Businessmirror june 15, 2018

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A broader look at today’s business n Friday, June 15, 2018 Vol. 13 No. 244

Labor pushes ₧320 hike as solons revisit TRAIN A

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla, Rea Cu @ReaCuBM & Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

MID warnings from economists and employers that sharp increases in salaries would aggravate the inflation that workers are hurting from, the country’s largest labor group on Thursday formally filed a wage petition before the regional wage board in Metro Manila for a P320 across-the-board pay hike.

T he Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said it reconsidered its earlier position to no longer file a new wage petition in the National Capital Region (NCR) after Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia issued a statement

last week that a family of five would need P42,000 per month to live decently.

Pernia is concurrently director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

TUCP Assistant General Secretary and Spokesman Vicente

Camilon submitted on Thursday their three-page petition for the P320 pay hike to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-NCR (RTWPB-NCR).

TRAIN review, tax amnesty

The big debate over how far wages

3.9%

The maximum inflation rate that economic managers gave lawmakers last year, when asked for estimates on the impact of the TRAIN law should be allowed to rise to help workers cope with record inflation raged, as calls mounted for the government to suspend implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), the first part of its comprehensive tax-reform program.

See “Labor,” A2

PHL BOP deficit seen worse than earlier thought for 2018

By Bianca Cuaresma

M

@BcuaresmaBM

ORE dollars are expected to bleed out of the economy for this year, as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced late Thursday that it expected a bigger wound in the Philippines’s balance of payments (BoP) position for 2018.

The overall BoP position of the Philippines is now projected to incur a $1.5-billion deficit for 2018, revised from the earlier $1-billion deficit projection for 2018.

The BoP is the economic managers’ way of summarizing all the transactions of the Philippines with the rest of the world.

A surplus in BoP means more dollars went into the economy than the volume of outflows. A deficit, on the other hand, means the economy’s dollar earnings were not enough to cover for the dollar expenditures during a given period.

The new projection is part of the government’s biannual exercise, reviewing and reassessing projections for the year to incorporate the latest available data and reflect recent and prospective economic developments, both domestic and global.

See “BOP,” A2

PESO exchange rates n US 53.1220

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GOVT WANTS TO FINISH 33 FLAGSHIP INFRA PROJECTS BY 2022

By Cai U. Ordinario @cuo_bm

T

HE national government is looking to fast-track the implementation of at least 33 of the flagship projects to allow the Duterte administration to complete at least half of its gamechanging infrastructure projects by 2022.

After the interagency Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) Cabinet Committee (Cabcom) meeting at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told reporters the administration is working toward completing over 40 projects. “[Some] 35 [projects] have been approved by the Neda Board and 42 in all are moving and could be finished by the end of the administration,” Pernia said.

In a separate interview, Neda Assistant Secretary for Investment Programming Jonathan L. Uy told reporters that, unlike the construction sector, the government considers projects “ongoing” even

“Yes, [we believe] all the projects will be started during the administration.

What we are trying to do now is to increase the number of projects that will be complete.’’— Uy if they have not begun any civil works. Uy said projects can be considered ongoing if they have a budget; undergoing right-of-way, resettlement, and or land acquisition; and undertaking detailed engineering.

He added that once projects begin to undergo detailed engineering, it will be “easy” to fasttrack their implementation.

“Once you have completed the detailed engineering, you will have a very strong handle on the project [and] from there you can craft the implementation using PERT CPM [Project Evaluation Review Technique/Critical Path Method],” Uy said.

See “Govt,” A2

FPI net outflows in May hit $206M, up from $24M

F

A teller at a bank in Makati City handles peso and dollar bills on Thursday, a day after the local currency breached the 53 zone, a 12year low. Also on Thursday, the Central Bank revised its projected balance of payments deficit, which is now seen as wider by $500 million than earlier thought. That means more dollars are expected to bleed out of the economy for this year. NONIE REYES

OREIGN investors were not keen on betting on the Philippines for short-term returns in May, as foreign portfolio investments (FPI) were down during the month.

Latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed a significant rise in the FPI net outflows in May this year, hitting $206 million. This compared to the $24-million net outflows recorded in May 2017. FPI are known as “hot” or “speculative” money because they are easily pulled in and out of the local platforms in reaction to the slight change of global and local sentiment.

The weaker hot money performance in May is contrasted by the positive performance of foreign direct investments (FDI)—its longterm counterpart—in the first quarter of the year.

FDI, or those investments put in by foreign players aiming for longer yield, rose 27 percent in March.

The BSP attributed hot money net outf lows to local and international worries that hound investors. On the local front, investors were particularly concerned about the weaker peso and the effect of higher oil prices on local inf lation.

n japan 0.4816 n UK 71.0666 n HK 6.7690 n CHINA 8.2994 n singapore 39.7828 n australia 40.2452 n EU 62.6468 n SAUDI arabia 14.1663

See “FPI,” A2

Source: BSP (14 June 2018 )

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Friday, June 15, 2018

Govt defers new peace talks

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

T

@alyasjah

HE government decided to cancel the proposed new round of talks with the National Democratic Front (NDF) arranged on June 28 to consult first what it called its “bigger peace table”—the general public and the private sector.

In a news briefing on Thursday, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Jesus G. Dureza announced that the government is withdrawing from the June 28 talks to engage the public first on the next steps of negotiations with the NDF. Stalled talks between the government and the NDF was earlier scheduled to resume by the end of June in Oslo, Norway.

“In our common effort to make sure we achieve a conducive and

FPI. . .

enabling environment for peace, President Duterte instructed us last night to engage our bigger peace table—the general public, as well as other sectors in [the] government, as we work to negotiate peace with the communist rebels. Consequently, the initial timeline that our backchannel team had worked on with their counterparts across the table had to be necessarily readjusted,” Dureza said.

At least three major documents

Continued from A1

The local currency’s value fell further on Thursday, hitting 53.27 to a dollar, from 53.23 to a dollar in the previous day’s trade. This is a fresh low for the country’s currency, as the peso has not been this weak since June 29, 2006, when it hit P53.55 to a dollar.

Inflation in the country, meanwhile, hit 4.6 percent in May, the highest for the country in about five years.

Concerns were not isolated among local issues, the BSP said, as “hot money” investors were also swayed by the higher US treasury yields and the renewed geopolitical tension between the US and China.

The BSP said the United Kingdom, US, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong were the top 5 investor-countries for the month, with combined share to total 74.8 percent.

Broken down, about 80.2 percent of investments registered during May 2018 were in PSE-listed securities— mainly to banks, holding firms, property companies, food, beverage and tobacco firms, and transportation services companies.

The balance went to peso-government securities and other peso-debt instruments. In the first five months of the year, however, FPIs still registered in the greens as they hit a net inflow of $797.2 million. This is a reversal of the $543.79-million net outflow seen in the same five-month period in the previous year. Bianca Cuaresma

Govt. . .

Continued from A1

“Yes, [we believe] all the projects will be started during the administration. What we are trying to do now is to increase the number of projects that will be completed,” he added.

The Project Monitoring Facilitation and Innovation (PMFI), composed of the Neda secretary, finance secretary, budget secretary and heads of other agencies that are part of the “Build, Build, Build” program, uses PERT-CPM. The Neda earlier explained that the PERTCPM can help the PMFI determine certain

BOP. . .

were expected to be signed by the two parties in the cancelled talks. This includes agreements on coordinated cease-fire and agrarian reform.

These documents have to wait longer, though, as Dureza said the government will have to acquire insights from stakeholders on the future of making peace with the communists. He added it is necessary to consult citizens about the peace talks, since these will ostensibly fail without their backing.

“Our peace efforts to succeed should have good support from the general public; hence, it is necessary that all efforts be exerted to inform and engage them in the same way the government engaged the rebels in addressing the root causes of conflict,” Dureza said.

“The almost 50 years of intermittent and oftentimes disrupted peace negotiations with the communist rebels across several presidencies need a close study for lessons to ensure that our last chance to put a dignified closure

Continued from A1

The last assessment was in December 2017.

The BSP was quick to say that the larger than earlier expected BoP deficit is “very manageable” and is only equivalent to -0.4 percent of the country’s GDP. Broken down, most of the deficit for the year can be traced to higher imports for 2018.

The BSP said the current account is seen to post a higher deficit of $3.1 billion for 2018, equivalent to 0.9 percent of the country’s GDP. This is because of the projected wider trade deficit, as growth in imports largely outpaces exports growth.

Shipments of imported goods, in particular, are anticipated to gain further traction in 2018 following the momentum seen in the last quarter of 2017. These are expected to grow 11 percent, up from the December 2017 projection of 10 percent.

Meanwhile, the exports of goods is also to continue its recovery in 2018 with a growth of 10 percent, an improvement from the 9-percent growth assumption released in December 2017.

Economic managers have been saying that the negative BoP is a “small price to pay” in

activities that can be done in parallel with the completion of a certain milestone in project implementation. It will help monitor the slack ,as well as the critical path of projects.

Snags in projects

Meanwhile, the ICC-Cabcom did not yet approve the construction of an international port in Zamboanga, according to Neda officials.

The P30-billion San Ramon Newport Project, proposed to be financed via publicprivate partnership (PPP), will be implemented by the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone and Freeport Authority.

The Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone and Freeport Authority still needs to work with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and

to the armed rebellion will not be squandered away. The government peace panel, in cooperation with the private sector, will continue in its efforts to engage those who earnestly seek peace,” the chief peace adviser added.

He also hinted the peace talks are now “at the cusp of some major breakthroughs,” and this is why the support of the general public is needed.

“Just, sustainable and lasting peace will happen only when our people understand and support these efforts,” Dureza said.

Negot i at ions bet ween t he Duterte administration and the NDF have been on and off due to alleged violations of agreements from both sides. The talks, however, were formally terminated by the President through Proclamation 360 issued in November last year, and subsequently placed the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, under the country’s terrorist list.

the country’s move toward aggressive infrastructure spending.

This BoP deficit due to imports will be temporary and will result in a higher productive capacity and a more sustainable growth for the economy in the medium term, government officials and international experts, such as those from the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund said.

The BoP is still expected to be cushioned by he steady inflows of overseas Filipino remittances, as well as business-process outsourcing and tourism receipts, the BSP said.

On other fronts, projections bear positive news as the financial account is now expected to record a net inflow due to the anticipated higher net inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI) and lower net outflow in the other investments account.

Latest data from the BSP showed the country’s BoP position is already in $1.497 billion in deficit in the first four months of 2018 alone, a strong weakening from the mere $78-million BoP deficit in the same January-to-April period in 2017.

The Philippines ended last year with an overall BoP position of $863 million in deficit.

the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) since there may be a possibility of better coordination between the existing port of Zamboanga and the airport in the peninsula.

Meanwhile, Pernia expects that once the New Bohol airport is opened in the third or fourth quarter of the year, the Tagbilaran airport will be closed down.

Pernia said there is a possibility that the Tagbilaran airport will be sold by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap), which will generate additional revenues for the government. “[Tagbilaran airport has] a very short runway. It’s risky. It’s owned by Caap so I suppose they will sell it and Caap will make money and the government will make

money,” Pernia said.

Supplemental support for the New Bohol Airport in Panglao was approved by the ICC-Cabcom on Thursday, as well as a project extension for the Italian Agrarian Reform Community Development Support project (IARCDSP).

The ICC-Cabcom granted around P1.2 billion in supplemental funds for the airport to account for foreign exchange movements and other project exigencies. The project cost of the New Bohol airport is now pegged at P2.5 billion from the initial estimate of P2.34 billion.

On the IARCDSP, the ICC-Cabcom approved a two-year extension and also resolved to continue the project with or without Italian support. The governments of the Philippines and Italy are currently ironing out procedural, issues on Italy’s official development assistance (ODA) support for the country.

Last year, when the government created the flagship projects, Neda Undersecretary for Investment Programming Rolando G. Tungpalan told the BusinessMirror that while funding is not a concern given the country’s fiscal health, speed is.

Undertaking Feasibility Studies takes anywhere from three to 12 months, depending on whether previous work on the project has been done.

