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Govt addresses major problems in Boracay By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) indicated that the “water quality in the eastern part of Boracay beach is alarming, making it unsafe for swimming and other human activities.” The Jica study, which covered the years 2010 to 2015, said “direct discharge of untreated wastewater near the shore brings poor water-quality level that consequently results in frequent algal blooms and coral-reef deterioration.” It should be noted that this wasn’t the first time a study of Boracay’s waters had been published. As far back as 1997, the Department of Environment and

A sand sculpture is seen at the shores of Boracay Island. Increasing levels of waste and flooding and other problems affecting the resort island cast a grim future for Boracay. ALYSA SALEN

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Conclusion

Natural Resources (DENR) already reported that it found the swimming areas and groundwater of the island had been contaminated with E. coli, bacteria that are normally found in fecal matter. The report resulted in canceled bookings in a number of resorts for about a year. But with government tourism-promotion agencies continuing to push the Boracay agenda, tourists returned to the island, double or triple the numbers that had cancelled before.

Overcrowding, flooding, garbage issues

THE main beach road has also become crowded with tricycles, shuttle services of resorts and private vehicles. According to the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Boracay President Elena T. Brugger, “When it comes to tricycles [and private] vans, they’re too many Continued on A2

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Investors in wait-and-see mode on ‘endo’ flip-flops

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

conomic-policy flip-flop—a perennial concern of the business community that has been hurting the inflow of investments to the Philippines for decades now—is again rearing its ugly head in the Duterte administration, with the issue on contractualization as its most visible manifestation today. Over a year into the Duterte administration—and with a department order, House of Representatives-approved bill and a soon-to-be released executive order (EO) tackling contractual-

ization—businessmen and other stakeholders are still holding their breath as to what would be the final policy on this pressing labor issue. Employers Confederation of the

Philippines (Ecop) President Donald Dee said investors have been put on a wait-and-see mode because of this, and—just like previous policy flip-flops—is hurting the investment climate in the country.

DEE: “Our policies keep on changing. Investors don’t have an assurance.”

Building social protection floor for all

“One of the problems why our [level of ] investments is low compared to other countries is precisely because our policies are inconsistent. Our policies keep on changing. Investors don’t have an assurance. The commitment they were given [by the government] when they entered the country was not the same after a few years,” Dee told the BusinessMirror.

Rene E. Ofreneo

See “Investors,” A2

laborem exercens

PHL keen on importing more medicines from India

ocial security is a universally recognized human right. It is defined as an individual’s protection from risks associated with sickness, disability, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, old age, death, unaffordable health care and insufficient family support. The 1948 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights declares it is the duty of every member-state to guarantee and realize the economic, social and cultural rights of everyone in society “in accordance with the organization and resources of each State.” According to the UN Declaration, these are indispensable in securing the dignity of every citizen and “the free development of his personality” (Article 22).

he Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is aiming to link local pharmaceutical manufacturers with their Indian counterparts as part of efforts to increase the availability of low-cost medicines in the Philippines, a trade official announced on Wednesday. In the BusinessMirror ’s Coffee Club forum, Trade Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado said the DTI is scheduled to return to India to further deliberate the government’s plan to import pharmaceutical products from India. This is in compliance with President Duterte’s initiative to allow India-based firms to export cheap and effective medicines to the country. “We need to study the right model, and we, in fact, have a plan of going back to India in the second quarter to be able to expand the discussion,” Terrado said. She noted there was understanding and determination from both Manila and New Delhi to make the Philippines the next export market of Indian pharmaceuticals. Terrado said the DTI is determined to push through with the import plan because it was an initiative by Duterte himself. “Going back to the 10-point [socioeconomic] agenda, we have to impact the poorest of the poor. We have to provide our people the ability to buy affordable, quality medicines. We are talking of medicines that poor people should have access to.” Terrado cited as examples medicines for diabetes and hypertension, which she said are expensive when purchased in the local market. “What we did in India, aside from having this discussion, is we scanned the market and really went around to look for medicines.” “The brands that we saw there were actually far cheaper than the ones we have. The disparity in prices is really evident,” Terrado added. However, the trade official clarified local manufacturers will not be left

PESO exchange rates n US 51.4210

Continued on A10

PHL still far from desired care for 2M ‘kasambahays’ By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

MISSION: PHL Trade Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado (center) and BusinessMirror Editor in Chief Jun Vallecera (right) sign a memorandum of agreement for Mission:PHL, the BusinessMirror’s Envoys & Expats Recognition Awards. Witnessing the MOA signing is Adel Gasmin, vice president for finance of the BusinessMirror. The first of its kind in the country, Mission: PHL will be launched this March with the participation of the departments of Trade and Industry, Environment and Natural Resources, Science and Technology, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs, as well as other government agencies. It shall give due recognition to embassies, consulates and aid agencies, as well as economic and cultural offices that have contributed to the country’s economic growth, social progress, peace, security and stability. Awarding ceremonies for Mission:PHL will be held in November of this year. roy domingo out in the process, saying they will take part in this initiative and will even have the chance to establish ties with their Indian counterparts. “We will have that conversation, that planning session with the local industries through the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce Philippines

Inc. and local manufacturers,” she said. She added what the government is asking from local manufacturers right now is openness to competition and the opportunity to provide Filipinos additional options in terms of having access to medicine. See “Medicines,” A2

Conclusion

he Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is now also reviewing the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 10361, or the so-called Kasambahay law, to address the problem on labordispute settlement for household service workers (HSW) numbering to about 2 million nationwide. Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns Director Ma. Karina P. Trayvilla, in an interview with the BusinessMirror, said the review will address the current confusion between the National

L abor Relations Commission (NLRC) and the DOLE regional offices, on which agency should handle the dismissal cases of HSWs. The Labor Code states that the NLRC should have the sole jurisdiction of handling dismissal cases, but RA 10361 contains a provision giving the DOLE Regional offices jurisdiction on cases involving dismissed HSWs. Trayvilla said they are now forming a technical working group to draft the issuance, which will clarify the issue. “This is a very important issue [since] it will determine where a kasambahay should go in case their negotiations in Sena [Single Entry Continued on A12

n japan 0.4725 n UK 72.7299 n HK 6.5749 n CHINA 8.1298 n singapore 39.2018 n australia 41.5276 n EU 63.7363 n SAUDI arabia 13.7115

Source: BSP (31 January 2018 )

BMReports BusinessMirror

A2 Thursday, February 1, 2018

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Govt addresses major problems in Boracay Continued from A1

for a small island.” Flooding also keeps recurring on the island, even with the usual rainy weather, the likes of which were not present according to locals who have transplanted themselves to Boracay for work for the past 20 years. The flooding issue took center stage once more when Typhoon Urduja swept through the island last December, causing tourists and locals to wade in waist-high water. The DOT, in its report to the House Committee on Tourism chaired by Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez of First District of Leyte, traced the flooding issue mainly to resorts being built over bodies of water, as well as improper drainage. Tourism Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Frederick M. Alegre said Tieza found 11 commercial establishments that illegally connected to its rainwater drain pipe, spewing out their untreated wastewater and sewage into the open sea. Garbage has also been improperly disposed on the island. While waste-segregation rules were imposed in 2012, or 12 years after the Solid Waste Management Act in the Philippines was enacted, the DENR last year found unsegregated garbage in the island’s materials recovery facility in Baranggay Manoc-Manoc. The findings prompted Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu to threaten Malay

Investors. . . Continued from A1

Dee explained that foreign investors are uncertain about pouring in money into the country with the President’s changing tone on contractualization, or popularly known in the Philippines as “endo,” the scheme that allows employers to keep rehiring workers on a contractual basis after usually five-month terms. He said one day Duterte is so eager to prohibit fixed-term employment, the next day he becomes silent about it. For Dee, this discourages businessmen to invest because of fear that the President, at any day, might take the radical step in abolishing contractualization. “As I told [Labor] Secretary [Silvestre H.] Bello III, ‘Are you going to eliminate this whole sector of the economy?’That [contractualization] is our business model. That is why he [Bello] consented, and we were able to come up with Department Order [DO] 174,” he said. The DO was issued last March by Bello with the intention of meeting halfway with the interests of workers and employers. The order prohibits labor-only contracting; farming of work through “cabo”; contracting out of job or work through an in-house agency; contracting

Mayor Ciceron S. Cawaling with administrative sanctions unless the latter solved the garbage issue. The latter promised to ship out tons of garbage to the sanitary landfill in the mainland.

Another administration, another EO

AS early as 1978, then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos recognized the tourism potential of Boracay Island and saw the need to regulate its development. Marcos issued Proclamation 1801, which declared Boracay and several other islands, coves and peninsulas in the Philippines as tourist zones and marine reserves “under the administration and control of the Philippine Tourism Authority [PTA].” The president further mandated that “no development projects or construction for any purposes shall be introduced within the zones without prior approval of the president of the Philippines upon recommendation of the [PTA].” Since then, more congressional resolutions and presidential executive orders had been issued, each one not quite solving Boracay’s worsening environmental problems, nor addressing its overbuilding issues. At a House of Representatives Committee on Tourism hearing on DOT’s plans for Boracay, Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo asserted the Local Government Code enacted in 1992 stripped the

out of job or work through an in-house cooperative, which merely supplies workers to principal employers; contracting out of job or work by reason of a strike or lockout, whether actual or imminent; and contracting out of job or work being performed by union members and such that interferes with, restrains or coerces employees in the exercise of their rights to self-organization, as provided in Article 259 of the Labor Code, as amended. However, the DO was met with opposition from both economists and labor groups. On one hand, labor groups dismissed the order as redundant, saying the prohibitions under it were already banned by existing laws. On the other hand, economists said the government will have difficulty implementing the DO. They also told the labor department not to reduce the labor market as simply a sphere involving only workers and employers. If the government truly aims to attract more foreign investors, as stated by the country’s economic managers, the Ecop chief urged the President to at least make his directives clear. “First and foremost, if you really want to create a proper environment for investments—even better than the investments entering Vietnam today—you just have to really make a policy consistent and clear,” he said.

agency of its police powers and devolved this to local government units (LGU). It is this very same code that rendered former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Executive Order (EO) 706 issued in 2008 “unimplementable.” In the said EO, Arroyo placed Boracay once more under PTA’s control, reiterating Marcos’s earlier Proclamation 1087. EO 706 also mandated the Malay LGU to impose a moratorium on new building permits, until PTA drew up a master development plan for the island.

Contradictory provisions

FORMER Tourism Secretary Joseph Felix Mari H. Durano, who was PTA chairman in 2008, explained to the BusinessMirror why EO 706 was not implemented. According to Durano, there is a continuing jurisdictional competition between the DOT/PTA, now Tieza and the Municipality of Malay as far as development authority over Boracay. “On one hand, DOT/PTA was given administrative authority under the EO. On the other hand, the Local Government Code grants LGUs its governmental powers, which includes the issuance of permits,” he explained. “Even with the EO, DOT/PTA does not have supervisory powers over LGUs that will allow [both agencies] to reverse actions of LGUs. With the present setup,

Dee added that now is the best time to “break open” the economy, to allow it “to take off,” given the growing interest of foreign investors in the government’s infrastructure program. He said this is what the government should capitalize on. “With what is happening now, our focus should be—like what the President is doing right now—[on] infrastructure. We have to do it ourselves on the infrastructure. When our public infrastructure increases, automatically, that will lower logistics cost, and then it will lead to lower cost of living. Problem is, a number of people are hindering that,” Dee said. “Food [is expensive because] that is the effect of logistics and the [lack of ] infrastructure. You can only bring it [prices] down if you have the infrastructure,” he added. Dee fears all this momentum that the government gained from pitching its infrastructure program to foreign investors will be put to waste if it rolls out a total ban on contractualization. What will help workers, he said, are programs intended to expand the economy that will lead to generation of jobs and livelihood opportunities. During the campaign period, Duterte banked on an anticontractualization campaign that boosted his popularity well around labor groups. He vowed to outlaw the employment method and give work-

all stakeholders must just work together for the sustainability of the island.” But while the Malay LGU may have the law on its side, Durano believes it cannot escape its responsibility in keeping tourism on the island sustainable. “The accountability I see in the issuance of the building permits is whether environmental and building laws were complied.” For her part, Teo has already announced that she and Cimatu are currently preparing an executive order for President Duterte’s signature, which would establish an interagency task force to oversee Boracay’s development and swiftly respond to problems the island faces. Under the proposed EO, the interagency task force can force the municipal government to penalize resorts and establishments caught violating environmental laws or have them close down. “Otherwise, [the mayor] can be charged with administrative sanctions as provided for in Executive Order 292,” otherwise known as the Administrative Code of 1987, she said.

Saving Boracay

DURING the hearing at the House of Representatives, Cawaling said the Mayor’s office enforces a three-strike rule, where violators are given the chance to address their issues.

ers their much-desired security of tenure. However, in his over a year in office, the President failed to issue a ban on contractualization through an executive order, which labor groups were asking him. This lack of concrete policy led some groups, such as the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno, to call it quits with Duterte and return to the streets to call for radical labor reforms. On Monday congressmen passed House Bill 6908, which seeks to strengthen the security of tenure of workers by amending for the purpose Presidential Decree 442, or the Labor Code of the Philippines. The measure prohibits labor-only contracting and defines its existence when any of the following is present: the contractor does not have substantial capital or investment in the form of tools, equipment, machineries and work premises, among others; and the contractor has no control over the workers’ methods and mean of accomplishing their work; and the contractor’s workers are performing activities which are directly related to the principal business of the employer. The country’s largest labor groups are also hoping that the new EO set to be issued by Duterte anytime now will finally prohibit all forms of contractualization, as what they sought in their draft EO that was submitted to Malacañang last year.

It is only after the third violation that these establishments can actually be shuttered, he said. He also earlier told a news conference in Boracay that he couldn’t impose a moratorium on new constructions on the island, without making a proper inventory of existing establishments. Under the proposed EO, a Boracay interagency task force will be chaired by the DENR, with the tourism secretary as cochairman, with members coming from Tieza, the departments of the Interior and Local Government, Social Welfare and Development, Public Works and Highways, Agriculture, Philippine National Police, LGU of Boracay, PCCI-Boracay, Boracay Foundation, municipality of Malay and the province of Aklan. Like Boracay stakeholders and regular visitors to the island, I sincerely hope the new EO would address the issues on the island, and protect its environment from collapsing. The DOT and the DENR are in possession of a list of resorts and commercial establishments, which have committed infractions against tourism and environmental laws. For its part, Boracay stakeholder groups like PCCIBoracay and Boracay Foundation need to police its ranks, too. Government can’t do everything for them. It’s time for real action to save Boracay, before it’s too late.

