BusinessMirror February 28, 2015

three-time rotary club of manila journalism awardee 2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. Media Award 2008

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business

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Tuesday, 18, 2015 2014 Vol. Vol.10 10No. No.142 40 Saturday,November February 28,

slowdown in consumer spending cuts demand for goods, services

Businessmen’s outlook less optimistic in Q1 B

By Bianca Cuaresma

usiness confidence lost some steam in the first three months, with the confidence index having dipped to only 45.2 percent from 48.3 percent in the final quarter last year that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) attributed to so-called seasonal factors.

According to the BSP, business confidence normally slows in the January-to-March period, as manufacturers and consumers alike come down from a typically euphoric Christmas period, when entrepreneurial and commercial activities surge forward.

The slowdown had been made much worse, in this case by the aftereffects of past typhoons that had visited the Philippines a few months earlier. Congestion at the country’s ports, particularly that

in Manila itself, had a dampening impact on business sentiment, as businessmen grew increasingly apprehensive delivery backlogs.

The results of the latest Business Expectations Survey (BES), which the central bank conducts every quarter, showed respondents attributing their less-upbeat outlook on the moderation of consumer demand after the holiday season; the continued effects of past typhoons on crop production and businesses; concerns over the Continued on A2

P25.00 nationwide | 6 sections 28 pages | 7 days a week

laguna lakeshore expressway attracts interest of 4 groups

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

op local and international firms are competing for the P122.8billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike—the government’s largest infrastructure project to date, according to documents to prequalify to bid submitted to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on Friday.

A total of four groups signified their interest in bidding for the public-private partnership (PPP) deal. As expected, companies formed their own consortia to vie for the project.

San Miguel Holdings Corp. was the only company that submitted prequalification documents without a partner.

The three others were conglomerates—Trident Infrastructure and Development Corp. or Team Trident of Ayala Corp., SM Prime Holdings Inc.,

Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. and Megaworld Corp.; Alloy-Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium of Alloy MTD Capital Bhd., Prime Asset Ventures Inc. and Hanshin Engineering Constructions; and Rainbow Consortium of Rainbow Holdings Inc., PT Nusa Konstruksi EnjiniringTbk., The No. 4 Metallurgical Co. of China Ltd. and Shindong-Ah Co. Ltd. “We are happy that we have four groups who submitted qualification documents,” Public Works Undersecretary Rafael C. Yabut said, adding that notices of prequalification could be issued by March 24.

On March 25 the indicative timeline showed that bid documents will be issued and one-on-one-meetings will then commence.

Those who are still interested in the deal have until July 6 to submit their technical and financial proposals to the DPWH. See “Laguna Lakeshore,” A2

French President François Hollande (left photo, third from left) talks to Filipino fishermen, as the latter show him their day’s catch at the typhoon-ravaged Guiuan township, Eastern Samar province, on Friday. Hollande on Friday took his warning about the need for funds for a landmark climate deal to a central Philippine town that was devastated by a killer typhoon in 2013. (Above) With their damaged schoolbuilding in the background, schoolchildren of Guiuan East Central School rehearse their number in preparation for Hollande’s visit. AP/Bullit Marquez

France offers loan to help PHL fight climate change DPWH sets may deadline

for Calax PROJECT bids

C

ompanies interested in the P35.42-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) project have until May 19 to submit their bids for the controversial rebidding of the contract, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said on Friday.

In an invitation to bid, Public Works Undersecretary Rafael C. Yabut said the auction will be conducted via a single-stage ten-

der. This means interested parties will submit their qualification documents and technical and financial proposals collectively.

“We will open the financial proposals first to check which bid carried the highest premium. Then we’ll open the highest bidder’s technical proposal, and if the offer passes the review, then we’ll award,” Yabut said in the vernacular.

See “Calax,” A2

PESO exchange rates n US 44.0870

By Butch Fernandez

V

isiting French President François Hollande offered to provide a €50-million loan to help the Philippine government protect areas vulnerable to climate change.

Hollande made the offer during his meeting with President Aquino in Malacañang on Thursday.

“The loan has been made available, and projects have been identified,” Deputy Palace Spokesman Abigail Valte told reporters.

During his meeting with Hol-

lande, Mr. Aquino said the Philippines is already pursuing sectoral reduction of greenhouse gases, the blueprint of which is expected to be completed in August.

Valte, however, said the government needs to secure “firm commitments” from various industries.

At the same time, she reported that President Aquino and Hollande also firmed up earlier agreements forged between the Philippines and France when Mr. Aquino visited Paris last year.

These agreements relate to air services; the executive program on

the cultural agreement between the Philippines and France; a memorandum of understanding for academic collaboration between the Development Academy of the Philippines and its French counterpart; and the project vindicator award by Globe Telecom to Alcatel-Lucent.

Hollande on Friday took his warning about the need for funds for a landmark climate deal to a town in Eastern Samar that was devastated by a killer typhoon in 2013.

The French president arrived in Guiuan, where Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan)

made its first landfall before claiming more than 7,300 lives, after he and President Aquino launched an international appeal to back efforts to seal the climate-change accord in Paris in December.

Hollande warned that there will be no deal if wealthy countries don’t commit adequate funds to help poor nations fight global warming. “There will be no agreement concluded in Paris if the countries, the poorest countries, are not convinced that there will be a fund...which would be made available to them,” he said.

See “France,” A2

n japan 0.3691 n UK 67.9425 n HK 5.6840 n CHINA 7.0439 n singapore 32.4575 n australia 34.7881 n EU 49.3686 n SAUDI arabia 11.7559 Source: BSP (27 February 2015)

News

BusinessMirror

Saturday, February 28, 2015

A2

Calax. . .

Businessmen’s outlook less optimistic in Q1

Continued from A1

The government expects to receive higher investor participation in the second auction for the deal.

But the four original bidders are currently at loggerheads over their participation in the fresh tender.

Optimal, which is chaired by businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., is firm in its decision to rebid for the project.

Metro Pacific Investments Corp., (MPIC) which was the second top bidder during the original auction, is still weighing the economic and political implications of the original auction. The company, however, renewed its bid bond, signifying its intention to join the fresh tender.

“We will wait for the terms of reference and reevaluate our position,” MPIC President Ramoncito S. Fernandez said in a phone interview on Friday.

Meanwhile, Team Orion and MTD Philippines Inc. said they are already disinterested in the deal.

“Team Orion is not going to participate in this unprecedented rebid,” Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. First Vice President Roman Anthony V. Azanza III said.

“It’s not viable anymore,” MTD Philippines President Isaac S. David said via phone.

The project is a 47-km thoroughfare that will link the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway to spur trade and socieconomic activities in Calabarzon. The private partner will take on the financing, design, construction, and operation and maintenance of the entire four-lane toll road.

The project will also include the construction of centralized toll plazas, a toll-collection system, viaducts and bridges.

Should the highest bidder’s technical bid fail the evaluation, then the department will proceed to the second highest bidder.

A nonrefundable fee of P100,000 will be charged to companies for the bid documents, which will be available from March 10 to May 18.

The tender process, as earlier reported, will require bidders to place offers higher than the P20.1 billion in premium supposedly proposed by San Miguel Corp.

To recall, the results of the initial auction for the deal was declared void

by President Aquino, after his uncle’s firm sought for a reconsideration of its multibillion-peso bid.

It took the government four months to decide on the petition of Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. to reject the offer of Team Orion of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. Team Orion emerged as the first auction’s top bidder, with a premium bid of P11.33 billion.

Business groups, led by the Makati Business Club (MBC), earlier warned President Aquino that his decision to void the initial auction’s results will cast his PublicPrivate Partnership Program in a bad light.

