Businessmirror february 15, 2018

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Thursday, February 15, 2018 Vol. 13 No. 127

Miaa told: Decongest airport or face graft raps

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By Recto Mercene @rectomercene & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

he leader of the House of Representatives on Wednesday warned officials of the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) to address the congestion in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) or they will face graft charges for failing to protect the public’s welfare.

ALVAREZ: “They have to comply, otherwise we will file graft cases against them for failure to do their job in protecting the welfare of the public.”

Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said he ordered the Miaa to take “appropriate steps” to decongest passenger and air traffic in Manila’s airport.

“They have to comply, otherwise Continued on A2

Electronics exporters to raise CTRP-2 issues with DOF

Jobs for the senior-high graduates Rene E. Ofreneo

laborem exercens

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N January President Duterte signed Republic Act 10968, the law establishing the PQF-National Coordinating Council (NCC).

The PQF stands for the Philippine Qualifications Framework, which sets the skills and education standards at different levels of educational attainment, from basic education to technical-vocational and tertiary levels. Accordingly, the law completes the harmonization efforts of the three pillars of the Philippine educational system—the Department of Education (DepEd), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Dubbed as “trifocalization,” the harmonization, through the PQF, allows the students and trainees “to move easily and readily between the different education and training sectors and between these sectors” as they move in and out of the labor market.

This harmonization program came two decades late. In the mid1990s, Congress, emboldened by a set of “educational reform” recommendations from the Congressional Education Commission, broke up the education monopoly of the then-Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) by establishing three separate autonomous educational institutions—the DepEd, Tesda and CHED. Continued on A12

@alyasjah

Govt to spend P30 billion for tourism infra program

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See “Electronics,” A2

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

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MONUMENTAL CLEANUP Following a successful cleanup of the Rizal Monument last December, workers from Kärcher and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) conduct a final cleaning activity at the Edsa People Power Monument along Edsa in Quezon City, in preparation for the anniversary of the People Power Revolution on February 25. Story on B3. NONOY LACZA

DOT supports clampdown on Boracay violators

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

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HE Department of Tourism (DOT) will continue to promote the country’s primary destinations and market emerging ones, as government efforts were under way to close down establishments in the world-famous Boracay Island for various offenses.

In a news statement, Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said it was “high time [the

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By Elijah Felice E. Rosales eaders of the country’s top exporting industry will meet with Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III next week to discuss their concerns over some of the provisions in the second package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP).

The Semiconductors and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc. (Seipi) is up for a meeting with Dominguez on February 20 to thresh out the contents of the second tax-reform bill. The CTRP’s second package is aimed at lowering corporate-income tax and rationalizing tax incentives. Seipi President Danilo C. Lachica said they have “prospective ideas” the Department of Finance (DOF) might like to hear on how to make sure the measure will not scare off investors.

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The massive cleanup of Boracay is a bitter pill that we have to swallow if we are to collectively save and sustain Boracay.”—Teo

Depar tment of Env ironment and Natural Resources] ordered the closure of some 200 tourism establishments in Boracay found violating environmental laws and regulations.” These include the easement law, the Solid Waste Man-

PESO exchange rates n US 51.9160

agement Act of 2001 and the Clean Water Act of 2004.

“The massive cleanup of Boracay is a bitter pill that we have to swallow if we are to collectively save and sustain Boracay,” she sa id, and announced an

invitation to Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu and Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año to revisit the island.

President Durterte tasked both secretaries to address the problems of the popular resort island within six months. On Tuesday Cimatu announced he will be giving errant establishments on Boracay two months to address their violations.

On Monday Cimatu held an executive meeting to plan the next Continued on A12

he public works and tourism departments have allocated P30.9 billion to develop vital tourism infrastructure across 16 regions in the country, as the government seeks to provide ease and comfort on transport for its projected 7.4 million tourists through 2018.

Under this year’s Tourism Road Infrastructure Program (TRIP), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Department of Tourism (DOT ) are going to jointly develop 1,688 kilometers of tourism roads via 677 projects spread across 16 regions in the Philippines.

Among the high-impact tourism road projects in the 2018 program include access roads leading to Mapita Tribal Community in Pangasinan; New Clark City; Callao Caves in Tuguegarao City; Buscalan in Kalinga, which is also known as the home of the last mambabatok, Apo Whang Od; Seven Cities in Iloilo; La Paz, Zamboanga City; and Dahilayan Adventure Park in Bukidnon.

Also included in the list of high-impact tourism roads are the following: Asik-Asik Falls, North Cotabato; Surigao del Sur leading to the world-famous Hinatuan Enchanted River; circumferential roads in Taal, Batangas; San Jose, Romblon; and Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte.

677 The number of tourism infrastructure projects that will be implemented in 16 regions

Coastal roads leading to nature and marine reserves in Pasacao-Balatan in Camarines Sur; Gilutongan and Nalusuan Marine Sanctuary in Cebu; and Canopy Forest in Eastern Samar are also part of the priority projects of TRIP. For the last five years, the DPWHDOT convergence program has successfully completed over 1,500 tourism roads nationwide through a P60-billion budget allocation.

It was pioneered in 2011 with the aim of constructing, upgrading, rehabilitating, and improving roughly 463 roads and bridges.

The new program, a successor of the Tourism Road Infrastructure Project Prioritization Criteria, is part of the 10-Point Socioeconomic Agenda of President Duterte.

It is also seen to complement other infrastructure projects, which are seen to usher the Philippines into the so-called Golden Age of Infrastructure.

n japan 0.4816 n UK 72.1061 n HK 6.6363 n CHINA 8.1887 n singapore 39.2530 n australia 40.7956 n EU 64.1578 n SAUDI arabia 13.8443

Source: BSP (14 February 2018 )

BMReports Miaa told: Decongest airport or face graft raps BusinessMirror

A2 Thursday, February 15, 2018

Continued from A1

we will file graft cases against them for failure to do their job in protecting the welfare of the public,” Alvarez told the BusinessMirror via SMS. During the hearing of the Committee on Transportation on Wednesday, Alvarez directed Miaa General Manager Eddie Monreal to put their operations in order within 45 days and transfer local flights to Clark International Airport.

He urged the committee to form an oversight body to evaluate what would be accomplished at the end of the deadline. As congressional oversight committee, Congress can review, monitor and supervise the programs, policy and activities of all government agencies, as well as the implementation of laws it has enacted.

Alvarez also reminded the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines and the Miaa that their primary concern is to promote the welfare of the passengers and not the concern of the airlines.

For his part, Monreal vowed to further improve Naia services.

Alvarez noted it is only in the Philippines where “mixed use” of airports is allowed and where airports designed

for domestic traffic also handle international flights, while airports designed for international flights also take in domestic flights.

If necessary, the speaker said airport authorities should divert flights to other airports, such as Clark International Airport to ease the congestion at the Naia. He added the main concern of airport authorities should be the safety, comfort and convenience of the riding public.

According to Alvarez, there is a big difference in the design between a domestic and an international airport. “ If you c a n not accom mod ate several flights, then reject excess flights. And, that way, we will lessen the traffic in our runways. Because, no matter how we build terminals, if the runway cannot accommodate, it’s useless. So reduce the number of flights,” Alvarez said.

In a separate interview, the Miaa general manager revealed that the departure and arrival areas of the Naia Terminal 2 will be expanded. He said that, originally, Naia2 was designed as a purely domestic airport but had to accommodate international flights, as well, after flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has turned it into their Manila home base.

Today, due to lack of space, PAL has to utilize Naia terminal 1 for arriving flights from the United States, while Naia 2 continues to be its domestic and international hub.

Monreal said that, during the last few years, Naia 1, and Naia 3 became the major passenger terminals for the rest of the 63 international air carriers flying out of Manila, “while Terminal 4, the Manila Domestic Airport, complements Naia 2.”

Once its rehabilitation is completed in at the end of 2018, Monreal said Pal will share the newly refurbished Naia 2 with low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific. The speaker also warned airlines to comply with government rules or face possible cancellation of their franchises.

“You know the reason why I also invited the chairman of the franchise committee? Because we can always cancel your respective franchises. And we are not joking. We are not threatening anybody. We are serious in promoting the safety, comfort and convenience of the public,” Alvarez said.

Lance Gokongwei, Cebu Pacific Inc. president, however, said it might take at least a year for his company to comply with such directive.

“Respectfully sir, given the way we

sell tickets one year in advance and also the time it requires to move all our people and [do] the ground preparations, I think these drastic steps may take over a year of planning,” Gokongwei said.

However, Alvarez is adamant on the 45-day deadline. He urged the committee to form an oversight body to evaluate what would be accomplished at the end of the deadline.

Alvarez also lashed out at the costcutting practice of airlines—Cebu Pacific, in particular—that allowed them to enjoy huge profits at the expense of the passengers. One of this is the refusal of Cebu Pacific to use the passenger bridge—also known as the tube—even if available.

“We will consider the cancellation of the franchise of Cebu Pacific,” he said.

He refused to accept the explanation of Gokongwei that it is not the policy of Cebu Pacific not to use the passenger bridge.

Likewise, Alvarez also accused Cebu Pacific for supposedly failing to provide appropriate refund to passengers who failed to board their flights.

Alvarez saidthat, in the past, airlines have managed to defy the regulations because they were “banking on their connections to Malacañang.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Electronics. . .

Continued from A1

“I think the lower corporate-income tax would be better, and the lower personal-income tax, I think we all like that,” he said in a recent news briefing.

“There are opportunities that probably we can improve on, and we are going to be giving suggestions and prospective ideas to the government,”Lachica added.

Nonetheless, he vowed the electronics industry is backing all the remaining packages of the CTRP, the first of which—the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN)—was signed into law last December.

“Whether it is the DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] or the DOF, we will work closely with the government. We support the government’s initiative [because] it is good for the country,” Lachica said.

He added the sector understands the need of the government to generate revenue to be able to finance its multitrillion-peso infrastructure program.

“The money has to come from somewhere and we want to do our part,” Lachica said. “We are engaged in a dialogue with the DOF and other agencies in the government because we fully support the initiatives, and we do have some ideas and suggestions on how it can be implemented better. Nonetheless, we are all for it,” the Seipi chief said.

On Semiconductor Philippines Inc. President and General Manager Sunil Banwari said the industry was more upbeat following the enactment of the TRAIN into law. “I have seen a lot of optimism in the work force about their tax benefits covering all associates, and I think they are definitely looking forward to the benefits,” he said.

“We are working closely with tax experts as to how we can maximize the take-home pay for the associates. We are [now] engaging in a dialogue with the DOF to understand better [the CTRP’s second package],” Banwari added.

The industry’s confidence in the government remains unshaken, and this was mainly due to its peak-level performance last year. Electronics exports recorded all-time high earnings of $32.70 billion in the previous year and accounted for 52 percent of the country’s total merchandise exports. Last year’s performance was 11 percent higher than that of $29.4 billion posted in 2016. In spite of its strong showing in the previous year, Seipi’s growth outlook for the sector this year is projected at 6 percent.

The Nation

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

BusinessMirror

Thursday, February 15, 2018 A3

Renewal of DMCI’s mining port permit puts 2 ex-PPA executives in hot water

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By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HE Office of the Ombudsman has recommended the filing of graft charges against the former general manager of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and his assistant in connection with the alleged anomalous renewal of DMCI’s port permit in Barangay Bolitoc, Santa Cruz, Zambales, whose mining operations were previously suspended for environmental concerns.

In a resolution released to the media on Wednesday, the Ombudsman found merit to the complaint filed

by Agham Party-list, through its president Angelo Palmones, against former PPA General Manager and lawyer Juan Sta. Ana and former PPA Assistant General Manager Raul Santos.

The Ombudsman, however, cleared of any liability officials of DMCI led by Isidro Consunji, chairman and president of DMCI Holdings Inc.; DMCI Mining Corp.

Rodolfo Cabuary, liaison manager/representative of DMCIHI; Cesar Simbulan Jr., president and COO of DMCIMC; and Herbert M. Consuji, vice president and CFO of DMCIHI. The Ombudsman found probable cause to indict Sta. Ana and Santos for violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019, before the Sandiganbayan. “ T he p u bl i c re s p o nd e nt s , w it h manifest par t ia l it y [and] ev ident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence, gave unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference to DMC I MC a s... shown in their inaction on complainant’s letters to them,” the 11-page resolution approved by Ombudsman Conchita Car pio-

Mora les read.

The Ombudsman noted that Sta. Ana ignored complainant’s letters, informing him of the irregularity in the issuance of DMCIMC’s port permit and demanding its cancellation and revocation.

Agham accused the two former PPA officials of a proving the renewal of DMCI’s port permit despite the absence of mandatory requirements, particularly the Foreshore Lease Agreement as provided for by PPA rules and regulations.

The group said such an agreement would be impossible to be executed in favor of DMCI considering that the land directly butting its lot is not foreshore but a land formation that was cut through by DMCIMC.

Since there is no foreshore a rea d i rect ly abut t i ng DMCIMC’s lot, then DMCIMC cannot be considered a littoral/ riparian owner and should not ASINLOC, Zambales— have been allowed to operate a The parents of missing port.

University of the Philip The Ombudsman did not give pines (UP) student Karen Empeño weight to the claim of the rehave renewed the call to convict spondents that a mere applicaretired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, tion for a foreshore lease agreewho was tagged in the forced disapment with the Department of pearance of their daughter 11 years Environment and Natural Reago in Hagonoy, Bulacan. sources is sufficient to grant the In a news statement released on port permit.

