three-time rotary club of manila journalism awardee 2006, 2010, 2012
U.N. Media Award 2008
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Tuesday, 18, 2015 2014 Vol. Vol.10 10No. No.128 40 Saturday,November February 14,
Oil-price uncertainty, MINIMAL deflationary risks weighed
Tetangco says BSP can hold rate for most part of 2015
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By Bianca Cuaresma
he Philippine central bank can hold its benchmark interest rate for most of 2015, even as a lower inflation forecast gives policy-makers more room to maneuver, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said.
“If things remain as they are—that is, inflation expectations are well anchored; domestic demand continues to be resilient; oil prices remain low, but not too volatile; and Fed [US Federal Reserve] normalization is orderly—I think we can keep rates steady for the most part of 2015,” Tetangco said in a phone interview with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television from Manila on Friday. The BSP held its benchmark at 4 percent on February 12, and cut inflation forecasts for this year and next. The central bank will watch for
the possible effects of sustained low crude prices on global growth and any risk of a delayed increase in US interest rates because of cheap oil, Tetangco said. While the inflation outlook gives policy-makers more room, firm demand, uncertainty over oil prices and minimal deflationary risk are being considered, Tetangco said, when asked if there’s more room to ease monetary policy. “Real lending rates in the Philippines are the third lowest in the region,” he said. Continued on A2
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PALACE FIRM ON rules-based SOLUTION TO encroachment OF CHINA ON WEST PHL SEA By Butch Fernandez
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alacañang said on Friday the Philippines is sticking to its position favoring a “rules-based approach” in resolving the dispute with China over certain islands in the West Philippine Sea. Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. made the clarification in the wake of recent reports that China, which is locked in territorial disputes with its neighbors, has been “flexing its muscles and preparing for military conflict in Asia.” Sought for comment on US
Navy Pacific Fleet intelligence reports confirming ongoing Chinese reclamation work in the Mischief Reef within the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone, Coloma said the government remains unfazed and awaits action on its protest before the UN Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague. “The Philippines is firm in its position on the need for the rulesbased approach to prevail over any discussion on the West Philippine Sea or the South China Sea,” Coloma told Palace reporters at a briefing on Friday. See “West PHL Sea,” A8
1 billion rising With purple ribbons on their wrists, more than 3,000 students, teachers and nuns from the Catholic-run Saint Scholastica’s College in Manila flash the No. 1 sign, as they dance at their quadrangle to take part in the global campaign to end violence against women and girls, dubbed One Billion Rising, on Friday. AP/Bullit Marquez
Study: World dumps 8.8m tons of plastic into oceans
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AN JOSE, California—Each year about 8.8 million tons of plastic ends up in the world oceans, a quantity much higher than previous estimates, according to a new study that tracked marine debris from its source. That’s the equivalent of five grocery bags full of plastic debris dotting each foot of coastline around the world, said study lead author Jenna Jambeck, an environment engineering professor at
the University of Georgia. And if the biggest polluters, mostly developing Asian countries, don’t clean up how they throw stuff away, Jambeck projects that by 2025 the total accumulated plastic trash in the oceans will reach around 170 million tons. That’s based on population trends and continued wastemanagement disposal problems, although there may be some early signs of change, she said. Continued on A8
PESO exchange rates n US 44.3960
PEMC all set for RE capacity integration to WESM By Lenie Lectura
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he Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) on Friday bared a readiness to administer the trading of renewable energy (RE) in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). PEMC operates the electricity spot market, which is the centralized venue for buyers and sellers to trade electricity as a commodity, and where prices are based on actual use and availability.
“PEMC has been relentless in realizing its mandates under the RE Act, and we have expressly lent our support through various stakeholder events, such as the WESM Lesson Series and the RE conference 2014,” PEMC President Melinda Ocampo said. Since 2012 t he PEMC has worked on the appropriate framework for the implementation of so-called must dispatch and priority dispatch of RE resources. This was in accord with the intent of
WESM rules encouraging the use of renewable sources of energy, the PEMC added. Pursuant to RE Act of 2008, all intermittent resources and Feed-inTariff (FiT)-qualified resources are entitled to must dispatch and priority dispatch, respectively, subject to the issuance of qualification and registration guidelines. This means that the eligible RE resources, as identified under the RE Act, are given preference in the dispatch schedule, with the remain-
ing obligation of these resources to submit their projected outputs. As a consequence of the preferential dispatch, eligible RE resources are given priority to inject to the grid as price-takers displacing expensive fuels, which could result in lower prices in the spot market as observed by other power exchanges. RE resources include biomass, solar, wind, geothermal, ocean energy and hydro. The Department of Energy (DOE) See “R.E. capacity,” A8
n japan 0.3732 n UK 68.3343 n HK 5.7261 n CHINA 7.1086 n singapore 32.7380 n australia 34.3888 n EU 50.6336 n SAUDI arabia 11.8342 Source: BSP (13 February 2015)