Medicines. . . Continued from A1

“We need to link up the local industry with the Indian industry to have that conversation because our role is to create partnerships, and we want it to be market-driven and we want to make sure that the beneficiaries are the people,” Terrado said. Conversation on allowing Indian pharmaceuticals to enter the country’s market began when the President had a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last November. As part of renewing ties with New Delhi, Duterte said Manila would like allow India-based businessmen to look at the country as a potential market for medicines. The President also said the government can no longer allow American

Labor group. . . Continued from A12

no more representation in the SSC for almost two years,” he added. The FFW said it will submit a letter to the SSS questioning the manner by which it came up with the decision for the membership fee increase. The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) also assailed the SSS proposal since it will be implemented at a time when workers are still struggling to cope with the price increase caused by the recently implemented Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law. “Any additional SSS monthly contribution at this point of TRAIN implementation is not a good time for workers,” ALU-TUCP National President Michael C. Mendoza said. Mendoza urged SSS to reconsider the membership increase and instead focus on other measure to raise its revenues like reducing the “excessive” bonuses of its executives, improving its portfolio investments and running after delinquent employers. “SSS records show only 14 million of its 34 million registered members are regularly paying their monthly contributions,” he said.

Reject hike

M ilitant-lawma k ers on Wednesday urged the Palace to reject the 3-percent proposed increase in SSS contribution. Party-list Reps. Ariel Casilao of Anakpawis and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, asked the President not to approve the proposed increase. “While the proposed measure was meant to prolong the actuarial life of the SSS fund, increasing the

pharmaceutical products to dominate the country’s market because of its expensive prices. He said Indian medicines are not only effective, but are also affordable, making it suitable to a developing country with a populace that spends more on health. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority reported Filipino households saw their out-of-pocket expenditures for health go up by 52.4 percent in 2016. The PSA also said households spent P342 billion for their various health needs, such as medicines, food supplements, pharmaceutical products and diagnostic needs, among others, in 2016. The increase in out-of-pocket expenditures contributed to the 10.5-percent hike in the total health expenses to P655 billion in 2016, from P593 billion in 2015. This summed up to a contribution of 4.5 percent to the country’s GDP. Elijah Felice E. Rosales

contribution should not be on the top of the list by the SSS management. There are pending issues that the SSS leadership should settle first, which affects the actual performance of the SSS,” Casilao said. He added SSS should instead go after employers who did not transmit the SSS contributions of their employees. “The SSS should also address other controversies that continue to hound the agency, like the anomaly on the stock investments, excessive perks, bonuses of its high-ranking officials and board members,” he said. Brosas said the plan to increase premiums of the SSS to 14 percent by April is “ill-timed and baseless” in view of the “collection inefficiency” of the government-owned and -controlled corporation and the increase in prices due to the TRAIN law. She also said the majority of those who will be affected are low minimum-wage earners and members without fixed incomes. “Minimum-wage earners who are not affected by the supposed relief brought by TRAIN are now suffering from increase of prices in basic commodities and services. And now, this is salt to the wound that they have to suffer since whatever left of their take-home pay will be cut by this premium increase,” Brosas said. “SSS members should not suffer for the agencies’ management inefficiency. Collection-efficiency rate of SSS has been pegged at 40 percent to 50 percent only. Before pushing for increase in premiums, the SSS management should first resolve this problem of inefficiency,” she said. The SSS attributed the decrease of SSS’s net income—from P32 billion in 2016 to P9 billion in 2017—to the P1,000 hike given to SSS pensioners last year.

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Dela Rosa installs Bulalacao as new PNP spokesman By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

ational Police chief Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa installed on Wednesday Chief Supt. John Bulalacao as the new spokesman for the Philippine National Police (PNP), relieving Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos from the post. The PNP chief “shipped” Carlos to the Aviation Security Group in the PNP’s continuing reshuffle of positions and designations as dela Rosa said places the “best men” in key positions in the antiillegal drugs war. Some reporters, who were covering Camp Crame, viewed Carlos as the exact opposite of dela Rosa, his principal, while serving his former post as spokesman. While the PNP chief is very much accessible to the media and relishes giving interviews to Camp Crame-based reporters, Carlos imposed policies that appeared to have disconnected journalists other police officials and with the PNP as a whole by requiring clearances from his offices for any conduct of interviews. It was under his term where reporters assigned to cover the PNP general headquarters in Camp Crame were discreetly subjected to background investigation, an act that prodded no less than dela Rosa to disown. In appointing Bulalacao as the new spokesman, dela Rosa wanted to convey his messages to a wider audience in a more efficient manner and in the clearest form. Bulalacao, member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1988, was the former chief of the directorial staff of the National Capital Region Police Office. He was promoted to a star rank on January 14. “Bulalacao has served a wellrounded career as a junior and field grade officer. He commanded the Cavite Police Provincial Office as provincial director from 2011 to 2012 and earlier served as chief of police of Tagaytay City, Dasmariñas and Carmona,” a statement from the PNP read. Bulalacao had also served as staff officer in various capacities in the Civil Security Group, National Capital Region Police Office and Special Action Force. “The PNP spokesman is the official mouthpiece and publicist of the PNP on public information matters involving internal security and general peace and order,” the PNP said. “The PNP spokesman is a personal staff officer of the chief [of] PNP, and concurrent capacity as chief of the Public Information Office is the lead implementor of the PNP media-relations policy,” the statement added.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Thursday, February 1, 2018 A3

House Speaker doubts ‘competence’ of MRT 3 general manager Garcia By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemarie

mid unrelenting woes of hundreds of thousands of commuters patronizing the breakdown-prone Metro Railway Transit Line 3 (MRT 3), the House leadership on Wednesday questioned the “competence” of the rail facility’s general manager, Rodolfo Jazmines Garcia.

During the joint hearing of the House Committee on Transportation and House Committee on Public Works and Highways, Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said Garcia had no actual or real expe-

rience in the operation and maintenance of a train system. “You were appointed there to fix the problem. Now, your experience is being a member of the board, but you don’t have any

experience in operation. You’ve been sitting in the post for more than a year and yet nothing has happened,” Alvarez said. According to Alvarez, the MRT 3 needs a competent official who could fix the problems in the system. “The [commuting] public is exhausted. We really need to fix [the problems and glitches of MRT 3]. We need a person who can really address the problem,” Alvarez added. The House Speaker said commuters had long been suffering with the service of the MRT 3, including the ordeal of having to stand in long queues and overcrowding in the trains, not to mention the frequent breakdowns of the system. He said the real mission of the MRT 3 train managers is to ensure the convenience of the riding public,

as well as the safety and cleanliness of the mass-transport system.

Dalian trains

Meanwhile, Garcia said they were looking to augment the present number of MRT 3 coaches by using the controversial Dalian coaches procured during the Aquino administration. However, Alvarez said that the signaling system of the Dalian coaches may not be compatible with the existing system and challenged Garcia if he was sure of what he was telling the committee. But Garcia said, “I will resign if I am not sure.” According to the data of the committee, the original specification of the MRT 3 system is designed to serve 300,000 passengers a day with at least 20 trains. At present, MRT 3 officials ad-

The [commuting] public is exhausted. We really need to fix [the problems and glitches of MRT 3]. We need a person who can really address the problem.” —Alvarez

mitted that the system is accommodating an average of 350,000 passengers daily with less than 10 trains at its disposal.

Duterte admin told: Reconsider plan to abolish PCGG, OGCC By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

Toy-gun trade

A lady vendor in Santa Cruz, Manila, counts her revenue take for the day from selling replica toy guns that are identical in appearance to their much-dealier counterparts. Roy Domingo

No illegal-drugs lab in NBP, but dealing persists–PDEA

he Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Wednesday reported that some convicted Chinese were able to continue their illegal-drug trade activities inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP). During the House Subcommittee on Correctional Reforms hearing on the proliferation of illegal drug at the NBP, PDEA Acting Director for Intelligence Services Jigger Montellana said illegal drugs are sourced outside the national penitentiary. “We found out that some of sources of drugs we have confiscated actually comes from transactions from NBP, and most of these personalities are not captured in [the] radar of personalities we are already monitoring,” Montellana told lawmakers.

According to Montellana, these convicted Chinese do not belong to list of drug lords at the Maximum Security Compound of the NBP. While there is no drug laboratory inside the national penitentiary, Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) legal officer Daisy Castillote, meanwhile, said drug-related transactions are made through cellular phones. “We are concurring with the PDEA. There is no manufacturing inside the Bureau of Corrections or NBP. Transactions were made through telephone communications are all that has been happening. No proliferation inside [the prison facility],” said Castillote. For his part, Philippine National Police (PNP) Supt. Enrico Rigor, chief of the Legal and In-

vestigation Division of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, said they recovered two telephone conversations between convicted Chinese and drug suppliers. R igor a lso told law ma kers that the anti-wiretapping law prevented the authorities from gathering evidence against these drugs lords. Also, Frederick Santos, Bureau of Corrections Internal Affairs Service chief, said Building 14 of Maximum Security Compund has only two signal jammers. Meanwhile, the committee has ordered the NBP to submit regular reports to the congressional oversight committee on the matter, as well as reforms inside the NBP.

Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

he Duterte administration was told to “rethink” plans to abolish the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) and, instead, expand the functions of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG). Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon on Wednesday raised an alarm over what he described as a “staggering” 730,000 pending cases before the OSG, suggesting that Malacañang must move to “strengthen the government’s principal legal defender.” Drawing from his experience as a former secretary of justice, Drilon voiced doubts the move to dissolve the PCGG and OGCC, and pass on the two agencies’ tasks to the OSG, would achieve its objective. The senator acknowledged the Office of the President’s prerogative, but suggested Palace officials review the plan further. “We agree on streamlining and right-sizing as a matter policy, but we should look at the efficiency, Drilon said. He noted that the OSG, which shall absorb the PCGG and OGCC, already “has its both hands full.” In a news statement, the senate minority leader suggested that both the Duterte administration officials concerned, as well as members of congressional justice committees, “take a second look at the proposals” to abolish the PCGG and OGCC and transfer their functions to the OSG. Describing the situation as “staggering and worrisome,” Drilon pointed out that over 730,000 cases that are pending before the OSG,

of which 374,424 are active cases. He added that this means “a lawyer in the OSG would have to attend to about 1,400 cases,” as it was earlier shown there are only 240 lawyers in the OSG at present, even as the OSG has 390 authorized plantilla positions. “I can’t imagine a lawyer handling 1,400 cases,” Drilon said, warning that the “efficiency and batting average of the OSG would suffer if we do not address it.” He asked: “Should we burden the OSG even more by giving it more responsibilities than what it could handle, because it is obvious the agency is overwhelmed and understaffed? I doubt that transferring the functions of the PCGG and OGCC to the OSG would solve the problem.” Dr i lon sug gested t hat t he functions of the OSG should instead be reviewed, citing, for a start, “the OSG’s mandate to intervene in marital cases.” “The OSG is tasked to represent the state’s interest in preserving the institution of marriage,” the senator said, adding, “It determines whether there is collusion between the parties—a function that Drilon believes the judge can already perform in the course of the proceedings.” He further noted that, presently, “there are approximately 145,000 marriage-related cases pending in the OSG.” The senator stressed that remedial legislation should also remove the burden of intervening in marital cases from the OSG and allow it “to focus on more critical cases involving the government.” Drilon said he intends to “submit a proposal to remove from the OSG the burden of intervening in marital cases, leaving the responsibility to the judiciary.”

Beechcraft King Air C-90 Navy plane now watches over Scarborough Shoal

he Nav y ’s C-9 0 a i rc ra f t launched its maiden maritime patrol on Wednesday and spotted nine Chinese paramilitary, suspected military and civilian fishing vessels in the disputed Scarborough Shoal. The aircraft, one of the two C-90s that the Japanese government donated to the Philippines in November last year, also spotted four Filipino fishing vessels inside the shoal. Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) Spokesman Lt. Col. Isagani Nato said the Beechcraft King Air C-90, a newly com-

missioned fixed-wing aircraft of the Navy, flew around the Scarborough at 800 feet for its maiden. During the patrol, the aircraft sighted four Filipino fishing boats along with nine Chinese vessels comprising of four Chinese Coast Guard vessels, four “unknown” Chinese vessels and a Chinese fishing vessel. Nato added the Filipino pilots heard no challenge from the Chinese Coast Guard during the sortie. While the Scarborough Shoal forms part of the Philippine territory, Beijing has been exercising a de facto control over the area since occupying

it several years ago following a standoff of its vessels with the Philippine Navy’s flagship BRP Gregorio del Pilar. In the past, China even attacked Filipino fishing vessels, which managed to saunter inside the shoal, a traditional fishing ground for Filipinos for many centuries. Nato said the C-90’s patrol of the shoal was its first military mission. “Its employment boosted the capability of the Navy to conduct limited airlift, reconnaissance and surveillance within the area of responsibility of Nolcom. It will also complement the efforts of the Philippine Air

Force to monitor and watch over the three maritime areas in Northern and Central Luzon,” he said. In 2016 the Department of National Defense, through then-Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin, signed a contract with Japan, leasing five C-90s from Tokyo, which the Philippine military uses in patrolling the country’s maritime waters. The finalization of the acquisition contract was preceded by China’s continued and unchallenged activities within the Philippine territory, notably in the shoals, where Manila exercises jurisdic-

tions, but which have been either occupied or sealed by Beijing. Two of the five C-90s were later donated by Japan to the military. Nato said the Nolcom will use every available assets in order to protect its area of jurisdictions, especially from the intruding Chinese. “Nolcom will utilize all available assets and resources to protect our national territory, including its northern maritime areas, and assert our sovereign rights over our maritime domain,” Nato said. “Nolcom will continue to do its mandate that will be nonpro-

vocative, strictly adhering to the international law and in line with the directives and policies of the national government,” he added. Meanwhile, a Japanese destroyer will dock at Pier 13 in South Harbor, Manila, on Friday for a two-day goodwill visit, according to Philippine Navy Spokesman Capt. Lued Lincuna. The JS Amagiri (DD-154), with one DH-60J patrol helicopter of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, will berth after a customary meeting procedure with BRP Rajah Humabon (PS11) at the vicinity of Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. Rene Acosta

Economy

A4 Thursday, February 1, 2018 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

Century-old biz group joins clamor to amend mining law

he country’s oldest business organization, the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands (CCPI), has sought sponsorship in Congress to amend mining laws.

CCPI President Jose Luis Yulo Jr. told reporters on the sidelines of the Nordic Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines on Wednesday that the current mining laws now need change, promoting mineral processing locally rather than exporting raw materials to neighboring countries like China and Japan. Yulo said the chamber wanted a stop in the export of minerals like ore as raw materials.