But in a recent interview with the BusinessMirror, MBC Executive Director Peter Angelo B. Perfecto said the private sector is still confident that the government will roll out more deals without such similar issues as the Calax.

Perfecto said investors will continue to support the government’s cornerstone infrastructure program as long as there will be no repeat of Malacañang’s controversial decision on the rebidding of the 47-kilometer expressway.

Continued from A1

backlog in deliveries caused by the port-congestion problem and the lack of supply of fish due to Indonesia’s stricter new marine laws which limit the fishing ground of local fishermen for sardines.

The survey results also showed that more businesses expected inflation to decrease in the current quarter compared to those who said otherwise. For the next quarter, respondents who expected inflation to go up outnumbered those that held the opposite view but the number that said so declined relative to the previous quarter.

France. . .

Businesses anticipated that the rate of increase in commodity prices was likely to remain low and within the 2-percent to 4-percent target range in 2015, at 3.9 percent for both the first and second quarter this year compared to 4.3 percent in the previous quarter’s survey results. Meanwhile, more respondents expected the peso to appreciate and interest rates to increase for first quarter and second quarter 2015.

The less optimistic business sentiment in the country was similar to sentiments in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and India. This was, however, in contrast to the more buoyant views of those in the US,

Continued from A1

The Paris agreement isn’t expected to stop climate change, but organizers hope to secure for the first time the commitment of most countries to do something about it. Previously only rich countries have committed to limit their emissions of globalwarming gases, primarily carbon dioxide, from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

The slow-moving UN talks got a boost last year when top climate polluters China and the US jointly announced emissionslimiting pledges for the Paris deal, which would take effect in 2020. The European Union and Norway have also presented climate targets.

The conference faces a major dilemma on how to raise $100 billion in yearly climate aid by 2020 to help poorer economies transition to clean energy.

Hollande chose the Philippines, which was devastated by one of the most powerful typhoons on record to hit land, to warn of the dangers of global warming and call for governments to pledge to

reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

President Aquino, whose country is exposed to typhoons in the Pacific Ocean more than any other, has said previously that effects of climate change were worsening at an alarming pace, with typhoons becoming stronger, more frequent, more devastating and larger in scale.

“In the eyes of the world, Manila is a symbol of suffering and hope,” Hollande said. A climate-change accord is a way “to make sure that the world will not face global warming that would lead to even worse disasters than the ones we’ve been facing,” he said. The international appeal, named “Call of Manila,” urges the international community “to conclude a universal, equitable and ambitious climate deal... to preserve our planet as a livable place for future generations.” It says developing countries like the Philippines have contributed the least to climate change, but are the ones that suffer the most from global warming. With AP

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST FEBRUARY 28, 2015 | SATURDAY

TODAY’S WEATHER

news@businessmirror.com.ph

MAR 1 SUNDAY

MAR 2 MONDAY

METRO MANILA

22 – 33°C

22 – 33°C

TUGUEGARAO

20 – 34°C

21 – 34°C

Canada and Germany.

Across sectors, business sentiment showed mixed outlooks— with lower optimism seen in the wholesale and retail trade services sectors. The industry and construction sectors, meanwhile, showed a more buoyant outlook.

Looking outward to the next quarter, business confidence showed a more upbeat outlook, with the CI jumping to 58.2 percent. “The next quarter CI suggests an acceleration in economic growth,” the BSP said.

Among the reasons respondent firms gave for their more optimistic outlook in the April-to-June period include the anticipated increase in

Laguna Lakeshore. . .

The department will then have 20 days to evaluate the technical proposals. The financial bids of those who passed the technical review will be opened and announced on July 27.

The top bidder’s financial proposal will then be scrutinized, and if it passes, the notice of award will then be issued. The awarding is slated for August 21.

By September 20, the government and the private-sector partner should have signed the concession agreement.

A two-stage bidding system was adopted for the auction, meaning bidders must first prequalify on minimum legal, technical, and financial requirements as set by the implementing agency. Only prequalified bidders will be permitted to submit their technical and financial offers for the contract.

The thoroughfare-cum-dike project will help mitigate flooding along the western coast of the Laguna Lake running from Taguig to the town of Bay in Laguna.

MAR 3 TUESDAY

LAOAG

LAOAG CITY 21 – 29°C

It will also serve as an alternative transport route to the congested South Luzon Expressway and enhance the hydrology for the ecosystem of Laguna Lake.

The winning bidder will start designing and constructing the expressway-dike by April next year. The thoroughfare should be commercially operational by 2022.

The project involves the construction of a 47-kilometer flood control dike—on top of which will be a six-lane expressway—on an offshore alignment 500 meters away from the western shoreline of Laguna Lake. It includes interchanges, bridges, floodgates, and pumps, from Taguig to Los Banos in Laguna.

It also involves the reclamation of 700 hectares of raw land adjoining the expressway-dike. According to industry players, the deal “poses a lot of risks,” with its dike component possibly becoming a “social infrastructure” and the future expressway competing for traffic with the South Luzon Expressway.

MAR 1 3-DAY SUNDAY EXTENDED FORECAST

MAR 2 MONDAY

MAR 3 TUESDAY

22 – 34°C

METRO CEBU

24 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

24 – 31°C

22 – 34°C

TACLOBAN

23 – 30°C

23 – 29°C

24 – 31°C

22 – 31°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

SBMA/CLARK 22 – 33°C METRO MANILA 21 – 33°C

TAGAYTAY CITY 19 – 30°C

21 – 30°C

22 – 30°C

22 – 31°C

22 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

24 – 30°C

23 – 30°C

23 – 29°C

23 – 33°C

24 – 33°C

24 – 34°C

BAGUIO

14 – 25°C

14 – 24°C

15 – 25°C

METRO DAVAO

SBMA/ CLARK

23 – 33°C

22 – 34°C

23 – 34°C

ZAMBOANGA

TUGUEGARAO CITY 21 – 33°C

BAGUIO CITY 14 – 25°C

TAGAYTAY

20 – 30°C

20 – 29°C

LEGAZPI ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 32°C METRO CEBU 25 – 31°C

TACLOBAN CITY 24 – 31°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 22 – 30°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY 23 – 34°C

PUERTO PRINCESA

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

23 – 29°C

24 – 30°C

SUNRISE

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

6:14 AM

6:04 PM

1:57 AM

1:43 PM

20 – 30°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 30°C

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

Continued from A1

WEAK NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING EXTREME NORTHERN LUZON. (AS OF FEBRUARY 27, 5:00 PM)

Northeast Monsoon locally known as “Amihan”.

It affects the eastern portions of the country. It is cold and dry; characterized by widespread cloudiness with rain showers.

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 23 – 31°C

demand during the secondary harvest and open-fishing seasons, the summer season and graduation and enrollment periods, the sustained increase in orders leading to higher production, the expansion of businesses and new product lines and the introduction of new and enhanced business strategies and processes.

The CI is the measure of sentiment in the central bank’s BES. A lower positive CI means that the number of optimists outnumbered the number of pessimists for the period, but at a margin. A negative CI, meanwhile, means that the number of pessimists exceeded the number of optimists during the period.

24 – 31°C

HALF MOON FULL MOON

SOUTH HARBOR

FEB 26

1:14 AM

24 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

MAR 6

2:05 AM

Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rainshowers

24 – 32°C

23 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

Cloudy to at times cloudy with rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Weekday hourly updates: 6:00 AM on Balitaan, 7:00 AM & 8:00 AM on Good Morning Boss!, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM on News@1, 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM, and 6:00 PM on News@6

www.panahon.tv

SABAH CELEBES SEA

2:30 AM

0.02 METER

Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Watch PANAHON.TV everyday at 5:00 AM on PTV (Channel 4).