The ICC project approval period adds another six weeks to this process, while postapproval time to undertake contracts and bidding will take time to complete. Only after projects are bidded out and contracts are awarded will the projects start contributing to the economy.

Getting loan funding approval from development partners will also take time.

This will matter, considering that the bulk of the 75 flagship projects will be funded through ODA. In April last year, the government decided to undertake as much as 75 flagship projects. The government initially wanted to just undertake 55 flagship projects, but the addition of new projects increased this number.

These are envisioned to become “catalytic” projects to help usher in the “golden age of infrastructure” in the country.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Labor. . .

Continued from A1

Also on Thursday, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the Executive was set to endorse a tax amnesty—to coincide with next April’s income-tax filings—as part of the second batch of the first-wave reforms, or “Package 1B.” Senate leaders on Thursday pressed for a review of the TRAIN amid growing concerns over its trigger effect aggravating inflation.

This, as they also agreed with economists from advocacy group Action for Economic Reform (AER) that outright suspension of the TRAIN could do more harm than good, sharing concerns that the Duterte government should instead consider other options to tame inflation.

Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III agreed with the AER that suspending the TRAIN is anti-poor, as it aggravates inflation even more and will deprive the government of funds for safety nets like conditional-cash transfer, unconditionalcash transfer and public-utility vouchers.

“Yes, they [AER] are right,” Sotto told the BusinessMirror, voicing concern that suspending the TRAIN law “would be more detrimental than good.”

Sotto suggested that concerned administration officials do a better job of explaining the beneficial effects of the revenue measure, given observations that some quarters have been riding on the TRAIN law to mask profiteering practices, and that other factors that coincided with TRAIN’s implementation had fanned the inflation, thus making the new law a scapegoat of sorts.

Dominguez himself had candidly told Palace reporters last week that the officials underestimated the extent of the oil price rise in the world market, which took place just as the higher excise taxes on fuel, under the TRAIN, kicked in. Other sectors reliant on sugar, meanwhile, like juice makers, have reeled from rising prices of domestic sugar, just as the TRAIN mandated sugar-sweetened beverages taxes.

On Thursday Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon suggested convening a Senate oversight hearing to grill the administration’s finance officials to find out what happened.

“We must get an explanation,” Drilon told reporters at the Kapihan sa Senado media forum, recalling that the representation given by Department of Finance (DOF) officials during the Senate committee hearings on the TRAIN bill was that the revenue measure “would have little effect on inflation; that inflation would only go to the maximum 3.9 percent but it has been breached.”

Drilon wryly remarked, “Either they deceived us or they were less competent in the effects.”

He prodded Senate leaders to convene a Senate hearing to review the TRAIN law. This will allow lawmakers to get an update from DOF officials who had assured senators, when they were asked during hearings about the effect of the excise tax and the then-unenacted TRAIN on inflation, “that 3.9 [percent] is the DOF’s maximum estimate.”

“Obviously, this did not happen. The inflation in May 2018 rose to 4.6 percent,” Drilon noted.

Tax amnesty The DOF, meanwhile, said it is eyeing to implement a tax amnesty by April next year, in time with the annual filing of income-tax returns.

Dominguez told DOF reporters the amnesty provision proposed under the Package 1B, or the other half of the TRAIN law, is being eyed for implementation by April next year.

He said it is envisioned to coincide with the 2018 filing of income-tax returns so that taxpayers who want to avail themselves of the amnesty only have to file one application.

The finance chief added that the DOF is hoping for the passage into law of Package 1B by the third quarter of this year to be able to implement the amnesty provision and other measures under the proposal by 2019.

“So most likely the amnesty will come in April, also because we don’t want the taxpayer to be filing many things: just one filing, file amnesty and income tax at the same time. Most likely [it will be] April, do it one time, I think that’s the most reasonable,” Dominguez said.

Package 1B’s contents Under Package 1B, the government proposes: a general as well as estate amnesty, lifting of the bank-secrecy law, automatic

exchange of information and increasing the motor vehicle user’s charge, as part of improving tax administration efforts.

“The House is moving quickly on it. I’d like to have it passed in the third quarter by the latest. It’s good because it will increase our revenues and basically help us in our tax administration,” he added.

According to DOF Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua, the hike in the motor vehicle user’s charge is in the technical working group (TWG) stage at the House, while the measures on amnesty, bank secrecy and the automatic exchange of information are still being discussed in separate hearings at the House and Senate committees.

In December 2017 the House of Representatives confirmed that lawmakers had vowed to pass Package 1B in the first quarter of 2018 to complete the first tranche of the administration taxreform program.

To be known as the “amnesty package,” Rep. Dakila Carlo E. Cua of the Lone District of Quirino, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said Package 1B will include the estate-tax amnesty, a general tax amnesty and amendments to the bank-secrecy law.

Package 1A or the TRAIN was signed into law by President Duterte in the same month, and was implemented in January 2018. It implements a reduction on personal income-tax rates from 32 percent to 25 percent, while implementing offsetting measures to cover the revenue loss including raising excise tax rates on tobacco, automobiles and petroleum products, among others.

‘Survival wage’ If approved by the RTWPB-NCR, the TUCP petition for a P320 wage hike will put the highest wage in Metro Manila to P832.

“The P832 per day wage is still a ‘survival wage’ in Metro Manila given the soaring costs of rice, fuels, sardines, school supplies, education, medical support, transportation and all other basic goods and services,” TUCP said in a statement.

TUCP cited the rising inflation rate; stagnant real wage amid the rising labor productivity from 2001 to 2016; and the country’s growing gross domestic product to justify their wage petition.

“The workers built the wealth of our nation as manifested by a 6.7-percent GDP growth rate in 2017. In the first quarter of 2018, it was 6.8 percent. This marks the 76 quarters of uninterrupted GDP growth,” TUCP said in its petition.

“A token wage adjustment at this time will just demean and further insult our people,” it added.

Camilon said they are confident the RTWPB-NCR will approve their petition after the Neda issued the “ideal” income for a family of five. “ There is already a benchmark, which we know as fair and just compensation. This is the P1,400 per day [based from Neda’s statement]. The figure came from the government. We are just ensuring the current wages will be on a par with that decent income,” Camilon said in an interview.

He issued the statement despite lack of a supervening event in Metro Manila, which will exempt its wage board from the one-year ban in issuing a new wage order.

Under the Wage Rationalization Act, RTWPBs may only issue a new wage order a year after their previous issuance unless there is a supervening event—any abnormal surge in the prices of basic goods and services for a given period.

The last wage order issued by RTWPBNCR, which raised minimum wage rates in NCR to P475 and P512, took effect on October, 5, 2017.

In March the RTWPB-NCR—citing lack of supervening event in NCR at that time—had junked the wage petition for P175 wage increase, which was filed in the same month by the Association of Minimum Wage Earners and Advocate.

Camilon said they plan to file similar P320 wage hike petitions in other regions in the coming months as an alternative measure for the pending House Bill (HB) 7805 filed by TUCP Party-list Rep. Raymond Mendoza.

If passed into law, HB 7805 will increase all minimum wages nationwide by P320. Camilon said they plan to file their next P320 wage petition in Calabarzon, then in Southern Mindanao, Davao and Northern Mindanao. These were given priority as “these are the areas where we have our most active federations,” Camilon said.

The Nation BusinessMirror

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Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, June 15, 2018 A3

Calida to SC: Stand pat on Sereno ouster

S

By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

OLICITOR General Jose C. Calida has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to stand pat on its decision issued last month ousting Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno from her post after finding merit to the petition for quo warranto that he filed.

In his 78-page comment, Calida stated that Sereno’s motion for reconsideration should be dismissed, since it is merely based on the same arguments she had raised in her original defense.

He also denied Sereno’s claim that she was deprived of her right to due process due to the refusal of six associate justices, whom she accused of being biased against her, to inhbit from participating in the deliberation and resolution of the quo warranto petition.

Calida said that there is no basis in Sereno’s motion to reiterate her call for the inhibition of Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo de

Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza and Noel Tijam, as he explained that the Internal Rules of the SC on inhibition did not mention testifying in the House hearing as among the grounds for inhibition.

The above named associate justices testified against Sereno in the impeachment hearings conducted by the House of Representatives.

Calida said Sereno was also afforded due process and was given the chance to present her side during the oral arguments and in the pleadings and motions she submitted to the Court, and that the participation of the said justices whose recusal

she earlier sought did not violate her right to due process.

“Respondent’s claim that she was not heard by an impartial tribunal is, therefore, based merely on speculation and surmise. She has no clear and convincing evidence to show bias on the part of some members of the Court,” he added.

Contrary to Sereno’s claim that she can only be removed through impeachment proceedings, Calida said the Constitution actually does not exclude quo warranto as a remedy to oust an ineligible impeachable officer.

The chief government counsel explained that a quo warranto petition challenges a public officer’s eligibility to hold public office and that the framers of the Constitution did not contemplate ineligibility as an impeachable offense.

Likewise, Calida agreed with the SC that its decision take cognizance of the quo warranto petition despite ongoing impeachment proceedings against Sereno did not violate the principle of separation of powers of the three branches of the government.

He said the Court was merely exercising its power to resolve a legal controversy.

Con-com pushes for ‘democracy fund’

By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

@alyasjah

T

he consultative committee (Con-com) mandated to review the 1987 Constitution is pushing for the creation of a citizen-financed democracy fund that political parties and candidates can tap for their campaign expenditures during elections.

Con-com Spokesman Conrado I. Generoso on Thursday said the panel is adding a new provision under the article on suffrage, political rights and political parties in the draft constitution.

The proposed section is intended to regulate political contributions and campaign financing, which the committee believes is one root of corruption.

To address unequal campaign funding and lack of transparency during elections, the Con-com wants to create a citizen-financed treasury—dubbed the “democracy fund”— that can be accessed by political parties and candidates for their campaign needs. Citizens and corporations can pour money into the fund, which, in turn, will be managed by the government.

“The Con-com is proposing the creation of a democracy fund, where contributions from citizens, business organizations or anybody else will be made tax deductible. [This is to] encourage our citizens to participate, to contribute [to election procedures] with whatever they can afford, and for businesses’ contribution to be transparent and for them to be given tax credit,” Generoso said in a media briefing.

The democracy fund, he added, will be administered by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and will be monitored by the Commission on Audit. It will be apportioned to political parties and candidates, including independents, during the election period.

Filipino individuals can chip in P10,000 to P100,000 to the treasury, while corporations are allowed to contribute as much as P3 million.

Generoso admitted there is no clear formula yet as to how funding will be allocated to candidates. The Con-com will most likely include an annotation to this provision in the draft constitution to guide the Come-

lec in crafting the implementing rules and regulations of the treasury.

As for individual contributions, the Concom spokesman said citizens can directly donate it to the Comelec. Another option, however, is for individuals to indicate how much of their income taxes do they want to be allocated to the democracy fund, parallel to what the United States has been practicing.

“When you file your ITR [income tax return] in the US, there is a box there asking if you want to contribute to the federal election fund. If you say yes, the next question is how much. When you say it’s $500, it doesn’t mean you will take out $500 from your pocket and you will give it to [authorities]. What it means is if you paid $5,000 in taxes for the year, the integral government will take out $500 of your taxes and bring it to the federal election fund,” Generoso explained.

“What we are encouraging here is, instead of giving directly to the candidates, you give it to a common fund so that everybody can benefit. It is like you will not favor one candidate, and will, instead, favor a slightly equal playing level for all the candidates,” he added.

Political parties wishing to avail themselves of the democracy fund should be registered with the Comelec.

Aside from creating the poll treasury, the Con-com is also requiring the federal Congress, should the country completely transition to federalism, to revise and update existing laws on campaign finance, contributions and expenditures. Generoso said the panel believes election laws must be made tougher to ensure foreign entities and governments, religious groups and illegal activities will not be able to contribute to campaign funding and influence the elections.

According to Generoso, the draft constitution is now 95-percent to 98-percent complete. He said only two articles are up for review—federated regions and transitory provisions—which the panel intends to finish before the weekend.