“We should only give the mine to people who will produce a factory and use the minerals that produced finished products,” he said. “What we are doing now is we get the mines, we get the copper ore, we give to China and Japan and then we import back the finished product,” Yulo added. The CCPI chief targets to get Congress’s sponsorship for bill amending mining laws by the first half of

the year. “We have to change the mining law,” he said. But Yulo said the country could still ship minerals to countries where these resources are not available. In 2014 the Philippines accounted for 50 percent of the global source of nickel ore after Indonesia implemented a ban on mining exports. The CCPI has been pushing to amend the domestic mining laws since it launched its “History Builds the Future 2030: Five Pillars” in 2016 in time for its 130th founding anniversary. It cited five pillars that would help the country regain its top economic position in Southeast Asia during the 1960s by 2030. Moreover, Yulo said the government should look into giving fiscal

What we are doing now is we get the mines, we get the copper ore, we give to China and Japan and then we import back the finished product.”—Yulo

incentives to companies that would set up complete value chain for mineral processing here. PNA

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Experts: Enough frequency space for third telco player

recent call for submission of views and comments by the Department of Information and Communications Technology has revealed that there’s enough frequencies to accommodate a third player in telecommunications that could compete Globe and Smart. In their comments, Dodie Elvina of Converge, Sundance Apolinario of G-Telecoms and Jonathan Stevens of TierOne were unanimous in agreement that the 300-megahertz frequencies identified by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) would be enough to compete with existing telco players. According to Apolinario, “new technologies are here now and we can layer [frequencies]. Most phones can take the higher frequencies.” Stevens of TierOne, on the other hand, said existing frequencies can be modified to drive 5G, noting that manufacturers are now able to deliv-

PSALM’s debt-servicing obligation pegged at ₧1.47T from 2001 to 2017 By Lenie Lectura

@llectura

he Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSA LM) Cor p.’s debt servicing for the period covering 2001 to 2017 has reached P1.47 trillion. Of the amount, the principal debt payments hit P567.7 billion during the period. Maturing Independent Power Producer (IPP) obligations reached P555.7 billion. Interest payments and other charges stood at P346 billion. Debt service is the amount PSALM had agreed to pay for a number of periods during the lifetime of its loan. Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, PSALM is the government agency tasked to repay the debts of the National Power Corp. (Napocor). In 2017 alone, PSALM settled a total of P73.3 billion in financial obligations, broken down into P55.9- billion debts and IPP obligations, and P17.4-billion interest. Aside from the P73.3-billion debt ser vicing in 2017, PSALM has paid P10 billion to the Bureau of the Treasury for its advances to PSALM in 2016 that was utilized to bridge the financing gap. As of 2017, PSALM’s financial obligations went down to P466.2 billion, which registered a decrease of 7.9 percent from 2016’s level of P506.3 billion and a decrease of 62.4 percent vis-à-vis the 2003 level of P1.24 trillion. Funds in settling PSALM’s assumed financial obligations are sourced from collections f rom its power generation, privatization proceeds and universal charge. To date, the privatization proceeds that PSALM realized stood at P528 billion, while the collection from the stranded contract cost portion of the universal charge reached

P56.9 billion. The bulk of PSALM’s financial obligations are foreign denominated, with a huge portion based in US dollars. Any devaluation of the peso against the US dollar from time to time contributes to the surge in financial obligations. The commissioning of new power plants at that time also led to the spike in the debts’ interests. The corporation’s financialmanagement strategy is instrumental in the sustained decline of its financial obligations, PSALM said. PSALM’s financial obligations peaked to P1.24 trillion in 2003, from P831 billion in 2000. “ The ser vicing of PSALM financial obligations in the total amount of P1.47 trillion could have entirely wiped out the 2000 figure it assumed from Napocor, had there been no complex and inevitable factors resulting in its increase through the years,” the state firm said. These factors, PSALM is referring to, include the commissioning of new power plants between 2001 and 2006 to prevent the power shortage that paralyzed the country in the 1990s until early-2000, refinancing or new loans to fill the gap when maturing obligations fall due, and the vulnerability of PSALM’s assumed loans to foreign-exchange fluctuations. “Despite these factors affecting the corporation’s financial obligations, the level was significantly trimmed down to its level today. It is projected that with PSALM’s continuous privatization efforts, including the sale of real-estate assets, collection of universal charge and power-generation proceeds, its financial obligations will further decrease substantially when the corporate life of PSALM ends in 2026,” it added.

Government activates PPP offices in 15 regions By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm

Daily bread

Different kinds and shapes of bread are displayed at a bakeshop in Makati City, while a huge variety of tetra-packed drinks are hung for display. The price of the bread, notably pan de sal, has remained stable despite a light inflation hike. ALYSA SALEN

PSA allots ₧106.85M for migration, ICT, business and industry surveys

he Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will be spending a total of P106.85 million to conduct three more surveys this year. The PSA said the main bulk of the fund, or P79.35 million, will be earmarked to conduct the country’s first-ever 2018 National Migration Survey (NMS). The NMS will collect data on international and interregional migration flows; types of migration and characteristics of migrants; levels, patterns and processes of migration; and factors that affect levels, patterns and processes of migration. “The 2018 NMS aims to provide a nationally representative baseline data on migration in the Philippines,” the PSA said. A total of 45,000 households and 45,000 individuals will be selected for the 2018 NMS. The funds

will be used for personal services, maintenance and other operating expenses and capital outlay. The conduct of the survey is tentatively scheduled from June to August 2018, while the results are expected to be released in May 2019. Meanwhile, apart from the NMS, the PSA will also be spending for the 2018 Quarterly Survey on Philippine Business and Industry (QSPBI), and the 2017 Survey on Information and Communications Technology (SICT). The QSPBI will collect data on employment, compensation, value of production, total revenue, total inventory of goods and capacity utilization. The PSA will spend P16.8 million to cover travel expenses, supplies, printing expenses and other operating expenses related to the QSPBI.

The preliminary results of the survey are released 45 days after the reference quarter, while the final results of the quarterly survey are disseminated 60 days after the reference quarter. The SICT, meanwhile, will gather and generate information on the availability, distribution, access/ utilization of information and communications technology in business and industry to assess and monitor the digital economy in the country. The PSA will spend P10.7 million for personal services, maintenance and other operating expenses, such as travel expenses, training, supplies and printing of materials. The survey will collect data from 10,000 establishments nationwide in April 2018. Results of the survey will be released in November 2019. Cai U. Ordinario

Tollways board scraps new Skyway toll-payment scheme

ransportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade has directed the Toll Regulatory Board to scrap the new Skyway toll-payment scheme, which drew flak from motorists due to the heavy traffic it has caused. Tugade said the new toll-collection system must not be put in place until it could be assured that it is

implemented smoothly. This after the Skyway management has reverted to its old “pay as you enter” scheme effective Tuesday night. “These changes have to be communicated well to the public. We cannot afford confusion on the road because that will surely result in congestion. “Dapat mas mabilis ang

er fast to the market mobile phones at a fraction of what they cost. “We have a program now to give free cell phones to the rural sector to farmers who need lifeline connectivity for crop support and microfinance,” Stevens said. Stakeholders in attendance were also quick to say that they found the timeline prescribed by the government for the entry of the new major player too short. Several reasons mentioned by company representatives were the need for time to finalize their financial arrangements with their foreign partners and the upcoming holidays in February (Chinese New Year) and in March (the Holy Week). Former NTC Commissioner Ronald Solis, who was also in attendance, mentioned that back in 2005 during the 3G frequency assignment, the drafting of the memorandum circular and public consultations took more than a year to complete.

biyahe, sa mga expressway kaya nga ‘express.’ Ang mga karagdagang toll plaza, dapat nagpapabilis din ng biyahe, and not the other way around [Travel in the expressway should be faster that’s why it’s called ‘express.’ The additional toll plaza should ease travel and not the other way around],” Tugade said in a news statement issued on Wednesday.

“In governance, public convenience always comes first. It’s always public good over regulation,” he added. The old toll-payment scheme is applicable for private vehicles coming from Alabang, Sucat and Bicutan. Only Class 2 vehicles, such as buses and delivery vans, will be required to utilize the Runway Toll Plaza for cash payments.

Skyway operator O&M Corp. has apologized for any inconvenience caused by the new system and appealed for understanding from the public. On Januar y 27 a modified toll-collection system has been implemented alongside with the opening of the new toll plaza on the northbound section of the elevated Skyway. PNA

he Duterte administration is taking public-private partnerships to the regions, through the establishment of PPP Knowledge Corners in 15 regions nationwide. In a news statement, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the Knowledge Corners will be setup in Neda regional offices across the country. This will help step up the uptake of PPPs in the regions and provide the PPP Center a regional presence. “We recognize the essential role that PPPs will play to support the success of the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program. One of the recent strategic thrusts of the PPP program is focused on project development at the local level or at the LGUs [local government units],” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said. Pernia, likewise, underscored the Duterte administration’s commitment to spread out economic growth to other regions. Of the administration’s 75 flagship infrastructure projects, 50 will be rolled out in the regions outside of Metro Manila. “This LGU PPP strategy builds on the administration’s thrust to expand development in the regions and spread economic growth outside Metro Manila,” Pernia said. The Knowledge Corners will serve as information hubs on PPPs, where LGUs, government implementing agencies and other stakeholders can get accurate and updated information and knowledge on PPP projects. They can also have access to all the PPP Center’s services to help them develop and implement bankable PPP projects. Pernia said putting up the PPP Knowledge Corners will support the government’s intensified efforts to help develop and implement PPPs at the local level, a key in the PPP Center’s LGU PPP strategy. The LGU PPP strategy is the PPP Center’s focused assistance to LGUs, through capacity building and technical assistance in pursuing bankable local PPP projects. Also part of the strategy is to foster stronger collaboration among local public or private capacity building institutions and other critical local development stakeholders. “We are approaching this with a spirit of cooperation and collaboration,” PPP Center chief Ferdinand A. Pecson said in the same news statement.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Thursday, February 1, 2018

SLAC to hike premium rice prices in Q2

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

L Agritech Corp. (SLAC) will increase the price of its premium rice products by at least 5 percent in the second quarter, according to company Chairman and CEO Henry Lim Bon Liong.

Lim said the cost of producing paddy has gone up following the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law, which hiked the excise tax on fuel. He noted that the price increase might take effect in April. “Transportation costs have increased. Maybe we will increase the price by 5 percent per kilogram [kg] across all varieties,” Lim said in an interview on the sidelines of SL AC ’s news briefing last January 30. He also revealed that rice farmers are demanding a higher price for their crop as the cost of producing paddy

continues to go up. “If we increase the price of rice, consumers will be affected but farmers will benefit also because we will buy palay at a higher price,” he said. A letter from SLAC addressed to distributors dated January 29 indicated that the price increase of its Doña Maria and Willy Farms Premium Quality rice is “unavoidable.” “In the effort of continuously providing the highest quality and delicious rice that you and our customers love and patronize, we wish to inform you of our impending price increase for Doña Maria and Willy Farms Premium Quality

In search of diet and climate-friendly rice

ack when I was busy pounding the agricommodities beat, one of the things that I obsessively monitored was the National Food Authority’s (NFA) rice inventory. This is not a “sexy” topic for any business reporter. Why bother Prime Sarmiento with rice stocks, when it’s more exciting to cover, say, a corporate takeover that can shock and awe the stock market? So it might not be sexy, but it’s nonetheless significant whenever there’s news that the NFA’s inventory has fallen below the required 15-day buffer stock, as this means that the state-owned body will have to tender for rice anytime soon. According to a report by BusinessMirror journalist Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas, the NFA is urging the interagency National Food Security Committee to recommend the importation of 250,000 metric tons of rice to beef up its stockpile, which is now just equivalent to three days of consumption. At an average daily consumption rate of 31,000 MT, that means that the NFA is holding just over 90,000 MT in its warehouses. Anyone who has a stake in the global rice market will pounce on this information, as the Philippines is a huge rice importer, and its import volume can move prices. In the domestic market, this incites unscrupulous local traders to hoard and jack up prices. And this is quite worrisome in a country where, in most poor households, rice accounts for a huge chunk of their budget. But more than prices and market trends, any story on the rice inventory is one that hits us on the gut, as this is one staple that we can live without. This even if popular low-carb dietary regimens like South Beach or Keto have discouraged a health-conscious populace from consuming too much rice. How else can we enjoy our adobo, kare-kare and paksiw na lechon without a serving of fluffy white rice to sop up the rich sauce of our favorite ulam? In my diabetic family, eating too much rice is a problem, as it can jack up the blood sugar levels of my parents. I managed to mitigate this problem by persuading my parents to switch to unpolished brown rice, as its glycemic index is lower than white rice. Only our kasambahay defied the white-rice ban in our household, as she refused to eat bland brown rice. But, as I became more conscious with what I eat, nutritional content is not only thing that bothers me about rice eating. It’s the fact that rice farming is resource-intensive. Not only does it consume too much land, water and other farm inputs, but rice farms’ carbon footprint is quite steep. The Food and Agriculture Organization said that agriculture (including forestry, livestock and fisheries production) accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Asia has the highest GHG output from agriculture at 44 percent. The International Rice Research Institute (Irri) said that 20 percent of Asian agriculture’s GHG emissions come from paddy-rice production, and it’s a major source of methane gas. Rice fields are also the first casualty of extreme weather events caused by a warmer planet. Rice production falls when there’s El Niño or La Niña, prompting the Philippines to import more. With climate change bringing in longer dry spell and stronger typhoons, local rice production is expected to decline further, forcing the country to rely more on imports for food security. I’m still optimistic, however, that there’s a way to make rice more climate-friendly. The IRRI, for instance, is developing and promoting technologies that will reduce rice farms’ GHG emissions. One of these is the alternate wetting and drying technology that can cut water consumption by up to 30 percent and methane emission by up to 50 percent. The AWD technology is now being used in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, although the Irri said it’s yet to be implemented on a wider scale. The IRRI is also developing climate-ready rice, or rice varieties that have tolerance to various climate stresses like drought, heat, salinity and flooding. They have also been tested and disseminated in various Asian countries. Unfortunately for us consumers, we have no way of knowing (and consciously buying) climate-friendly rice varieties, as none of the commercially available rice are branded as such. But, even prior to the development of these climate-ready varieties, we already have traditional rice varieties that can be considered climate-friendly, as they’re resistant to pest and diseases, require less fertilizer and are even tasty to boot. Julian Gonsalves, senior consultant of the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, said the institute has been collecting and propagating these heirloom varieties for years, and the IIRR, in fact, has a plot of land in its headquarters in Silang, Cavite, that is dedicated to the cultivating of various indigenous rice varieties. Gonsalves said most of these upland rice varieties that can tolerate both drought and excessive rainfall. They’re healthier, too, he said, as they have more fiber and anthocyanins, which can serve as antioxidants. A lot of these heirloom varieties are grown in the Cordillera region and are cultivated by small farmers. If we want to reduce our carbon footprint while, at the same time, provide livelihood to these farmers, we can do so by buying these heirloom rice, which are available in weekend markets and food expos. If you are keen on knowing more about these heirloom rice varieties, you might also want to get the seed catalog Philippine Traditional Rice Varieties published by the Bureau of Plant Industry. Another option for us who want a more climate-friendly diet is to cut rice consumption and eat more food that are grown with less carbon emissions. So perhaps, we can eat more beans, lentils, leafy greens and amaranth (more known as kulitis and is used in the classic Ilocano dish diningding). Yes, it’s more eco-friendly to be vegetarian, and that’s something that I will discuss in my next column.

prime commodities

Prime Sarmiento is a longtime business journalist who specializes in food, agribusiness and commodities-trade reporting. Her stories have been published in both local and international publications, including Nikkei Asian Review, China Daily, Science and Development News Network and Dow Jones Newswires. Comments and ideas are welcome at prime.sarmiento@gmail.com.

rice,” SLAC Marketing Director Tiffany Lim-Ngo said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror. “This price increase is brought about by the continuing rise in production costs and cumulative hike in petroleum prices coupled with weakening peso value. Thus, as much as we want to main-

tain our prices, this increase is unavoidable,” she added. Documents obtained by the BusinessMirror showed that the list price of Doña Maria and Willy Farms Premium Quality rice products in Luzon would increase by at least P5 per kg. A kilogram of Doña Maria Jasponica White Rice would go up to

P105, from the current P100, while a 25-kilogram bag of Doña Maria Jasponica White Rice would rise to P1,950, from P1,850. Also, the price of a 10-kg bag of Doña Maria Jasponica Brown Rice and Doña Maria Miponica Brown Rice would go up to P835, from P790. A 2-kg bag of Willy Farms Sticky

Jasmine Rice would increase to P180 from P171, while a P25-kg bag of Willy Farms Sticky Jasmine Rice would go up to P1,815, from P1,724. As for a 2-kg bag of Willy Farms Dinorado Rice, the price would rise to P145, from P138, while a 25-kg bag would be sold at P1,490, P74 higher than its current price.

