BusinessMirror February 17, 2015

Thai economy barely grew in 2014 after protests, coup

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Three newlywed couples, (from left) Artit Thanajindawong and Daradai Wachirapootthacoon, Prontathorn Pronnapatthun and Chaiyut Phuamgphoeksuk, and Pirat Rungthongoran and Nichapatr Koomsombut, take part in an adventure-themed wedding ceremony in Ratchaburi Province, Thailand. AP

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Life

WORD AND LIFE, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSON

Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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REM KOOLHAAS’S building in Singapore provides balconies that span two floors for each condominium unit.

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ZAHA HADID’S d’Leedon in Singapore is a good example for light wells and cross ventilation.

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‘FIFTY SHADES OF GREY’ SETS RECORD AT BOX-OFFICE »D3

BusinessMirror

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

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The future of vertical city living

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JEAN NOUVEL’S green condominium building merges green architecture and its structural components, providing an interesting fusion of aesthetics and function.

URBAN MONOLOGUES 2.0 NIKKI BONCAN-BUENSALIDO

design@buensalidoarchitects.com www.buensalidoarchitects.com

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GREEN buildings and vertical gardens can reduce air temperature significantly and purify the air as well.

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EAL-ESTATE prices in the Philippines have been going up and property investors and developers alike have been aggressive in addressing this, especially since land is scarce in Metro Manila.

There has been a significant increase in the supply of condominiums and other vertical residential developments, and it seems this trend will continue in the next few years.

Practically, every property developer is out there in search of more land and more opportunities to sell their products. A look at the market will reveal all sorts of investment propositions and condo units are selling like hotcakes due to the very tempting amortization schemes each developer is offering.

The challenge in the coming years is how to integrate tropical architecture in vertical residential developments. The Philippines is situated in an extremely tropical region of the world where hot and humid days are the norm throughout the year, with rains intermittently providing a respite from the heat. Oftentimes, a client would ask our office to design a home that is open and breezy and “resort-like,” often citing that they want their home to be an oasis from the nonstop heat and the burst of heavy rains.

Homeowners have, of course, the privilege of building their dream home according to their tastes and the climate. But when it comes to high-rise condominiums, curtain walls and glass windows are often employed to give the illusion of space, but this allows heat to penetrate into the building and oftentimes unit owners result to blackout drapes if only to keep the heat out.

What if the next generation of vertical residentials were designed for tropics? If property developers in Singapore or some other tropical country recognize the need to design and build with the environment in mind, why can’t we follow suit? Is it because of cost?

Perhaps developers here need to realize they are designing and building for new lifestyles, and

C  D

BRISE Soleils and green walls bring endless possibilities in design and function.

life

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EGYPT STRIKES I.S. GROUP IN LIBYA AFTER VIDEO OF MASS KILLING The World

B3-4 Tuesday, February 17, 2015 BusinessMirror ISRAELI LEADER UKRAINE CEASEFIRE LARGELY HOLDING, DEBALTSEVE STILL TENSE CALLS FOR MASS JEWISH INFLUX L AFTER ATTACK UHANSKE, Ukraine—A cease-fire that went into effect on Sunday in eastern Ukraine appeared largely to be holding, although continued fighting over a bitterly contested railway hub is threatening to upend the delicate settlement.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, who last week brokered a deal to try to end the conflict that has raged since April, agreed in a conference call on Sunday that hostilities should also cease around the government-held town of Debaltseve, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s office said. Undeterred, armed separatists appeared intent to pursue their claim to the town.

Heavy fog shrouding sodden fields muffled the sound of artillery, but regular shelling could still be heard from Luhanske, a town about 15 kilometers to northwest of Debaltseve and over 80 kilometers west of the city Luhansk.

Associated Press journalists were blocked from moving closer by Ukrainian troops, who said it was not safe to travel ahead.

The cease-fire has kindled slender hopes of a reprieve from a conflict that has claimed more than 5,300 lives. Withdrawal of heavy armor from the front line by both sides was scheduled to begin on Monday.

Attention will be focused in the coming days on Debaltseve, where Ukrainian forces have been fending off severe onslaughts from the rebels for weeks. The town is a railway link between the main separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Luhanske.

The diminution in hostilities was agreed after a marathon session of diplomacy that brought together Poroshenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French leader Francois Hollande for talks

in the capital of Belarus, Minsk.

In a conference call on Sunday, the leaders agreed the cease-fire should extend to Debaltseve, according to a statement from Poroshenko’s office.

That flies in the face of the position taken by rebels, who argue they should be granted immediate control over the town as it is entirely surrounded by their forces.

Separatist officials have said any force adopted against Ukrainian troops in Debaltseve would accordingly not violate the Minsk agreement.

As he issued the cease-fire order at one minute after midnight Kiev time on Sunday (2201 GMT, 5:01 p.m. EST), Poroshenko had said the road to the town remained open and that Ukrainian troops there had been resupplied with ammunition.

Merkel’s office said that the call’s participants welcomed the general acceptance of the truce, but were concerned about continuing combat operations, especially in the area around Debaltseve.

“They showed determination to work toward a full implementation of the true.

As a next step, Tuesday’s agreed on withdrawal of heavy arms had to be started,” the statement said.

The offices of both Merkel and Hollande said the leaders involved in Sunday’s call also expressed joint support for adopting a United Nations Security Council resolution codifying the measures adopted in Minsk.

A statement from the Kremlin confirmed they discussed the difficult situation in Debaltseve and also the role of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in monitoring the cease-fire.

Under the deal hammered out at last week’s negotiations, the progress of the cease-fire is to be monitored by observers from the OSCE. AP

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ERUSALEM—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Sunday for the “massive immigration” of European Jews to Israel following a deadly shooting near Copenhagen’s main synagogue, renewing a blunt message that has upset some of Israel’s friends in Europe.

Netanyahu said that at a time of rising anti-Semitism in Europe, Israel is the only place where Jews can truly feel safe. His comments triggered an angry response from Copenhagen’s chief rabbi, Jair Melchior, who said he was “disappointed” by the remarks.

“People from Denmark move to Israel because they love Israel, because of Zionism. But not because of terrorism,” Melchior told the Associated Press.

“If the way we deal with terror is to run somewhere else, we should all run to a deserted island.”

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt expressed support for the Jewish community, telling reporters: “They belong in Denmark, they are a strong part of our community, and we will do everything we can to protect the Jewish community in our country.”

Netanyahu issued his call during the weekly meeting of his Cabinet, which approved a previously scheduled $46-million plan to encourage Jewish immigration from France, Belgium and Ukraine—countries where large numbers of Jews have expressed interest in moving to Israel. France and Belgium have experienced deadly attacks on their Jewish communities in recent years, most recently an attack in Paris last month that killed four Jews at a kosher market. AP

A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio on Monday, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in neighboring Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.

The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training

camps before returning safely. It said the strikes were “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.”

“Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them,” it said.

Libya’s air force, meanwhile, announced it had launched strikes in the eastern city of Darna, which was taken over by an IS affiliate last year.

The announcement, on the Facebook page of the Air Force Chief of Staff, did not provide further details.

The video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages was released late Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the IS group.

The killings raise the possibility that the extremist group—which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate— has established a direct affiliate less than 800 kilometers from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to “conquer Rome.”

The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January. It was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.

It was one of the first such beheading videos from an IS group affiliate to come from outside the group’s core territory in Syria and Iraq. AP

COPENHAGEN GUNMAN HAD CRIMINAL RECORD, POLICE SAY

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OPENHAGEN, Denmark—The slain gunman suspected in the deadly Copenhagen attacks was a 22-year-old with a history of violence and may have been inspired by Islamic terrorists—and possibly the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, Danish authorities said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Helle ThorningSchmidt mourned the two people killed and vowed to protect freedom of speech and Denmark’s Jewish community.

The suspect was killed in a gunbattle with a SWAT team early on Sunday. He had opened fire on Saturday at a cultural center hosting a seminar on free speech with an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad and then later at security forces outside a synagogue, police said.

A Danish filmmaker was killed in the first attack. Nine hours later, a security guard protecting a bat mitzvah near a synagogue was slain. Five police officers were wounded in the shootings.

Jens Madsen, head of the Danish intelligence agency PET, said investigators believe the gunman “could have been inspired by the events in Paris.”

Last month Islamic militants carried out a massacre at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo followed by an attack on Jews at a kosher grocery, killing 17 people.

“He could also have been inspired by material sent out by [the Islamic State group] and others,” Madsen said.

Copenhagen police made no mention of Islamic extremism and said the Danish-born suspect had a history of violence and weapons offenses and connections to a criminal gang. They didn’t release his name.

“Denmark has been hit by terror,” Thorning-Schmidt said. “We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator’s actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark. They want to rebuke our freedom of speech.”

Chief Rabbi Jair Melchior identified the security guard as Dan Uzan, a 27-year-old member of Denmark’s 7,000-strong Jewish community. Two police officers who were near the synagogue were slightly wounded.

In the earlier shooting, 55-year-old filmmaker Finn Noergaard was killed while attending a panel discussion titled “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression.”

One of the main speakers was Lars Vilks, a 68-year-old Swedish artist who has faced numerous death threats for depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog in 2007. Vilks, who was whisked away unharmed by bodyguards, told the Associated Press (AP) he believed he was the intended target.

Agnieszka Kolek, another panelist, said she heard shouts of “God is great” in Arabic.

“Lars was being evacuated. Everyone was trying to protect themselves and others,” she told AP. “We heard the

gunshots approaching so I thought that the gunman must be in the building.

“And then I thought obviously I must protect myself and I tried to find a place to hide,” she said.

After the shooting, she and other participants continued the discussion as an act of defiance, Kolek said.

The depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is deemed insulting to many followers of Islam. While many Muslims have expressed disgust at the deadly assault on the Charlie Hebdo employees, they also were deeply offended by its caricatures.

Denmark was the focus of anger from Islamists after the 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. The cartoons triggered riots in many Muslim countries and militant Islamists called for vengeance.

World leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, condemned the Copenhagen attacks.

French President François Hollande visited the Danish embassy in Paris on Sunday, and hundreds gathered outside to show solidarity with victims. Many held candles or banners.

“We need to stand together in Europe and...wherever jihadis try to threaten democracy,” said Sacha Reingewirtz, president of the Union of Jewish Students of France and an organizer of the memorial. AP

World

oney sent home by more or less 10 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) pushed past record-high remittances set in 2013, and rounded 2014 with cash remittances 5.8 percent higher to $24.31 billion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Monday.

