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Friday, February 24, 2017 Vol. 12 No. 135
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RESORTS READY TO OPEN IN SAN VICENTE, PALAWAN, AS AIRPORT OPENING HANGS
motoring
‘New Boracay’starts attracting investors ₧3.73B T By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
2016 ejap JOURNALISM awards
@akosistellaBM
Special to the BusinessMirror
OURISM investors in San Vicente, Palawan, are fervently waiting for the opening of the municipality’s new airport before they push their resort-development activities to full scale.
car of the month: 2016 Ford EcoSport Trend at Black Edition »E1
The investments needed to develop the San Vicente Tourism Economic Zone
This developed as the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza) announced about P3.73 billion in investments are needed to develop the San Vicente Tourism Economic Zone (TEZ).
Aguila Glass soars on its 62nd birthday »E2-E3
See “New Boracay,” A2
BMReports
‘Breaking hearts’ legally costly for many Filipinos By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz
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@joveemarie
Conclusion
ODAY’S the right time for a law on absolute divorce. That’s the belief of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of Albay. The 17th Congress is the right time for the enactment of a law on absolute divorce, as the Philippines is the only country in the world that has no law on absolute divorce, according to Lagman, the principal author of the reproductive-health law. “It is because of the existence of failed marriages beyond redemption that all countries in the world, except the Philippines, have legislated the grant of divorce in varying liberality and stringency,” Lagman added. “In fact, it is said the advent of divorce is contemporaneous with the institution of marriage.” Presently, Lagman said the grounds for legal separation and annulment of marriage provided for in the Family Code of the Philippines have been adopted as among the grounds for absolute divorce. The law said the existing grounds for legal separation are marital abuse; sexual infidelity; attempt against the life of the other; abandonment; de facto separation; conviction for a crime when the sentence is more than six years; contracting a subsequent bigamous marriage; drug addiction or habitual alcoholism; and lesbianism or homosexuality.
Isuzu provides transport solution to Interpacific »E2
Skypixel | Dreamstime.com
Impact of two-tier tax on cigarette, health, competition
Annulment grounds
THE current grounds for annulment of marriage are Continued on A2
Firms more optimistic on Q2 economic outlook By Bianca Cuaresma
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@BcuaresmaBM
usinesses are more optimistic about the country’s economic prospects for the second quarter of the year, as consumer demand is expected to pick up and government spending accelerates, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). In its latest Business Expectations Survey (BES), the overall con-
fidence index (CI) is seen rising to 47.2 percent, from 34.5 percent in the last quarter’s survey. “The next quarter CI suggests that economic growth could accelerate for the next quarter,” the BSP report read. The BSP said respondents cited the following factors as reasons behind their more optimistic outlook: anticipated increase in demand during summer and sustained increase in orders and proj-
PESO exchange rates n US 50.2400
The next quarter CI suggests that economic growth could accelerate for the next quarter.”—BSP ects leading to higher volumes of production. Also, the expansion of businesses and new product lines and the introduction of new and enhanced business strategies and processes were cited by respondents as
sources of their optimism. For the first quarter, the BES showed that business optimism on the economy was broad ly steady, with the overall CI declining slightly at 39.4 percent, from Continued on A12
Make Sense Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza
A
s an advocate for the cause of consumers and local industries, I am humbled—although perplexed—at a full-page advertorial of Mighty Corp. Executive Vice President and Spokesman retired Judge Oscar P. Barrientos refuting my earlier statement that a two-tier cigarette tax is against the antitrust law, saying that my position on the proposed two-tier cigarette tax is without basis.
As a backgrounder on Judge Barrientos’s refutation, and with all due respect to his interpretation of the antitrust law, he cited the following anticompetitive behaviors as provided for in Republic Act 10667, more commonly known as the Philipine competition law: Continued on A10
n japan 0.4444 n UK 62.6041 n HK 6.4736 n CHINA 7.3043 n singapore 35.5832 n australia 38.7200 n EU 53.0936 n SAUDI arabia 13.3984
Source: BSP (23 February 2017 )
BMReports BusinessMirror
A2 Friday, February 24, 2017
www.businessmirror.com.ph
‘Breaking hearts’ legally costly for many Filipinos Continued from A1
lack of parental consent, vitiated consent, impotency, insanity and affliction of sexually transmissible disease. Under Article 36 of the Family Code, psychological incapacity is included as another ground for absolute divorce. L ag man is proposing four additiona l grounds for absolute divorce: when either of the spouses secure a valid foreign divorce, canonical divorce, gender-reassignment surgery, and when irreconcilable differences or conf licts exist between the married couple. The differences, according to Lagman’s proposal, are beyond redemption, despite ear nest and repeated efforts at reconciliation. According to Lagman, the institution of absolute divorce is a prowoman legislation. Traditionally, in a marriage relation, the husband is more ascendant than the wife, according to the lawmaker. “It is the woman who is usually brutalized, and it is the man who philanders and gets away with it,”
he said. “Under these foreboding and unequal circumstances, a wife needs an absolute divorce more than the husband.” Lagman explained that in divorce proceedings, the wife as the innocent spouse needs a courtdecreed alimony and support for the child or children under her custody. This includes corresponding fines and contempt of court for delinquency in providing financial support.
Women’s issue
ACCORDING to Lagman, absolute divorce is not only a woman’s issue, “it is a poor woman’s issue”. “Poor women cannot afford the current exorbitant expense for legal separation or annulment of marriage.” He added an absolute divorce is a merciful liberation of the hapless wife from a long-dead marriage. “While the state continues to protect and preserve marriage as a social institution, it gives the opportunity to spouses in irremediably failed marriages to secure an absolute divorce decree under limited grounds and
New Boracay. . . Continued from A1
Among the investment opportunities are a water supply and distribution with sewage treatment plant (P365 million), power utility (P2 billion) and resort hotels (P1.36 billion). While these investments are being sought from the private sector, Tieza Deputy COO Joy Bulauitan said the agency is willing to fund the infrastructure projects. “We have an approved budget for water and sewerage system, access roads, modular docking facility, tourism-information center, Tieza office and feasibility study for power [generation],” she said. San Vicente, famous for its 14.7-kilometer long white beach along Imuruan Bay, is being touted as the “new Boracay”. So far, there is only one major resort in the area, but tourists also have the option for homestays via AirBnb. Tieza also confirmed “all the big players in Boracay are already in San Vicente”, which Bulauitan pointed out to mean that wellknown resorts on the popular island in Aklan have already bought properties along the white beach of San Vicente. While she declined to identify these developers, one of them, Century Properties, announced in 2015
well-defined procedures to avoid abuse; save the children from the pain and stress of their parents’ marital clashes; and grant the divorced spouses the right to marry aga in for a not her c ha nce to achieve marital bliss,” Lagman’s proposal read. According to his proposal, the “State shall assure that the petition and proceedings for the grant of absolute divorce shall be inexpensive and affordable.” “Upon application by the petitioner, the proper court may waive the payment of filing fees and other costs of litigation,” the proposal added. According to Lagman, divorce has been an accepted custom of indigenous Filipinos. “In precolonial times, a number of Philippine tribes practiced absolute divorce.” Lagman cited these tribes as the Gaddang of Nueva Vizcaya; the Igorot and Sagada of the Cordilleras; and the Manobo, Bila-an and the Tagbanwa of Palawan.
Irreparable marriages
Party-list Reps. Emmi A. de
that it would be developing a P20-billion resort in San Vicente. “[San Vicente] is expected to be transformed into a dynamic and environmentally sustainable tourist destination,” she said in Tieza’s press briefing on Wednesday. But resort developers may still have to wait a while longer before pushing through with the opening of their beachfront properties. In a text message, Transportation Undersecretary for Aviation and Airports Roberto C.O. Lim told the BusinessMirror, “The target date of opening of the San Vicente Airport for general aviation operations only [no commercial flight] is last quarter this year.” He added, “Removal of the hill obstructing the runway is still ongoing.” Pressed for a target for the airport’s opening to commercial flights, Lim said: “Let’s revisit that in June.” The P56-million San Vicente Airport Development Project was awarded by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) in December 2012, and was supposed to be completed by March 2014, or 360 days after the receipt by its contractor, BCT Trading and Construction, of the March 2013 notice to proceed. “Also, we had a problem with a resident there who refused to allow our contractor to pass by his property in hauling of materials away from
Jesus and Arlene D. Brosas of Gabriela have also refiled a measure making divorce as a “rights-based” option, aside from legal separation and annulment. De Jesus and Brosas said their House Bill 2380 was crafted in consultation with women lawyers, from studies and inputs of various women’s groups and actual accounts of spouses gathered by their group. The bill repeals several provisions in Executive Order 209, or the Family Code of the Philippines. “We refiled this bill, hoping that the State will recognize that there are irreparable marriages, and this will also cater to the rights of women who are vulnerable to abuse inside their marriages,” de Jesus said. Brosas also said many couples from the marginalized sectors who have no access to the courts simply end up separating sans the benefit of legal processes. This is the fifth time that Gabriela filed the divorce bill since it was first introduced in the 13th Congress. The Divorce Advocates of the
the site,” Bulauitan explained. Tieza funded the elimination of the hill obstruction, which cost P236 million, although as per the DOTr’s notice to proceed in March 2013, this was supposed to be included already in the project terms, along with the construction of vehicular parking area, security fence, perimeter fence and drainage system, and runway extension. “Our project engineer confirmed the target completion of the hill obstruction by March,” Bulauitan said. But she stressed, the airport is already being used for chartered/ private planes. According to the local government, the present airport can accommodate Category 2B aircraft, or those with wingspans between 15 meters and 24 meters. These include Embraer EMB 110, Cessnas (208A, 402C, 441 and below), Beechcrafts (1900, 200, 58), aircraft made by de Havilland Canada and by Piper Aircraft Inc. She also said Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific Airways have already inspected the airport and conducted their due diligence. Aside from helping jump-start the development of the San Vicente TEZ, the airport is also a gateway to the popular resort destination of El Nido, she said. The Ayala Group owns the only airport in El Nido, such that its carrier, Swift Air,
Philippines (DAP) and the Association of Divorce for Women Empowerment (ADWE) joined Gabriela in urging the approval of the divorce bill in the 17th Congress. ADWE Secretary-General Asliah Limbona of the muslim community shared their support to the divorce bill, despite having their own divorce rule under the Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines.
