Businessmirror january 17, 2018

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Shopping mall fire:

When will we ever learn? By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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IX days after the New Year, another mall went ablaze, more than 400 kilometers away from the NCCC Mall.

With these two consecutive fires that gutted down two shopping malls in Davao City and Cebu City recently, questions about public safety against deadly fires linger anew. How safe are our malls from fire? As shopping malls are often overcrowded with mallgoers, especially during holidays, disastrous fires often lead to tragic deaths.

Bureau of Fire Protection regional director Senior Supt. Wilberto Rico Neil A. Kwan Tiu fields questions outside the NCCC Mall. MANUEL T. CAYON

@jonlmayuga

Part Three

The NCC fire in Davao City and the Gaisano Mall fire in Cebu City, which are both undergoing thorough investigations, prompted the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) to call on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to immediately inspect all malls in the country. Continued on A2

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Wednesday, January 17, 2018 Vol. 13 No. 98

Cha-cha a step closer as House OKs Con-ass By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

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@joveemarie

he House of Representatives on Tuesday adopted a resolution convening Congress into a constituent assembly (Con-ass) to study and finalize the draft amendments to the 1987 Constitution, with members of the majority this time opting to finish the deliberations to prevent the minority bloc from using lack of quorum anew to delay its passage. See “Cha-cha,” A2

₧204M

The estimated budget needed to finalize amendments to the 1987 Charter via constituent assembly

Mindanao Bureau Chief @awimailbox

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AVAO CITY—Around this time when presidents usually see their trust ratings plummet, indicating that the honeymoon period is over, analysts based here agree that President Duterte’s political will allowed him to continue enjoying high ratings. His brusque manner and his choice of words may be unpalatable to the well-heeled and the elite, but analysts told the BusinessMirror that he also earned high marks for the policies rolled out by his administration. “Indeed, his manner of speaking, occasionally, may sound divisive, which does not jibe well with the desired move to unify the nation after the most divisive elections in May 2016,” said Ramon B. Beleno III, chairman of the Political Science Department at the Ateneo de Davao University. H is words not withstanding, Duterte’s “overarching advantage” was his unabashed demonstration of political will “and his administration’s policies,” Beleno added, “which are practical and pragmatic that earned him his rightful badge of high trust and performance ratings.” At this time of the tenure of a president, surveys would have shown a huge dip in his ratings from high levels that are commonly seen during his first year in office, or the so-called

Investments have been coming in faster than before, despite his innuendos and direct broadsides against the US, the United Nations and the European Union.”—Beleno honeymoon period, according to Adrian Tamayo of the Institute of Popular Opinion, the research arm of the University of Mindanao.

Political will

The President is able to exhibit a political will that is absent in past administrations because he has no political debts to repay and is not beholden to political alliances, according to analysts. Beleno and Tamayo said the shots fired by the political opposition hardly made a dent in the President’s ratings, “as his policies were soon to be felt by the people immediately when they transact business in local government offices, when driver’s licenses are extended to five years, when passport issuances are put in order, and many other government front-desk transactions are See “Political will,” A12

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PHL congratulates Arab Republic of Egypt Teddy Locsin Jr.

free fire Philippine statement delivered by Ambassador Teddy Locsin Jr. on January 12, during the Handover Ceremony of the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 at the United Nations Headquarters, New York.

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he Philippines congratulates the Arab Republic of Egypt for its assumption of the chairmanship of the Group of 77 for 2018, and the Republic of Ecuador for its strong leadership over the past year. Continued on A10

DOF submits Package 2 of CTRP to House

Political will keeping Duterte’s trust rating high–Davao analysts By Manuel T. Cayon

2016 ejap journalism awards

CHUA: “The government is giving almost 0.8 percent of GDP in income-tax holidays and custom duty exemptions.”

By Rea Cu

processing time to five working days maximum, while the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) is mandated to issue building permits within three working days. The same four-step processing system and processing time is recommended on applications for certificates for occupancy. In order to accomplish this, the state agencies ordered LGUs to establish one-stop shops intended to consolidate the processing of clearances, including building permits, certificates of occupancy, locational clearances, tax declaration, tax clearances, certificates of final electrical inspection.

he Department of Finance (DOF) has formally submitted to the House of Representatives on Monday the second package of the Duterte administration’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) that aims to reduce corporate income tax (CIT) rates and “modernize” fiscal incentives. According to the DOF, the second package of the CTRP was submitted to the House through the Office of the Speaker upon the resumption on January 15 of the second regular session of Congress following its year-end recess. Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendr ick T. Chua said Package 2, which was designed to be “revenue-neutral,” proposes to gradually lower the CIT rate from 30 percent to 25 percent, while modernizing incentives for companies to make these performance-based, targeted, time-bound and transparent.

See “LGUS,” A2

See “DOF ,” A12

GOLDEN JUBILEE Manuel V. Pangilinan (from left), chairman of Metro Pacific Investments Corp.; Herminio B. Coloma Jr., past director of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex); US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Y. Kim; and Atty. Benedicta Du-Baladad, Finex president, gathered in a Makati City hotel on Monday for the Golden Anniversary Gala Night of the Finex. ROY DOMINGO

LGUs told to simplify building permit process By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

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@alyasjah

n support of the government’s infrastructure program, four state agencies committed to a joint memorandum circular (JMC) that seeks to simplify the procedure of applications for construction-related permits. Under JMC 2018-01, the departments of Trade and Industry (DTI), Public Works and Highways, Interior and Local Government, and of Information and Communications Technology instructed local government units (LGUs) to adhere to service standards on processing simple applications for

construction permits. It covers single-dwelling residential buildings of not more than three stories, commercial buildings of not more than two floors, renovation within a mall with issued building permits and warehouses housing nonhazardous substances. The circular directed LGUs to implement a four-step processing system in issuing building permits. This procedure begins with the submission of application with complete documentation, followed by the receipt of order of payment, then payment of fees, concluded by the issuance of permits. The circular also trimmed down

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@ReaCuBM

n japan 0.4559 n UK 69.4830 n HK 6.4358 n CHINA 7.8228 n singapore 38.1064 n australia 40.1239 n EU 61.7795 n SAUDI arabia 13.4259

Source: BSP (16 January 2018 )

A2 Wednesday, January 17, 2018

BMReports BusinessMirror

Shopping mall fire:

When will we ever learn? Continued from A1

In 2008 an online news report [not by the BusinessMirror] exposed the poor compliance of shopping malls in Metro Manila with the provisions of Presidential Decree 1185, the old Fire Code of the Philippines, which was repealed by the enactment of Republic Act 9514, or the Fire Code of the Philippines. The 10-year-old law signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on December 19, 2008, established the Comprehensive Fire Code in the Philippines.

Mercantile category

SHOPPING malls fall under the “mercantile” classification based on the type of building occupancy, according to Fire Safety Officer 2 Anselmo Idago of the BFP Fire Safety Enforcement Division (FSED). Mercantile occupancies include malls, supermarkets, department stores, shopping centers, f lea markets, restaurants of less than 50-person capacity, public/private dry and wet markets, water refilling stations, drugstores, hardware/ construction supplies, showrooms and auction rooms. Like all buildings, Idago said shopping malls are covered by the Fire Code of the Philippines and the compliance of the shopping mall management with the Fire Code is a must to ensure public safety, not only of mallgoers but of the employees of various locators doing business in the establishment. “We have a Fire Code, which adequately puts in place fire prevention and safety measures,” Idago told the BusinessMirror in Filipino. The Fire Code of the Philippines provides the minimum requirements, depending on the occupancy classification and the floor area of the building, on the number and specifics of stairways, fire alarms and fire exits and signs. Included also are fire detection and suppression mechanisms or devices, such as smoke or fire-detection system, fire alarms, automatic sprinklers and portable fire extinguishers.

Tourism. . .

Continued from A12

primary to evaluate the systems and process of the DOT that would enable them to be more effective, especially to the industry players,” adding that it was important and “primary” for the government agency to research and collect data. She added, “so many studies and assessments have been done by so many consultants [on how the Philippines can improve its standing as a global tourism destination], which were provided to the department. Maybe it is time to also check how these should be implemented. Clemente, who is president of Rajah Travel Corp. and a columnist

The FSED at the BFP National Headquarter provides policy direction to the BFP’s various BFP Fire Stations through which fire-safety inspections are conducted.

Safety certification

THE respective fire station in a locality issues fire-safety inspection certificates to business establishments upon assessments of an establishment with their full or substantial compliance of the provisions of the Fire Code of the Philippines. The fire-safety inspection certificate is a prerequisite for the issuance of a business permit or permits to operate by concerned local government units (LGUs). Often, however, a disastrous fire that lead to tragic deaths— such as 1996 Ozone Disco fire, where 176 people died, and the 2001 Manor Hotel fire that left 75 people dead—is because of the fact that, despite deficiencies or violations of the Fire Code, firesafety inspection certificates are issued. Sometimes, even without a fire-safety inspection certificate, the establishments are allowed to operate by the LGU; in the two cases, the Quezon City government. Another important requirement for shopping malls and other establishments under the Mercantile Occupancy classification include the commissioning of fire brigades composed of adequate number of personnel with firefighting training. Apparently, not all malls, even those in Metro Manila, are compliant of the provisions of the Fire Code of the Philippines, making malls prone to fire. With its limited firefighting capability owing to shortage in fire trucks and other firefighting equipment, not to mention firefighters equipped with proper gears, shopping mall fires, such as the ones that took the lives of 37 voice call-center agents at the NCCC Mall in Davao City, are a cause for alarm. of this paper, noted that even as the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) for 2016 to 2022 is being carried out, “it is not clear how this is being implemented as we only see the sweeping statements made in the plan. Where are the milestones of wh at h ave been ac h ie ved here? Then the DOT and the industry can identify where are its shortcomings and where it can improve.” The NTDP is supposed to be a blueprint for the government to reach certain goa ls in ter ms of visitor arrivals and receipts, by enumerating the needed infrastr ucture in key destinations and marketing new products that would encourage tour ists to come to the Philippines. But unlike the prev ious adminis-

New units

CHIEF Insp. Marionito Bolando, the incoming chief of the BFPFSED said the BFP is will come up with a new organizational structure this month, establishing Fire Safety Information Division under the Directorate of Fire Safety Enforcement. The new BFP division will replace the FSED and assume the role of evaluating and enforcing fire safety under the Fire Code of the Philippines. According to Bolando, the key to preventing a fire is information, education and communication, which he intends to strengthen, given the BFP’s limited resources. “We intend to continue the massive information drive and conduct more fire drills, especially in business establishments,” he said. “We need to do this regularly to prevent untoward incidents.” Bolando added awareness about the hazards of fire and what it can do will hopefully lessen incidents of fire, as well as the number of casualties. “Right now, the BFP is still ironing kinks to operationalize the new organizational structure,” he said in Filipino. But he added that under his watch, he plans to make fire drills a regular thing. He also said that the BFP will continue to conduct fire prevention and firefighting training “upon request” of public and private institutions. “We have experts in the BFP willing and ready to provide necessary training to business establishments upon their requests,” he said. “These establishments should also have their own safety engineers undergo training.”

Fire Code and other relevant regulations,” the company said in response to the BusinessMirror’s query on fire safety. “All SM malls are equipped with fire-protection system that is regularly inspected also by a third party engaged by the company as part of risk management,” the company added. “This regular audit ensures continuous improvement of the malls’ fire-safety practices.” According to the company, it “conducts fire drills twice a year, on top of local and national initiated efforts.” “Aside from that, [SMPH] also performs tabletop discussions on a property basis to discuss various fire scenarios to help improve the emergency response plan guided by the company’s Emergency Response Manual, including cases of fire.”

Fire committee

ACCORDING to the operator of SM malls, SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH) “prioritizes the safety and security of all its shoppers, tenants and employees at all times.” “The company hires fire-safety consultants to evaluate building designs, assuring that our malls are complying with the National

SMPH added it has set up a Fire Safety Management Committee, “which ensures that findings and recommendations from audit, consultants and providers of machineries and equipment preventive maintenance services are cascaded and addressed by the malls.” The company said this committee conducts periodic reviews of near miss and actual fire incidents for local and nationwide recommendations. When asked how much SMPH spends for fire safety, the company replied: “Apart from spending on fire-protection systems, fire safety consultant and thirdparty auditor, SM’s spending related to fire safety also include investments on machineries and equipment to help manage/prevent fire hazards.” “These include Fire Detection Alarm System and thermal imaging cameras that help find potential source of fire and smoke from electrical equipment to prevent fire hazards,” SMPH said. “Significant spending is also allocated for training of emergency-response personnel.” To be concluded

tration, the current NTDP has yet to be publicly unveiled and no complete copies have been given to the media and tourism stakeholders. Meanwhile, DOT’s Cañizal said reassigned officials could still discuss the possibility of extending the turnover period to their replacement with Teo. “That’s the order [that they have a week for the turnover of duties]. I guess if there is any need for possible extension, it has to be discussed with the secretary…. They are also right; if they have things to finish, then they have to finish these. But they need to give a time frame [for the turnover] because the other people in the place where they are to be reassigned will also be anticipating what they’re supposed to do.”

He added that the agency will also study ways how to cushion the impact of the reshuffle on the directors due to the low relocation fee prescribed under the law, which amounts to between P4,000 and P5,500 a month. One critic of the reshuffle of regional directors noted that P5,000 a month is hardly enough to cover for rent in some major urban areas, not even pay for additional meal costs. “Right now, we’re studying this because we only live with what is provided under the law. But just because it’s in the law, we can’t do anything to ease our officials’ relocation,” Cañizal said, noting that “perhaps it’s time for the DBM [Department of Budget and Management] to revisit this [relocation costs].

SM assurance

LGUs. . .

Continued from A1

It also covers clearances required by the BFP, such as the fire-safety evaluation clearance and fire-safety inspection clearance. According to the circular, the ideal one-stop shop is to have representatives from the LGU’s Office of the Building Official, Treasury Office, Zoning Office, Assessor’s Office and BFP housed in one area at the municipal hall. The circular also allows joint inspection teams to be organized to spare applicants from the burden of accommodating multiple inspections before their clearances are issued. T he circu lar is ex pected t o i m p r o v e t h e c o u n t r y ’s

performance in ease of doing business, accord ing to Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez. The country slipped to 113th last year, from 99th in 2016, in the World Bank ’s “Doing Business 2018” report, and was 101st in processing construction permits. “We fervently support the implementation of this circular, as it strengthens our previous efforts to eliminate red tape. Now that JMC 2018-01 is in place, we look forward to improved ease of doing business and better performance in doing business rank ings,” Lopez said. The circular, according to the DTI, was issued in response to President Duterte’s call to reduce the procedure for the issuance of government permits so as to See “LGUs ,” A12

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Cha-cha. . .