The Con-com is also confident it is on track to submit the draft constitution to President Duterte on July 19—the committee’s selfimposed deadline.

CA rules actress Rosanna Roces liable to pay clinic ₧3.1M for contract breach

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HE Court of Appeals (CA) has found actress Rosanna “Osang” Roces liable to pay P3.1 million in damages to a popular aesthetic clinic for breach of contract after she issued several malicious statements against the company in 2004.

In a 14-page decision penned by Associate Justice Ramon Bato Jr., the CA’s Eleventh Division affirmed the decision issued by the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City Branch 220, which found merit to the breach of contract and damages complaint filed Forever Flawless Face and Body Center against Roces, who is Jennifer Molina in real life.

Prior to the controversy, Roces obtained 2,500 shares from Forever Flawless in exchange for her promoting, endorsing, marketing and advertising services.

Subsequently, Roces endorsed the clinic’s services and products, including treatments by well-known celebrity doctor Victoria “Vicki” Belo, a consultant and also the president and chairman of the Belo Medical Group Inc. In 2003 Roces decided to sell, and Forever Flawless agreed to buy her shares for P1.5 million.

A deed of sale was later signed by both parties with the condition that Roces will not malign or discredit the company, its services, products, and its stockholders and officers.

The deed of sale also stipulated that Roces would have to pay P1 million for each infraction of the contract.

However, Forever Flawless was forced to file a complaint against Roces after she appeared in various television interviews accusing Belo of conducting flawed liposuction procedure. Joel R. San Juan

“A quo warranto is an action against the usurpation of a public office or position, which is under the court’s jurisdiction. Therefore, the Court correctly ruled that its assumption of jurisdiction over the present action for quo warranto is not violative of separation of powers,” he said.

In the end, Calida said Sereno has only herself to blame for her ouster, as she failed to file her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth

been considered as having proven integrity when she applied for the position of Chief Justice in 2012.

No one is exempted from complying with the law,” Calida said.

In its decision, the SC said Sereno’s failure to submit her SALNs as a UP College of Law professor would mean her integrity was not established at the time of her application to the top SC post, making her ineligible to hold the chief justice position.

In her motion for reconsid-

Respondent’s claim that she was not heard by an impartial tribunal is, therefore, based merely on speculation and surmise. She has no clear and convincing evidence to show bias on the part of some members of the Court.­”­—Calida (SALN) as required by law when she was still with the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law. “Because the failure to file SALNs is a ground for the removal of any public officer, she should not have

eration, Sereno maintained that the Court has no jurisdiction to hear and resolve the quo warranto petition filed by Calida, which sought the nullification of her appointment as Chief Justice.

Being an impeachable officer, Sereno insisted that she can only be removed through impeachment proceedings by the Senate acting as the impeachment court.

Sereno argued that the nullification of her appointment through the quo warranto petition is null and void, as it was rendered in violation of her right to due process to the refusal of her six colleagues to inhibit from the case.

In its May 11 ruling, the Court held that Sereno should have been disqualified for the Chief Justice post for engaging in private practice of profession while in government service; for representing after her resignation from the UP in 2006, she was engaged, full time, in private practice, although documents would show that she was engaged as counsel by the government in the arbitration proceedings against the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc., builder of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3; for stating in her personal data sheet that she was deputy commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights, only to later claim that it was only a functional title; and for committing tax fraud when she failed to truthfully declare her income.

A4 Friday, June 15, 2018 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

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DA eyes label and package rules EVAP sees bigger sale for rice after farm produce SRP of e-vehicles this year

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By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

@jearcalas

UST as the Department of Agriculture (DA) is moving to implement a suggested retail price (SRP) system on farm products, it is now mulling over, as well, imposing labelling and packaging requirements on rice products in the market to ensure food safety.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the DA is now scrutinizing some of the current practices in rice trade, including the way the staple is packaged and labelled by retailers and millers.

The imposition of a labelling requirement on rice products would aid the DA’s monitoring in its implementation of SRP on the staple, which is slated to start next week, Piñol said.

“We are now reviewing from the policy side of DA the practice of rice retailers in the industry wherein they will just put-up all sorts of tags to their rice like blue diamond, long grain. We’re doing to it to justify pricing,” Piñol told

reporters in a recent interview.

“It should be properly labelled [based on its variety] like, is it wellmilled, regular-milled or fancy rice? So we can regulate the price,” Piñol added.

The agriculture chief is cognizant that the rice market enjoys a free trade environment, but argued that players “cannot just allow anybody to claim whatever” brand they want on their products.

“This is what the President is saying during our last Cabinet meeting about truth in advertising,” Piñol said. “For example, if this is denorado variety, then it should be true to its price.”

Furthermore, Piñol said they

are also considering requiring rice millers and retailers to package their products with proper labelling and weight indication.

This measure ensures the food safety of rice, as the staple is merely sold in open boxes in the market, according to Piñol.

“In the context of ensuring food safety, we are even looking at implementing in the future a system where rice should not be sold in open boxes in stalls. It is not hygienic,” he said.

“What if a buyer coughs, then the virus gets into the rice. What if a leper touches the rice?” he added.

One of the measures that the DA is looking into is requiring rice retailers and millers to package their products in 1-kilogram, 2-kilogram, 5-kilogram weight variations, according to Piñol.

Having such a requirement, he added, “will allow us to have a traceability [system]. We would know from what specific rice mill this product came from.”

Food Safety Act

Piñol said the measure will not be implemented right away but it will be a key policy direction in terms of food safety. Piñol said they will leverage the Food Safety Act of 2013 as basis for this packaging

and labelling requirement.

The Food Safety Act of 2013 makes it the DA’s responsibility to ensure food safety in the “primary production and postharvest stages of the food-supply chain and locally produced or imported ” products.

“The DA shall be responsible for the development and enforcement of food safety standards and regulations for food in the primary production and postharvest stages of the food supply chain,” Section 16 of the law states.

“It shall monitor and ensure that the relevant requirements of the law are complied with by farmers, fisherfolk and food-business operators,” it added.

The Food Safety Act also cites the need for a traceability system in the country’s food chain.

“Traceability shall be established for foods at relevant stages of production, post harvest handling, processing or distribution, when needed to ensure compliance with food-safety requirements,” it read.

“The rule on traceability shall also cover production inputs such as feeds, food additives, ingredients, packaging materials and other substances expected to be incorporated into a food or food product,” it added.

By Roderick L. Abad

Contributor

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@rodrik_28

EMAND forecast for fossil fuel free public transportation in the country remains positive with around 5,000 electric tricycles (e-tricycles) and about 500 electric jeepneys (e-jeepneys) are expected to be deployed within the year nationwide, according to an official of a group of electric automobile makers in the country.

Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) President Rommel Juan said there are about 3,000 units that the Department of Energy (DOE) will distribute to some local government units and another 2,000 for the transportation industry.

For e-jeepneys, he said, there are 500 units in the pipeline that are expected to rollout in different areas, including General Santos, Taguig, Pateros and Quezon City where new routes have been just opened or soon will be available.

These figures, according to Juan, are on top of the e-tricycles deployed in various sites last year, including 250 in Boracay, 50 in Coron in Palawan, and 50 in Intramuros; as well as 100 e-jeepneys in subdivisions, industrial areas and resorts.

“Hopefully, once these upcoming electric vehicles will be deployed, there will be more demand,” he told reporters during the media launch of the sixth Philippine Electric Vehicle

Summit at the Board of Investments office in Makati on Wednesday.

The electrification of public transportation in the country started a decade ago when the leaders of auto parts manufacturing industry joined forces in 2007 to form a consortium they named Philippine Utility Vehicle Inc. (PhUV).

This start-up automotive company blazed a new trail in the industry being the pioneer in assembly on a large scale basis, and actually putting on the road e-jeepneys. It is also the first to receive the official orange license plates and also the first to receive a government franchise to operate as a mass transport.

To date, the company has produced about 250 units of e-jeepneys and around 400 e-tricycles.

While he conceded the figures are not that much in a span of 10 years, Juan said that now is the right time that their production will increase given the implementation of the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program of the Department of Transportation.

“But I don’t think we can supply the actual demand, which is by the thousands,” Juan, who is also the chief executive officer of PhUV, said while citing that most of the local electric vehicle players have the capacity to produce only between 100 to 200 units a year.

“We need to invest in new facilities to really have an assembly line.”

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Friday, June 15, 2018 A5

ADB expert to PHL: Hike social-protection budget

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By Cai U. Ordinario

mal workers are not fully covered by pension and health insurance,” she added.

Handayani said achieving the SDGs by 2030 means meeting SDG Target 1.3, which highlights the importance of social protection.

Social protection include those allocated for the nutrition, health and education needs of children; income security for workers; pensions for the elderly; and universal health care coverage.

Like most Asian countries, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nepal and Sri Lanka face many development challenges that places pressure on their financial ability to provide and even expand social protection systems.

Some of these socioeconomic challenges are rapidly aging populations, rapid urbanization, increasing costs of social services, and rising exposure to natural disasters and climate change.

@cuo_bm

he Philippines, along with five other countries, need to find other sources of funding to create complete social protection systems, according to an expert from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In an Asian Development Blog, ADB Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department Principal Social Development Specialist Sri Wening Handayani said aside from the Philippines, these countries include India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Handayani said developing Asian countries would need to increase their social protection

expenditure budgets by 2 percent to 5 percent on average annually to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Countries in Asia and the Pacific have taken serious steps to expand various aspects of their social protection systems with increased spending,” Handayani said.

“But many gaps remain. Benefits are generally low, and infor-

In order to finance their social protection needs, Handayani said countries must address these challenges in a sustainable, transparent and cost-effective manner.

This means expanding social protection via domestic and external resource mobilization, reallocation of existing public resources, improving tax collection and introducing new tax systems.

Handayani said an example is the introduction of excise taxes or sin taxes on tobacco products and sugary drinks in the Philippines, China and Thailand.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to designing and funding social protection programs.

Governments can generate additional resources for expanding social protection,” Handayani said.

The ADB expert said it is also important to strengthen countries’ capacity to provide social protection.

She said financing constraints are compounded by the low capacity. This includes a lack of analysis, strategic frameworks, and an ability to effectively plan, finance and implement programs.

“Arguably the most significant transformation would be to shift toward a more targeted approach, away from general subsidies, particularly in response to economic shocks and natural disasters,” Handayani said.

The Philippines’s primary cash transfer program is the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), which started with 284,000 beneficiary households in 2008. By 2015 beneficiaries reached 4.1 million households.

In terms of population, the number of beneficiaries rose from 662,000 children aged 0 to 18 years old in 2008 to 10.2 million in 2015.

Today the program covers about 79 percent of poor households whose

DOE awards 868 RE deals in 2017

By Lenie Lectura

Manila, Phnom Penh firm up agriculture, trade ties

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@llectura

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HE Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded 868 renewableenergy (RE) contracts in 2017, nine years after the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 was enacted.

Based on the DOE data released on Thursday, the energy department said these contracts have a potential generation capacity of 23,700.69 megawatts, against a total installed capacity of 4,751.59 MW. Of the 868 RE projects awarded by the government, 444 are hydropower; solar, 216; wind, 64; biomass, 55; geothermal, 41; and seven for ocean energy, On top of these, there were 41 RE contracts awarded for self-generation of electricity. These include one for wind, 16 for solar and 24 for biomass.

The same DOE data also showed that there are 206 pending RE projects, of which, 93 are hydro; solar, 83; wind, 16; biomass, 10; and geothermal, four.

The potential generation capacity of these pending RE projects could reach 3,912.66 MW. Congress enacted Republic Act 9513, or the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels and minimize the Philippines’s exposure to price fluctuations in the international market.

Fluctuations in oil prices adversely impact almost all sectors of the country’s economy.

The DOE’s National Renewable Energy Program seeks to increase the RE-based capacity of the country to an estimated 15,304 MW by 2030, and to at least 20,000 MW by 2040, almost quadruple its 2010 level.