TheBroa Big money for PHL projects, A6

Business

Thursday, February 1, 2018

By Karol Ilagan | Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

HERE is no dearth of hard lessons in Philippine procurement. The PEA-Amari and Textbook Scams in the 1990s, the Fertilizer Fund Scam and the botched NBN-ZTE and North Rail deals in the 2000s, the Pork Barrel Scam in 2013, and the Dengvaxia controversy last year are just a few examples of why procurement, a major government undertaking, is fraught with big risks, too.

Apart from the obscene amounts involved in these contracts, an invariable frailty emerges: critical details about these projects became known to the public only after the deals had hit the headlines or public hearings in Congress. In an open-contracting regime, citizens as end-users, businesses as contractors, journalists and civil society as watchdogs have access to information that could help them track a project from start to finish. In the Philippines, however, open contracting is not the norm as yet despite a long history of transparency initiatives and innovative reforms launched and implemented to improve the integrity of procurement. Enabling laws and disclosure mechanisms allow access to records but many important and long-standing issues linger. For instance, contracting data produced, maintained and published by agencies are uneven and unrelated, making it difficult for citizens to track the procurement of goods and services from planning to implementation. These are among the findings of PCIJ in its assessment of the availability and accessibility of documents and data produced and published along the contracting process—from planning to implementation—vis-à-vis the Open Contracting Data Standards (OCDS). OCDS is an open data standard created by the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) for the publication of structured information in all stages of the contracting process. It was designed to support governments and organizations to increase contracting transparency and allow deeper analysis of contracting data by a wide range of users. OCP emerged from a community of policy experts, leaders and campaigners who believe that better open data and more community engagement can transform public goods and services. The Philippine government approved to support the OCP regime through Resolution No. 13-2012 that the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) issued in 2012.

Case study: DPWH

AS a case study, PCIJ assessed documents and data produced during the planning, tender, award, contract and implementation of infrastructure projects delivered by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Next to the Department of Education, the DPWH receives the second biggest budget annually. For 2018, DPWH was allotted P637.9 billion, reflecting a 40-percent increase from its P454.7-billion budget in 2017. It made good sense to focus on DPWH as infrastructure development is a key economic driver. Too, many civil works projects have

long been marred by corruption and inefficiency. Documentary research and consultations with agencies, including the GPPB-Technical Service Office, the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGeps), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP), Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB), and the Commission on Audit (COA), were done from July to December 2017. Civil-society representatives with long experience in monitoring government contracts were also interviewed to guide the research.

Key findings

Agencies do not publish all documents related to the procurement of infrastructure projects, making it difficult to track publicworks contracts from planning to implementation. Open Contracting standards involve the publication of at least 35 documents, and include the planning, tender, award, contract and implementation of a project. Access and use of these records are supposed to aid civic and business users depending on their need, leading to improved accountability and redress by agencies or contractors by acting on the feedback received. The research shows that while agencies involved in the procurement of public-works projects produce nearly all 35 documents, only 60 percent of these records are available at once. Twenty-one of the 35 documents recommended for publication are either available online or can be obtained through a request within a considerable amount of time or within the 15-working-day period set in law. The rest are not uploaded online or could not be requested from agencies in a timely manner. Of the five stages in the contracting chain, the middle segment—tender and award—results in more available records primarily because Republic Act (RA) 9184, also known as the Government Procurement Reform Act, and its implementing rules and regulations, require procuring entities, including the DPWH, to publish these records on PhilGEPS or the agency’s website. As in all other procuring entities, records on the tender and award of DPWH civil-works projects are captured in PhilGEPS. Documents for the first and last stages of the contracting process— planning and implementation— may be obtained from DPWH. Relevant agencies also perform specific roles in the contracting of infrastructure projects: PCAB for licenses; SEC and DTI as repositories of corporate and business records; CIAP for performance evaluation reports; GPPB as the alternative repository of contracting documents

and overall body in charge of government procurement policy; and the COA for financial audit. Local government units likewise play a role particularly in the issuance of permits to contractors.

Although not fully aligned with the Open Contracting Data Standard, PhilGEPS publishes key documents and databases on bids and awards in an open, accessible and timely manner. Created to improve transparency in public procurement, PhilGEPS is the primary source of procurement information in government. The system serves as an online platform on the tender and award stages of the contracting process. All government agencies (buyers) and suppliers, including manufacturers, distributors, contractors and consultants, are required to register and use PhilGEPS in the bidding and awarding of goods, civil works and consulting services. Procuring entities, including the DPWH, submit bid and award notices, along with other relevant documents in PhilGEPS. PhilGEPS in turn creates record repositories

and databases from the files provided by the agencies. To access these records in the system, citizens must sign up for an account with PhilGEPS. PhilGEPS provides three sets of lists for users under a CSO account: Open Opportunities for open tenders, Former Opportunities for closed tenders, and Award Notices for awarded contracts. These lists may be viewed by category or by agency which posted the bid. Each bid or award opens to a new page that contains a summary of the bid or award along with the following documents: Bid Notices, Award Notices and supporting documents, and Contractor Records. PhilGEPS also makes available the following databases on its website (no log-in required) or through an FOI request.

Weak organization of files on agency websites leads to document/data dump. Apart from provisions in the Government Procurement Reform Act that mandate agencies to publish project documents, another order, National Budget Circular

542, requires all agencies, including local government units, state universities and colleges, and government-owned and -controlled corporations, to post key records on their website. More commonly known as the Transparency Seal circular, NBC 542 is the reason why agency websites carry a “Transparency” page, which contains an index of downloadable files. In essence, the required documents all relate to contracting as they cover projects and programs, and goods and services an agency needs to perform its mandate. DPWH publishes nearly all the required documents in NBC 542. Although not complete, the records offer an opportunity to track a project from planning to implementation—that is, if one is patient enough to comb through web pages and web pages of documents and data. DPWH records are not organized the same way PhilGEPS records are published. Documents related to the bidding or awarding of one project can be seen on the same page in PhilGEPS. DPWH mean-

while uploads files following the list provided in NBC No. 542, missing the opportunity to link documents and data along the contracting chain. As a result, parts of the website serve as a dumping ground for documents collected from various district engineering offices. For example, the Civil Works page contains key documents such as the Abstract of Bids, Notice of Award, Notice to Proceed, Awarded Contracts, and Contract Agreement, in addition to the lists of Registered and Blacklisted Contractors. To track one project from bidding to contract, a user must check each section and scroll through multiple web pages to find the related documents. The Awarded Contracts list, meanwhile, is presented in multiple web pages, making it difficult to see the entire data or sort through the list. A user must click on each web page to browse the entire list. No spreadsheet is uploaded on the website; the documents, except for the lists, are all in PDF format. By experience, spreadsheet copies may be obtained from DPWH through a public-records request.

aderLook

sMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Thursday, February 1, 2018

, no access to all documents

JORGENMAC | DREAMSTIME.COM

number, relationship to the company whether stockholder, incorporator, or board member, reference, and as of date. These details could be subject for discussion to identify which are considered personal information, but the SEC decided to withhold all the information by suspending the use of the Reverse Search Module. The NPC, in agreement with SEC, also said that journalists may still secure information they require through corporate documents that continue to be available to the public via the SEC i-View and SEC Express System. SEC i-View and SEC Express System, however, are not capable of generating the same information drawn up using the Reverse Search Module. SEC i-View and SEC Express System work only if the user already knows the company name. The Reverse Search Module, meanwhile, answers this particular question: Which companies are related to an individual? As to date, only government agencies, including co-regulators, legislators and law-enforcement agencies, are allowed to access the system upon their submission of a letter-request. Apart from discontinuing access to the Reverse Search Module, SEC also issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 1.6, which modifies the General Information Sheet (GIS) and Notification Update Forms with the goal of keeping Tax Identification Number (TIN) and address details from public view. In the revised GIS, the TINs and residential addresses of the members of the board, officers and stockholders of domestic corporations, and the resident agent and officers of foreign corporations are to be indicated in a separate sheet, which will not be uploaded to the SEC i-View. NPC, in its advisory opinion, said that it makes sense to share or provide such information to tax authorities and other regulators, whenever necessary, because policies that require its collection are anchored on the need to improve the government’s monitoring mechanism for tax law compliance. But NPC maintained that “there is little reason, if any, to make such item available to everyone else, via the SEC’s online and offline plat-

The Data Privacy Act has prompted some agencies to limit access to information on businesses, including contractors. At least two agencies—the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board—have started withholding contractor information, citing provisions in RA 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012. Since the Data Privacy Act took effect, the SEC has suspended public access to its Reverse Search Module, a facility that can generate a list of corporate interests of individuals such as shareholdings and board seats in corporations. The Reverse Search Module is the counterpart of SEC’s i-View, which offers the inverse function allowing users to search for a company (instead of a name) and download the documents it has filed with SEC. Records include articles of incorporation, general information sheets, and annual financial statements. The Reverse Search Module has been an important tool particularly among journalists investigating business interests and financial connections of public of-

ficials, electoral candidates, or persons involved in government deals. PCIJ, for instance, relied heavily on the Reverse Search Module to map the business interests of former President Joseph Estrada, his wife, children and mistresses. The PCIJ series on Estrada’s unexplained wealth became bases for the impeachment charges filed against the former president. But the SEC has since shifted its policy and disallowed public access to the Reverse Search Module until it could properly ascertain the effect of the law on the Commission in its custody of data and its processing through the RSM. On February 4, 2017, SEC Chairman Teresita J. Herbosa sent a letter to Privacy Commissioner Raymund Liboro seeking a legal opinion on the matter. In its Advisory Opinion 2017-29 dated June 23, 2017, NPC stated that the “exemption from Data Privacy Act requirements afforded to personal data being processed by journalists may not be invoked by the latter when insisting that the reverse search module facility be made accessible to the public anew.”

NPC acknowledged that the law does provide for the nonapplicability of the law on personal data processed for journalistic, artistic, literary, or research purposes. This exemption is made “in order to uphold freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, subject to requirements of other applicable laws or regulations.” But the exemption, NPC said, is not absolute. It said, “It applies only to the data and not the entities involved in their processing (i.e., personal information controllers or personal information processors). Those entities remain to be subject to the requirements of the law, particularly those relating to the implementation of security measures.” Yet in the case of PCIJ, the information being withheld did not contain anything on the entities involved in the processing of the data. The Reverse Search document sought by the PCIJ—which it had used for earlier reports—contains the name of the person being searched, his/her birthdate, and nationality, the name of company related to him, its SEC registration

forms, sans the consent of the person it pertains to.” In effect, the TINs and addresses of stockholders, directors and officers of companies will no longer be seen in the new GIS form. Such information had been useful to journalists in verifying the business interests and financial connections of public officials, electoral candidates, or persons involved in government deals. These details can be matched with information available in other public records to verify the identity of the subject of the report. Meanwhile, PCAB is no longer providing access to copies of contractor licenses to requestors. This used to be available up until the first quarter of 2017 for a fee. But PCAB is maintaining public access to its database of registered and blacklisted contractors. According to a PCAB official, a copy of the license can be released only to the business owner. The license is printed on a security paper, which might be easily falsified, the official said. As of the research period, PCAB was crafting its implementing rules and regulations for the Data Privacy Act. The PCAB rules would detail what information could be or could not be disclosed to the public.

Agencies are either creating new or upgrading their informationmanagement systems, offering an opportunity to standardize, link and publish more contracting data. Nearly all agencies covered in the research are either creating new or upgrading their internal information-management systems. While agencies need to prioritize updating their internal systems, this could offer an opportunity for such bodies to standardize data, explore linking up data following OCDS, create more databases, and publish these on their websites. Linking of data is supported by Section 8.5 of RA 9184’s Implementing Rules and Regulations, which provides that all procuring entities already maintaining an electronic registry shall integrate the same with that of the PhilGEPS.

Record access, matched with awareness and practice of open contracting processes, is essential

for citizens to be able to utilize contracting data and participate meaningfully in procurement. Civil-society organizations have worked closely with DPWH and other agencies for decades to make procurement processes more transparent, efficient and responsive to people’s needs. One of the shared goals of both the government and civil society is to promote procurement literacy, in addition to providing understandable contracting data for citizens. The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP), for instance, worked with university professors to integrate procurement literacy in their classes. “What we did was convince several professors to integrate the teaching of open contracting in their classes,” ANSA-EAP Executive Director Redempto Parafina said. “We integrated and connected it to their courses, to political science, to journalism, to public administration.” For Parafina, improving the quality of contracting data is not just about the technical format of the available information, but also about how much is available and how it is processed and packaged in a way that is accessible to citizens. “For us, we take the perspective of the ordinary people because social accountability is with the constituency,” he said. “If we can produce the same output using Excel file format and JSON format in the front end, we do not care what we use it for as long as we can still report [to citizens].” Meanwhile, for Rechie Tuga win of Government Watch (GWatch), the more pressing concern is access to and appreciation of procurement data at the local level. “We have to give more emphasis on the local level, in the barangays, that may seem small but concerns those in the grassroots because it directly affects them—if they have access to data, if they have connectivity issues in accessing information platforms,” Tugawin said. With reporting and research by Vino Lucero, and research by Aura Marie Dagcutan and Czarina Medina-Guce. The Open Contracting report was done by PCIJ with support from Hivos and Article 19.