Continued from A1

Before the measure was adopted, members of the minority bloc asked for a second roll call to determine the existence of quorum, which was granted. A quorum was declared later, with 186 lawmakers—significantly lower than the 222 lawmakers attending during the first roll call—still present. At least 147 congressmen should be present to meet the quorum requirement. The House majority then decided to cut the period of interpellation and then moved for the approval of the Con-ass resolution. Through viva voce voting, the lower chamber adopted the House Concurrent Resolution 9. Like other measures, the resolution will now be transmitted to the Senate for deliberation. Rep. Roger Mercado, chairman of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, said after the approval of House Concurrent Resolution 9, all recommendations, including the PDP-Laban draft Constitution and those reforms or amendments submitted by House members, would be discussed by the different committees based on the rules on Conass. As to the issue on whether the two chambers of Congress will vote as one or separately on constitutional amendment, Mercado invoked Article 17 of the Constitution. “Congress, upon the vote of all its members, so, both houses will be convened and upon a vote of three-fourths of all its members, meaning the House of Representatives and the Senate, then we can propose amendments to our Constitution,” Mercado said. Article XVII, Section 1 of the Constitution states: “Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by [1] Congress, upon the vote of three-fourths of all its Members.” According to Mercardo, amending or revising the constitution via Con-ass is economical, since it would only entail P204 million, as against constitutional convention, which would cost the government around P11 billion. Also, Mercado encouraged the Senate to support the Con-ass proposal to save money. Rep. Edgar R. Erice of the Second District of Caloocan slammed the leadership for railroading the resolution. “How we can we entrust Charter change [Cha-cha] to a constituent assembly with the way they railroaded the Cha-cha concurrent resolution. They didn’t even allow a congressman to finish his interpellation,” Erice said. The period of interpellation was terminated with three remaining interpellators. On Monday Erice managed to block the passage of the Con-ass resolution when he also motioned for a roll call. Lack of quorum was determined, forcing the majority to abruptly end the session. Earlier, Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said if the 17th Congress could convene into a Con-ass this month, the proposed new federal charter could be submitted for referendum simultaneously with the barangay elections on May 14, 2018. Under Con-ass, it’s the sitting lawmakers themselves—congressmen and senators—who will serve as the delegates. Based on the recommendation of the House subcommittees formed to outline revisions to the 1987 Charter, the proposed shift to federal system of government will also lead to the further liberalization of the country’s economy, particularly on foreign equity. This is after a subcommittee of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments proposed to delete the 6040 provision on foreign-equity sharing in the 1987 Constitution. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Vicente Veloso of Leyte, said the proposal effectively provides for an “open economy.” During Tuesday’s discussion, the areas that will be freed from the said restriction include: exploitation, development and utilization of natural resources; ownership of alienable lands; franchise on public utilities; practice of profession; ownership of educational institutions, mass media and advertising. Under the draft proposal, the matter of equity sharing, as well as the terms and conditions involving joint ventures and other undertakings involving the aforementioned areas, shall be determined through legislation. Veloso’s subcommittee is one of the four subcommittees that will consolidate all the proposals to create the draft of a proposed Philippine Federal Constitution. Mercado, the chairman of the House

Committee on Constitutional Amendments, said all the proposals are subject to deliberations and amendments by lawmakers during the Con-ass.

5 states Meanwhile, another subcommittee, headed by Rep. Corazon Nuñez-Malanyaon of Negros Oriental, proposed that the future Federal Republic of the Philippines will be divided into five states. According to a draft proposal, the five states will be composed of Luzon, the Visayas, Mindanao, Bangsamoro and Metro Manila. Metro Manila will serve as seat of the federal government. Under the proposal, each state shall have its own State Constitution, adopt its name, and choose a capital, flag, anthem and seal. Each state shall have a unicameral state assembly with legislative powers, and premier exercising executive powers. As provided in the State and Local Government Code, there shall be an equalization fund, which shall comprise of unconditional, generalpurpose block grant and conditional and matching grants as incentives for state governments.

President and Prime Minister Moreover, the proposal retains the position of the President, who would act as head of state, and introduces the position of a Prime Minister, who would be the head of the government. The President shall be elected by direct vote of the people for a term of five years with one reelection, while the Prime Minister shall be elected by a majority of all the members of the Parliament from among themselves. Under the proposal, the first election under this Constitution shall be held on the second Monday of May 2022. With this, the proposal may suspend the 2019 midterm elections. “These are just possibilities. We are also sensitive to public sentiments, especially if the people would not want to suspend the election,” Mercado said, saying the 2019 midterm polls will push through if the public opposes no elections (no-el). The draft was also silent whether President Duterte is banned or not from running as president under the new system in its first election, while it allows Vice President Leni Robredo to finish her term until 2022. The position of vice president will be abolished during the first parliament election in May 2022. The measure said the new President with a five-year term will have two consecutive terms and to be elected by the people on the first election in May 2022. The Interim Prime Minister “shall be elected by a majority vote of all the members of Parliament. He shall be a member of the Cabinet,” the proposal said.

‘Not yet final’ Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo M. Lacson clarified on Tuesday that Cha-cha proposals leading to possible term extensions for all elected officials, including a fiveyear presidential term with reelection, are not yet final. “These are all proposals at a very preliminary stage of amending the 1987 Constitution,” Lacson told reporters, adding that the process has yet to be discussed by lawmakers. He confirmed that lawmakers have yet to tackle first the issue on whether the Senate and the House of Representatives would be “voting jointly or separately,” on how to go about changing the Charter. Lacson added that if he was asked, he would rather focus on the economic provisions. “They were more focused on amending the political provisions, changing the form of government. Of course, they were dovetailing this on the campaign promise of the President [about preferring a federal setup]. And these are allies of the President.” Lacson played down speculations that lawmakers are targeting to conduct a national plebiscite ratifying Charter changes in May 2018. “The way I see it, that [timeline] is quite difficult to meet... that [timetable] is too tight.” Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, who heads the four-man Liberal Party bloc in the Senate, said the opposition senators acknowledge Duterte’s preference for a unicameral Congress as part of proposed Charter changes. “We respect the President’s view being the political leader of our country. But having said that, let us not forget that the constitutional amendment is basically a function and prerogative of Congress,” Drilon pointed out. With Butch Fernandez

The Nation BusinessMirror

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Wednesday, January 17, 2018 A3

Joint research on PHL Rise precursor of yet another China invasion–group

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By Jonathan L. Mayuga

@jonlmayuga

T is nothing but a pretext to Beijing’s encroachment of the country’s territorial waters.

This was how the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) described the joint research project between the Philippines and China in the Philippine Rise, the country’s newest territory 250 kilometers off Aurora Province. According to Pamalakaya, just like what it transpired in the West Philippine Sea, the Philippines will be in for yet another surprise when China begins to invade the country’s resource-rich territory. Pamalakaya said China has established defense facilities in the West Philippine Sea. The group assailed the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) for allowing China, in partnership with the Philippines, to conduct an unspecified research activity in Philippine Rise, formerly known as Benham Rise. The Philippine Rise is a 13-million-hectare resource-rich underwater plateau opposite to the disputed waters of South China Sea. It is endowed with abundant marine species like first-class tuna, and untapped mineral and gas deposits. It was confirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) as part of the Philippines’s exclusive economic zone in April 2012. Pamalakaya likened the joint research to the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking in 2005, which led to the complete takeover of China of a large portion of Spratly Islands, including the Reed Bank near Palawan and other parts of the West Philippine Sea that are now occupied by Beijing. “This latest version of joint research is clearly a manipulative

Declassification of Sereno’s psychiatric profile a ‘mere publicity stunt’–Deinla By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

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HE camp of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno has expressed belief that the plan to declassify the results of the psychological examination taken five years ago on the chief magistrate was a mere publicity stunt to boost the impeachment complaint against her. Lawyer Josa Deinla, one of the spokesmen of Sereno, said Sereno’s detractors are only out to humiliate her considering the statement made by House Committee on Justice Chairman Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali that the hearings are a “mere formality.” “This is nothing but a mere publicity stunt with the intention to humiliate, insult, malign, ridicule and discredit the Chief Justice before the public,” Deinla said. Deinla noted that even impeachment complainant, Atty. Larry Gardon, admitted in various interviews with media that the issue on the psychological test was not an impeachable ground. “Because they lack solid proof to support the fatally defective impeachment complaint filed by Atty. Gadon, they resort to publicity stunt and vicious vilification campaign,” Deinla said. The House Committee on Justice has already invited the two psychologists hired by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) in 2012 to conduct the psychological exam on Sereno and other candidates to replace then-Chief Justice Renato C. Corona, who was convicted by the Senate impeachment court. The JBC is a constitutional body that screens applicants to vacant posts in the Judiciary, from the Chief Justice down to trial court judges. In his complaint, Gadon alleged that Sereno got a 4 out of 5 grade in her psychological exam. According to him, “an applicant to any position in the Judiciary with a grade of 4 is unfit for the job.” Deinla, however, said this baseless allegation could easily be demolished by Sereno’s solid background and track record. Deinla added Sereno could not have served in the Supreme Court for seven years—two as associate justice and five as Chief Justice—if she was not psychologically fit. “The Chief Justice has been in international and local conferences, presided so many en banc meetings, implemented various reforms, wrote so many opinions and decisions,” she pointed out. “Thousands of people she had met could attest to her fitness to lead the Supreme Court and the entire judicial branch,” Deinla argued. Deinla said the Chief Justice would not be able to handle this much stress and pressure if she was unfit for the top Judiciary post. “Can someone who is not strong and solid perform all these duties and, at the same time, institute reforms aimed at restoring the people’s trust and confidence in the Judiciary?” Deinla asked. In her verified answer filed through her lawyers, led by Alex Poblador, Sereno said there was nothing in the JBC Rules that says an applicant to a position in the Judiciary with a grade of 4 is unfit for the job.

Don’t single out Sereno

IN a related development, good governance advocate Pinoy Aksyon for Governance and Environment appealed to President Duterte not to single out Sereno in its bid to clean the Judiciary . “We challenge the allies of the President to follow his example —to exercise their power to hold to account misfits in the Judiciary and not just single out the Chief Justice whose only fault is to speak her mind out on matters like human rights and checks and balances in government,” the group said. The group was referring to reports that the JBC, being headed by Sereno, is set to justify its earlier position to disqualify former Solicitor General Francis H. Jardeleza in his application for a post at the Supreme Court in 2014. Sereno raised not only the question on integrity of Jardeleza involving his deliberate exclusion of Itu Aba in the government’s claims in the arbitration case against China over the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea when he was still solicitor general during the previous administration, but also made allegations of “immorality” and the criminal act of insider trading against him in blocking his appointment to the SC.

move by China for its new territorial expansion and usurpation. The research would give China access to potential resources and marine features of the rise, and then it would be followed by exploration and reclamation activities,” Pamalakaya Chairman, Fernando Hicap, said in a news statement. The group said that knowing China’s military ca-

pabilities, Beijing could craft another historical document that will justify their illegal claim. “We fear that their nine-dash-line assumption would extend with more lines to cover the rise and justify their claim.” According to Pamalakaya, the joint research in Philippine Rise with China is a culpable violation of

national patrimony and tantamount to surrender of our marine territory and its resources. Instead of conducting joint research, the group said, the government must pressure China to comply with the international tribunal’s decision and give up its claim over the country’s territorial waters.

Economy

A4 Wednesday, January 17, 2018 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

Group to Duterte: Issue clear-cut policy on open-pit mining ban By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

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nvironmental group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (KalikasanPNE) on Tuesday urged President Duterte to issue a clear-cut policy to outlaw surface or open-pit mining activities in the Philippines. Leon Dulce, campaign coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE, said the President’s latest statement to keep in place the ban on open-pit mining should be complemented with decisive actions that cut across all branches of government. “He [the President] should compel his environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu to immediately desist from releasing contradictory statements through the various offices of the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources], especially through its ‘rogue’ Mines and Geosciences Bureau,” Dulce said in a statement. According to Dulce, Cimatu should release a clear-cut pronouncement that he will uphold Administrative Order 2017-10, and immediately cancel permits issued to all prospective open-pit mines currently in the exploration and development stages. In Congress, the group challenged Duterte to mobilize his so-called supermajority to craft and pass a policy on open-pit mining, declaring a moratorium on prospective open-

pit mines until a new comprehensive mining law, such as House Bill 2715, or the people’s mining bill, is passed. “If the supermajority of Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez could incredibly pass the tax-reform law with less than 20 lawmakers in session, surely a simple moratorium on open-pit mining can likewise enjoy the same political will,” Dulce said. The DENR will need such a policy backbone to fortify the open-pit mine ban against legal challenges it will face from the best lawyers mining lobby can hire, he added. “We haven’t even begun to discuss the uphill struggle we will confront to get a ‘miraculous’ decision from the courts,” Dulce said. Duterte, he added, will face pressure from mining oligarchs, including from his own circle of friends,

such as the Dominguez and the Zamora clans. “Can he [Duterte] stand up against his classmate, finance Secretary Carlos [G.] Dominguez [III], when the open-pit mining ban squarely hits the Dominguez-owned Tampakan mining project? Can he [Duterte] quash the mining lobby talks his election funders, the Zamoras, are facilitating in Congress to prevent incisive mining regulations from passing into law?” Dulce asked. “Duterte’s repeated pronouncements on upholding the open-pit mine ban are welcome, but we need more concrete actions from his administration to walk the talk. Almost a year after the administration announced the closure and suspension of 28 big mines, it remained only on paper,” he said.