House Bill 2380
THE law proposed by de Jesus and Brosas notes five grounds for d ivorce a l l of wh ic h a re prem ised on t he ir repa rable breakdown of the marriage and the tota l nonper for mance of marital obligations. The bill said one of the following conditions must be met: ■ t he petitioner has been separated de facto from his or her spouse for at least five years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is highly improbable; ■ the petitioner has been legally separated from the spouse for at least two years at the time of the
is the only one allowed to use it. “So most tourists still have to travel six hours from Puerto Princesa to El Nido,” said Bulauitan. As per the San Vicente master plan, which was completed in 2014, Tieza is eyeing the development of beach and mountain resorts, agri-tourism area, cultural heritage tourism area, retirement village, accommodation facilities, the airport and cruise tourism facilities in the TEZ. She stressed that the master plan will help prevent San Vicente from “going the way of Boracay”, in that the TEZ will be carefully developed, “with proper easements implemented”. The development of Boracay, popular around the world for its powdery whitesand beach, has been criticized for its overcommercialization because of the unbridled construction of resorts, some of which have eaten into the beach itself. Tieza, formerly the Philippine Tourism Authority, is an attached agency of the Department of Tourism tasked to provide support infrastructure and facilitate investments in TEZs nationwide. These are carried out through its main functions—infrastructure development; designation, regulation and supervision of TEZs; management of its existing assets or facilitation of their privatization; and administration of the collection of the Philippine Travel Tax.
filing and reconciliation is highly improbable; ■ when any of the grounds for legal separation has caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage; ■ when one or both spouses are psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations; and ■ when the spouses suffer from irreconcilable differences that have caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage. The proposed divorce bill takes into consideration the rudiments of the Filipino culture and the general sentiment of preserving the sanctity of Filipino marriages, which is why the measure provides that divorce is granted only when specific conditions are met, de Jesus explained. De Jesus and Brosas said the divorce bill is long overdue. “It is high time that the State gave couples in abusive and irreparable marriages the option to divorce,” the lawmakers said in their proposed bill. “We hope that this time, both Houses of Congress will finally approve the divorce bill.”
Death. . .
Continued from A12
—about $4 worth of “shabu”, the form of crystal meth, at the heart of this drug war. The officers took hardly 15 minutes to investigate, document and haul away the body. As I examined the pool of blood that remained after the police left, a teenager on a scooter rode up to have a look. I asked if he knew the victim. “He was my cousin,” he said. I told him I was sorry. He shrugged. “It was expected.” Polls show that the drug war remains immensely popular, but a similar majority say they are against all the killings. Critics of Duterte’s methods say this is a war against the poor, because no drug lords, or politicians alleged to be protecting them, have been punished. After months of reports of poor Filipinos being brutalized, the situation changed only recently, thanks to a high-profile death. On January 30 authorities announced a temporary suspension of the drug war, after a South Korean businessman living here was found to have been kidnapped by antidrug officers, strangled at the national police headquarters, cremated at a funeral parlor and flushed down a toilet—all while his wife was being extorted for a ransom of $100,000. Under pressure from South Korea, Duterte called the case an “embarrassment” and focused his rhetoric on “cleansing” the national police force, though he vowed to continue his crackdown on drugs until the end of his term. The killings, though, continue. The Duterte administration is accountable for sanctioning, condoning or being unable to prevent them, and for failing to bring the perpetrators to justice. What was once a dispute about facts surrounding such deaths has turned to public acceptance. It is now a moral question—to which there is no answer, only opinion and conjecture. “It’s the new normal,” a photojournalist told me. “It’s easier and cheaper to kill them. We can only document it, for a time when Filipinos have regained their sanity.” More are now speaking out. A rally on Saturday against the killings, led by the Catholic Church, drew at least 10,000 people, and lawyers have volunteered to file cases for the families of four men allegedly killed by police. This week a high-level officer linked Duterte to multiple crimes. These voices of protest echo what journalists have been saying for months. The work is taking a toll on the night crawlers. Some of the journalists suffer health problems or nervous tics from the hours they keep and the things they see. Many cover the beat in their spare time, their publications having moved on from the now-commonplace killings. For their trouble, the media have been called “presstitutes” by Duterte’s followers; some receive threats of rape, violence and death. I asked some journalists what keeps them going. “Guilt,” one said. “Anger,” added another. “The widows, whose pain I know well,” said a third. “The families of all the victims,” said a fourth. When the dawn broke that Sunday morning, most of us left the press office, with its badminton tournament trophies and pantheon of portraits of long-passed reporters who covered martial law and revolutions and coup d’états. Tomorrow the night crawlers will return to do what journalists have always done, and what they’ll always do. Long after Duterte has gone and his most vociferous followers are footnotes in history, we will write about this terrible era of avarice, injustice and death. ■ Miguel Syjuco, a contributing opinion writer, is the author of the novel Ilustrado and a professor at NYU Abu Dhabi.
Economy
A4 Friday, February 24, 2017 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon
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MICC teams to review DENR order on closure of mine sites
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he multistakeholder Technical Working Group (TWG) of the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) will form five technical groups that will conduct an “objective, fact-finding, sciencebased” review of the orders issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on the closure or suspension of 28 mine sites across the country.
Such a review will be conducted over a three-month period, beginning this March, by the five groups consisting of “technical review experts” who, for the sake of objectivity, “shall be independent and [have] no known conflict of interest” with the mining sector or any antimining non-governmental organization, according to the organizational framework adopted by the MICC’s TWG during its first meeting earlier this week. Under the organizational framework, these five groups or technical review teams (TRTs) will go over the compliance of the 28 mine sites with applicable agreements, submissions, laws and regulations and impact of their operations, taking into account five aspects agreed upon during the February 20 meeting of the TWG.
311 The total number of mining contracts covered by MICC’s review mandate, beginning with 23 sites shut down by the DENR
Each TRT shall cover these five aspects that involve the 1) technical, 2) legal, 3) social, 4) environmental and 5) economic (including the effect on agricultural reform areas) impacts of the mining operations.
“This [review], it’s pursuant to Executive Order 79, and our thrust, and as required, every two years, the MICC should review the mining operations,” Finance Undersecretary Bayani H. Agabin told the media after the MICC multistakeholder review meeting. “The MICC is supposed to do every two years a multistakeholder review. So that’s what we are doing.” He said the TRTs will begin the review by focusing on the 28 mine sites suspended or shut down by the DENR. The DENR ordered on February 2 the closure of 23 mine sites and the suspension of operations of five others across the country. A week later it ordered the cancellation of 75 mineral production sharing agreements still in the preoperation stage that the government had forged with mining companies. “The review shall take off or refer to the existing reports conducted by the DENR’s audit team and Technical Review Committee, along with existing laws, rules and regulations,” said Agabin, who heads the Legal Affairs Group and Revenue Integrity Protection Service of the Department of Finance (DOF). He said the DENR will make its audit findings available for the TRTs to review. The five TRTs will tap academe and will engage experts from state universities and colleges to help conduct the review, he said. For the technical part of the review, the MICC will tap either a geologist, mining engineer or a met-
allurgical engineer from the private sector, while a lawyer, also from the private sector, will be hired to review the legal aspect. A community relations officer will be involved in the social aspect, an environmental management officer will focus on the environmental impact, while representatives from the local government units, the DOF, Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Trade and Industry, National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Social Welfare and Development and other concerned government agencies will go over the economic aspect of the review. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Environmental Management Bureau of the DENR will also provide qualified technical personnel and provide available data and records to each TRT. Agabin said the results of the review of the five TRTs will be submitted to the MICC’s multistakeholder TWG. “The TWG shall then verify the technical report before the final presentation to the MICC,” he said. The MICC will present the findings and submit its recommendations to the Office of the President, which shall make a final decision on the DENR’s closure and suspension orders, Agabin said. Agabin added the mandate of the MICC covers all 311 mining contracts across the country, but the review will first begin with the 23 sites ordered shut down by the DENR. “The mines [which] already re-
ceived their orders shall be subjected to further review by qualified individuals or teams designated by the MICC. The schedule of review shall be based on the date of receipt of the DENR’s order,” Agabin said. Ocular inspections of 28 affected mine sites and meetings with indigenous groups, the local governments, farmers and fishermen will be conducted, if deemed necessary by the review team, he added. The funding for these efforts will be discussed with the Department of Budget and Management. Besides Agabin, the MICC-TWG meeting was also attended by DENR Undersecretary Maria Paz Luna, and officials of the DENR legal service, along with representatives from the Office of the Executive Secretary, Office of the Solicitor General, the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and the other government agencies called to the meeting. The DENR’s closure and suspension orders will cost 17 affected cities and municipalities in 10 provinces over P821 million annually in foregone revenues, according to updated estimates submitted by the DOF-attached Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) earlier this week. The latest estimates, which is an increase from the initial P653 million submitted by the BLGF, is based on the 100-percent compliance of city and municipal treasurers to a DOF order for each of them to submit a report on the revenue impact of the DENR orders on the affected LGUs. Rea Cu with PNA
ADB urges developing countries to liberalize pharmaceutical trade