Tuesday, two days before the final While the respondents argue hearing of the case filed against that a foreshore lease applicaPalparan for kidnapping and serious tion and payment of occupancy illegal detention, Oscar and Concepfees are sufficient for the recion Empeño lamented the suffering newal of DMCIMC’s port perthey have endured on account of their mit, the Ombudsman said, they daughter’s disappearance, and urged were not able to fully explain the authorities to impose “the full why the port permit was renewed measure of the law” on the former on the basis only of the miscellaArmy two-star general. neous lease application and pay “If we value the sanctity of life, ment of occupancy fees, in clear vioand if we value the rule of law, and lation of PPA rules and regulations. if we should teach our children that “Public respondents’ claim that both must be held inviolable as the DMCIMC’s foreshore lease applicafoundation of the society we live in, tionwasconvertedtoamiscellaneous then we must convict the ‘Butcher’ lease application is not supported by now,” Karen’s parents said. the records and does not justify the “We have waited for too long for deviation from the PPA rules and our Karen to return,” they added. regulations on the issuance and “And each year that she has rerenewal of port permits,” the mained missing is for us another Ombudsman stated.

365 days of torture, of longing, of “In fact, the records show that unappeased anger and a burning DMCIMC’s foreshore lease applicadesire for retribution.” tion had already expired and that Karen, along with another UP a separate miscellaneous lease apstudent Sherlyn Cadapan and plication has been filed thereafter, farmer Manuel Merino, was forcibly thereby negating respondents’ taken by armed men from a village claim,” the Ombudsman added. in Hagonoy, Bulacan, on June 26, 2006. They have not returned to their families ever since.

Witnesses, who said they have also been abducted by the same group of armed men, pointed to Palparan as the mastermind of the disappearance of the two UP students who were then in Bulacan for research projects.

The kidnapping case against Palparan, who has been given the appellation of The Butcher for the alleged torture and extrajudicial killings of activists during his stint with the military, was filed by the mothers of the two UP coeds, Concepcion

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The public respondents, with manifest partiality [and] evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence, gave unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference to DMCIMC as...shown in their inaction on complainant’s letters to them.”

—Ombudsman resolution

POEA warns OFWs of ‘bogus’ China jobs

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he Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) cautioned Filipino workers who are working in Macau against those who are offering employment in mainland China.

In a news statement issued on Wednesday, the agency noted that the people should be wary in accepting job offers in the said country, particularly in the capital Beijing.

“The POEA warns both Filipino workers and tourists looking for work in Macau to be cautious in accepting offers from other Filipinos for supposed employment,” it said.

The POEA added that recruitment through a third country is considered illegal.

“Recruitment through a third country is considered illegal recruitment if neither the recruiter nor the employer has proper authorization from the Philippine government,” it said.

Kin of missing UP students cry for conviction of Gen. Palparan

At the same time, the agency reiterated its call to would-be overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to only transact with licensed recruitments in the country.

“For their own protection, applicants for overseas jobs should only transact with licensed recruitment agencies in the Philippines,” the statement said.

“They should have the appropriate work permit or visa or employment contract approved by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and processed by the POEA,” it added.

The agency said that third country-recruitment activities were earlier reported to be targeting OFWs in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Cyprus and were lured into transferring to other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Mongolia, Turkey and Russia.

The POEA issued the advisory after receiving report from the

Department of Foreign Affairs the case of a Filipina household service worker (HSW) in Macau, who was allegedly recruited by a Filipina, named Pia Ciabacal.

The report said that the OFW went to Macau as a tourist and was eventually able to land a job as HSW. She was offered a job in Beijing for the same position with a monthly salary of 7,500 Chinese renminbi (more or less P61,000) per month, allegedly by Ciabacal.

The domestic worker was able to enter and work in China, but the employer refused to pay her any salary for her services and confiscated her passport and mobile phone.

Ciabacal and other Filipinos in Macau allegedly work as agent for a certain Chinese recruiter known only as “Fancy,” who supposedly owns an establishment called MMC Enterprises at Beleno Shop, Red Market in Macau. PNA

Concepcion Empeño (left) and Linda Cadapan call for the conviction of their daughters’ supposed abductor in this photo released by the group Desaparecidos.

Empeño and Linda Cadapan.

The retired Army general stands accused with three others: retired Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado Jr.; M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, who remains at large; and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio.

The case will be heard for the last time today (February 15) at the Regional Trial Court in Malolos, said the group Pamilya ng Desaparecidos Para sa Katarungan (Desaparecidos), which has taken the call to convict Palparan.

In their statement, the Empeño couple pointed out that witnesses have positively identified Palparan to be in the same place where Karen and Sherlyn were supposed to be hidden and tortured.

“These accusations against The Butcher Palparan are shared by hundreds of fathers and mothers, and sisters and brothers, whose own kin were subjected to forced disappearances and extrajudicial

executions,” Oscar and Concepcion Empeño said, noting that reports compiled by human-rights groups linked Palparan to 71 cases of extrajudicial killings, 14 frustrated killings and five massacres during his stint in Mindoro alone.

They added that Palparan “deserves the full measure of the law that he has flouted and ignored and bastardized for so long,” as well as “the loudest condemnation from everyone who holds freedom and life as sacrosanct.”

The grieving parents also said that while they have endured years of suffering, the families of Palparan’s alleged victims now demand justice.

“Let us all end this now and clear our lives of this horror by convicting The Butcher Palparan. Let us rid society of this monster and ensure that no one could take away our daughters and sons, our loved ones, with impunity,” they added. Henry Empeño

Albayalde’s ‘no sleeping on the job’ campaign gets PNP-IAS’s support

By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM

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he campaign initiated by National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Oscar Albayalde for policemen in the capital to be wide awake while on duty got a boost from the general headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

This, as the PNP­-Internal Affairs Service (IAS) said on Wednesday that it will deploy its own teams in support of Albayalde’s campaign, adding it should work for the best of the whole organization.

“Our inspector general, Atty. [Alfegar] Triambulo, has also approved the deployment of IAS teams to compliment and sustain the effort of General Albayalde to keep policemen on duty, to be really on duty, awake and alert, not to be sleeping on the post. So the IAS will sustain what General Albayalde has started,

and I think it will work for the betterment of all of us,” IAS deputy inspector General Director Leo Angelo Leuterio said At least 14 policemen, including two police commanders, have been relieved of their posts since the campaign was initiated by Albayalde by visiting police community precincts in Muntinlupa, Pasay, Caloocan and Quezon City on two nights last week.

The policemen have been disarmed of their service firearms, stripped of their badges and were reassigned to the holding center of the NCRPO at its headquarters in Taguig City, where they were undergoing further investigations for disciplinary measures.

Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año hailed Albayalde’s campaign, while issuing scathing remarks against the relieved policemen, saying they have no right to sleep on the job, especially that their

salaries have been doubled.

A lbayalde also ordered the NCRPO’s oversight committee to investigate eight other policemen for their lapses and negligence of duty, which arose from their napping on the job.

The eight policemen were members of the Caloocan City Police Special Reaction Unit, whom the NCRPO chief has caught sleeping while on duty when he visited the annex building of the Caloocan City Police.

Meanwhile, Leuterio said the family of PO1 Mark Boquela Ayeras will not get any benefits from the PNP since he died “dishonoring” the organization.

Ayeras died during his group’s ambush of lawyer Argel Joseph Cabatbat on Tuesday morning along Edsa in Quezon City.

Cabatbat and his three companions, who were on board a black Montero, escaped unscathed from the attack.

DOTr sees ‘improvement’ of MRT 3 service with delivery of spare parts

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he initial batch of spare parts for the Metro Rail Transit Line (MRT 3) are set to be delivered starting Wednesday until Friday, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said.

The spare parts are vital in increasing the number of trains to reduce the waiting time for passengers on MRT 3 platforms.

“We expect that there will be an improvement in the services of the

MRT within the next few months,” the DOTr said in a news statement.

Last December a Special Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) created by the MRT 3 management has procured a total of 18,579 spare parts, broken

down as follows: rolling stock, 9,515; tracks, 7,776; overhead catenary system (OCS), 1,109; and power, 179.

The suppliers for the spare parts include Pink Armour Corp. for power and OCS, Linkers Enterprises for

rolling stock and Nikka Trading for the railway tracks.

Meanwhile, more than 28,000 passengers have availed of the pointto-point (P2P) buses deployed by the DOTr as an alternative mode of trans-

portation to the MRT since it was launched on February 1.

According to the DOTr, 389 buses made 521 trips and served 28,825 passengers under the MRT 3 bus-augmentation project. PNA

Economy

A4 Thursday, February 15, 2018 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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Senate aims to do away Ceza firms up fintech hub plan with added telco charge to build PHL’s 1st Silicon Valley

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By Butch Fernandez

@butchfBM

HE Senate is on track to ban “burdensome interconnection fees” charged to cell-phone users by public telecommunications entities (PTEs) for calls and text messages made between two different telco networks.

“We are here to protect consumers. And the consumer, not being made aware he is calling through a different PTE, is helpless in being charged P2.50 for mobile calls and 15 centavos for SMS or text messages,” Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson Sr. said, in introducing a key amendment to Senate Bill (SB) 1636, embodying the proposed Lifetime Cellphone Number Act. Taking the floor during plenary deliberations on SB 1636, Lacson batted for the removal of the so-called interconnectivity fee imposed by PTEs on mobile phone subscribers for domestic calls and SMS or text messages between giant telcos Globe and Smart, for instance.

According to Lacson, the Nat i o n a l Te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s Commission figures indicated the telecommunications firms “made some P806.9 million in 2016 in interconnection fees on domestic calls including SMS [or text messages].”

Yet, he added, the P806.9 mil-

lion is a “measly 0.82 percent” of the total operating revenue in 2016 of P98.35 billion.

Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian, principal sponsor of SB 1636, readily adopted Lacson’s amendment taking note that many cellphone subscribers are stuck to a single network because they are avoiding interconnection fees.

“With this amendment, Sen. Lacson [had] managed to save consumers almost P6 billion in interconnection fees,” Gatchalian said, pointing out that “it is not a onetime interconnection fee but per minute [basis].”

In accepting the amendment, Gatchalian agreed with Lacson that “this is actually a lot of savings for consumers considering every time you call another network you are charged P2.50 per minute, on top of P7.50 per minute call, even on dropped calls.”

With this amendment, Sen. Lacson [had] managed to save consumers almost P6 billion in interconnection fees. It is not a onetime interconnection fee but per minute [basis].”—Gatchalian

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IRST, it pioneered the establishment of the offshore (online) gaming jurisdiction in Asia. Now, the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza) aims to become the first financial-technology (fintech) hub to soon rise in Santa Ana, Cagayan.

In a news statement issued on Wednesday, Ceza CEO and Administrator Secretar y Raul L. Lambino said several offshore firms have already committed to locate at Ceza free port to do business in the planned offshore fintech post.

L a mbi no s a id he recent ly signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Tokyo with Traders Holdings Inc., a publicly listed Japanese company and iWave Inc., a Makati-based fintech firm, to help create the regulatory authority.

The MOU, he added, calls for the crafting and development of the first Asian-located Special Economic Zone to regulate, license and propagate fintech firms and develop the Cagayan Zone as the premier hub for the continuous development of these financial technologies.

The goal is to turn Cagayan Valley into the Asian version of “Silicon Valley” by providing an unparalleled “technological” environment, Lambino said.

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@rectomercene

@jonlmayuga

A

NOTHER batch of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) flew in from Kuwait on Wednesday, comprising of 332 household service workers in two separate Philippine Airlines and Gulf Air flights.

Some 2,500 OFWs have returned from Kuwait since the repatriation started last Monday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Ernesto C. Abella was on hand at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) to welcome the returning OFWs. The former presidential spokesman promised the returning OFWs assistance from the Duterte administration.

“President Rodrigo Duterte is doing everything to help OFWs to find other jobs in China and even in Russia,” Abella said.

Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, meanwhile, announced that vacationing OFWs and seafarers are exempted from the Department of Labor and Employment’s existing deployment ban in Kuwait.

Bello added he had issued Administrative Order (AO) 54-A on Wednesday, which states the guidelines for the total deployment ban in Kuwait.

Under the AO 54-A, the ban will no longer apply for vacationing OFWs or balik manggagawa in the Philippines and will be returning to the same employer in Kuwait to finish their contracts.

Federation of Free Workers President Jose Sonny G. Matula, meanwhile, emphasized that “the dignity of a Filipina house workers is equal to the dignity of the queen of England or any prince of Kuwait.”

Matula, a veteran lawyer and labor law professor, also backed Duterte’s OFW deployment ban, saying the purpose is “to give pressure to the government of Kuwait [in order] to give dignity to our workers” and not exactly make the household workers jobless when they return to the country.

He noted that “[i]n the exercise of the police power of the state, President Duterte has the power to ban the deployment of OFWs to other countries.”

Under the social justice and protection to labor provisions, the 1987 Constitution mandates that the state shall protect Filipino workers, local and overseas, Matula said.

He emphasized that “[t]he misfortune of [Flor] Contemplacion, the fate of [Delia] Maga and [Sarah] Balabagan, plus the woes of house service helpers in Kuwait and recent death of Joanna Dimafelis [who was] discovered in a freezer [in Kuwait are hard to ignore.”

“Knowing these tales of oppression and exploitation forced President Duterte to take [such a] drastic action to ban [the deployment of OFWs to] Kuwait. [The President] did the right thing to protect our workers and the dignity of our nation,” Matula said. With Samuel Medenilla, Nelson S. Badilla

development capability with a greenfield technology hub of the Philippines, which is expanding its telecommunications and bandwidth capabilities.

The base of the regulation will follow the forward-looking policies of Japan, which is a major trading partner of the Philippines.

IWave Inc., a Filipino-Japanese Investee company of an experienced Philippine-listed technology company will provide, together with Traders Group of Japan, the intellectual property it has accrued servicing the Philippine banking sector and the country's largest online brokerage, and Japan’s largest consumer finance company Aeon in the Asia Pacific.

Their exposure to the banking and capital market sectors will lend their practices in know-yourclient procedures and anti-money laundering policies.

This should ensure that Ceza will be a well-regulated and respected regulatory and licensing authority, Lambino said.

The combined experience of iWave Inc. and Traders Holdings will ensure Ceza is also at par with security procedures and anti-hacking methodologies, in the highly competitive and everchanging technology world, he added.