The new record broke expectations that overseas remittances, an important growth driver for the consumption-led Southeast Asian economy, would expand by up to only 5 percent during the period.

According to the BSP, the fullyear performance was highlighted by remittances aggregating

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IBTASSAL LAMI, mother of abducted Coptic Christian Samuel Walham, one of 21 Coptic Egyptian men seized by Islamic State (IS) militants in the central city of Sirte, Libya, more than a month ago, holds his picture as she weeps at their home in the village of el-Aour near Minya, 220 kilometers south of Cairo, Egypt, on February 14. A video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages was released on Sunday by militants in Libya affiliated with the IS group. AP/HASSAN AMMAR

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By Bianca Cuaresma

$2.32 billion in December, also higher by 9.4 percent from remittances totaling only $2.12 billion a year earlier.

The continued resilience of overseas remittance flows viewed against a backdrop of a slowing global economy in 2014 contrasted Continued on A2

EXPORTS, GOVT SPENDING LIFTED JAPAN OUT OF RECESSION IN Q4

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Egypt strikes IS group in Libya after video of mass killing

AIRO—Egypt said on Monday it has launched air strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Libya after the extremist group released a grisly video showing the beheading of several Coptic Christians it had held hostage for weeks.

TfridayNovember

Tuesday, February18, 17,2014 2015Vol.Vol.1010No.No.40131

Remittances at new record high

the future of vertical city living EAR Lord, for us You are a miracle worker and powerful preacher. We know Your wonderful teaching. We show our gratitude to You for having set us free from the power of the devil. We cooperate with You in setting other people free from the negative influence of the Evil One. By living the word, we can be assured of His promise to bring us to His Kingdom. Amen.

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CASH SENT HOME BY OFWs in 2014 SURGED BY 5.8% TO $24.31B, OR 8.5% OF GDP

INSIDE

Living the word

protests before the May coup, which was the latest major episode in a decadelong battle between the country’s ruling class and a populist political movement started by telecoms billionaire and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The coup has ushered in a period of relative calm but deep divisions remain. The agency said the political instability made the number of tourists decline by 1.77 million people compared with 2013.

Export volumes rose slightly last year but prices fell, producing a 0.3-percent drop in export value overall. Thailand temporarily lost its crown as the world’s top rice exporter as it stockpiled rice in an attempt to force up global prices after introducing large subsidies for rice crops. The agency said the economy grew by 2.3 percent in the October-to-December quarter, 1.7 percent higher than in the previous quarter. It shrank in the first half of the year. AP

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three-time rotary club of manila journalism awardee

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hailand’s economy barely grew last year as tourism, investment and exports fell after months of antigovernment protests and a May coup. The National Economic and Social Development Board said on Monday the economy grew 0.7 percent in 2014, falling short of expectations of 1-percent growth.

The government agency predicted Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, behind Indonesia, will expand between 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent in 2015, as world growth picks up and tourism, exports and investment recover.

Renowned for its pristine beaches and highquality rice, Thailand is also a manufacturing base for electronics manufacturers and several global automakers, including General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.

Thailand was hit by months of anti-government

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apan’s economy emerged from recession in the last quarter, growing at a 2.2 percent annualized rate, as exports and public spending helped to offset weaker residential investment.

However, the preliminary data released on Monday put growth for the world’s third-largest economy in 2014 flat at 0.0 percent, the slowest rate in three years, while real wages fell 0.1 percent.

PESO exchange rates n US 44.2770

The economy expanded 0.6 percent in October to December from the previous quarter, a rate that fell below many economists’ expectations.

Private investment that remained anemic, suggesting that businesses and households, which account for the lion’s share of growth, remain cautious about spending.

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glow in the dark Giant balloons lit up the Clark Freeport Zone for the last time in Pampanga, as the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta for this year concludes on Sunday. Families and groups of friends chose to spend post-Valentine’s Day watching the hot-air balloons glow at night. ALYSA SALEN

Ayala Land income up 26% in 2014

By VG Cabuag

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yala Land Inc., the country’s second-largest property developer, on Monday said its net income rose 26 percent last year as a result of the robust performance of all its units, from residential to office and mall operations.

The company said in a statement its income reached P14.8 billion in 2014, from the previous year’s record profit of P11.74 billion.

Last year’s rate of growth, however, was slower than 2013’s 30-percent increase in its net income and 36 percent in revenues.

Consolidated revenues reached

P95.2 billion, 17 percent higher from the previous year’s P81.52 billion.

“Moving forward, we will continue to introduce new residential projects and scale up our commercialleasing operations in support of our 2020 Vision,” company President and CEO Bernard Vincent Dy said.

See “Ayala,” A8

n japan 0.3728 n UK 68.1866 n HK 5.7107 n CHINA 7.0951 n singapore 32.6960 n australia 34.2967 n EU 50.4359 n SAUDI arabia 11.8025 Source: BSP (16 February 2015)

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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

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Auction for 24 RE sites set on Feb. 23

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he Department of Energy (DOE) will hold its first renewable-energy (RE) service contract bidding through open and competitive selection process (OCSP), on February 23, according to RE Management Bureau (REMB) Director Mario Marasigan.

“Yes, the OCSP will be held at Dusit Hotel on February 23,” Marasigan said.

The OCSP will feature 24 RE potentia l sites, compr ised of 20 hydro and four geothermal power projects ranging from a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW) to 30 MW each.

The hydro projects are mostly located in the Visayas, while the geothermal projects are in different parts of the country— one in Luzon, one in the Visayas and two in Mindanao.

The whole bidding can bring

in P1.8 billion worth of investments, since the REMB requires service contract holders to allocate a maximum budget of P2.5 million for the development of a single MW. This is both for hydro and geothermal projects.

Marasigan earlier said the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the National Power Corp. had studied the sites to be auctioned off.

Thus, the projects to be offered are commercially feasible.

Both local firms and consortia, comprising local and foreign

companies, have initially expressed interest in bidding for the sites.

Marasigan also said the bid documents will be made available during the launch. The submission period will be a month after the launch, or mostly likely on April 23.

The OCSP launch was supposed to be held last December 15, but was postponed due to the lack of venue.

Submission deadline was initially set on February 15. Meanwhile, the REMB director said the new schedule for the awarding of the bids will be in September. PNA

China’s $40-B Silk Road Fund starts operation

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Silk Road Fund designed to finance China-proposed “Belt and Road” initiatives has started operation, China’s central bank said in a statement on Monday.

The Silk Road Fund Co. Ltd. was established on December 29, 2014, in Beijing, after President Xi Jinping announced the creation of the $40-billion fund last November, according to the People’s Bank of China.

The company was jointly funded

by China’s foreign-exchange reserves, China Investment Corp., the Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank.

“The priority [of the company] is to seek investment opportunities and provide investment and financing services during the progress of the Belt and Road initiatives,” the statement said.

Belt and Road refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road initiatives proposed by China in 2013 for improved cooperation with countries in a vast part of Asia, Europe and Africa. PNA

FISH KILL A Philippine Coast Guard crew member paddles a boat near a school of dead fish, which were found floating early morning of February 16 by the seawall off Manila Bay. The government’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is still investigating what led to the fish kill. AP

Neda Board OKs six transport infra projects

By Cai U. Ordinario

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he National Economic and Development Aut hor it y (Neda) Board, chaired by President Aquino, on Monday approved six infrastructure projects of which four will be undertaken under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said among the PPP projects approved include the P20-billion North Luzon ExpresswaySouth Luzon Expressway Connector Project of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which will be subjected to a Swiss Challenge.

The Nlex-Slex Connector Project involves the construction and operation and maintenance of a 13.4-kilometer, four-lane elevated expressway over the Philippine National Railways’ (PNR) right-of-way which starts in Caloocan City and ends in Buendia, Makati City. It will connect

the Nlex and the Slex to decongest traffic in Metro Manila.

“Most of these projects aim to have a more reliable and efficient transport infrastructure system.

These are consistent with the government’s thrust to increase investment in connective infrastructure,” Balisacan said in a statement.

Balisacan, who is also director general of the Neda, said the approval of these projects would boost the government’s infrastructure spending until next year. “These projects will support the government’s goal of increasing infrastructure spending to at least 5.1 percent in 2016. We hope that they will be implemented efficiently and effectively,” he said.

The Neda Board said it also approved the expansion of the TarlacPangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) project of the DPWH from two (one lane per direction) to four lanes (two lanes per direction). The PPP project entails an estimated gov-

Remittances at new record high. . . starkly against remittances the previous November, when this totaled only $2.12 billion, itself representing a five-year low, based on BSP data.

The central bank welcomed the still-resilient remittance flows and acknowledged the overseas earnings of migrant workers and those other Filipinos abroad who regularly send a portion of their earnings back to the Philippines are an integral part of the $270-billion economy.

“The robust growth of overseas Filipinos’ remittances continued

to provide support to the country’s economy, with cash remittances accounting for 8.5 percent of gross domestic product [GDP] in 2014,” the central bank said.

The bulk of the cash remittances during the year flowed from the United States, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and also from Saudi Arabia no matter the apprehension over the economic impact of declining oil prices affecting these countries.

The central bank also said the cash

ernment support of P2 billion.

Full project cost for TPLEx Ultimate Stage is P24.3 billion for the design, financing, construction and operations and maintenance of the 88.5-km expressway from the terminus of the Subic-Clark-Talac Expressway in Tarlac City to Rosario, La Union.

The Neda Board also gave its gosignal to the rebidding of the CaviteLaguna Expressway project of the DPWH, for the “highest premium” for the government, with a floor price of P20.1 billion. The third PPP project approved by the Neda Board is estimated to cost P35.4 billion.

With a total of 47.018 kms, the project will start from the Cavite Expressway in Kawit and will end at the Slex-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna. There will be nine interchanges in areas such as Kawit, Daang Hari, Governor’s Drive, Aguinaldo Highway, Silang, Santa Rosa-Tagaytay, Laguna Boule-

vard, Technopark, and a toll barrier before Slex.

Other projects given the nod by the Neda Board are the P5.09-billion Panguil Bay Bridge Project and two projects under the North-South Railway masterplan.

The Panguil Bay Bridge Project, which will be undertaken by the DPWH, involves the construction of a bridge across Panguil Bay connecting Tangub City in Misamis Occidental and the municipality of Tubod in Lanao del Norte. It is expected to reduce travel time along the 100-km national road between Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental, and Tubod to 37 minutes from 2.5 hours.