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he Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) is urging developing countries to liberalize the trade of medicines in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 on health. In a working paper, the Tokyobased ADBI said tariffs and nontariff measures (NTMs) can increase the prices of medicines and medical equipment, which are crucial in the achievement of SDG 3. SDG 3 aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. This goal aims to reduce global maternal mortality and end preventable deaths of newborns and under-5 children, as well as the epidemics of AIDS and other communicable diseases. “Although trade has a relatively low profile in the SDGs and their companion targets, it is by no means absent from the package of measures available to policy-makers to promote the SDGs. Trade economists need to do more to show that trade can benefit sustainable development through nonincome channels,” the paper stated. The study found that tariffs and NTMs have increased prices and decreased the availability of health-related products. These include medicines or pharma-
ceuticals, vaccines and medical equipment, which are key ingredients in ensuring that countries globally keep their citizens healthy. Further, the paper stated that the liberalization of trade will also improve handling of health products that could boost usage. Such is the case of insulin, the medicine for diabetes. The study found that some pharmaceutical companies charge higher for the product in countries that have higher per capita incomes. Apart from liberalizing trade, the study urged governments to leverage the competition between manufacturers and their purchasing power to bring down insulin prices. “Building up health systems that lower out-of-pocket payments is another option to make insulin more affordable to patients,” the paper stated. The study also stressed the importance of facilitating the movement of generic drugs to poorer developing countries is important. This, ADBI said, should be supported by both the public and private sectors through delivery infrastructure and professional services. “We, therefore, need to stress the
importance of complementary policies, such as infrastructure and human-resources development, as an adjunct to a liberal trade policy in relation to health products,” ADBI said. The SDGs or Global Goals is a set of 17 socioeconomic goals that 193 United Nation member-countries, like the Philippines, committed to meet by 2030. The goals are composed of around 169 targets and over 300 global indicators. The SDGs were adopted in September 2015. The Global Goals aim to end poverty and hunger, promote universal health, education for all and lifelong learning, achieve gender equality, sustainable water management, ensure sustainable energy for all, decent work for all, resilient infrastructure, and reduce income inequality between and among countries. The goals also include create sustainable cities, ensure sustainable consumption and production, take action against climate change, conserve and sustainably use oceans and marine resources, reduce biodiversity loss, achieve peaceful and inclusive societies, and revitalize global partnership for development. Cai U. Ordinario
DICT issues warning against mobile-frequency hoarding
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he Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has warned it will not tolerate the hoarding of frequencies, which might compromise the quality of mobile communications in the country. Information Secretary Rodolfo A. Salalima said a recent audit of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) showed a number of establishments have not been using or paying the required fees for their frequency spectrums. “We reiterate that warehousing of
spectrums will not be allowed for speculative purposes. Frequencies should only benecessaryfortheiroperations.Enough frequencies should be allocated to new players in the telco industry,” Salalima said during the news briefing for the first PhilippineTelecommunicationsSummit held on Wednesday in Quezon City. For his part, DICT Undersecretary Jorge Sarmiento said there is enough number of unassigned frequencies that may be allocated to a third or fourth player in the local telco industry, based on the study of the NTC. PNA
Dulay tells BIR employees: You better watch out By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm
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he head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) disclosed on Thursday that the tax-collection office has been “swamped” with corruption complaints against erring agency employees nationwide. In a briefing in Malacañang on Thursday, Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay said these complaints were received through the anticorruption hotline 8888 and the Civil Service Commission (CSC). Dulay said that because of the volume of the complaints, the BIR is now being “monitored” on how they deal with these grievances. “I am swamped with 8888 complaints and we’re acting on it. It’s a little difficult if you spend your time just addressing this but we have our communications group [that is] addressing the complaints,” Dulay said. Dulay added when they receive a complaint against an employee, like a director, he would usually ask the employee concerned to explain in person or through a letter to air his or her side of the story. If Dulay found merit in the explanation of the employee, no further investigation will be done, but if there is basis for the complaint, the BIR would begin an investigation on the matter. Most of these complaints, Dulay said, were concerned with the delay in the processing of taxpayer’s papers. “Most of the complaints are anonymous and my message to the employees is ‘You better watch out if I see that the explanation is justifiable’,” Dulay said. “I just told them that you better be careful with your job from here on because even anonymous complaints can be forwarded to the Ombudsman because they act on anonymous complaints,” he added. Apart from the complaints, Dulay said the BIR is saddled with the lack of manpower, saying the tax agency is operating despite having only 50 percent of its required manpower. This means the BIR only has a little more than 9,000 personnel of the approved plantilla of 21,000. Dulay said the BIR intends to remedy this by embarking on a mass hiring process to hire competent Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and lawyers. However, he lamented the low salaries that the BIR can offer its would-be employees, saying that while other agencies can pay P35,000 to P40,000 for entry-level CPAs and P55,000 to P60,000 for lawyers, the BIR can only offer P20,000 for CPAs and P30,000 to P40,000 for lawyers. Dulay said this is because the BIR is covered by the salary standardization law, which prevents them from offering higher salaries to employees. “We have put in place a proposal and a bill was sponsored by, I believe, the Speaker of the House, and it’s now being tabled for consideration by the House. Sen. Sonny M. Angara has also sponsored a bill that will get us out of the salary standardization law,” Dulay said. If the BIR is granted its manpower, the agency can have a better chance of hitting its collection targets of P1.829 trillion in 2017. In 2016 the agency collected P1.575 trillion, which is 5-percent below target. However, this was 9.5 percent higher than 2015. “To achieve the collection, we have to grow by 16 percent from our last year’s collection performance,” Dulay said. “The BIR itself must be able to increase collection by 15.5 percent and non-BIR collections must also grow by at least 37 percent,” he added. Of the collected amount last year, some P924 billion were collected from income taxes and the rest came from excise, value-added tax and percentage taxes.
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Report shows inequality in Indonesia is 6th globally
Editor: Max V. de Leon • Friday, February 24, 2017 A5
Singapore readies new exotic ETFs
eyeing a March start for the products linked to popular local gauges, such as the Hang Seng Index, Bloomberg news reported last week. The Asian ETF market is expected to grow 18 percent a year over the next five years, a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers Llp. said. “Due to the amplifying or inverse setup of these products, they have gained popularity in various markets, including Asia,” said Luuk Strijers, director and head of products at SGX. “Issuers have seen these products successfully take off in markets such as Japan and Taiwan, and see the potential especially when using local indices as underlyings which are open for trading during Asian hours.”
A
report on inequality in Indonesia says its four richest men now have more wealth than 100 million of the country’s poorest people. The report released on Thursday by Oxfam said Indonesia, with a population of more than 250 million, has the sixth-worst inequality in the world. Within Asia, only Thailand is more unequal. It blames “market fundamentalism” that has allowed the richest to capture most of the benefits of nearly two decades of strong economic growth, concentration of land ownership and pervasive gender inequality. The investment returns on the wealth of just one of the four richest, which, according to the Forbes rich list, include cigarette tycoons Budi Hartono, Michael Hartono and Susilo Wonowidjojo, would eliminate extreme poverty in a year. The report said extreme poverty of less than $1.90 a day in income has declined sharply since 2000, but 93 million Indonesians still live on less than $3.10, which is defined by the World Bank as the moderate poverty line. Oxfam said social instability could increase if the government doesn’t tackle the gap between rich and poor. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said reducing inequality is a top priority for his government. A 2015 World Bank survey showed high levels of public concern about the wealth gap. The report said Indonesia’s tax collection is the second lowest in Southeast Asia, and the tax system is “failing to play its necessary role in redistributing wealth.” To increase the tax take, so low spending on public services, such as education and health, can be increased, Indonesia needs a higher tax rate on the top incomes, higher inheritance tax and a new wealth tax, it said. AP
No issues
A view of Singapore’s business district. Bloomberg
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reparations are under way in Singapore for the first new listing of leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds in almost eight years.
The Singapore Exchange Ltd. last week published a new Web page about the products, described as “a form of passive collective investment schemes [like exchange-trade funds, or ETFs] and structured as open-end funds”, following revised guidelines from the Monetary Authority of
Worst not over for Singapore developers, billionaire Kwek says
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he worst isn’t over for Singapore property developers, after government curbs helped push home prices lower for a third year in 2016, said Kwek Leng Beng, the billionaire chairman of City Developments Ltd. “I do not believe the worst is over, although I think the worst has slowed down,” Kwek said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Singapore home prices fell 3 percent in 2016, as the government held steadfast on cooling measures. Prices slipped for a 13th straight quarter in the three months ended December 31, the longest streak since data was first published in 1975. The government has signaled it is reluctant to ease property curbs, including capping debt repayments at 60 percent of a borrower’s income and higher stamp duties, as it wants to avoid the market overheating again. City Developments fourthquarter profit declined 41 percent to S$244 million ($172 million), due to the absence of substantial profits recognized the same quarter a year ago from its so-called Profit Participation Securities deal for office assets. Revenue for the quarter increased 37 percent to S$1.17 billion. The developer sold 1,017 homes in Singapore last year, a 51-percent increase from 2015, for a total value of S$1.2 billion. For the year ended December 31, profit declined 16 percent to S$653 million, even as revenue climbed 18 percent to S$3.9 billion.