Cimatu empowers Cenros on mining and environmental matters

Govt repatriates 332 more workers from Kuwait

By Recto Mercene

This environment will combine nature’s serene beauty— in this case Cagayan’s Sierra Madre mountains and some of the world’s finest beaches—with wide bandwidth submarine cable landing points that are soon to be completed to ensure that the zone is firmly connected to the rest of the world.

“This is a planned, calibrated development, which would be in stark contrast to the large unmitigated growth of Asian cities with their huge traffic and unproductive environments,” Lambino added.

Under the MOU, Ceza will be provided with technology to properly regulate, license, audit, monitor and launch the latest fintech as they become available to address the unbanked and crowdfunding solutions.

Among these technologies are those based on Block chain (distributed-ledger technologies), Bitcoin, crypto technologies, cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, crypto exchanges, payment solutions and financial solutions.

The MOU on a larger scale will bridge the technology industries of Japan and the Philippines, Lambino said.

This will be carried out by synergizing Japan's advanced technologies and research and

T

DOG YEAR Motorcycle riders pass by a colorful plastic statue of a dog along McKinley Road in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig

ahead of the traditional Chinese New Year celebration on Friday, which will mark the start of the Year of the Earth Dog in Chinese astrology. ROY DOMINGO

INC head Manalo gets special envoy post for OFW concerns

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

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@BNicolasBM

GLESIA Ni Cristo (INC) Executive Minister Eduardo V. Manalo has been appointed by President Duterte as special envoy to the President for overseas Filipinos concerns.

Manalo’s letter of appointment dated February 13 was released on the heels of Philippines’s move to ban the deployment of new hires to Kuwait over reports of Filipino workers suffering abuse and exploitation.

Manalo’s appointment began on January 30, 2018, and will expire on January 29, 2019.

The INC threw its support behind Duterte and former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for vice president in the 2016 elections. It was Manalo who called on the members of the sect to vote as one.

Unofficial estimates put the number of the sect’s members at 2.25 million. Today, the membership of INC comprises at least 110 nationalities. It maintains about 104 ecclesiastical districts in the Philippines and in 100 more countries and territories, according to its web site.

Manalo is the eldest son of the late-Eraño G.

Manalo. He is the third generation of the Manalo family to lead the church, following his father Eraño and grandfather Felix Y. Manalo.

Prior to being the executive minister, Eduardo Manalo has held positions as deputy executive minister, coordinator of Metro Manila districts and assistant dean of Evangelical College, the predecessor of the New Era University-College of Evangelical Ministry, now known as Iglesia Ni Cristo School for Minister.

Manalo graduated high school from the Jose Abad Santos Memorial School and took his Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Duterte also appointed Herman Billones Jumilla to the Department of Budget and Management, replacing undersecretary Gertrudo de Leon, former Department of Budget and Management legal and liaison group undersecretary, who was sacked over allegations of corruption.

Duterte also appointed eight directors and 20 local government operations officers of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and 16 prosecutors of the Department of Justice.

HE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is enhancing the capacities of Community Environment and Natural Resource Offices (Cenro) across the country to adequately address environmental and mining issues.

Environmental issues such as water and air pollution fall under the mandate and jurisdiction of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), while mining falls under that of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

DENR Undersecretary for Climate Change Services and Mining concerns Analiza R. Teh said the DENR chief wants to equip Cenros with the right tools consistent with the development of a new organizational structure.

Some DENR regional offices now have an assistant director for environment and assistant director for mines, along with a National Greening Program coordinator.

Before, the DENR regional offices only have a regional director and an assistant regional director.

The regional directors of the EMB and MGB have beem placed under the director of the EMB and MGB Central Office based in Quezon City.

Capacity building possibly means the transfer of environment and mining experts from the EMB and MGB regional offices or hiring of new personnel to be assigned to the Cenros, which is accountable to the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office chiefs.

According to Teh, under the new set up, the EMB and MGB chiefs in the regions will now be answerable to the DENR regional director.

“What the secretary wants is for the EMB and MGB to fall under the supervision of the DENR regional directors,” she added.

The capacity-building activities, according to Teh, will hopefully be concluded with environmental and mining experts as-

signed at the Cenros.

“We call it embedding mining capacities to Cenro level,” Teh said.

“The secretary said our Cenros are our frontlines, but their skills are more on the investigation [work], on forestry. In case of water pollution or mining issues, they are the ones we ask but we do not really have mining experts in the Cenros,” she added.

Teh said the DENR regional directors will have supervision over MGB and EMB officials, but in turn will answer to the DENR chief, his undersecretaries and assistant secretaries.

Simply put, Teh said the DENR regional director should know what is happening in his region, whether

The secretary said our Cenros are our frontlines, but their skills are more on the investigation [work], on forestry.

In case of water pollution or mining issues, they are the ones we ask but we do not really have mining experts in the Cenros.”­—Teh it involves water pollution or mining issues.

Teh added that under the law, the line bureaus have so-called “autonomy” in terms of administration and finance, but regional directors will be vested with supervisory powers in the aspect of operations.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Thursday, Feburary 15, 2018

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Hike palay-buying price to ₧20/kg–Piñol

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

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@jearcalas

he government’s palay-buying price should go up to P20 per kilogram (kg) so the National Food Authority (NFA) could buy more local paddy to beef up its stockpile, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said on Wednesday.

As traders could take advantage of the increase in the NFA’s support price, which has been in effect since April 2008, Piñol said the NFA Council (NFAC) must also institute measures that will prevent commercial rice prices from skyrocketing.

“It will be good to increase the buying price of the NFA so they can compete against traders and buy local palay, instead of importing rice,” he told reporters in a news briefing in Quezon City on February 14.

“But there should be a caveat because any increases in the NFA’s buying price would encourage traders to raise their price.

While it’s true that farmers will benefit from higher palay-buying price, consumers will be affected. This should be considered,” Piñol added.

The chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said the “ideal” NFA support price is P20 per kg, P3 higher than the current P17 per kg. At P20 per kg, he said the government could still sell rice at P36 to P38 per kg.

Piñol also said the removal of

the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice via the amendment of Republic Act (RA) 8178 will not guarantee that the staple would become cheaper.

“One of the country’s economic managers said importing rice will effectively cut prices by P7 per kg. I question that. In fact, imported rice is being repacked by traders and sold as commercial rice,” he said.

“Rice traders would become richer, but [more imports due to the lifting of the rice QR] would not benefit consumers,” Piñol added.

Production shortfall

Based on the computation of the DA, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the International Rice Research Institute (Irri), Piñol said the country’s rice production shortfall last year was around 400,000 metric tons (MT).

He also said the Philippines achieved a 96-percent self-sufficiency rate (SSR) on rice in 2017 based on the computation of the DA, PhilRice and Irri.

Piñol said the country’s paddy output of 19.3 million metric tons

File photo

(MMT) last year was equivalent to around 13.1 MMT of milled rice at an average milling capacity rate of 65 percent. This, he added, was “above and beyond” the country’s annual estimated rice requirement of about 11.2 MMT. “But the government is not declaring rice self-sufficiency yet as there are factors to be considered.

Part of the 19.3 MMT will have to be used for seeds, a certain percentage is considered waste, and there is also the government’s buffer stock, which is not included in computing the sufficiency rate,” Piñol said.

The Philippine Statistics Author-

Toward productivity and inclusiveness in PHL coffee

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offee is one of the most popular choices of drink for many Filipinos. In fact, 9 out of 10 Filipino households consume coffee on a regular basis. But from being a household drink, coffee is fast becoming a lifestyle beverage. Buoyed by the rising income prospects of Filipinos and increasing number of international coffee chains and independent “third-wave coffee,” Filipinos have spurred new dynamics in coffee consumption.

Demand for coffee today far outpaces what the country can produce. In fact, domestic consumption is currently at 100,000 metric tons a year, yet local output is only at 25,000 metric tons.

This ranks the Philippines 110th in the world in terms of coffee output. In the early-1990s the Philippines was a net exporter of coffee alongside Vietnam and Indonesia, two of Asia’s coffee giants. But 20 years later the sector faltered and the country now stands as a net importer of coffee.

Challenges

The coffee industry is dampened by challenge, such as the lack of high-quality plantlets and available post-harvest facilities and processing equipment. It is also seriously affected by climate change and decreasing agricultural land due to residential and commercial conversions.

Small farmers are also discouraged by low market prices and by old trees that limit coffee yield.

According to the latest survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) published in the latest Philippine Coffee Industry Roadmap for 2017-2022, these intersecting challenges made production volume and yield decrease by 2.87 percent per year and 2.23 percent per year, respectively, over the last 10 years.

Coffee growers are the most burdened by the supply-gap challenge affecting the sector. Farming in the country as a whole is dominated by small farmers. In fact, according to the 2016 survey of the PSA, the whole agriculture sector is a major player in terms of its contribution to overall employment, employing 29 percent of the total workforce in the country. Despite the abundance of labor, its

economic share to the whole GDP of the country remains at 10 percent, making it the sector most vulnerable to poverty.

Two major yet overlapping constraints thus appear to affect the overall lackluster performance of the coffee sector—the need to improve farm productivity and the need to increase farmer’s income to sustain a comfortable standard of living.

Value-chain approach

In recent years, the coffee sector, especially led by the private sector, has gradually recognized the importance of considering the entire agricultural value chain from financing and provision of farm inputs, to market access and getting products to consumers in order to address the twin challenge of agricultural productivity and farmer profitability.

As the leading buyer of green coffee and manufacturer of instant coffee in the country, Nestlé, for one, has been boosting coffee supply while making the livelihoods of farmers profitable.

Through the Nescafé Plan, a nationwide plan that seeks to achieve self-sufficiency in coffee, Nestlé, together with the Department of Agriculture, distributes to farmers high-yielding, pest-resistant and low-maintenance planting materials, and teaches them the best available techniques in coffee planting, which both, in turn, seek to increase the quantity and quality of yield. The Nescafé Plan also allows small-scale farmers to sell their produce at a price aligned with the world market by locating satellite and mobile buying stations near coffee-growing areas across the country.

Through this mechanism, growers are able to reap quickly from the benefits of their produce. The value-chain approach is a balanced pursuit that develops a resilient and competitive coffee sector while at the same time including farmers in the whole supply chain. In a predominantly smallholder-based agriculture, the ability of farmers to directly transact with the supply chain offers them, as well, the opportunity to share in the final value of their product and thus raise their incomes and welfare of their families.

ity (PSA), the government’s official statistical agency, will release a report on the country’s food self-sufficiency ratio for 2017 in October.

The latest available PSA report indicated that the Philippines reached a 95-percent SSR on rice in 2016, after producing some 17.6 MMT of palay.

“Even if we achieve rice sufficiency by 2020, we will not be able to sustain it for so long because of population growth. The best scenario would be about five to 10 years,” Piñol said. “The growth of our population will overtake rice production because our rice farms

are already limited.”

NFAC scrutiny

D.A. Undersecretary for Operations Ariel T. Cayanan said the NFAC will scrutinize the NFA’s palay-procurement and rice-distribution schemes to determine the food agency’s impact on the country’s rice market.

Cayanan added the NFAC approved a resolution ordering an audit of the NFA’s programs to ensure that there are no lapses in the strategies employed by the food agency to fulfill its mandate.

“It is not a presumption of guilt

or prosecutory. We are not assuming that [NFA] is doing something wrong,” Cayanan told reporters in an interview on February 14. “All the NFA’s programs will be evaluated. The government always presumes regularity.”

Cayanan was invited by the NFAC as a resource person during its meeting on February 12. The DA is currently not part of the council, the highest policy-making body of the NFA. Under the resolution, the NFAC would find out how and where the NFA distributed government-subsidized rice sourced through imports and local palay procurement, according to Cayanan.

Cayanan disclosed that it was Central Bank Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo who proposed the resolution on the audit of the NFA’s programs. “It is in a form of resolution that was actually seconded by the council. But no timeline was given as to when it will be undertaken.”

Piñol commended the NFAC’s decision to audit the state-run agency, saying it is high time for the government to look into claims that the NFA favors some traders.

NFA Administrator Jason L.Y. Aquino said he welcomes the NFAC initiative. “NFA management welcomes the audit to shed light on issues regarding our distribution.

Distribution levels vary in each provinces and island-municipalities because they have different daily-consumption requirement.”

“Some are pa lay-procur ing and some are not. Also, there are provinces that have high poverty incidence like NCR, thus requires higher distribution,” Aquino added.

We are all stakeholders in our local farming systems

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first learned about Peranakan cuisine while living in Singapore more than a decade ago, and where I had my first taste of mee siam. It reminded me of palabok as it has vermicelli noodles soaked in a shrimp-based gravy, topped with tofu and shrimp. But mee siam was a bit sweet, spicy and soupy. Later, when I visited Penang for a personal food trip, I managed to have for a tour guide a true-blue Peranakan who introduced me to other Peranakan delights as assam laksa (the tangy and spicy fish noodle soup) and a variety of bite-sized, glutinous rice-based snacks called kueh (which this time reminded me of our kakanin). This fusion Chinese-Malay cuisine is a product of a community that was formed in the 15th century, when Chinese seafarers married Malay women and settled in what was then the British-controlled Straits Settlements of Penang, Melaka and Singapore. This community, known as the Peranakan or Straits-born Chinese, developed a cuisine which incorporated Chinese cooking techniques and ingredients, such as wok frying and pork, with indigenous Malaysian spices and herbs as turmeric, galangal, lime leaves, lemongrass and tamarind.

I recently got acquainted with the Peranakan culture again while working on an assignment for another publication. And while researching on the cuisine, I couldn’t help but notice how its development mirrors that of Tsinoy cusine. Filipino-Chinese food, such as pansit, mami, taho and hopia were also products of Chinese immigrants who brought their cooking techniques and ingredients and localized them by using Philippine ingredients. The late food historian Doreen Fernandez said the word pansit is Hokkien for something quickly cooked, hence noodles. Pansit has been localized and now there are different kinds of pansit that reflect where they were made. Fernandez cited pansit Malabon which has oysters and squid because Malabon, is a fishing center; and pansit Marilao, which is sprinkled with rice crisps because the Bulacan town is a key rice-growing area.

