is computed by combining premiums having the same term [e.g., 12, six or three months, one month or any other term], each group being divided by the month in which premiums were written and each premium deemed to have been written in the middle of the month. Accordingly, any 12-month premium written in January will be considered to have been written on January 15 and will, therefore, provide coverage for 15 days beyond the closing date, i.e., 1/24th of the premium in question. A premium written in December of the same year will be deemed to take effect as of December 15 and provide coverage beyond the closing date of 23/24th of the said premium.” We may add: “[It is] a basis for estimating unearned premium reserves based on the assumption that premiums are received evenly over each month and risk is spread evenly over the year.”

Twelve months divided at the 15th of each month is equal to twenty four.

In the last two weeks, a court granted the police the right to deport and ban gay foreigners; a popular belly dancer was sentenced to six months in prison for “insulting the Egyptian flag” after she performed wearing a costume bearing the flag’s three colors; 22 people accused of storming a police station and killing a police officer were sentenced to death; 14 people were sentenced to death and 37 to life in prison—including several journalists and a US citizen—for organizing opposition to Morsi’s military ouster.

Those last two cases were presided over by Nagy Shehata, who has emerged as Egypt’s most notorious judge. According to the privately owned newspaper Al-Tahrir, Shehata has sentenced 204 people to death and doled out 7,395 years in prison to 534 people in just five rulings. Here’s how Shehata justified sentencing three Al Jazeera journalists to jail in 2013: “The devil encouraged them to use journalism and direct it toward actions against the nation.”

Yet the problem is not confined to specific judges. It is systemic.

Dissident judges have been purged; prosecutors are fully onboard.

“The worst culprits in the erosion of justice, of civil society, of everything that makes life livable in Egypt are the judiciary,” the renowned writer and activist Ahdah Soueif told me moments after her nephew, the prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, was sentenced to five years in prison for a peaceful protest. “It’s been such a bitter disappointment and knowledge that they could destroy a basic belief in justice that people have because they’ve decided that their interests lie with this regime. It’s unbelievable.”

The judiciary, which once acted as a curb on the regime’s most authoritarian impulses, has become a willing participant in repression. It is no longer seen as being above the political fray. If and when another revolt grips Egypt, the judicial system may well be a primary target of popular anger.

Atty. Dennis B. Funa is the Insurance Commission’s deputy commissioner for legal services. Send comments to dennisfuna@yahoo.com.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

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www.businessmirror.com.ph

wants bigger pie 7 of 10 Pinoys still have Isuzu in truck, bus segments no bank accounts–report

By Catherine N. Pillas

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By Bianca Cuaresma

espite the country’s economic successes in recent years, seven out of 10 Filipinos remain outside the influence of the formal financial system and excluded from its various benefits, a recent World Bank report showed.

The latest edition of the World Bank Global Findex, published only this month, revealed that only 31.3 percent of Filipino adults own a mobile money account or an account in a financial institution, such as banks, cooperatives or microfinance institution.

This means that in three years’ time, the number of account holders increased from 26.6 percent in 2011. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) estimated that at this rate, over 3 million new accounts were opened between 2011 and 2014.

Despite the rise in the number of bank-account holders, the Philippines still falls behind other countries in Southeast Asia, having ranked fifth of eight observed countries in the subregion.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore has the highest penetration of bank-account holders, at 96 percent. This was followed by Malaysia at 81 percent, Thailand at 78 percent, and Indonesia at 36 percent.

The Philippines tied with Vietnam at 31 percent, while Myanmar and Cambodia are the bottom two at 23 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

The BSP, meanwhile, still welcomed the development, noting that the increase in bank accounts was more evident in poorer and less educated population groups.

The BSP said the poorest 40 percent of Filipino adults with bank accounts increased by 7.1 percentage points from 2011 to 2014, higher than the 3.4-percentage-point increase seen in the upper 60-percent income class of the population.

The BSP also said it was interesting how the number of bank-account holders similarly increased even among less educated adults.

“These gains are a result of continuing efforts in bringing the financial system closer to the people, especially the disadvantaged segments,” the BSP said.

World Bank data also show that the account penetration is higher for older adults, or those aged 25 years and above, at 35.9 percent, compared to the younger adults of only 19 percent.

ING Bank expects PHL’s BOP to swing to positive

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lthough the balance of payments (BOP) stood as a deficit in March this year, the country’s foreign-currency transactions with the rest of the world were likely to end the year as a surplus totaling at least

$1 billion, according to a lender with a global presence.

ING Bank in Manila said the BOP should not end as a shortall this year, like it did in 2014.

Last year the BOP fell to a deficit as wide as $4.1 billion due to

negative sentiment on emerging markets caused by expectations of an interest-rate hike by the US Federal Reserve (the Fed).

This year, however, as market consensus see the Fed moving toward normalization in late 2015,

the country’s BOP should not be adversely affected by the decision of the world’s largest economy.

“The central bank expects around $1 billion surplus in the BOP. The likelihood [for this] See “ING Bank,” A2

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ewly installed Isuzu Philippines Corp.

(IPC) President Hajime Koso is eyeing to strengthen the presence of Isuzu trucks and buses in the local market.

“Trucks and buses are important segments for the Philippines, when we sell these we want to minimize down time of the trucks, listen to customer needs and contribute in accessibility to logistics,” said Koso, who officially replaced Nobuo Izumina at the turnover ceremony on Monday evening.

The local industry is seeing gradual hike in trucks and buses sales despite the proliferation of cheaper Chinese-branded counterparts.

IPC plans to introduce new models in these two segments and expand its after-sales service.

Complementing this thrust is the plan of Japan’s Isuzu Building Corp. (IBC), which Izumina will now be heading, to possibly support truck and bus assembly in the Philippines. IBC builds modified chassis and special bodies for trucks such as dump trucks and cement mixers.

Megaworld. . .

“Eighty percent of our business in IBC is for the domestic industry in Japan and the 20 percent is for export markets. They expect me to expand this business, which includes the Philippines,” Izumina said.

Currently, IPC’s special body truck parts are supplied by local body builder-partner Almazora Motors Corp., while IPC’s own production is limited to chassis.

With IBC possibly expanding services here, IPC may import the units now as completely built units.

“We can start importing the special bodies now or bring them in as complete built up; but this depends on IBC Japan’s plan,” said Joseph Bautista, Sales Division assistant head for IPC. IPC, however, is seen to face tough competition in the trucks and buses segment, as most operators prefer secondhand vehicles, or Chinese-brand trucks and buses, which are 30 percent cheaper than Isuzu offerings.

IPC is eyeing a 30-percent sales hike this year to reach 18,000 units, with most of its growth to be driven by the Isuzu Mu-X.

Continued from A1

business travelers who expect luxurious hotel experience in a private enclave,” Megaworld said.

Last year Tan announced that the real-estate giant, together with its sister company, Travellers International Hotel Group, will be building hotels around the country with a total of 12,000 rooms.

In the next five years, both companies will be expanding to 10,000 new hotel rooms,

all of which will be in Megaworld’s township developments.

At the moment, both Megaworld and Travellers International have already built 1,900 rooms in its existing hotels. These are Richmonde Hotel in Ortigas, and in Eastwood City in Quezon City, Marriott Hotel Manila, Maxims Hotel and Remington Hotel in Newport City; and Fairways and Bluewater in Boracay Newcoast.