PUBLIC CONTRACTING STUDY IN CONTEXT

ESPITE efforts to improve transparency and accountability, many government documents have not been made available to the public. Many of these documents pertain to public contracts which are crucial especially at a time when the national government is ramping up its infrastructure investments. The Duterte administration is spending P8.4 trillion to play catch-up in the infrastructure race. These funds include undertaking 75 key flagship and over 5,000 projects nationwide as specified in the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022. While its neighbors have invested heavily in world-class roads, bridges and other public facilities in the past few decades, the Philippines was left behind strapped to its ailing finances. This is something the government wants to change. With the Philippines’ financial position significantly improved and the tax reform under way, the Duterte government is confident it can finally address the country’s infrastructure constraints. However, a study conducted by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) found ushering in a “Golden Age of Infrastructure” will not be complete without better reporting and monitoring of programs and projects.

Missing documents

THIS also went against the principles of open contracting, which, according to Hivos, a global organization that advocates transparency and accountability, means allowing citizens to access all information “from planning, to procurement, to contracting, implementation

and monitoring of results.” PCIJ used the Open Contracting Data Standards (OCDS) created by the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) to conduct the study. The Philippines supported the OCP through Resolution 132012 of the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB). “We, the Members of the Government Procurement Policy Board, by virtue of the powers vested on us by law, hereby resolve to confirm, adopt and approve, as we hereby confirm, adopt and approve, to support the OCP regime inasmuch as its core values of increased transparency, monitoring and accountability, enhanced contract performance, and better delivery of public service are the same principles embodied in RA 9184 and being implemented by the government,” the resolution stated. They found that 100 percent of documents that are needed in undertaking all projects are published. There are 35 documents needed in project planning and implementation. This is composed of eight basic documents, 12 intermediate documents and 15 advanced documents. Based on PCIJ’s major findings, only 60 percent of documents recommended for publication are available at once. This means only 7 of 8 of the basic documents are accessible to the public; intermediate, 9 out of 12; and advanced documents, 5 out of 15. At the planning stage, documents such as a project’s Environmental Impact Assessment, feasibility studies and project plan that include the scope of work, detailed engineering and technical specifications are not readily available. Further, documents that pertain to

a “needs assessment” such as a project procurement management plan, medium-term public investment program, and multiyear planning systems are also not available. In the tender phase, only the list of bidders is not made available to the public. The public still needs to request these from the Department of Public Works and Highways. However, this can only be provided after an award is made.

Private, public

GOVERNMENT agencies cite Republic Act (RA) 10173 (Data Privacy Act of 2012) as a reason for not disclosing certain documents. RA 10173 aims to protect the personal information of persons and organizations, especially sensitive personal information—a person’s race, marital status, age, religious or philosophical affiliations, health, education, sexual life, social-security numbers, licenses, tax returns—from being publicized. Some of the public-contracting documents may contain these data, such as documents submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These documents include information such as the Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) of stockholders and/or incorporators, which are considered sensitive personal information. While the road to making public contracting a more transparent process, government agencies considered the PCIJ report a good start in pushing for muchneeded reforms. Only time and political will would tell whether there will be a “new normal” in public contracting or whether it will stay the same. Cai U. Ordinario

Banking&Finance

A8 Thursday, February 1, 2018 • Editor: Jun B. Vallecera

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Debt-to-output ratio seen rising over medium horizon

By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

ore government debt or obligations contracted by the national government as percent of local output or the GDP marginally rose in the final three months of last year and likely to keep expanding from this point forward, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).

BELTRAN

But the agency quickly emphasized that while the indicator appears to have reverted to its old expansive ways in the past, the debt-to-output ratio is actually stabilizing, especially if appreciated over the medium term. The DOF said ratio stood at 42.1 percent of GDP in the final three months of 2017, slightly up from only 41.7 percent one quarter earlier. This was because all that spending has

prudent debt management, fiscal discipline and economic growth. The economy has been outgrowing its debt in the past years, meaning, the country’s capacity to service its debt is improving,” Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said. In an economic bulletin issued by the DOF last November, Beltran said the debtto-GDP ratio dropped to 41.7 percent in the third quarter of 2017, from 42.4 percent in the previous quarter and from 43 percent in the third quarter of 2016.

been applied mainly against the government’s very ambitious infrastructure buildup program, dubbed as the “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) initiative of President Duterte. The national government debt-to-GDP ratio is adjudged to be stable as at end-2017 at 42.1 percent as nominal GDP surged by 9.1 percent. “From a high of nearly 75 percent in 2004, the debt-to-GDP ratio was drastically reduced to below 45 percent, owing to

BSP to reinstate longer-dated term deposits R

esurgent liquidity expansion that some analysts mischievously refer to as a wall of money on Wednesday stampeded the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) into hiking the volume of its seven-day term-deposit window just weeks after having shaved it last December. Effective next week, the BSP said the volume of its seven-day term-deposit facility (TDF) should total P60 billion, from P40 billion. Officials said the rationale behind the higher offering was occasioned by the return of significant volumes of liquidity to the banking system after the long Christmas holidays, as well as the impact of the release of public funds for infrastructure and other social programs. In 2017 the monetary authorities stopped offering 28-day term deposits as a result of persistent under subscription. BSP Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo said they have to zero out the 28-day TDF because “banks

have alternative use for their money instead of just putting” it with the BSP. This compelled the Central Bank to cease offering the 28-day TDF since December 20. Since then, demand for the seven-day TDF surged, with this week’s bids hitting P116.6

Double-digit expansion for life insurers seen this year

he Philippine Life Insurance Association (Plia) looks forward to doubledigit industry growth this year on the back of the country’s strong macroeconomic fundamentals. According to Plia President Olaf Kliesow, the life-insurance industry should prove expansive and post double-digit growth this year due to factors, including the country’s demographics and the impact of reforms under the Tax Reform for Acceleration

and Inclusion Act (TRAIN). “In the Philippines, the macrofundamentals are very sound. I expect double-digit growth. The GDP growth is projected to be above 7 percent from most analysts this year. Inflation is going up slightly, but that’s related to the TRAIN [and] not generally expected to further increase very much. Then you have the macroeconomics, the demographic development with a population that is growing, I think [this will be] a good year for the industry,” Kliesow told financial reporters. The TRAIN should provide most of the population with a larger take-home pay and encourage consumers to seek protection from risks and buy insurance products. The country’s demographic profile will enable insurance companies to further its support for customer needs. “One main focus is on financial literacy and awareness. That’s an area where Plia can support. I think there is a big opportunity in the Philippines for further supporting customer needs. About half of the population is still not familiar with insurance,” he said. Kliesow, who is also the president and CEO of Allianz PNB Life Insurance Inc., further said the lower income classes can also start protecting themselves since they now accumulate wealth as a result of the TRAIN. “The additional income by lowering the income tax should lead to more money in the pockets and more available assets. That also means the lower income classes can start accumulating wealth and protecting themselves,” he said. Earlier, the Insurance Commission (IC) reported that the life-insurance industry grew 10.69 percent in 2017, with total premiums reaching P202.3 billion. This was higher compared to the 2016 level of only P182.7 billion. Unaudited quarterly statistics submitted by life insurers to the IC show industry total assets totaling P1.2 trillion, up 18.28 percent, from P1 trillion in 2016. Total net worth also expanded 19.73 percent to P202.9 billion, from P169.4 billion in 2016. Plia is the umbrella organization of life insurers in the Philippines with 32 members at present. Rea Cu

billion. The amount offered and awarded on Wednesday totaled P40 billion. “There’s strong overall demand for TDFs as evidenced by the consistent strong bid relative to offer. We’re feeling out the tenor preference, and we will adjust supply accordingly in future auctions to meet our IRC [interest-rate corridor] objectives,” BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said. The rate for the seven-day TDF also fell below 3 percent, averaging 2.7785 percent this week. Guinigundo also earlier said they are exploring the idea of offering another term-deposit window, one between the current short-term TDF and its long-term counterpart. “Based on our initial discussion with the banks—these are initial, preliminary discussions—they prefer a third tenor, probably a cross between seven and 28 days,” Guinigundo told reporters. Bianca Cuaresma

Manila budget program most transparent in Asia

he Department of Budget and Management (DBM) of the Philippines bested all others in Asia in terms of budget transparency in 2017 under the Open Budget Survey (OBS) done by the International Budget Partnership (IBP). According to the DBM, the results of the OBS 2017 showed the Philippines with an Open Budget Index (OBI) of 67 out of 100, effectively securing the top spot in Asia for budget transparency. “We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished to date. In surpassing our Asian neighbors, we have further cemented our position as a global leader in open government. It encourages us to persevere, to do even better, in the years ahead,” Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said. The Philippines’s 2017 OBI of 67 is three points higher than its score in 2015 of only 64 points. The DBM said is now first in Asia followed by Indonesia with 64 points, Jordan with 63, Japan with 60 and South Korea with 60. In 2015 the Philippines ranked first in the Asean region, second in Asia after South Korea with 65 points and 22nd worldwide. The OBS is a biennial survey conducted by the IBP and assesses budget transparency based on the amount and timeliness of budget information governments make available to the public. The IBP collaborates with civil societies around the world to analyze and influence public budgets in order to reduce poverty and improve the quality of governance. After being evaluated against 109 equally weighted indicators, each country receives a composite score that determines its ranking in the OBI. The survey also measures the extent of public participation in the country’s budget process and budget oversight by the legislature and the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI). The Philippines’s boasts a score of 41 for Public Participation, more than three times the global average at 12. It is one of only four countries to achieve a moderate score in the category, sharing this distinction with New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. Rea Cu

“In the short-term, the government’s Build, Build, Build program may exert upward pressure on the debt stock. In the medium- to long-term, however, a sustainable high economic growth rate [brought about by better infrastructure] will outrun the growth of debt,” he said. The DOF previously said some 70 percent of the incremental revenues from the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act have been set aside for infrastructure and up to 30 percent for social services, including unconditional cash transfers of P200 a month for 10 million poorest households this year. Such should rise to P300 a month in 2019 and 2020. According to Beltran, the majority of the 75 flagship projects under the BBB program worth a combined P1.8 trillion are already in the construction or preconstruction phases and this partly explains the apparent uptick in the debt-to-GDP ratio. The big-ticket infrastructure projects include the P23-billion Metro Manila Flood Management Project, which is co-funded by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the World Bank; the P151-billion

Philippine National Railways South Long Haul Line to be financed by official development assistance (ODA) from China and the P355.6-billion Mega Manila Subway funded by Japan. Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the P19.8-billion Davao City Bypass Road, another flagship project, is also in the implementation phase. Dominguez expects the BBB program to shift to high gear this year with the rollout of the first set of big-ticket infrastructure projects and the implementation of the TRAIN. “Let me just point out that our debt as a percentage of our GDP has been on a steady decline. When we took over, it was something like 43 percent. Even though we borrowed more during the interim from when the time this new administration took over, the debt as percentage of GDP is now just slightly over 41 percent. And we can see that declining over the years,” Dominguez said. About a fourth of the capital needed for the P8.44-trillion infrastructure modernization program will come from TRAIN revenues, while the rest will be funded by ODA loans.

Case clippings

By Justice S J Ranada Jr. AGRARIAN REFORM–Cancellation of Emancipation Patents Were issuance of an emancipation patent does not put the ownership of the agrarian-reform beneficiary beyond attack and scrutiny. Such patents issued to beneficiaries may be corrected and canceled for violation of agrarian laws, rules and regulations. Where the beneficiaries execute a joint affidavit of waiver, they abandon whatever right they may have over the subject land, and this alone is sufficient ground for the cancellation of the EPs registered in their names. Digan v. Malines 06 Dec. 2017

GR 183004 Martires, J

Association events and the ‘5 Stars’

anuary is the month of Janus, Roman god of beginnings and transitions, and a good time to plan ahead. While Roman mythology may have influence in the stars as some people may believe, the “5 STARS” in successful association-event planning is actually an acronym: Site or event destination. The Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (Adfiap) has representation in 40 countries so site selection for hosting its annual conference is on rotation basis to give members an opportunity to showcase their country. The second aspect is the event venue and the essential factors to consider in its selection to include, among others: (a) location, (b) facilities, (c) service staff and (d) pricing—normally in this order of importance. For a hotel location, the two key elements would be accessibility, as well as security arrangements. Facility-wise, the three main areas are: (a) function rooms—comfortable seating setups, air-conditioning, lighting, sound system, foyer space, presentation equipment, meal service and overall layout; (b) guest rooms—cleanliness and available amenities, such as tea/coffee service, toiletries, cable TV, Internet/ phone/fax connections, iron and board, newspaper, etc.; and (c) other conveniences, e.g., gym, pool, dining outlets, lobby area and business center. A very important consideration in selecting a hotel is its service staff. While pricing is also a crucial consideration, this is often negotiable. Topic—A business event is a learning activity so design and development of the conference theme and the session topics are important. The content must be current and relevant, with great takeaways for attendees. Based on our experience, attendees get a premium if the event offers something that could help their businesses: (a) add value, (b) save money and (c) solve problems. Activities—Four areas are considered here: (a) learning—further discussed below under speakers (b) networking (c) awards and (d) leisure. On networking, event planners need to put

Association World Octavio Peralta meeting opportunities in the program. In addition, organize rooms where these will be held. Other networking possibilities should be structured so delegates can meet during coffee breaks, meals, tours and golf games, as applicable. An awards program has also become an important part of our annual convention and has been an event-attendance booster, as well. Perks like tours, sports and shopping trips are an integral part of each conference for the delegates and their accompanying persons. Resource Persons/Speakers—In the choice of resource persons, we look at three considerations: (a) area of expertise, (b) experience as a presenter and (c) willingness to stay and mingle with the delegates. Secretariat Support—The final element are the people running the event. These are, in real terms, the “stars of the show,” for without the event management staff, there is no event to speak of in the first place. In our case, the event-management team is a joint unit of the member-host’s staff and the association’s secretariat. Supporting the process is an extensive to-do list we have developed over the years and a host of other supporters: the hotel staff, the travel agencies, tour operators, service providers and many others. Another option, of course, is to engage the services of a professional conference organizer. The column contributor, Octavio Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Adfiap and CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE). PCAAE enjoys the support of Adfiap, the Tourism Promotions Board and the Philippine International Convention Center. E-mail: obp@adfiap.org

The Regions BusinessMirror

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Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Thursday, February 1, 2018

Davao City tourism bounces back after ML is declared in Mindanao

Groundbreaking on March 7 for the new Igacos P150-M City Hall By Cha Monforte

By Manuel T. Cayon

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

Correspondent

AVAO CITY—From the initial shivers following the declaration of martial law across Mindanao, the tourism sector here has bounced back with significant revenues from tourists as other multimillion-peso housing and accommodation projects have not reached their target completion