But whether it’s Peranakan or Tsinoy cuisine, there are some things that I can see in common: both cuisines are a reflection of their respective communities. Both cuisines are products of cooks who make

Prime Sarmiento

prime commodities do with what are locally available. Both cuisines are products of culinary creativity.

Local. Creative. Community. These are also the key words that came into my mind while discussing community-supported agriculture with Charlene Tan, cofounder of Good Food Community, a social enterprise that helps small, organic farmers to directly market their produce to their Metro Manila-based clients. Good Food Community does this by requiring each consumer to sign up for a farm share subscription. Each subscription costs between P420 and P580, and one can either go for a one-week, four-week or 12-week subscription. In exchange, the buyer will receive about 2 to 3.5 kilograms of local, seasonal vegetables produced by Good Food Community’s farmer partners in Tarlac, Benguet and Rizal.

The subscription program is based on the concept of community-supported agriculture that was conceived during the 1980s in Europe. The idea behind it is for both consumers and farmers share the risks of farming, or as Charlene told me, community-supported agriculture is a way for us city-based consumer to have a stake in our local farming systems.

“I personally want to be connected with people who grow my food,” Charlene said.

She recalled that while working for another non-governmental organization several years ago, one of the NGO’s volunteers talked about community supported agriculture and how she became such a good cook as she had to be more creative in the kitchen as she had to use only local, inseason produce that she bought through a farm subscription. This was an “a-ha” moment for Charlene who, like most city-

dwellers, realized how ‘disconnected’ she was from the people who produce our food.

This inspired her to cofound the Good Food Community in 2010, with friends and family as initial subscribers. Eight years later, Good Food Community has expanded beyond supplying organic produce to households by delivering to health shops and restaurants.

But more than widening the market for Good Foods Community’s farmer partners, Charlene said, Good Food Community aims to spread an idea. The idea of lowering our carbon footprint by supporting less energyintensive farming systems. The idea of living more mindfully by eating more mindfully. The idea that by eating only what’s in season, we not only become connected with the changing seasons but also learn that diverse crops will enrich and regenerate the soil that nourishes us in return.

“If we continue to eat what we want to eat, when we want to eat it, then we also lose the diversity of our farms,” she said, adding that this will pressure the farmers to just plant one crop in order to scale and recoup their investments.

Listening to Charlene talk about community-supported agriculture has led to a mental shift. I always referred to myself as a concerned consumer who opts to buy ecofriendly, ethically-produced and sociallyresponsible goods. Yes, these are loaded words and believe me I don’t consistently buy these kinds of products. But at the end of the day, I still consider myself as a consumer. My justification was since I was too maarte to become a farmer myself, I can support organic farming by simply being a consumer. What I didn’t realize—and this was until my conversation with Charlene— was that I wasn’t just a consumer. I am a stakeholder. And as a stakeholder, I need to have a say on how my food got into my table or how I need to ensure that our land will continue to produce all the crops that will sustain us and the next generation.

And as we welcome the Year of the Earth Dog, let us all take this opportunity to reflect on the element of the incoming Chinese New Year: Earth. The Earth as we live in. The Earth as how we take care of it and make it a better place for the future generation.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

TheBroa YEAR OF THE DOG OFFERS NEW TRICKS OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS A6

Thursday, February 15, 2018

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By Elijah Felice Rosales

ROM earth we were made and there we shall decay. Considered as the element of firmness, it is the bedrock of fields, mountains, volcanos, archipelagos—a vast 30 percent of the planet is made of it.

Earth signifies dozens of juxtapositions. As much as it is the symbol of stability, it is also the picture of devastation. Just think of how a volcanic eruption can easily turn thousands of bodies into ash. Or how an earthquake can crumble buildings back into their basic materials.

Earth may also represent prosperity, but it can also mean poverty. It is where rice and corn are born, where most of our produce are weeded out, where life begins from under and continues above few months after. The soil is the farmer’s best friend, if not the buffalo, but it can also be his nemesis. When drought or pestilence hits, all of the farmer’s investment, labor and time are put to waste.

This is why for some of the most well-known and reputable Filipino-Chinese businessmen, 2018, or the Year of the Earth Dog, should be a time for everyone to take it easy on risking and assess what the hand has to offer. It will take a lot of discipline, they say, to be able to overcome an expected pesky year for business expansion and opportunities.

The country has long been celebrating the Chinese New Year in solidarity with the Filipino-Chinese community in the archipelago. It is considered to be one of the most important festivals, not only to Chinese living in the country, but to the nation as well, given the long history of trade, business and cultural engagement between Filipinos and Chinese.

Lunar-based

THE Chinese New Year does not have a fixed date in the calendar, the reason it changes every year.

The colorful celebration stretches for about half a month, and has different observations and practices for each of those roughly 15 days.

The Chinese New Year is being celebrated every year by FilipinoChinese communities in the country with hopes of attracting good spirits that would provide luck and prosperity, as well as closer family ties and peace of mind. The usual cleaning of the house stays on as a practice in most homes along with other traditions, such as preparing lucky money in red envelopes, locally known as ampaw, serving sweet delicacies and displaying a whole set of food and fruits on the dining table believed to ensure the family filled stomachs the entire year.

In various Chinese-dominated areas like the popular Chinatown

in Binondo, Manila, people groove to the bass of the drum and roars of chants, as rows of dancers clad in red sleeves and dragon mascots make their way through the streets. It was like any festivity in the country—vibrant, moving, enchanting—but it does not celebrate the life of a saint or a Biblical figure, but the entry of a new year for a community that has long been with Filipinos.

Chinese communities have long existed in the archipelago even before the Spanish colonizers. Historians believe locals of the country have traded with the Chinese long before they fell at the hands of the imperialists.

National celebration

AS time went by, trade ties between Filipinos and Chinese developed and expanded into people-topeople and cultural interactions.

This is why Chinese communities in the country increased because some of them married Filipinos.

As the family grew bigger, so did the grandeur of Chineseoriented festivities in the country.

These include the transformation of the Chinese New Year from a community gathering to a national celebration.

For Maria Alegria Sibal-Limjoco, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Chinese New Year is more than just a celebration. It is, for her, an eyewitness of history that saw the development of the Filipino-Chinese community in the country.

“The Filipino-Chinese commerce and trade activities are intrinsically woven into the fiber of Filipino business culture and economic life even before the Spaniards discovered the Philippines in 1521. The Chinese merchants were already here during the Sung dynasty circa 982 AD, and traded and bartered with the natives,” said Limjoco, whose family is partly of Chinese descent.

“The economic relationship survived the American colonization and is still is robust up to this day.

Filipino-Chinese [businessmen] today dominate business and the billionaires on the Forbes list are mostly Filipino-Chinese, thanks to their work ethic based on frugality, patience, industriousness and skilled entrepreneurship,” she told the BusinessMirror.

Limjoco said there is no perfect time to celebrate the FilipinoChinese businessmen’s patience and persistence at work other than the Chinese New Year.

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LIMJOCO: “Since it is the Earth Dog’s year, any business that is earth-related may be lucky, such as real estate, agriculture and mining, but it really depends on what the businessman’s birth sign is.”

New enterprise

LIMJOCO explained 2018 is the best year for those engaged in real estate, agriculture and mining, as the Earth Dog will guide the business into its peak through its slow yet rigorous work.

“Since it is the Earth Dog’s year, any business that is earthrelated may be lucky, such as real estate, agriculture and mining, but it really depends on what the businessman’s birth sign is,” she said.

On the other hand, earth-related businesses might be at risk at times the Earth Dog is not in the mood to move forward.

“However, there are also mountains and earthquakes to contend with, so everyone should take precautions just the same,” the PCCI chief warned.

Limjoco also told her fellow businessmen to “be on their toes all the time,” as the Earth Dog may present opportunities that may not be tendered to them again in their lifetime. She added businessmen should emulate the characteristics of the Earth Dog because this is crucial in keeping at bay with their targets.

“The seers say it is good for business, especially new kinds of enterprises, but you still have to put in discipline, hard work and training. I am staying positive, especially because fortune tellers say that I should watch out for competitors, though,” Limjoco shared.

Yellow, green

AT the Chinese New Year, Limjoco said she and her family will be donning yellow and green outfits with respect to the colors representative of the Earth Dog. “For this year, I think we should wear the lucky colors of yellows and greens, far from the neutral colors of my wardrobe,” she said.

The PCCI chief also advised fellow businessmen to ensure their offices are all clean and neat before the Chinese New Year. This is to ensure that not only customers are attracted to and comfortable with their businesses, but

also the good spirits that bring luck and prosperity.

“First, I always make sure that my companies are physically clean because cleanliness is next to godliness. Next, I nurture an inviting, professional ambiance, so that our clients can feel our sincerity, superior customer service and worldclass franchise consultancy and sales programs,” Limjoco said.

“As for the décor, whatever animal signs that the Chinese New Year brings, I always have a figurine at the office reception area, the main door to our establishment,” she added. “Brass chimes also signal an auspicious tolling of bells for me every time a customer enters. Furniture is arranged in a most propitious way to attract good fortune from wise business decisions.”

Deal-breakers

ON the other hand, PCCI Chairman Emeritus Francis C. Chua said the Year of the Dog can either bring prosperity or disaster. The dealbreaker, he noted, is the determination of the businessman to take advantage of the times that luck is on his side, and deal resiliently when crisis strikes.

Feng shui aside, Chua, who once headed the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, believes it will be a good year for Filipino-Chinese businessmen given the support of President Duterte to them. “In the words of our President when he was still mayor of Davao City, he appreciates the Filipino-Chinese for making the products affordable to the masa [masses],” he told the BusinessMirror.

As long as the business community carries on with its reputation and vow to bring products at an affordable price, Chua said it will certainly be a prosperous year for Filipino-Chinese businessmen.

“Bringing affordable products all over the Philippines is a major support for the development of the country’s economy,” he said.

Opportunities

LIMJOCO agrees with Chua. She also argues it is the perfect administration for Filipino-Chinese businessmen to take advantage of.

The President, known for his unorthodox leadership, is embracing warmer relations with China in a move that saw the country veering from its long-time military and economic ally, the United States.

“If the Duterte administration fulfills its ‘Build, Build, Build’ promise, which includes greater collaboration with China, the huge projects that will link our archipelago together and with the rest of the world can be the FilipinoChinese community’s entry points in more business tie-ups or joint ventures. So, yes, if the FilipinoChinese community opts to be involved in these massive endeavors, it can expand further to various business innovations, heretofore uncharted and nontraditional,” Limjoco said.

If Chua is to be asked, with-

out the influence of feng shui and traditions, he said it is advisable for Filipino-Chinese businessmen to invest in tourism, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing and construction, as these areas are prioritized under the Duterte administration. He also told them to trust Duterte in his trade and economic policies, especially on the infrastructure drive, as this will eventually lead to improved and easier transactions resulting in better business activity.

Without banking too much on Chinese traditions, Chua said the Filipino-Chinese business community is bound to thrive under a leadership that resolves disputes in a diplomatic manner. “What is important is with a dynamic President who thinks and works for the interest of the country, any obstacle can be resolved for the betterment of the nation,” he explained.

Dog Year

NEARLY a hundred years ago, Filipino-Chinese in the Philippines celebrated the Year of the Dog for the first time.

In his book titled Feeding Manila in Peace and War, 1850-1945, Daniel F. Doeppers wrote it was this year the Tutuban Rice Exchange was founded.

After three years, Doeppers said 80 percent of the rice arriving in Manila “by rail was traded there.”

According to Doeppers, the Exchange was lauded for its anticompetitive practices and for “honoring secret bids scribbled in such a way that open auctions failed to develop.”

“No sales prices, volumes or parties to the transactions were posted; only with difficulty could prospective buyers find out the bids of others or the price reached on the previous sale,” Doeppers wrote.

He noted the Tutuban exchange was considered successful “in bringing buyers and sellers together on a regular basis in one place.”

But Doeppers also noted that it was the Hokkien Chinese networks that had the advantage in the rice trade.

“They succeeded in the rice trade because it played to their competitive strengths.”

According to Doeppers, it was also through the Hokkien network that the Philippines was able to import rice “quietly.”

Trade relations

FIVE years ago, the Philippine Senate approved a bill declaring the Chinese New Year a special working holiday “as a sign of goodwill and amity between the Philippines and China.”

That year the Senate estimated that the ethnic (or pure) Chinese comprised about 1.35 million of the Philippine population while Filipinos with Chinese descent comprise 22.8 million of the country’s population.

Then-senator Edgardo Angara was quoted in a statement as

considering Chinese-Filipinos as having made “significant socioeconomic impact on the country in terms of employment, community service, banking and finance.”

“Our relationship with China, especially on the bilateral trade and commerce, continues to flourish,” Angara has said.

He cited that total trade between the two countries reached $32.54 billion in 2011, surpassing the $30-billion record in 2007.

In 2011 China was the Philippines’ third-largest export market with exports reaching $6.237 billion, and the country’s third-largest import supplier with imports pegged at $6.085 billion.

Six years later, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) ranked the People’s Republic of China fourth with export shipments valued at $517.84 million and a share of 11.0 percent for the December 2017 trade.

“Exports to this country went down by 14.7 percent from $607.07 million recorded in the same month of the previous year,” the PSA said.

In terms of imports, the PSA said China was the country’s biggest source of imports with 18.9-percent share in December 2017.

“Import payments to this country stood at $1.65 billion, posting an increase of 28.3 percent from $1.29 billion in December 2016.”

Predictable, accommodating

LIKE any investor, Chua said Filipino-Chinese businessmen also prefer an environment that is predictable and accommodating.