“The DOE maintains a technology-neutral stance, and recognizes and acknowledges the objectives of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, which aims to achieve energy self-reliance. This is done through the adoption of sustainable energy development strategies that reduces the country’s dependence on nonindigenous energy resources, which in effect minimizes the country’s exposure to volatility of prices in the international markets,” said DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella.

As part of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Philippines is committed to reduce energy emissions by 70 percent by 2030.

This has brought a renewed thrust to develop the nation’s RE sector.

He, likewise, cited the proposed Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) as a vehicle to empower Filipino consumers by giving them access to RE sources.

Under the GEOP, electricity consumers with a monthly average peak demand of 100 kilowatt and above, for the past 12 months may opt to participate in the GEOP. The program is voluntary. As such, consumers may opt to not avail themselves of the GEOP, participate in the GEOP through its distribution utility, or directly contract with a supplier of RE.

income is less than the amount needed to basic necessities.

T he CCT extends a hea lth grant amounting to P500 monthly year round and an education grant of P300 per child for 10 months each year to each participating household.

To receive these cash grants, pregnant women must avail themselves of prenatal and postnatal care and be attended during childbirth by a trained professional, and parents or guardians must attend the family-development sessions, which include topics on responsible parenting, health and nutrition.

Other conditions include: Children aged 0 to 5 must receive regular preventive health checkups and vaccines; those aged 6 to 14 must receive deworming pills twice a year; and children between 3 to 18 must enroll in school, and maintain an attendance of at least 85 percent of class days every month.

Customs Commissioner Isidro S. Lapeña presents several container loads of suspected smuggled rice from Thailand at the Manila International Container Port on Thursday. The rice shipment, worth about P250 million, was found to have been brought into the country without an import permit. NONOY LACZA

Customs seizes P250M worth of smuggled Thai rice at MICP

By Rea Cu

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@ReaCuBM

he Bureau of Customs (BOC) has seized some 200 container vans loaded with Thailand white rice shipped on different dates at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) estimated to be worth about P250 million.

The BOC reported on Thursday that it has blocked the entry of the contraband loaded into some 200 containers for lack of import permit from the National Food Authority (NFA).

The BOC reported that a firm named Sta. Rosa Farm Products Corp. initially filed an import entry for the containers of Thailand white rice, which arrived at the MICP on various dates. The shipments were, however, seized after a thorough check.

Customs Commissioner Isidro S. Lapeña confirmed that the shipments lack import permit from the NFA. “The duties and taxes of the 150 containers were assessed at P31.428 million.

However, because of the lack of per-

mit and the failure of the consignee to pay the duties and taxes within 15 days from the date of final assessment, the shipment is subject to seizure,” the Customs chief said.

Under NFA Letter Circular AO2013-04-002, importers of rice are required to secure NFA permit prior to arrival in the country. The absence of a permit is a sufficient ground for the seizure of the shipments and forfeiture

by Customs and the NFA. Dist r ict Col lector Vener S. Baquiran issued a Warrant of Seizure and Detention (WSD) on Wednesday to effect enforce the seizure of the rice shipments.

The BOC is expected to file charges for violation of Section 1113 under the Customs and Modernization and Tariff Act in relation to the NFA circular letter and under Republic Act 10845, which penalizes agricultural smugglers with life imprisonment and a fine of twice the fair value of the smuggled agricultural products and the aggregate amount

of the taxes avoided.

“Since my assumption, this is the biggest rice smuggling intercepted by the Bureau of Customs,” Lapeña said.

Lapeña, likewise, ordered all Customs district collectors to subject all agricultural products under alert orders to prevent similar incidents of agricultural smuggling.

The seized Thailand white rice will be up for auction within five to 10 days with the assistance of the NFA. In March this year, the BOC reported that frozen products, used and new clothes, and agricultural products like onions and garlic are just some of the commodities commonly smuggled into the country.

Based on 2017 data the BusinessMirror obtained from the BOC Intelligence Group (BOC-IG), the top commodities being smuggled into the country are agricultural products with 36 shipments seized; general merchandise came in second with eight shipments seized; and used and new clothes at seven shipments seized.

he Philippines is eyeing to export meat and other meat products to Phnom Penh as part of Manila’s plan to strengthen agricultural cooperation with the Southeast Asian neighbor, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

The DA said it has cast its gaze to the Cambodian meat market during the first meeting of the Philippines-Cambodia Joint Technical Working Group in Agriculture and Agribusiness Cooperation last week.

During the meeting, the DA officials, who met with their counterparts from Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said they are also willing to conduct trainings with Cambodian farmers.

“The Philippines [had] expressed its readiness to share knowledge through conduct of trainings on Quality Assurance System of Fish and Fishery Products, Pesticide Residue Analysis in Agri-food Products and Agri-food Product Quality and Safety Management System,” the DA said in a news statement issued on Thursday.

The DA said they also proposed for a black pepper germplasm exchange with Cambodia, which Phnom Penh officials “took positively.”

“Additionally, Cambodia encouraged the Philippines to invest in the agriculture sector of its country and enjoy the investment incentives that their government have in place,” it said.

Phnom Penh said that it would “consider the possibility of renewing the memorandum of agreement [MOA] on rice trade” with Manila.

A MOA on rice trade between the two countries would allow Cambodia to participate in the Philippines’s rice bidding during a government-to-government procurement. The last MOA between Cambodia and the Philippines expired in 2015. “Both countries agreed to come up with results ahead of the second meeting, which is set to be hosted by the Philippines in the third quarter of 2019,” the DA said.

The joint bilateral meeting at the Apsara Palace Resort and Conference Center in Siem Reap Province on June 5 highlighted the progress of cooperation activities of both sides and has set the pace and priorities of future collaboration, according to the DA. Jenn Kiana Louise N. Cardeño

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Trump claim raises eyebrows: N. Korea no longer a nuke threat?

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ASHINGTON—America and the world can “sleep well tonight,” President Donald J. Trump declared on Wednesday, boasting that his summit with Kim Jong Un had ended any nuclear threat from North Korea, though the meeting produced no details on how or when weapons might be eliminated or even reduced.

While Trump claimed a historic breakthrough at the most significant diplomatic event of his presidency, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was more measured.

He said that Trump’s tweet was made “with eyes wide open” to the possibility diplomacy could falter, and that the United States wants North Korea to take “major” nuclear disarmament steps within the next two years—before the end of Trump’s first term in 2021.

And while North Korean state media had claimed that Trump and Kim agreed to “step-by-step” actions— an apparent euphemism for phased sanctions relief in exchange for phased denuclearization—Pompeo ruled that out.

He insisted that Trump had been explicit about the sequencing from the start.

“We’re going to get denuclearization,” Pompeo said. “Only then will there be relief from the sanctions.”

Shortly after arriving in Seoul to brief US treaty allies Japan and South Korea, Pompeo also cautioned that the US would resume “war games” with close ally South Korea if the North stops negotiating in good faith.

The president had announced a halt in the drills after his meeting with Kim on Tuesday, a concession long sought by Pyongyang but generally opposed by Seoul and Tokyo.

A fter a three-way meeting with Pompeo and Japan’s top diplomat, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha suggested the US still had some explaining to do, telling reporters that the issue of the drills “was not discussed in depth.”

“This is a matter that military officials from South Korea and the United States will have to discuss further and coordinate,” Kang said in Korean.

The summit in Singapore did mark a reduction in tensions—a sea change from last fall, when North Korea was conducting nuclear and missile tests and Trump and Kim were trading threats and

insults that stoked fears of war.

Kim is now promising to work toward a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

But the details of what is sure to be a complex and contentious process have yet to be settled.

Despite t he uncer ta int ies, Trump talked up the outcome of what was the first meeting between a US and North Korean leader in six decades of hostility.

The Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty, leaving the two sides in a technical state of war.

“Just landed—a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office,” Trump tweeted early on Wednesday. “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience.

North Korea has great potential for the future!”

Pompeo said the brief, fourpoint joint statement that emerged from the summit did not encapsulate all the progress the US and North Korea had made. He said negotiations would recommence “in the next week or so.”

He bristled at questions from reporters about the vague wording of the statement where North Korea “commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the

Korean Peninsula”—a promise it has made several times before in the past 25 years and reneged on.

Although Trump before the summit had insisted on “complete, verifiable and irreversible” denuclearization, the deal he signed with Kim made no mention of those last two conditions.

Irrelevant, Pompeo argued on Thursday in Seoul, noting that because the deal makes reference to a previous agreement that did include verification, it automatically “incorporates” verification without having to state it outright.

On Thursday the rival Koreas held rare high-level military talks to discuss reducing tensions across their heavily fortified border.

It’s possible North Korean officials will seek a firm commitment from the South on stopping its military drills with the US. Seoul’s Defense Ministry said the talks would focus on carrying out agreements from a summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in where they vowed to take materialized steps to reduce military tensions and eliminate the danger of war.

In public, at least, South Korea’s leader sought to put a positive spin on the summit’s outcome.

Meeting briefly with Pompeo on Thursday morning, Moon said he was eager to hear how the United States and North Korea could “fully and expeditiously implement this great agreement.”

“The summit was a truly historic feat, which moved us from the era of hostility toward the era of dialogue, of peace and prosperity,” Moon said through a translator.

Pompeo, the former Central Intel ligence Agenc y director, planned to fly to Beijing later on Thursday to update the Chinese government about the talks.

While Trump was facing questions at home and among allies about whether he gave away too much in return for too little, North Korean state media heralded claims of a victorious meeting with the US president. Photos of Kim

standing side-by-side with Trump on the world stage were splashed across newspapers.

Trump’s own chest-thumping tweet seemed reminiscent of the “Mission Accomplished” banner flown behind President George W. Bush in 2003 when he spoke aboard a Navy ship following the US invasion of Iraq. The words came back to haunt the administration, as the war dragged on throughout Bush’s presidency.

Tr u mp’s c l a im t hat Nor t h Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat is questionable considering Pyong yang’s significant weapons arsenal.

Independent experts say the North could have enough fissile material for between about a dozen and 60 nuclear bombs. Last year it tested long-range missiles that could reach the US mainland, although it remains unclear if it has mastered the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead that could reenter the atmosphere and hit its target.

“Before taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North Korea,” Trump tweeted. “President [Barack] Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer— sleep well tonight!”

Actually, concerns about North Korean missiles and nuclear weapons reached a peak last year, during Trump’s first year in office, as the North conducted more tests, and Trump and Kim aimed ever more fiery rhetoric at each other.

Chr istopher Hill, chief US negotiator with North Korea in the George W. Bush administration, suggested in an interview that it’s “a little premature” for Trump to say Kim is someone the US can trust.

“Kim Jong Un has proved to be a pretty ruthless leader in North Korea, and I’m not sure this sort of speed dating of a 45-minute one-on-one meeting...would suggest that there’s nothing to be concerned about,” he said. AP

Protesters hold signs against the United States government separating asylum-seeking parents from their children outside the Federal Detention Center in Seattle, Washington, on June 9. Alan Berner/The Seattle Times via AP

House GOP leaders kick around various immigration proposals

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ASHINGTON—House Republican leaders are trying to craft legislation on immigration issues that have stalled in Congress for years, the outcome of a truce between the party’s conservative and moderate factions.

The measure is a work in progress, though leaders hope to unveil it soon. So far, it’s hewing close enough to President Donald J. Trump’s immigration, agenda that Speaker Paul Ryan, RepublicanWisconsin, says the president is supportive of the approach.

Some of the proposals being considered, according to public comments by lawmakers and information from GOP aides who discussed the private talks on condition of anonymity:

New merit-based visa category

Republicans are considering a new merit-based visa category that would assign points to applicants based on various factors, such as education or military service. It would be available to the young “Dreamer” immigrants as, well as other immigrants.

The Dreamers number up to 1.8 million young people living in the United States illegally since childhood. Some 700,000 participate in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Those who don’t participate in the program never signed up for Daca or didn’t qualify at the time because of their age or other factors, including when they arrived in the US. The new merit-based visas would be valid for several years, and if immigrants remain in good standing, they could eventually gain permanent legal status through a green card.