Duterte’s repeated pronouncements on upholding the open-pit mine ban are welcome, but we need more concrete actions from his administration to walk the talk. Almost a year after the administration announced the closure and suspension of 28 big mines, it remained only on paper.”—Dulce

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Duque welcomes P1.4-billion refund for unused Dengvaxia

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ealth Secretary Francisco T. Duque III has welcomed Sanofi Pasteur’s move to refund the government P1.4 billion for the unused doses of the controversial dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia, in the health department’s public immunization program. “We will ask for a full refund, eventually. But for the meantime, we want the immediate withdrawal of all [Dengvaxia] vaccine vials stored in our cold-chain facilities,” Duque said in a recent interview. “Ang importante kasi mai-withdraw na nila lahat ng mga vials because they are also eating up our space. Hindi kami makatanggap ng bagong bakuna sa cold-chain facilities and RITM and regional storage facilities [It is important that they withdraw the remaining vi-

DUQUE: “We will ask for a full refund, eventually. But for the meantime, we want the immediate withdrawal of all [Dengvaxia] vaccine vials stored in our cold-chain facilities.”

als, which are eating up space in our cold-chain facilities. We could not accept new vaccines in these

facilities, as well as the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and regional storage facilities],” he added. The health chief said they also requested Sanofi to provide test kits developed by the University of Pittsburgh to conduct serotesting on children who received Dengvaxia, especially if they had no previous history of infection before receiving it. Meanwhile, Sanofi said that their decision to reimburse the government for unused doses “is not related to any safety or quality issue with Dengvaxia.” “Rather, Sanofi Pasteur hopes that this decision will allow us to be able to work more openly and constructively with the DOH [Department of Health] to address the negative tone toward the dengue vaccine in the Philippines today,” the pharmaceutical company said in a news statement, maintaining that Dengvaxia’s overall benefit remained positive in high endemic countries like the Philippines. PNA

Shades and glasses A pedestrian walks past a relatively large inventory of imported shades and eyeglasses along a narrow road

stretch being sold by sidewalk vendors in Quiapo, Manila. The demand for shades is expected to spike a few weeks before the start of the summer season. ALYSA SALEN

PIDS study outlines cost of raising PWDs in family By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm

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ouseholds with disabled children spend an average of 15 percent of their income for health expenses annually, according to a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). In the study, titled “Health Practices of Children and Women with Disabilities,” a research team led by PIDS Senior Fellow Celia Reyes found that out-of-pocket expenses are significant, especially for households with children with disabilities. To cut costs, the study found that many poor households with children with disabilities risk selfdiagnosis and medication. “An average annual health-care expenditure of PWD [person with disability] children of P15,225.66 is a significantly huge burden for some of the PWD households, particularly those who fall below the poverty line,” the researchers said. “[Poor] households often resort to self-medication, especially if the illness experienced is just fever/ common cold/cough. Some often prefer traditional medications [e.g., herbal supplements, traditional healers],” they added. The study, which sampled Cebu-based households, particularly those in Mandaue City and San Remigio, found that medicines and transportation were the most expensive out-of-pocket health

expenses for households. The authors said medicines accounted for around 60 percent of medical expenses incurred by children with disabilities in both study areas. This is true especially for children with development/psychosocial impairments, who require maintenance medicines. In terms of transportation costs, the researchers said the distance of health facilities from San Remigio cost PWDs and their families. In Mandaue City, while regional health facilities are nearby, especially in Mandaue City, barriers to public transportation force households to spend more. “Barriers to transportation, particularly for the mobility-impaired, incur additional costs [e.g., tips given to the driver for accompanying the PWD in going in and out of the vehicle or in loading wheelchairs and other assistive devices in the vehicle],” the authors said. Among women PWDs, the costs are also significant. Out-of-pocket expenses of women PWDs account for as much as 50 percent of their average personal income and 10 percent the household income. Of this amount, medicines account for 70 percent of the total health-care expenditure of women PWDs, followed by transportation at 25 percent and therapy and checkup at less than 10 percent. In the case of women PWDs, going to a health-care facility is not com-

mon, especially in San Remigio. One of the respondents to the study said she was visited by a barangay health worker, while others simply did not want to go to a health facility because of shyness and personal discomfort. “Findings from this study highlight the lack of access to appropriate services for individuals with disabilities. Needed services for individuals with disabilities include evaluation and diagnostic testing, treatment and pharmacologic management, availability of trained health-care providers and specialists and access to clinic facilities within a reasonable distance,” the authors said. Also, the researchers found that physicians could not prescribe certain medicines to PWD patients who need them, such as diazepam, a common medicine for seizures, because of the prohibitive costs of obtaining and maintaining an S2 license to prescribe these kinds of medicines. The authors said that, while the government’s plan to expand PhilHealth benefits to cover habilitative/rehabilitative therapy services, especially for children PWDs, can help improve their health, this does not address the bulk of the out-of-pocket expenses of children and women PWDs, which are medicines and transportation. “Expanded coverage to cover for medications, as well as nursing/ caregiver support, would be beneficial for PWDs, particularly for those who have more significant limitations,” the authors added.

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Wednesday, January 17, 2018

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2M farmers to get free crop insurance

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Farmer Williy Abalos shows the cabbage damaged by the cold weather at Barangay Paoay, Atok, Benguet. Farmers reported a drop in temperature to 7 degrees Celsius last week, but it did little damage to the town’s vegetables. MAU VICTA

Govt disperses ‘bangus,’ carp fingerlings in Lake Mainit

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he Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) has dispersed 60,000 bangus and 70,000 carp fingerlings in Lake Mainit in Surigao del Norte under a program that seeks to increase the income of farmers. Dubbed as the Balik Sigla sa Ilog at Lawa, the program seeks to address the dwindling marine resources and increase the volume of fish catch from the country’s major lakes and river basins. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, who conceptualized the program, said in a statement that the dispersal of fingerlings conducted on January 12 is the third in a series of restocking, which aims to preserve Lake Mainit’s, endemic fish species “Pijanga.” “The government will provide what you need so you can improve your production and livelihood,” Piñol told farmers and fishermen during his recent visit to the town of Mainit, and Jabonga and Kitcharao in Agusan del Norte. During the visit, Piñol, together with officials of the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the BFAR, distributed three units of 30-footer double-engine patrol boats to strengthen and enhance surveillance measures against illegal-fishing activities. Aside from the patrol boats, Piñol also awarded 75 units of 14-footer paddle boats and 50 units of 20-footer motorized bancas to 175 local fishermen. The DA chief also distributed farm inputs, including coffee and cacao seedlings, vegetable seeds, fertilizers

and animal vaccines to the local government of Mainit and various farmers’ organizations. In addition, he turned over 60,000 abaca plantlets from the Philippine Fiber Development Authority, and indemnity checks amounting to P265,568 from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. The assistance given to farmers and fishermen amounted to P7.98 million, according to the DA. Piñol also committed an initial of P5 million each for the municipalities of Mainit, Jabonga and Kitcharao under the PLEA program. PLEA, or the Production Loan Easy Access program being managed by the Agricultural Credit Policy Council, is a no-collateral credit window made available to legit and genuine farmers. “You may avail [yourselves] of P15,000 per hectare PLEA loan at 6-percent interest under one condition only—you must register under the Juan Magsasaka ID system so we’ll know that you really are a farmer,” Piñol said. “No ID, no loan, that is our only requirement and, of course, you have to pay what you owe the government,” he added.

Cod catch at all-time low, but rebound could be near

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ORTL A ND, Maine—A mer ica’s catch of cod is at an all-time low, but the fishery might finally experience a rebound in the coming fishing year. Atlantic cod were once the backbone of New England’s commercial fishing fleet, but catch has plummeted in the wake of overfishing and environmental changes. The 2016 catch, which is the most recent to be fully tabulated, was the lowest in recorded history, according to statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But NOAA officials said there are some positive signs for the cod stock, and quotas are set to increase slightly this spring after years of heavy cutbacks. Fishermen seek cod in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank, and both areas are scheduled for quota bumps on May 1. “The quotas are so constraining that there’s not a lot of opportunity and interest in targeting cod,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. “But we’re headed in the right direction.” The United States cod fishery, based mostly in Massachusetts and Maine, brought in more than 100 million pounds (45.4 million kilograms) of fish per year in the early-1980s and bottomed out at 3.2 million pounds (1.45 million kilograms) in 2016. Scientists have blamed factors, including years of heavy harvest and warming oceans, for the collapse of the stock.

In this October 29, 2015, file photo, a cod that will be auctioned off sits on ice at the Portland Fish Exchange, in Portland, Maine. Cod were once the backbone of New England’s commercial fishing fleet, but catch has plummeted in the wake of overfishing and environmental changes. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File

Recent analysis, though, shows more abundance of cod in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, said Jamie Cournane, groundfish plan coordinator with the New England Fishery Management Council, an arm of NOAA. T he council has proposed about doubling the commercial cod quota for the two areas to nearly 3.9 million pounds (1.8 million kilograms), she said. The move is still pending approval by the federal Department of Commerce. Cournane cautioned that ocean managers have seen the cod stock waffle before, and the reprieve could be brief. “It appears that federal information suggests there have been some recent increases, but we’re not sure how long that’s going to last,” she said. AP

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

he Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) will extend P65.1 billion worth of free crop insurance coverage to more than 2 million farmers and fishermen this year to help them cope with the ill effects of climate change on farm production.

During the “Usapang Sakahan” media forum organized by the Philippine Agricultural Journalists, PCIC President and CEO Jovy C. Bernabe said Congress had allocated P3.5 billion for the government’s free crop insurance program this year. “This year is the first time that we will cover more than 2 million farmers, and the amount of insurance covered around P65 billion,” Bernabe told reporters during the media forum held in Quezon City on Tuesday. “[The free insurance] is courtesy of the P3.5 billion given by Congress and the DBM [Department of Budget and Management] under our 2018 budget,

which will be used to cover the 2 million farmers,” he added. Bernabe said the PCIC, an at t ac hed gover n ment - ow ned a nd - cont rol led cor por at ion under the Department of Agriculture, is targeting to cover some 25 percent of the country’s total number of farmers, pegged at 10 million. T he P65.01 bi l l ion wor t h of crop insurance to be provided by the PCIC this year is 30 percent h igher t h a n l a st year’s P50.032 billion, according to Bernabe. The number of total farmers insured by year-end would be 32 percent higher than the 1.52 million farmers and fishermen

registered beneficiaries in 2017, he added. Bernabe said the value of crop insurance and number of farmers covered this year would be the “highest” in the PCIC’s history. He also said farmers and fishermen who are registered in the government’s Registry System for Basic Sector in Agriculture will be prioritized by the PCIC for the free crop insurance coverage. With the free crop insurance coverage, PCIC Senior Vice President Norman R. Cajucom said the agency’s penetration rate in the rice and corn sector would increase to 20 percent, from the current 17 percent. Cajucom added that the ratio of high-value crops insured by the PCIC in relation to total hectarage planted would reach 9.6 percent by year-end, from last year’s 7 percent. Bernabe said the PCIC received a P3.5-billion premium subsidy under the 2018 General Appropriations Act, 40 percent higher than the P2.5 billion it was given last year. In 2017 the PCIC paid P1.9 billion worth of insurance claims to around 175,000 affected farmers, 25.83 percent higher than the P1.51 billion it paid to farmers in 2016. Bernabe said the total number of farmers covered by the PCIC last year, pegged at 1.52 million, was 38.81 percent higher than the 1.095 million farmers it insured in 2016.

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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

The World BusinessMirror

Editor: Lyn Ressureccion | www.businessmirror.com.ph

Korean War allies meet on N. Korean nuke threat

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ANCOUVER, British Columbia—Secretary of State Rex Tillerson huddles on Tuesday with nations that fought on America’s side in the Korean War, looking to tighten the economic noose around North Korea over its nuclear weapons even as hopes rise for diplomacy.

The 20-nation gathering on Canada’s western coast comes days after a mistaken missile alert caused panic on Hawaii, a stark reminder of the fears of conflict with the North after a year of escalating tension. The meeting in Vancouver, hosted by Tillerson and his Canad ian counter par t Chr ystia Freeland, was called before the recent start of talks between North and South Korea, the first in two years. The North restored a military hotline and agreed to participate in the Winter Olympics being hosted in February by the South, a close US ally. President Donald J. Trump has also signaled openness to talks with North Korea under the right circumstances. Despite the insults and blood-curdling threats he’s traded with its leader Kim Jong Un, he suggested in an interview that the two leaders could have a positive relationship.

13 siblings held captive by parents in California

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17-year-old girl who said she was being held captive by her parents in her home about two hours southeast of Los Angeles escaped last Sunday and alerted the authorities, who then rescued her 12 siblings—several of whom were found shackled to their beds and malnourished— the authorities said on Monday. The girl, who escaped from the house in Perris, California, early last Sunday, used a cell phone she found in the home to call the police with her startling claim about her siblings being held against their will, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said. Officers found the girl’s 12 siblings—who range in age from 2 to 29—in the foulsmelling house, living in the dark without access to adequate food or water, the department said. Some of the children were restrained with chains and padlocks. “The parents were unable to immediately provide a logical reason why their children were restrained in that manner,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. The officers did not immediately recognize that seven of the 13 siblings were adults because they were emaciated. The Sheriff’s Department said the 17-year-old girl who called 911 looked to be 10 years old. Their parents, David Allen Turpin, 57, and Louise Anna Turpin, 49, were arrested on nine counts each of torture and child endangerment. They were being held in jail with bail set at $9 million each, the authorities said. The Sheriff’s Department did not say how long the siblings might have been held captive. Sheriff ’s deputies provided food and water to the siblings, who claimed that they were starving. They were later transported to hospitals for treatment. Their conditions were not released. California records show that David Turpin had received state approval to run a private school, the Sandcastle Day School, at his home in Perris. The school enrolled six students this year, in grades 6 through 12, and Turpin was listed as the principal. Perris, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, is one of the largest cities in Riverside County, which became an emblem of bankruptcy and foreclosure during the depths of the recent recession. Known as the Inland Empire, the region has rebounded in recent years. New York Times News Service

20 The number of countries meeting on Canada’s western coast that are looking to tighten sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons development

But K im, widely viewed as seeking to drive a wedge between the US and South Korea, shows no sign of making concessions toward Washington as his

Women hold a quilt with messages written on it during a protest outside the site of a summit on North Korea, hosted by Canada and the US in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Monday. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP

totalitarian government comes close to perfecting a nucleartipped missile that could strike the United States. The Vancouver meeting is intended to boost the campaign of “maximum pressure” that the Trump administration has championed to deprive the North of revenue for weapons development. Officials will discuss cooperation on sanctions, preventing the spread of weapons by North Korea, and diplomacy. Brian Hook, Tillerson’s senior policy adviser, said more needs to

be done to interdict ships conducting illicit trade with North Korea. He said the US wants the United Nations to mandate a port-entry ban for such vessels. The meeting is being attended by foreign ministers and senior diplomats of nations that sent troops or humanitarian aid to the UN Command that supported South Korea in the fight against the communist North and its allies during the 1950-1953 Korean War. It’s a diverse gathering of mostly European and Asian nations, as well as Australia, New

Zealand and Columbia. Japan and South Korea are also taking part. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was to join a welcoming dinner for the delegates on Monday night. China and Russia, which fought on the communist side in the war, oppose the meeting. They were not invited, although they have the closest economic and diplomatic ties to North Korea. C h i nese Foreig n Mi n i st r y Spokesman Lu Kang told reporters that a meeting that “doesn’t include important parties to the Korean peninsula nuclear issue”

could not help resolve it. Hook said China and Russia would be briefed afterward, and said the inter-Korean talks won’t change Tuesday’s agenda. “We believe that this pressure campaign remains the best avenue to force change in Kim Jong Un’s behavior and to get him to the negotiating table for meaningful discussions,” he said. The latest UN Security Council resolution against North Korea, adopted last December in response to an intercontinental ballistic missile test, calls on memberstates to impound vessels suspected of illicit trade with the North, and authorizes interdictions in a member-state’s territorial waters. It also restricts North Korean imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products, and further cuts into its ability to raise revenue for its weapons programs. Combined with previous UN resolutions, more than 90 percent of North Korea’s publicly reported exports as of 2016 are now banned. Tillerson told The Associated Press in a recent interview that convening the so-called sending states to the UN Command in the Korean War was done deliberately to show that diplomacy “has to be backed up by a strong military alternative.” “It’s just part of the necessity of impressing upon all parties the serious nature of this and the resolve of the United States and others that we are not going to accept a nuclear North Korea,” Tillerson said. AP

Across Mideast, Palestinians brace for US aid cuts S

HATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip— Mahmoud al-Qouqa can’t imagine life without the three sacks of flour, cooking oil and other staples he receives from the United Nations every three months. Living with 25 relatives in a crowded home in this teeming Gaza Strip slum, the meager rations provided by United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency for Palestinian refugee families, are the last thing keeping his family afloat in the territory hard-hit by years of poverty and conflict. But that could be in danger as the US, UNRWA’s biggest donor, threatens to curtail funding. “It will be like a disaster and no one can predict what the reaction will be,” al-Qouqa said. Across the Middle East, millions of people who depend on UNRWA are bracing for the worst. The expected cut could also add instability to struggling host countries already coping with spillover from other regional crises. UNRWA was established in the wake of the 1948 Mideast war surrounding Israel’s creation. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the fighting. In the absence of a solution for these refugees, the UN General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, the original refugee camps have turned into

concrete slums and more than 5 million refugees and their descendants now rely on the agency for services, including education, health care and food. The largest populations are in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon. Seen by the Palestinians and most of the international community as providing a valuable safety net, UNRWA is viewed far differently by Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the agency of perpetuating the conflict by helping promote an unrealistic dream that these people have the “right of return” to long-lost properties in what is now Israel. “UNRWA is par t of the problem, not par t of the solution,” he told foreign journalists last week . Noting that the Palestinians are the only group served by a specific refugee agency, he said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main UN refugee agency. Some in Israel have even tougher criticism, accusing UNRWA of teaching hatred of Israel in its classrooms and tolerating or assisting Hamas militants in Gaza. Blaming the Palestinians for lack of progress in Mideast peace efforts, President Donald J. Trump has threatened to cut American assistance to the Palestinians. UNRWA would be the first to be affected.