He said if the President continues with his diplomatic ways with China, robust trade and economic ties between Manila and Beijing should be expected.

On the other hand, Limjoco called on his fellow FilipinoChinese businessmen to “help regional development by investing in the growth industries of the future.” She listed agricultural business, manufacturing, business-process outsourcing, creative, infrastructure, logistics, tourism, medical travel and retirement havens as the emerging sectors in the provinces.

Manila and Beijing may have engaged in a bitter rivalry in the previous years mainly due to the maritime dispute in the South China Sea. However, with Duterte rolling out his self-styled independent foreign policy that intends to establish closer bilateral relations with nontraditional partners, the Filipino-Chinese community can expect a boost in the days to come.

“With [the] Filipino-Chinese, business heritage emerged as one of the most important pillars of the country’s economic success.

Indeed, it has played a significant contribution to our economy,” Limjoco concluded.

The Chinese New Year will be celebrated around the world on Friday. In the country, it is declared a special nonworking holiday.

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

A8 Thursday, February 15, 2018 • Editor: Jun B. Vallecera

Intermediate BSP liquidity tool a hit on maiden sale

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By Bianca Cuaresma @BcuaresmaBM

he maiden sale on Wednesday of the 14-day term deposit facility (TDF) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) erased all doubts that such an intermediate tool has a strong appeal among financial institutions with plenty of liquidity to spare.

Data from the BSP showed the banks’ strong interest in the 14-day TDF whose maiden sale was swamped by an oversubscription aggregating P45.46 billion.

This was more than double the amount offered for the instrument in which the BSP was prepared to offer only an initial P20 billion.

The high demand for the intermediate term deposit compelled the BSP to upsize

the volume offering at next week’s sale to P40 billion instead.

The two other special deposit facilities also reported oversubscriptions on Wednesday.

In particular, the longer-term 28-day TDF attracted offers totaling P39.935 billion that exceeded the P20 billion on offer on Wednesday.

The BSP previously zeroed out or with-

held the offering of the 28-day TDF on account of low demand during the Christmas holidays. The monetary authorities restarted the 28-day offering only just last week, when tenors were also oversubscribed.

For the seven-day TDF, tenders aggregated P65.36 billion that exceeded the P40 billion on offer on Wednesday.

This convinced the BSP similarly to upsize the volume offering for the seven-day TDF, from P40 billion to P50 billion starting next week.

As for the 28-day TDF, the offered volume was unchanged at P20 billion.

The rates for both the seven- and 28day TDFs retreated given the high demand, with the seven-day facility attracting a rate of 2.7232 percent, from 2.7278 percent, last week.

The 28-day facility fetched a rate of 2.965 percent this week, from 3.0183 percent last week.

The maiden 14-day TDF fetched a rate of 2.8737 percent.

Their collective sale each week allows the BSP to gain more control over liquidity levels in the financial system with the least disruption on forces at work in the financial markets.

No more punitive charges on delinquent taxpayers

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he Department of Finance (DOF) said the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TR AIN) has done away with punitive interest charges that only encourage tax delinquency rather than compliance by imposing instead a more reasonable charge based on the legal interest rate for those with tax deficiencies.

According to DOF Undersecretar y Antonette C. Tionko, a taxpayer who pays deficiency tax beyond the due date set by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is charged twice: first with a 20-

percent annual deficiency interest that accrues from the date of the deadline of the basic tax; and second, a delinquency interest accruing from the due date of BIR’s final notice and demand before the TR AIN was implemented.

Under the old tax provision, a taxpayer would sometimes have to pay the interest penalty that is almost or even more than the deficiency tax due.

“Under the TR AIN, the interest rate on deficiency tax is no longer oppressive and confiscatory because rather

$1.8-B fraud in one of India’s biggest banks

I

ndia’s second-biggest state-run bank said it has detected a $1.8-billion fraud at a single branch in the nation’s financial hub, the impact of which could extend to other lenders, as well. Its shares plunged.

Punjab National Bank has detected some fraudulent and unauthorized transactions in one of its branches in Mumbai “for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance,” it said in an exchange filing on Wednesday. “Based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad.”

The case poses further questions about the health of India’s banks, which are

already grappling with one of the worst badloan ratios among big economies. It’s also likely to create a challenge for CEO Sunil Mehta, who took charge last May about a year after PNB and 12 other lenders were fined for violating rules on some $1 billion of foreign-exchange deals.

The Reserve Bank of India didn’t reply to an e-mail seeking comment.

Investigative agencies have been informed about the latest fraud transactions, PNB said. The bank didn’t elaborate on what impact the fraud may have on its finances, and it didn’t name the other lenders that could be hurt.

than imposing two interest penalties, the tax-reform law provides only for the taxpayer to pay double the legal interest rate for loans set by the BSP,” Tionko said.

On top of substantially lower personal-income tax, the TR AIN has also made interest penalties fairer and simpler that hopefully encourage more people to pay the tax, according to Tionko.

“Moreover, TR AIN provides that in no case shall the deficiency and the delinquency interest…be imposed simultaneously,” she added. Rea Cu

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Lender sells blockchain technology to rural lenders

By Rizal Raoul Reyes @browindio

A

boitiz-led UnionBank of the Philippines on Monday said it supports the deployment of blockchain technology to enhance its own operational efficiency and reduce the cost of transactions.

Henry Aguda, senior executive vice president, chief technology operations officer and chief transformation officer at UnionBank, told a news conference at its “TalkTales” event in Makati City that he and Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Mass Market and Financial Inclusion Executive Eugene S. Acevedo went to Mindanao last November to talk with four rural banks on the deployment of blockchain in their operations.

“We believe in the technology and I think this will be make a big difference in our operations. What we want is to bring the latest and most efficient technology to the rural banks and hopefully elevate their competitive capabilities,” Aguda pointed out.

Aguda said UnionBank was the first bank in the world tapped by global payments technology giant Visa as partner for its businessto-business (B2B) Visa product for its crossborder transaction. The project started in November last year.

Blockchain is a digital ledger that is used to record promises, trades, transactions or items that a user never wants to disappear.

Moreover, it is mirrored exactly across all so-called nodes in a given network, allowing everyone in an ecosystem to store a common copy of the system of record.

Ana Maria Aboitiz-Delgado, deputy center head and chief user experience Officer of UnionBank, said the bank will engage more customers to get their inputs on the Ark, which is the first bank branch in the country embracing the all-digital process for its clients. She added this would enable UnionBank to develop the right environment for UnionBank customers in the community.

She said UnionBank is collaborating with partners to make the Ark a great banking experience both for clients and nonclients of UnionBank.

“The more exciting initiative is how do

Case clippings

By Justice S J Ranada Jr.

NOTARY PUBLIC–affiant’s physical appearance A notary public should require the physical appearance of the person who executed the document. Such document should not be notarized unless the person who executed it is personally present before the notary public. The personal and physical presence of the parties to the deed is necessary to enable the notary public to verify the genuineness of the signature of the affiant therein and the due execution of the document.

Almario v. Atty. Agno AC 10689 08 Jan. 2018 Del Castillo, J

we take the Ark to the other parts of the country. It is wonderful to have the Ark in Makati. But how about the other Filipinos in the provinces who still have to experience digital banking in our other branches,” Delgado said.

Although unconventional in approach, UnionBank’s ARK aims to attract a specific clientele that is very comfortable with digital technology but still prefers the warmth of face-to-face transactions.

“No doubt the next generation is dictating changes upon the banking industry,” UnionBank President Edwin Bautista said in a statement. “But we also don’t want to isolate clients that have been loyal to us for the past 35 years. We built the Ark so that nobody would get left behind.”

Bautista said the Ark is not just a bank but a “third space that takes customer service into a higher level” by providing amenities, such as a latte at the coffee bar or log on to the Internet to get some work done while doing their banking transaction.

Officials said UnionBank is not threatened by the emergence of financial technology (fintech) companies. In fact, he said, UnionBank is partnering with fintechs to promote and expand banking services, especially to people who don’t have access to financial services. He added UnionBank is the only bank that has a unit dedicated to partnering with fintechs.

“We believe in financial inclusion. It is a huge problem that no single execution or entity can solve. And so we partner with like-minded fintechs who are progressive in their thinking and who wants to make a dent to many people availing financial services,” Agudo explained.

Meanwhile, UnionBank subsidiaries City Savings Bank Inc. and Union Properties Inc. recently signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) with Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) to acquire 51 percent of the common shares of transaction network Petnet Inc. Petnet, also known as Pera HUB, has the largest network of Western Union outlets in the Philippines. Petnet has over 2,800 outlets nationwide. It offers a variety of cash-based services, including remittance, currency exchange and bills payment.

The transaction is subject to closing cond itions and reg u lator y ap proval seen happening in the second quarter this year.

With the acquisition, Acevedo said CitySavings plans to take advantage of Pera HUB’s expansive retail network and expand its existing loans-marketing partnership with Petnet. Further, this will expand CitySavings’s mass-market reach and help achieve its goal of enabling inclusive prosperity.

He explained this was also in line with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) efforts to improve financial inclusion in the country by using nontraditional channels.

He said the acquisition gives the UnionBank group a strong platform to do agency banking, in which banks employ third-party outlets to perform certain financial services on their behalf.

Associations and the ‘Ikea effect’

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hat does the venerable company Ikea have to do with the world of associations, you might ask. This was the same thought I had while attending a seminar on association marketing and membership engagement that my organization, the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE), held recently.

To be honest, this was the first time I heard about the “Ikea effect” and it was our speaker, Arianna Rehak, director at the US-based AssociationSuccess.org, who brought up this topic in relation to how associations can learn from this phenomenon. So I Googled Ikea effect and this was what I found out: Wikipedia describes the Ikea effect as a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created. The term is derived from the name of Swedish manufacturer and furniture retailer Ikea, which sells many furniture products that require assembly.

The Ikea effect was identified and named

by Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School, Daniel Mochon of Yale and Dan Ariely of Duke, who published the results of three studies in 2011. These experiments demonstrated that self-assembly affects the evaluation of a product by its consumers. The results suggest that when people construct a particular product themselves, even if they

Association World Octavio Peralta do a poor job of it, they value the end result more than if they had not put any effort into its creation.

So again, what is the connection of the Ikea effect in the association context? Rehak aptly puts it: “When you’re involved in building something, you see its value, and you have a stronger emotional attachment to it.” This is exactly what happens when you are building a community like an association.

In my column on January 10, “Community as a Strategy,” I mentioned that the PCAAE was set up around building a community of like-minded and same-purposed institutions and individuals, helping each other solve problems, sharing knowledge and information, and establishing cooperation and partnerships for growth and sustainability. I believe this is true with any association and memberserving organization.

Right from its beginning, when we held a

town-hall consultation with PCAAE members on November 20, 2013, when the “association of associations” was launched at the PICC, I now realize from hindsight that the Ikea effect had set in.

The Ikea effect is also in play when you engage with your members through volunteering in committees and task forces, their participation in online and offline networking, as well as in forging friendships and collegial relationships among members.

I can cite three takeaways for associations when marketing for membership generation and when engaging with members: (1) explore how you can add in an aspect of “memberowned creation” into your association’s service offering and activities; (2) promote and market these offerings as value-added experiences; and (3) personalize them early on to inspire a sense of ownership. See how the IKEA effect works in your association!

The column contributor, Octavio “Bobby” Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) and CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives. PCAAE enjoys the support of ADFIAP, the Tourism Promotions Board and the Philippine International Convention Center.

E-mail: obp@adfiap.org.

The Regions BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Jica, DPWH conduct study for bridges to connect Leyte to Bohol and Surigao

By Elmer Recuerdo Correspondent

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AASIN CITY—The Dep a r t m e nt o f P u b l i c Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) will conduct a joint study for the possible construction of two bridges that will connect Leyte island to Bohol and Mindanao.

When constructed, the bridge will ease the transport by land and will make travel possible even during bad weather to Bohol and Mindanao. Current land transport to these islands from Leyte is through roll-on, roll-off boats where buses are boarded for transport to a port at the other side.

The research team from the Jica has arrived in Southern Leyte on Monday to begin its monthlong study on the proposed long-span Leyte-Bohol and Leyte-Surigao bridge projects.

A team of DPWH Southern Leyte engineers will accompany the survey team to Guadalupe village in Maasin City, and Benit village in San Ricardo town.

Benit has an existing port that serves as the region’s exit point to Mindanao, while Guadalupe is the nearest point in Southern Leyte to Bohol Island.

DPWH Southern Leyte office chief Ma. Maragarita C. Junia said this could be the initial step in the realization of the Duterte administration’s ambition to connect Leyte to Bohol and Mindanao islands.

“We’ve seen how other provinces have improved their economy and having a wide road network is a major factor for it,” Junia said.

She clarified, though, that this

is not yet part of the actual feasibility study but will help determine proper measures to undertake before drafting its master plan.

“This would surely be a long process. The fund has not yet been sourced, and other equally vital bridges are planned. This will involve a huge sum of money,” she added.

Recently, Southern Leyte Rep. Roger Mercado filed House Bills 6755 and 6756, asking the government to fund the construction of the bridges.

The solon underscored the constricted and limited economic activity in these areas. Hence, const r uct ion of t hese m ajor bridges will enhance the economic activity, considering its larger economic scale.

“If pushed through, these bigticket projects will probably be directly implemented by the central office. However, as local agency partner, we will provide assistance, especially in monitoring during the construction period,” Junia said.

Earlier, the research team conducted similar initial studies in Iloilo, Negros, Cebu and Guimaras as sites of high-impact bridge projects in the Visayas.

Jica is a long-time development ally of the Philippines that provides technical and financial assistance in the country’s development projects with the goal to sustain economic growth and promote human security.

Connecting these major islands is expected to increase mobility in the area, providing new job opportunities, boosting tourism and gradually improving the lives of people here.