As in the current system, those with green cards can become eligible to apply for citizenship. The path would take about 10 years, one GOP aide said.

New restrictions on legal immigration

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (right) speaks as South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (center) and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono listen during a joint news conference following their meeting at Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, on June 14. AP/Ahn Young-joon

To make up for the increased number of immigrants through the new merit system, there would

be new restrictions on legal immigration. Among them would be an end to the diversity visa lottery, which now allows some 50,000 immigrants a year to gain legal status, many of them coming from nations in Africa.

There would also be new limits on visas for extended family members, including siblings and adult children of new immigrants, the aide said.

Total funding for border wall

The full $25 billion Trump has sought for the border wall with Mexico, with all then money provided up front, rather than doled out over several years.

Preventing family separations at border

Lawmakers are considering ways to prevent family separations, which have increased during the Trump administration.

It is unclear what approach the legislation will take.

One idea is to revisit longstanding rules under the so-called Flores agreement, a decades-old legal settlement that prevents children who enter the country illegally from being held in custody for long periods.

Critics say that leaves few options but to separate families as parents are being detained. The White House wants to change the rules. But advocates for immigrants have warned against simply allowing longer detentions for the kids.

Other proposals

A range of other ideas remain in flux, including provisions that would make it easier to deport immigrants who commit crimes and to end to the practice of releasing those immigrants who are here illegally but commit smaller or misdemeanor offenses.

Separately, lawmakers are beginning to craft legislation that would deal with immigrant agricultural workers, as well as stiffer requirements for workplaces to comply with the employment verification system. That bill is not expected until July. AP

Europe’s political divisions laid bare over unresolved migration T hree summers after Europe’s biggest migration influx since World War II, the old wounds are reopening. Lingering political tensions over the unresolved question of how to control immigration from outside Europe have now broken out into the open, and the fallout is reshaping alliances and stoking old rivalries from Rome to Berlin, Paris and Vienna.

The issue has returned most visibly in Italy, where Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant League, lost no time in falling out with some close European allies over his decision to deny access to port for a refugee vessel.

But it’s also forced uncomfortable decisions in Spain and is threatening Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces renewed domestic turbulence over her opendoor stance on migrants that could yet spell her early departure.

The influx of refugees in 2015 and 2016 frayed social cohesion and threatened to topple governments.

The paradox is that the number of arrivals has fallen dramatically since. But opposing political positions are straining European Union (EU) ties just as the bloc is desperate to demonstrate unity in the face of other external challenges, from Brexit to President Donald J. Trump’s protectionist trade policies and the rise of China.

“The migration issue is clearly extremely divisive,” said Guntram Wolff, director of the Brussels-based policy group Bruegel. “How we deal with this and how we formulate a European response—that’s the real issue.”

Safe harbor

The lack of a coherent EU response after eastern European members refused to accept their share of migrants helped bring the

League to power in Italy, the European Union country that’s experienced more arrivals than any other this year.

Just over a week since starting as interior minister in a coalition with the Five Star Movement, Salvini made his move, refusing to grant access to a migrant boat carrying about 600 people rescued in the Mediterranean.

After Malta too denied it safe harbor, the Spanish government—itself only a week old—stepped in to accept the refugees, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to denounce Italy’s actions as “cynical and irresponsible.”

Salvini retorted that Italians “don’t need lessons from anyone on generosity and solidarity.”

Italy’s finance minister canceled talks with his French counterpart, and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte may not now meet

Macron as planned on Friday.

The dispute is potentially more farreaching than differing attitudes to migration: It threatens to unpick the fragile alliance between the biggest southern European countries that Macron needs if he is to have any hope of strengthening the euro area.

‘Litmus test’

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to let the Aquarius dock in Valencia may help burnish his liberal credentials. In any case, immigration isn’t a divisive issue in Spain. But he must still decide how to respond to the next vessel turned away by Italy.

Disunity over migration is seen as an existential EU threat by Merkel, whose decision to open Germany to refugees in 2015 hurt her ratings and led to the

election last year of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, the first far-right party in the Bundestag since the immediate postwar years.

“How we deal with the migration problem is something of a litmus test for Europe’s cohesion and its future,” Merkel said in Berlin on Wednesday evening.

Merkel is under pressure from her own interior minister, Horst Seehofer, who wants to turn back refugees at the German border.

Merkel rejects the proposal because she argues that governments need to come up with a Europe-wide solution. It’s a clash of views with no easy solution.

The EU as a whole is divided. While some governments emphasize the need to bolster the bloc’s external borders so that migrants don’t arrive in the first place, others say policy must focus on redistributing people so the burden is spread more evenly.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who assumes the six-month rotating presidency of the EU on July 1, falls in the former camp.

Speaking alongside Seehofer on Wednesday, he said he’s lobbying for an “axis of the willing” against illegal migration with Italy and Germany. Kurz will address Parliament in Vienna on Thursday on his EU plans with the motto “A Europe that protects.”

Kurz came to power last year at the head of a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, just one example of how anti-immigration sentiment is rising to become the public’s No. 1 concern in countries across the EU. “Immigration has already reconfigured the political space in Europe,” said Antonio Barroso, a political analyst at Teneo Intelligence in London. “When these issues take hold, it is very difficult to get these parties off the stage.” Bloomberg News

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Canada warns vs ‘mano a mano’ mantra by US on foreign policy

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anada’s top diplomat has a message for the United States: the West isn’t infallible, and everyone needs friends.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland delivered a keynote speech on Wednesday in Washington, amid fraught trade talks and after a volley of criticism by President Donald J. Trump and top aides toward Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Freeland ignored those and hardly mentioned trade.

Instead, the minister tasked with taming the Trump administration acknowledged a brewing skepticism while imploring the US not to abandon the global order that America did so much to build.

It wasn’t all sunshine: she warned that the West’s relative power will inevitably decline, amid a rise of China and other powers, and the US will be less able to go it alone.

“You may feel today that your size allows you to go mano a mano with your traditional adversaries and be guaranteed to win. But if history tells us one thing, it is that no one nation’s preeminence is eternal,” Freeland said, according to remarks prepared for an event where she received a Diplomat of the Year award from Foreign Policy Magazine.

“Allow me, as your friend, to make the case that America’s security, amid the inexorable rise of the rest, lies in doubling down on a renewed rules-based international order. It lies in working alongside traditional allies.”

Tariff warning

It’s a message that is, of course, at odds with Trump’s “America First” vision, which has upended multilateral systems.

“International multilateral organizations are not going to determine American policy, I think the president’s made that ver y clear,” White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said earlier this month.

In her speech, Freeland made little mention of ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement talks—“Fortunately, I have the Nafta talks to keep me humble,” she joked after receiving the award.

Earlier in the day, she’d urged the Trump administration to continue to try to reach a three-way deal, rather than starting twoway talks with both Canada and Mexico.

She told reporters after the speech that a deal was still possible.

“We are all still very much in touch, very much talking, very committed to moving forward,” she said. “I feel at the end of the day that the realities of the Canada-US economic relationship are going to prevail.

And the reality is it’s a mutually beneficial, very balanced relationship.”

In the speech, she warned against US steel and aluminum tariffs, saying the decision to impose them on Canada—a military ally and the top source of US imports of both steel and aluminum—on the grounds of national security was

“hurtful.” She gave the same message to senators earlier in the day.

“No one will benefit from this beggarthy-neighbor dispute,” Freeland said. “The price will be paid, in part, by American consumers and by American businesses.”

Anxiety, populism

Freeland warned of a series of risks facing the US, Canada and other likeminded allies. She dismissed the “seductive argument” that the collapse of the Soviet Union meant liberalism had won out over authoritarianism once and for all.

Instead, the world is seeing countries like Venezuela and Russia retreat from liberalism, democracy and capitalism, she said.

China, despite successes, “stands as a rebuke to our belief in the inevitability of liberal democracy,” she said. Liberal democracy is “under assault” as regimes are “actively seeking to undermine us with sophisticated, well-financed propaganda and espionage operations.”

She thanked the US. “For the past 70 years and more, America has been the leader of the free world,” she said.

Canada understands that “many Americans today are no longer certain that the rules-based international order—of which you were the principal architect and for which you wrote the biggest checks— still benefits America.”

And at home, she warned that neo-Nazis, anti-globalists and “incels” threaten to upend things from within—the latter is a reference to a van attack in the city where she lives, Toronto. Populist anti-establishment sentiment takes hold when the middle class is hollowed out, she said. She made no mention of any particular politician.

Appeal to Reaganism

People “believe their children have fewer opportunities than they themselves had in their youth,” she said. “That’s when people are vulnerable to the demagogue who scapegoats the outsider, the other— whether it’s immigrants at home or foreign actors.” She didn’t identify any demagogues.

The world should fight that by beefing up trade deals to introduce labor standards, update the World Trade Organization and tear down non-tariff barriers to trade, Freeland said.

Domestic policy needs to support jobs of the future, while supporting education, health care and retirement, she added.

She closed by quoting Ronald Reagan, who dreamed of “a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans,” open to commerce and people. Canada is trying to defend that vision of the international order, she said.

“O ur friends among the world’s democracies—in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, and here in the Americas—are shoulder to shoulder with us. We all know we will be strongest with America in our ranks.”

Bloomberg News

Fitch: Vietnam needs to tread carefully to win investment grade

V

ietnam mustn’t sacrifice stability for high-speed growth if it’s to become an investment-grade economy, warned Fitch Ratings.

The rating company wants evidence that macroeconomic stability is more entrenched before considering further upgrades for Vietnam, said Stephen Schwartz, head of sovereign ratings in Asia Pacific for Fitch, which last month lifted the nation’s credit score to “BB.” Fitch is also monitoring efforts to address the economy’s structural weaknesses, including the reform of state-owned enterprises and management of nonperforming loans.

“The challenge for policies will be to sustain high economic growth without sacrificing the gains made in macro stability, which were the basis for our recent rating upgrade,” Schwartz said in an interview in Hanoi. “The government is aware of and making progress in the key areas of structural weaknesses and challenges.”

Vietnam won a sovereign rating upgrade from Fitch in May on rising foreign-exchange reserves and strong growth, putting the nation’s long-term, foreign currencydenominated debt two notches away from investment grade.

The country’s benchmark VN Index has

risen 4 percent this year, on course for a seventh year of gains, while the dong has remained stable.

Vietnam has one of the world’s fastestgrowing economies after annual expansion accelerated to 7.4 percent in the first quarter, the most since at least 2005.

The government wants to maintain fast growth while keeping inflation under control, recently taking measures including subsidizing rising fuel costs and telling ministries not to increase electricity prices.

“In the environment of the global monetary tightening, the central banks in Vietnam and around the region need to stay vigilant,” Schwartz said.

F i t c h e x p e c t s “s o m e d e g r e e o f monetary tightening from the central bank in the near term, either through open-market operations or through policy interest rate hikes, especially given the recent buildup in the banking system’s liquidity combined with rapid credit growth,” Schwartz said.

After the first quarter’s strong economic expansion, “we would not be surprised to see a little bit of slowdown during the rest of this year, especially against the backdrop of global trends, such as rising trade protectionism and the possible slowdown in the Chinese economy.” Bloomberg News

Friday, June 15, 2018

A7

Trump may upset China on trade as US tariffs loom

U

nited States President Donald J. Trump said he’ll confront China “very strongly” over trade in the coming weeks, as his administration plans to announce on Friday a final list of tariff targets, which will be imposed shortly thereafter.

“China could be a little bit upset about trade because we are very strongly clamping down on trade,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier airing on Wednesday. The interview was conducted on Tuesday aboard Air Force One after Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

The comments will heighten expectations that China will retaliate with tariffs of its own if the US goes ahead with its plans. A spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry didn’t directly comment on the developments at a briefing in Beijing on Thursday.

Trump has convened a meeting at the White House on Thursday to talk with his trade team about whether to move forward with tariffs on Chinese goods, according to two people familiar with the plans.