The United States provides about $355 million a year to UNRWA, roughly one-third of its budget. US officials in Washington said this week the administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the year’s first contribution, cutting a planned $125-million installment by half or, perhaps, entirely. The decision could come as early as Tuesday. Matthias Schmale, UNRWA director in Gaza, said Washington has not informed the agency of any changes. However, “we are worried because of the statements... in the media and the fact that the money hasn’t arrived yet,” he said. Schmale dismissed the Israeli criticisms, saying that individuals who spread incitement or aid militants are isolated cases and promptly punished. And he said Netanyahu’s criticism should be directed at the UN General Assembly, which sets UNRWA’s mandate, not the agency itself. Any cut in US aid could ripple across the region with potentially unintended consequences. Gaza may be the most challenging of all of UNRWA’s operating areas. Two-thirds of Gaza’s 2 million people qualify for services, and its role is amplified given the poor state of the economy, which has been hit hard by three wars with Israel and a Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Hamas militant group seized power over a decade ago.

Unemployment is 43 percent and the poverty rate is 38 percent, according to the official Palestinian statistics office. “Nowhere else are we the biggest service provider for the population of the entire territory,” Schmale said. He said UNRWA provides food assistance to 1 million Gazans, calling it “an expression of collective shame for the international community.” With more than 12,500 teachers, nurses and other staff, UNRWA is Gaza’s largest non-governmental employer. It is also involved in postwar reconstruction projects. The dire situation in Gaza is evident inside al-Qouqa’s home, which is so cramped the family has made sleeping spaces with wood boards and fabric. Two male family members are unemployed. Two others are Hamas civil servants and get paid only intermittently by the cashstrapped movement. At 72, al-Qouqa is worried about his grandchildren. “If UNRWA provides them with bread, they can remain patient. But if it was cut, what will they become? They will become thieves, criminals and a burden on society,” he said. Many believe Hamas, which administers schools and social services in Gaza, will step in to fill the void. Jordan, a crucial ally in the United States-led battle against Islamic militants, is home to the largest number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants—with

nearly 2.2 million people eligible for UNRWA services. This has turned the UN agency into a major contributor to social-welfare services in the country, which also hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced by war. US aid cuts could heighten the threat of instability in Jordan, which is grappling with a worsening economy hurt by the spillover from conflict in neighboring Syria and Iraq. More than one-third of Jordan’s young people are without jobs, turning them into potential targets for recruitment by extremists. Most of the Palestinians eligible for UNRWA services in Jordan hold Jordanian citizenship, and some argue that this has ended their refugee status. But most maintain that UNRWA services are vital to propping up an important ally. UNRWA’s services are also vital in Lebanon, where Palestinians are prohibited from working in skilled professions and owning property. Lebanon is the least-welcoming Arab country to Palestinian refugees, because it does not want Palestinians to settle and because it does not want the refugees to upset the country’s delicate sectarian balance. Camps in several cities are ringed by concrete barriers and Lebanese security forces use checkpoints to control who enters and leaves. A recent census found 175,000 Palestinian refugees or their descendants living in the country. AP

Twin bombings in Baghdad kill 38, shatter post-IS calm

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AGHDA D —Tw in suicide bombings rocked Baghdad on Monday, killing 38 people in the deadliest attack since Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State (IS) group last month, and raising fears ahead of national elections planned for May. The bombers targeted the bustling Tayran Square, in the heart of the capital, setting off their explosive vests among laborers and street vendors during the morning rush hour. More than 100 people were wounded, according to police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. No one has claimed the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of IS. Iraqi forces have driven IS from

all the territory the extremists once held, but the militant group has proven resilient in the past and is likely to continue carrying out insurgent-style attacks. That could undermine Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who hopes to extend the country’s newfound sense of pride and unity in order to lead a diverse coalition to power in May. A mbulances r ushed to the scene as security forces sealed off the area with yellow tape. Slippers could be seen scattered about on the blood-stained pavement as cleaners hurried to clear the debris. “It was tremendous, I felt the ground shaking under my feet,” said Munthir Falah, a secondhand clothes vendor whose chest and

right leg were pierced by shrapnel. He said he fell to the ground and lost consciousness before later waking up in a hospital. The father of three said government forces had failed to secure the capital. “They think that Daesh is done,” he said, referring to IS by an Arabic acronym. “They don’t bother themselves to exert efforts to secure Baghdad.” Einas Khalil, a Baghdad housewife, blamed the security breakdown on the country’s feuding politicians, many of whom are connected to different statesanctioned militias or branches of the security forces. “ We w e r e e x p e c t i n g t h i s because of the upcoming elections,” she said. “Ever y four years we have to live through this

suffering because of political differences and disagreements.” Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri denounced the attack as a “cowardly act against innocent people” and called on the government to take all necessary security measures. Al-Abadi met security officials in charge of Baghdad, ordering them to root out militant sleeper cells, according to a brief statement issued by his office. A deterioration in security could undermine al-Abadi’s claim to have vanquished IS and create an opening for his main rival, former Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki, to return to power. Al-Maliki, who stepped down after IS swept across northern and central Iraq in 2014, was widely

accused of pursuing sectarian policies that alienated the country’s Sunni minority during his eight years in power. Many of Iraq’s Sunnis, fed up with al-Maliki’s rule, initially welcomed IS as liberators from the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. The government has proposed holding elections on May 12, but parliament must approve the date. Sunni leaders have called for the vote to be delayed until the 3 million people still displaced from the fighting can return to their homes. Victory over IS has come at an almost incalculable cost in Iraq, where entire neighborhoods in several cities and towns were complete ly dest royed i n t he fighting. AP

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India mulling over power-law change to boost EV stations

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ndia’s power ministry is considering ending the lock on electricity sales by distributors as one way to speed up growth in vehicle charging stations, according to a ministry official with knowledge of the plan. The approach would require amending the nation’s Electricity Act, which only allows distributors to sell power, including for electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations, according to the official, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. Two committees have been set up to examine the policy issues and technical specifications of the options under consideration, the official said. Other options include the companies, known as discoms, selling electricity directly to chargingstation operators or creating their own charging-station franchises. Power Ministry Spokesman R ajesh Ma l hotra dec l ined to comment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitions to ensure mostly EVs on the roads by 2030 could be hampered by the lack of charging stations. India had only about 350 public EV chargers compared with around 57,000 petrol stations, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in a July report. In contrast, China had around 215,000 charging points installed at the end of 2016, it added. India’s Forum of Regulators, comprising the heads of the central and state electricity regulatory boards, has said discoms should look upon EVs as a new source of revenue. The restriction on the sale of power is a “big challenge” because charging stations can’t currently be built in parking lots or gas stations, state-backed Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL) Managing Director Saurabh Kumar said last month. EESL issued an initial tender to procure 10,000 EVs to replace government vehicles operating in and around New Delhi. It also awarded bids to set up charging stations. Exicom Tele-Systems Ltd. won an EESL bid to supply 125 chargers. Other companies, including Norwegian utility Fortum OYJ and India’s Tata Power Co. also have plans to set up charging infrastructure in India. Charging stations, especially quick-charge facilities, may overburden parts of the electricity network, according to Anish De, head of infrastructure strategy and operations at KPMG in India. “This will become a serious challenge as the EV stock increases and the networks may require a substantial revamp, especially in congested urban areas,” De said. “This may pose challenges and slow down the propagation of charging stations.” Bloomberg News

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

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China GDP powers past debt purge, leaving trail of unfinished projects

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pile of rusty pipes and materials are all that remain of Lanzhou New Area’s tram project. Only a year ago it was a flagship public-private partnership for the planned city in Central China, before it fell victim to President Xi Jinping’s debt clampdown. “The project is dead,” said a guard at the office, who gave only his surname, Le. Nearby, the tram tracks are paved over, the mismatched lines of asphalt scarring a six-lane road that leads to a dead-end on the edge of one of China’s most ambitious urban developments. The size of New York City, the zone is a satellite of Lanzhou, capital of China’s poorest province, Gansu, and a place where Xi’s efforts to wean the country off debt and onto services and consumer spending can be seen in stark relief. In most of China, the economy is powering through Xi’s borrowing bottleneck, with economists surveyed by Bloomberg projecting the nation’s GDP grew 6.8 percent last year, the first annual acceleration in seven years. But for less-developed areas like Gansu, the story is not so simple. Away from the industrial centers along the coast, Gansu came late to the nation’s debt-fueled investment party. During the nation’s economic ascent in the 1990s and 2000s, it became infamous for having the most polluted air in the country, a cocktail of chemicals from petroleum plants and heavy industry mixed with desert dust storms. Lanzhou New Area was only approved in 2012, just before Xi took office, driven by a central government investment spree designed to spread wealth to western regions. Now, Xi wants to neutralize the risk of soaring debt, derailing growth that accounts for more than a third of the global economic expansion. He reinforced that aim at a twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress last October and at the annual Central Economic Work Conference last December, where elite cadres set goals for 2018. From the yuan and Bitcoin to banking and housing, taming potential threats is the new priority. Economists and policy-makers see the restraints on borrowing as a necessar y step toward choking off some of the nation’s constr uction and investment

excesses and building a more sustainable economy. But there are casualties, including Lanzhou New Area’s tram, a network of tunnels for underground utility lines in the city, and more than 200 other publicprivate projects—almost half the total in Gansu. In neighboring Inner Mongolia, subway projects under construction in Baotou and the capital Hohhot were halted last year because they left local government “overly indebted,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported this month.

What an economist says

“A s financial regulation gets stricter and credit supplies tighten, it will be more and more difficult for local governments to borrow for infrastructure and industrial park development, or to borrow for repaying old debts,” said Qian Wan, a Bloomberg economist in Beijing who analyzes China’s regional economies. “Deleveraging is always painful, but will be more painful for inland provinces where growth is not as robust.” Resilience in the $11-trillion economy, driven by consumption, offers policy-makers room to address the financial risk and even tackle other ills, such as pollution and poverty. Markets are buoyant and inflation is contained as borrowing costs increase modestly. Services make up more than half of output.

Weak investment

Surv eys pred ict China w i l l a n nou nce on T hu rsd ay t h at GDP grew 6.7 percent in the fourth quarter, a tad below the 6.8 -percent expansion of the third quarter. Retail sales and factory output likely remained steady last December. But 2017 fixed investment was probably the weakest since 1999. In Gansu fixed investment shrank 39 percent in the first 11 months of last year, the most of all provinces, National Bureau of Statistics data show. A regional bank has stopped rolling over a loan for the local government’s

Building constructions on Yellow River Avenue in Shijiazhuang Development Zone in China Bloomberg

As financial regulation gets stricter and credit supplies tighten, it will be more and more difficult for local governments to borrow for infrastructure and industrial park development, or to borrow for repaying old debts.”—Qian infrastructure and property development arm. Many of the wide avenues and tower blocks of the new city on the edge of the Gobi desert are still empty. In its heyday, Lanzhou New Area was a poster child for a go v e r n me nt - s p e nd i n g b o om that followed the 2008 to 2009 global financial crisis. Armies of earth movers f lattened hills, filled valleys and dug lakes in ser vice of the goal to lure 1 million residents by 2030. The place achieved Internet fame in 2016 for its theme-park reproductions of ancient icons, such as the Greek Parthenon, Beijing’s Forbidden City and the Great Sphinx of Egypt. The zone strives to be a “pioneer ing area practicing the pa r t y’s innovat ive t heor ies,” according to a booklet produced by the Lanzhou New Area Party Working Committee. Local communist party officials blocked Bloomberg’s requests for interviews with officials in the area and refused further comment.

W hile Lanzhou’s population of 3.7 million is almost as large as Los Angeles, municipal statistics bureau data show fewer than 150,000 live in the New Area, an hour’s drive north of the city center. Had it opened as originally planned next year, the 24-kilometer (15-mile) tram line likely would have traversed mostly vacant land with a few scattered factories. Wang Rongqing, a teaching assistant in the new city, says the government should be spending money on civic amenities. “I don’t know what that tunnel is for,” she said, pointing to a conduit that would have been part of the defunct utilities network. “What the New Area urgently needs is hospitals and schools.”