RTC settles LMWD leadership dispute

By Nelson S. Badilla Correspondent

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he Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) said the leadership dispute at the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) created by the appointees of Tacloban City Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez has been settled by the courts.

Thus, LWUA’s leadership expressed hope the LMWD would function and operate smoothly and effectively like before Romualdez appointed her supporters to the Board of Directors (BOD) of the LMWD on December 17, 2017.

LWUA is the principal government agency that monitors, guides, and leads all the water districts in various parts of the country.

The people appointed by Romualdez included Roberto V. Muñoz, Bautista G. Corpin Jr., Jennylyn Polistico-Manibay, Bernardita B. Valenzuela and Sharilee Gaspay-Mauro. They petitioned the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Tacloban City by strongly claiming they are the legal board members of the LMWD. Judge Leonito S. Sabandal of Tacloban City RTC Branch 9 said in his decision “the respondents ought to be respected in their status as incumbent members of the Board of Directors of the LMWD, which was the prevailing status at the time [when] this petition was filed up until January 17, 2018.”

The respondents being referred to by Sabandal are Teodoro M. de Veyra, Teresa A. Montubig, Iluminado L. Lantajo Jr., Aldin C. Surpia and Dr. Alice U. Blas.

In effect, the judge dismissed the petition of Muñoz, Corpin Jr., Polistico-Manibay, Valenzuela and Gaspay-Mauro who have claimed that they are the real BOD members.

Sabandal asserted in his ruling that, “The end result is that respondents ought to remain as incumbent Board of Directors until removed by competent authorities or by the courts. As such, in order not to confuse the public in general, and the LMWD employees in particular, petitioners should refrain from representing themselves as members of the Board of Directors until they are declared as such by the Court as what they prayed for in their petition, which unfortunately they now have abandoned.”

“The petitioners filed an instant Petition for Quo Warranto because they sought for recognition as the alleged newly appointed Board of Directors of LMWD,” the judge said.

“By filing the said petition, petitioners impliedly admitted that respondents are the incumbent Board of Directors, albeit they question the legality thereof,” he argued.

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Thursday, February 15, 2018

A9

​ IMP-Eaga officials in Brunei B to discuss 5-pillar programs

By Manuel T. Cayon

D

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—Senior government and key business leaders of the four-country BIMP-Eaga subregion met at the Brunei Darussalam capital of Bandar Seri Begawan to thresh out specific items of their five-pillar programs for this subregion in east Asia.

T he meeting was a lso t he group’s annual strategic-planning meeting aimed at mapping out programs under its Brunei Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) Vision 2025.

The 2018 BIMP-Eaga Strategic Planning Meeting was held at the Brunei International Convention Center to find specific projects

and direction of the five pillars of development: connectivity, food basket, environment and tourism, as well as sociocultural and education.

BIMP-Eaga stands for Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines East Asean Growth Area, a subregional cooperation founded in 1994 to spur business activities within

the economic area.

Assistant Secretary Romeo M. Montenegro, deputy executive director of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), said the Brunei strategic-planning meeting endeavors to translate the strategies under Vision 2025 into priority and doable programs and projects designed to increase trade, investments and tourism.

His office serves as the Philippine coordinating office for BIMP-Eaga.

Last year the heads of state of the four member-countries adapted the Vision 2025 development plan.

He said a number of identified projects include establishment of new air and sea links, crossborder power interconnection and renewable-energy development, agribusiness development, better trade-facilitation arrangements, sociocultural exchanges, ecotourism and green-cities development, among others.

“Cluster-specific and convergence projects will be presented

to the senior officials during the meeting, where we also expect guidance and directives to ensure implementation and collaboration with the private sector,” he said.

The leaders may also give imprimatur to another route, the Buliluyan, Palawan-Kudat, Malaysia roll-on, roll-off (Roro) cargo-shipping route, expected to be opened next month. This would follow the launch of the Davao-General Santos-Bitung Roro shipping route in April last year.

The proposed direct Zamboanga-Sandakan flight is likewise seen to commence within the first half of the year, he said.

Secretary Datu Abul Khayr A lonto, MinDA chairman and Philippine-Eaga signing minister, said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations subregion has continued to “demonstrate its ability to achieve bottom-up socioeconomic integration with the Asean region.” This was his comment during a recent briefing with House Special Committee on Eaga Affairs at the Philippine Congress.

DepEd takes measures to ensure children in Mayon-affected areas continue to learn

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco Correspondent

T

HE Department of Education (DepEd) in Region 5 instituted various mechanisms and interventions to ensure that children continue to learn despite the restiveness of Mayon Volcano.

P u rsu a nt to t he d i rec t ive of Education Secretary Leonor M. Briones, education must continue despite adversities. Emergency classes were held after local government heads lifted the suspension of classes in the affected areas of Albay as early as January 23.

Part of the region’s contingency plan is the implementation of three-class shifts a day to cater to both residents and displaced learners using temporary learning spaces (TLS) and other available spaces, such as covered halls and tents, donated by stakeholders.

To date, 53 schools with 905 classrooms are being used as temporary evacuation centers to house 17,522 families and 58,444 individuals. DepEd Region 5 has identified 20,086 learners in evacuation centers. With only 325 classrooms available to conduct classes, DepEd and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS) immediately released funds for the construction of 196 TLS and is considering the construction of additional units.

DepEd Region 5 Director Ramon Fiel Abcede launched Oplan Sagip Eskwela on January 26 to implement an eight-fold disaster response that includes providing TLS and hygiene kits, administering Psychological First Aid (PFA) to both learners and teachers, and crafting coordination mechanisms for learning interventions.

“Teachers and personnel volunteered for camp management, working beyond official hours to implement contingency plans just to make sure that education will continue for our learners from the affected communities,” he said.

“We have also tapped the Schools Division Offices from other provinces to conduct resource mobilization in order to augment the needs of our schools.”

HORSE-DRAWN DELIVERY

Overloaded with bamboo handicrafts made in Pangasinan, horse-drawn caritelas continue to be used by itinerant vendors to deliver the hand-fashioned products to as far as Ramon, Isabela. LEONARDO PERANTE II

Nickel miners launch drive to help families displaced by restive Mayon

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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ICKEL-MINING companies belonging to the Philippine Nickel Industry Association Inc. (PNIA) have joined relief efforts for people affected by the eruption of Mayon Volcano in the province of Albay.

The PNIA was joined by the Land Rover Club of the Philippines, Anseca Development Corp., MRMJ Earth Movers Corp., IPM Development Corp. and RONIN Motorcycle Club in sorting and packing the goods, as well as provided logistics support in conducting relief operations for Albay, a statement released by the group said.

Over P1.4 million worth of goods were provided by PNIA and its partners and packed into 1,000 hygiene kits and 2,250 food packs.

The association also donated slippers, bath soaps, face masks, antibiotics, children’s vitamins and sacks of old and new clothes that will benefit 19,000

displaced families or 75,000 individuals.

A team composed of PNIA and Land Rover Club Philippines representatives went to Albay last week to transport and personally hand over the relief goods to the provincial government of Albay, along with the regional representatives of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

PNIA President Dante Bravo said the association has been actively doing collective efforts in providing aid to victims affected by calamities and disasters.

“We express our heartfelt sympathies to the displaced communities brought by the continuous eruption of Mount Mayon, and the association is ready if additional assistance shall be needed for our fellow countrymen in Albay,” he said.

He added the entire mining industry will always be ready to help the country during times of need, as well as support

government initiatives geared toward sustainable development and nation building.

“The Philippine Nickel Industry Association reiterates its commitment to participate in programs of [the] government, especially during calamities and disasters,” Bravo said.

The PNIA is composed of Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc., CTP Construction and Mining Corp., Citinickel Mines and Development Corp., Carascal Nickel Corp., DMCI Mining Corp., Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. and Agata Mining Ventures Inc. PNIA is a nonstock and nonprofit organization established in 2012. It aims to foster a strong partnership between the government and the private sector in revitalizing and developing the nickel industry in a manner that balances economic, environmental and social objectives.

PNIA believes in responsible and sustainable mining and giving back to the communities that have entrusted the care of their land to mining companies.

A10 Thursday, February 15, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

ICC justice

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resident Duterte recently castigated International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, saying she should explain why she decided to investigate him when there were other countries in Asia where large numbers of people were being indiscriminately exterminated. The Chief Executive said: “There are many massacres in all parts of Asia and, yet, you people want to go after me. You better clear that up because I will withdraw from the ICC.”

The ICC was acting on the complaint filed by lawyer Jude Josue Sabio in April 2017 against the President and 11 senior government officials. The complaint said crimes against humanity were being committed “repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously,” and killing drug suspects and other criminals had become “best practice” in the country.

Media reports quoted Bensouda, saying she was opening a preliminary examination of the complaint, citing allegations that thousands were killed for their alleged involvement in the drug trade, many of them extrajudicially.

The ICC prosecutor said, depending on the facts gathered, she would decide whether to initiate an investigation, continue to collect more information or decline to initiate an investigation “if there is no reasonable basis to proceed.”

Bensouda said she decided to open the examination after “a careful, independent and impartial review” of the situation in the Philippines.

The ICC is a permanent court established by the Rome Statute to prosecute persons for the most serious international crimes: Genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes. Under the Rome Statute, the ICC can only investigate and prosecute the four core international crimes in situations where states are “unable” or “unwilling” to do so themselves.

Clearly, the ICC cannot replace Philippine courts. Besides, certain individuals questioning the legality of Duterte’s war on drugs had already brought the issue before the Philippine Supreme Court. And we have adequate laws and remedies in our country to address the issue of alleged extrajudicial killings, which negate the need for the ICC to initiate any investigation.

Here’s the peculiar part: As an incumbent President, Duterte could not be charged in a criminal case. The Chief Executive said the ICC treaty provisions that dealt with extrajudicial killings were not published in the country, as required by Philippine law, and so they could not be implemented here. The President said: “There is no provision of extrajudicial killing. It is not found anywhere. How can you accuse me when the law says the treaty we entered into [Rome Statute] forms part of the laws of the land?”

A lawyer and former prosecutor, Duterte added any penal statute required publication to be enforceable. “Was there any publication? None,” the President said.

Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. said the President was confident the ICC would not reach the formal investigation stage, because it would find no basis for the complaint.

However, records show that the ICC has its own fallibility. For example, in a UN Dispatch article published last year, Kimberly Curtis said: “In the past, critics lambasted the ICC for such one-sided justice. One example is the case of Northern Uganda, where the court investigated crimes committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army but not those committed by the Ugandan forces battling them. Likewise, in prosecuting the 2011 postelection violence in Cote d’Ivoire, only alleged crimes committed by forces loyal to former president Laurent Gbagbo were investigated, while forces loyal to President Alassane Ouattara were let off the hook. These choices hurt the reputation of the court and led to accusations of bias, accusations the ICC is still trying to shake off.”

The ICC can keep its reputation by upholding the principle of fairness in the performance of its mandate.

Pumping and dumping John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

I

T may be appropriate that this column follows Valentine’s Day since, in one sense, the “Day of Love” might be the best example of “pumping and dumping,” at least for the heart.

The term pump and dump (P&D) generally refers to price movements of any investment and, more specifically, to the stock market. It is defined as “denoting the fraudulent practice of encouraging investors to buy shares in a company in order to inflate the price artificially, and then selling one’s own shares while the price is high.”

Doesn’t that sound like many if not most men and women attempting to woo his or her Valentine and showing best behavior? I am sure my wife wishes I always acted the same way I did on our first Happy Valentine’s Day.

In love, as in the stock market, we all think the pump is great; not so much the dump and we would like to avoid it.

Biased and fake news may be a form of P&D also. The technique is to get people all worked up over a particular issue, perhaps to achieve a particular purpose.

It is difficult to trust the motives of anyone—especially the most vocal—in the biased-/fake-news discussions. Everyone seems to have a vested interest. And even the Dalai Lama flies first-class on airplanes, stays in five-star hotels and, recently, launched an iPhone application.

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Part Four

Balanced agro-industrial economy

T

HE socioeconomic program has become the total answer to our problems. Progress must not be measured merely by the cold, impersonal statistics of the gross national product, but by the individually meaningful and tangible improvement of everyone’s well-being. This is the driving philosophy behind the economic program that the Four-Year Development Plan translates into specific, operational terms.

Our objective is the establishment of a balanced agro-industrial economy. But the pursuit of this objective goes hand in hand with the efforts to achieve our social goals. Thus, while agricultural development has been concerted and unrelenting on three fronts—land reform, food production and cooperatives’ development—we have with equal energy taken firm steps to meet the long semiprocessed goods industry through the establishment of more factories and industries.

As a counterpart of the Land Reform Program, the cooperative system, national electrification, cottage industries, national irrigation systems, rural credit, compact farming and other agricultural projects, I have directed an emphasis on the establishment of small- and medium- scale industries in the countryside.

The potential for the rapid growth

of small- and medium-scale enterprises is decidedly great. One need only compare our industrial activity at these scales to those of other countries that are similarly situated to see the importance of these industries. Small- and medium-scale enterprises, for instance, form the backbone of Taiwan’s export-oriented manufacturing activities.

To finance this important part of our industrialization effort in the rural areas, P500 million has been set aside by the Development Bank of the Philippines. The purpose has been to spread technology, financing and industrial development to the provinces and the barrios.

We are likewise giving new importance to other programs. Under the program for basic and resourcebased industries are mineral exploration and processing, and woodbased industries. The next four years,

However, no matter how wonderful—and profitable in the stock market—the pump can be, we obviously want to avoid the dump side. I will offer more detail when I speak at the TGFI Financial Literacy Summit on April 8. But, for now, understand that the basic avoidance principle is the same for not being caught in a biased-/fake-news frenzy.

Initially, it is all about historical perspective. I know I whine about that idea constantly, but it comes back to “You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” Ask the question, “Why does this price move make sense based on how it has been trading?” Actually, you may see that the previous weeks’ or months’ action has been leading up to a large jump in price. Trade what you see, not what you want to see.