The project’s total estimated cost will be fully financed by the government. Construction of the bridge is expected to begin this year and will be finished by 2018.

Under the North-South Railway masterplan, the Department of Transportation and Communica-

tions (DOTC) will undertake Phase 1 of the North-South Commuter Railway (NSCR) Project which involves the construction of a 36.7-km narrow gauge elevated commuter railway from Malolos, Bulacan, to Tutuban in Manila.

Also, the NSCR Phase 1 will use the PNR’s right-of-way with 10 stations and a depot at Valenzuela.

The project is estimated to cost P117.3 billion and is targeted to be implemented from 2015, with a 35year operation period starting 2020.

The DOTC will also implement the North-South Railway Project–South Line, a PPP project, which would cost P170.7 billion.

It would link Tutuban in Manila to Calamba, Laguna. The project also includes a long-haul railway operation between Tutuban and Legazpi, Albay, and on the branch line between Calamba and Batangas and an extension between Legazpi and Matnog.

Also, the BSP cited the 10.7-percent growth in job orders for the year, totaling 878,609 approved job positions in 2014. Some 43.6 percent of the processed job orders were for services, production and professional, technical and related worker requirements in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Taiwan and Qatar.

Also, the BSP noted the banks’ tie-ups with so-called remittance centers contributed to the steady remittance growth for the period.

The central bank said there were some 4,765 commercial bank tie-ups,

remittance centers, correspondent banks and branches or representative offices abroad as of end-2014.

Personal remittances, meanwhile, which are remittances involving transfers both in cash and in kind, as well as capital transfers between households, also hit a record high in December last year totaling $2.6 billion, pushing the fullyear personal remittance growth of $26.9 billion in 2014. This was 6.2 percent higher than the personal remittances seen in the comparable period in 2013.

Continued from A1

remittances grew in both land- and sea-based Filipino workers during the year.

In particular, remittances from land-based workers aggregated $18.7 billion, while remittances from seabased workers totaled $5.6 billion.

The BSP said the strong demand for skilled Filipino manpower abroad contributed to the steady growth of remittances for 2014, citing Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA) data of a total of 1.6 million deployed OFWs in end-2014.

Exports, govt spending lifted Japan out of recession in Q4 Continued from A1

“The weakness in domestic demand supports our view that output will essentially be flat this year,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

The government revised earlier growth figures, suggesting the technical recession of two straight months of contraction was milder than earlier reported.

T he economy suffered two straight quarters of contraction following a sales-tax hike last April, prompting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to push back until April 2017 a tax hike planned for October of this year.

The economy contracted at a minus 0.6-percent pace in JulySeptember, Monday’s data showed, compared to the earlier reported minus 1.9-percent pace. The contraction in April to July was revised upward from minus 7.3 percent to minus 1.7 percent.

Many economists had forecast an exit from recession in the Octoberto-December quarter, thanks partly to stronger demand in the US, Japan’s largest export market.

Abe has sought to foster sustained growth through massive injections of cash into the economy, primarily through central bank asset purchases similar to those used in the US under the Federal Reserve’s quantitativeeasing policy.

The ultra-loose monetary policy is meant to spur inflation and counter years of deflationary stagnation, but so far Japan remains far short of the government and central bank’s target of 2 percent.

More than two years into his administration, Abe is struggling to get growth back on a sustainable path and make a “new start.”

In a major policy speech last week, he vowed to push through the biggest reforms in Japan since World War II, reiterating pledges for sweeping reforms of the government bureaucracy, labor regulations and other policies to catalyze growth.

“Now is the time. Through our efforts, Japan can achieve growth once again,” he said.

Sustained growth will depend both on global trends and on whether consumer spending can regain momentum. Abe and other leaders are pushing corporations to raise wages in this year’s spring labor negotiations to help boost consumer demand.

Imported goods. . .

Continued from A8

The list of regulated imports can now be downloaded through the BOC web site customs.gov.ph and by clicking the banner BOC Regulated Imports List.

The downloaded imports list comes in three versions: by specific product, by broad category product and by regulating agency.

Sevilla said all three lists contain information for over 7,400 regulated products ranging from basic commodities like rice and sugar to vehicles, iron and steel products, oil and electronic goods.

Sevilla said the BOC will strictly implement all the requirements shown in the regulated imports list beginning April 20, 2015.

“All imports of all products in the list must have the required permits, from all the regulating agencies shown in the row for that product on the list before clearance of any import of that product,” he said.

He added that regulated import list will be updated when there are any changes in regulations, such that the version accessible from the BOC web site will always be up-todate, and will always be the basis for clearance of regulated goods by customs staff.

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House suspends investigation on SAF Maguindanao raid

briefs court nixes jinggoy’s plea for birthday furlough

THE anti-graft court on Monday denied the birthday furlough asked by detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, saying that “confinement restrains the power of locomotion or actual physical movement.”

Estrada asked the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division, chaired by Associate Justice Roland Jurado, to grant him birthday furlough so he can attend a Mass on Tuesday.

“Wherefore, the Motion to be Allowed to attend Natal Mass on February 17, 2015 filed by accused Senator Estrada is denied,” the resolution signed by Jurado and Associate Justices Alexander Gesmundo and Maria Teresa Dolores Estoesta read.

In his request, Estrada said he wanted to attend Mass with his family on his birthday at Pinaglabanan Church in San Juan City. PNA

metro cleanup resumes

Starting Tuesday, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will resume the cleanup of creeks and other waterways in the metropolis to prevent floods.

Director Emma Quiambao of the MMDA Flood Control and Sewerage Management Office said that the drive is part of the agency’s “Estero Blitz,” that is now on its fifth year.

Quiambao said that the agency’s implementation of Estero Blitz used to cover only esteros in flood-prone areas but now, even public markets and barangays in flood-prone areas will also be subjected to the cleanup operation.

The agency will deploy 400

personnel for the drive, which will be conducted in two barangays on Tuesdays and Fridays of every week.

The agency’s equipment, she added, will be deployed at 4 a.m.

“The cleanup drive will start at 5 a.m.,” she said.

The MMDA will start the Estero Blitz at Estero de Cabulusan in Tondo, Manila, on February 17 and 18.

She said part of the cleanup drive is fumigation to exterminate dengue-causing mosquitos in various barangays.

Quiambao said the agency will not only clean public markets but it will also conduct lectures regarding solid waste management. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

HE House of Representatives on Monday suspended its investigation on the massacre of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) troopers in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, on January 25. (Related story on B3).

british singer meets manila children

Liberal Party Rep. Jim HatamanSalliman of Basilan, chairman of the House Committee on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation, said the joint investigation of his panel and the House Committee on Public Order chaired by United Negros Alliance Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer of Negros Occidental would resume after the National Police’s Board of Inquiry has submitted its report on the incident.

The lower chamber originally scheduled its second and third investigation on Mamasapano incident on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Following news reports alleging US involvement in the recent police operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, a party-list lawmaker on Monday asked the House Committee on Public Order and Safety to summon US Ambassador Philip Goldberg to Tuesday’s congressional hearing on the bloody encounter.

BRITISH singer and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef ) supporter, Nicole Scherzinger, posted recently photos on Instagram of her experiences meeting children and their families living in poverty.

Scherzinger, who is of Filipino heritage, spent Valentine’s Day with Unicef, the world’s leading children’s organization, meeting children living in dangerous, overcrowded communities around the capital, many of whom are struggling against poverty, hunger, disease and the risk of violence.

“I’m part Filipina so I have a strong connection with the country and feel I have a responsibility to do what I can and bring awareness to the dangers that Filipino children face everyday. It’s been so humbling to meet incredible, inspiring Filipino children who are living in really tough conditions,” Scherzinger said. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon of Kabataan said Ferrer should invite Goldberg to shed light on US’s alleged involvement in the Mamasapano police raid, that resulted in the killing of an international terrorist and the massacre of 44 National Police SAF commandos by combined Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter (BIFF) gunmen.

At the same time, Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima said the panel of prosecutors tasked to prepare criminal cases against Muslim rebels behind the killing of 44 SAF commandos may also look into the alleged participation of US troops in the operation to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Filipino bomb maker Abdulbasit Usman.

In an interview, de Lima admitted that she is aware that several news

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reports have disclosed the alleged role of the US troops in the operations but added that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) special investigating team is focused on gathering evidence for the purpose of filing criminal charges against the killers of the SAF 44.

“Definitely, that [US involvement] would be unavoidable to look into. But it really depends, if it has any bearing on the criminal aspect of the matter.

Because, as I have said, the focus of the DOJ, the focus of our special team is based on the criminal aspects of the incident,” de Lima said.

Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Paulo Navera is the head of the special team.

De Lima added that it would be up to the US government whether to respond or not to persistent reports about their supposed participation in the operation to get Marwan.

This developed as de Lima said the National Bureau of Investigation has already identified the source of the six-minute video that recently went viral online showing one of the killed SAF 44 being shot at close range by alleged Moro rebels.

“NBI has already identified the source of the video, who uploaded it,” de Lima said, but added that the video is still being authenticated before it can be used as part of the evidence.

The SAF troopers were already

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withrawing from the area held by MILF and BIFF groups when they were attacked by some 1,000 fighters in a corn field.

The troopers have just killed Marwan, an international terrorist wanted by Philippine, US, Malaysian and Indonesian authorities at dawn on January 25 when they were attacked by the combined MILF and BIFF fighters.

“We have said this before and we’ll say it again: It is apparent that the US played a pivotal role in this botched operations. However, I believe that we will not get any new compelling information on Tuesday’s congressional hearing if we will talk to the same PNP and AFP officials.

No less than US Ambassador Philip Goldberg should be summoned to the hearing to explain Washington’s role in Oplan Exodus and all the other operations to capture Zulkifli bin Hir,” Ridon said.

Ridon, citing news reports, said that the SAF carried out Oplan Exodus under the direction and funding of the US. Bin Hir had a reward of $5 million for his capture from the US. Besides Golderg, Ridon also said that the head of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines, a US military unit representing the US Pacific Command based in Camp General Basilio Navarro in Zamboanga City, should be invited in the congressional hearing. With Joel San Juan and Marvyn Benaning

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Economy

A4 Tuesday, February 17, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

briefs solons seek income-tax relief for calamity victims

TWO lawmakers are batting for the grant of income-tax relief to individual taxpayers earning purely compensation income who lost their homes due to natural calamities.