The city government said the improvements could safely assert that “Mindanao has been placed under martial law did not dampen investors’ confidence, particularly in Davao City.” The city information office quoted Jet Yu, founder and managing director of the country’s leading real-estate firm PRIME Philippines, as saying, “martial law has minimal to no effect on the gross sales of residential condominiums in Davao City.” It said Yu “noted the increase in hotel gross sales in Davao City to 100 percent last December from only 25 percent last August.” “Hotel gross sales in Davao City increased by 25 percent to 100 percent from August to December 2017, after experiencing a 10-percent to 25-percent decrease a few months after the declaration of martial law in Mindanao,” Yu said. In a speech read by Davao City Investment Promotions Center head Lemuel Ortonio, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio “commended the ECCP [European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines] and PRIME Philippines for choosing the city as one of the event venues. The Mindanao Business Forum is also slated in Diliman, Quezon City,

next month.” “Today, we will hear the testimonies of resiliency, amid security challenges among business champions, encouraging us to continue the advancement of our economic prosperity in Mindanao, particularly in Davao City,” Duterte-Carpio said. She cited several projects started in the city since martial law was proclaimed in Mindanao that included a mixed-community development, a condominium project with an international five-star hotel accommodation and other world-class residences. It said that among these investments were the Dusit Thani Residence Davao by the Torre Lorenzo Development Corp., which topped off in November last year and the P20-billion Azuela Cove by the Aviana Development Corp, a joint venture of Ayala Land Inc. and the Alcantara and Sons (Alsons) Group. The Saint Luke’s Hospital was also a confirmed locator at the Cove. Data from the Davao City Tourism Operations Office also show a 10-percent hike in the city’s tourist arrivals, from 464,985 during the third quarter of 2016 to 511,228 during the same period in 2017. “W hen I think of Davao’s resilience, I think of the Mindanao

WORKING PARTNERS A farmer and his carabao—also known as water buffalo—create a dramatic reflection on a rice paddy in Santiago City, Isabela. The duo is preparing the land for planting. The carabao is the farmer’s best friend.

malong. It is only when all these colors are in harmony that the thread creates a beautiful pattern in the same way that the efforts of the government, the private sector, foreign investors and the public have altogether made the city an ideal investment destination in the Philippines,” DuterteCarpio said. She added the business forum titled “Mindanao Business Briefing: Updates on Security Situation, Business Resiliency and Optimism” jointly held by the ECCP and PRIME Philippines showed “the optimism [on] Davao did not waiver.” It said “no less than the founder and managing director of PRIME Philippines noted that martial law had a minimal to no effect on business in Davao City.” Meanwhile, the mayor called on barangay officials to partici-

pate in the Southern Storm Drills, a series of anti-terror exercises to be pilot-tested in the city next month. “We particularly seek the participation of barangay officials because the simultaneous exercises will require a lockdown of the city and the members of our communities need to be informed,” she said. She said the “security sector’s initiative to conduct the initial anti-terror exercises in the city will test interagency and community preparedness and will address weaknesses in the event of a terror attack and other emergencies.” The city information office said the “special focus areas for the Southern Storm Drills would be vital infrastructure and facilities in the city, including the Davao International Airport and coastal

LEONARDO PERANTE II

area, considered to be among the entry points to the city.” The anti-terror drill would be replicated in other urban areas in the country. It would simulate the response of both the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in case of a terror attack. The Bureau of Fire Protection and the Office of Civil Defense would participate in the drill. “We all need to be prepared because the fight against terrorism and crime is the responsibility of everyone,” the mayor said. “The cooperation, support and patience of Davaoeños during the conduct of the exercises will strengthen our readiness and capability to ensure the safety of our city and our communities against the threats of terrorism and crime.”

HE mayor of the Island Garden City of Samal said a groundbreaking activity will mark the construction of the P150-million City Hall at Sitio Maag in Barangay Peñaplata, Samal District. The activity is slated on March 7. In an interview on Tuesday, Mayor Al David Uy, the city’s firstterm mayor, said the project is still on its pre-procurement stage. He expects the new City Hall to be completed by March or April 2019. The construction of the project identified by Uy early last year as one of his priorities will be made on a turnkey basis. It is to be funded from a Development Bank of the Philippines loan approved last year. The old City Hall, the municipal hall of the then municipality of Peñaplata, is located at Datu Taganiog Street in Barangay Peñaplata, some 5 kilometers from the new site. It has been used after the creation of Igacos from three municipalities in 1998. As published on the web site of the local government unit, the turnkey basis under Purchase Request 2017-12-4204 will be for the following civil works: structure excavation, embankment, concrete works (ground floor), masonry works (ground floor), steel works (first floor), tile works (first floor), glass works, fire bricks, sidewalk, electrical works, painting works, ceiling works, Portland cement concrete pavement, septic vaults, catch basin and drainage. Completion of the works required is 540 ca lendar days. Bidders should have completed, within 10 years from the date of submission and receipt of bids, a contract similar to the project. The prebid conference was just made last Monday and the opening of bids would be on February 12.

DENR, PH Haiyan conduct study to support Help desk for OFWs Tacloban City’s resilience to strong typhoons to open soon in Cebu By Elmer Recuerdo

Correspondent

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Eastern Visayas is partnering with an environmental support group to conduct a special study that will serve as a baseline in the efforts to fully rehabilitate the coastal areas of the city damaged by Supertyphoon Yolanda. The DENR Regional Office in Eastern Visayas (Region 8) tapped the expertise of PH Haiyan Advocacy Cooperative in the conduct of special studies, design and development to support forestry and environmental management operations in the city’s Cancabato Bay and its vicinities. Since it was contracted last year, PH Haiyan Advocacy Cooperative

has done research component of the project which include activities, such as grid impact study and bathymetric mapping, analysis of sea water, survey of existing flora and fauna in Cancabato Bay and baseline perception survey. Results from these activities will determine future climate-change mitigation and adaptation interventions for the residents of coastal areas, and track changes brought by the implementation of different mangrove rehabilitation, protection and management interventions. PH Haiyan Advocacy Cooperative is a survivors’ project on how Tacloban City should build the resiliency of its interdependent systems to appropriately respond to a megastorm like Yolanda and other extreme events brought about by cli-

mate change. It envisions strengthening the adaptive mechanism of the different ecosystems along elevation gradients following the nature-based landscape approach from ridge-to-reef. Following the survey and other research activities, PH Haiyan started its mangrove- development activities, including establishment of a nursery, production of planting materials and planting to rehabilitate mangrove areas which was reported to have saved the lives of the residents in coastal areas during Yolanda. Leyte Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Ranulfo Q. Arbiol said the series of planting activities shall be done in different coastal barangays of Tacloban City with existing man-

groves and areas suitable for mangrove plantation. For this project, PH Haiyan is set to plant 383,318 mangroves in an aggregate area of 46 hectares until December 2018. Late last year, PH Haiyan concentrated on rehabilitating 12 hectares of mangrove areas in Barangay Tagpuro, Tacloban City. The planting activity was done in cooperation with barangay local residents. PH Haiyan’s Project Forester Tiburcio Simbulan said for each area planted, the barangay council is expected to pass a resolution imposing strict protection of the mangrove plantations. Meanwhile, the DENR said under this project, mangrove areas within the Cancabato Bay will be properly mapped, delineated, assessed, developed and reforested.

DENR joins relief efforts, sends 100K face masks to Albay

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) joined the relief efforts for people affected by the eruption of Mayon Volcano in the province of Albay. In a statement, the DENR said through operation Mayon 2018-Tabang Kan DENR sa mga Bakwit (DENR helps evacuees), the agency sent 100,000 protective face masks to the DENR regional office in Legazpi City for distribution to people in evacuation centers. Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu said the face masks will help

protect affected residents from inhaling potentially toxic ash spewed out of the volcano. Apart from shelter, food and water, the DENR chief said the government’s priority is the safety of people who are exposed to volcanic ash that could cause a number of health problems, particularly respiratory illnesses. “We believe the best way to keep Albayanos safe is to provide them protection against the harmful effects of volcanic ash, so we decided to send them the face masks,” he said in a statement. Cimatu had visited Albay recently

to check on the air-quality conditions in the towns of Camalig and Guinobatan and the cities of Tabaco and Ligao, as well as the vicinities of the 6-kilometer danger zone and the extended 7-km danger zone. The DENR chief vowed to continue to monitor the air and water quality in affected areas and river systems to minimize environmental and health impacts of the volcanic eruption. On Monday the DENR Region 5 office, led by Regional Director Oscar Dominguez, started distributing over 2,000 face masks and more than

500 food packs in two barangays in Guinobatan. DENR employees and volunteers worked over the weekend to prepare the relief goods, each containing food items and a 5-liter bottled water. A water tank with purifier was also installed at Guinobatan West Central School to benefit over 1,000 evacuees. The DENR’s Operation Mayon 2018 is a collaborative effort among officials and employees of the DENR, Environmental Management Bureau, Mines and Geosciences Bureau and industry partners in the Bicol region. Jonathan L. Mayuga

By Charles R. Pepito Correspondent

HE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) have chosen the Cebu Provincial Capitol as the site of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) help desk that will open soon. The Cebu provincial government sealed its partnership with the DOLE and OWWA after signing a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Gov. Hilario Davide III representing the province and Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III on behalf of the national agencies. “Knowing that Cebu is home to thousands of OFWs—most of whom are seafarers—setting up a help desk here in the Capitol will be of great help to them and their families,” Davide said. The governor said the program has his full support since it will make the government services more accessible to OFWs. Also present during the MOA signing were Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, Rep. Peter John Calderon of the Seventh District, OWWA Deputy Secretary Josefino Torres, as well as some Provincial Board members, including Christopher Baricuatro, Yolanda Daan, Glenn Bercede, Thadeo “Jonkie” Ouano, Sun Shimura and Earl Tidy Oyas. Establishing help desks in local

government units (LGUs) around the country is an initiative of Party-list Rep. Jesulito Manalo of Angkla, chairman of the House Committee on Overseas Workers. This year President Duterte’s administration has allocated P1 billion for the promotion of the OFWs’ welfare. Davide recalled that Manalo approached him last year and broached the idea of setting up a help desk inside the Capitol, which the governor said he immediately agreed to. Bello thanked Davide and the Capitol for the assistance. Under the agreement, the Capitol will provide space for the OFW help desk, as well as personnel and other support services as deemed necessary. The province is also tasked to coordinate with LGUs in establishing a database or in the mapping of OFWs and their families in the barangay, municipal and city levels and assisting in the provision of appropriate assistance to their families. Even before the creation of a help desk, the provincial government, through the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, has been extending financial assistance to repatriated Cebuano OFWs who were retrenched from work. Leaders of various OFW organizations—mostly seafarers—also attended the ceremony.

A10 Thursday, February 1, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion

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editorial

Give peace a chance

N 2006 President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo launched an all-out campaign to put an end to the decades-old insurgency waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed unit, the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA). Government’s approach would consist of a set of programs and measures—military, police, legal, political, information, diplomatic and most important of all, the equitable delivery of basic social services, especially to disadvantaged sectors in rural areas. These were meant to address the insurgency in terms of its ideological-military aspect, including its socioeconomic root causes. The move didn’t take off. A decade later, President Duterte, after taking office in June 2016, reopened peace talks with the communist rebels. Optimism prevailed when the Chief Executive released captured rebel leaders so they could participate in the peace talks, and both sides had called separate cease-fires to pave the way for peace negotiations in Utrecht, Netherlands, where CPP founder Jose Maria Sison exiled himself. Most everyone cheered was the President’s decision to appoint National Democratic Front (NDF) nominees to his Cabinet, which signals Duterte’s aspiration for lasting peace. Unfortunately, Duterte angrily called off peace talks with the communist rebels last year after they killed soldiers in a series of attacks. The President specifically cited the death of a 4-month-old baby in an ambush by the NPA in Bukidnon as one of the major reasons that pushed him to close the door to peace negotiations. In signing Proclamation 360, declaring the termination of talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF, Duterte said the communists failed to show their sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peace negotiations as they engaged in acts of violence and hostilities, even as the government continued to exert its best efforts to accelerate the signing and implementation of a final peace agreement. Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said: “The President, as we all know, has always wanted to leave a legacy of peace under his administration. He has, in fact, walked the extra mile for peace. Rest assured that he will continuously pray that we may all find the peace that we seek for our beloved country in the fullness of God’s time.” Duterte’s proclamation, signed in pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act 10168, or the Human Security Act, officially declared the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization. This means that, under the law, affiliate revolutionary groups of the CPP-NPA would now also be considered terrorist groups, and anyone proven to be financing them would be held liable. “Take note that the domestic statute and the United Nations Security Council prohibit the giving of funds to terrorist organizations. This will enable law-enforcement agencies to run after individuals who will, in any way, provide financial support to the NPA now that it has been described as a terrorist organization,” Roque said. Despite the strong clamor from all sectors for the peace talks to continue, indications point to more gun battles, instead. However, those who want lasting peace to finally prevail must continue praying that the President and the CPP-NPA won’t close back-channel meetings between government negotiators and the rebel leaders to clear obstacles to the resumption of peace negotiations. Since 2005

The taxation ‘food chain’ John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

here is a large group of people that honestly believe—or act as if they honestly believe—that the income from a person selling their labor belongs to the government first and secondarily to the person. Ownership of something—anything and everything—allows the owner to determine how it is used.

If you own your home, you get to determine what color to paint the walls. You decide if your car is going to be driven to Batangas or Baguio over the Holy Week. When you go to the department store, you decide if you are going to spend your money on a shirt or pants. Yet, when you receive payment from the fruits of your labor, it is the government that determines how much of the income you receive, which by definition implies that the government owns the income, and gives to you whatever amount it sees

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fit. People do not seem to have a problem with that fact. That is because they believe—incorrectly—that they have some sort of say in how much of our income the government lets us keep. Further, people think that they are in control of the spending that the government does with our money because the government smartly allows people to have some input about the government budget and can protest what the people see as improper spending. But in truth, it is all a magic

N previous decades in this country, Roberto D. Tiglao’s case study would not be needed. Regulatory bodies would have investigated this gross violation of the Constitution, and enforced its provisions. If they didn’t, other watchdogs, especially Congress and the Ombudsman, would have investigated them, to determine why they were allowing such gross defiance of our Constitution.