War chest
“WE plan to be more acquisitive with a focus on finding in-place income in Singapore and overseas,” Kwek
I do not believe the worst is over, although I think the worst has slowed down.” —Kwek said in the earnings statement. “Our robust balance sheet and war chest place us in a strong position to deploy capital for acquisitions, which can be in the form of physical assets, equities or debt instruments.” The developer has more than S$3.5 billion in funds under management and is on track to achieve its target of S$5 billion by end-2018. Singapore property demand remains “very resilient”, supported by factors including low interest rates and a stable economy, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said in an interview on Tuesday. The cooling measures “have helped to achieve a soft landing in the property market,” Wong said. Earlier this month, rival CapitaLand Ltd.’s CEO said property curbs are set to stay in place for at least another year amid signs the city’s housing market is stabilizing. “We see volume picking up and price declines have slowed,” Lim Ming Yan said on February 15. “We see this trend continuing for 2017. There is no compelling reason for the government at this point to make major changes” to property curbs, he said. Bloomberg News
Singapore (MAS) in August. Singapore, along with Hong Kong, is seeking to capture a bigger share of an expanding pie through types of funds that have seen success in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Leveraged ETFs in Taiwan, which started in 2014, now have
18%
The expected percentage growth of the Asian ETF market over the next five years
more than $4.8 billion in assets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Daily trading of inverse and leveraged funds is more than half of Taiwan’s ETF market, said
Andy Chang, president and CEO of Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co. “The MAS indicated its openness to leveraged and inverse ETFs in Singapore last year,” said Jek-Aun Long, a partner at law firm Simmons & Simmons JWS. “We are involved in several such products in the pipeline—we can expect exciting things in the coming months.” The MAS does not comment on its dealings with financial institutions and other entities, it said in a reply to queries. A leveraged ETF uses derivatives and debt to amplify the returns of an underlying index, while an inverse fund offers a way to profit from falling markets. Firms in Hong Kong are
Singapore listed the first inverse ETF in Asia in 2009, but there have been no new issues since, amid consumer-protection fears. The db x-trackers S&P 500 Inverse Daily UCITS ETF provides gains when the S&P 500 index falls. Under the recent MAS guidelines, leveraged and inverse products are classified as specified investment products and require investors to show they have substantial financial knowledge either through a financefocused university degree, professional experience or by passing an online test. Singapore’s rules allow listings that offer leverage or inverse exposure to local or foreign indexes, except shorting China with regulatory approval. Hong Kong approved the ETF types for offshore indexes in February 2016 and for domestic indexes in December. While Singapore is open to leverage of three times or more but requires issuers to consult it in advance, Hong Kong has a twotimes limit. “Singapore is on our radar screen for leveraged and inverse ETFs,” said William Chow, managing director at Value Partners Ltd. in Hong Kong. “We are having a close dialogue with SGX.” Bloomberg News
Thai editor has lèse majesté jail sentence reduced
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hailand’s Supreme Court has upheld but reduced the jail sentence of a magazine editor who is currently the longest-serving prisoner convicted of lèse majesté—insulting the monarchy. The court on Thursday cut to seven years the 11year sentence given in 2011 to Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, who was the editor of a magazine found to have published two articles deemed insulting to the Thai royal family. Because Somyot has already served almost six years, he will be released in 2018. Thailand has come under increasing criticism for its lèse majesté law, which mandates three to 15 years in jail for “whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the regent”. Critics say it is used as a political tool used to jail opponents of the country’s ruling junta. Somyot, who is also a prominent labor activist, was arrested only after he launched a petition to revoke the lèse majesté law a year after the articles were published in 2010. Critics say his case was politically motivated. In addition to serving two fiveyear terms for lèse majesté, he also was serving an additional year for defaming an army general who helped lead a successful 2006 military coup against elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. “Although we stand by the fact that he is not guilty, I am relatively happy with the court’s verdict,” said his wife, Sukanya Pruksakasemsuk, adding she had not expected her husband’s jail time to be cut. Human-rights group Amnesty International said in a statement by Audrey Gaughran, its director of global issues and research, that the court’s ruling did not go far enough, because upholding Somyot’s conviction “only perpetuates the profound injustice he is suffering.” It quoted her as saying the ruling “underscores the extent to which the Thai authorities are repeatedly violating their obligations under international law to uphold the right to freedom of expression, including through their relentless enforcement of the oppressive lèse majesté law.” In a packed courtroom, a teary-eyed Sukanya embraced her husband after a judge read out the ruling. As he left the courthouse, Somyot flashed the three-finger Hunger Games salute, popularized in Thailand as a gesture of resis-
Magazine editor Somyot Pruksakasemsuk waves after the announcement of a court ruling in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday. AP
tance after another coup in 2014. Somyot was originally convicted for publishing two pseudonymous articles in his now-defunct Voice of Thaksin magazine, which he launched in 2009 to compile political news and antiestablishment pieces from dissidents. Judges found the
articles in question contained content that defamed the monarchy, though neither explicitly named members of the royal family. In explaining Thursday’s ruling, the court acknowledged that Somyot was only the editor of the articles, not their writer. AP
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Business
Friday, February 24, 2017 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Twin threats to relations trail Tillerson into Mexico
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EXICO CITY—The Trump administration calls the visit a step toward mutual understanding, a way to move the relationship forward. But as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Mexico on Wednesday, twin threats hung over the frayed relationship between the two nations: President Donald J. Trump’s new orders to round up and deport immigrants who are in the United States illegally and a separate effort to take a hard look at all US aid to Mexico, possibly using it to pay for a border wall instead. By Fr iday, US officia ls are required to finish ca lcu lating a l l the money that the US pro v ides to Mexico, a task that Tr ump first demanded in the executive order he sig ned last month directing the constr uction of a border wa l l. The Trump administration, which set the Friday deadline in an internal State Department memo this month, has not explicitly said
why it ordered the review. But its inclusion in the executive order mandating that a wall be built suggests that Trump has linked the two issues—and may be looking for more leverage in negotiations with Mexico. The timing adds to the deep tensions between the two countries. Tillerson, the top US official to visit Mexico since Trump’s inauguration, arrived with John F. Kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security, only a day after the Trump administration released documents ordering a crackdown on immigration in the US. Mexican newspapers have described the Trump administration’s new deportation policies in apoca ly ptic ter ms, say ing in some cases that they represented “war” on the millions of Mexicans in the US.
Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, said on Wednesday the package of immigration directives is “something that, without doubt, worries all of us Mexicans” and will be “the first point on the agenda” when he meets with his US counterpart. Nothing about the meetings this week is likely to be easy, for either side. Tillerson met with Trump in the Oval Office just before his departure, but there have been few signs that the secretary of state plays a pivotal role in setting the administration’s foreign policy agenda. He has largely been absent from important White House meetings with foreign leaders, has uttered few words in public since his confirmation and was not even allowed his choice of a top deputy. Instead, Tillerson has largely been assigned to tidy up the confrontations Trump has had with longtime allies. Last week he went to Germany to reassure his European counterparts that Trump valued North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union, despite the president’s statements to the contrary. Trump’s rift with Mexico is not only deeper but also likely to worsen. For the Mexicans, the
meetings will be an important step toward deciding whether to battle or appease an administration that has consistently excoriated their country. It is a choice that leaders around the world are grappling with. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, courted and flattered Trump, seeming to succeed in reversing decades of Trump’s criticisms of Japan. China’s president, Xi Jinping, seemed to publicly ignore Trump for weeks before Trump reversed himself on questioning the “One-China” policy that nation holds so dear. The Mexicans appear to be using a combination of outreach and complaint that has so far proved ineffective, as the twin blows this week demonstrated. The review of US aid due on Friday, for instance, is likely to highlight about $1 billion that has been allocated but not yet spent under the Mer id a Initiative, a bilateral partnership begun in 2007 that focuses on fighting organized crime, reengineering the judicial system, modernizing the border between the two countries and strengthening civil-society groups. New York Times News Service
Trump’s China trade threat looms large over Taiwan econ
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all it collateral damage. If Donald J. Trump delivers on threats to put punishing tariffs on Chinese goods, plenty of pain would be felt in Taiwan, a de facto United States ally that Beijing considers a breakaway province. The island would be among the most vulnerable to economic spillover from any US-China trade war. More than 40 percent of the export powerhouse’s shipments go to China, as it plays a vital role in supplying widgets for the mainland’s manufacturing machine. Former Taiwan trade representative San Gee is among those who say they’re nervous. “The possible effects could be quite significant,” San, an economist and academic at National Central University, said in an interview. “Everything is uncertain. Everything is dynamic and it puts us in an uneasy position.” If Trump trade barriers cut US imports by 10 percent, or $240 billion, Taiwan would take a bigger hit than China relative to the size of their economies, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Such a scenario would shave at least 0.4 percent off Taiwan’s nominal GDP, Goldman said, noting that the estimate doesn’t include other factors, such as possible trade retaliation.
Electronics exposure
Exports account for about two-thirds of Taiwan’s economy, and machinery and electronics make up the bulk of those exports. Taiwan now makes more than 90 percent of the world’s motherboards and notebook computers, according to a Brookings Institution report. So tariffs on Chinese
electronics would be especially painful for Taiwan because a large portion are either made by Taiwanese-owned companies or are partly made in Taiwan itself. “Because most of the value of those items is contributed by Taiwanese, other Asian and US companies, a tariff based on their value coming out of China would hurt Taiwan and others disproportionately,” said Shelley Rigger, a politics professor at Davidson College and author of the book Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse. To be sure, China and the US remain a long way from a trade war. Trump has yet to explain since he took office what action he might take on trade. He calmed nerves this month when he stepped away from a threat to upend US policy on Taiwan, promising in a telephone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping to respect the “One China” policy that has been the basis of US ties with the mainland since the 1970s. China’s Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said at a briefing on Tuesday history shows that the US and China can resolve their differences. He noted that the economic interests of the two countries are intertwined. While investors and companies remain uncertain about what direction US trade policy will take, they’re working with the assumption that the two sides will reach a resolution, according to David Mann, chief Asia economist at Standard Chartered Plc. in Singapore. “People are assuming it will work out and it won’t go down the worst possible path,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Bloomberg News
World
sMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph • Friday, February 24, 2017
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Immigrants hide, fearing capture on ‘any corner’
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o going to church, no going to the store. No doctor’s appointments for some, no school for others. No driving, period— not when a broken taillight could deliver the driver to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
It is happening in the Central Valley of California, where unauthorized immigrants pick the fields for survival wages, but are keeping their children home from school; on Staten Island, where fewer day laborers haunt street corners in search of work; in West Phoenix’s Isaac School District, where 13 Latino students have dropped out in the past two weeks; and in the horse country of northern New Jersey, where one of the many undocumented grooms, who muck out the stables, is thinking of moving back to Honduras. If depor t at ion h a s a lways been a threat on paper for the 11 million people living in the countr y illegally, it rarely imperiled those who did not commit serious crimes. But with the Tr ump administration intent on c u rbi ng i l leg a l i m m ig ra tion—two memos outlining the
10,000 The number of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to be hired under the new policy that calls for speedier deportations of illegal immigrants
federa l gover nment ’s pl a ns to accelerate depor t at ions were released on Tuesd ay, a not her step towa rd ma k ing good on one of P re s id e nt D on a l d J. Tr u mp’s sig n at u re c a mpa ig n pledges—that threat, for many people, has now beg u n to d is tor t ever y movement. It has driven one family from
the local park, where they used to play baseball in the evenings, and young men from a soccer field in Brooklyn, where pick-up games were once common. It has kept Meli, 37, who arr ived in Los A ngeles from El Sa lvador more than 12 years ago, in a state of self-imposed house arrest, refusing to drive, fearing to leave her home, wonder ing how she w il l ta ke her younger son, who is autistic, to doctor’s appointments. “I don’t want to go to the store, to church—they are looking everywhere, and they know where to find us,” said Meli, who asked that her last name not be used out of fear of getting caught. “They could be waiting for us anywhere. Any corner, any block.” It h a s w a shed e ver -l a rger tides of immigrants in Philadelphia, New York, Los A ngeles and beyond to the doors of nonprofit advocac y and lega l ser v ices groups, which repor t hea r ing t he sa me quest ions: W hat should I do if I am stopped by an officer from ICE? How qu ic k ly ca n I apply for c it izenship if I am a lready a lega l per manent resident? How can I desig nate someone w ith lega l status as my children’s g uardian if I am depor ted? “There’s a real fear that their kids will get put into the fostercare system,” said Mary Clark,