Credit line

The local government’s investment company, housed in a modern mid-rise building with images of Xi displayed on the lobby video screen, was directly affected by his credit clampdown when

Bank of Gansu Co. last year didn’t renew a 2 billion yuan ($310 billion) line of credit. The decision followed “comprehensive consideration of policy orientation and compliance with relevant laws and regulations,” the bank said in a statement to Bloomberg. It said it has raised standards for new creditors to mitigate risk and reduce financial leverage. The bank is holding its initial public offering and expects to start trading in Hong Kong on January 18. “Financial institutions are more cautious about funding to local government financing vehicles [LGFVs],” said Liu X inhe, an analyst at Beijing-based China Chengxin International Rating Co. “ They’re looking more seriously at whether LGFVs have stable cash f low for repayment, and legitimate collateral.” For L anzhou, the f und ing drought may ultimately be mitigated by China’s latest grand investment program: Xi’s “Belt and Road” initiative. The city, on the banks of the Yellow River near China’s geographical center, was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. While Bank of Gansu restricted credit for the local government investment arm, it did help fund projects related to technological innovation, science and culture tourism. If the government can manage the shift in investment in Lanzhou without unleashing the excesses of the past decade, the city may eventually fill its empty tower blocks and once again become a bridgehead for China’s western development. Bloomberg News

Trump comments anger Africans, may set back U.S. interests C

APE TOWN, South Africa—South Africa and Nigeria have joined a chorus of nations condemning President Donald J. Trump’s inflammatory remarks on immigration, as Africa experts warned that the controversy threatened to set back US interests across the world’s fastest-growing continent. Since last Thursday, when several participants in a meeting with Trump said he had asked why the United States should take in migrants from “shithole countries,” including Haiti and African nations, the Trump administration has been erratic in its account of what happened. Last Friday Trump insisted on Twitter that “this was not the language used,” and last Sunday, he told reporters, “I’m not a racist.” On Monday Trump insisted that a senator who attended the meeting, Richard J. Durbin, Democrat-Illinois, had “totally misrepresented” his comments. The State Department, meanwhile, has instructed diplomats not to deny Trump’s

remarks, but simply to listen to complaints. Botswana, Ghana, Haiti, Namibia, Senegal and the African Union have all protested Trump’s remarks; Botswana asked the US “to clarify if Botswana is regarded as a ‘shithole’ country.” “Africa and the African diaspora has contributed significantly to the United States and to its development into the country that it is today,” Clayson Monyela, a spokesman for the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said on Monday after he met with US diplomats. “The African and international reaction to the alleged statements clearly serve as a united affirmation of the dignity of the people of Africa and the African diaspora.” Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s deputy president and the newly elected leader of the ruling African National Congress, called the statement “really, really derogatory” and “hugely offensive.” He said of Trump: “It demonstrates

precisely the type of leader he is.” Nigeria’s foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, also summoned US diplomats to explain Trump’s comments, calling them “deeply hurtful, offensive and unacceptable,” Reuters reported. Reuben E. Brigety II, who was the US ambassador to the African Union from 2013 to 2015, said on Monday that he had been in touch with African ministers and ambassadors throughout the weekend. “The appropriate word to describe their reactions to the president’s comments is fury,” he said, “notwithstanding the fact that the president has said that he didn’t say what was attributed to him. They don’t believe it.” Brigety said that Trump’s remarks were on the agenda for the annual African Union summit meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this month. “A red line has been crossed,” he said. Ottilia Anna Maunganidze, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said the protests from Botswana and from the

African Union reflected a deep undercurrent of frustration and anger. “Strong statements from other African countries show that the continental body won’t just put up with Trump’s views,” she said. The US has many interests in Africa: battling Islamist insurgencies like Boko Haram in West Africa and al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa; reducing political instability and improving governance, particularly in conflict-torn nations like South Sudan and Somalia; and taking advantage of the dynamism of a rapidly urbanizing continent that is rich in natural resources and has a young and growing population. “Obviously we have been competing with the Chinese for engagement and influence in Africa,” Brigety said. “It is an understatement to say that the president’s remarks do not help in this regard. To have insulted an entire continent in the most vile terms is manifestly harmful to our interests.” Patrick Gaspard, the US ambassador to

South Africa from 2013 to 2016, said that progress on trade, public health, security and education, among many areas, had been “thrown into question by the irresponsible and vulgar comments made by the president.” Trump’s long history of racially insensitive or insulting comments include several that have rankled Africans: Last June he mused that Nigerians in the United States would not “go back to their huts” in Africa, and he told African leaders last September: “I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich,” a comment that critics said smacked of colonialism. “There’s clearly profound ignorance here and some profound blind spots,” Gaspard said. R. Nicholas Burns, a career diplomat who was the ambassador to North Atlantic Treaty Organization and an undersecretary of state for political affairs during George W. Bush’s presidency, said the remarks had created real damage. “Of all the vile, offensive Trump statements, what he said about Haiti

and Africa might have been the worst in the eyes of people overseas,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday. “It was a cruel, ignorant, blanket indictment of entire countries. The blow to US credibility is real and long-lasting.” Even observers willing to put Trump’s remarks in the most generous light—perhaps he was invoking long-standing problems of poverty and corruption—were unwilling to defend them. “In objective terms, many Africans live in ‘shitty’ situations and if asked would probably agree with some of Trump’s sentiments,” said Sithembile Mbete, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Pretoria. “But his comments matter hugely in the realm of politics. Once again, he’s shown that he has no interest in even pretending to uphold US values like tolerance and equality. This has become a symbol of his racism and forged a solidarity throughout the African diaspora that we don’t often see in international politics.” New York Times News Service

Banking&Finance BusinessMirror

A8 Wednesday, January 17, 2018 • Editor: Jun B. Vallecera

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Main collection arm targets safe this year’ China’s central bank boosts injections to the most in two months

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hina’s central bank boosted injections via open-market operations to the most in two months to counter seasonal tightening of liquidity. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) pumped in a net 270 billion yuan ($42 billion) on Tuesday, as sales of reverse-repurchase agreements more than offset maturities. That’s the most since November 16, data compiled by Bloomberg show. As much as 600 billion yuan is set to leave the financial system as lenders park corporations’ quarterly tax payments at the central bank, said David Qu, a market economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Shanghai. “This week can probably see the peak of such impact, and that’s why the central bank started to step up injections,” he said. While

market-wide price indicators remain tepid, nonbank financial institutions and smaller lenders suffer much more than the biggest banks, Qu added. Tuesday’s cash additions also came after the yield on 10-year China Development Bank bonds climbed to the highest level since September 2014 and nearly four weeks before the start of the Lunar New Year holiday, when liquidity tends to tighten. The yields on CDB debt due August 2027 and 10-year sovereign notes were little changed on Tuesday. The PBOC raised the interest rate of 63day reverse-repos by five basis points to 2.95 percent on Tuesday, following a similar hike on shorter-term contracts last December. The central bank last used the longer lending tool last November. Bloomberg News

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he Department of Finance (DOF) is confident the collection targets of the bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Customs (BOC) this year will be hit on the basis of last year’s improved agency performance. According to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, both have shown improvements in collection performance in 2017 compared to previous years. “You know the collection agencies are doing well. They achieved their highest target in a long, long time so we are confident these guys are doing okay,” Dominguez told financial reporters. Earlier, the BOC estimated revenue collection in 2017 amounting to P444.1 billion, short by 3.3 percent compared to the P459.6-billion target for the year, but 12 percent higher compared to collection of only P396.4 billion in 2016. The second-biggest revenue agency

Yuan strength leaves market DBP to boost lending for social guessing at China’s line in the sand services in 2018 T

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tate-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) will ramp up its lending activities for social services that cover health care, education, housing and community development this year, a top official said. DBP President and COO Cecilia C. Borromeo said the bank is gearing up to support more initiatives that will enhance the delivery of basic social services across the archipelago. “We’re looking to build more schools and hospitals this year,” Borromeo said. “This is part of our continuing commitment to support government’s efforts to improve social services to our citizens, especially in the countryside.” DBP is the eighth-largest bank in the country, with assets totaling P557.84 billion as of end-third quarter of 2017. At least 16 percent, or about P33 billion of the bank’s portfolio, is devoted to social services. Borromeo said there is still a lot of development work to be done, especially in the regions, adding: “Development institutions like us have a lot of areas to cover and this includes encouraging and supporting the local leadership in their plans for their constituencies.”

he strongest yuan in more than two years is prompting speculation about possible steps to cool its gains. The currency rose to as high as 6.4138 per greenback on Monday, its strongest level since December 2015, before easing to 6.4440 as of 9:39 a.m. on Tuesday. When the yuan rallied beyond 6.5 last September, policy-makers made it easier to bet against the currency. The central bank’s decision to change the way the yuan’s daily reference rate is set, as reported by Bloomberg News last week, was seen by some analysts as a way of slowing the pace of the currency’s gains. While the yuan initially slumped on the news, it’s since rallied 1.3 percent in one of Asia’s biggest advances. For Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd., the next level to watch is 6.4. If the yuan rises beyond 6.4 per dollar, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) may intervene by “relaxing capital controls on outflows and allowing people to hold and exchange foreign currencies and assets more freely,” said Shen Jianguang, chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities in Hong Kong. Others are focused on how the yuan is performing against a basket of its trading partners’ exchange rates, given the dollar’s persistent weakness. An index tracking the yuan’s changes against 24

The millennials

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e have all heard of the term “millennials,” referring those people also referred to as Generation Y.” They are contrastingly considered on one hand, as those who grow up with a “smartphone” in hand, who differ from traditional norms of living and who bring up innovations to modern life, and on the other, are criticized for their actions that contradict the value and culture of everything. Millennials comprise that demographic group born in the 1980s and toward the beginning of the new century, and are sometimes also referred to as “echo boomers,” meaning they are the offspring of the baby boomers. This generation is generally marked by the increased use and familiarity with communications, media and digital technology. As James Lactao and Candice Baluyot said in an article, titled “Ten Things to Know about the Millennials,” in the November 2017 issue of Documentation Service, millenials “grew up in the midst of the exponential development of technology.” At this time, the millenials are around 23 to 27 years old and, by now, are young professionals who are trying to make their mark in the world of work. While globalization has allowed them to be connected across borders through the Internet and social media, it has led

FINEX free enterprise Mercedes B. Suleik this generation to be deficient in their social skills, as they experience hardly any face-to-face interaction with individuals in the real world, and they are spending more time on online conversations. Thus, they are criticized for having no cultural identity (as they are exposed to various cultures and ways of thinking). This confounds the older generation, who view them as “disrespectful,” for changing long-held practices that they do not consider as relevant, On the other hand, millennials tend to be assertive and self-expressive when it comes to social issues they care about. They strive to develop their own approaches to solving social problems of our time, and are more tolerant and less prejudicial than previous generations. They are concerned with living their lives to the fullest, and so desire fame and fortune, which are recorded on social media for all to see. Their work ethic differs from that of the older

currencies has been in a narrow range of 94.2 to 95.4 since the start of September. It was last at 94.97. Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said gains above 95 increase the chance of a signal to slow appreciation. For example, the PBOC may set the fixing at a much weaker level or reintroduce the countercyclical factor with a bias to the weaker side, he added. For Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered Plc. in Hong Kong, the PBOC may step in at 95.5. “Policy reactions may include outright interventions right before close, or a relaxation of outflow control measures to release the yuan appreciation pressure,” Ding said. “The government will likely gradually expand the range each year, paving the way for a lightly managed float in two to three years.” Iris Pang, an economist at ING Groep NV in Hong Kong, said there’s less incentive to intervene now that China’s exports aren’t as sensitive to yuan appreciation given the growing share of value-added products. “I don’t think the PBOC has any next line of defense,” unless a very rapid gain is seen, Pang said. Bloomberg News

generation as, having entered the work force equipped with technology skills, millennials prefer a more flexible and less formal approach to work and desire constant positive feedback, such that the older “career minded” generation is dismayed by their hopping from one job to another. To be fair to them, however, the millennials realize that, when work is put on their shoulders, they seek to achieve the impossible and make sure they reach the finish line. Seen to be narcissistic and with an inflated sense of self, and overly concerned with a positive self-image, we have to understand that they are a product of an environment they grew up in, which is shaped by technology and those things that may be accelerating cultural change How, then, to “deal” with millennials? It has been found that, despite the temptations of a secularized culture, people’s hearts and minds are more likely to be influenced by family, schools and church—these are the institutions that can have and have had a profound impact on our youth. These institutions are powerful in the so-called culture wars, and are vital to the lives of the youth— and especially to the newer “Generation Z,” who were born in a world that millenials are steeped in and, thus, will carry on the values of our time. merci.suleik@gmail.com

Dominguez

posted its highest collection of P46.5 billion in November last year. Preliminary BIR revenue collection in 2017 was estimated at P1.774 trillion, or short by 3 percent, versus the P1.829trillion target for the year, but a 13-percent improvement over the P1.567 trillion reported in 2016. “Yes, they are achievable,” Dominguez reiterated. Earlier, the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) raised the year’s revenue target of both agencies to P2.039 trillion in the case of the BIR and P581.2 billion for the BOC. According to Dominguez, the passage of Package 1B under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN), which focuses on improving tax administration, is crucial in helping boost the collection effort of both agencies. “We just have to make sure that 1B gets passed as quickly as possible,” he said. Last December President Duterte signed into law the TR AIN which slashed the personal-income tax rate from 32 percent to 25 percent while applying offsetting measures, including increasing the excise tax on fuel and automobiles, among others. Rea Cu

Case clippings

By Justice S J Ranada Jr.

PENALTIES–imposition of fine instead of imprisonment The policy of preventing unnecessary deprivation of personal liberty and economic usefulness should be considered in favor of an accused who is not a habitual delinquent or a recidivist. Thus, the penalty of imprisonment imposed by the trial court should be deleted and instead a fine of P200,000 should be imposed; this will not depreciate the seriousness of the offense, or work violence on the social order or be contrary to justice. Montelibano v. Yap GR 197475 06 Dec. 2017 Martires, J

Sy unit looking to raise up to ₧20 billion in bonds

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M Prime Holdings Inc. is going back to the retail-bond market and has informed regulators of a renewed intent to sell debt worth at least P15 billion. In seeking permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the property-development arm of the Sy family reminded the SEC that the exercise formed part of a shelf registration bid to sell an aggregate P60 billion. SM Prime CFO John Nai Peng C. Ong said the exercise has a built-in provision allowing the property developer to upsize the sale as high as P20 billion, depending on market appetite. Ong told the SEC that they plan on selling five- and seven-year fixedrate bonds based on the authority the regulator gave the developer in July 2016. So-called corporate bonds form

a miniscule part of aggregate debt financing by the various privately owned businesses in the Philippines equal in dollar terms to only $20 billion in 2017, according to estimates by First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC). Bank loans remain the primary source of financing corporate activities in the country, totaling the equivalent of $118 billion last year, FMIC said. SM Prime’s debt sale comes at a time when banks and financial institutions are awash in liquidity but have few investment vehicles to latch on to and make their money work for them. It also comes at a time when the United States Federal Reserve System, steward at the world’s largest financial market, is seen to make appropriate adjustments on key interest rates that have central banks and investors alike on high alert for the latest word.

SALPay seals partnership with UnionBank

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alarium Payments Corp. (SALPay) has partnered with Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) as it gears up to launch SALPay 3.0, a blockchainbased payment solution. By plugging in to EON’s neo banking platform, SALPay 3.0 seamlessly connects to EON’s API suite to expand its capabilities and offerings and ramp on to the financial ecosystem. “We are honored that UnionBank has become the partner of choice for fintechs like SALPay,” said Paolo Baltao, senior vice president at EON banking group. “By hooking up to EON’s neo banking platform, they leverage on the banking firsts introduced by EON to enrich their service offering.” EON launched the first selfie banking in Asia in March 2017, the first digital credit card in the country, EON Duo, in July 2017, together with other cool innovations available through the EON app. “Deciding to work with UnionBank was

a natural choice. They are the most innovative bank in the Philippines and have constantly pushed financial technology as its core,” said Judah Hirsch, founder and CEO of Salarium. UnionBank is a leading universal bank in the Philippines and was the first to offer online banking in the country. UnionBank is also the first bank in the Philippines to join the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and is the country’s representative bank to the Asean Financial Innovation Network. UnionBank is publicly traded in the Philippines. SALPay is part of the Salarium group of companies. Since 2013 SALPay has been providing payroll and payments solutions, helping over 500 companies pay more than 15,000 employees monthly. SALPay is currently completing its initial coin offering and plans to launch its cryptocurrency exchange in the Philippines next year.