As in love—“why is he suddenly treating me so sweetly?”—what may have changed that would prompt buyers to push the price higher?

Obviously, all the recent big moves in companies that may or may not be involved as the “third telco player” is a good example. And remember, just because it is “hype” does not mean

covered by the current development plan, will witness the release of more lands. The establishment of a copper smelter-refinery plant is also to be undertaken within the period. The program for wood-based industries emphasizes greater processing of domestic logs for exports and gradual reduction of log exports over the next four years. To sustain the wood requirements, intensified reforestation will be undertaken on more than 120,000 hectares all over the country.

Greater interdependence between agricultural and manufacturing industries will also be actively promoted. This will set in motion a two-way flow; agriculture supplying industry with its raw materials, as in the case of food processing; and industry supplying agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers and farm machines.

The promotion of engineering industries is another important aspect of our industrialization program.

This calls for a progressive increase of domestic content in engineering products. Thus, in the progressive car- and motorcycle-manufacturing programs, domestic manufacturing of components will be encouraged through subcontracting arrangements with small- and medium-scale manufacturing enterprises.

In addition, a 10-year shipbuilding program has been adopted to meet the needs of domestic coastal commerce. At the same time, the government itself participates in the intensive search for oil, gas and other sources of energy, although in the drilling for oil, service contracts with the oil majors, as well as the

that there is not a valid truth and reason for the price increase.

If you used common sense mixed with some caution on the pump, now avoid the dump. One critical and basic rule is, “If the reason you bought [hot tip, phase of the moon, corporate development] changes, run away.” No questions asked. You can always buy back in. If you thought your new love was single, and it turns out there is a wife/husband and three kids, things have changed. Get out.

From personal experience, you may be the best judge of when the dump is beginning. When you start feeling bulletproof—like after half a bottle of Don Papa rum—that is when you are most vulnerable. If you are in a pump and dump scam, that is right where the pumpers want you, and they are ready to leave you holding the bag. In short, it is best to never ignore your own gut feelings.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stockmarket information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

independents, are preferred.

From late-1973 to the early months of 1974, the energy crisis and the worldwide inflation posed a grave challenge to Philippine resources and ingenuity. Owing to the sudden rise of the price of crude oil, our national oil cost leaped, from $200 million to $700 million. This additional cost of $500 million, plus another $500 million representing the additional cost of all our imported requirements for development, increased the overall cost of importation of our entire requirement, from $1.3 billion to $2.3 billion.

To meet this problem, I considered it imperative that we maintain the existing level of our foreignexchange reserves—$1 billion—so as to maintain monetary stability.

For this purpose, we geared our new planning to the necessity for additional export earnings and for loans from foreign sources.

We are preventing further migration to the urban centers, if not actually reversing the trend and decongesting them instead, by making the provinces as attractive to investors, industrialist and workers as the cities, if not more so.

I have created the Zoning and Human Settlement Commission to mark out areas for new towns and plan not only the infrastructure for comfortable living, such as housing, schools, markets, roads, parks and amusement areas, but also employment and sources of income.

To be continued To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@ gmail.com.

Opinion

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Can China Telecom spur healthy industry

God’s reign at hand Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

Val A. Villanueva

Businesswise Conclusion

Can China Telecom spur healthy industry competition?

T

he $1.2-billion sale of San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) stake in Bell Telecommunication Philippines Inc., Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc., Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. and the company’s hold on the coveted 700 MHz bandwidth was heralded to bring about drastic and much-awaited improvements in the country’s telecom industry.

But it was not to be.

It doesn’t take might and power to overhaul the country’s Jurassic telecom infrastructure. Globe Telecom Inc. and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Inc. (PLDT) may have a vast war chest and a gigantic bandwidth at their disposal. But how to make full use of them in a not so friendly environment has effectively stalled their expansion plans.

There are just not enough cell sites to distribute the needed signal to speed up Internet connectivity in the country. A good friend and a major player in cell site construction—whose company has built almost all the tower requirements of both Globe and PLDT and has also done business overseas—told BusinessWise that in a perfect world, it takes two years for single tower to be put up. But in the Philippines, where bureaucratic red tape rules, it may take forever. He says prolonged license tenders and corruption in local government weigh down the rollout of the much-needed infrastructure to improve the country’s Internet connectivity.

The country’s Internet delivery will remain at snail’s pace, no thanks to ridiculous expanse of certifications and the time it takes for local government units (LGUs) to approve them. Compared with other countries where digital processing takes only a day, my friend says that without red tape or any other obstructions, it takes at least 24 stages and close to a hundred days just to secure a construction permit, still excruciatingly slow: “More often than not, it will take 10 times slower because of corruption and inefficiency.”

Not only that, he says that most of the charges that local governments levy is unjustified. “Just to give you an example local government charges P200,000 per year on a single tower.”

There are other permits and requirements—including the environmental impact and the concern in building cell sites in protected areas—but it will take more than three series of columns to tackle them all. The point is if the Duterte administration is that serious in improving the country’s Internet connectivity why didn’t he address these problems with dispatch? Why is it always China that he always runs to for help? Do we really need a third telecom player?

Don’t get me wrong, healthy competition is enhanced by several players, which can offer the best package from which consumers can choose from, and China Telecom brings with it a fairly impressive pedigree.

Owned by the Chinese government, China Telecom is the third biggest mobile phone company in China after China Mobile and China Unicom, both are also state-owned, according to a May 2017 report of DBS Group Research. China Mobile controlled 64 percent of the mobile subscriber market, followed by China Unicom, 20 percent and China Telecom, 16 percent.

Internationally, it is ranked by Forbes magazine as the world’s ninth biggest publicly listed telecom company based on a composite metric that includes sales, profit, assets and market value. It is 142nd among the

I’m not optimistic that the entry of China Telecom will bring about the needed telecom reforms. Worse, it could only pose a serious security problem for a country whose territorial waters are slowly being gobbled up by Beijing. world’s largest 2,000 public-listed companies.

If and when China Telecom finally finds a local company to comply with the 60/40 constitutionally-mandated ownership structure in favor of Filipinos, it will operate within the same working environment Globe and PLDT have had difficulty navigating.

President Duterte has not walked the talk. Traffic remains at a standstill; MRT 3 is still mired in the same problem, which he promised to solve in three months. Most of his campaign promises have just been that: a promise. How can we trust him this time when he says that the entry of a third telecom player augurs well for the telecom industry?

I’m reminded by the telecom liberalization policy adopted by former President Fidel V. Ramos during his reign. It was half-baked.

The policy opened the doors to other players such as Liberty Telecom, Eastern Telecom, Bayantel, among others. The problem is that only PLDT was allowed to operate nationwide, while the other players, including Globe, were consigned to operating only in their assigned franchise areas. And where are these small players now?

I’m not optimistic that the entry of China Telecom will bring about the needed telecom reforms. Worse, it could only pose a serious security problem for a country whose territorial waters are slowly being gobbled up by Beijing. Duterte’s invitation for a Chinese telecom company to compete here is akin to handing it the password to open up the country’s vault of classified national security secrets. Several senators have already aired their concern in consenting to a Chinese state-run firm to build and manage crucial Internet and telecoms system, given Beijing’s repute for high-tech proficiency.

Also, China Telecom will have an undue advantage to both Globe and PLDT, putting the competition on an uneven field.

China Telecom has no problem of heirloom equipment. It can always tap to latest technology by means of advanced apparatus and systems, which are not only service capable, but a lot cheaper than those developed a decade ago. By early-2020, it can use the international gateway the government signed with Facebook at a cheaper broadband cost.

It can also use the Transco/NGCP nationwide fiber-optic cable as its backbone and other government telecommunication facilities. Both, Globe and PLDT poured in money for their own backbones, which eventually limited their ability to deliver fast and cheaper services to remote areas.

Can China Telecom spur healthy industry competition? Or do we actually need a third telco player?

Perhaps not.

For comments and suggestions arielnepo.businessmirror@gmail.com

L

ent is our journey of 40 days (Kuwaresma) toward Easter. Its first Sunday starts us off with the bone-bare narration about Jesus’ sojourn in the desert and his inaugural victory over Satan and the summary of his call to the people (Mark 1:12-15).

The return of the Spirit The end-time has begun: the Spirit of God has returned in and through Jesus—the Spirit that the people of old by their infidelity have quenched.

John had announced that the one mightier than he who comes after him would be the one to baptize the people with the Spirit and so create a new people with new life (1:7-8). The Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism in the Jordan and so anointed Him for His messianic mission of salvation (1:10-11). Immediately thereafter the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert for 40 days to recapitulate and rewrite the story of God’s people who for 40 years in the desert showed themselves so unfaithful.

Spirit-filled and Spirit-driven, Jesus was a necessary target for Satan, just as for the same reason Jesus must take on the enemy. The confrontation in the wilderness was just the launch of the permanent enmity between Jesus and the devil that in the rest of the gospel would be waged relentlessly. If in the wilderness of Sinai the Israelites with Moses underwent trials and temptations in the process of being molded into God’s people, now the new Israel in Jesus would come out of the desert in triumph. So, for 40 days and however long it takes to cross over to the “promised land,” Jesus the new Moses stood up to and faced down the enemy.

Thursday, February 15, 2018 A11

Fulfillment in Metanoia

The reign of God is already in Jesus and through Jesus at hand; his subsequent words and deeds reveal that God is truly already in the midst of the world. In exorcisms, healings, authoritative teaching, and later on the cross, Jesus would emerge victorious over Satan. This fundamental conflict with evil is stressed with the noted presence of wild animals, housing demons (Psalm 22:13-22; Isaiah 13:21-22), with Jesus out in the wilderness. But a note of anticipated victory is introduced by the apparent quiet of the subdued wild beasts in Jesus’ company; the era of primeval peace has dawned and paradise is for practical purposes restored (Isaiah 11:6-9). The other detail given during the initial confrontation with Satan refers to the angels ministering to Jesus, the man of God under divine protection (Psalm 91:11-13), recalling too how God was feeding Moses and the Israelites in the Sinai desert (Psalm 78:24-25) and the angels sustaining Elijah during his journey to the mountain of God (1 Kings 19:5-8).

In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus in the wilderness successfully takes on Satan and the forces of evil and death, and inaugurates the reign of God in the world. But

what Jesus has accomplished for us, requires from us an active participation. If God’s reign is already at hand and the fulfillment of divine promises is now, we are correspondingly called to a faith that acts, as the second half of the short gospel reading presents Jesus proclaiming the gospel of God. Repentance and belief in the gospel (Metanoia), the renewal and transformation of our life, demand decision and commitment.

Alálaong bagá, we have to take off the old fallen man in us, in order to put on the new man in Jesus Christ—not only every season of Lent but every day. We need to turn away from our old way of giving supremacy to selfish interests in dishonesty and injustice, so as to be able to measure up to the gospel values of truth and justice, service to others and obedience to God. Lent summons us to face down the forces of evil and live in harmony with all even the untamed, and open ourselves to the experience of divine love and holiness even in the wilderness of our own society.

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.

TRAIN law compliance: Excise tax on automobiles Atty. Fermo B. Avila

Tax Law for Business

W

ithin the context of Philippine taxation, automobiles are, by and large, subject to excise tax. This means that whenever an automobile is imported (or is locally manufactured and, eventually, taken out of the factory), the person liable must pay the corresponding excise tax equivalent to the applicable schedular excise-tax rate, multiplied by the net manufacturer’s/assembler’s/importer’s selling price. The person liable refers to either the owner, importer, dealer/trader, manufacturer/ assembler, or any person who is found in possession of any untaxed automobile other than the one legally entitled to exemption.

In cases of locally manufactured/assembled automobiles, the excise tax may be paid either: (1) simultaneous to the filing of the proper Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Form and before removal of the automobile from the place of production/assembly; or (2) in advance (wherein the person liable shall be allowed to remove automobiles without prior filing of the prescribed excise-tax returns provided that he has sufficient balance of deposits with the BIR to cover full payment of the excise taxes due on said removals). On the other hand, in cases of imported automobiles, the excise tax must be paid prior to the release from Customs custody.

However, not all automobiles are subject to excise tax. Before the

advent of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, the following, among others, were exempt from excise tax: buses, trucks, cargo vans, jeepneys, jeepney substitutes, single-cab chassis, special-purpose vehicles and automobiles used exclusively within the Freeport zone. The TRAIN law retained the exempt status of the aforementioned vehicles, and included purely electric vehicles and pickups in the list of exempted automobiles. The TRAIN law also introduced a reduced excise-tax rate for hybrid vehicles.

With regard to the schedular excise-tax rates, the TRAIN law modified both the tax brackets and tax rates. Before the TRAIN law became effective, the four tax brackets

Interestingly, despite the changes introduced by the TRAIN law regarding the excise tax on automobiles, the automobile industry seems to be unscathed. So far, there are no significant reports of decline in the demand for automobiles in the Philippines.

However, while the automobile industry seems to linger in a plateau state, the full effect of the TRAIN law remains to be seen.

ranged from: (a) “Up to P600,000,” (b) “Over P600,000 to P1.1 million,” (c) “Over P1.1 million to P2.1 million” and (d) “Over P2.1 million”; while the present tax brackets range from: (a) “Up to P600,000,” (b) “Over P600,000 to P1 million,” (c) “Over P1 million to P4 million” and (d) “Over P4 million.”

With respect to the rates prior to the TRAIN law, bracket (a) was subject to 2 percent, bracket (b) was subject to “P12,000 plus 20 percent of the value in excess of P600,000,” bracket (c) was subject to “P112,000 plus 40 percent of the value in excess of P1.1 million” and bracket (d) was subject to “P512,000 plus 60 percent of the value in excess of P2.1 million”; on the other hand, after the effectivity of the TRAIN law, bracket (a) is subject to 4 percent, bracket (b) is subject to 10 percent, bracket (c) is subject to 20 percent and bracket (d) is subject to 50 percent.