House Bill 5400, or the proposed “Calamity Income Tax Relief Act,” authored by Reps. Ma. Victoria R. Sy-Alvarado of the First District of Bulacan and Julieta R. Cortuna of party-list A-Teacher aims to lend a helping hand, especially to people who are most vulnerable to disasters.

It targets those earning purely compensation income since this class of individuals are currently not spared from the burden of their loss as they cannot claim any deduction or any relief whatsoever despite the occurrence of such total loss of their belongings.

Sy-Alvarado said in cases of extreme and severe suffering of the people, there is a need to balance the government’s primordial need for funds, for instance tax money, and the people’s right to life, liberty and property.

“The country has suffered a lot from natural calamities—those we encountered in recent memory grew even stronger and more destructive due to climate change and extreme weather patterns. Unavoidable and inevitable due to the location of the country, it still pains our people with the brunt of destruction and widespread loss of life and possession,” Sy-Alvarado said.

Sy-Alvarado, a vice chairman of the House Committees on Appropriations, and on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development, said on the part of the State, there should be a recognition of the plight and need of calamity-stricken income taxpayers.

“We must be ready to uplift them in the speediest manner. The benefits of granting these people tax relief is most apparent—these are productive citizens who pay religiously their income taxes, and the sooner we can put their lives in order again, the sooner it is that the State can expect them to partake in paying forward the help they receive in the form of their return to productivity in work and their civic duty of paying taxes,” she said. PNA

bill penalizes children for abandoning parents A lawmaker is pushing for the immediate passage of a bill that would penalize children who would abandon parents who can no longer fend for themselves.

Rep. Roy M. Loyola of the Fifth District of Cavite said House Bill 5336, to be known as Parents Welfare Act of 2014, requires children to provide their old and sick parents support for sustenance, clothing, residence, medical attendance and other amenities that would enable them to lead a normal life.

The bill imposes the penalty of imprisonment of one month to six months or a fine of not more than P100,000 if the respondent continues to fail in giving said support for three consecutive months without justifiable cause.

Whoever having the care of protection of a parent in need of support, leaves such parent in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning the latter shall be punished with imprisonment of six years to 10 years and a fine of not less than P300,000, the bill provides.

In filing the bill, Loyola said the sights of abandoned elderly in the streets have become common because children failed to provide the necessary support to their old and sick parents.

“This happens despite our moral and natural obligation to support our parents who are in need of our help. On the same vain, our Family Code imposes on us the legal obligation to support our elderly,” he said.

Loyola said while government is doing its best in providing support in the form of food and shelter as well as enacting legislation like the Senior Citizens Act, taking care of the elderly is a shared responsibility of the government and the children of the said elderly. PNA

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

DBM allots P11-billion for squatters

A

S part of the social services allocation in the 2015 General Appropriations Act, the national government is earmarking P11 billion to housing, not only to give Filipinos temporary shelter during emergencies, but also to enable them to acquire their own homes.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said, “the [Aquino] administration is ensuring Filipinos’ universal right to housing by giving them a chance to own their own homes. What’s more, placing them in safe communities where they can live and work is a proactive approach to safeguard our people

from natural disasters.”

To prepare against climate change, the national government will need to relocate vulnerable Filipino families living in danger zones.

Because of this, the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Social Housing Finance Corp.

(SHFC) will have a shared budget

of P7.3 billion to relocate 15,862 families affected by infrastructure projects or living in danger zones to better communities. The NHA itself will also have a budget of P577 million to relocate 7,215 squatter dwellers residing in danger zones to safer areas.

In case of disaster, the NHA will have an allocation of P736 million to give as emergency-housing assistance, including the provision of housing materials assistance, to 26,426 victims of calamities.

On the other hand, the SHFC will be assisting 16,500 families to acquire their homes with a budget of P1 billion. The National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. will, likewise, have a budget of P1 billion as they help families via governmentfunded home loans.

The Department of Interior and Local Government will have

its own part to play with an allotted P1.2 billion to provide squatter families with housing units, as well as rental assistance to beneficiary-families.

The 2015 national budget has an allotment of P100 million to provide housing for 341 families of uniformed personnel, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and the Bureau of Corrections.

Abad said, “the [Aquino] administration’s efforts to give opportunities to our countrymen isn’t limited to job-generation, but also a chance for homeownership. This is an important part of the inclusive growth the administration is trying to develop, where every Filipino can have a chance of finding a place they can call their own.” PNA

Psalm won’t take PEMC sanctions sitting down, Ledesma says

By Lenie Lectura

T

HE Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.

(PSALM) may challenge the findings released by the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) for imposing penalties on the former because it allegedly violated the “mustoffer” rule of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

PSALM was among the three companies that withheld their full capacity in the latter part of 2013, according to the January 2015 report of market operator PEMC released last week. This resulted in a spike in WESM prices.

PSALM, along with Therma Mobile Inc. (TMO) and PanAsia Energy Inc., appealed the case before the PEMC but to no avail.

“Due to the denial of our appeal and imposition of charges, we are considering our options to elevate the issue to either the ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission] or proper court since we are questioning the jurisdiction of the PEMC on this,” PSALM President Emmanuel Ledesma Jr. said in a text message when sought for comment.

In its report, PEMC said PSALM’s violation covers the 140-megawatt (MW) Casecnan hydro plant and 650MW Malaya thermal power plant.

The report did not include how much the three firms were ordered to pay, saying it was up to the firms to divulge since the penalties vary.

“I think its P78 million for Malaya and P11 million for Casecnan,” Ledesma said.

TMO, which is also exploring legal options, said it was ordered to pay P239.4 million for withholding the capacity of its power barges in Navotas.

PanAsia Energy, which operates the 620-MW Limay power plant in Bataan, was also fined by PEMC for

Piggy bread

A baker holds a tray of swine-shaped breads that sells for P10 for the smallest loaf and P50 for the biggest at the Picnic Grove in Tagaytay City. kevin dela cruz

violating the must-offer rule. PanAsia is owned by Millennium Energy Inc. Under the must-offer rule, generation companies registered in the WESM must declare and offer the maximum generating capacities of their power facilities in the spot market.

Aside from PSALM, TMO and PanAsia, there were other power producers that violated the WESM rule but penalties were not meted out against them.

These are AP Renewables Inc.; CIP II Power Corp.; Trans-Asia Power Generation Corp.; Udenna Management and Resources Corp.; Strategic Power Development Corp.; and SEM-Calaca Power Corp.

PEMC, according to its president

Melinda Ocampo, only investigates breaches of the WESM rules. Any act of anti-competitive behavior is under the jurisdiction of the ERC. “When it comes to PEMC our concern is only breaches in WESM rules. When it comes to anti-competitive rules, this is for ERC to find out. It’s beyond [our] jurisdiction,” Ocampo said.

For his part, Energy Secretary Carlos Jerico L. Petilla said PEMC’s findings are as a result of in-depth findings, “bearing in mind that all involved were given a chance to explain their actions.”

The findings, added the energy chief, were based on the work of an independent committee and were affirmed by the board.

When asked to further comment on the findings of PEMC, Ledesma said that PSALM is still studying the specifics of the arguments that it will raise. “In general, case might involve nullification of ERC rules allowing PEMC to investigate even if ERC is already investigating,” added PSALM chief said.

The ERC has yet to release its own probe.

It can be recalled that the Supreme Court ordered the ERC to investigate anti-competitive behavior and abuse of market power allegedly committed by some WESM participants. As such, PEMC conducted the investigations under the “must- run” and “must-offer” rules of the WESM.

Davao region gets P14-B allotment for road, bridge projects this year

By Manuel T. Cayon Mindanao Bureau Chief

D

AVAO CITY—The regional office here of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said it expects a full year of infrastructure buildup of activities after getting a P14billion allocation for its road and bridge construction and rehabilitation projects.

Public Works Regional Director Mariano R. Arquiza said all the road and bridge projects are intended to ease traffic at the main highways and approaches to the city and in the provincial capitals to the rest of the region.

The budget also indicated a sharp increase in the absorptive capacity of the region, double that from its allocation of P7 billion in 2013.

A big portion of the road construction covers road-widening projects, especially in Davao City and its suburbs, but some of the projects would have to reconstruct old roads to fit them to standard highway specifications.

An example of a reconstruction project would be the road connecting San Marcelino municipality of the new province of Davao Occidental, and Glan of Sarangani, at the other side of the mountain that divides them.

Projects in the Davao Oriental side were requested by the Department of Tourism to link distant resorts and attractions, Arquiza said, and cited the road connecting mountain town of San Isidro, with breathtaking scenes of the Pujada Bay, with Mati City, the capital town of Davao Oriental, to connect it to its white-sandy beaches facing the Pacific Ocean.

One road in Davao City would bypass a major southern intersection in Barangay Ulas, while an interior road network would build the country’s longest tunnel road stretching two kilometers, he said.

This tunnel road would be built late this year, while the bypass road would be constructed soon beginning at the intersection of the Diversion Road and Ulas-Bangkal junction to the area near the Ulas campus of San Pedro College.

The bypass road would allow shorter time going to the northwestern barangays of Mintal, Tugbok and Calinan, and would ease access to the interprovincial route going to Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro City.

The bypass road would also be expected to ease congestion at the Ulas junction, which often bog down traffic for two to three hours at its worst.

“We would expect a lot of overtime work this year,” he said.

Gov eyes govt center, IT/ BPO hub in Pangasinan

L

INGAYEN, Pangasinan— Gov. Amado Espino Jr. bared plans to put up a regional government center and an information technology (IT)/businessprocess outsourcing (BPO) hub in Pangasinan.

This was disclosed by the governor himself in his state of the province address (Sopa) on Monday at the Capitol Plaza, Capitol Compound, Lingayen, his eighth since he ascended the provincial capitol in 2007.

Espino said there is an ongoing negotiation with the multinational company, called MTD Philippines Inc., for this project, as he vowed on continuing the progress of the province.

MTD Philippines Inc. was the firm that built the Putrajaya Malasya Government Center in Malaysia.

According to Espino, the compa-

ny’s proposal is for at least P1 billion project to be a public-private partnership venture that will not cost the provincial government any amount.

Along with the plan on government center and IT/BPO hub, the putting up of a commercial, residential and tourism multipurpose complex in Pangasinan is highly being considered, the governor added.

He noted that IT/BPO hub plan is in accordance with the current study of the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines.

