w
n
Wednesday, December 11, 2019 Vol. 15 No. 62
Maynilad, Mla Water waive ₧10.8-B awards T
HE Ayala-led Manila Water on Tuesday said it will no longer ask the government to pay the P7.39-billion arbitral award given recently by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Singapore. This, as the other concessionaire, Maynilad Water Services Inc., signaled it was also not pushing for payment of an earlier award by the same arbitral tribunal, for P3.4 billion covering losses arising from government’s refusal to allow tariff hikes—or a total of P10.79 billion.
At the joint hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and House Committee on Public
Accounts, Manila Water President and CEO Jose Almendras said the company will cooperate with the
government and will not collect the P7.39-billion award. “We will comply with the wishes
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n
as of december 10, 2019 | 5:15 p.m. contingent
of the government and President Rodrigo Duterte,” Almendras said. “We abide with what President Duterte wants which is to review the concession agreement,” he added. Continued on A2
gold
silver
bronze
total
philippines
142
106
112
360
Thailand
91
94
114
299
vieTnam
81
82
100
263
indonesia
71
77
104
252
singapore
53
46
61
160
malaysia
51
56
70
177
camBodia
4
6
31
41
myanmar
3
18
49
70
BrUnei
2
5
6
13
laos
0
5
24
29
Timor-lesTe
0
1
5
6
FDI still in the red, down to $582M at the end of Q3
T
See “Occ. Mindoro,” A2
medal tally
“Although the President has said the government will not pay these arbitral awards... this gracious manifestation on the part of the water concessionaires nonetheless removes a potential liability from the books of account of the government.” —Guevarra
Occ. Mindoro bans coal use for energy
HE provincial board of Occidental Mindoro has adopted an ordinance that effectively prohibits the use of coal as a source of energy. The ordinance, entitled “Regulating The Use of Fossil Fuels And Banning The Use of Coal Fired Energy Source Of Power Stations Thereby Replacing Or Using Alternative Green Energy As Part Of Global Efforts To Contribute To The Goals of Climate Change,” or otherwise known as the “Green Energy Ordinance” was approved on Dec. 5 by the city council led by Vice Governor and Presiding Officer Peter Alfaro. It was authored by Abelardo S. Pangilinan, chairman of the Committee on Education, Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.
P25.00 nationwide | 5 sections 42 pages |
By Bianca Cuaresma
L
RED CROSS PARTNER Bono, U2 frontman, explains his advocacy as board member of Zipline, a drone service that signed an agreement with the Philippine Red Cross, chaired by Sen. Richard J. Gordon on Tuesday, on the eve of his first-ever concert in the country. Zipline will help the PRC deliver badly needed blood to hard-to-reach areas. Story on page A2. BERNARD TESTA
@BcuaresmaBM
ONG-TERM investments poured by foreign players into the country still have not recovered enough to enter the growth territory in September this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Tuesday. Foreign direct investments (FDI) into the country were down 2.9 percent in September, to hit $582 million during the month. The Central Bank attributed the decline mainly to lower investments in debt instruments. The decline could have been larger, the BSP said, were it not for the reversal of equity capital investments from net outflows to net inflows during the month.
FDI is the type of investment that is often more coveted, as it stays longer in the economy and creates job opportunities for locals. September is the sixth consecutive month that the Philippines saw a decline in its FDI. Net investments in debt instruments—which consist mainly of intercompany borrowings and lending between foreign direct investors and their subsidiaries and affiliates in the Philippines—decreased by 36 percent to $395 million in September this year, from $618 million in the same month last year. Meanwhile, nonresidents’ net equity capital investments posted a 182-percent growth to $96 million—from net equity capital Continued on A12
US 50.8360 n JAPAN 0.4681 n UK 66.8493 n HK 6.4943 n CHINA 7.2216 n SINGAPORE 37.3932 n AUSTRALIA 34.7210 n EU 56.2602 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.5570
Source: BSP (10 December 2019 )