METRO DAVAO 25 – 32°C

LOW TIDEMANILA HIGH TIDE

@PanahonTV

6:04 PM

0.86 METER

Partly cloudy skies

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Saturday, February 28, 2015

A3

THE FIVE PILLARS OF CAMELLA

A

By Jeahan Virda B. de Barras

RCHITECTS and structural engineers will tell you, there are basically two types of pillars used in building a house: Structural and aesthetic.

EVERY Camella home is an ideal investment

LIVE the life you have dreamed of. Camella provides what you need and enjoy.

The structural pillars bear the weight of the building and are located precisely in strategic areas to either brace, hold up, or buttress the structure. Aesthetic pillars, on the other hand become part of the building’s design to complete the look of an area or to act as the focal point.

They are there purely for aesthetic reasons and if you take them away, your house won’t come falling down on top of you, as would happen if you removed a structural pillar.

Camella, the property development brand with the widest geographic reach across the country, uses five pillars of a different sort.

Camella’s Five Pillars are the core of who the group is and what it promises. They have kept the company on the right, and rather successful, track and possibly because of these pillars, Camella has become the country’s most preferred home brand and has been on Reader’s Digest’s list of Asia’s Most Trusted Brands three years in a row.

THE FIVE PILLARS CAMELLA LIVES BY: ONE… We Build Dream Communities.

MOST of Camella’s buyers are firsttime homeowners. This inspiring segment of the real estate market has worked hard and often sacrificed much of their own comfort and needs to be able to save up for a home of their own. For them, it has taken years, and often, blood, sweat and buckets of tears, to finally have saved enough for their first house. They may be single; they may be a young couple, or a new family. But every one of them dreams of owning a home, in a community that will feed their dreams and nourish their family. Naturally, with this home comes an upgrade in their lifestyle—it is part of the dream.

It is Camella’s mission, therefore, to provide Filipinos with the kind of home and lifestyle they have long dreamed of. Camella does exactly this for their homeowners by consis-

tently giving them beautiful communities replete with well-maintained surroundings, manicured landscaping, peaceful and quiet properties, and beautiful, well-built homes.

Two… We Construct for Convenience and Accessibility CAMELLA, as the housing brand with the widest geographic reach, lives up to its commitment to provide every Filipino with a home to call his own, anywhere in the country he may choose to live—and when Camella builds, it builds only in the most carefully selected and attractive locations chosen to make its residents’ lives convenient and content.

This means the communities are located near facilities and establishments families need to live fully, like commercial and business centers, government services, educational institutions, hospitals, places of worship, and key transportation arteries and hubs.

Moreover, it augments this convenience with amenities and services for its homeowners within their communities. These include Clubhouses or function halls, swimming pools, play courts, playgrounds, walkways, and jogging or biking paths, pocket parks and landscaped gardens, and shuttle services.

Going a step further and taking the concept of “self-contained” community quite seriously, Camella has created master planned communities—vast properties that offer facilities and amenities closer to a city than a mere residential village.

The communities are designed to be almost completely independent, offering everything from commercial centers that house retail stores, restaurants, convenience stores, drugstores, and groceries or supermarkets; to educational establishments; to even Churches and other centers for worship. All these come with the lifestyle facilities that amazingly deck all other Camella properties. To date, there are two Camella master

WITH its carefully selected locations, Camella guarantees convenience and accessibility

planned communities—Savannah City in Iloilo and Gran Europa in Cagayan de Oro City—and there are more in the pipeline.

THREE… We Design with Safety and Security Top of Mind CAMELLA guarantees its homeowners’ safety with exquisitely designed guarded entrance gates equipped with CCTV, as well as high perimeter fences, and round-the-clock roving security guards. These security features allow families to feel safe in their own homes—as should always be the case—and enjoy worry-free lives every single day, making their homes and community safe havens and comfortable escapes from the stresses and fears of city living.

Another interesting feature of the Camella developments is that actual “communities,” in the deepest sense of the word, are created.

Neighbors in Camella properties become the closest of friends and look out for one another. They take care of each other’s children and even each other’s homes when one is away. They raise their families together and create community events and traditions such that, very often, even when a family can afford to move, they opt not to because their neighbors have become their family.

FOUR… We Develop Wise Investments EVERY Camella home is an ideal investment because its value appreciates over time. As Camella develops its communities even further across the country, property values increase as well. Beyond this, Camella also uses only quality materials and the

latest building technologies to guarantee that Filipino families are provided homes they truly deserve.

Whether one purchases a Camella home to actually live in or as an investment, the returns are immense. As the country’s top and most popular brand in property development, Camella communities are highly in demand and very often sell out the moment they’re put on the market. Add to this the advantage that Camella only builds in the most convenient and strategic locations, and the fact that Camella has built an organization designed specifically to make living worryfree, convenient and a pure joy—a Camella home is one investment that will not disappoint.

FIVE… We Create Affordability and Value-For-Money CAMELLA builds homes that are affordable without sacrificing the quality. As the mid-market segment of Vista Land, Camella also offers easy homeownership through flexible financing schemes and payment options to give every Filipino the ability to have a home to call his own.

More importantly, homeowners get more than they pay for because beyond being able to afford and own their dream home, they also get the lifestyle they have dreamed of and worked so hard for.

These Five Pillars do more than hold up a home, they hold up many Filipinos’ hopes and stand as the foundation on which Camella operates and serves its residents.

For more information about Camella’s properties and its other developments across the country, call the

CAMELLA builds affordable, quality homes

HOMEOWNERS’ safety is guaranteed with a guarded entrance gate and round-the-clock roving security guards.

A PLACE of worship inside the Camella community

Camella hotline at 02-Camella or 2263552 and our mobile at 0917-857-6494 and 09989669867. Keep up with the latest Camella information, news,

events and announcements through www.camella.com.ph. Like “Camella Official” on Facebook and follow “@CamellaOfficial” on Twitter!

Economy

A4 Saturday, February 28, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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BCDA, Metro Pacific unit ink SCTEx operations and maintenance contract

A

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

FTER staying in limbo for over five years, the contract for the operations and maintenance of the 94-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) was signed by the toll road unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) late Thursday.

What remains to be done, according to Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) President Rodrigo E. Franco, is for the Toll Regulatory Board to discuss and approve the

thoroughfare’s supplemental toll operations agreement.

“We hope they can take up the matter in their board meeting next month,” he said in a text message.

The contract was signed by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan and BCDA President and CEO Arnel Paciano D. Casanova.

President Aquino and French President François Hollande witnessed the ceremonial signing that was held at the Malacañan Palace on Thursday.

MNTC also turned over a check worth P3.5 billion to the BCDA as part of its bid to win the much-coveted deal.

Casanova said his group is particularly delighted with the turnout, especially since it will pave way for the integration of the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex) and the SCTEx. “We are happy that finally, the contract is signed, and we can move on with the full operation and further upgrading and development of the SCTEx, particularly the NlexSCTEx toll integration, as well as providing the facilities and service

areas that are needed to serve the public,” he said. The contract was awarded on February 9, after the BCDA failed to muster bids for the contract’s price challenge.

Mr. Aquino late last year directed the state-run disposition agency to subject the offer of MNTC to a price challenge “in the interest of transparency and for competition.”

“The price challenge was conducted in a very transparent manner. We are grateful to MNTC for keeping the faith to undergo a process of fair and transparent competition. This just proves that good governance is good economics. The seal of transparency and integrity serves as the unbreakable bond of the sanctity of this contract,” Casanova said.

Franco noted that the signing of the agreement means that the 94km thoroughfare will soon be at par with its 90-km sibling.

“The management, operation

and maintenance of the road and its facilities, the brand of customer service available, and the worldclass technology used in Nlex will all be extended to the SCTEx,” Franco said.

