ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS
2006 National Newspaper of the Year 2011 National Newspaper of the Year 2013 Business Newspaper of the Year 2017 Business Newspaper of the Year 2019 Business Newspaper of the Year
BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business
EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR (2017, 2018)
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS
PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY
DATA CHAMPION
DTI YIELDS LOFTY GOALS AS VIRUS CUTS EXPORTS www.businessmirror.com.ph
n
Tuesday, December 8, 2020 Vol. 16 No. 61
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 26 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
STANDSTILL traffic is seen at Paso de Blas Interchange in Valenzuela City, December 5, 2020. Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian has suspended the business permit of Nlex Corp., the company operating the North Luzon Expressway, over the traffic mess created by its RFID payment system. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VALENZUELA CITY LGU
T
By Elijah Felice Rosales
PHL RISES 23 NOTCHES IN OPEN DATA INVENTORY; BEST SCORE SINCE 2015
HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has decided to let go of its target of reaching $122 billion in shipments by 2022 as recommended by exporters themselves. Trade Undersecretary Abdulgani M. Macatoman told the BusinessMirror the DTI is surrendering its objectives set under the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2018-2022. He said the export sector endured challenges in buying supplies and trading goods throughout the year that it became impossible to achieve the goals stated on the road map.
“As you know, our exports really went down because of the pandemic, and we are reviewing the targets [in the PEDP] as we can no longer meet them,” Macatoman disclosed. Under the PEDP, the government first stated its goal to bring exports of goods and services from a low end of $122 billion, up to a See “DTI,” A2
House leaders back calls to extend RFID deadline By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz
N
OTING how its chaotic implementation has caused extreme inconvenience to thousands and impaired commerce, the House of Representatives on Monday asked the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to further extend to the first quarter of 2021 the deadline for installing radio-frequency identification (RFID) stickers on vehicles using the tollways. Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said, “At the rate things are going, I don’t think all 6.1 million registered vehicles in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Calabarzon will be provided with RFID stickers by January 11, 2021.” Velasco said the DOTr should also consider the fact that the pandemic has constrained many vehicle owners from leaving their homes and applying for RFID stickers.
The Speaker made the call as tollways experienced gridlock upon the implementation of cashless payment in various expressways on December 1.
Suspend now
MEANWHILE, Ang Probinsyano Party-list Rep. Alfred delos Santos and Valenzuela Rep. Wes Gatchalian are also asking to suspend now the implementation of the RFID technology in expressways. The lawmakers said the two RFID systems are burdensome for motorists. To help curb the spread of the virus through face-to-face transactions, the Toll Regulatory Board mandated cashless toll payments using the RFID to motorists using the expressways in Luzon, but many are facing difficulties because of the limitations in physical registration and issues in using the technology.
ATTY. Larry Gadon shows a copy of the Impeachment Complaint he helped file for a group against Supreme Court Associate Justice Mario Victor F. Leonen during a press conference on Monday. Story on page A3. NONOY LACZA
By Cai U. Ordinario
T
HE Philippines improved its ranking by 23 notches in the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). In the ODIN, released by US-based Open Data Watch, the country is now ranked 18th out of 187 countries from 41st out of 178 countries in 2018. The Open Data Watch did not release an ODIN in 2019. The ranking is the highest achieved by the country since the ODIN was first released in 2015. In that year, the country ranked 23rd out of 125 countries; in 2016 it was 64th out of 173; and in 2017, 28th out of 180. “The ODIN measures how complete a country’s statistical offerings are and whether their data meet international standards of openness,” Open Data Watch said in its report. “Philippines ranks 18th in the Open Data Inventory 2020 with an overall score of 73. The overall score is a combination of a data coverage subscore of 63 and a data openness subscore of 81,” it added. Open Data Watch measures coverage based on the availability of indicators and disaggregations published, how many observations are available over the last 10 years, and if national and subnational data exist. The Philippines’ score of 63 was the highest since 2015. Prior to 2020, the highest score received by the country in terms of coverage was 57 recorded in 2015. See “Open Data,” A2
See “RFID,” A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 48.0330
n JAPAN 0.4615 n UK 64.4123 n HK 6.1976 n CHINA 7.3557 n SINGAPORE 35.9744 n AUSTRALIA 35.6885 n EU 58.2832 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.8068
Source: BSP (December 7, 2020)