the executive director of Esperanza Immigrant Legal Services in Philadelphia. “People are asking us because they don’t know where to turn.” T he ne w p ol ic ie s c a l l for speedier deportations and the hiring of 10,000 ICE agents and direct them to treat any offense, no matter how small, as grounds for deportation. For Trump’s supporters and longtime advocates of stricter immigration enforcement, they are a welcome move toward restoring law and order to a system they say offered no deterrent to illegally entering the country. Unauthorized immigrants, in their view, have filled jobs that belong to Americans, drained public resources and skipped the line for visas on which others had waited for years. But for those in the United States unlawfully, the atmosphere in Washington is a signal to prepare for the worst. In the parking lot of a Latino shopping strip in Austin, Texas, one couple, who were walking with their two children out of a pediatrician’s appointment, said they had picked a friend with documentation to serve as their children’s guardian if they were sent back to Mexico. “And we’re getting our kids US passports so they can come visit us in Mexico,” said the man, a stocky
restaurant worker in a gray baseball cap, who has lived in Texas for 15 years and declined to give his name. He said he was not afraid to leave, but wanted to be prepared. “If they’re going to take me,” he said, “they’re going to take me.” Two Roman Catholic nuns in Austin with the Sisters of Loretto, who did not want to be identified because they did not want to put the people they serve in jeopardy, said they were already seeing immigrants they knew change their habits out of fear. They know a woman who has stopped going out to buy medication. They know a couple, restaurant workers, who have lived in the country for 25 years and are now taking turns going shopping. That way, they figure, their children will still have one parent if the other is picked up. Some low-income families in New York, with children who are citizens, have declined to re-enroll in a program offering food assistance worth several thousand dollars, said Betsy Plum, director of special projects for the New York Immigration Coalition, an advocacy group. “ There’s a real isolationist ref lex that’s happening now,” Plum said. On a good Sunday, the Staten Island tamale restaurant, run by Cesar Rodriguez and his mother,
makes $3,000. Since the start of the year, it has averaged only $1,500, and this past Sunday only $700. Rodriguez, who was brought to New York when he was 13 and has temporary protection from deportation under an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, said he thought unauthorized residents were saving their money in case they were detained. They may also be reluctant to leave the house for fear of immigration agents stalking outside. “They are listening to fake news,” he said. “Even if it’s not true, they are afraid.” Empt y chairs inside classrooms have become increasingly common in Ceres, California, a Central Valley city where 75 percent of students are Hispanic, according to school administrators. T he sc hool s t here a re su r rounded by dair ies and a lmond orchards, which are predom i n a nt ly st a f fed b y i mm ig ra nt workers. Sc hool adm i n i s t r ator s at t r i but e d t he absences to pa rents, who were wor r ied t he y cou ld be ident if ie d t h rou g h t he sc hool re cords of t heir citizen chi ld ren. In response, school officials have asked teachers to reassure students that the district did not collect data on immigration status. New York Times News Service
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Friday, February 24, 2017
briefs
Japan Crown Prince vows to follow father’s footstep
TOKYO—Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito marked his 57th birthday on Thursday with a pledge to follow in his father’s footsteps as a symbol of the nation if his father’s wish to abdicate is realized. Naruhito is first in line to Japan’s Chrysanthemum throne and would succeed Emperor Akihito, now 83. Akihito expressed last August his apparent wish to abdicate, citing concerns his age and health may start limiting his ability to fulfill his duties. The government is currently discussing a special law to allow Akihito to step down. “I would like to continue to pray for, always stand by, and share joys and sorrows with the people,” Naruhito said in a birthday message released on Thursday. AP
Iraqi forces push up to Mosul’s key military base by airport
BAGHDAD—Iraq’s special forces say they have begun an assault against the Islamic State (IS) group on a sprawling military base south of Mosul that’s adjacent to the city’s airport. Two Iraqi special forces officers say their troops have reached the edge of the Ghazlani base on the city’s southern rim on Thursday morning and that clashes there are under way. A federal police officer says his forces are also pushing toward the Mosul airport. All officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to reporters. The advances come days after Iraqi forces officially launched the operation to push IS out of Mosul’s western half. The operation to retake Iraq’s second-largest city was launched last October and, in January, its eastern half was declared “fully liberated”. AP
McCain makes secret Syria trip to meet with U.S. troops
WASHINGTON—Sen. John McCain, one of President Donald J. Trump’s harshest critics, made a secret trip to northern Syria to visit United States forces stationed there and discuss the campaign for defeating the Islamic State (IS) extremists, his office said on Wednesday. The Arizona Republican’s visit to the war-torn country occurred as a major battle nears to oust the militants from Raqqa, the capital of the IS’s selfdeclared caliphate. A statement from the senator’s office did not give the dates of his travel, saying only that he made the visit last week. AP
The World BusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Trump rescinds Obama directive on bathroom use W
ASHINGTON—President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, overruling his own education secretary and placing his administration firmly in the middle of the culture wars that many Republicans have tried to leave behind. In a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice Department and the Education Department rejected the Obama administration’s position that nondiscrimination laws require schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. That directive, they said, was improperly and arbitrarily devised, “without due regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts in establishing educational policy”. The question of how to address the “ bathroom debate”, as it has become known, opened a rift inside the Trump administration, pitting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos against Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions, who had been expected to move quickly to roll back the civil-rights expansions put in place under his Democratic predecessors, wanted to act decisively because of two pending court cases that could have upheld the protections and pushed the government into further litigation. But DeVos initially resisted signing off, and told Trump that she was uncomfortable because of the potential harm that rescinding the protections could cause transgender students, according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the internal dis-
cussions. Sessions, who has opposed expanding gay, lesbian and transgender rights, pushed DeVos to relent. After getting nowhere, he took his objections to the White House because he could not go forward without her consent. Trump sided with his attorney general, the Republicans said, and told DeVos in a meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he wanted her to drop her opposition. And DeVos, faced with the alternative of resigning or defying the president, agreed to go along. DeVos’s unease was evident in a strongly worded statement she released on Wednesday night, in which she said that she considered it a “moral obligation” for every school in America to protect all students from discrimination, bullying and harassment. She said she had directed the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate all claims of such treatment “against those who are most vulnerable in our schools”, but also argued that bathroom access was not a federal matter. Individual schools will remain free to let transgender students use the bathrooms with which they are most comfortable. And the effect of the administration’s decision will not be immediate because a federal court
People gather outside of the White House in Washington during a protest against President Donald J. Trump’s plan to rescind antidiscrimination protections for transgender students on Wednesday. Al Drago/The New York Times
had already issued a nationwide injunction barring enforcement of the Obama order. The dispute highlighted the degree to which transgenderrights issues, which Trump expressed sympathy for during the campaign, continue to split Republicans, even as many in the party argue it is time to move away from social issues and focus more on bread-and-butter pocketbook concerns. Within the administration, it also threatened to become another distraction for Trump after a tumultuous first month in office. And it showed how Trump, who has taken a more permissive stance on gay rights and same-sex mar r iage than many of his fellow Republicans, is bowing to pressure from the religious right and contradicting his own personal views. Gay-rights supporters made their displeasure clear. Outside the White House, several hundred people protested the decision, chanting, “No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here.” Social conservatives, one of
Trump’s most loyal constituencies, applauded him for honoring a pledge he had made to them during the campaign. They have argued that former President Barack Obama’s policy would allow potential sexual predators access to bathrooms and create an unsafe environment for children. “The federal government has absolutely no right to strip parents and local schools of their rights to provide a safe learning environment for children,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. But supporters of transgender rights said the Trump administration was acting recklessly and cruelly. “The consequences of this decision will no doubt be heartbreaking,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “This isn’t a states’ rights issue, it’s a civil-rights issue.” Bathroom access emerged as a major and divisive issue last Ma rc h when Nor t h C a rol ina passed a bill barring transgender people from using bathrooms that do not match the sex on their birth certificate. It was part of a
broader bill eliminating antidiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues became a point of attack for opponents of DeVos’s nomination last month, as Democrats questioned her about the extensive financial support that some of her relatives—part of her wealthy and politically active Michigan family—had provided to antigay causes. DeVos distanced herself from her relatives on the issue, saying their political activities did not represent her views. While Wednesday’s order significantly rolls back of transgender protections, it does include language stating schools must protect transgender students from bullying—a provision DeVos asked for, one person with direct knowledge of the process said. “All schools must ensure that students, including LGBT students, are able to learn and thrive in a safe environment,” the letter said, echoing her comments at her confirmation hearing. New York Times News Service
7 Earth-size planets identified in orbit around a dwarf star N ot just one, but seven Earth-size planets that could potentially harbor life have been identified orbiting a tiny star not too far away, offering the first realistic opportunity to search for signs of alien life outside the solar system. The planets orbit a dwarf star named Trappist-1, about 40 lightyears, or 235 trillion miles, from Earth. That is quite close in cosmic terms, and by happy accident, the orientation of the orbits of the seven planets allows them to be studied in great detail. One or more of the exoplanets in this new system could be at the right temperature to be awash in oceans of water, astronomers said, based on the distance of the planets from the dwarf star. “This is the first time so many planets of this kind are found around the same star,” Michael Gillon, an astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium and the leader of an international team that has been observing Trappist-1, said during a telephone news conference organized by the journal Nature, which published the findings on Wednesday. Scientists could even discover compelling evidence of aliens. “I think that we have made
In an undated handout image, an artist’s rendering of the seven planets that orbit the star named Trappist-1. Seven Earth-size planets that could potentially harbor life have been identified orbiting a tiny star not too far away, offering the first realistic opportunity to search for biological signs of alien life outside of the solar system. Nasa/JPL-Caltech via The New York Times
a crucial step toward finding if there is life out there,” said Amaury H.M.J. Triaud, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge in England and another member of the research team. “Here, if life managed to thrive and releases gases similar to that we have on Earth, then we will know.” Cool red dwarfs are the most common type of star, so astronomers are likely to find more planetary systems like that around Trappist-1 in the coming years. “You can just imagine how many worlds are out there that
235T miles The distance from Earth of the newly identified planets have a shot to becoming a habitable ecosystem,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) science mission directorate, said during a Nasa news conference on Wednesday. “Are we alone out there? We’re
making a step forward with this— a leap forward, in fact—toward answering that question.” Telescopes on the ground now and the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit will be able to discern some of the molecules in the planetary atmospheres. The James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch next year, will peer at the infrared wavelengths of light, ideal for studying Trappist-1. Comparisons among the different conditions of the seven will also be revealing. “The Trappist-1 planets make
the search for life in the galaxy imminent,” said Sara Seager, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not a member of the research team. “For the first time ever, we don’t have to speculate. We just have to wait, and then make very careful observations and see what is in the atmospheres of the Trappist planets.” Even if the planets all turn out to be lifeless, scientists will have learned more about what keeps life from f lourishing. Astronomers always knew other
stars must have planets, but until a couple of decades ago, they had not been able to spot them. Now they have confirmed more than 3,400, according to the Open Exoplanet Catalog. (An exoplanet is a planet around a star other than the sun.) The authors of the Nature paper include Didier Queloz, one of the astronomers who discovered in 1995 the first known exoplanet around a sun-like star. While the Trappist planets are about the size of Earth—give or take 25 percent in diameter—the star is very different from our sun. Trappist-1, named after a robotic telescope in the Atacama Desert of Chile that astronomers initially used to study the star, is what astronomers call an “ultracool dwarf ”, with only one-twelfth the mass of the sun and a surface temperature of 4,150 degrees Fahrenheit, much cooler than the 10,000 degrees radiating from the sun. Trappist is a shortening of Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope. During the Nasa news conference, Gillon gave a simple analogy: If our sun were the size of a basketball, Trappist-1 would be a golf ball. New York Times News Service
A10 Friday, February 24, 2017 • Editor: Angel R. Calso
Opinion BusinessMirror
editorial
Is the DENR doing its job?