Under the SCTEx Business Agreement, MNTC shall be responsible for the management services, toll collection, traffic safety and security management, toll road and facilities maintenance, including greening and landscaping, public relations and marketing, and all necessary support services.

The agreement also includes the payment of concession fees equivalent to 50 percent of SCTEx gross toll revenues. The contract period will be for 28 years until October 30, 2043.

The 94-km expressway allows for the merging of Clark and Subic Bay Freeport Zones into a single facility resulting in the convergence of land-, air-, and sea-based transport.

E-trike project rebidding set on April 14–ADB

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

Train-commuter blues A Philippine National Railways (PNR) train makes a stop at the Buendia station in Makati City to load and unload commuters. The PNR management has recently proposed a 33-percent fare increase. Nonie Reyes

Smartmatic appeals Comelec-BAC decision on P2.5-billion OMR deal

T

By Joel R. San Juan

ECHNOLOGY service provider Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) Corp. on Friday asked the Commission on ElectionsBids and Awards Committee (ComelecBAC) to reconsider its recent decision junking its bid proposal for the P2.5billion Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machines to be used in the 2016 elections.

Smartmatic-TIM, the country’s service provider in the 2010 and 2013 automated national polls, branded as “flimsy tecnicality” the grounds raised by the Comelec-BAC in disqualifying them during the second stage of the bidding process along with rival firm Indra Sistemas S.A. In a news statement, Smartmatic-TIM President for Asia Pacific Cesar Flores said it would be for the benefit of the Comelec and the Filipino taxpayers if their bid would be reconsidered by Comelec-BAC. “The Smartmatic joint venture, in

fact, presented a complete, fully responsive, and fully compliant bid, which is very beneficial to Comelec and [to] the Filipino taxpayers,” Flores said.

“We trust that the Comelec-BAC will realize that this proposal, like all of our proposals, is advantageous to the government and will reconsider its decision,” he added.

Flores cited its bid price proposal for the OMR which is 31 percent lower than P2.5-billion approved budget for the contract. Smartmatic offered P1.72 billion for the project while Indra’s bid proposal is P1.18 billion higher than the approved budget.

“The goal of a competitive bid to find the best prices for the government was achieved, and it would be a shame if the benefits would be dismissed because a flimsy technicality,” he added.

On Wednesday the Comelec–BAC disqualified bidders Smartmatic-TIM and Indra Sistemas S.A. after finding their financial proposals as both being

nonresponsive.

Smartmatic-TIM was disqualified for failing to fill-up several items in their proposal, particularly in the areas of “other requirements, risk management and contingency planning,” “change management,” and “quality control and quality assurance.”

Several petitions, however, have been filed before the Supreme Court by elections watchdogs and other stakeholders seeking to ban Smartmatic from participating in any bidding process for the 2016 elections.

Among the petitioners include the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections, and Automated Election System.

The groups are also asking the Court to declare null and void the P268.8million contract that the Comelec and Smartmatic entered into for the diagnostic of all the 82,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan voting machines sans public bidding.

he Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on Friday that the rebidding of the contract to supply Energy-Efficient Electric Vehicles to the government is slated for April.

ADB documents stated that the deadline for the submission of bids for the project is on April 14. A prebid conference has also been set on March 11.

The contract covers the supply and delivery of 3,000 units of electric tricycles (e-trikes). This is part of the ADB-funded Market Transformation through Introduction of Energy-Efficient Electric Vehicles (E-trike) Project.

“The government of the Philippines has received a loan from the Asian Development Bank toward the cost of Market Transformation through Introduction of E-trike Project, and it intends to apply part of the proceeds of this loan to payments under the contract for Package 1: Supply and Delivery of 3,000 units of e-trikes. This contract will be jointly financed by the Clean Technology Fund,” the ADB said.

The 3,000 units of e-trikes is intended for delivery to the National Capital Region and Regions 4A or Calabarzon, and 4B or Mimaropa.

The delivery/completion period is six months with delivery of the initial 1,200 units within three months after contract signing.

An international competitive bidding will be conducted in accordance with ADB’s single-stage, two-envelope bidding procedure.

To qualify, bidders must meet financial requirements such as the minimum average annual turnover

of $15 million. They must either be a supplier or manufacturer of lithiumion battery packs with a minimum average turnover of $40 million.

The ADB also said the bidder’s financial resources must be equivalent to or greater than $3 million, whether in liquid assets or lines of credit issued by banks or financing institutions.

“In the case of joint venture, all partners combined shall meet the requirement: Each partner shall meet at least 10 percent of the requirement, and one partner must meet at least 40 percent of the requirement,” the ADB added.

The qualified bidders or their subcontractors, the ADB said, must also have at least five years of experience in lithium-ion battery manufacturing. They must also have supplied lithium-ion batteries to at least one global electric vehicle brand that has been operating successfully during the last two years.

The ADB added that these are just some of the qualifications that prospective bidders must meet to qualify for the bidding.

Documents also showed that interested bidders must make a P25,000 worth nonrefundable payment through Department of Energy’s cashier, direct deposit or bank transfer to the Land Bank of the Philippines.

The P504-million-worth project is financed by the ADB and the national government. The national government is spending $99 million in counterpart funding for the project.

The ADB extended a $300-million loan to finance the project. Apart from this, the project was also financed through a $100-million loan and a $5-million-worth grant from the ADB Clean Technology Fund.

Cargo volume up by 5% in 2014 despite port jam

D

espite continuous congestion in Manila’s main ports, cargo volume in the country went up 5 percent in 2014, the Philippine Port Authority (PPA) said on Friday.

PPA noted that the increase can be attributed to the large exportation of river sand, magnetite sand, crude minerals, nickel ore, limestone ore, clinker and slag and coconut oil and copra, fruits and fish and the sizable importation of fuel, coal, grains and fertilizers.

PPA General Manager Juan Sta. Ana, in a news statement released on Friday, said that it was the

coordinated efforts of the government and the private sector that cushioned the adverse effect of the truck ban imposed in Manila starting February 2014.

“Despite the ban, the volume of containers in the Manila ports, composed of the Manila South Harbor and the Manila International Container Terminal, still managed to post a modest increase,” Sta. Ana said.

Recent data from the PPA showed that volume rose about 5 percent to 211.20 million metric tons (mmt) for the entire 2014 period from 201.91 MMT posted in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, it also noted that foreign cargo throughput went up by 7.45 percent to 133.29 mmt from 124.05 mmt in 2013 wherein import volume climbed by 11.29 percent hike to 67.56 mmt.

As for export volume, it increased by 3.77 percent to 65.73 mmt from 63.34 mmt in 2013. Domestic cargo volume is almost flat after only posting a 0.06 percent increase to 77.91 mmt from 77.86 MMT a year earlier.

Container volume, on the other hand, increased by 3.95 percent to 5.43 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 5.23 million TEUs for the same period in 2013. PNA

Dirty ice cream on a roll

An ice-cream vendor passes in front of a replica of the historic Barasoain Church inside the Clark Freeport in Pampanga. The demand for ice cream is expected to surge with the onset of the summer season as the consuming public look for ways to beat the summer heat. Alyssa Salen

briefs

PCSO, PHILHEALTH sign LANDMARK PACt In line with the mandate to provide “universal health care for all Filipinos,” the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) have signed an agreement that will greatly benefit people in dire need of financial assistance for medical concerns.

The signing, which took place during PhilHealth’s 20th anniversary program on February 12, is part of government agencies’ efforts toward synergy by cooperating with each other in appropriate and significant ways to help the public gain easier, faster, and more convenient access to government services.

The signatories were PCSO Vice Chairman and General Manager lawyer Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II and PhilHealth President and CEO Alexander A. Padilla.