ExportUnlimited BusinessMirror

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Wednesday, January 17, 2018 A9

PHL merchandise exports sustain growth, up by 10.79%

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ECENT preliminary reports from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that Philippine merchandise exports continued on a positive trajectory, increasing by 10.79 percent in the first 11 months (January to November) of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, an analysis confirmed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said. From January to November 2017, the value of merchandise exports was shared almost evenly by electronics and nonelectronics with 51.38 percent and 48.62 percent, respectively. Exports of Philippine Electronic products increased remarkably by 10.84 percent in the first 11 months of 2017. This was achieved on the back of the robust performance of six out of the nine subsectors of the industry, which contributed a 97.95percent share in the cumulative total value of the industry. Meanwhile, nonelectronic goods increased significantly by 10.73 percent in the first 11 months of 2017, backed by positive growth of a wide range of sectors in the nonelectronics category. Topping the list were Forest Products with triple-digit growth of 560.9 percent. Other contributing commodities exhibited double-digit increases, including mineral products (76.12 percent), sugar and products (47.77 percent), footwear (47.43 percent), coconut products (37.61 percent), nonme-

tallic mineral manufactures (32.17 percent) and furniture and fixtures (26.27 percent). Exports of garments also increased by 3 percent, while Travel Goods and Handbags at 1.53 percent. “The increase of exports sales for some nonelectronic goods this year may be viewed as a result of the sector-focused intervention included in the 2015-2017 Philippine Export Development Plan,” DTI Trade and Investments Promotion Group Undersecretary Nora K. Terrado said. The leading destination of Philippine merchandise exports for the first 11 months of the year was still the combined markets of the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong SAR. Shipments to this combined market, with a share of 24.49 percent, increased by 20.99 percent in value. The next leading destination was Japan with a 16.42-percent share, followed by the United States with a 14.6-percent share in total exported goods.

DTI-EMB eyes approval of 2018-2022 PEDP, bares 2017 accomplishments By Roderick L. Abad

Contributor

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@rodrik_28

HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is set to submit on January 26 the initial draft of the 2018-2020 Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) to President Duterte, expecting to get the President’s approval in the middle of the year. With the inclusion of the comments from Economic Development Cluster (EDC) members, the amended plan will be presented by the DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) to the agency’s Excom by the end of the month; EDC Excom and Council on February 9; and the EDC in the last week of February. The final blueprint will then be tendered in March to President Duterte who is expected to affix his sign of approval in the second quarter of 2018. Besides the road map, the DTIEMB bared accomplishments for its projects, activities and plans, including initiatives, such as capacity building for Filipino exporters of halal products, facilitation of marketaccess requirements, together with the Philippine Accreditation Bureau, and marketing and promotions of local halal products and services to major halal markets through its various Outbound Business Marketing Mission (OBMM). Through the Ripples Plus Program, in cooperation with the Regional Operations Group and the Philippine Trade Training Center, the EMB conducted 26 information sessions, with 522 participants covering all regions. The sessions focused on food, coconut products, natural and organic products, franchising and information and communications technology. Also, 219 Ripples enrollees joined OBMMs to Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Canada, Indonesia, China, Switzerland, Norway, France, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi

Arabia, Oman and the United States as part of the EMB’s marketing and promotion activities. Moreover, eight companies from Region 9 completed the Export Pathways Program Level 4, while seven others from the same region graduated to EPP Levels 5, 6 or 7. The EMB held 42 information sessions on Doing Business in Free Trade Areas, representing a 262- percent completion rate based on the 16 sessions targeted for the whole year. The fora were attended by 551 firms with 3,559 participants, including representatives of companies, members of academe and government officials. Through the Philippine Export Competitiveness Program, the EMB conducted 17 trade-information sessions in Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao with 1,043 participants from 509 companies. Last year the EMB organized 32 OBMMs to Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Russian Federation, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, South Africa, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Indonesia, China, Switzerland, Norway, France, South Korea, the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US. These activities assisted 336 exporters for 2,427 buyers and generated $108.41 million in export sales. Meanwhile, the EMB serviced 35 Inbound Business Matching Missions/Foreign Buyer Servicing from the UAE, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, China, Hungary, Japan, Germany, Australia, Macau, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Nepal, Singapore, Belgium, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US, with total export sales of $13.62 million. The bureau and EDC spearheaded the various activities for the National Exporters Week (NEW) in 2017, which included the National Export Congress, Showcase of Export Enablers and Stakeholders, a NEW bazaar, and Usapang Exports seminars, as well as awarding of top exporters based on PSA export data.

dti pushes new approach to promote ease of doing business

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DTI TIES UP WITH GOOGLE, IPGMB TO DIGITIZE MSMEs

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez (sixth from left) recently met with Google Philippines Country Manager Kenneth Lingan (fifth from left) and IPG Mediabrands (IPGMB) Philippines Inc. CEO Venus Navalta (fourth from left) to discuss a possible cooperation on increasing the digital presence of businesses in the Philippines, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Google and IPGMB aim to equip MSMEs with marketing skills and encourage them to bring their businesses online to increase their competitiveness and eventually grow their enterprise. The group discussed possibilities on facilitating 700 Negosyo Centers all over the country as hubs, where businesses can verify their addresses on Google Maps and even create their own web site. Also at the meeting were IPGMB Associate Director Juliet Cababa (from left), Google Philippines Sales Manager Samuel Jeanblanc, IPGMB Chief Digital Officer Albet Buddahim, DTI Assistant Secretary Rosvi Gaetos, Negosyo Center Program Manager Doris Delima, BSMED Director Jerry Clavesillas, Special Assistant to the Secretary for MSME Affairs TSO Benedict Uy and Rose

Joint memorandum circular to speed up issuance of construction-related permits signed

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HE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) sees improvement in the ease of doing business in the country, with the implementation of the joint memorandum circular (JMC) directing local government units (LGUs) to streamline the issuance of building permits and certificates of occupancy. For the first time, JMC 201801—jointly issued by the departments of Public Works and Highways, the Interior and Local Government, Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and DTI—sets service standards for processing simple applications for construction-related permits. This is in response to President Duterte’s call to simplify the issuance of permits by LGUs in support of the “Build, Build, Build” program of the government. The JMC covers single-dwelling residential buildings of not more than three floors, commercial buildings of not more than two storeys, renovation within a mall with issued building permits and warehouses storing nonhazardous substances. As prescribed in the circular, LGUs are enjoined to set up a processing system that will ensure that applicants follow a four-step procedure in securing building permits—submission of application with complete documentation, receipt of the order of payment, payment of fees and

claiming of the permits. Processing time by LGUs is reduced to five working days maximum, while that for Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) permits is limited to not more than three days for building-permit applications. The same number of steps and processing time are prescribed for applications for certificates of occupancy. The JMC also recommended a preformatted form and a uniform set of documentary requirements and a one-time assessment and onetime payment of fees, with the latter eliminating the current practice of separately paying for different construction-related documentary clearances in different LGU offices and the BFP. To be able to comply with the service standards, the government is mandating LGUs to establish onestop shops that will consolidate the processing of clearances issued by LGUs related to construction permits, such as building permits, certificates of occupancy, locational clearances, tax declaration, tax clearances, certificates of final electrical inspection, as well as those required by the BFP—the Fire Safety Evaluation Clearance and the Fire Safety Inspection Certificate. To be able to do this, representatives from the Office of the Building Official, Treasury Office, Zoning Office, Assessor’s Office of the LGU and BFP will be co-

PTTC SALUTES PARTNERS ON 30TH ANNIVERSARY

located in one area at the LGU. Joint inspection teams will also be organized to ease the burden of applicants in accommodating multiple inspections by different offices before their certificates of occupancy are released. Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, who chairs the National Competitiveness Council and Doing Business Task Force, is confident that the recently signed circular will bring significant results in the Philippines’ ranking in Doing Business Report. “We fervently support the implementation of this circular, as it strengthens our previous efforts to eliminate red tape. Now that JMC 2018-01 is in place, we look forward to improved ease of doing business and better performance in Doing Business rankings,” Lopez said. Following the drastic process reengineering that LGUs will be undertaking as a result of the JMC, Lopez is also persuading the cities, especially those in highly urbanized areas, to start developing a Web-based system for online submission and processing of construction permits similar to the processes already bei ng i mplemented by some Asean countries. This is also in line with the JMC, which enjoins LGUs to automate procedures, including the mode of payment, with the support of DICT.

Culminating 30 years of providing business training programs to the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC) held an appreciation and networking luncheon with the theme “PTTC Salutes its Partners” on December 14, 2017. The event was attended by 116 representatives from various sectors, including MSMEs and invited resource speakers. Certificates of appreciation were awarded to stakeholders, institutional partners and resource persons in recognition of their contribution to PTTC’s 30 years as a training center. To encourage potential entrepreneurs to go into business, inspiring stories from Magra Nutrifoods, Vegetari Vegetarian Products and Alafop were presented, with emphasis on the training interventions and programs they availed themselves of, particularly PTTC’s Food Connect Hub, to succeed. PTTC was created under Executive Order 133 signed by President Corazon C. Aquino on February 27, 1987, to provide training services in support of MSME and export development and promotion.

HE government’s interagency task force on Ease of Doing Business (EODB) is speeding up reforms to improve the country’s competitiveness. Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the strategy is to pursue a “whole of government approach,” where all instrumentalities of the government involved in business regulations take a unified action in simplifying government processes and making them more business-friendly. “Remember that competitiveness and ease of doing business is No. 3 in the President’s socioeconomic agenda. The executive branch, both national government agencies and local government units, and the Legislative branch are working double time so that businesses could benefit from these reform initiatives,” Lopez said. The trade secretary reported on the latest reforms initiated by the Executive branch. In November 2017 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) implemented the Company Registration System that significantly reduced the processing time and procedures in company verification and registration. The system also integrates the issuance of Taxpayer Identification Number, and employer numbers from the Social Security System (SSS), Pag-IBIG Fund and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth). In December 2017 Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista issued an order establishing one-stop shops (OSS) for business permits that will facilitate registration of new businesses. The OSS is now operational at the Quezon City Hall. To speed up the issuance of construction permits, the departments of Public Works and Highways, the Interior and Local Government, Information and Communications Technology and Trade and Industry (DTI) issued a joint circular, which prescribed standards and procedures in the issuance of building permits, certificates of occupancy and other construction-related permits. A unified employee enrollment form and system will soon be implemented by the SSS, Pag-IBIG and PhilHealth for new corporations registered with the SEC that will consolidate enrollment of new employees at a single portal or at any one of the social security agencies. The trade secretary expressed confidence that Congress will soon pass the Expanded ARTA/EODB bill, which will significantly address red tape, and expedite business related transactions in the country. Lopez mentioned other important legislation, such as the amendment of the Corporation Code, the passage of the Secured Transactions Act, which will improve Philippines’s ranking in starting a business and getting credit indicators in the Doing Business Survey, respectively. The DTI also noted reforms in the Judicial branch. The full implementation of the e-Court system by the Supreme Court is seen enhancing the Philippines’s Enforcing Contracts scores. “We are looking forward to the issuance by the Supreme Court of the guidelines on e-notarization also expected to create positive results in the competitiveness ranking,” Lopez said. Last year the Philippines slipped 14 notches to 113th rank in the Doing Business report published by World Bank-International Finance Corp. It measures the ease of doing business across 10 processes that a firm must undertake over its typical life cycle.

A10 Wednesday, January 17, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

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editorial

Beef up NFA’s rice stockpile

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he National Food Authority (NFA) recently announced that the country’s current rice inventory is good for 92 days. At a daily consumption rate of some 31,000 metric tons (MT), this means that rice stocks held by households, commercial warehouses and the food agency amount to some 2.9 million metric tons. The bulk of this volume, based on historical data, is usually with households and private traders. The rice stockpile of the NFA, however, would only last for three days, according to its spokesman. This volume is lower than the 15-day stockpile requirement of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council. During the lean months, when Philippine rice harvest declines significantly and the country is frequented by storms, the NFA is required to maintain a 30-day buffer stock. This stockpile allows the NFA to immediately release stocks in areas hit by natural disasters. Access to food is usually a major problem following the devastation caused by natural disasters, such as strong typhoons. Rice in government warehouses are usually given to evacuees and other residents in affected areas. That is why the pronouncement of the food agency attached to the Office of the President that its stockpile is good for only three days is worrisome. As the NFA also distributes rice in markets to stabilize domestic prices, this information could be used by unscrupulous traders to gain a windfall by hoarding rice. Also, harvest of paddy in a number of rice-producing areas is two months away and this could embolden speculators. The implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law could also be used as rationale by some traders to jack up prices. The TRAIN law, which took effect on January 1, increased the excise taxes on fuel products. It is almost always the case that when fuel prices go up, the impact is absorbed by consumers. What could exacerbate the supply situation of the NFA is the threat of Mayon Volcano’s eruption. The Philippine Volcanology and Seismology has recently raised Alert Level 3, which means that hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or days. Thousands of residents in barangays in Albay have already evacuated and are currently being housed in 18 evacuation centers. These residents are in need of government assistance, including food, until such time that the situation in the province has returned to normalcy. To prop up its stockpile, the NFA will import 250,000 MT of rice. As of last week, however, they are still awaiting the volume that would be recommended by the interagency National Food Security Committee (NFSC). While the food agency has already been given the go signal by the NFA Council, it could not yet purchase imported rice pending the NFSC recommendation. Pending the arrival of rice imports, we call on the government to strictly monitor markets and see to it that rice retailers would not unduly increase their prices. We urge the NFA to step up its monitoring activities so unscrupulous traders would be discouraged from hoarding rice. The government must also make up its mind on importing rice so that rice imports would not arrive during harvest.

PHL congratulates Arab Republic of Egypt Teddy Locsin Jr.

Free fire Continued from A1

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he Group of 77 was founded on the recognition of common interests—mostly to do with international trade and development—which no country alone or in small numbers can protect, let alone advance. Hence the concern to increase its membership, for while one rod is easy to snap; two, three or more are progressively harder to break. This recognition has given birth to an apparently perdurable unity, which has withstood the test and trials of turbulent times. Its vitality has, if anything, increased; its solidarity remains as tight as ever;

Know-nothings for the 21st century Paul Krugman

Since 2005

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and each challenge confronted and overcome has, so far, tempered the steel of the common resolve: to stand together because it is better than to stand apart, as the president of the General Assembly said this

morning; and that we must hang together because the alternative is to hang separately—so that, eventually, everyone will hang. But with ever greater numbers, which bring ever greater strength, comes the ever greater risk of dissent and disintegration. We must be mindful of that. As we face new challenges and proceed with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the teeth of fast-moving and unpredictable developments, it is vital that the Group carefully identify what issues it will take up but which must be of prime and primordial importance to the basic principles of the Group as a whole. In that way the unity and complementarity, the mutual support and cooperation of the Group are not wasted on ephemeral or narrow issues that merely sap that strength in unity

new york times

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hese days, calling someone a “know-nothing” could mean one of two things. If you’re a student of history, you might be comparing that person to a member of the Know Nothing party of the 1850s, a bigoted, xenophobic, anti-immigrant group that, at its peak, included more than 100 members of Congress and eight governors. More likely, however, you’re suggesting that said person is willfully ignorant, someone who rejects facts that might conflict with his or her prejudices. The sad thing is that America is currently ruled by people who fit both definitions. And the know-nothings in power are doing all they can to undermine the very foundations of American greatness. The parallels between anti-immigrant agitation in the mid-19th century and Trumpism are obvious. Only the identities of the maligned nationalities have changed. After all, Ireland and Germany, the main sources of that era’s immigration wave, were the shithole countries of the day. Half of Ireland’s population emigrated in the face of famine, while Germans were fleeing both economic and political turmoil. Immigrants from both countries, but the Irish in particular, were portrayed as drunken criminals, if not subhuman. They were also seen as subversives: Catholics whose first loyalty was to the pope. A few decades later, the next great immigration wave—of Italians, Jews and many other peoples—inspired similar prejudice.