Trump’s hardest construction job

I

gnore the flim-flam, and President Donald J. Trump is offering some good ideas with his infrastructure proposal. The question is whether it’s too little, too late.

Broadly, the plan envisions spending $200 billion to stimulate investment by states and businesses, with a goal of restoring roads, bridges and so on. It also aims to simplify regulation. With customary modesty, the White House calls it “the most comprehensive infrastructure bill in our nation’s history.”

Some aspects are indeed promising. Giving states and cities an incentive to spend more on their own public works makes sense, especially when borrowing costs are moderate.

Encouraging them to impose user fees, such as tolls, might help control costs and leave them less reliant on Washington.

Attracting private investment is likewise a sensible goal. In addition to boosting available funds, it could

lead to more efficient and innovative projects, and thereby reduce public maintenance costs down the road. Such partnerships carry risks, but with proper oversight they can be a good way to leverage tax dollars.

Streamlining red tape, meanwhile, could be a boon for businesses.

Trump’s plan would impose deadlines on regulators to complete environmental reviews and issue permits for new projects, while limiting the number of agencies involved in each decision. Although optimistic by Washington standards—the whole process, it says, should take no more than two years—it’s on the right track.

That said, the plan has problems.

One is that it’s premised on a bit of voodoo. It presumes that a $200-billion federal outlay would lure $1.3 trillion in outside spending, while offering no plausible evidence. Those new funds would also

There’s no denying that stuff needs fixing. By one estimate, the United States must invest $2 trillion over the next decade to keep its public works in decent shape.

A federal effort that induced more state spending, encouraged public-private partnerships and cut red tape has a lot going for it.

Combine these elements with an increase in the federal gas tax, in fact, and a fiscally prudent overhaul starts to look feasible. be offset by cuts elsewhere, including to the transportation budget, which means the proposal isn’t offering nearly as much as advertised.

If Trump wants bipartisan support, he’ll need to accept a bigger up-front investment (the Democrats, intrepidly, propose $1 trillion).

There are other complications.

And because of the aforesaid revisions, the BIR and the Department of Finance needed to issue regulations, advisories, orders and circulars for the taxpayers’ compliance with the provisions of the TRAIN law. These issuances required, inter alia, the submission of Sworn Declarations of Inventory List as of December 31, 2017, to the Excise LT Field Operations Division, and its deadline was on January 15. This requirement is in addition to the regular filing of Inventory list, which was due on January 30. Furthermore, the issuances required the use of BIR Form 2200-AN and ATC Code “XGAN” for purposes of e-filing.

Interestingly, despite the changes introduced by the TRAIN law regarding the excise tax on automobiles, the automobile industry seems to be unscathed. So far, there are no significant reports of decline in the demand for automobiles in the Philippines. However, while the automobile industry seems to linger in a plateau state, the full effect of the TRAIN law remains to be seen.

The author is a junior 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 fermo.avila@ bdblaw.com.ph or call 403-2001 local 150.

Congress has just passed a tax cut that will make it difficult for states and cities to raise taxes, yet this infrastructure plan depends on them to spend more money. And the bill prioritizes projects based on their ability to attract private capital, placing very little emphasis on their economic impact.

There’s no denying that stuff needs fixing. By one estimate, the United States must invest $2 trillion over the next decade to keep its public works in decent shape. A federal effort that induced more state spending, encouraged public-private partnerships and cut red tape has a lot going for it. Combine these elements with an increase in the federal gas tax, in fact, and a fiscally prudent overhaul starts to look feasible.

Of course, with deficits rising and elections looming, the odds of success are long. But credit where it’s due: On a problem that Congress has avoided for too long, this plan offers a decent start. Bloomberg View

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Thursday, February 15, 2018

Alvarez insists Cha-cha timetable is before 2019

T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

@joveemari

he shift to a federal form of government is now facing further delays, as the leadership of the House of Representatives on Wednesday said it will have to wait for the inputs of the Presidential Consultative Committee before it could draft the new Constitution.

Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments will consider carefully all the proposals of the consultative committee and consolidate it with all the proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution submitted by the committee’s four subcommittees.

“Timetable.... It has to be done before 2019. I think that’s long

enough; it’s already a conservative estimate,” Alvarez said.

Earlier, Alvarez said that while his original target date is to submit to the Filipino people the proposed Charter change (Cha-cha) simultaneous with the May 2018 barangay elections, he is open to the possibility of moving the deadline to 2019 midterm election if necessary.

“But for me, there’s no reason

ALVAREZ: “It has to be done before 2019.

I think that’s long enough; it’s already a conservative estimate.”

to postpone [the barangay elections this May]. I’m saying that for now. Maybe next time, I don’t know. Anything can happen,” the Speaker added.

The Speaker, however, assured the public that the Committee on Constitutional Amendments is still doing its task of crafting the proposed Charter amendments for a shift to federal form of government.

“The committee hearings are still ongoing. I also told them not to immediately terminate it because there is a consultative commission appointed by the President. We will have to wait for their input, so that we could cover and consider all of the inputs,” he said.

The 19-member consultative

committee, created by President Duterte, is headed by retired Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno. The Palace gave the committee six months to complete its recommendations.

“In the transition gover nment, he [Duterte] will still be the president. He’s still the one....

We can’t abruptly implement the new federal form of government.

There’s a transition government, wherein the present system stays along with the president, vice president, senators and congressmen, while slowly progressing into a new system,” he said.

“We’re preparing all of that for 2022. We’re envisioning the first elections under a federal setup in 2022. So we’re readying that, preparing to slowly transition into a new structure of government,” Alvarez added.

Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte of the Second District of Camarines Sur urged Congress to start the information campaign immediately on the proposed shift to a federal system to educate the public about the advantages and benefits of this system.

DOT supports clampdown on Boracay violators Continued from A1

move in addressing the environmental problems besetting Boracay.

He wants the commercial establishments found releasing untreated wastewater and sewage penalized for causing water pollution.

He said that two months should be enough for those with violations to address the problem, by connecting to the sewage-treatment plant of Boracay Island Water Co. or by installing their own wastewatertreatment facilities.

“The DENR is giving them two months to comply with the law.

Otherwise, we will close them,” Cimatu said.

According to Cimatu, around 50 percent to 60 percent of all establishments in Boracay are compliant with Republic Act (RA) 9275, or the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004.

“All the rest direct their pipes to the canals, which drain to the sea,” he lamented. Under RA 9275, establishments and households are mandated to dispose their septic wastes to a treatment facility.

Cimatu said a notice of violation will soon be issued to establishments that are illegally connected or are not connected at all to the sewage-treatment plant Teo warned that more destinations will be shut down, if local government units, operators and business establishments fail to take care of their respective tourist attractions and are found violating environmental laws.

Teo said that aside from Boracay, they have found improper waste disposal on Siargao Island in Surigao by the residents, and fisherman damping their excess kerosene or diesel in the ocean near the beaches in Coron, Palawan.

“I will not hesitate to inform the President on the environmental issues we have discovered lately in Siargao and Coron Island,” Teo said.

She added: “Let this be a wakeup call to the local government officials, business establishments and tourist operators on the Island of Siargao and Coron, that this administration is very much focused on taking care of the environment and promoting worldclass tourism destinations.”

Teo expressed “full support”

VALENTINE ASH Roman Catholic devotees have their foreheads rubbed with ash to usher the season of Lent, known as Ash Wednesday, which also coincides with Valentine’s Day celebration on Wednesday, in Parañaque, southeast of Manila. Ash Wednesday is observed all over the world by Roman Catholics who believe that God created humans from dust. AP to Duterte’s directive, which arose after the DOT presented a proposed executive order (EO) during a Cabinet meeting on February 5, that would help the government fix the problems in Boracay, which include environmental stresses, overbuilding, and violations of the “25+5” easement law.

The EO was rejected by Duterte as being too tedious and, instead, instructed Cimatu and Año to just implement existing laws.

The tourism chief also stressed her agency “will still continue to market the primary destinations and aggressively promote the emerging ones, which is the thrust of this administration to ensure inclusive growth.” In a recent media event, the DOT chief advised tourists to “forget Boracay,” and visit the country’s other destinations. (See, “Teo: Forget Boracay, go to Malabon instead,” in the BusinessMirror, February 1, 2018.)

Last year some 2 million tourists visited Boracay, half of whom were foreigners, while the rest were domestic travelers. The island,

popular for its powdery white-sand beach, generates some P56 million in visitor receipts for the economy.

There are some 500 hotels and resorts on Boracay, by the latest count of the DOT. Boracay has been recognized by readers of prestigious international travel magazines like Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast, as well as news blogs, such as CNN Traveler, among the world’s best islands or beaches.

To complement the efforts of the DENR and DILG to clean up Boracay, the DOT said it will open a Compliance Monitoring Office on the island, which will be overseen by its regional office in Western Visayas headed by Regional Director Helen Catalbas.

The Compliance Monitoring Office, Teo said, will see to it that tourism establishments on the island are operating “according to the standards set for the purpose of making the island more competitive in the domestic and international markets.”

She also ordered the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Au-

thority (Tieza) to ensure that its P716-million drainage project to address the flooding on the island, is speedily completed. Tieza, formerly the Philippine Tourism Authority, is the infrastructure arm of the DOT. The tourism chief expressed hope that with the full cooperation of business owners and island residents, Boracay will continue to remain a major employer and income generator of the country.

“We hope that efforts to clean up Boracay will resonate with our private stakeholders in other destinations to ensure full compliance of environment and ecotourism laws,” Teo said. “From a tourism perspective, we should preserve the balance—let us not compromise the environment for economic gains,” she underscored. On February 12 the 200-strong Boracay Foundation Inc. said “most of the island’s business establishments are strictly in compliance with prevailing ordinances and regulations.” (See, “Boracay business owners say they aren’t violators,” in the BusinessMirror, February 13, 2018.)

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Jobs for the senior-high graduates Continued from A1

T he idea t hen wa s to strengthen education service delivery at each level. However, the big reorganization was done without putting in place any clear system of program coordination among the three.

The problem of coordination was reflected in the difficulty of some universities offering all educational services (basic, technical-vocational and tertiary) in making reports and needed organizational and policy adjustments based on priorities and guidelines outlined by the three independent educational authorities.

With the PQF system, coordination among the three is somehow strengthened.

Fu r t her, R A 10968 m a ndates the PQF National Coordinating council to consult industry stakeholders in the development of the PQF standards and how to align educational outcomes with industry requirements. This is a welcome development.

In line with this, there is an even greater urgency now to establish a GovernmentIndustry-Education Council (GIEC), not only to help address the standard-setting requirements of the PQF but also to guide the academe in curriculum development, job and skills matching, career and employment pathing, technological and industrial innovation, research and extension and so on. As proposed by some study groups, the Council may be set up at the national, regional and even in cities and municipalities with large populations.

Now the big question arises: Is the first batch of the senior high graduating this year ready for the world of work?

Remember, the employability or job readiness is one of the major justifications used by then-Education Secretary Armin A. Luistro in pushing for the passage of the K to 12 law and rushing its implementation, despite the complaint of parents and teachers’ unions on the absence of transition programs for all those affected by the addition of two more years in secondary schooling.

Opinions vary. An officer of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry claims that the 80-hour onthe-job training (OJT) for senior high is not enough for students to gain competency at work and become employable in the labor market. He or she needs at least 100 days of OJT exposure, or even 800 hours of OJT time, similar to what is being practiced in Germany under the “dualtech” system. A DepEd official counters by explaining that what the DepEd offers is a “job immersion program,” which is more like a jobs exposure and appreciation program for would-be labor entrants.

On the other hand, left-wing legislators assert that there are no jobs waiting for the K to 12 graduates. They also add that lengthening OJT or job immersion periods to make the students employable can be exploitative. As interns or trainees, students are usually not given salary or compensation for their labor. Hence, the longer the internship or training, the more exploitative the training setup becomes.

The reality is that creat-

ing conditions to facilitate the employment of K to 12 students and graduates will never be easy. First, there are huge problems on the demand side, especially in underdeveloped regions or areas of the archipelago, where industry is virtually nonexistent.

In these regions, the proposed dualtech program— and even the job immersion program—will have limited number of cooperating industrial firms. But even in the more developed or urbanized areas, securing the cooperation of industrial firms is difficult given the administrative cost and adjustment issues involved in making room for student trainees.

Tesda itself cannot boast of a large number of cooperating firms for the various techvoc training programs it has funded through the years.

Also, the overwhelming majority of registered formal enterprises are micro-small enterprises employing less than 20 workers.

These firms cannot absorb extra student trainees, which they cannot supervise, let alone monitor.

This is why in the GIEC proposal, we are proposing that “industry” be defined in a broad sense, that is, to include those in the MSME sector, agricultural sector and informal economy. And given the overall challenge of job creation everywhere, senior-high programs promoting entrepreneurship, business capability building and modern farming should be continuously strengthened and popularized.

As to the DepEd training programs for the senior-high students, greater attention should be given on career planning, career guidance and consultations on career pathways and job choices. Many high schoolers do not know what they want to do and are likely to change their minds many times.

Even those who are already able to land jobs keep looking for new jobs, a trait common among millennials these days. Again, this is another reason for the hesitation of some employers to open their corporate doors to time-consuming training programs, such as dualtech for the trainees are likey to abandon them afterward.

In a way, the jobs immersion program is a good idea if the students can be exposed not only to one type of jobs or careers. Short “summer” jobs can also provide the students a good feel of what working really means.

But the most basic in job readiness is what the student acquires in the school system in ter ms of “core skills.” These include literacy, numeracy, communication skills, teamwork, problem-solving and other learning ability skills. To seasoned human-resource managers of big enterprises, possession of such skills make the wouldbe workers “trainable” for the regular jobs that may be open to them.

After all, work means the ability to execute a series of instructions in an organized manner. Without these skills, a young labor entrant is likely to fail—be it in the factory or in a BPO cubicle.