Further, Espino’s more than 30-minute Sopa centered on the theme “Tuloy-tuloy na pag-angat” or continuing advancement in all sectors of governance—agriculture, tourism, health, employment and livelihood, infrastructure, among others—as proven by all the national and regional citations. PNA

Shopping rush Shoppers flock the rows of shops and bazaars at the Binondo district in search for a good bargain ahead of the culmination of the Chinese Lunar year celebration, which ushers in the Year of the Sheep. Nonie Reyes

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Tuesday, February 17, 2015 A5

Four groups prequalify to bid for LRT Line 2 O&M contract

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

he operation and maintenance (O&M) contract of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 is one step closer to awarding after all interested groups that submitted prequalification documents passed the preliminary evaluation stage of the auction, a transport official said.

“All four interested groups for the LRT 2 O&M project have successfully hurdled the prequalification stage, and may now participate in the actual bid, which is targeted for the third quarter of this year,” Transportation Spokesman Michael Arthur C. Sagcal said in a text message.

He listed the parties as: Aboitiz Equity Ventures-SMRT Transportation Solutions Consortium; DMCI-Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd. Consortium; the Light Rail Manila Consortium; and the San Miguel Corp.-Korail Consortium.

“We are pleased to have a competitive number of experienced international rail companies partnered with reputable local firms vying for this project, which is envisioned to deliver world-class services to LRT 2

Hedcor seeks ERC approval for transmission line project

By Lenie Lectura

H

EDCOR Sabangan Inc. (HSAB) has sought approval from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to put up a transmission line that will connect its 14-megawatt (MW) Sabangan hydroelectric power plant to the 69-kilovolt (kV) La Trinidad-Bulalacao-Mopreco transmission line of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

In its 17-page decision, the ERC said the proposed transmission line project will “redound to the benefit of the electricity consumers in terms of continuous, reliable and efficient power supply.”

HSAB’s dedicated point-topoint transmission facility is essential to the delivery of power from the Sabangan plant to the Luzon grid, the power producer said. Based on computations, the transmission line project costs P45,120,293 but the ERC, after further evaluation, arrived at a lower project cost of P35,321,673.

“NGCP’s 69-kV La TrinidadBulalacao-Mopreco transmission line is the shortest, most economical and viable option to connect the Sabangan hydroelectric power plant to the transmission system of the NGCP. It will be exclusively utilized by HSAB,” the power firm said.

HSAB will avail of the feedin-tariff (FiT) mechanism for renewable-energy (RE) developers. Its project is capable of producing an average of 55.15 gigawatt hours annually based on the approved FiT rate of P5.90 per kilowatt-hour.

A hydropower service contract was already executed between HSAB and the Department of Energy. Under the contract, HSAB was appointed as the party having the exclusive right to explore, develop and utilize the hydropower resources within the area along the Chico River in the municipality of Sabangan, Mountain Province.

HSAB specializes in generating clean and RE from run-ofriver hydropower sources. Its Sabangan hydroelectric plant is a run-of-river development scheme intended to harness the hydro power potentials of Chico River.

riders,” he said.

The key infrastructure project aims to infuse private sector efficiencies into the operations of the LRT 2 to provide better service levels to the riding public.

The winning bidder will take over the O&M of all 11 stations of the existing line, as well as the 4.19-kilometer LRT 2 Masinag Extension, for about 10 to 15 years. Construction of the P9.7-billion Masinag Extension will commence sometime this quarter.

It will take the government roughly a year and a half to fully complete the construction of the railway extension.

It will be fully operational by that same time frame.

When constructed, the new facility will add 4.14 kilometers to the existing line, which is the youngest of the four train systems in the country.

Two additional stations will be constructed: the Emerald station in front of Robinsons Place Metro East in Cainta, Rizal, and Masinag Station at the Masinag Junction in Antipolo City. It will serve an additional 130,000 train commuters from the current number of 240,000.

briefs port logjam breeds racket at customs–solon

Isabela Rep. Rodolfo T. Albano III on Monday alerted the Bureau of Customs (BOC) over the worsening congestion in the Port of Manila that continues to cause billions of pesos in lost revenues to various businesses and industries.

Albano, member of the House Minority Bloc, said the delay in the release of container vans and cargo at the Manila port has also aggravated the corruption and extortion at the Customs bureau.

He said reports reaching his office revealed that unscrupulous individuals are taking advantage of the delays in the release of cargo because of the congestion in Manila ports. This has spawned lucrative racketeering through “facilitation” services in the processing of inbound and outbound cargo. “Huge ‘facilitation services’ fees are being charged to businessmen who are helpless and desperate in seeking the release of their shipments,” Albano noted. PNA

Lethal cosmetics

A group of environmental advocates stages a mock beauty pageant to dramatize the health hazards posed by mercury-laden skin-whitening products that are reportedly being sold illegally nationwide. The toxic watchdog seeks the strong enforcement of the ban on mercurycontaining cosmetics to protect the public health and environment. NONOY LACZA

MWSS refuses to implement arbitral decision for Maynilad

T

HE Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) has refused to implement an arbitral decision favoring Maynilad over water rates, claiming it would rather wait whether MWSS would win or lose its other arbitration case against Manila Water.

“This is disappointing. MWSS lost its case against Maynilad but is saying in effect that its compliance will depend on the outcome of its arbitration with Manila Water which is completely separate and independent, although the issues are similar,” said Randy Estrellado, CFO of Maynilad.

“If Manila Water loses, does that mean our win will no longer matter?

This possibility alone of opposite arbitral results shows the two cases are independent of each other,” he added in a news statement.

But MWSS, Estrellado said, claimed this would make the consumers confused since a Manila Water loss would mean a rate reduction.

“In the first place, it was MWSS that started it all. They confused us by changing the rules midstream, hence our recourse to arbitration.

But is its fear of consumer confusion a valid reason to ignore a perfectly legal decision?” he asked.

The arbitral decision is supposed to be final and executory. “ M WS S has no choice but to approve the

new water rates. But without the MWSS board approval, we cannot publish them before implementation,” he said.

To cushion the impact of the rate hike, Maynilad volunteered, subject to MWSS board approval, to spread it out over the next three years. For customers using 10 cubic meters or less, the impact on the basic rate per cubic meter is minus P0.14; up to 20 cubic meters, plus P0.64; up to 30 cubic meters, plus P1.23.

Estrellado said MWSS’s defiance to implement the arbitral decision, which is final and binding on the parties, could jeopardize government efforts to entice foreign investments, especially with road shows scheduled abroad this year.

The sanctity, stability and enforceability of contracts are important to a foreign investor, he said. “MWSS is signaling exactly the opposite.”

Estrellado said the present MWSS officers created the legal situation themselves when they changed the

interpretation of the concession agreement which the government and the two concessionaires had signed, and which had been in effect for the past 17 years.

“We kept our promise under the agreement to invest billions of pesos to improve water service. From out of the blue, MWSS changed the rules and reinterpreted the agreement by saying that we are not its agents but are public utilities like MWSS and Meralco [Manila Electric Co.], and, therefore, cannot include corporate income taxes as part of the tariff,” he added.

The decision said that the Meralco decision does not apply and “it is normal business practice to factor in one’s corporate income tax in the price of one’s goods and services.”

It added that the concession agreement itself was very clear that Maynilad is a mere agent of MWSS, the owner of a franchise from Congress, since Maynilad cannot do things independently of, and without any authority from, MWSS.

Legazpi City finalizes ordinance to lure tourism investments through incentives

By Emmanuel P. Solis Philippines News Agency

L

EGAZPI CITY—To sustain the robust tourist arrivals and improve investors’ confidence in the city, the members of the Vision Aligned Circle have drafted the Legazpi City Tourism Investment Incentive Ordinance.

The group, headed by chairman Asuncion Calleja, coordinator of the City Permits and Licenses Division, has already forwarded the proposed ordinance to Mayor Noel E. Rosal for final review and suggestions.

It was earlier submitted to Councilor Alan Ranola, committee on trade, industry and investment chairman, and Councilor Chito Baldo, committee on tourism chairman.

The ordinance aims to help improve the city’s revenue collection and sustain its economic growth, Calleja said.

It further aims to generate more jobs for the city’s constituents, increase the value of local products and promote a sustainable tourism industry.

It will also strengthen the privatepublic partnership scheme between the Legazpi City administration and the private sector, she added.

Blowing bubbles

Children at the Blue Wave park and recreation area in Pasay City enjoy happy moments together creating soap bubbles with elders and relatives. Kevin dela Cruz

Based on the draft ordinance, all newly registered enterprises will be exempted from business taxes for a period of two years, while their owners will also be exempted from basic realty taxes on property improvements, buildings and machineries.

Calleja said the Business Permits and Licensing Division will also give assistance in identifying business locations and in securing local permits and licenses for investors who want to engage in business in this city.

“But if the investors will violate the provision of the proposed ordinance, it shall be a ground for cancellation or revocation of the business registration and the withdrawal of all incentives given to the business,” she stressed. PNA

marikina city hall embarks on expanded breast-feeding drive The city government of Marikina’s advocacy for breast-feeding has taken a step higher as it convenes business establishments in the city to encourage them to allot breast-feeding areas in their respective establishments.

Through the Nutrition Section of the City Health Office, Mayor Del de Guzman said that they recently conducted an orientation seminar on the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotions Act of 2009 which was attended by representatives of various establishments in the city.

The move is in support of Republic Act 10028, or the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotions Act of 2009.

“Nutrients present in a mother’s milk is unparalleled and very important in a child’s development. With this, we are encouraging all breast-feeding mothers to keep on breast-feeding their infants. Our establishments must have breast-feeding stations that will provide privacy for the breastfeeding mothers and their child,” de Guzman said.

On February 20 another orientation seminar on the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotions Act of 2009 will be held at the Training Room of the City Health Office where representatives of hospitals, banks and city officials will be attending.

Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

d.o.h. braces for rise of mers-cov cases

The Department of Health (DOH) is gearing for a possible rise of Middle East Respiratory SyndromeCoronavirus (Mers-CoV) cases in the country with the anticipated increase of Filipino workers coming from the Middle East for the Lenten and graduation season.

Health Secretary Janette Garin warned of a possible increase in the number of cases, noting that in 2014, there was a surge in MERS-CoV cases in the Middle East in the period between February and April.

“It has something to do with the camels breeding, being transported this season allows more exposure to camels,” she said in a television interview.

“In the case of MERS-CoV, what happened was before it was animal to human transmission. What we have now is human to human transmission, especially among health workers,” Garin added.

She also reiterated the call to arriving passengers in filling-out of the yellow health form by all arriving passengers “to prevent the entry of MERS-CoV and other infectious diseases in the country.”