The agreement between the two agencies is for PCSO to provide a space for an off-site PhilHealth office dubbed as the PhilHealth Help Desk.

PhilHealth will proivode trained PCSO personnel read-only access to its Institutional Health Care Provider electronic portal. This will allow the authorized PCSO employees to check if the person applying for financial assistance for medical and Health-related concerns is a Philhealth member or a member’s qualified dependent.

d.o.t. to showcase albay in 2015 cannes tourism investment fair LEGAZPI CITY—The Department of Tourism (DOT) will showcase Albay in the 2015 Marche International Proffesionels d’Immobilier (MIPIM), an annual show participated in by influential property and tourism players worldwide, at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, from March 10 to 13.

The Philippines will occupy a prominent display area in the MIPIM fair as a featured country, and tourism department has invited Albay as the showcase province, being the country’s hottest tourist destination.

Tourism Undersecretary Maria Victoria V. Jasmin, in a letter to Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, said the invitation to join MIPIM is “part of the prizes of the winning chief executive” in the recent Tourism Star Philippines 2014 awards.

Salceda won the Tourism Star Philippines 2014 title for local government executives, in the awards’ maiden edition held at the Raffles and Fairmont Hotel in Makati City on February 12.

The MIPIM fair is expected to further enhance Albay’s world potentials in tourism and tourism-infrastructure buildup. The province has been presented in various international and national promotions including the Berlin ITB 2012 in Germany, the London WTM 2013, the Shanghai TM 2013, DOT Hongkong 2014, and special events of the Philippine Asia Travel Association and the Philippine Travel Operators’ Association. PNA

revival of pre-shipment inspection of imports sought A former head of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) is seeking the revival of the pre-shipment inspection of imports from the country of origin and revision of the the Selectivity Scheme that exempts imports of accredited reputable importers from rigid Customs procedures.

Former Customs Commissioner lawyer Titus Villanueva said the two programs are the long-term solution to minimize graft and corruption at the BOC, a topic seriously discussed in his biography entitled From the Ranks.

A civil-society group called Penpower for Democracy and Good Governance (PDGG) has endorsed Villanueva’s reform the BOC advocacy even as they welcome the reduction to four days the processing of release of import cargoes. However, the PDGG echoes what the importers have been saying all the time: the bureaucratic red tape remains long and strong.

Shopping

A BusinessMirror Special Feature

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Saturday, February 28, 2015

A5

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Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Saturday, February 28, 2015

editorial

Filipino entrepreneurship and FabLab

I

T was recently announced that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is working on promoting entrepreneurship among Filipinos to take advantage of the integration of markets with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

From comments by Ceferino Rodolfo, assistant secretary for the Industry Development Group at the DTI, the thrust is going to be in helping budding “taipans” in the development of manufactured goods. Specifically mentioned was the project at the Bohol Island State University known as the Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab). The FabLab is a project between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and the Department of Science and Technology.

Participants in the FabLab will be able to create prototypes of products that they want to sell in the market. According to Jica, “the FabLab allows manufacturers to create prototypes of their designs faster, create scale models, illustrate graphic designs, combine local materials and massproduce products.”

The FabLab concept is not new, having been started in 2001. Currently there are over 400 around the world. The key to the idea is providing computer-aided technology for the design and fabrication of these products in hopes of attracting interest in mass producing the items. The FabLab gives the opportunity for individuals with a good idea to go to the next step of actually building something without first having to raise large amounts of money for the initial development.

The idea that this plays into the future of the Asean integration on more open markets in the region is perhaps a bit of wishful thinking. The first years of Asean integration is going to see the region’s existing manufacturers rushing to take advantage of the great Asean consumer and business market.

Nonetheless, the FabLab concept has grown exponentially with there having been only 125 in 2013, and now more the three times that number. While domestic manufacturing has grown significantly in the last three years, the Philippines is not exactly at the forefront of design creativity for the marketplace nor at the cutting edge of manufacturing techniques and processes.

Any program that seeks to both encourage and facilitate some of our best and brightest into manufacturing is very welcomed.

The further of every country lies with the next generation and not the one before it. Those who have the ability and the opportunity to receive higher education have too often taken their skills and used them to benefit other countries. Perhaps in the coming years there will be more FabLabs in the Philippines. That would be a positive and important step to reduce our “brain drain” and build a more diversified and inclusive economy.

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The stock market is a hot-air balloon John Mangun

I

OUTSIDE THE BOX

F you want to improve your understanding of how stock prices move, perhaps attending next year’s Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival at the Omni Aviation Complex in Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga province might help.

Considering the cost ranges from $10,000 to $100,000, this event may prove that “The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.”

We all played with balloons when we were children, filling it with our own breath and then tossing it in the air and then waiting for it to come down. Sometimes a gust of wind may have caught the toy balloon sending it even higher. But we knew that eventually gravity would pull it earthward. Filling the balloon with helium would allow the toy to defy the force of gravity allowing it to climb far out of sight.

As we got older we learned that the balloon’s rise was not infinite but that eventually the lower atmospheric pressure at higher altitudes will stop the balloon from going up farther.

A young child looking at the hotair balloons at the Clark festival might be confused based on his or her own experience with toy balloons. The child understands that the hot-air balloons are carrying a heavy weight and yet they go up. Further, the balloons not only go up, but they can come down and then go skyward again. Consequently, there must be some sort of “engine” that makes the balloon rise and fall.

The hot-air balloon rises as the burner is ignited and hot air causes the balloon to rise. At some point the burner is turned off as the air in the envelope is still at a high enough temperature to make it lighter than the surrounding air outside the envelope. However, as heat is dissipated from the air in the envelope, the balloon will begin to lose altitude. Unless the burner is reignited, the balloon

will come back to earth.

The hot-air balloon pilot understands exactly what makes the balloon go up. Burning fuel creates heat that accumulates in the envelope, in effect, pushing against the outside colder air. If the fuel is turned off, the heat dissipates or is distributed out of the envelope, and the ever present outside cold air ‘pushes’ the balloon lower.

Stock prices move in the same way.

Like the outside colder air around the balloon, there are always sellers in the stock market. You may have noticed that for issues that are lightly traded, there may be only a few buyers bidding for a small number of shares. But there are always sellers wanting to get out at a particular price or simply to liquidate for cash.

Prices, like the balloon, will naturally descend over time unless there is the ‘fuel’ of buying. If buyers walk away, prices will eventually go lower.

The balloon envelope caries from accumulating heat to the distribution of heat and that is true for the stock market. Either, buyers are accumulating or sellers are distributing shares. When a price stops going up, or likewise, stops going down, that is the transition from accumulation to distribution.

The Philippine stock market had an unprecedented nine consecutive weeks of gains. But during the final

week, there was clear distribution as volume remained constant but prices were only slightly higher. If the balloon’s burner is turned on, but we are not gaining altitude, then the heat the fuel is generating is not being accumulated but is being distributed outside of the envelope.

That is what happened about two weeks ago. This past week, buyers were not ‘fueling’ the market, and the normal ‘cold air’ sellers brought prices down. At some point, buyers will turn the burners back on, stocks will go under accumulation, and prices will rise. Understand this concept and watching for the transition points helps an investor indentify price tops and bottoms.

On a personal note, in this past Thursday’s column it should have read; “The budget deficit as a percentage of GDP has gone from minus 5.30 to minus 1.4 percent. The debt to GDP has fallen from a record high of 71 percent of GDP in 2002 to the current 49 percent.” I transposed the data numbers. Maybe I have been taking too much cold medicine.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

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

California can upend Texas immigration case

By Francis Wilkinson Bloomberg View

T

EXAS, leading a coalition of 26 red (and reddish) states, got what it wanted from a federal district judge last week: a preliminary injunction halting the Obama administration’s November 20 executive action on immigration. But Texas’s complaint that it would suffer harm from President Barack Obama’s action has opened the door to a powerful rebuttal from states that have a different spin on the immigration plan.