And here we are again. Anti-Irish prejudice, anti-German prejudice and anti-Italian prejudice are mostly things of the past (although antiSemitism springs eternal), but there are always new groups to hate. But today’s Republicans—for this isn’t just about Donald J. Trump, it’s about a whole party—aren’t just Know-Nothings, they’re also knownothings. The range of issues on which conservatives insist that the facts have a well-known liberal bias just keeps widening. One result of this embrace of ignorance is a remarkable estrangement between modern conservatives and highly educated Americans, especially but not only college faculty. The right insists that the scarcity of self-identified conservatives in the academy is evidence of discrimination against their views, of political correctness run wild. Yet conservative professors are rare even in hard sciences like physics and biology, and it’s not difficult to see why. When the more or less

Think of where we’d be as a nation if we hadn’t experienced those great waves of immigrants driven by the dream of a better life. Think of where we’d be if we hadn’t led the world, first in universal basic education, then in the creation of great institutions of higher education. Surely we’d be a shrunken, stagnant, secondrate society. And that’s what we’ll become if modern knownothingism prevails. official position of your party is that climate change is a hoax and evolution never happened, you won’t get much support from people who take evidence seriously. But conservatives don’t see the rejection of their orthodoxies by people who know what they’re talking about as a sign that they might need to rethink. Instead, they’ve soured on scholarship and education in general. Remarkably, a clear majority of Republicans now say that colleges and universities have a negative effect on America. So the party that currently controls all three branches of the federal government is increasingly for bigotry and against education. That should disturb you for multiple reasons, one of which is that the GOP has rejected the very values that made America great. Think of where we’d be as a nation if we hadn’t experienced those great waves of immigrants driven by the dream of a better life. Think of where we’d be if we hadn’t led the world, first in universal basic education, then in the creation of great institutions of higher education. Surely we’d be a shrunken, stagnant, second-rate society.

essential to the achievement of the collective purpose. Unity is not an inexhaustible resource. We express our full confidence in the leadership of Egypt and our enduring commitment to the goals and principles of the Group. In closing, let me express my country’s thanks to the Permanent Representative of Egypt Abdellatif Aboulatta, who delivered the message of His Excellency Mr. Sameh Hassan Shokry Selim, minister for foreign affairs of Egypt; and Her Excellency, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, minister for foreign affairs and human mobility of Ecuador; as well as to His Excellencies, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Miroslaw Lajcak, president of the General Assembly, for enlightening us with their trenchant wisdom today; and all four for honoring us with their presence this afternoon. Thank you.

And that’s what we’ll become if modern know-nothingism prevails. I’ve been rereading an important 2012 book, Enrico Moretti’s The New Geography of Jobs, about the growing divergence of regional fortunes within the United States. Until around 1980, America seemed on the path toward broadly spread prosperity, with poor regions like the Deep South rapidly catching up with the rest. Since then, however, the gaps have widened again, with incomes in some parts of the nation surging while other parts fall behind. Moretti argues, rightly in the view of many economists, that this new divergence reflects the growing importance of clusters of highly skilled workers—many of them immigrants—often centered on great universities that create virtuous circles of growth and innovation. And as it happens, the 2016 election largely pitted these rising regions against those left behind, which is why counties carried by Hillary Clinton, who won only a narrow majority of the popular vote, account for a remarkable 64 percent of US GDP, almost twice as much as Trump counties. Clearly, we need policies to spread the benefits of growth and innovation more widely. But one way to think of Trumpism is as an attempt to narrow regional disparities, not by bringing the lagging regions up, but by cutting the growing regions down. For that’s what attacks on education and immigration, key drivers of the new economy’s success stories, would do. So, will our modern know-nothings prevail? I have no idea. What’s clear, however, is that if they do, they won’t make America great again— they’ll kill the very things that made it great.

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Fare hikes can be avoided Tourism rising if DOTr makes right policies Edgardo J. Angara

Michael Makabenta Alunan

on the contrary

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ecent fuel price increases, resulting from higher excise taxes, starting with the P3-per-liter excise tax on diesel for 2018 alone, are triggering inflationary pressures and mounting demands for fare hikes and huge fuel discounts, which can actually be avoided if the Department of Transportation (DOTr) implements fast the right support policies for the transportmodernization program. Instead of a P4 or 50-percent increase in minimum fares as being pushed by Pasang Masda, and the demand of Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) for a P6-per-liter diesel discount, it is even possible for the jeepney sector to generate at least P10 per liter of diesel or even P14 per liter in consolidated benefits thru a combination of interventions, all riding on transport modernization program. Koops can gain P5 per liter in value-added tax (VAT) exemptions. Ramil Rodrigo, chairman of the Cubao-Rosario-Sta. Lucia Cooperative, is gung-ho with modernization, which he claims “can only be effective thru cooperatives that enjoy many benefits by law, like tax exemptions.” The 12-percent VAT exemptions alone for diesel approximates Piston’s demand for a P6-per-liter discount. Piston’s demand is unjustified and cannot be granted, so why demand what cannot be given. At 30 liter daily average, this amounts to P180 a day or P4,690 a month, or much more than the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program for the indigents. Pasang Masda’s 50-percent minimum fare hike petition of P4 is also grossly unacceptable and untenable. The P3-per-liter diesel excise tax for 2018 totals P90 a day at 30 liters, but on a 200-passenger conservative minimum per jeepney per day, this means P800 in new revenues, or 788.89 percent more than the P90 in excise taxes. This 200-passenger total is conservative as a 20-seater jeepney can easily hit 200 passengers in five round-trips, and yet more trips are made in14 hours of operations. As oil firms use excise taxes to increase prices to hide profiteering, Pasang Masda cannot also make fare hikes as an excuse to charge higher boundary income. They must be efficient first before passing on inefficiencies to commuters. The government must check these abuses. n Another P2 to P3 per liter from oil firm tie-ups. Oil firms now more aggressive with competition are willing to build gas stations for transport koop-clusters at P2-to P3-per-liter discounts. However, they are wary with associations with records of low 30 percent repayment rates compared to cooperatives’ high 97-percent repayments, based on past government financing for transport. Worse, apart from taking the margins, which is justified, the entire capital costs of fuel inventory were pocketed, all the more recovering the capital investments on the gasoline stations. Businesses wanting to deal with transport groups want fair deals and certainties, making cooperatives as better partners. Cooperative building must therefore be fast-tracked, as modernization cannot be successful without consolidation thru cooperatives. Unfortunately, there are still many policy barriers to Koop entry, which can be resolved thru technical workshop consultations that concerned groups have long been requesting, but often ignored. n About P3 to P7 per liter in savings from maintenance. With a package of interventions thru best maintenance practices and a combination of technologies, at least 10-percent to 20-percent increase in mileage or fuel savings equivalent to over P3 to P7 per liter can easily be

realized. Pasig-Mandaluyong- Quiapo Jeepney Cooperative Chairman Ruben Vasquez and Manager Sonny Letrodo observed they spent 6.8 liters per roundtrip of 34 kilometers, or 5 kms per liter, but with maintenance, mileage improved to 5.6 liters per round-trip, or a 17.65-percent mileage increase to 6.07kms per liter. Proper preventive maintenance by itself will not only result in fuel savings, but will avoid costlier maintenance expenses with engine breakdowns resulting from passenger overload and long 14-hour operations. n No DOTr maintenance policy yet. Although maintenance is vital, more so as jeepneys still believe in many myths and engine malpractices, DOTr does not have yet a maintenance policy. And yet Section 21 of the Clean Air Act mandates the DOTr to implement emission standards through: 1) inspection and 2) maintenance. It has the Motor Vehicle Inspection Service, but has no maintenance program. Some DOTr officials have ignored consulting with knowledgeable technical people immersed on the ground with mechanics who have more superior practical know-how than people in academe. One such fellow is Gerry Manila from another jeepney cooperative still undergoing application, who was exposed as early as 9 years old and could even overhaul a jeepney engine at 12. Without preventive maintenance, jeepneys undergoing 14 hours of average operating time and high passenger loads are likely to suffer breakdowns often, thus affecting daily amortizations of the modernization financing. This is causing shivers to banks as vehicle manufacturers can only offer warranties for three years, leaving a four-year gap against financing of seven years. In short, maintenance, which is the missing link, will address this huge warranty gap. Costs of warranties can be lowered and limited to the “friction zones” like engine wear and tear. The body, even if exposed to rain, sun and wind, will not break down, more so the under-chassis that can even last 50 to 100 years, so focus must only be on engine maintenance. The warranty costs will already be the maintenance costs, which can even be inputted into the financing equation to guarantee ideal conditions remain even beyond amortization periods. n Transport research continues. These transport groups are willing to learn and experiment on their own, at their cost, without government help. These efforts are their contributions to the unimplemented Section 15 of the Clean Air Act on Pollution Control Research, the results of which are the supposed content of seminars for Section 11, mandating the government to make available all the information, techniques, practices and technologies on pollution control. They are also required under Section 46 complementing penalties on smoke-belching violators. They are also studying variations in packages for jeepneys with different route characterization, different vehicle dimensions, different boundary incomes, different passenger volumes, etc. because DOTr’s one dimension, one uniform amortization, etc. do not match reality. The DOTr must listen before problems explode.

E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com.

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ourism has remained a sturdy pillar of the country’s development. Together with the overseas Filipino workers’ remittances, the two have consistently and strongly supported the nation’s socioeconomic progress.

2017 was a sort of boom year. The country played host to a series of international events, featuring the Association of Southeast Asian Nation 50th Anniversary and Leaders’ Summit, the United Nation World Tourism Organization International Conference on Tourism Statistics, the World Street Food Congress, the Madrid Fusión Manila Event, the Miss Universe Pageant and several other milestones. A record-high 6.8 million foreign tourists came to the country, representing a 15-percent increase from the visits registered in the year before. According to the Department of Tourism, each foreign guest spent a daily average of $133 or P6,700 a

day, but they stayed longer—up to a week from a previous average of three to four days. Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo said that, between January and August last year, the country earned up to $3.3 billion, or P166.3 billion, worth of tourism receipts, maintaining the sector’s ranking as the third-largest contributor to the country’s GDP. There appears even greater prospect for stronger tourism for at least two reasons. The first is the growing leisure and traveling class of Asia. The Asean and its East Asian neighbors provide a steady stream of visitors as their incomes rise.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018 A11

A record-high 6.8 million foreign tourists came to the country, representing a 15-percent increase from the visits registered in the year before. According to the Department of Tourism, each foreign guest spent a daily average of $133 or P6,700 a day, but they stayed longer—up to a week from a previous average of three to four days. The second is the game-changing opening of the Philippine tourist market to mainland China. Last year the Hong Kong Trade and Investment Association and the Shenzen Stock Exchange Mission came to Manila separately accompanied by delegations of well-known brand names to explore trade and investment opportunities here. The striking theme often sounded is the country’s undiscovered beauty and refreshing people’s warmth. Urban centers like Manila, Cebu, Baguio, Angeles, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao and Cagayan de Oro are easily accessible and have a fair supply of

accommodations and scenery. Several expressed the hope, however, that they can go to places less traveled and seldom seen. Here lies the hideaway treasures of the Philippines: its rural life in the countryside. And key to this is the Department of Trade and Industry-Department of Public Works and Highways convergence program Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade. It’s the Duterte administration’s infrastructure flagship, the blueprint to match jobs and people. Part of the funds have been budgeted. It’s the Cabinet’s turn to hasten the roads, bridges and other forms of connectivity to these new, often far-flung, destinations. Not just in the name of tourism, but more basic is to achieve inclusive growth. The concrete proposal is to improve and convert economic zones into tourism hubs. In a country as beautiful and as bountiful as the Philippines, booming tourism, particularly in the rural areas, will make for a highly complementary, urbanrural balanced socioeconomic development.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com, Facebook and Twitter: @edangara

Microinsurance MBA Association of the Philippines Dennis B. Funa

INSURANCE FORUM

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he Microinsurance MBA Association of the Philippines Inc. (MiMAP), also known as Rimansi Organization for Asia and the Pacific, is a formal association of Mutual Benefit Associations (MBAs) engaged in microinsurance. Its underlying advocacy is financial inclusion. In this regard, the Insurance Commission has found a natural partner in its own advocacy of financial literacy, microinsurance and promotion of insurance in general. While mutualized insurance companies are also owned and managed by its members just like MBAs and can sell insurance to the general public, MBAs are only allowed to sell insurance to its own members. Microinsurance has, in fact, proliferated largely due to the presence of MBAs in the communities. Being members of these MBAs generates commitment to actively participate in its advocacies.

Rimansi started out as a microinsurance and MBA resource center founded on March 17, 2005. It provides technical assistance to microfinance institutions (MFIs). Initially, it was known as the Risk Management Solutions Inc. (Rimansi). Later, it was known as the Rimansi Organization for Asia and the Pacific Inc. The founding members of Rimansi were six MFIs, a rural bank and an MBA, viz: Alalay sa

Kaunlaran Inc., Kasangyangan Foundation Inc., People’s Alternative Livelihood of Sorsogon Inc., Rural Bank of Talisayan, Uswag Development Foundation, CARD MBA, CARD Bank and CARD NGO. Rimansi has assisted MFIs in the establishment of MBAs throughout the country. In 2015, after 10 years of operations, Rimansi converted itself into a microinsurance MBA association. As of March 2017, MiMAP performance figures are impressive. It is working with 18 microinsurance MBAs with a combined reach of about 4.79 million members nationwide, and insuring about 17.22 million Filipinos. The contributions collected (premiums) totalled P855.38 million. It has paid claims amounting to P243.73 million. And it has equity value of P5.92 billion. These microinsurance MBAs provide life microinsurance plans and other optional life plans, as well as health and retirement coverages. Rimansi is an observer member of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation, joining it in 2007. In 2008 Rimansi launched the

Solvency, Efficiency, Governance, Understanding, Risk Management, Affordability, Development, Outreach performance standards as indicators to measure the performance of microinsurance MBAs. One of the motivations in gathering the small MBAs into an association is the need to assist them in terms of their respective investment portfolio. Given their small capacity, they only tend to invest in low-yielding bank deposits and government securities. They are unable to develop expertise in the investment field. Moreover, several of these MBAs are in the provinces where they have little or no access to high-yielding investments. Through the initiative of MiMAP, the available investment funds of these MBAs can be pooled, and a more aggressive investment strategy can be formulated. At present, the president of Rimansi is Ms. May Dawat. Its executive director is Jun Jay Perez.