Garin said that a person’s “history of travel to the Middle East region” is a vital information in determining if someone has MERS-CoV, since the symptoms for this are not distinctly its own.

After the confirmation of the first MERS-CoV case, she said that “all points of entry” to the country are being closely monitored. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Tuesday, February 17, 2015

editorial

Is the US a potential fake friend?

T

HE alleged participation in the operation to capture Zulkifli bin Hir, the Malaysian bomb terrorist known as “Marwan,” by the United States has repercussions well beyond the military aspect of US forces in service on Philippine territory.

We say ‘alleged” because at this point there is no official confirmation by the Philippine government as to the extent of the US involvement. Reports of various degrees of US contribution range from only helping evacuate the Filipino wounded to directing the project from inception to conclusion.

This situation is troubling on so many levels that it is hard to know where to begin the discussion. The political ramifications have only begun to be discussed and the potential to disrupt Philippine relations with the US is great.

The last several years have seen the current administration reach out to the US for support in our territorial claims against China. While this may be primarily a diplomatic issue, it has progressed to the military side with the government’s intention to increase US military presence on PHL soil and increase security cooperation.

The relations that the Philippines has with the US are complicated. But the administration has chosen this path as an important alternative to going it alone against China.

However, there are other areas of our relationship with the US that are just as serious as the security and diplomacy issues.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a US proposed regional regulatory and investment treaty. While not an initial participant, the administration is pushing for the Philippines to be a signatory. We have great reservations about this treaty and its benefits for the Philippines especially in light of the coming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Integration.

While publicly supporting Asean integration, the US government knows that freer trade between Asean countries is not in the best interests of the US or the TPP. In Commentary magazine, author Michael Rubin asks, “Why Is the US Sacrificing Thailand to China?” Rubin is an academic as well as a hands-on government advisor on regional geo-politics.

He writes, “Thailand has consistently oriented its policies in support of ties, friendship, and alliance with the US only to feel that the US looks at traditional allies with disinterest if not disdain.”

Why did this happen? Rubin says: “The Obama administration and State Department, however, seemingly ignorant of Thai history or the consequences of mob violence in Thailand’s incredibly diverse social fabric, continues to turn its back to Thailand, its requests for support, and a nearly 200-year-old Treaty of Friendship. Beijing is happy to seize advantage from Obama’s diplomatic temper-tantrum to increase both its activity and influence in Thailand.”

If the reports about deep US involvement in the Marwan are true and the reaction by Filipinos is equally as deeply negative, what can we expect the US reaction to be? More importantly, what will China do about its relations with PHL if the US treats the Philippines like it is treating Thailand?

Someone once said, “Don’t fear the enemy who attacks you; Fear the fake friend who hugs you.”

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Government must take cue from private sector Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur First of two parts

B

USINESS journalists who attended the recent opening of the seventh branch of AllHome in Daang Hari in Cavite, my group’s one-stop home improvement retail unit, asked me how I was doing after leaving the political scene in 2013.

I answered that I’m now giving to business the same intensity I gave to politics, plus, of course, the excitement!

Recalling the interview, I believe my remark should be a good advice to other entrepreneurs, or those who are interested in establishing their own business ventures. I also believe I am in a good position to offer such advice, based on personal experience, after going from business to politics and back to business.

As I have been saying in the past two years, this is the best time to be in business in the Philippines, which has defied global crises and continued to grow while other countries fell into recession or slow growth.

When I rejoined Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc., my group’s flagship real estate business, I quickly felt the vibrancy of the business sector, and the intensity of

the competition. Businessmen who made plans several years ago are now finding out that those plans were just enough to sustain current operations because everybody continues to plan for the future even while previous expansion plans are still being implemented.

That’s how vibrant the private sector in the Philippine economy has become in recent years, because of the country’s strong fundamentals and improving investment climate, which has prodded global credit rating agencies to rank the country as investment grade.

The current thrust of Vista Land reflects this vibrancy. It has started venturing into other activities outside its traditional housing business. In previous columns I predicted an explosive growth in the retail business. This paved the way for Vista Land to go into retailing,

which actually complements its housing developments.

AllHome, which is under Vista Land’s retail arm All Value Holdings, serves homebuyers in the Vista Land communities, as well as homeowners outside the company’s projects, and even other developers. In the next three to four months, AllHome will open other branches in Imus (also in Cavite, Sta. Rosa in Laguna and in Las Piñas. At least six other branches will open in Mega Manila next year. We also intend to expand the AllHome network to other regions, particularly in Visayas and Mindanao.

All Value, which already operates 24/7 convenience stores under the All Day brand, is also going into supermarkets and other retail businesses to take advantage of the consumer-driven economy.

My group is not alone in this expansive mood. As I said earlier, there is intense competition in the business sector. More investments are now coming in. Based on the Bangko Sentral’s latest report, net foreign direct investments (FDI) amounted to $5.7 billion during the period January to November 2014, up 61.6 percent from $3.5 billion in the same period in 2013. The 11-month FDI level was already more than the annual FDI inflow in previous years.

It’s fair to say that the intensity of the business sector is now fuelling economic growth. In his statement during the presentation of the official report on the economy last month, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan

Should the stock market go higher?

John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

H

ERE we are a month and a half into 2015 with the Philippine Stock Exchange Composite Index up about 7.5 percent, and we are still trying to figure out if that increase is justified.

That does not even address what may or may not happen in the future. The year is still young.

So how can we assess the stock market and determine of the current and perhaps even if future price increases are reasonable and if there is some sort of ‘legitimate reason’ for going higher.

For more than 100 years during this age of the ‘modern’ stock market, people have been trying to figure out what makes a stock market move either up or down.

Sensibly, a company’s corporate value and profit outlook should probably be of primary importance. But we know that factor, no matter how good it looks, can be washed away in a moment if the stock market in general turns sour. We think of stock prices as first reflecting corporate value. But then we know that “a rising tides floats all boats and the typhoon sinks all boats”.

In all the stock market crashes, the share price of good companies that continued to have rising profits also

went down considerably.

Maybe then we should look only at the broad market and then examine more closely individual ‘good’ companies. However, there are certainly times when the market is going higher and the price of ‘good’ companies underperforms the broad market.

Suppose we just forget about the stock market and the individual companies and look only at the macroeconomic situation. Companies make more money when the economy is good or at least they should. The problem here is that studies have shown that a nation’s stock market tends to perform better when the economy is good but not necessarily great.

Then you have situations like Venezuela where the economy has all but collapsed and the stock market goes higher and higher. But isn’t rampant inflation a reason why the Venezuela

stock market is going up? Sure, but other countries are experiencing deflation and their markets are rising.

Shouldn’t the relationship of corporate value to stock price be the key?

That is the way we want to measure ‘expensive’ and ‘cheap’ prices. But even that standard varies from year to year, decade to decade, and market to other markets.

Now do you understand why there are thousands of expert books on stock market investing?

Even most of the old and wise sayings about the market fall short when examined closely. “Stock prices go higher because there are more buyers than sellers”. That is only partly true.

Stock prices go higher because buyers, regardless of the number, are willing to pay a higher price than the lowest price sellers are willing to sell at. If it had only to do with numbers, then buyers would just buy at whatever price sellers were willing to take until there were no more sellers. And actually, that is also what happens sometimes.

Some analysts like to look at investor psychology to understand why prices increase and this also makes sense.

If people are standing on a street corner looking up at the sky, other people will stop and do the same thing. This is herd mentality. With the local stock market up so much in the past few years, more people are investing and more money in the market means higher prices. Expect, the problem with that idea is that

said that the government ramped up its spending during the last three months of 2014, to reverse the contraction in the third quarter. Private or household consumption consistently grew last year, from 5.9 percent in the first quarter, to 5.3 percent in the second quarter, 5.2 percent in the third and 5.1 percent in the fourth.

In contrast, government expenditure started at a slow 1.9 percent in the first quarter, stood still (0.0 percent) in the second quarter, contracted by 2.6 percent in the third quarter before rebounding to 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter.

The last-minute rebound put the full-year growth in government consumption at 1.8 percent for 2014, still a big drop from 7.7 percent in 2013. It also enabled the economy to breach the 6-percent growth mark in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), although short of the official target of at least 6.5 percent, and the 7.2-percent posted in 2013.

In the past, the government was expected to take the initiative, or provide the stimulus, to drive economic growth. In 2014, however, the private sector drove the economy. I believe it is imperative that the government ride on the vibrancy of the private sector to push the economy back on the fast lane beginning this year.

To be continued For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@gmail.com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

are not that many more investors in the PSE than there were several years ago.

Stock prices may or may not go up if corporate value increases. Prices may go up or down even if the economy is good or bad. Stock prices are determined by investors’ participation but not always.

Money flow, alternative investment yields, and investor psychology and outlook are also good ways to forecast stock market behavior. But these factors do not predict market action consistently over time.

There are some consistencies in every theory of why prices move but there are always exceptions and it’s the exceptions that disprove every theory at least a little. But there is not enough consistency over a long time to say, “The stock market is going up because….” and conversely about going down. More importantly, it is almost impossible to accurately say, “The stock market is going higher in future because…”

We expect to be able to predict the future of the stock market the same way weather forecasters do. Take a set of parameters and then draw accurate conclusions. Simply, we can’t.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

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

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Easing won’t be easy in China

A regressive tax system Edgardo J. Angara

William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

A

S Chinese leaders attempt to guide their slowing economy into a soft landing, they’re counting heavily on People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan to keep conditions stable. It’s a daunting task.

Firming US growth is increasing the odds the Federal Reserve will boost interest rates soon. Europe, meanwhile, is on the precipice of renewed turmoil as Greece spars with euro-area finance ministers. Japan is limping out of recession slower than hoped (growing an annualized 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter), raising the chances of additional Bank of Japan stimulus.

With 560 basis points worth of monetary ammunition to use before interest rates go negative, Zhou would seem well-armed for the challenge. But what if he has fewer options than optimists think?

Comments over the weekend by Guan Tao, head of international payments at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, suggest Zhou’s ability to ease may rapidly be evaporating. The problem? Fastrising “uncertainty and instability” for capital shifts–conditions, Guan warns, that are eerily reminiscent of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

As China’s currency watchdog, SAFE normally operates under a cloud of secrecy. For Guan to speak out so publicly suggests there’s good reason to be worried about the kind of sudden and massive outflows that flattened Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand nearly two decades ago.