“You will see over the next couple of weeks. They understand what we are doing,” he said before praising his “good” personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The White House has said it’s proceeding with plans to impose duties on $50 billion of Chinese goods, after weeks of high-level discussions between the US and China yielded little progress over a trade deal.

The Trump administration is reviewing a flood of comments to refine its initial list of $50 billion in imports that it revealed in April.

In its preliminary list, the US said it would levy an additional 25-percent duty on everything from TV components to dishwashers and snow blowers.

China has previously threatened to respond with proportional duties on everything from American soybeans to airplanes.

The two countries have been trying to negotiate a truce to the trade spat. But at the latest round of talks in Beijing, Xi’s government warned that it would withdraw any commitments if Trump carries out his threat to impose duties.

If the US and China descend into tit-for-tat tariffs, investors will become increasingly nervous about the prospect of a protracted

trade dispute that will drag on global growth, said Michael Every, head of financial markets research at Rabobank Group in Hong Kong.

“Trade is going to be far more unpredictable going forward and so far markets keep trying to shrug it off as if it isn’t going to happen,” Every told Bloomberg Television. “When it finally happens maybe the markets will wake up and realize, wow, this is actually happening.”

Trump decision

A dministration of f ic i a l s

have cautioned that Trump has the final say.

“It’s always the president’s decision,” White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro said on Tuesday at an event in Washington.

The administration is expected to put the Chinese tariffs into effect by next month, said Ted Murphy, managing partner at the Washington office of law firm Baker McKenzie.

“That would be my baseline case: that they’re going to publish a final list on Friday with an effective date of July 1,” said Murphy, who sits on a trade committee that advises the Commerce Department and US Trade Representative’s office. “Things change on a tweet, so if they think China is negotiating in good faith, they could delay it.”

North Korea meeting

Trump’s warning comes just days after his meeting in Singapore with Kim over that nation’s nuclear weapons. China is a key player in talks to wind down North Korea’s

They’re [US officials] going to publish a final list on Friday with an effective date of July 1. Things change on a tweet, so if they think China is negotiating in good faith, they could delay it.”—Murphy

nuclear program and bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.

China is widely seen as one of the big winners of Trump’s meeting with Kim as it hopes to maintain stability in its neighboring country and boost trade.

Trump on Tuesday thanked China for tightening its sanctions on trade with North Korea, arguing that the economic pressure along North Korea’s northwest border had helped bring Kim to the negotiating table.

G-7 tussle

The tariffs move would come against the backdrop of heightened tensions between America and its traditional trading and security partners.

A meeting of the Group of Seven ended in chaos this weekend, after Trump revoked support for a joint statement and lashed out at fellow leaders.

Following the meetings, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned that the outlook for the global economy is growing “darker by the day.”

Businesses are lobbying to shape the final US list, with many firms pushing for exclusions for products they use in their supply chains.

Almost 125 companies testified in Washington during three days of hearings last month to collect feedback over the tariffs. Many warned that the tariffs would increase their costs and raise prices for consumers. Bloomberg News

Chinese workers on a suspended platform clean windows of an office building against the scenic Central Business District in Beijing on June 8. Stocks have traded erratically since late-February as investors size up the impact of trade tensions between the US and major trading partners, including China, Europe, Canada and Mexico. News of progress, or setbacks, on trade has led to big swings from day to day. AP/Andy Wong

China and India want to buy more US oil to counter Opec

T

wo of Asia’s largest crude buyers are considering teaming up to buy US supplies and counter Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (Opec’s) dominance in the world’s biggest oil market.

India and China are discussing ways to boost imports of US crude to Asia, a move aimed at reducing their dependence on cargoes from members of Opec, according to an Indian government official.

The two nations want to put pressure on Opec producers to keep prices under control, he said in New Delhi on Wednesday, asking not to be identified because of internal policy.

The potential collaboration between the two major oil buyers would present another challenge for Opec, which is facing competition for market share in Asia from the flood of crude pumped in the Gulf of Mexico and shale fields of Texas.

The group is also contending with internal differences: Saudi Arabia favors easing output curbs implemented last year

after they succeeded in shrinking a global glut, while Iran, Iraq and Venezuela oppose boosting production.

“Diversification of supply sources will benefit both India and China by increasing competition among oil producers,” said Abhishek Kumar, an analyst at Interfax Global Energy in London. “Procuring oil at the cheapest price is vital for the two energy hungry Asian consumers.”

The output reductions by Opec and allies including Russia helped oil rebound from the worst crash in a generation, weighing on the economies of consuming nations.

Prices last month were further boosted to the highest level since 2014 after a US decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran threatened to curb exports from the Islamic Republic and as economic turmoil in Venezuela hurt the Latin American nation’s output.

Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said last month that he had expressed concern about rising crude and its negative

impact on consumers and the Asian nation’s economy to Saudi energy minister Khalid Al-Falih.

The trading unit of China’s biggest refiner has cut supplies from Opec’s biggest producer in recent months, citing costly oil pricing by the Middle East nation.

Oil alliance

The oil-buying alliance may initially be made up of India and China, with South Korea and Japan—also major buyers—joining the club later, the Indian government official said on Wednesday.

While Opec countries are still the dominant suppliers to Asia, almost all big importers in the region have increasingly turned to US crude after a four-decade ban on American exports was lifted in late 2015.

China’s Ministry of Commerce didn’t immediately reply to a fax seeking comment. Nobody responded to two calls made to South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Masato Sasaki, the director of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s oil and gas division, said he wasn’t aware of the India-China talks or any request for his nation to join the potential alliance.

Wang Yilin, the chairman of stateowned China National Petroleum Corp., the nation’s biggest energy company, met with the chairman of refiner Indian Oil Corp. in Beijing and talked about deepening cooperation in oil and gas businesses, according to a post on the Chinese company’s web site on June 11.

American President Donald J. Trump, meanwhile, on Wednesday renewed his Twitter assault on Opec, pushing the case for oil to be lower a week before the cartel meets to discuss production policy.

The US is said to have lobbied Saudi Arabia and other members, arguing they need to raise output by 1 million barrels a day to keep prices in check.

Bloomberg News

A8

Friday, June 15, 2018 • Editor: Dennis D. Estopace

The Regions BusinessMirror

‘Adopt-a-wetland’ seen for Boracay

T

he Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) plans to partner with owners of business establishments on Boracay Island for the co-management of the island’s wetland ecosystem.

DENR Undersecretary Jonas R. Leones told the BusinessMirror the idea is anchored on the fact that some of the business establishments should help the government in its rehabilitation effort by making the assistance a part of their corporate social responsibility to protect and conserve Boracay’s wetlands.

Boracay Island, the country’s top tourist destination, is an island paradise in Malay, Aklan.

Boracay boasts of white-sand beaches and pristine waters but is also a biodiversity haven long before it became a tourist magnet.

The island is home to unique species of fruit and insect bats, and its surrounding waters and coral areas are frequented by marine turtles. Its wetlands also serve as staging ground of wintering migratory birds but over the years, the unbridled develop-

ment caused some of the wetlands to vanish because of dump-andfill activities, causing perennial flooding in low-lying areas.

Leones, the designated spokesman of Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, said the agency plans to formally forge ties with shopowners of business establishments for this purpose. “ We a re f i n a l i z i n g MOA s [memoranda of agreement] with different companies,” he said.

“We are pushing for the adoption of the wetlands because it [management] will really entail a lot of money.”

By next week, Leones said, the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) is expected to present a final rehabilitation plan for the wetlands. A template, he said, will also be crafted by the DENRBMB to guide the department’s would-be partners.

Several companies have already signified the intention to sign a MOA with the DENR to help rehabilitate and eventually comanage the wetlands, according to Leones.

He said the Aboitiz Group, Gokongwei Group, San Miguel Corp. and Lucio Tan Group expressed willingness to help the government but are requesting for a template outlining their duties and obligation.

Wetland 6 will be adopted by Boracay Tubi, or the Lucio Tan Group. Wetland 3, 8 and 9 will be adopted by San Miguel, while the rest will be adopted by the Aboitiz and Gokongweis, he said.

“We want to maximize the support coming from the private sector. What we want is their responsibility will no longer be limited to just cleaning the wetlands,” Leones explained. “They will also invest in structures there to make the wetland an ecotourism area.”

He was quick to say the development will be limited to ensure ecological balance and environmental sustainability.

The program, to be called “adopta-wetland,” is patterned after the successful “Adopt-an-Estero/River” program being implemented by the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).

Leones, the concurrent undersecretary for policy, planning,

international affairs and foreignassisted projects of the DENR, held the position of EMB director and was instrumental in the program’s successful introduction and implementation.

According to the DENR-BMB, there are a total of nine wetlands on Boracay Island but only four of these remain. The DENR chief is determined to recover Boracay’s so-called missing wetlands, starting with the eviction of illegal forest occupants.

An older map of Boracay, moreover, revealed there are actually a dozen wetlands on the island but the unbridled development had caused these important water bodies to vanish over the years.

Some of the wetland ecosystems are relatively intact and could still be saved from destructive development.

Wetland 1 at the northern portion of Boracay is included in the proposed Boracay Island Critical Habitat, which covers 750 hectares of terrestrial and coastal areas of Boracay.

“Adopt-a-wetland should be consistent w it h t he e x ist ing condition of the wetland. Every wetland has a unique feature so it will be a case-by-case basis when it comes to implementing management plan, or appropriate structures needed,” he said.

“This should be based on sustainability.” Jonathan L. Mayuga

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PRRI trains Pangasinan farm techs on crop management

P

angasinan-based local farmer technicians (LFTs) were trained by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) on proper crop management to help their province sustain and even improve its rice production.

PhilRice said some 30 LFTs participated in a weeklong specialized course on “pest identification, disease diagnosis and damage assessment.”

Ev P. Angeles, training coordinator of PhilRice’s technology management and services division, said LFTs are trained to help their fellow farmers in identifying, assessing and managing major pests and diseases in rice.

Angeles added it is vital to enhance the skills and capabilities of local LFTs as they are being tapped by the Department of Agriculture “to complement local agricultural extension workers in providing technical assistance to farmers.”

LFTs are model farmers in farming communities, according to Angeles.

“We chose participants from major rice-producing areas of the province who need to strengthen their pest and disease diagnostic skills or those who have not undergone other intensive field diagnostic and pest management skills training,” she was quoted as saying in a statement.

“Through practical, hands-on exercises, we hoped to enhance their competence in this critical aspect of rice crop management,” she added.

From June 4 to 8, the LFTs learned principles on the follow-

ing topics: integrated pest management, agroecosystems analysis and the PalayCheck system.

These topics would help the LFTs in “making more informed decisions in pest and disease management,” according to PhilRice.

Carolina Badaguas, 54, from Sual, Pangasinan, said the training taught her how to do proper weed management.

“Weeds are rampant in our area and my fellow farmers often resort to spraying generous amount of herbicide,” Badaguas was quoted in the same statement as saying.

“We learned that practicing thorough land preparation is important in managing weeds, as it helps facilitate good management of water, nutrients and pests.”

Another participant, Solomon C. Ibay of Asingan, Pangasinan, said he learned the importance of getting accurate diagnosis of rice diseases.

“When we know how to identify the kind of disease that infects our field, it is easier for us to make the right decisions in implementing the needed management practices,” the 56-year-old Ibay was quoted saying.

“We also learned about harmful and friendly organisms.”

Pangasinan is the country’s third top rice-producing province in 2017, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. The province produced 1.125 million metric tons of palay last year, which was 1.35 percent higher than the 1.11 MMT recorded output in 2016, PSA data showed. Monique Danielle A. Fernando

The Regions BusinessMirror

A9

Friday, June 15, 2018

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monkayo frets over exit of gold-processing hubs

By Manuel T. Cayon

D

@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—Officials of the Monkayo municipal government expressed apprehension that corporate mining may step into the breach after the relocation of more than 200 gold-processing plants from Diwalwal.

Such worries were expressed in a manifesto issued by the local government unit (LGU) of Monkayo. Compostela Valley Gov. Jayvee Tyron L. Uy confirmed the officials signed and issued the manifesto against large-scale mining in Diwalwal.