‘A
ll power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely,” according to British historian Lord Acton. Perhaps, no government agency has more absolute power than the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Although rarely, if ever, talked about, ask almost any member of the mining industry “off the record” and you will hear stories of the corruption in the DENR during past administrations.
It is with comfort that we assume these practices have ended under the Duterte/Lopez administration of the DENR. However, the controversy over the moves by Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez to suspend certain mining operations and cancel some 75 mineral production sharing agreements is not going to go away soon. Issues of the transparency of the decisions and due process are probably going to be decided by the courts, and that is both a necessary and important development. It is vitally important the mining industry be held to the letter of the law and is equally vital the government properly enforces the law. The legal mandate of the DENR, as stated in Executive Order 192, Series of 1987, says: “There is a need to protect and enhance the quality of the country’s environment. It is hereby declared the policy of the State to ensure the sustainable use, development, management, renewal and conservation of the country’s forest, mineral, land, off-shore areas and other natural resources”. But also part of the mandate is to “increase the productivity of natural resources in order to meet the demands for forest, mineral and land resources of a growing population” and to “enhance the contribution of natural resources for achieving national economic and social development”. While Lopez declares she is not “antimining”, it is difficult to find any series of statements from her about enhancing the contribution of natural resources, including mineral wealth, for achieving national economic and social development. Further, nowhere in the DENR mandate is there a call to pick business-sector winners and losers in favoring “green jobs” over mineralwealth extraction. Lopez calls reference to the ecotourism project of Ugong Rock in Puerto Princesa, which is a success and can be duplicated across the nation. However, can we assume that the DENR is currently and actively cataloging other sites for a similar program? Mining operations must protect the environment. But how can we compare a 25- to 50-year mining project, delivering sustainable revenue and employment, to that of Ugong Rock? It is unlikely tourists will return year after year for an annual pilgrimage to ride the zip line. Both are necessary, but this is an apples and mangoes comparison. Now that the DENR has taken the first step of shutting down certain mining operations, can we expect that illegal mining—which is equally or even more destructive to the environment—will come under prohibition? The current estimated value of the total proven mineral resources of the nation is $2.1 trillion. If the DENR—and Congress—is not willing or capable of fulfilling its legal obligation to “ensure equitable sharing of the benefits derived therefrom for the welfare of the present and future generations of Filipinos”, then the country has a problem. Since 2005
BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business
Social media and waking the voter up James Jimenez
spox
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ocial media is a powerful tool for waking voters up. It’s persistent—the messages you put out on social media are always available to read, watch and listen to again and again; it’s pervasive—it gives you a direct path to the voter’s eyeballs and ears, via their smartphones; and it’s dirt cheap. But the benefits of using social media in any sustained way, for a focused objective, such as voter education, can only be maximized if it is used properly. Used improperly, social media can be ridiculously easy to ignore. Users can unfollow or even block you, for instance. Or, on Twitter, simply mute your tweets so 140-character nugget of wisdom languish unseen. And if your messages aren’t getting to their intended audiences, as well-crafted as they might be, you might, as well, be singing sonnets into the void for all the good that’s going to you. Here are some simple rules of thumb that can help. First, keep the #VoterEd messages short and punchy. If you can manage it, make them humorous, as well. One of the keys to social-media success is virality, (per Google) “the tendency of an image, video, or piece of information to be circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another”. If you want your message to be
shared, make it interesting enough to share. This doesn’t always mean overflowing with information. It is usually more effective to go with something that makes people laugh and want to find out more than to just bombard them with details. Never forget that graphic content is king. There are many studies proving that the inclusion of an image in a post—whether on a microblogging site or in a long-form blog—
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#Aldub fever that swept the nation last year, I would caution respect toward the fans. Not everyone will appreciate having “their” hashtag co-opted, and you risk sparking a backlash. The same warning applies to “serious” hashtags, like those dealing with calamities or important government announcements, like #WalangPasok. In these cases, it’s not the backlash that you want to wary of; what you want to avoid is being a dick. And fifth, cultivate your platform well so that it feels like a real person communicating, and not just some automated “bot”. Don’t forget the social-media rule of thirds. Hootsuite, the twitter client web site and app, puts it this way: “One-third of your social content promotes your business, converts readers and generates profit. Onethird of your social content should surface and share ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses. Onethird of your social content should be based on personal interactions and build your personal brand.” Now, have at it! Good luck! James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s Education and Information Department.
Impact of two-tier tax on cigarette, health, competition
✝ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Publisher
greatly increases virality. In other words, pique your readers’ interest and—here comes the second rule— give them somewhere to “go-to” for more information. Go-tos can either be a hyperlink to a separate web site that will act as your online repository of detailed information. A hashtag (#) also functions as a go-to because when readers click on the tag, they get to see all other posts with the same tag. Third, effective and purposive communication should always be top priority. Make sure that everything #VoterEd-related you post has a point and is easily understood. Not always a very easy thing to accomplish, particularly on Twitter, where the 140-character limit can make for some funny composition. Nevertheless, within the limits of the medium, always strive for easy comprehensibility. None of that “2 vote dnt 4get 2 bring ur kodigo so u wont 4gt d names of d candid8s”. You. Are. Not. Prince. Fourth, don’t be afraid to hitch a ride on the latest fads. It might be cringe inducing to your refined sensibilities, but the fact is people are talking about fads, and you want your #VoterEd message to be part of that conversation. Of course, when the trend has to do with fervent fandom, such as the
Continued from A1
(a) The following agreements, between or among competitors, are per se prohibited: 1. Restricting competition as to price, or components thereof, or other terms of trade; 2. Fixing price at an auction or in any form of bidding, including cover bidding, bid suppression, bid rotation and market allocation and other analogous practices of bid manipulation. (b) The following agreements, between or among competitors, which have the object or effect of substantially preventing, restricting or lessening competition shall be prohibited: 1. Setting, limiting, or controlling production, markets, technical developments, or investments; 2. Dividing or sharing the market, whether by volume of sales or purchases, territory, type of goods or services, buyers or sellers or any other means. (c) Agreements other than those specified in (a) and (b) of this section, which have the object or effect of substantially preventing, restricting or lessening competition, shall also be
prohibited: Provided, those that contribute to improving the production or distribution of goods and services or to promoting technical or economica progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefits, may not necessarily be deemed a violation of this Act. While we have the courts to decide on the merits of the issue on cigarette taxation, should it reach that level and, of course, the Supreme Court, as the final interepeter of the law, let me, however, share my thoughts and own understanding of the Philippine competition law, where my position that a two-tier cigarette tax would violate the antitrust law is based. On Item 1 under (a) of the above mentioned restrictions, it says restricting competition as to price, or components thereof, or other terms of trade violates the Philippine competition law. As a consumer and industry advocate, former president and CEO of the government sequestered CIIFOil Mills and as bank director, I am very particular about costs as the sum of all its components determine the final cost of finished products, and
ultimately its selling price. In simple terms, if tax is not a cost component, then it should not affect the selling price of products. But tax, whether its a pass on cost or a production cost component, affects the selling price of products. Thus, a two-tiered tax on cigarettes would result in market segmentation of lower-taxed and lowerpriced cigarettes and higher-taxed and higher-priced cigarettes. Moreover, Item (c) of the above mentioned restrictions in the Philippine competition law is virtually the catch-all provison. It states that all agreements other than those specified in (a) and (b), which have the object or effect of restricting or lessenng competition, shall also be prohibited. A tax, although it may be contested, is actually an agreed amount of money between the government and taxpayer, which the latter has to pay for earning money out of business or for doing services, among others. Thus, the law would not say imposing tax on cigarette is prohibited and restrictive, as it needs revenues to run its huge machinery. The objective of collecting taxes from cigarettes, after all, is very important for the nation’s economy. However, its results, should the two-tier tax on cigarettes be imposed, would lessen competition, as market forces could polarize to the lower taxed and cheaper cigarette brands. In short, while the objective of taxation is noble and essential, its result, under a two-tiered tax system, would restrict competition.
Anyway, let me leave the issue on cigarette taxation to the tax experts, and, of course, the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, if only to determine whether tax is a cost component in the computation for the selling price of cigarettes. But the government had other concerns aside from raising revenues, when it supported the sin-tax law, particularly the single-tier tax for cigarettes. Secondary to revenue collection, the government also wanted to address the health risks of smoking, especially among the youth and the poor. And under the two-tier tax system, health advocates worry that it will only encourage these type smokers to shift to the lower-taxed and cheaper cigarette brands. The government will not allow the youth and the poor to die of smokingrelated illnesses simply because they had a choice for lower-priced cigarettes. This contravenes the purpose of the sin-tax law to discourage smoking among others. Moreover, the two-tiered cigarette tax can also be exploited by some unscrupulous traders and manufacturers through misdeclaration, and/or undervaluation, including the other forms of illicit trade. This could result in higher revenue losses for the government, contravening, instead, the governmet’s purpose of raising more revenues from the sin-tax law. I hope this clarifies further my stand on the cigarette-tax debate.
Opinion BusinessMirror
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Fight Trump, not his voters
Friday, February 24, 2017 A11
Of tablet crackers and unseen voyages Tito Genova Valiente
annotations
Nicholas Kristof
New york times
A
few days ago, I blithely tweeted a warning that Democrats often sound patronizing when speaking of Trump voters. That provoked a vehement reaction.