For the last 12 years, the PBOC has faced exactly the opposite problem: what to do with all the cash flooding into the country as Tokyo, Washington and Frankfurt slashed rates. That pumped up China’s money supply and required some fancy monetary footwork from Zhou, who had to introduce special securities to mop up liquidity. Now, with the dollar is rising and the yuan coming under pressure, incentives to move money out of China are growing. The government’s anti-graft crackdown is adding to the problem, as crooked cadres scramble to shift their illgotten gains abroad.

The weakening yuan severely limits Zhou’s room to lower rates. Since the 2009 financial crisis, China’s massive credit buildup has led to

overcapacity across industries and too many unproductive investments.

(And the bubble continues to grow: China’s broadest measure of new credit rose $328 billion in January, the third straight monthly increase.)

Something similar happened across Southeast Asia and South Korea in the 1990s; then, once currencies plunged, dollar-denominated loans blew up.

Today, China can’t boost exports by letting the yuan fall, for fear that untold numbers of foreign-currency deals might unravel. What really worries investors about Kaisa Group, a previously little-known property developer that missed a coupon payment last month, is that no one knows how many other developers may default if the yuan weakens.

While the Bank for International Settlements estimates Chinese companies owe about $1.1 trillion, neither Zhou nor Chinese President Xi Jinping know for sure.

These risks belie the conventional wisdom that the PBOC will be cutting rates early and often this year. By Guan’s logic, any significant moves could do more harm than good. It helps, certainly, that the yuan isn’t full convertible. But then, neither is it formally pegged to the dollar.

As China faces capital outflows in the neighborhood of $50 billion a month, as former PBOC economist Ding Shuang has estimated, currency stability will be hard to maintain.

And to leaders in Beijing, stability is everything.

China isn’t necessarily headed for a crash in 2015. But those counting on the PBOC to prop up growth need to reconsider their confidence. The further China slows below 7 percent, the more likely it is that the government will have to add fresh stimulus itself. That means a credit bubble that surged $20 trillion between 2007 and 2014 will continue to swell. For all Xi’s talk of epochal change, today’s China finds itself much where Asia did in 1997–dependent on exports and excessive borrowing, and at the mercy of markets that have no trouble seeing through government spin.

P

OPE Francis, during his trip to the Philippines, called attention to “scandalous social inequalities” plaguing the country.

Indeed, a 2011 World Bank report cited the Philippines as having the highest level of income inequality in East Asia.

Our outdated tax scheme exacerbates this dismal situation. For instance, the prevailing personal income tax rates and brackets remain unadjusted, nearly 18 years since they were adopted. And with the consumer price index doubling in the intervening years, tens of thousands of young professionals and junior executives find themselves catapulted

to the top tax brackets.

An entry-level call center agent would already be paying at the thirdhighest rate of 25 percent while a mid-level professional with gross monthly income of P60,000 would be taxed at the same rate charged the owner of the company he works for.

Such tax scheme pushes our people to jobs overseas. A person earning

Bloomberg View

C

ONGRESS is flummoxed about how to deal with President Barack Obama’s proposed authorization for war against the Islamic State. While there’s a sizeable majority of members who favor putting congressional guidance on the war, the lack of agreement on how to do so raises the possibility that efforts to pass legislation will flounder on Capitol Hill.

All week, Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate have been meeting behind closed doors to strategize on the White House’s proposal, which places vague limits on the use of ground troops, allows the president to expand the war to any country, and sunsets in three years. Many Republicans want to give Obama (and his successor) more flexibility; many Democrats want to tighten restrictions.

Both parties acknowledge the need for some bipartisan support for their ideas. But neither leadership has figured out how to craft a coalition that can muster 60 votes in the Senate and 218 in the House.

“It is certainly possible this thing could fall apart,” Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House

Intelligence Committee, told me. “The war would go on even in the absence of a new authorization, but that would really be a blow to the institution of the Congress.”

Schiff is engaged in an effort by House Democrats to add stricter definitions to the bill’s prohibition on the use of ground forces for “enduring forward combat operations,” a term they argue could have various interpretations. He wants specific language spelling out exactly what ground troops could be used for, such as special operations or combat search and rescue.

Some House Democrats are looking to libertarian-leaning Republicans to join in them in opposing any authorization bill that could be interpreted to allow large combat operations on the ground in Iraq or Syria.

“I suspect that there are a number of libertarian-oriented Republicans who share the same concerns. It will be interesting to see how many of them there are and how they line up,” Schiff said. “A lot will depend on how many Republicans will be similarly uncomfortable with another open-ended authorization.”

The Republican House leadership, on the other hand, is determined to build a mostly Republican voting block to support a bill with more flexibility for the

around $5,700 (roughly P250,000) will be taxed at 2 percent in Malaysia, 10 percent in Thailand, 15 percent in Indonesia and exempt from income tax in Singapore. That same person will be taxed at 25 percent, here at home. This explains why in a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, 31 Filipino respondents said they would recommend “moving abroad” to a young person who wants a good life.

With the current scheme, a significant portion of the government’s tax revenues come from middle-class wage and salary earners, mostly as taxes withheld. A 2014 UP School of Economics study revealed that up to P240 billion in government revenues–representing up to 20 percent of total tax collection in 2013–came from the incomes of only 4.66 million Filipino families, comprising an overworked and increasingly thinned-out middle class.

A7

What we have is in fact a regressive taxation system, contrary to constitutional provisions mandating a progressive one. With much of the population unable to pay taxes and well-to-do families able to avoid tax obligations, the burden falls mainly on the shoulders of the salaried and fixed income earners.

President Aquino recently signed into law a measure that raises the tax exemption ceiling on salary benefits such as 13th month pay and Christmas bonus, from P30,000 to P82,000. The measure will benefit an estimated 22 million Filipino wage and salary earners– putting back much needed purchasing power into the hands of middle class families. It should also mark the first of many needed reforms in our unjust taxation system.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.

P-Noy should bear full responsibility for Mamasapano Ernesto M. Hilario

S

ABOUT TOWN

HOULD President Aquino resign from office, as called for

by Retired Cardinal Ricardo Vidal and five Catholic bishops and the mainstream Left in the wake of the January 25 Mamasapano incident where 44 PNP Special Action Forces (SAF) were killed by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MIFF) and its breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF)?

I don’t think so.

From where I sit, what PNoy should do is to assume full responsibility for the debacle, on the basis of command responsibility. After all, he is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the Philippine National Police apart from being the Chief Executive.

While sacked SAF chief Police Director Getulio Napeñas has publicly admitted that he is responsible for the what happened at Mamasapano, it strains credulity for him to do so particularly in light of allegations that then suspended and now resigned PNP chief Alan Purisima actually called the shots in the whole operation, with the full backing of PNoy himself.

What PNoy should do at this point is to clear the air and concede that he was on top of the whole operation from Day One, but that he failed to coordinate properly with the military in what was a perfectly legitimate operation against two most wanted terrorists.

What we have been seeing in the

past three weeks from Palace spokesmen is a crude and clumsy attempt at cover-up of PNoy’s actual role in Mamasapano.

If the President knew about the ongoing operation on the morning of January 25 but left it to the SAF chief to make the crucial decisions, then he should admit his lapse in judgment and say that he is willing to face the consequences of his actions, whether constitutional or legal, but emphasize that he would turn over the reins of office to his successor after the May 2016 elections.

That’s the statesmanlike thing to do.

Asean legal experts to hold Manila meeting

AN association of lawyers, judges, and justices from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will hold its general assembly in Manila this month, and is set to make a courtesy call on President Benigno Aquino III, parallel to the holding of events that include workshops for Filipino lawyers.

Congressional chaos over Obama’s war authorization

By Josh Rogin

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

president, not less. They hold a strong majority, but if they lose 30 Republicans on the bill, they will need to pick up some hawkish Democrats to get it passed.

The Senate will most likely act first on authorization, before the House even has a chance to weigh in. Republicans there are also divided, but along different lines.

Although libertarians such as Rand Paul will advocate for stricter restrictions on the president’s war power, the real tension is between those who want to work with Democrats and those who want to take a more confrontational approach.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker favors a compromise that can create broad bipartisan support, several senior Senate aides told me. His committee has jurisdiction over the bill, so it will go first with hearings and approve the first version of the legislation. That bill is likely to track the president’s version, which was based on legislation written by Committee ranking member Robert Menendez and his Democratic colleague Senator Tim Kaine.

The Senate Armed Services Committee, led by John McCain, will have its own hearings. McCain and committee Republican Lindsey Graham favor removing all restrictions on the use of ground forces.

Their position is shared by a majority of their own caucus, but not necessarily by

enough Democrats to allow the bill to get 60 votes on the floor.

The divisions inside the Republican Senate caucus were visible in a Wednesday afternoon meeting at the Capitol.

Prior to the conference, a memo circulated to all Republican senate offices (which I obtained) outlined the Republican concerns with the president’s version of the bill.

“A legislative restriction on the president’s ability to use force may test the Founders’ wisdom that we have one Commander-in-Chief under the Constitution, rather than 535. It may also undermine the seriousness of purpose, conviction, and perseverance the United States likely wishes to signal in its conduct of the armed conflict against Isil [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant],” the memo stated.

The memo also discussed widespread frustration and skepticism on Capitol Hill about how the White House has handled the whole issue of seeking war authorization. It noted that the administration has long called for Congressional authorization publicly but waited six months before seriously engaging Congress on the issue or proposing actual legislation.

“As a matter of institutional responsibility and good governance, along with

This according to Avelino Cruz, regional vice-president of the Asean Law Association (ALA) and president of ALA Philippines, who announced that the Asean chief justices and select ALA officials will visit Malacañang Palace on February 27, the third day of the association’s 4-day 12th General Assembly (GA).

ALA Philippines, where Cruz is also chairman of its National Committee, has worked closely with the preparations of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as host for the summit meeting of all Asean chief justices, to be held in the world-famous island of Boracay on March 1 to 2, and who will converge in Manila for the ALA GA at the Makati ShangriLa Hotel.

The separate meetings on Boracay are on track, and will be attended not only by ALA officials and delegates as guests but also by members of the Philippine Supreme Court, the High Tribunal’s Zaldy Trespeses said.

Michael Toledo, chairman of the Standing Committee on Legal Information of ALA Philippines, stressed the importance of the Asean economic integration, saying that bureaucracy must be trimmed for the free flow of goods, services, and capital among the member-states.

“If you want to stimulate a level playing field, remove the red tape and promote transparency,” asserted Toledo, who also heads the media bureau of the MVP group of companies and is senior vice-president for corporate affairs at Philex Mining Corp. “It may not even be a question about competition policy and law, but about good governance.”