According to Uy, the manifesto quoted officials as expressing fears the relocation would lead to direct mining operations by the Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC).

“It’s their right,” Uy said. “I respect the decision of the municipal government of Monkayo, led by Mayor Ramil L. Gentugaya, to oppose the entry of largescale mining in the Diwalwal Mineral Reservation Area.”

Uy added it was “within the purview of the local government to promote or oppose a project that enters their locality.”

He further explained the Local Government Code tasks LGUs to promote and protect the general welfare of their people.

If the Monkayo LGU thinks that the entry of the PMDC-sponsored mining operation contradicts that mandate, it is within their right, Uy added.

“The law allows them to do that.”

Uy said the manifesto was signed by the barangay captains and members of the Sangguniang Bayan. All of them “willingly affixed their signature to the manifesto,” he added.

PMDC President Alberto B. Sipaco Jr.

has said he received a copy of the manifesto, as well as the other official communication of the Monkayo municipal government.

This week Sipaco announced PMDC would continue the relocation of gold mining to the Mabatas area, about 6 kilometers down the slope from Diwalwal.

Of the 233 ball mills and carbon in-pulp processing plants, 210 heeded the order.

Sipaco said the remaining 23 would face demolition soon. The move is said to be part of the cleanup of Diwalwal.

Uy said local officials would not oppose the rehabilitation of the Diwalwal area, covering 729 hectares.

“Our priority is really to rehabilitate the Diwalwal area. Our eyes are on the relocation of the ball mills of small-scale miners from Mount Diwata to Mabatas area. We cannot do that unless the Mabatas area is equipped with basic utilities like water and electricity,” Uy said.

“I think that’s the biggest concern.”

Uy said “it is within the duty of PMDC to issue a cease and desist order [on its mining operations in Diwalwal].”

However, “as governor, it is my job to make sure that this rehabilitation process goes smooth,” he added.

“It is my obligation to ensure that everything is ready,” Uy said. “To insist without considering the impacts of our actions might lead to social crisis and I will not allow that to happen.”

DAR to go into housing

T

he Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is moving to implement a housing project for agrarian-reform beneficiaries to boost poverty alleviation in the countryside, expanding or extending the form of support services the agency regularly provides according to its legal mandate.

The project, which has already been set in motion, is expected to raise legal issues.

Under Republic Act 6657 and RA 9700, the DAR is mandated to distribute land to the landless farmers and provide necessary support services for the farmers to sustain productivity.

On Wednesday Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones formally accepted two model units donated by Future Home Co. Ltd. (FHCL) to be used as display houses to show the living space and features of an affordable housing unit to be constructed by the DAR soon.

This will be the first time that the DAR will implement a housing project for agrarian-reform beneficiaries.

Housing programs of the government are implemented by key shelter agencies of the government that doesn’t include the DAR. In a statement, Castriciones said he expects the agency’s housing project, which will be implemented under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, would “greatly improve the living conditions of farmerbeneficiaries in the country.”

“Most of our farmers and farmworkers are poor and does not own the house they live in. And even if they own it, most of their houses are dilapidated and needs repair,” Castriciones said. “Why? Because the farmers would rather use their money for farming and family expenses than use it for house repairs.”

He added that through this housing project, the agency expects “to achieve inclusive growth by uplifting the quality of lives of farmers and their families.” Castriciones said the livelihood and educational support programs “we will provide under our support services office” will backstop the effort.

According to Castriciones, Chinese investors are also involved. He justified the par-

ticipation of FHCL, calling them “a staunch supporter of providing social housing for the displaced families of Typhoon Yolanda.”

The firm’s donation consisted of two units with two bedrooms (Duplex type), covering 37 square meters, and one greenhouse for lettuce hydroponics garden with an area of 24 sq m. The model units are located inside the DAR compound.

Undersecretary for Support Services Emily O. Padilla said two other model houses will be donated by FHCL in the following weeks. One will be located in the compound of the Nueva Vizcaya State University and another in San Leonardo Municipal Hall, Nueva Ecija.

Padilla said the housing program is “demand-driven” and the beneficiaries are free to choose their house design from the model houses, including model houses from other donors.

“The model houses in Nueva Vizcaya and Nueva Ecija will be on temporary display and will be visited and viewed by the beneficiaries,” Padilla said. “We want them to see the different designs so they can choose which house design would best suit their family.”

She added the model house in the DAR compound will be turned into a showroom, where products of the beneficiaries will also be displayed.

Housing is not the usual or conventional kind of support services the agency provides.

Sought for clarification, DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Luis M. Pangulayan told the BusinessMirror that under section 37 of the RA 6657 as amended, there is an enumeration of support services being provided by the DAR. The current leadership of the DAR, he said, views this as narrow or limited, admitting that housing is not included.

“Because under general provisions of law, for instance, under the Family Code, there are provisions in support under the Family Code, which states that support is anything indispensable for sustenance, dwelling, transportation, education and medicine, etc.,” Pangulayan said. Jonathan L. Mayuga

A10 Friday, June 15, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

editorial

The peso and the Big Mac

W

ith the Philippine peso hitting a 12-year low against the US dollar, it is possible at any time that we may see groups of people performing special dances to appease the foreign-exchange gods. Likewise, others are sticking pins in dolls fashioned to look like their favorite economic villain.

However, the issue of the foreign-exchange rate is more complicated. In theory, the value of a nation’s currency should move along the money flow.

That is, if the Philippines is buying more dollars than it is selling, then the peso should depreciate. Certainly, the current peso depreciation is partly due to our negative trade balance.

Yet, this is the age of globalization and speculation, and we are operating in an environment of “fake”—artificially controlled outside of demand— interest rates. The Philippines is lumped in the broad brogue of “emerging markets [EM].”

The four largest EMs are Brazil, Russia, India and China. Other EMs include Bangladesh, Argentina, Turkey and Nigeria. When big money invests in either the stocks or currencies of the EMs, performance is measure by the moves of an index that tracks all the EMs. The Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index takes in 24 countries. Therefore, if that index is in a downtrend, fund managers adjust their portfolio, virtually selling across all those 24 nations.

When the Argentine peso falls 30 percent this year and the Turkish lira drops 15 percent in the past month, there will also be Philippine peso selling.

Big money is trying to stay with the trend.

While the economy and, more important, the average Filipinos are being negatively impacted by a weak peso, short-term intervention by the central bank is not a good long-term solution.

We must ask if the current low peso-exchange rate is justified and by what measure. The Big Mac index, published by The Economist, is an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity between two currencies and provides a test to which market exchange rates result in almost the same goods costing the same in different countries.

Therefore, based on the exchange rate, is a Big Mac “expensive” or “cheap”?

If the hamburger is cheap, then that means the local currency is undervalued, and the exchange rate should be higher. If it is expensive, then the currency is overvalued.

Using the Big Mac index for 2009, the Philippine peso was undervalued (cheap) in relation to the US dollar by 38 percent. The dollar-exchange rate then was 45.92. For 2017 the peso was undervalued by 50 percent with a 50.70 exchange rate to the dollar.

Vietnam, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa also started 2018 with their respective currencies undervalued by around 50 percent. With the exception of Vietnam, whose currency is not fully convertible, all the other currencies have depreciated more against the dollar.

If all these EM currencies are even cheaper by the Big Mac index and lower against the dollar than six months ago, what is the conclusion?

The greatest concern for most of the EMs—the Philippines an exception and excluded—is their dollar-denominated debt, particularly in light of an appreciating dollar. Both Turkey and Argentina are in serious trouble with regard to paying their debt, and this becomes more serious with their falling currencies. Unfortunately, the Philippines is painted with the same brush.

The declining peso is a problem. But it is not because of serious local economic problems. Further, there is little that we can do about it. Argentina just raised interest rates to an economy-killing 40 percent, but its currency still went down. In our case, maybe the best solution is to change the name of our currency. Maybe we could call it the “Philippine Rizal.”

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James Jimenez

spox

A

post recently popped up on my social-media feed that basically tells the story of how a newly elected Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) official is supposed to have, without seeming provocation, disrespected a teacher.

The teacher, so the story goes, had asked the SK official if he wanted to volunteer for the Brigada Eskwela effort. You would think that, as a youth and a politician, this fellow would only be too happy to oblige.

Even the cynical would say that it was a good opportunity to earn some goodwill with the electorate.

Instead, and rather inexplicably, the SK official is said to have reacted with indignation. Worried that the politician might have mistaken her for someone who wasn’t actually connected with the Department of Education’s program, the teacher introduced herself. At which point, the story recounts, a heated exchange ensued, with the SK official eventually declaring, “You’re just a teacher; I’m an SK official!”

If I had been there, I would have relished the opportunity to remind

this person that elected officials have not suddenly been elevated into some sort of aristocracy by virtue of their having been elected into office.

Obviously, the post only tells half of the story. It is quite possible that this thing didn’t go down exactly as described. Heck, the roles might even have been reversed. The only problem is that, for most of us, the kind of attitude ascribed to the SK official rings true. It sounds awfully familiar and might even closely mirror our own personal experiences with various elected asshats. This makes it pretty hard to ignore or avoid sympathizing with the outrage of whoever posted the story originally.

That this story even exists is depressing. Is it really too much to ask for elected officials not to be awful people? Power corrupts, sure, but

the tale of the arrogant elected official is so common—so archetypal —that you have to wonder whether they were corrupted by power, or if they were already bad seeds to begin with. And if they were bad seeds, then is it too much to ask for voters to choose better?

What makes this particular story so galling is the age of the main character. An SK official would be anywhere from 18 to 24 years old.

Now, obviously, there are no age limitations to being a privileged twit, but it is very disconcerting to be confronted with proof. Like many people, I’ve been clinging to an image of the youth as irreverent but still respectful. And I’d been hoping that the new SK officials would be of this mold. While I’m not ready to write off all the youth, having this one canker sore currently walking around, wearing the mandate of the people like a crown of impunity, is doing much to change my mind. There are others, I am certain, who will say that this whelp only confirms what they already know.

In an ideal world, SK officials are elected to serve. If they are to be judged, then they ought to be judged by the quality of that service. Their competence, in other words, should be the more telling measure, than their character. Under the best of circumstances, these youths shouldn’t have to go out of their way to prove

that they are worthy of respect; respectability ought to be a given, and the SK system should not be subject to the subtle bigotry of people condescendingly telling a young person “you’re one of the good ones.”

This whelp, however, is exactly the kind of person who strengthens the notion that the youth are intrinsically untrustworthy, and that “the good ones” are a rare breed. He is the kind of young person who, perhaps unwittingly, makes it difficult for others of his generation to be taken seriously. And if the youth are not taken seriously, what does that bode for the future of the SK as a part of the infrastructure of governance?

In less than a year, Filipinos will be asked to cast their ballots again. This time, we will be selecting senators, members of the House of Representatives, party-list representatives, governors, vice governors, mayors, vice mayors and members of the various local government legislative councils. Anyone of these people will have a great deal more power and authority handed to them than this SK official. It stands to reason, therefore, that a similar attitude from any of them will probably take on more sinister overtones. When that happens, we will probably be reduced to remembering this annoying SK official with a perverse sort of nostalgia.

We have to do better.

Data protection: A global movement for respecting personal data and seizing business opportunities

By Věra Jourová

Lourdes M. Fernandez

Online Editor Social Media Editor

Chairman of the Board & Ombudsman President VP-Finance VP Advertising Sales Advertising Sales Manager Group Circulation Manager

Do better

European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality

T

he recent Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal made us realize how much strong data-protection rules are important for the society as a whole, including for the very functioning of the democratic process. These and other developments have shown that the protection of privacy, as a central individual right and a democratic imperative, but also as an economic necessity, is crucial: Without consumers’ trust in the way their data is handled, our data-driven economies will not thrive.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that entered into application on May 25 is the European Union’s (EU) response to these challenges and opportunities. It seeks to create a virtuous circle between better protection of privacy as a fundamental right, enhanced confidence of consumers in how the privacy and security of their data is guaranteed, in particular in the online world, and economic growth.