In his February 16 decision, Judge Andrew Hanen narrowly ruled that the Obama administration had sidestepped public comment on its plan and thus hadn’t followed federal rule-making protocol. The administration responded in part that the injunction “was entered at the urging of states that unquestionably lack any authority over the nation’s immigration policies.”

Texas argued that it had standing to sue because Obama’s coddling of undocumented immigrants has caused the state direct harm. It blamed Obama’s 2012 relaxation of enforcement against “Dreamers”— a model for the broader deferral of enforcement against undocumented immigrants that Obama announced in November–for causing a “humanitarian crisis” in 2014

when children from Central America flooded the border.

Texas maintained that Obama’s new executive action would compound the damage, increasing the undocumented population in the plaintiff states by offering “legal inducements” for them to stay and presaging “a new wave of undocumented immigration.” In addition, the action would “increase human trafficking” by Mexican drug cartels and others. Oh, and along the way Obama’s lawlessness would cost unspecified boatloads of money: Texas cites—by way of an extrapolation left entirely to the reader’s imagination–some $23 million spent last year by its counties on “indigent health care.” (More than a fifth of Texas residents lack health insurance; the state didn’t even attempt

to connect the county costs to undocumented immigrants.)

Evidence for some claims–a “new wave” of border crossings, for example—was nonexistent. Other claims—an impending increase in drug-cartel trafficking because fewer people on the US side of the border would be under imminent threat of deportation?—may require a certain ideological predisposition even to comprehend.

Altogether, the complaint reads as if it were cobbled together on the sofa of “Fox & Friends.” Based on the avalanche of ill consequences envisioned

by Texas, however, the judge found that the state had standing to sue.

So Hanen’s injunction has halted, for now, Obama’s executive action.

But what of the dozen states, including California and New York, that filed a brief in the case claiming that undocumented immigrants create economic benefits when they gain lawful employment? Their brief cites research concluding that “when immigrants are able to work legally–even for a limited time–wages increase, workers are encouraged to seek work compatible with their skill level, and workers receive incentive to increase their skills to obtain higher wages.”

It’s hardly a novel argument; well-funded research supporting it abounds. Yet if that’s the case, then Hanen’s injunction is now doing active harm to the economies of states not named Texas, suppressing both incomes and the state tax revenue derived from them. In other words, if Texas can halt Obama’s actions on the basis of strong feelings about prospective harm, then other states can now petition to reverse Hanen’s injunction on the basis of economic research that his injunction harms them.

Even if you find the Texas arguments valid, the end result is that disparate states perceive disparate effects flowing from Obama’s executive action. Why should Texas’s claims have more legal validity than California’s? That, of course, is one reason why the Supreme Court has made clear that immigration policy is a federal, not a state, prerogative.

Hanen has given states until next Tuesday to respond to the Obama administration’s request that Hanen’s order be lifted while the administration appeals to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. There, Obama’s lawyers hope to find justices more inclined to California dreamin’.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Can Asia afford low taxes? Evangelii Gaudium Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

William Pesek

SERVANT LEADER

BLOOMBERG VIEW

B

EFORE now, no one would have described the leaders of Hong Kong or Singapore as Asian Robin Hoods. Both cities have earned well-deserved international reputations for high efficiency and low taxes, with income taxes topping out at 15 percent in Hong Kong, and 20 percent in Singapore. Their decades of sustained prosperity would seem proof of the virtues of trickle-down economics.

That dogma may finally be shifting, though. Clearly worried about rising inequality, Singapore’s government this week announced the first increase in the top income-tax rate in decades, raising levies on the richest 5 percent of citizens.

Even Hong Kong’s fabled billionaires are concerned about the widening gap between haves and have-nots, which helped drive last fall’s Umbrella Revolution. Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, has said he’s losing sleep over the issue.

Henderson’s Lee Shau Kee has begun donating land to nonprofit organizations to build old-age homes and youth hostels.

Yet in its own budget this week, Hong Kong resisted lifting taxes on the wealthy, instead tossing a few sweeteners at the poor and elderly, and trimming personal taxes slightly. Apparently Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying believes the city can still afford to coddle its tycoons. That’s an increasingly questionable assumption.

Earlier this month, the Group of 20 for the first time signaled joint concern about mounting inequality across the world economy. As French economist Thomas Piketty argues in his bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century, returns on money have outpaced gross domestic product over the past 30 to 40 years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that the rich-poor gap in most of its member countries has reached its most egregious levels in three decades. The top 10 percent now pockets 9.5 times more than the poorest 10 percent, up from 7 times in the 1980s. Things look to get even worse. Oxfam predicts the richest 1 percent will control most of the world’s wealth by 2016.

Growth in Asia has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, but at a cost. According to the Asian Development Bank, four-fifths of Asians– nearly 3 billion people–live in nations where inequality has been rising for 20 years now. That’s deadened the benefits of even rapid growth, meaning Asia’s output tends to be more about quantity than quality.

The rise of China in particular has been both boon and curse. While the

mainland provides a huge market for Singaporean and Hong Kong entrepreneurs to tap, the powerful competitive forces its 1.3 billion people have unleashed are dragging down Asian wages. At the same time, rich Chinese are buying up property in Hong Kong and Singapore, pushing prices out of the orbits of average families (although in Singapore at least, measures to pop the luxury property bubble are having some effect).

The answer, development economists agree, is for governments to strive to raise productivity, curtail corruption, invest in education and establish secure safety nets. In a report last year, the ADB recommended four steps to reduce inequality: implementing more efficient fiscal policies that invest in education and support poor families; developing new industries; supporting small-andmidsize enterprises; and looking for innovative solutions to spread the benefits of growth.

Singapore’s budget tries to address all these points. But it also acknowledges that the government needs to collect more revenues if it’s going to build Western-style welfare systems to support the most vulnerable households. By contrast, Hong Kong’s government still seems focused on growth as a panacea; its budget offers additional relief to the tourism industry and other businesses affected by the weeks of pro-democracy protests. The measures do little to address the fundamental problem–an economic structure that’s impeding the ability of lower-income households to move upward.

What Singapore’s government at least seems to recognize is that urgent action is needed–bold investments in affordable housing, social-safety nets and job training that perhaps only a tax on top earners can finance in short order. The city is already ranked 26th out of 136 economies for income inequality; standing pat will only continue to hollow out the middle class. As in Hong Kong, what used to be a competitive advantage–a generous tax regime that attracted businesses and talent from around the world–may simply be unaffordable.

53rd part

Social dialogue in a context of religious freedom

T

HE Synod Fathers spoke of the importance of respect for religious freedom, viewed as a fundamental human right.

This includes “the freedom to choose the religion which one judges to be true and to manifest one’s beliefs in public.” A healthy pluralism, one which genuinely respects differences and values them as such, does not entail privatizing religions in an attempt to reduce them to the quiet obscurity of the individual’s conscience or to relegate them to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues or mosques.

This would represent, in effect, a new form of discrimination and authoritarianism. The respect due to the agnostic or non-believing minority should not be arbitrarily imposed in a way that silences the convictions of the believing majority or ignores the wealth of religious traditions. In the long run, this would feed resentment rather than tolerance and peace.

When considering the effect of religion on public life, one must distinguish the different ways in which it is practiced. Intellectuals and serious journalists frequently descend to crude and superficial generalizations in speaking of the shortcomings of religion, and often prove incapable of realizing that not all believers— or religious leaders—are the same.