“But such has been the decline of our institutions, especially under Aquino. The capture by the elite and foreign entities not only of regulatory bodies, but also Congress and the press, has become the norm, so much so that even the Constitution, and its interpretation by the Supreme Court, are ignored,” Tiglao said. With First Pacific subsidiaries as a partner, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) now operates a $1.2-billion, 800-megawatt plant that sells power to the Jurong Island industrial estate firms in Singapore. In 2014 Metro Pacific companies took a stake in Thailand’s Don Muang Tollway. In the same year, Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT), with parent First Pacific as a partner, invested $445 million in the German tech start-up incubator Rocket Internet. Tiglao said: “The Indonesian Salim is even the first magnate in the country to establish a health-services conglomerate,

with Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc.—owned 60 percent by his holding firm MPIC—now owning or controlling 11 of the most advanced hospitals in Metro Manila and other urban centers. “Salim even has had the gall to go into media, an industry in which the Philippine Constitution bans a single foreign-owned share. Using PLDT’s pension fund called the Beneficial Trust Fund, Salim has built the biggest multimedia empire in the country, which includes Philippine Star and Business World both of which he controls, the Philippine Daily Inquirer in which he is the second- biggest stockholder. Salim’s other media outfits are TV5, the third-biggest broadcast media network, with its more than two dozen TV and radio stations all over the country, its Internet news site Interaksyon.com, and the country’s largest satellite direct-to-home television service. “As discussed in Chapter 9, Sa-

anger to someone else. In the world of taxation, as in the natural world, there is always someone higher on the food chain. The little fish gets eaten by the big fish that gets eaten by the bigger fish, and so on. It is the character Bruce—the great white shark in Finding Nemo— that needs to be the vegetarian to keep the little clownfish from being dinner. There is always someone higher in the food chain to blame. If you have to pay 30 percent of your income in taxes, then the rich and obviously evil oligarchs should have to pay 80 percent. It is only fair. The reality is that one man’s “middle-class wage earner” is another man’s “rich evil oligarch.” It all depends where you are in the food chain. But who is truly at the top of the food chain that should be the “vegetarian”? Maybe it is the government.

show of smoke and mirrors. The people do not have authority over what the government gives back after taxes and only limited control of spending, and then only in the most outrageous incidents of waste and corruption. Deep down inside and as an individual in the dark of the night, you know that the system is taking advantage of you. It is like that time you bought something at the supermarket and when you got home, it was not in the bag. Sure, it was only a three-pack Safeguard soap costing P100, but it was your purchase and you did not get your money’s worth. If going back to the store to complain and get compensation is worth the trouble, how much are you going to fight over the issue when you are told that nothing can be done? We all know that complaining about taxation or even trying to cheat is probably a losing battle in the long term. The silly argument—in whatever form—that “I would pay the correct tax if the government did not waste the money” is not going to keep you out of jail if you are caught evading taxes. So we shift our

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lim’s conglomerate owes much of its existence and growth to the Aquino administration’s issuance in 2012 through the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] of its own new, but absurd definition of what corporate control and ownership means, so that the Constitution’s limit on foreign ownership of public utilities was in effect lifted. “The definition was so different from what the Supreme Court [SC] ruled in its landmark decision in 2011 and 2012 that declared that PLDT was in violation of the Constitution’s 40-percent foreign-capital ownership of public utilities. It is the SEC’s irregular definition of foreign ownership that has allowed Salim, together with its partners the two Japanese firms (NTT DoCoMo and NTT Communications), to control PLDT and own more than 40 percent of its capital, despite the constitutional restrictions on such.” Tiglao further said: “It was a corporate resurrection, as the Salim family’s empire in Indonesia was on the verge of collapse—the clan’s residence even torched to the ground by angry people-power type of demonstrators—when their patron the strongman Suharto was forced out of power in 1998. But unlike their food-based empire in Indonesia, the Salim conglomerate in the Philippines consists entirely of strategic and essential public utility firms— such as PLDT, Meralco and Maynilad Water—violating the constitutional limits on foreign ownership.” “As part of the propaganda to justify such violation of the Con-

stitution,” Tiglao said, “the false claim has been disseminated that the major reason our economy’s foreign-capital stock is smaller than those of our neighbors is because of the restrictions imposed by the country’s charter, which therefore should be abolished. But even with such restrictions on public utilities, the Indonesian Salim, the Japanese Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and the Singaporean Singtel, in fact, have such substantial investments in PLDT and Globe that they control these companies.” In Chapter 12, Tiglao argued that the real intent of the plot to amend the Constitution to lift these restrictions is to preempt a post-Aquino administration’s move to implement a SC decision declaring these firms as in violation of the Constitution, and to permanently entrench their dominance of our strategic telecom industry. “Foreigners’ dominance of our telecom sector is as if huge oil reserves had been discovered beneath Manila Bay, and then our government awarded the rights to exploit these oil fields to three foreign entities, which have been remitting to their owners abroad their profits of billions of dollars. And then their PR men and mercenary economists applaud that only they had the capital to build their oil rigs, that only they have the technology for this, and after all, this is the age of globalization,” Tiglao said, elucidating further thus: “Another way of putting it: We See “Arillo,” A11

Opinion

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Building social protection floor for all

Jesus as a non-politician Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo

LABOREM EXERCENS Continued from A1

he above UN call for universal social security resonates in the Philippine Constitution. The Charter mandates (under “State Policies,” Section 9, Article II) the State to “promote a just and dynamic social order that will ensure the prosperity and independence of the nation and free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, a rising standard of living and an improved quality of life for all.” In brief, social security or social protection is deeply tied to the overall socioeconomic development strategy that the country is pursuing. In line with this, the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), in their seminal book Reforming the Philippine AntiPoverty Policy (2017), is batting for a “comprehensive, universal and transformative social protection.” NAPC seeks a bold rethinking of the existing anti-poverty program, which treats the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) as the nation’s “centerpiece” program in combatting poverty. NAPC labels CCT and other social-protection programs in place as “residual,” meaning “they simply serve to mitigate some of the worst impacts of macroeconomic policies, without interrogation of the main development strategy that led to increased poverty in the first place.” This is why NAPC wants poverty eradication to be the “centerpiece of economic, social and environmental policies.” This means a shift away from the dominant neoliberal policy that has been in place since the 1980s. This neoliberal policy has stunted industrial and agricultural development, which is the reason for the persistence of mass unemployment and mass poverty in the country, exacerbated by widening social and economic inequality among income classes. As to social protection for the excluded majority, especially the extremely poor, the government often reduces this to a question of how much funds can be allocated to the various anti-poverty programs, such as credit assistance for livelihood projects, skills training for out-of-school youth and CCT for poor mothers with school-age children. Laudable as they are and beneficial they may be to a limited number of beneficiaries, they have not altered the unequal structure of the economy and the labor market. The ideal is to have a society and economy where majority, if not all, of the workers enjoy secure or regular well-paying jobs that are amply protected by law. According to Reforming Philippine Anti-Poverty Policy, the solution lies in the genuine “structural transformation of the economy, including agriculture but especially industrial production, where the country: 1) uses its natural resources to create decent work and increase incomes for the majority of Filipinos in a sustainable manner; 2) generates an economic surplus for the public sector’s needs, including the provision of social and economic services, and for reinvestment in the economy; and 3) distributes the benefits of growth under more equitable economic relations.” In brief, the existing neoliberal macroeconomic policies “need to be radically shifted, away from reckless trade and investment liberalization and toward active government support for Filipino enterprises and the work force.” NAPC is also pushing for a “comprehensive, universal and transformative social-protection policy” as part of the overall program of social and economic structural transformation. According to the NAPC’s lead writer on social protection, Marivic Raquiza, a universal social-protection policy is an affirmation of social protection as a right, not as a charity. It makes social protection redistributive while promoting social cohesion. In contrast, the present CCT program tends to pit the targeted or “listed” extremely poor versus the

excluded “near poor” and other poor, including the deserving poor who fail to make the “list” simply because they are invisible to the local government units and Department of Social Welfare and Development and/or they do not have the necessary ATM cards. Comprehensive social protection means protection of the minimum decent living standards of the citizens. This requires the State to develop a set of social-security guarantees to reduce or alleviate poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion. This means guaranteed access to essential health care and maternity care, as well as basic income security for the children (to cover needed nutrition, education, care and other services) and basic income security for the elderly and those unable to earn sufficient income. And yes, social-protection policy should be transformative for it should support the delivery of social services and social protection that all Filipinos need, the poor in particular, to become active and productive participants in the transformation of the economy toward a balanced, inclusive and sustainable path. The foregoing concept of a universal, comprehensive and transformative social-protection policy is more or less aligned with the program on social security for all that the International Labor Organization (ILO) has been pushing. According to the ILO, all countries have the capacity to develop social protection for all if they have the political will. Budget-wise, this means budgetary allocations of not less than 6 percent equivalent of a nation’s GDP (in contrast, in the advanced welfare states, social-protection spending is around 20 percent or more equivalent of the GDP). Universal and comprehensive socialprotection coverage also means the development of a combination of programs for different sectors of society based on their capacity to contribute to the system of social security. The limited number of self-employed and almost zero number of informals who are enrolled in the Social Security System are due primarily to the inability of the self-employed to cover the full amount of the SSS premium (which, in the formal labor market, is shared by the employer and the worker) and the even greater incapacity of the informals with marginal incomes to contribute anything. This is why the State should and must come in to provide the needed subsidy or outright social assistance. Of course, establishing a universal, comprehensive and transformative social-protection system will not be easy. But as the ILO Recommendation 202 of 2012 puts it, all stakeholders in society should be able to sit down, hold social dialogue and collaborate in the design and implementation of a “national social-protection floor.” And like in the Social Development Goals, each country should have a program for the “progressive realization” of universal, comprehensive and transformative social protection, with concrete targets and time frames. Finally, the design of the universal, comprehensive and transformative social-protection policy and program should be aligned or coherent with the country’s social, economic and employment policies. This is what this column has been articulating repeatedly. This is also the message of ILO Recommendation 202 and NAPC’s Reforming the Philippine Anti-Poverty Policy.

N the cauldron of politics in our country, it is to be expected that some people mistrust so many others and are downright maleficent toward those perceived as dangerous to their vested interests. From the beginning of Christianity, one has to be firmly centered not to be distracted into the vortex of political partisanship. Saint Mark (1:29-39) intentionally portrays Jesus as indeed the awaited messiah but without the political patina people have been associating the figure with.

The true Messiah The gospel narration of a typical day in the public ministry of Jesus pictures Him fulfilling the prophetic expectations (Isaiah 35:5-6; 61:1-2) of what the “day of the messiah” would be like. The images of hope and healing, of feasts and freedom become concretized in the healings and exorcisms, the teaching with authority and dedication by Jesus. But Mark is obviously muting down the public enthusiasm regarding the wondrous powers of Jesus; they are signs of the reign of God, not of some political agenda. There is the contrived “secrecy” about His true identity, with a command silencing the demons, not

because they know the truth, but because they, as the people also, know only half the truth, the seductive falsehood. Jesus is truly the messiah, God’s suffering servant. Jesus is disassociating Himself from the centuries-old political hopes of His people. The people have been looking for a wonder-working messiah by whose political might the power and glory of Israel might be restored, a messiah who would lead them to victory. For Mark, the greatest wonder performed by Jesus is paradoxically the mystery of His suffering and death on the cross (15:39). This necessary distinction is highlighted by the particular verb

Thursday, February 1, 2018 A11

he employs in describing how Simon and the others were searching for Jesus. “Everyone is looking [zetein in the original Greek] for You.” It indicates a misguided search, looking for a wrong person in Jesus, misunderstanding and misconstruing Him.

A man of prayer

Jesus, however, is intentionally portrayed as a man praying. After the cures and the recognition by demons, Jesus retreats to pray. This is a consistent action by Jesus when He is confronted by people’s misconception and distortion of His mission (6:46; 14:35, 39). From such a prayerful pause from His activities in intimacy with His heavenly Father, Jesus emerges focused as ever in the direction of His ways and the goal of His efforts. He is not intoxicated by the popular reaction to His power; He refused to bask in their admiration and to tarry with them, forgetful that He is to serve all and has still many others to reach out to. If Jesus as a man of prayer living in the presence of God stands firm in His mission of salvation for all peoples, the mother-in-law of Simon grasped by the hand and helped up by Jesus from her sickness personifies a true disciple. After being healed, the woman at once began to serve Jesus and His followers. Again, the actual verb used by Mark is egeiro

(so, literally, Jesus “raised her up”), the same verb to describe the resurrection of Jesus Himself (14:28). The woman’s simple cure, told in starkest simplicity, becomes a foreshadowing of Jesus’ mission for all humankind. He heals in His power over sin and death; as the Risen One He raises up to new life all believers. Alálaong bagá, as Jesus refused to be drawn to the messianic politics of His people wishing for ascendancy over their enemies, His followers, too, as community must be most careful about such political partisanship. It is the right and duty of every Christian to be politically active and responsible (i.e. involved in the political world), and the Church must be the Gospel-driven leaven for the transformation of the people, never a seduced or cowed adjunct to a political party with its vested interests. The breaking-in of God’s reign is precisely against the perennial politics of greed and corruption, the obstruction of justice and the obfuscation of truth, the blatant violation of human rights and the opportunism of so many politicians. Our politics stand in urgent need of Jesus’ teaching, healing and exorcism. Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

Dissecting the TRAIN law: A look at the optional flat tax Atty. Jared C. Vicencio

Tax Law for Business

ne of the major changes brought about by Republic Act 10963, otherwise known as the TRAIN law, is the modification of income taxes. In particular, the said law introduced changes to the income-tax scheme governing individuals. Most notable are the changes made to the prevailing income taxrate bracket. This change has generated a lot of attention among the general populace. It is rather unfortunate, however, that a crucial change in the income-tax scheme has managed to fly under the radar. For all the interest surrounding the changes in the income-tax bracket, not enough spotlight has been shone on the optional flat tax.

potential to reduce tax exposure. Given the 8-percent rate, it is significantly lower than the 32 percent prescribed by the income-tax schedule, for income earned amounting to P2,000,000 but not exceeding P8,000,000. Of course, the later scheme takes into consideration allowable deductions, but given the much lower rate of 8 percent as opposed to 32 percent, chances are the taxpayer will end up with a lower tax liability if he/she elects the flat-tax scheme. Also, unlike the graduated tax-rate scheme, the 8 percent already includes percentage taxes. The taxpayer opting to avail himself of the graduated rates will still pay percentage tax on top of income taxes. The other benefit of availing yourself of the optional flat tax is the simplification of compliance with requirements. Since the said tax scheme already includes percentage tax, then the taxpayer would presumably need to file a single return to cover both income and percentage taxes. This will make tax compliance simpler for individuals who opt for the flat-tax scheme. It should be noted that the Bureau

of Internal Revenue Regulations regarding this tax scheme is still pending approval, although a quick examination of the draft proposed regulations would reveal that the rules would not interfere with the application of this provision. Other than special entities specifically subjected to percentage tax, those falling under the value-added tax threshold of P3,000,000 may avail themselves of this tax scheme. All in all, the small and medium taxpayers will significantly feel the benefits of the flat-tax scheme. The said option not only reduces the cost of doing business, it also eases the burden of administrative compliance. The author is a senior associate of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a memberfirm of WTS Global. The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at jared.vicencio@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 403-2001 local 370.