“Sorry,” Jason tweeted back, “but if someone is supporting a racist ignoramus who wants to round up brown ppl and steal my money, I’m gonna patronize.” “This is normalization of a hateful ideology and it’s shameful,” protested another. “My tone isn’t patronizing,” one person responded. “It’s hostile. Intentionally. I won’t coddle those who refuse to recognize my humanity.” “What a great idea!” another offered. “Let’s recruit a whole bunch of bigoted unthinking lizard brains because we could possibly ‘WIN!’” And so the comments went, registering legitimate anxieties about President Donald J. Trump—but also the troubling condescension
First, stereotyping a huge slice of America as misogynist bigots is unfair and impairs understanding. Hundreds of thousands of those Trump supporters had voted for Barack Obama. Many are themselves black, Latino or Muslim. Are they all bigots? Second, demonizing Trump voters feeds the dysfunction of our political system. One can be passionate about one’s cause, and fight for it, without contributing to political paralysis that risks making our country ungovernable. Tolerance is a liberal value; name-calling isn’t. This raises knotty questions about tolerating intolerance, but is it really necessary to start with a blanket judgment writing off 46 percent of voters?
Yes, the Trump camp includes some racists and other bigots. But it’s a big camp, and let’s not be so quick to affix labels on every member of a vast group. This column may offend everyone, from Trump enthusiasts to liberals who decry them. But my message is simple: Go ahead and denounce Trump’s lies and bigotry. Stand firm against his disastrous policies. But please don’t practice his trick of “otherizing” people into stick-figure caricatures, slurring vast groups as hopeless bigots. We’re all complicated, and stereotypes are not helpful—including when they’re of Trump supporters. that worried me in the first place. I fear that the (richly deserved) animus toward Trump is spilling over onto all his supporters. I understand the vehemence. Trump is a demagogue who vilifies and scapegoats refugees, Muslims, unauthorized immigrants, racial minorities, who strikes me as a danger to our national security. By all means stand up to him, and point out his lies and incompetence. But let’s be careful about blanket judgments. My hometown, Yamhill, Oregon, a farming community, is Trump country, and I have many friends who voted for Trump. I think they’re profoundly wrong, but please don’t dismiss them as hateful bigots. The glove factory closed down. The timber business slimmed. Union jobs disappeared. Good folks found themselves struggling and sometimes self-medicated with methamphetamine or heroin. Too many of my schoolmates died early; one, Stacy Lasslett, died of hypothermia while she was homeless. This is part of a national trend: Mortality rates for white middleaged Americans have risen, ref lecting working-class “deaths of despair”. Liberals purport to champion these people, but don’t always understand them. In Yamhill plenty of well-meaning people were frustrated enough that they took a gamble on a silvertongued provocateur. It wasn’t because they were “bigoted unthinking lizard brains” but because they didn’t know where to turn, and Trump spoke to their fears. Trump tries to “otherize” Muslims, refugees, unauthorized immigrants and other large groups. It sometimes works when people don’t actually know a Muslim or a refugee, and liberals, likewise, seem more willing to otherize Trump voters when they don’t know any. There are three reasons I think it’s shortsighted to direct liberal fury at the entire mass of Trump voters, a complicated (and, yes, diverse) group of 63 million people.
When Trump demonizes journalists as “the enemy of the American people”, that is an outrageous overstep. But suggesting that Trump voters are enemies of the people is also inappropriate. The third reason is tactical: It’s hard to win over voters whom you’re insulting. Many liberals argue that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and the focus should be on rallying the base and fighting voter-suppression efforts. Yes, but Democrats f lopped in Congress, governor races and state legislatures. Republicans now control 68 percent of partisan legislative chambers in the United States. If Democrats want to battle voter suppression, it’s crucial to win local races—including in white working-class districts in Ohio, Wisconsin and elsewhere. Yes, a majority of Trump voters are probably unattainable for Democrats, but millions may be winnable. So don’t blithely give up on 63 million people; instead, make arguments directed at them. Fight for their votes, not with race-baiting, but with economic pitches for the working and middle classes. Clinton’s calling half of Trump voters “ deplorables” achieved nothing and probably cost her critical votes. Why would Democrats repeat that mistake? Yes, the Trump camp includes some racists and other bigots. But it’s a big camp, and let’s not be so quick to affix labels on every member of a vast group. This column may offend everyone, from Trump enthusiasts to liberals who decry them. But my message is simple: Go ahead and denounce Trump’s lies and bigotry. Stand firm against his disastrous policies. But, please, don’t practice his trick of “otherizing” people into stick-figure caricatures, slurring vast groups as hopeless bigots. We’re all complicated, and stereotypes are not helpful—including when they’re of Trump supporters.
I
once more visited my mother’s doctor. My purpose was to consult on what other medicines may be available for her. My mother has entered a new phase in her life. At the age of 90, my mother has made it an all-night event to all relatives. I listen to hear her each night do that. The dialogue is very simple: She calls them one by one and asks them to hold her hand. With some relatives, she is very specific: Hold my hand.
My mother’s voice has grown louder and hoarser. The compulsion from her brains. With some individuals, this compulsion is to walk and walk. With my mother, it is to talk. During some nights when her voice wakes me up, I would usually go near the door of her room and ask her who are in her room. Gently, I tell her to stop inviting them to stay. Let them go, I would plead to her. The problem is I do not have the heart and the body to drive these nocturnal visitors away. They are all dead, after all. I want my mother to quiet down, not because I am irritated with her, but because I want her to get some rest.
In the good doctor’s office I relayed to her the situation of my mother. It must be the medicine we are giving her, the doctor spoke as if I were a colleague, a fellow doctor. After more questions and clarification, she informed me she would change some of my mother’s medicine. One of these medicines is in the form of a tablet. From the prescribed 100 milligrams, the tablet woud be divided into four. She sked me to have the salesperson in the pharmacy to do the cutting of the tablets. Mentioning this to the young man at the counter, he said they could see a tablet cutter and I should be the one to cut the tablets. Inside the taxi waiting for me,
I contemplated the role of tabletcrackers. When I looked up, I saw the back of a man, a fellow passenger in the cab. I was puzzled, but I would not ask the driver. He must be a cousin. I am thankful enough the taxi driver patiently waited for me. I looked out and could not understand why we were passing by old stone houses. I pressed my face against the closed window and tried to find a familiar structure. I could not recognize the buildings, I saw that we kept passing by buildings
and areas with landmarks. The taxi was passing by some streets twice because I felt we had gone by those structures. The trip was taking longer this time. I looked outside again. We were passing by a cemetery. That is close to my home. I looked up and saw no passenger seated beside the driver. I looked at the tablet cracker. This is the only matter I would understand. I assured myself. E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.
Facing new external challenges Alvin P. Ang
EAGLE WATCH
L
ast week I sat in a panel on a seminar organized by the Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER) on Asian economies in the midst of the new global environment. Together with research economists from Japan, India, Indonesia and Thailand, we tackled how the Trump Effect and the rise of new nationalism will affect Asia and our individual economies. We have concluded that these new headwinds will not stop Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, to be one of the growth centers of the world. Not because Southeast Asia is better, but because the rest of the world will remain sluggish due to slow global trade. Hence, the America First policy will most likely weaken further world trade. A weaker world trade, in turn, could further slow the economy in China. Slower world trade will significantly affect economies that are part of the supply chain to China. While the Philippines is part of this supply chain, our exposure is relatively smaller compared to our Asean neighbors. Export of goods has become less significant in the Philippine economy, growing only by 40 percent in 15 years, as against the 150-percent growth of Indonesia and the 400-percent growth of Vietnam in the same period. In a way, since the country is relatively detached to the global trade, this will be a plus factor in another downturn. The exports of goods-led path taken by our neighbors was not the path we took. Instead, our focus went to service exports and the sustained growth of remittances. In a much shorter period of 10 years, the
business-process outsourcing (BPO) revenues grew by about 150 percent, ending 2016 at about $22 billion. Overseas Filipino workers’ remittances, on the other hand, still posted growth of 5 percent in the last three years, contributing $28 billion to the economy. Finally, tourism revenues have started to contribute significantly. We estimate its contribution to be about $5 billion from about 6 million international tourists who visited the country last year. All told, these foreign-exchange sources have strengthened our foreign-exchange reserves position. The table shows the country’s relative strength. The contribution of remittances, BPO revenues and tourism receipts helped maintain gross international reserves (GRIs) at about $80 billion, which is equiv-
I agree Teddy Locsin Jr.
Free fire
T
HE Palace explained that Edsa rites henceforth shall be modest. And the theme will be people power moving on. I agree 100 percent.
The reason is that I opposed right at the start the public government celebration of a private act of courage and conviction—albeit it on a mass scale—staged against the government. Each of the people who went to Edsa expected to stand there alone against the government. I wanted, instead, a gigantic
cathedral, like near the 100-yearold Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, still unfinished that would take as long to complete, out of private contributions, as it took the Filipino people to wake up from their mental and moral lethargy and destroy the dictatorship. (Remember US Sen. Mike Mansfield apt description
of BPOs staying in the Philippines. Considering its low sunk costs, it may actually be the easiest to move back into the United States. However, such analysis is incomplete, because BPOs have moved out of the US, basically because these jobs are no longer preferred and they are more expensive to retain. Hence, it is unlikely they will shift back to the US. Nonetheless, the possibility of it happening is still not remote. As of this writing, the peso actually has breached the psychological P50-to-$1 barrier, depreciating by about 5 percent in a year. Compared to the peer economies, only Malaysia and the Philippines depreciated in the same period. Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore actually appreciated. What we are seeing is that there is significant movement in the currency beyond the fundamentals. It is likely combination of various internal and external factors are affecting it. What may be critical to consider is not to be fixed in this short-term movement but to look at how the government is building up further strength in the coming months, such as those that will improve tourism and attract specialized BPOs.
alent to about one year of imports. Although our GIR is the lowest among the Asean 5, it is able to cover more months of imports. The rule of thumb says once the cover falls below three months, a devaluation is possible as what happened during the Asian financial crisis in 1998. The same foreign-exchange inflows have allowed us to continue to have positive current-account position, allowing us to pay our imports and have extra foreign exchange added to our reserves. In terms of external debt, the Philippines actually has now the smallest foreign debt among the Asean—a reversal from the 1980s and the 1990s. In terms of percentage to the GDP, this is also the lowest. All told, these data show the Philippines is relatively in a better position to face external challenges in the short term. This position is much better than our conditions during the 1997 crisis and during the 2008 global financial crisis. Needless to say, this position does not assure us of being able to escape any crisis without any challenge. For instance, the threat of America First is causing concerns on the sustainability
Strength of external position GIRa Mil USD M Covera Months
Philippines 80,692 11.9
Thailand 171,853 10.6
Malaysia Indonesia Singapore 94,600 116,362 246,575 6.8 10.4 10.5
Current Accountb as percent of GDP External Debtb Bil USD
1.3 76.6
11.0 139.3
1.9 213.8
-1.6 325.3
24.9 1,287.3c
External Debtb percent GDP
25.5
37.3
73.3
35.8
446.1
Source: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. a 2016 Q4. b 2016 Q3. c 2016 Q2.
of them during martial law, “40 million cowards and one son of a bitch”.) Never leave to the future, I said, the safekeeping of the memory of what the past achieved. Generations come and go, with progressively diminishing capacity. Edsa is best commemorated— and the event celebrated—in the heart. That is the only imperishable location for a fitting commemoration. In the event, I was proved right. The first Edsa celebration was attended more by the losers at Edsa seeking reconciliation, than the vastly larger winners thereat who were resting on their laurels at home after a job perilously and well done. Edsa should be commemorated
quietly, like Passover, after which it was modeled, because Cory echoed Moses— when she told Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” I also agree that the theme should be, “Edsa moving on.” This, to ensure by preemptive criticism and vigorous opposition that another Edsa will not be needed again. Moving on cannot mean forgetting. You cannot move on if you do not know where you came from so you know where you are headed. That is not moving on. That is just wandering in the desert, after worshipping a calf made of gold. In short, the celebration of Edsa by its devotees must go underground.