Lawyer Dennis B. Funa is the current insurance commissioner. Funa was appointed by President Duterte as the new insurance commissioner in December 2016. E-mail: dennisfuna@yahoo.com.

No one wants your used clothes anymore Adam Minter

BLOOMBERG

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or decades, the donation bin has offered consumers in rich countries a guilt-free way to unload their old clothing. In a virtuous and profitable cycle, a global network of traders would collect these garments, grade them and transport them around the world to be recycled, worn again, or turned into rags and stuffing. Now, that cycle is breaking down. Fashion trends are accelerating, new clothes are becoming as cheap as used ones and poor countries are turning their backs on the secondhand trade. Without significant changes in the way that clothes are made and marketed, this could add up to an environmental disaster in the making. Nobody is more alert to this shift than the roughly 200 businesses devoted to recycling clothes into yarn and blankets in Panipat, India. Located 55 miles north of Delhi, the dusty city of 450,000 has served as the world’s largest recycler of woolen garments for at least two decades, becoming a crucial outlet for the $4billion used-clothing trade. Panipat’s mills specialize in a

cloth known as shoddy, which is made from low-quality yarn recycled from woolen garments. Much of what they produce is used to make cheap blankets for disaster-relief operations. It’s been a good business: At its peak in the early-2010s, Panipat’s shoddy manufacturers could make 100,000 blankets a day, accounting for 90 percent of the relief-blanket market. In the early-2000s, though, cash-flush Chinese manufacturers began using modern mills that could produce many times more blankets per day than Panipat’s, and in a wider variety of colors. Ramesh Goyal, the general manager of Ramesh Woolen Mills, told me that Chinese manufacturing has become so efficient that a new polar

fleece blanket costs a mere $2.50 retail—compared to $2 for a recycled blanket. This has made China the preferred manufacturer of relief blankets worldwide, costing Panipat most of its export market. So Panipat is changing. Five years ago, nobody in town made new fleece blankets. Today, about 50 mills do. Ramesh Woolen Mills added a Chinese-built line in 2016 and, thereby, boosted its production from 7,000 kilograms a day to 12,000, two-thirds of which is polar fleece. Consumers appreciate the quality, variety and fast production times. But what’s good for Panipat and its customers is bad news for donors and the environment. Even if Panipat were producing shoddy at its peak, it probably couldn’t manage the growing flood of used clothing entering the market in search of a second life. Between 2000 and 2015, global clothing production doubled, while the average number of times that a garment was worn before disposal declined by 36 percent. In China it declined by 70 percent. The rise of “fast fashion” is thus creating a bleak scenario: The tide of secondhand clothes keeps growing, even as the markets to reuse them are disappearing. From an environmental standpoint, that’s a big problem. Already, the apparel industry accounts for 10 percent of global carbon emissions; as recycling

markets break down, its contribution could soar. The good news is that nobody has a bigger incentive to address this problem than the industry itself. By raising temperatures and intensifying droughts, climate change could substantially reduce cotton yields and, thus, make garment production less predictable and far more expensive. Industry executives are clearly concerned. The question is what to do about it. Some brands, such Hennes & Mauritz AB (better known as H&M) and Patagonia Inc., are experimenting with new fibers made from recycled material, which could help. But longer-term, the industry will have to try to refocus consumers on durability and quality—and charge accordingly. Ways to do this include offering warranties on clothing and making tags that inform consumers of a product’s expected lifespan. To satiate the hunger for fast fashion, meanwhile, brands might also explore subscription-based fashion-rental businesses—such as China’s YCloset—or other more sustainable models. None of these options can replace Panipat and the other mill towns that once transformed rich people’s rags into cheap clothes for the poor. But, like it or not, that era is coming to an end. Now the challenge is to stitch together a new set of solutions.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Tourism stakeholders take issue with DOT reshuffle By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

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@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

HE recent reshuffle of some regional directors and officials at the head office of the Department of Tourism (DOT) may be a done deal, but industry stakeholders are having none of it.

This developed as Tourism Undersecretary for Administration Rolando Cañizal said familiarity with a region need not be a main consideration in assigning agency officials to certain regions. “It’s not necessary that they are very familiar [with the region]; I don’t think their learning curve will be very long because they are already in the industry for such a long time, they already know how the industry works and what the industry needs. They just have to get to know the people around.” He noted that other government agencies like the Department of Environment and Natural

Resources [DENR] also reshuffle their regional directors. “Even the DENR directors are also adjusting to the places where they’re being relocated. So it’s just the same with us. It’s just that this is the first time we [DOT] are doing this.” The DOT, in its first Department Order (DO) issued on January 4 and signed by Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo, reassigned about 22 directors to new locations or assume new functions, “in the exigency of service.” (See, “DOT directors receive new year surprise as Teo orders major reshuffle,” in the BusinessMirror, January 9, 2018.)

22

The number of Department of Tourism directors that were given new posts She later explained in a press statement that the reshuffle “is designed to promote managerial potentials and versatility, as well as reawaken their passion for our line of work.” In a n inter v iew w it h t he BusinessMirror, Lax Mendoza, president of the Association of Travel and Tour Agencies of Calabarzon (Calamba, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), said “there was no valid reason for the regional directors [RD] to be replaced.” He noted that tourism plans and programs are usually “laid out ahead of time. [With the reshuffle], we would have to get to know the new RD again; it’s just a waste of a lot time.”

Mendoza is the architect of the petition paper on change.org, which seeks to “retain the DOT regional directors” and persuade the DOT to listen to stakeholders. Since the petition was started on January 6, there are 517 signatories. According to the petition paper, “These regional directors [have] families that they will leave behind. They already have built a harmonious relationship toward their partners in their respective regions, thereby making each of these regions competitive in their own ways. “Reshuffling should have a consultation with the proper person who handles the regional directors and evaluate their performances,” the position paper added. Mendoza said he also called the 8888 Citizens’ Complaint Hotline and 8888 Citizens’ Complaint Center to question the reshuffle. Other petition papers are making the rounds to retain the RDs in Eastern Visayas and in the Davao region. For her part, Tourism Congress Vice Chairman Aileen Clemente said: “More than reshuffling of manpower, it is incumbent and See “Tourism,” A2

Glowing red lava rolls down slopes of Mayon Volcano

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lowing red lava rolled down the slopes of the Philippines’s most active volcano on Tuesday morning, as authorities maintained a warning of a possible hazardous eruption. The lava was quietly f lowing in some places but, at times, Mount Mayon was erupting like a fountain, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. Lava had advanced up to 2 kilometers (km) (1.24 miles) from the crater, and ash reached up to 2 km and fell on nearby communities. Nearly 15,000 people have fled the danger zone within 6 to 7 km of Mayon, and the institute strongly advised people not to reenter the area. Several small pyroclastic flows were generated by fragments in the lava streams and not by an explosion from the crater vent, like what occurred with Mount Pinatubo, said Renato Solidum, who heads the volcano institute. Pyroclastic flows are superheated gas and volcanic debris that can race down slopes and incinerate everything in their path, and are feared in a major eruption. “The pyroclastic flows, there were several, were not generated by an explosion from the crater with lava, molten rocks and steam, shooting up the volcano then rolling down,” Solidum said. “These were generated by lava fragments breaking off from the lava flow in the upper slopes.”

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shortened and directed to be done in one-stop shops.” “These things are indispensable for the ordinary Filipino and can not be simply dismissed as not the product of a President who walks the talk during the elections,” they added. The President has promised change, and people now see this when they find it easier to acquire permits or licenses, and fees have been slashed, and when their complaints get acted upon by authorities, even in barangays, Belen and Tamayo said. Remember, they said, “Duterte has always said in his speeches that he has

D.O.J. NOW CHECKING IF RAPPLER EXECUTIVES ARE ALSO CRIMINALLY LIABLE By Joel R. San Juan @jrsanjuan1573

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day after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked Rappler’s corporate registration for violating the constitutional prohibition on foreign ownership, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it would also look into the possible criminal culpabilities of the media entity’s officials. Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II on Tuesday revealed that he has already ordered a review of the SEC’s decision and its legal consequences on Rappler. “I have directed my legal staff to study the legal issues of this case.” Aguirre admitted that the DOJ review would cover possible criminal liabilities of executives of Rappler. “Yes, it will cover all angles,” the DOJ chief stressed when asked if the probe would include criminal aspects. In its order on Jauary 11, the SEC revoked Rappler’s corporate registration, saying it violated constitutional provision on foreign ownership. The revocation of its registration is tantamount to a closure order. Article 16, Section 11 (1) of the 1987 Constitution provides that ownership and management of media “shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to corporations, cooperatives or associations, wholly owned and managed by such citizens.” SEC, the commission tasked to

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Lava continues to cascade down the slopes of Mayon Volcano as seen from Legazpi City, Albay, on Tuesday. AP

He also said Mayon has not seen enough volcanic earthquakes of the type that would prompt scientists to raise the alert level to four, which would indicate that an explosive eruption may be imminent. Emergency-response officials previously said they may have to undertake forced evacuations if the alert is raised to four. After steam explosions last Saturday and lava rising in the crater last Sunday, the alert was raised to three on a scale of five, indicating

that a hazardous eruption is possible “within weeks, or even days.” Mayon lies in coconut-growing Albay province, about 340 km (210 miles) southeast of Manila. With its near-perfect cone, Mayon is popular with climbers and tourists, but has erupted about 50 times in the last 500 years, sometimes violently. In 2013 an ash eruption killed five climbers who had ventured near the summit despite warnings. Mayon’s first recorded eruption

was in 1616, and the most destructive in 1814 killed 1,200 people and buried the town of Cagsawa in volcanic mud. The Philippines lies in the socalled Ring of Fire, a line of seismic faults surrounding the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. In 1991 Mount Pinatubo in the northern Philippines exploded in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing about 800 people. AP

practically no national solid supporters when he ran for the Presidency.” Also, Tamayo said, “Duterte has shown that he was not one to be cowed when it comes to implementing even unpopular laws, such as the war on drugs, the warning and actual hit against the oligarchs and the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion [Train] law.” “Until now, he has said he would not yield his war on drugs, and everyone knows that it was not only a political gimmick and, obviously, it would neither earn the President the ‘pogi’ points that all politicians would die or kill for,” he said. Beleno added, “It is this race to get pogi points that would occasionally jack survey ratings up” for presidents

and other senior government officials in the post-honeymoon period. “But, for President Duterte, he would not care for the pogi points. And everybody also knows that many of his policies are not popular anyway,” he said.

wage earners the extra income to spend, the idea of a disposable income that the economy has desired.” “We know that, every now and then, the price of oil would go up and down and fluctuate as frequently as we see it, making us the hapless witnesses to rising prices of basic commodities,” he said. “What is positive withTRAIN is that, this time, under a similar expected episode of price increases, the wage earners have a buffer, something extra to dip into their pockets in the midst of these oil pricetriggered increases,” Tamayo added. On the new round of excise taxes on oil and liquor and cigarettes, Tamayo said, “It is only in the Philippines where products with acknowledged adverse effect on the health of the population have prices that are easily within reach

Taxing the rich, ‘bad goods’

At this time of the year, when business would have taken its wait-and-see attitude on how the President executes laws, Tamayo said, “You would note how the Philippine stocks index has gone up.” “Apparently, it is how Mr. Duterte pushed the TRAIN law’s implementation,” he added. “This has been there for quite some time, but it would take a Duterte to do it.” On the Train law, Tamayo explained it as a law“that grants

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Through the second package, Chua said the government would be able to ensure that incentives granted to businesses generate jobs, stimulate the economy in the countryside and promote research and development; contain sunset provisions so that tax perks do not last forever; and are reported so the government can determine the magnitude of their costs and benefits to the economy. Chua added that incentives enjoyed by big businesses, such as income-tax holidays and other perks with no time limits, need to be corrected, as it is costing the government over P300 billion annually in foregone revenues. Based on 2015 data, income-tax holidays and special rates account for P86.25 billion of the revenue losses, while custom duty exemp-

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support the government’s infrastructure program, the “Build, Build, Build.” The President has of even the poor.” “In other countries, cigarettes and liquors are priced so high that only those who have the money to indulge on these harmful items and the money to seek medical care as a consequence of using these could buy them,” he added. “I think it is time to remove the opium-like addictive products these companies are peddling to ordinary people,” Tamayo said.

Davao’s pride

While admitting he has some concerns on the war on drugs, Beleno said Duterte, “without doubt, is someone all Davaoenos could be proud of.” “He has consistently pushed on programs that have been implemented here in Davao, and residents

Aguirre: “I have directed my legal staff to study the legal issues of this case.”

regulate companies, specifically cancelled the multimedia news organization’s license, accusing it of effecting a “deceptive scheme to circumvent the Constitution,” especially by getting funds from Omidyar Network of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. The decision cancelled Rappler’s certificate of incorporation and the Omidyar Philippine Depository Receipts (PDRs), which are instruments that give foreign investors a passive economic interest in a Philippine company. The SEC held that one of the so-called PDRs issued by Rappler does not function that way, as it effectively gives veto power to a foreign company. Rappler and other media groups and press-freedom advocate claimed that the revocation of its registration was an attack on press freedom. They accused the Duterte administration of having a hand in the SEC ruling, which, they said, was to silence Rappler, which has been extensively covering the administration’s bloody war against illegal drugs.

tions account for P18.4 billion. In terms of income-tax incentives, the government gave away P61.33 billion to companies in 2011, which went up to P88.17 billion in 2014. “So, in general, the government is giving almost 0.8 percent of GDP in income-tax holidays and custom duty exemptions. Together with the valueadded tax [VAT], it is P301 billion, or 2 percent of GDP. These are only the investment incentives,” Chua said. Package 1 of the CTRP, also known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, was signed into law by President Duterte last December 19. It slashed personal-income tax rates while raising additional revenues for infrastructure and social services through the repeal of several nonessential exemptions to the VAT; adjustments in the excise-tax rates for fuel, coal and automobiles; and a tax on sugarsweetened beverages. repeatedly made public his discontent with the country’s procedure on releasing construction permits, and even went on to attack the Judiciary for issuing restraining orders on questioned government projects. here could easily relate to them as the foundation of a national well-being that we have first tasted and experienced here,” he added. “Investments have been coming in faster than before despite his innuendos and direct broadsides against the US, the United Nations and the European Union,” Beleno said. Yet, he added, “ This has also opened the avenue for the Philippines to relate to countries that were previously kept away by our relations with the US. ” Even the West has changed its assessment on the Philippines. Beleno said one powerful Western country has aggressively increased its financing and renewed its political relations with the Philippines despite its known stance on human rights.