Some politicians take advantage of this confusion to justify acts of dis-

crimination. At other times, contempt is shown for writings which reflect religious convictions, overlooking the fact that religious classics can prove meaningful in every age; they have an enduring power to open new horizons, to stimulate thought, to expand the mind and the heart.

This contempt is due to the myopia of a certain rationalism. Is it reasonable and enlightened to dismiss certain writings simply because they arose in a context of religious belief? These writings include principles which are profoundly humanistic and, albeit tinged with religious symbols and teachings, they have a certain value for reason.

As believers, we also feel close to those who do not consider themselves part of any religious tradition, yet sincerely seek the truth, good-

Saturday, February 28, 2015

ness and beauty which we believe have their highest expression and source in God. We consider them as precious allies in the commitment to defending human dignity, in building peaceful coexistence between peoples and in protecting creation. A special place of encounter is offered by new Areopagi such as the Court of the Gentiles, where “believers and non-believers are able to engage in dialogue about fundamental issues of ethics, art and science, and about the search for transcendence.” This too is a path to peace in our troubled world.

Starting from certain social issues of great importance for the future of humanity, I have tried to make explicit once again the inescapable social dimension of the Gospel message and to encourage all Christians to demonstrate it by their words, attitudes and deeds.

Spirit-filled evangelizers

SPIRIT-filled evangelizers means evangelizers fearlessly open to the working of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the Spirit made the apostles go forth from themselves and turned them into heralds of God’s wondrous deeds, capable of speaking to each person in his or her own language.

The Holy Spirit also grants the courage to proclaim the newness of the Gospel with boldness (parrhesía) in every time and place, even when it meets with opposition. Let us call upon him today, firmly rooted in prayer, for without prayer all our activity risks being fruitless and our message empty. Jesus wants evangelizers who proclaim the good news not only with words, but above all by

Unlikely winners of Greece’s surrender

By Mark Gilbert Bloomberg View

T

HE Greek government’s apparent capitulation in debt negotiations with its euro partners makes it less likely that Athens will be forced out of the common currency. The real winners, though, are the European governments who have stuck with spending cuts in the face of mounting domestic opposition. They don’t have to worry about a successful austerity renegade giving ammunition to their opponents.

Rightly or wrongly, Greece’s interlocutors displayed a united front on refusing to cede to Greece’s demands throughout the talks, with

18 euro members allied against one. Rightly or wrongly, Germany was indifferent to whether Greece stayed in the euro or not, willing to countenance a Grexit rather than surrender to the new Syriza-led administration, the person said.

And, rightly or wrongly, any changes Greece makes to its existing commitments will probably have to be fiscally neutral, with the government having to show exactly how it plans to meet its pledges; unquantifiable measures, such as promising to collect outstanding taxes, won’t make the grade.

Instead, Greece has diluted at least five of its key electoral promises in the face of implacable Germanled opposition to its stance. There’s

been no extension of the country’s debt repayment timetable; Greece is still a ward of the troika, even if its guardians now go by a different name (they’re now referred to as the “institutions”); there’s no rollback of the previous government’s economic reforms; cash allocated to the domestic banking system won’t be diverted to alleviating economic hardship; and the need to achieve a sensible budget surplus has been acknowledged.

Those concessions might prove to be a tough sell for Syriza at home, given its election strategy. But they’re very helpful if, for example, you’re Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and you face an election by the end of the year. Rajoy’s People’s Party

A7

a life transfigured by God’s presence.

In this final chapter, I do not intend to offer a synthesis of Christian spirituality, or to explore great themes like prayer, Eucharistic adoration or the liturgical celebration of the faith. For all these we already have valuable texts of the magisterium and celebrated writings by great authors. I do not claim to replace or improve upon these treasures. I simply wish to offer some thoughts about the spirit of the new evangelization.

Whenever we say that something is “spirited”, it usually refers to some interior impulse which encourages, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and communal activity. Spirit-filled evangelization is not the same as a set of tasks dutifully carried out despite one’s own personal inclinations and wishes. How I long to find the right words to stir up enthusiasm for a new chapter of evangelization full of fervour, joy, generosity, courage, boundless love and attraction! Yet I realize that no words of encouragement will be enough unless the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in our hearts. A spiritfilled evangelization is one guided by the Holy Spirit, for he is the soul of the Church called to proclaim the Gospel. Before offering some spiritual motivations and suggestions, I once more invoke the Holy Spirit. I implore him to come and renew the Church, to stir and impel her to go forth boldly to evangelize all peoples.

For comments, e-mail caritas_manila@yahoo.com. For donations to Caritas Manila, call 563-9311. For inquiries, call 563-9308 or 563-9298.

Fax: 563-9306.

has about 30 percent of voter support in the most recent opinion polls, with the anti-austerity Podemos part on 26 percent; other recent polls have shown Podemos in the lead.

If Greece had been able to wring concessions from its euro peers, opposition parties in other countries– Portugal also has elections this year, Ireland goes to the ballot box next year, while Italy’s coalitions are notoriously unstable–might have used them as evidence that abandoning austerity is an acceptable economic strategy within the euro region. Instead, Germany has underscored to voters across the continent— again, rightly or wrongly—that the euro zone won’t accommodate all economic points of view.

The Mindanao problem: President Aquino compounded the mistakes of his predecessors Cecilio T. Arillo

database Conclusion

I

F there is anything to learn from President Aquino, it is that instead of avoiding the mistakes of his predecessors in handling the delicate Mindanao problem, he even compounded them when in August 2011 he flew to Japan with six Cabinet members to meet Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chairman Ibrahim Murad and his key leaders in a hotel, just off the Narita Airport.

Two months after the Japan meeting, 19 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos were treacherously slaughtered by MILF/Abu Sayyaf elements in Al Barka, Basilan.

Curiously, the SAF soldiers suffered the same fate as that of a squad of Marines whose bodies were mutilated and beheaded after they were cornered in an ambush in the same place.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines, after the massacre, issued a one-week ultimatum to the MILF to surrender the criminals or suffer the consequences.

The highly publicized ultimatum and movements of troops, including

elements of the Presidential Security Group, was supposed to be a punitive action against the MILF in case of non-compliance.

A week had passed and there was no offensive. Instead, the President had asked for additional three days delay in the offensive while waiting for some kind of reports from ceasefire monitors on the ground.

The deadline ended and the only movements on the ground were those of Philippine National Police (PNP) officers trying to serve a warrant of arrest for a wanted terrorist in a nearby deserted village, off Al Barka.

The following year, President Aquino strangely agreed to a

“Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro” with the MILF and then in March 2014, to a “Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” which in essence created a substate under the MILF’s rule. His administration in that agreement’s “Annex on Normalization” had even recognized six MILF camps, including Camp Abubakar.

The column in the Inquirer on August 18, 2011 of former Ambassador to Greece Rigoberto Tiglao on the Japan meeting of the President with the MILF leaders is quite instructive: “MILF: NOY gave us hope, this paper’s banner headline (Inquirer) said referring to President Aquino’s August 5 meeting in a Narita airport travelers’ hotel with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim.

“Mr. Aquino indeed gave the insurgents a lot of hope—to make the MILF the core of a sovereign state.

The meeting, in effect, put the MILF on the same category as the Philippine Republic—sovereign entities.

“The MILF’s statement on the meeting even refers to Mr. Aquino only as “President Aquino,” and nowhere in the statement is he referred to as President of the Republic of the Philippines. The Japanese Foreign Ministry could not but follow the MILF’s framing, saying in its congratulatory note: “Japan strongly expects that both parties will

continue sincere talks.

“Our government has become just another “party” in this conflict, no longer a state protecting its sovereignty.