2nd Front Page BusinessMirror
A12 Friday, February 24, 2017
www.businessmirror.com.ph
DEATH ON THE NIGHT SHIFT By Miguel Syjuco
New York Times News Serive
O
n ly f ive people h ad turned up dead. It was a slow evening. The journalists on the night shift say Fridays are like that. A predictable rhythm has developed to the killings in this dense metropolis of nearly 13 million. Weekdays are busier, often producing a dozen bodies before morning. One reporter told me the record was 27 one night. Weekends are more tranquil, which is when those who cover this beat attend wakes and funerals of victims, or follow up with witnesses and other sources. In the eight months of Rodrigo R. Duterte’s presidency, reports on the drug war have caused concern around the world and in the Philippines, though the President’s supporters cast the news as biased and the killings as necessary. Alarmed by the daily death tolls and tales of systemic abuse, I spent a weekend on the front lines with some of the journalists who track the mass death. The media can hardly keep up. “The night shift used to be boring,” one reporter told me outside the
press office of a police precinct. “Fires and domestic abuse and car accidents,” he said. Now their stories on daily deaths, crooked cops and the exploitations of the powerful no longer shock. Filipinos were forewarned. As a candidate, Duterte vowed to rid the country of drugs and crime in six months. As President, he has guaranteed a pardon to any police officer who killed people in the line of duty, and said that human rights do not apply to drug addicts because they’re not human. To set a good example, Duterte boasted of shooting suspects dead himself. His rhetoric and policies have yielded dramatic results. More than 7,000 people have been killed, while the police point to over 43,000 arrests and the surrender of nearly 80,000 drug pushers and more than 1.1 million users. Crimes like theft, carjacking and cattle rustling have collectively dropped 42 percent. But murder has spiked 51 percent—the consequence, according to a recent report by Amnesty International, of an “economy of death”. resulting from corruption, police abuse and pressure for results that have victimized
society’s poorest. A nightly vigil is kept by a group of local and international reporters, documentary filmmakers and photographers. They call themselves “night crawlers”, and they shadow the police who are armed with lists of alleged users and the mandate of door-to-door visits. These night crawlers wait for word from radio reports, text messages from funeral homes, calls from colleagues and tips from sources within the police force (though tips have become rare since the media brought international attention to the killings). Authorities are now more guarded, and often the only tip-off reporters receive is the departure from the precinct of “scene of crime” officers. As soon as their van leaves, a convoy of journalists gives chase, lights flashing and horns blaring, on a white-knuckle race through the streets of Manila as calls are made to sources in the area in an effort to find the location and beat investigators to it. Crime scenes have reportedly been altered, official statements often contradict witnesses and the families of victims have accused police of intimidation. Media scrutiny has changed
Thousands of Roman Catholics carry placards in a “Walk for Life” march around Manila’s Rizal Park to oppose the revival of the death penalty by the Philippine Congress, as well as the killings of drug users and drug pushers in the so-called war on drugs by President Duterte at dawn on February 18. The Catholic Church expressed alarm over the killings of more than 7,000 people so far since President Duterte assumed office on June 30 last year. AP/Bullit Marquez
the way both murders and investigations are conducted. In recent months, killings have gone from the streets and into the privacy of homes. Police cordons are now established farther out from the scene, to ensure distance from photojournalists’ cameras. Witnesses
fear reprisals from authorities. Police officers hasten bodies to hospitals, which journalists cannot enter, clearing away crime scenes before they can be documented. On the Saturday night I arrived early at one location to find a 22-year-old man on the ground
Energy officials firm on RCOA implementation despite TRO
T
By Lenie Lectura
@llectura
he Department of Energy on Thursday said it is duty-bound to implement the retail competition and open access
(RCOA), a key provision of Republic Act 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reformt Act of 2001 (Epira), despite an order from the Supreme Court (SC) not to enforce it.
“The provisions in the Epira mandates the DOE to ensure the security, reliability and availability of transparent and reasonably priced electricity in the country,” said Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, adding that consumers should have the freedom of choice as to which power provider they prefer to deal with. The High Court announced on Tuesday that it issued a temporary restraining order against the implementation of RCOA. Under the said policy, which will be enforced in phases, consumers are allowed to choose their supplier of electricity to encourage competition in the generation and supply sector. The implementation of mandatory migration for contestable customers (CCs) with average peak demand of 1 megawatt and above is on February 26. Mandatory contestability for CCs with 750 kilowatt to 999-kW average peak demand will be effective on June 26. The rules also state that the lowering of the threshold to cover an end-user with an average monthly peak demand of at least 500 kW is set on June 26, 2018, subject to the review of the performance of the retail market by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). “One
of the provisions of the law is the implementation of the RCOA, which allows consumers to directly contract power supply from licensed retail electricity suppliers [RES],” Cusi clarified. “The spirit of the RCOA is giving the consumers the freedom of choice which would result in higher productivity for them. And the power of choice can only be maximized when there is a level playing field for all suppliers,” Cusi assured. “It is hoped that whatever the decision by the Supreme Court, it will redound to the ultimate benefit of the consumers, which is really the intent and the spirit of RCOA.” Cusi said. According to the DOE, 21 percent, or 221 CCs, have yet to sign up. Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said the DOE, ERC and the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) will make public on Friday their unified position on the matter. “We will comply with the Supreme Court mandate. We will talk with ERC and PEMC for a unified policy for players to be guided,” Fuentebella said. This unified policy is meant to address the concerns of the industry players that are affected by the SC decision. The DOE, Fuentebella added, is determined to explore “all legal remedies”.
Firms more optimistic on Q2 economic outlook Continued from A1
39.8 percent for the fourth quarter of 2016. “This means that the optimists continued to outnumber the pessimists but the margin was almost unchanged that of a quarter ago,” the BSP said. The central bank said respondents had reported that they were negatively affected by the usual slowdown in business activity and moderation of consumer demand after the holiday and harvest seasons. The increase in oil prices and the higher cost of raw materials, the wait-and-see at-
titude of investors with regard to the economic policy of the Trump administration and expectations of peso depreciation also tempered the sentiment of firms. The outlook of local firms for the Philippine economy in the first quarter mirrored that of businesses in France and the Euro area. Meanwhile, the BSP said an even less optimistic outlook was registered by businesses in China, Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, Canada and Germany, while more buoyant views were reported by those in the US, the UK, South Korea and the Netherlands.
with a bullet through his head. Witnesses said the police had earlier picked him up nearby. Authorities, however, reported that he was gunned down by vigilantes after he committed theft. In his pocket, the police found two tiny rocks See “Death,” A2
YASAY: CHINA WON’T BUILD STRUCTURES ON DISPUTED SHOAL By Recto Mercene
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@rectomercene
oreign Secretary Perfecto R. Yasay Jr. on Thursday said Chinese President Xi Jinping has categorically told President Duterte that Beijing will not build any structure in the Scarborough Shoal. When asked if it was Duterte who asked Xi not to build any structure in the disputed shoal, Yasay said: “Yes, they both agreed that China, so far as I understand it, that they have desisted from building on this.” “I said it will be a game changer if they will construct or they will build structures there and convert it into artificial islands, that’s really a provocative act. That will blatantly undermine our claim, if they will do it,” he told reporters in a news briefing held in Manila.“But as I’ve said, I do not expect that China will do it and I expect China will not do it,” Yasay added. He said, “If reports are correct, we also have made these commitments to the United States, but you know, these are things that were not blind to or refused to see. These are realities that we have to deal with when the time comes about.” Yasay said that, following China’s perceived threat to proceed with more construction in the South China Sea, following their dramatic conversion of seven other island, complete with military facilities, the Americans helped release photographs of the activities to alert the Philippines and other claimant countries. “In fact, intelligence reports coming from the Americans [said] they [China] are poised to send dredging vessels precisely to convert this shoal into artificial islands,” Yasay said. “But now, we’re are happy and assured that they will not do so and they deny that is part of their plans.” According to Yasay, Duterte was able to get Xi’s assurance to stop its building spree in the South China Sea during the former’s four-day state visit to Beijing last October 18. “This was part of a clarification that we made and we were confident that was part of confidence measures that have enabled us to move forward and, you can see, our fishermen were able to fish in Scarborough,” he said. Now that China’s attempts at islandbuilding in the contested South China Sea had been neutralized, “perhaps, we could have a joint use of those facilities without passing any judgment as to who owns it for now, because it will probably be decided by the tribunal regarding jurisdiction.” “But the opportunity to diffuse the tensions caused by the installation of the existing facilities is immense,” he said, agreeing to a suggestion that the reclaimed islands should be used by civilians, “jointly with Asean and China for the purpose of protecting the environment in that area.” Aside from the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim the resource-rich waters in the Scarborough Shoal. “Let me emphasize what I said in our filing of the case before the Arbitral Tribunal. We never raised the issue of who owns what part of the sea that is part of the dispute we had with China,” Yasay said. “The ruling did not pass upon ownership but ruled on the contested part of our exclusive economic zone. The Arbitral Tribunal, in fact, resoundingly validated our claim on that,” he added.