Cruz said the preparations for the February 25 to 28 general assembly

of ALA, founded in 1979 and will meet here in Manila for the first time since 1995, are complete, including the holding of six workshops, with the conference theme “Sharing Prosperity at the Crossroads of Asean Integration—the Legal Challenges.”

Thus, the workshops will address, among other things, the legal implications on the Asean integration of cross-border practices and commercial laws of the Asean legal community, as well as such fundamentals as commercial arbitration, free access to courts, and the rights of citizens to justice within the Asean countries.

Touching on all subjects of the mandatory continuing legal education for Filipino lawyers, the workshops are on legal profession, alternative dispute resolution, international law, business law, trade and investment and legal education.

The paper writers and chairmen of these workshops will come from the 10 Asean countries.

Indonesia’s Chief Justice Hatta Ali, the incumbent ALA president, and ALA Secretary-General Swandy Halim have said that preparations of all delegates from the nine other countries who will travel to Manila for the GA are on high gear, and will be ready for the opening day on February 26.

The presidency of ALA, designated in the Asean Charter of 2007 as the regional bloc’s only civil society affiliate for law, rotates among the member-nations every three years.

Cruz was nominated January 26 by the ALA Philippine National Committee for the position of incoming president of ALA.

manifesting united support for the effort, it would seem incumbent upon the Congress to debate and consider this proposal,” the memo stated. “It is, unfortunately, far too late to salvage the position of presidential candidate Obama that it is ‘preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action.’ ” After the Congressional recess that begins tomorrow, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have to decide whether to allow the president’s bill, as modified by Corker’s committee, to come to the Senate floor. Alternatively, McConnell could just introduce an entirely new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), without ground troop restrictions, and use that as the start of the debate. But aides said that bypassing the Foreign Relations Committee could provoke complaints against the process and squander Democrat support, making passage much more difficult.

Even if McConnell sticks with Obama’s bill as the starting place, as the Republican-led Senate votes on amendments it is still likely to move in the direction of loosening restrictions on the president’s actions. Republicans are also going to insist on adding requirements for Executive Branch reports to Congress on the president’s strategy for

defeating the Islamic State, to emphasize that they do not believe the president’s current approach is sufficient or effective.

“We need to treat this as affecting the next president, a president who actually is committing to defeating Isil,” said a senior Senate Republican aide, who insisted on anonymity. “We want to write this AUMF as a blueprint for victory, not a blueprint for muddling through.”

For months, the Obama administration and Congress have had an unspoken agreement; both sides publicly called for a new war authorization while neither side actually pushed the issue out of a mutual comfort with the status quo.

Now that the White House has made its move, Congress is forced to respond, but infighting among lawmakers could result in a failure to exert the oversight power they claim to wield.

For the White House, it’s actually a win-win. If Congress manages to pass something, it will be seen as a bipartisan endorsement of the president’s war, despite widespread discontent with how he is actually prosecuting it. If Congress balks, the president retains even more flexibility to fight the war than he is asking for, and Congress will have ensured its own irrelevance in the debate.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, February 17, 2015

LIST OF ALL REGULATED IMPORTED GOODS READY

By Joel R. San Juan

T

HE Bureau of Customs (BOC) announced on Monday the creation of the so-called bible of all regulated imports and their corresponding requirements that can be downloaded online.

At a news conference, Customs Commissioner John P. Sevilla said it is the first in the history of the BOC that such single reference list of all regulated imported products has ever been done.

Sevilla said the master list of regulated products is intended to minimize corruption and make the importing process more transparent and faster.

“There will be less legwork for importers and brokers as they wouldn’t have to go from one agency to another just to inquire about the permits/clearances needed for importation and, at the same time, our frontliners will be empowered as they now have a single reference list for all regulated products,” Sevilla said.

“They don’t have to guess what permits are needed for a certain product. They won’t make the mistake of requesting for wrong or unnecessary clearance/permit,” he added.

Sevilla pointed out that through the master list, the agency is empowering the public so they can transact with the BOC with less hassle and “eliminate any room for corruption among our personnel.”

“Some importers and brokers would resort to bribery just to make their transactions with the bureau faster and, at the same time, with little or no knowledge of the import process, traders are often victimized or exploited by unscrupulous Customs employees,” Sevilla explained.

See “Imported goods,” A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Talks on use of VMMC as site for ITS North going smoothly

T

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

he transportation department is working toward the quick rollout of the multibillion-peso intermodal transport facility north of Metro Manila, with a senior government official assuring that negotiations for the location of the facility—the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC)— have been going on smoothly.

Transportation Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo M. Lotilla said although talks with the Department of National Defense for the property are still preliminary in nature, negotiations are seemingly favorable.

“Veterans Memorial Medical Center is under the defense department. It will

be an easy ride, hopefully,” he said.

The transport official, who also sits as the chairman of the department’s bids and awards committee, explained that VMMC suits the parameters set by the government for the facility.

“The location seems good because it is near the railway systems, so there will

be integrations,” Lotilla said, referring to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1.

Soon, the MRT Line 7, which will run from North Edsa to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan, will also rise near the area, providing more connectivity and ease in transportation.

Earlier, Transportation Undersecretary for Planning Rene K. Limcaoco said his agency is looking at three options for the location of the Integrated Transport System (ITS) North Terminal project, namely, the former Philippine National Railway Station in Caloocan, a site in the University of the Philippines and the seedling bank along Quezon Avenue and Edsa.

The military-run hospital is the latest addition to the government’s list of possible locations for the intermodal facility, a decision which should have been finalized in June last year.

The transportation department has three key considerations in choosing the best location for the infrastructure: cost, time of travel and passenger convenience.

Once a location for the project has been chosen, the agency will then endorse the deal to the National Economic and Development Authority Board, which is chaired

by President Aquino.

The P7.7-billion ITS project envisages the establishment of three mass-transportation intermodal terminals at the outskirts of Metro Manila—one in the north of Edsa serving passengers to and from Northern Luzon, one in the south serving passengers to and from the Laguna and Batangas side, and one in the southwest serving passengers to and from the Cavite side.

Last month the government awarded the P2.5-billion ITS Southwest Terminal deal to Megawide Construction Corp. and partner Waltermart Property Management Inc. of billionaire and retail magnate Henry Sy. The P4-billion South Terminal contract, meanwhile, is currently under procurement. The government has awarded nine contracts since the infrastructure program’s inception in 2010.

It aims to sign at least 15 contracts by the time Mr. Aquino steps down from office in 2016.

The state intends to plug the gap in the country’s transportation infrastructure in the next decade by rolling out massive infrastructure projects that are seen to spur economic growth.

PRICES OF CONSTRUCTION GOODS SPIKED IN JANUARY

By Cai U. Ordinario

R

etail prices of construction materials in Metro Manila increased by an average of 1.9 percent in January, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The year-on-year growth in the Construction Materials Retail Price Index (CMRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) last month was higher than the 1.6 percent posted in December 2014 and 0.5 percent in January 2014. The PSA noted that the growth in the CMRPI was the highest since October 2014, when it reached 2 percent.

In terms of the index value, the CMRPI in January was at 181.4, the highest since October 2014, when the value was at 182.

“Annual gains in the following commodity groups were faster: carpentry materials index, 3 percent; electrical materials index, 0.4 percent; painting materials and related compounds index, 2.5 percent; and plumbing materials index, 0.8 percent,”the PSA said.

Other indexes, on the other hand, posted slower growth, particularly in masonry materials and tinsmithry materials at 7.2 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Further, data showed that the miscellaneous construction materials index registered an annual decline of 3 percent.

Ayala. . .

On a monthly basis, the CMRPI in Metro Manila increased 0.1 percent in January 2015. It was the same rate noted in December 2014.

“Price hikes were generally observed in tinsmithry materials, common wire nails, gravel, sahara and faucet. Prices of cement and steel bars were, however, lower during the month in review,” the PSA said.

Data showed that the tinsmithry materials index posted faster monthly growth of 0.6 percent. On the other hand, the increase in the carpentry materials index eased to 0.1 percent, and masonry materials and plumbing materials indices 0.3 percent.

Moreover, declines were noticed in the indices of painting materials and related compounds and miscellaneous construction materials at -0.3 percent and -1.1 percent, respectively.

The CMRPI is a variant of the General Retail Price Index. The CMRPI measures the changes in the average retail prices of construction materials in Metro Manila.

The market basket of the CMRPI is composed of 102 commodities classified into seven major groups: Carpentry Materials; Electrical Materials; Masonry Materials; Painting Materials and Related Compounds; Plumbing Materials; Tinsmithry Materials; and Miscellaneous Construction Materials.

Continued from A1

The said vision points to the company’s profits growing by an average of 20 percent every year, with the end goal of reaching the P40 billion in net income by year 2020, or more than triple its profit in 2013.

“Opportunities that will allow us to build integrated sustainable developments will remain our top priority.

Not only do these estates become great places to live and work, but they also provide business and job opportunities to many Filipinos,” Dy said.

Revenues from property development, which include the sale of residential lots and units, office spaces, as well as commercial and industrial lots, reached P65.9 billion, or 21 percent higher than the P54.5 billion reported in 2013.

Meanwhile, revenues from the residential segment reached P55.9 billion, 26 percent higher than 2013 figures, driven by strong bookings and project completion across all residential brands.

In addition, its units Alveo and Avida, which ventured into office development, reported aggregated revenues totaling P5.3 billion from their new offices, a fourfold increase from 2013, driven by successful bookings in their developments. These include High Street South Corporate Plaza Towers, Park Triangle Corporate Plaza and One Park Drive in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.

The company claimed that market acceptance remained high as the company posted an 11-percent increase in sales take-up against the previous year.

“Sales across our various residential brands continue to be good, and we thank our customers for their continued trust,” Dy said.

Total revenues from commercial leasing, which includes its shopping centers, office leasing and hotels and resorts operations, amounted to P21.2 billion in 2014, 18 percent higher than the P18 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Moreover, revenues of the hotels and resorts sector grew by 40 percent to P5.6 billion in 2014, from P4 billion in 2013, primarily driven by the improved performance of new hotels and resorts.

This year the company has allotted P100 billion for capital expenditures primarily earmarked for the completion of ongoing developments and launches of new residential and leasing projects.

Among its plans for the year is the development of the Bacolod Capitol project, which will kick off with the groundbreaking of the residential, retail, office and hotel components of the estate.

The company will also start the development of the 11-hectare mixed-use project in Balintawak, Quezon City.