“One is dumbfounded at how our 113-year-old Republic was downgraded in this episode to the level of an insurgent group that has at most 5,000 mostly part-time guerrillas that can operate only in a small territory in Central Mindanao, and which has been responsible for the deaths of at least 10,000 Filipino soldiers and civilians.

“Probably thinking that a meeting with the MILF head would be an accomplishment he could boast of in his July 25 State of the Nation Address, Mr. Aquino, the MILF statement disclosed, asked for the meeting in June. “Anywhere in the Philippines,” he told the MILF. “Surprised by the invitation, but realizing it was for the Sona and, therefore, Mr. Aquino was on a tight deadline, the MILF sensed a tremendous political opportunity.

It dilly-dallied, and then demanded that the government course the invitation through the Malaysian official “facilitator” for the peace talks. Then it told Aquino: Either a meeting outside the country or no meeting. Choose among Japan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, or the United Kingdom as venue. It is amazing how an insurgent group sets the place

and the time at its convenience for a meeting with the President.

“The MILF demanded a “series of consultations” to agree where the meeting would be. The days spent for this and for a very surprised Japanese government to make the necessary preparations derailed the calculation for the “historic meeting” to make it to the Sona in July.

“The MILF gloated over its political victory in having the meeting in Japan, declaring in its statement: “The meeting between the two leaders in a third-party country host is a significant political milestone in the MILF’s quest for Bangsamoro right to self-determination.”

“The MILF was so delirious with joy that Mr. Aquino committed such a blunder, it even went on to further humble the President by saying: “On the part of the MILF chairman, his acceptance of the invitation illustrates a high level of statesmanship.”

An unelected rebel chieftain proved himself a statesman by agreeing to meet the representative of 94 million Filipinos?

“It has always been the fervent hope of any insurgent group for its leader to meet with the head of the state it is fighting, since such a meeting moves it closer in the public mind and in global perception to the status of a sovereign, with its members becoming what are called “state actors.

“Aquino’s mother Cory had more

sense in that she met in 1986 with the MNLF chief Nur Misuari in Sulu— in our country, in sharp contrast to our President slipping through the backdoor to a foreign land to comply with the MILF’s demand.

“Cory’s meeting was also a gesture of solidarity with and gratitude to the MNLF, which after all, dealt blows to the dictatorship, rather than, as the MILF described the Aquino-Murad encounter, a “historic meeting between two leaders.”

“Marcos had more sense in that the highest-ranking officer he sent to negotiate, and even sign the peace treaty with the MNLF was a defense department undersecretary.

“In Narita, the MILF faced a President and six Cabinet secretaries.

(What in the world were Secretaries Florencio Abad and Cesar Purisima doing there? If not for the publicity, to offer money to the MILF?) “Cory had more sense in making sure that no photograph of her meeting with Misuari was circulated. Now every MILF fighter would be proudly carrying a photo of Murad and Aquino smiling, to taunt our soldiers.

“The road to hell, it seems, is not only paved with good intentions, but littered with the mess of publicityseeking incompetents.”

In retrospect, the slaughter of 44 PNP SAF members in Mamasapano, Maguindanao was an incident waiting to happen.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Saturday, February 28, 2015

BSP beefs up banks’ control guidelines

By David Cagahastian

T

he Monetary Board (MB) has approved the revised guidelines for internal control and internalaudit of financial institutions regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The new guidelines upgrade the requirements of the BSP regarding the internal-control mechanisms in financial institutions, which was previously limited only to the implementation of basic internal-control activities to promoting shared accountability of the board of directors and personnel at all levels in the internalcontrol process.

These internal-control activities include management oversight and control culture; risk recognition and assessment; information and communications; and monitoring activities and correcting of deficiencies.

In approving the new guidelines, the MB recognized that internal-control processes are peculiar to each financial institution, “as such, consistent with the principle of proportionality, financial institutions are expected to adopt internalcontrol frameworks that are

suited to their size, risk profile and complexity of operations.”

The new guidelines on internal audit, meanwhile, also broaden the BSP’s expectations on the internal audit process of financial institutions.

Under the new guidelines, the qualifications of the head of the internal audit function were expanded so as to consider professionals from disciplines outside of the accounting profession. Certified public accountants or certified internal auditors are required for the head of the internal audit function of a universal/ commercial bank.

On the other hand, the head of the internal audit of thrift, rural and cooperative banks may be a graduate of any accounting, business, finance or economics course, but should have the technical proficiency on the conduct of internal audit.

Financial institutions are generally allowed to outsource the internal audit function to have access to certain areas of expertise or address resource constraints, provided that the scope of audit will not include areas that are covered by existing statutes on deposit secrecy.

Vietnam, Thailand to supply rice to PHL

V

By Alladin S. Diega | Correspondent

ietnam and Thailand will supply the 500,000 metric tons (MT) of rice the Philippines needs to beef up its buffer stock during this year’s lean season for palay, the National Food Authority (NFA) Council said on Friday.

Following the conclusion of a government-to-government bidding for the country’s rice requirement, the NFA Council said it will recommend the award to Vietnam of the right to supply 300,000 MT, while Thailand will be asked to provide 200,000 MT. Piolito Santos, chairman of the Special Bids and Awards Committee, said the recommendation is still subject to the approval of NFA Administrator Renan Dalisay. The NFA expects to issue the notice of award not later than March 3, while contract signing may be held anytime between March 4 and 10.

“By March 11, we will already give the winning bidders the notice to proceed to the delivery of rice,” Santos said.

Under the terms of reference, the NFA will buy 250,000 MT (25-percent bro-

SANTOS: “By March 11, we will already give the winning bidders the notice to proceed to the delivery of rice.”

kens) and 250,000 MT (15-percent brokens), well-milled long-grain white rice.

The state-run food agency requires bidders to deliver 50 percent of the volume to be awarded not later than March 31 this year and the other 50 percent not later than April 30.

Thailand offered to sell 100,000 MT of well-milled, long-grain white rice (15-percent brokens) at $441 per MT and 100,000 MT of 25-percent broken rice for $421 per MT. Meanwhile, Vietnam offered to supply the entire 250,000 MT of 15-percent broken rice at $442.50 per MT and 250,000 MT of 25-percent broken rice at $424.50 per MT. Malou de Leon, marketing officer for the Thai embassy, said Thailand was not able to bid for a bigger volume because of Bangkok’s existing supply commitments to other countries. De Leon added that restrictions in the bidding prevented them from renegotiating for a bigger volume.

The country is importing a total of 500,000 MT under the governmentto-government scheme to prop up the NFA’s buffer stock during the lean months of June, July and August. The state-run food agency is usually required to maintain a buffer stock equivalent to 30 days of the country’s rice consumption during the lean season.

A government-to-government transaction requires an existing executive agreement for a country to participate in rice bidding. Currently, only Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia have an existing memorandum of agreement with Manila.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

US: China is expanding its South China Sea outposts

W

ASHINGTON—China is expanding its outposts in the South China Sea to include stationing for ships and potential airfields as part of its “aggressive” effort to exert sovereignty, the US intelligence chief said on Thursday.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on worldwide threats. His comments underscore US concern over landreclamation activities that could fuel tensions between China and its neighbors over disputed islands and reefs.

“Although China is looking for stable ties with the United States it’s more willing to accept bilateral and regional tensions in pursuit of its interests, particularly on maritime sovereignty issues,” Clapper said. He described China’s claims traced by a so-called nine-dash line—a rough boundary covering more than 80 percent of the South China Sea—as “exorbitant.”

The US is not a claimant of territory in the South China Sea but does claim a national interest in the peaceful resolution of the disputes in a region crucial for world trade.

China says its territorial claims have a historical basis and objects to what it consider US meddling. AP