Section 24(A) of the current tax code has been modified to include an entirely new provision, namely, an option for self-employed individuals and individuals practicing their profession (SEP) to elect the imposition of a tax rate of 8 percent based on gross sales or gross receipts. This 8-percent flat-tax option, available to SEPs whose gross sales/gross re-

ceipts do not exceed the P3,000,000 threshold, is in lieu of income tax and percentage tax. In other words, SEPs who meet the required threshold may elect to be subject to the 8-percent tax rate, which covers their income tax and percentage tax. The benefits of this additional tax scheme are twofold. First, and the more obvious of the two, is the

Arillo . . .

Don’t fear China’s Arctic takeover

continued from A10

have been squabbling with our biggest trading partner and an economic superpower, China, fighting for our rights over the natural resources in our exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea, even if, other than fishing, we will realistically be able to exploit such resources only decades from now. “Yet, we have surrendered our telecoms industry, a sector crucial to any sovereign country’s economy and national security, to an Indonesian tycoon, a Japanese global telecom giant, and a Singaporean state company and allowed them to exploit out limited, national and natural resource—the radio spectrum within the nation’s boundaries. “What makes foreigners’ dominance of our telecom industry so unfortunate, even tragic to our nation, is that this has occurred just when the game-changing technology-intensive wireless telephony has emerged in the world, only to be controlled in our case by foreign firms.” What kind of country have we become? Tiglao asked. To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

By Adam Minter Bloomberg View

ast week China said it plans to build a “Polar Silk Road” that will open shipping lanes across the largely pristine region at the top of the world. It’s an ambitious idea for a country that lacks an Arctic border, and it has raised concerns around the world about China’s ultimate intentions and its capacity for environmental stewardship. Although these are reasonable worries, they’re almost certainly overblown. In theory, melting Arctic ice will create a significant economic opportunity. By one account, the region holds 22 percent of the world’s oil and gas reserves. As the ice recedes due to climate change, those reserves will be easier to mine. As new shipping lanes open, they should also be easier to transport. A cargo vessel going from Shanghai to Rotterdam via the Northwest Passage, rather than through the Panama Canal, will shave 2,200 miles off its journey. Already, some 900 Arctic infrastructure projects are at various stages of development. To be sure, most won’t get anywhere. It’s hard to predict exactly how and where polar ice will melt. Some hopedfor shipping lanes may not open until the 2070s, and those routes that have already opened are unlikely to support profitable shipping businesses, thanks to their remoteness and the high cost of

insurance. In 2016 only 19 vessels traversed the Northern Sea Route between Asia and Europe—hardly evidence of an Arctic “gold rush” or competition for the Panama Canal. Yet, China is taking the long view. In the past decade, Chinese academics have started publishing papers on the role of the Arctic in China’s economic and geopolitical future. Policy-makers have begun describing China as a “nearArctic state” and an Arctic “stakeholder,” despite having no coastline or other obvious territorial claims in the region. In 2016 China published a 356-page guidebook on navigating Canada’s Northwest Passage—then made a successful voyage through the fabled sea route just a year later. All this has led to some understandable concerns. Canada, for one, is worried that China will fail to respect existing sovereignty claims, and recently accused it of obtaining a permit for its Northwest Passage voyage under false premises. As the world’s largest consumer of oil, gas, minerals and seafood, China is also sure to have an outsized impact on the region’s environment. But that’s all the more reason for it to have a seat at the table in determining the Arctic’s future. So far, at least, China has been willing to work within international rules. In 2013 it obtained permanent observer status at the Arctic Council, a group that includes the eight Arctic nations and six indigenous communities. Last December it was one of

16 countries that agreed to a 16-year ban on commercial fishing in the Arctic while scientists study the region’s marine ecology and how it might be affected by climate change. That’s no guarantee that China’s ravenous fishing fleets won’t pour into polar waters come 2034. But it is a reminder that China will be affected by the risks and opportunities created by a warming Arctic, and has a legitimate role to play there. With that in mind, clearer rules and stronger institutions are still needed. For starters, the United States should set an example by finally ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the treaty governing the oceans. In doing so, it would gain more influence in discussions over the Arctic, and help ensure that disputes in the region’s international waters can be resolved in an orderly way. Additionally, the Polar Code, which regulates cargo vessels and cruise ships in the area, should be extended to fishing boats, which arguably pose the greatest risk to Arctic ecosystems. Finally, it would make sense to establish an international scientific body—perhaps modeled on the North Pacific Marine Sciences Organization—that could provide timely information on the Arctic’s environment and fish stocks. None of these measures will work perfectly. But they can help ensure that the Arctic, one of Earth’s last unexplored regions, doesn’t become its latest conflict zone.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Thursday, February 1, 2018

Labor group, lawmakers urge Duterte to reject hike in SSS contribution A By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie & Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

labor group said on Wednesday it would express its opposition to the looming membership fee hike of the Social Security System (SSS) during its expected meeting with President Duterte next week. “We will raise the [fee hike] issue with the President, praying that he will stop, if not hold in abeyance, the increase while consultation is being done,” Federation of Free Workers (FFW) Vice President Julius H. Cainglet told the BusinessMirror via short message service. The FFW, together with other representatives from other major labor groups, is scheduled to

hold a dialogue with Duterte on February 9. Cainglet said they will also call on Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III to bring the issue before the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (NTIPC) so stakeholders could air their official position on the matter. The NTIPC, which is comprised of representatives from the gov-

The rate of increase in the contribution of SSS members

ernment, private sector and labor groups, serve as the advisory body of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for policy creation. “The increase won’t take effect until approved by the President. The Social Security Commission [SSC] is recommendatory. The FFW will ask Secretary Bello to call SSS management to a meeting with labor and with the NTIPC to discuss the increase,” Cainglet said.

SSS earlier announced it plans to raise the membership fee rate by 3 percent in April to maintain the sustainability of its funds. The FFW rejected the proposal as it was supposedly done without sufficient consultation from its stakeholders, particularly the labor sector. It noted that the supposed labor representatives in the SSS Commission—Anita Bumpus-Quitain, Arthur L. Amansec and Gonzalo T. Duque—“poorly represented” the stand of workers on the issue of the membership fee hike. “The SSS is disregarding workers and violating laws on tripartism, that make consultation with workers and employers mandatory,” FFW President Jose Sonny G. Matula said in a statement. “It is lamentable that the most representative labor groups have See “Labor group,” A2

‘Causers pay policy’ out by June–DOE By Lenie Lectura @llectura

nergy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi is expected to sign the proposed “causers pay policy” in June this year after it is presented to the public for comments. “There is already a draft [circular] that will undergo public consultations. It is targeted to be signed in June 2018,” Energy Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella said. Under the causers pay principle, a corresponding penalty will be imposed on industry players that will cause distress in the power system, triggering service interruptions to consumers. The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to pass on the burden of shouldering the incremental cost to the generation companies, distribution utilities and grid operator “if the cause of the outage is intentional on their part, if they were negligent or incompetent.” “This is a proposed policy that we will seriously look into together with the ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission] and have it tested. Basically, it will be determined if the cause was intentional or not, if there were lapses on their part that led to the outage, which could have been avoided in the first place,” Fuentebella said. Cusi had said that the measure is meant “to discipline industry players and, at the same time, ensure consumers’ protection.” “The implementation of the causers pay policy, which is a rewards-and-penalty system, will hold power-industry players accountable for forced outages.” Fuentebella added the public consultation for the causers pay policy is scheduled this month. “The policy aims to make the parties accountable to power interruptions and other significant occurrences. Accountability after the unbundling of the sectors is the key principle being pursued by the DOE,” he said.

SHELTER AFTER THE SIEGE In response to the government’s call to rebuild Marawi City, the Tarlac Heritage Foundation (THF), led by Cofounder Isabel Cojuangco-Suntay (center, in pink blouse), along with the Chinese-Filipino Business Club and the Philippine Army, unveiled the Bahay Pag-Asa Phase 2 project during President Duterte’s site inspection on Tuesday. With Duterte and Cojuangco-Suntay are Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana (second from left) and Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Rolando Joselito Bautista (right). National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon; Brig. Gen. Arnold Fernandez, commander of the 54th Engineering Brigade; and Maj. Gen. Roseller Murillo, commander of the 1st Infantry Division (not in photo) also joined the inspection, following the unveiling of the first completed unit. Cojuangco-Suntay told the President that the THF will also build a total of 60 housing units in the same site in Barangay Mipaga in the city to provide permanent shelter to the survivors of the siege. The houses will be constructed by members of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, Mechanized Infantry Division, 54th Engineering Brigade and 2nd Mechanized Brigade. NONIE REYES

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TEO: FORGET BORACAY, GO TO MALABON INSTEAD

Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo enthusiastically boarded a tricycle to go around the tourist destinations in Malabon. PHOTO COURTESY D.O.T. By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

S the beach era over? Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo seems to think so, as she casually threw shade at Boracay Island and other beach destinations while promoting Malabon as the next big thing in local tourism. In an interview with reporters on Monday, as she took them on a tour of several attractions in Malabon, Teo said: “Come to Malabon instead. Boracay is congested already. Let’s fix it first.” She stressed: “Malabon is a nice place, it’s different. It’s a place we should patronize. It’s a new destination [where you can find] faith tourism, culinary [food] and culture. We’re finished with beaches. We should go to other destinations so they will be more known.” The Department of Tourism (DOT) has been trying to fight off its critics, even lawmakers, who have taken them to task for allegedly being unable to protect Boracay from pollution, overbuilding, traffic and flooding. In a recent hearing at the House Committee on Tourism chaired by Rep. Lucy Ann Torres-Gomez of the First District of Leyte, Teo showed, however, that most of the issues of Boracay are under the jurisdiction of the local government and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The DOT chief made the pitch for Malabon and other emerging destinations in the National Capital Region, while onboard a tricycle to visit the destination’s best-kept secrets, such as the 404-year-old Bartolome Church, Syjuco Heritage House, the art gallery of Angel Cacnio, the Borja Mansion and the Immaculate Concepcion Church. “This tricycle is very unique. There’s nothing like it anywhere else, that is why we should make an effort to promote this project,” she said, at the same time lauding the local government unit’s efforts to promote Malabon’s sights. She also underscored that these tricycle tours “can also help local communities by giving jobs to tricycle drivers. Nowhere in the world can you find tricycles except in the Philippines. So we’re going to promote this.” Malabon City Mayor Antolin Oreta III hosted the Malabon “Lugaw Xperience” for Teo and the media, featuring special chicken arroz caldo, along with the popular Pancit Malabon, and delicacies like puto and kakanin. He said tricycle drivers have been trained to bring tourists around the city, and many of them are articulate enough and have enough good stories to tell visitors. “We have alternative tour guides, but the tricyle drivers have more stories. You can either take the heritage tour, or the food tour, or both,” he said, which will take about three hours. Oreta said the tricycle tours have been offered since 2014. “In the beginning, we had locals visiting us, and when I mean locals, this includes people from Malabon. The next years, we received more foreign tourists,” he said. Members of the media were also taken on a tour of Las Piñas City, this time by Tourism Spokesman and Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Frederick M. Alegre. Popular attractions include the the 196-year-old Bamboo Organ at Saint Joseph Church, the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecological Area, and the Sarao Jeepney manufacturing plant. “Las Piñas City has preserved its old town charm and intimacy. The home of the iconic Bamboo Organ resonates with Filipino hospitality, especially during the traditional festivities,” Alegre said. He also pointed out that the area is an international destination for 84 species of migratory birds, and extolled the extraordinary Filipino craftsmanship in the manufacture of the jeepney, a cultural icon, that will soon be phased out by the Duterte administration.

PHL still far from desired care for 2M ‘kasambahays’ Continued from A1

Approach] with their employers bog down,” Trayvilla said. Sena is the administrative approach of the DOLE, whereby all parties with labor dispute undergo a mediation and conciliation. From 2013 to 2017, the DOLE’s regional offices and the National Conciliation and Mediation Board were able to handle 629 requests for assistance filed by HSWs. Trayvilla said there could have been more if the procedures in the filing of labor disputes have been clearer.

ILO report

The IRR review of RA 10361 is also part of the preparation of the government in its commitment to the International Labour Organization (ILO) next year on its protective measures for HSWs. ILO Programme Assistant Officer Ma.

Lourdes Macapanpan said they will use the report to gauge the country’s compliance to ILO Convention (IC) 189 next year. “Since the Philippines is the second country to ratify the Convention [189], other countries are looking at it for good practices in terms of protecting the rights of HSWs. The report will encourage other countries to do the same,” Macapanpan said. Trayvilla noted the country will not be at risk of any sanctions from ILO in case its report on the IC 189 compliance fails to meet its expectations. But she did admit the labor arm of the United Nations might use “moral suasion” to compel the country to improve its IC 189 compliance. The Philippine government has previously submitted a similar report to ILO covering 2013 and 2014, which was well received by the Geneva-based organization.

In their 2019 report, Trayvilla said they noted their tripartite approach in coming up with policies for HSWs and the exemplary efforts of some local government units in encouraging the registration of HSWs. “We also want to show the policies that we have issued in the department and the services given by our regional offices,” Tray v illa said. T hese include capacity-building efforts of the government for HSWs through skills training and seminars.

Stakeholder role

A lthough t he gover nment plays a big role in solving the problems in the enforcement of R A 10361, Federation of Free Workers Vice President Julius H. Cainglet also stressed the role employers—and even the HSWs— have in the said efforts. He said the creation of the

regional tripartite industrial council for HSWs is a big step toward this direction, since it will allow the government to craft policies based on the concerns of both parties. Cainglet, however, added this remains easier said than done, since HSWs and their employers remain mostly unorganized. Ideally, he said both stakeholders should have their own nationwide organizations, not only for the policy-making needs of the government, but also for collectivebargaining purposes. Only around 3,000 to 4,000 HSWs in the country are organized in several labor associations. Their employers have yet to establish similar organizations. The United Domestic Workers of the Philippines (United) currently is one of the biggest HSW organizations in the countr y, with 1,974 members nationwide, including Lisa Santa Romana, a

47-year-old HSW in Quezon City. United President Novelita V. Palisoc said they are planning to increase their membership this year so they can gain better recognition from the government. “We plan to expand our membership so we will be recognized as a labor union [by the government] because, as of now, we are still only classified as an association,” Palisoc said. She added that this will also allow them to provide aid to more HSWs. “Our members will be given training and insurance in case of accident or death,” Palisoc said. But for Lisa, who has been a member of United since it was created in 2013, their group serves more of a second family rather than a labor association. “It is great to be a member of an organization. It allows me to meet my friends and to have some fun on my free time,” Lisa said.