While building on foundations that have been in place for more than 20 years, under a previous Directive of 1995, the GDPR contains important innovations.

Many of these changes are particularly relevant to foreign companies doing business in Europe. They will now offer their goods and services in a harmonized

and simplified regulatory environment.

Instead of having to deal with 28 different data-protection laws and 28 different regulators, one set of rules will apply and will be interpreted in a uniform way throughout the continent. Obligations to notify data-processing operations or obtain prior-authorization from dataprotection authorities will be scrapped.

A number of key concepts are clarified and adapted to the needs of the digital economy. International data transfers from the EU will be simplified and facilitated. All this will mean increased legal certainty and a significant reduction in compliance costs and red tape.

The GDPR is also based on a modern approach to regulation, which rewards new ideas, methods and technologies to

address privacy and data security. The principles of data protection “by design” and “by default” will create incentives to develop innovative solutions from the earliest stages of development. The socalled “risk-based approach” means that companies that limit the level of risk of their processing operations will not be subject to a number of obligations.

Co-regulatory tools, such as codes of conduct or certification mechanisms, are introduced to help companies managing and demonstrating compliance.

Last, but not the least, new rights and safeguards, such as the right to portability or the notification of data breaches, will put individuals in better control of their data. Empowering consumers means also ensuring that they feel safer and more confident when sharing their data. These are just a few examples of how the effective protection of a fundamental right can go hand in hand with unleashing the full potential of the digital economy.

These developments are, of course, not limited to Europe. Today, more than 120 countries, from almost all regions of the globe, have a data privacy law in place. And many of the new or modernized laws tend to be based on common elements: a comprehensive

legislation (rather than sectorial rules), a set of enforceable rights, the setting up of an independent supervisory authority, etc. While improving the level of protection of personal data when transferred abroad, this developing convergence offers new opportunities to facilitate trade, as well as cooperation between public authorities, both of which increasingly rely on the exchange of personal data.

The European Commission is committed to intensifying its dialogue with its international partners in this area, to promote and further develop elements of convergence between privacy regimes.

This includes the possibility of adopting adequacy findings allowing unhindered data flows, as currently being discussed with Japan and South Korea. It involves contributing to the elaboration of muchneeded international standards, such as in the framework of the Council of Europe’s Convention 108, which has an increasingly universal membership. Fostering convergence also means learning from each other through the exchange of experience and best practices. This type of dialogue is essential in our interconnected world if we want to address challenges that are increasingly global in nature and scope.

Opinion BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

A planned spiritual giving for YSLEP

Rediscovering Gore Vidal Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

“Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.”—Proverbs 22:9

M

Y dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as we prepare ourselves for the celebration of the 500 years of Christianity in our country, we are also challenged to raise the bar of our social commitment as Christians. We must give back to the Lord in gratitude a portion of the gifts from the Almighty Father, and share them lovingly with others, especially for the poor.

To recognize our social commitment as Christians, Caritas Manila, the leading social development arm of the Archdiocese of Manila, is set to launch its new program “Tithing for the Poor” through its annual Back-to-School Telethon, which is set to happen this year on June 18 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., over Radio Veritas846.

The word “tithe” originally meant 10 percent. It is, however, just a guideline to help determine one’s sacrificial giving. Some can offer more than a 10 percent tithe; others may have circumstances that warrant them to give less than a 10 percent tithe.

With the theme “Tithing for the Poor: A Planned Spiritual Giving for YSLEP,” the program aims to raise funds to support 5,000 youth scholars under Caritas Manila’s flagship program—the Youth Servant Leadership and Education Program (YSLEP).

YSLEP is one of the Church’s responses to poverty reduction. It extends financial assistance to poor but deserving youth, trains and hones them not only for academic excellence but also to become servant leaders and good members of the community. Through tithing for the poor, YSLEP will be able to empower and enrich the lives of the scholars to become leaders in their community imbued with self-discipline, moral integrity and social responsibility.

This year a total of 1,697 scholars from Luzon to Mindanao have graduated through the help of YSLEP,

Caritas Manila’s biggest batch of graduates since the program started.

To start tithing for the poor, you can fill up the form at the Caritas Manila web site https://caritasmanila.org.ph/ tithingforthepoor/.

Your tithes can be offered online through http://ushare.unionbankph. com/caritas/, via any branch of Cebuana Lhuillier (free of charge), or by bank deposit: Account Name: Caritas Manila, Inc. Bank of the Philippine Islands— Savings Account: 3063-5357-01 Banco de Oro—Savings Account: 5600-45905 Metrobank—Savings Account: 175-3-17506954-3 For proper acknowledgment of your tithes and donations, kindly fax copy of deposit slip to 563-9306, or e-mail a scanned copy to caritas_manila@yahoo.com. Please indicate your name and complete address.

Donors can also call Caritas Manila landline 563-9311, 562-0020 up to 25 or drop off donations at the Caritas Manila head office at 2002 Jesus Street, Pandacan, Manila, or at Radio Veritas in West Avenue corner Edsa, Quezon City.

To know more about Caritas Manila, visit or follow us on Facebook: CaritasManilaInc. For your donations, please call our DonorCare lines 563-9311, 564-0205, 0999-7943455, 09054285001, and 09298343857. Make a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 946 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www. veritas846.ph and follow its Twitter and Instagram accounts @veritasph and YouTube at veritas846. ph. For your comments, e-mail veritas846pr@ gmail.com.

PBOC tries to twist its way out of trouble

By Christopher Balding Bloomberg View

Y

ou wouldn’t know it from the government’s optimistic pronouncements, but China’s banks are still under significant stress. Although the latest plan to help them out won’t solve any fundamental problems, it will buy time —maybe enough to come up with better ideas.

By several measures, Chinese banks are strained. Their official loan-to-deposit ratio increased from 65.8 percent in June 2015 to 71.2 percent at the end of March. New deposits peaked in 2015 and have since failed to keep up with lending growth. Last year new loans amounted to 100.1 percent of new deposits. Through the first five months of this year, they were running at 104 percent.

With matters getting worse, the People’s Bank of China has stepped into the breach. Since 2015 the PBOC has boosted lending to banks by more than 300 percent, to $1.5 trillion. Beyond just providing liquidity, it’s also pushing banks to change their lending patterns: In particular, by allowing short-term debt to expire and rolling it into loans of longer duration. Since January 2017 medium- and long-term loans have made up 85 percent of all new bank lending. This “twist” complements a broader shift in policy. A reserve-rate cut in April was intended primarily to help banks repay existing PBOC loans.

Last week the central bank said that it would accept a wider range of lowergrade assets as collateral, including

“AA”-rated bonds and loans to small and medium enterprises. All these measures are intended to make it easier for banks to borrow from the PBOC. That may sound odd at a time when China is otherwise trying to reduce credit, notably by cracking down on interbank lending and wealth-management products. But as a recent report from UBS Global Research noted, due to a “sharp uptick” in issuance of institutional certificates of deposit, as well as continued PBOC assistance, wholesale funding actually increased by 1 trillion yuan last year. Far from reducing leverage, regulators are mostly pushing it into other channels.

That’s because China is pursuing conflicting goals. It wants to slow credit growth but sustain economic growth. It wants to push debt out of the shadowbanking sector and onto formal balance sheets, but the official banking sector is too capacity-constrained to accommodate it—and thus needs more credit.

By lengthening durations and pumping money into the system, the PBOC is hoping to square these circles. But it’s really only delaying things.

Meanwhile, these measures are eroding banks’ ability to respond to potential shocks. Earlier this year, regulators reduced the level of reserves that banks must hold to guard against bad loans, which in the short term can help boost profits. To compensate, they’ve also approved new tools to raise capital levels, such as convertible-bond offerings. But the amount of new capital banks will need over the next few years remains enormous.

G

ore Vidal for P30! That is the price of a secondhand book I bought from a secondhand bookstore. It was so cheap, I felt ashamed to purchase it alone; I got an old Architectural Digest just so I would not go to the sales clerk and hand him one P20 bill and a P10 coin.

The book has a very simple title, Julian. It is the story of the last nonChristian emperor of the Roman empire although he did not reveal this directly. Even so, his attempt to bring back the old gods—the new being the Christian God—earned him the name “Julian the Apostate.”

History has many accounts of Julian. In the style of Gore Vidal, though, he comes out more alive, more complex.

The novel begins with two of Julian’s friends and mentors, Libanius and Priscus, talking about the memoirs of Julian. By this time, the Emperor is already dead. One gets this sense the book may not be about Julian as the exchanges between the two philosophers, Libanius and Priscus, are interesting enough. It is when the documents of Julian are carried out and rendered into thoughts and actions by Vidal that we find the inserts of the two philosophers superfluous. We want more of Julian.

At the beginning, Julian is a young man, not interested in any kind of power or throne. The period is marked by usurpation and rebellion. Julian being the nephew of Constantine the Great has always been seen as a future ruler, a prospective usurper. Julian lives with Gallus, his half-brother. They are isolated from the affairs of the government and are under Christian education.

In the narrative of Vidal, a brooding bromance is there between the two, more from Julian than from Gallus.

If one looks at historical accounts, one will find Julian being described as a philosopher and a writer in Greek. That is his conflict in himself, as narrated by Vidal. That inclination also saves him from being killed early on. He always shows himself to be very ill-equipped at soldiering, a fact or admission that does not elude his cousin, Constantius, who becomes

the next Augustus.

If, however, the rest of the book is about the Roman Empire, then the book would have been boring. It is in the imagination of Gore Vidal, as he weaves the dialogue and reinterprets the thoughts of these men alive many, many years ago, that the book does come alive.

We learn from the book about the primacy of Greek language, and how people look up to those articulate in the language. During one of the turbulent periods in his life, when people around him are being assassinated, Julian seeks permission to be in Athens. When he is allowed finally to set for Athens, he confesses how that is happiest moment in life.

Friday, June 15, 2018 A11

The Greeks invented everything!

Indeed, when Julian arrives in Athens, he is trailed by students campaigning for a particular teacher.

Think of it this way: In our country, when one arrives at the pier or bus terminal, one is assaulted by men who offer various means of transportation with a given rate. Can you ever think of a scene where students campaign for a particular philosopher or a political scientist to any young man fresh from the provinces?

By the middle of the book, Julian, without him being conscious of it, gradually develops his own desire —and passion—for power. Before he meets up with Constantius in a battle, the latter dies of a natural death. Julian becomes Augustus.

It is noteworthy to mention here how Christianity is imagined in those years. That the rise of Christianity is not merely through the spread of belief but by conquest. The rulers heeding Christianity start imposing the new belief system. Gore Vidal does not bother to tell us what attracted the rulers to the Christian belief, which means the notion of faith comes in here. Only through Julian do we feel this anguish over the death of the old faith. There is almost a dolorous, lonely feeling to Julian remembering the old gods.

Is inflation turning the corner?

Alvin Ang

EAGLE WATCH

T

he May inflation report was a surprising 4.6 percent, way below expectations of close to 4.9 percent. Although the rate is still elevated as compared to the past months, the rate of increase seemed to have slowed down faster than expected. On a month-on-month basis, the rate was 0.8 percent, which is the lowest in a year. Does this mean that our fears of rising inflation have already been contained? Let us consider the components of inflation, i.e., food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, clothing, housing and utilities, household furnishings, transport, health, education, communication, recreation, restaurant and other services.

Based on the May report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the slowing down of inflation came from the decline of inflation from food.

Since food comprises 38.33 percent of total inflation, its decline can significantly affect total inflation. The last time food inflation was at its highest of 7.5 percent in August 2014 was the last time we had inflation of more than 4 percent. Currently, food inflation slowed from the peak of 5.9 percent in April to 5.7 percent in May and, consequently, it pulled inflation down. Rice inflation, which is about 10 percent of total food inflation, was unchanged from April at 4.3 percent. In the National Capital Region (NCR), rice inflation went down to 1.3 percent, from 5.9 percent in April. Clearly, there was

significant effort by the government to ensure that supply of rice is available particularly in NCR. This was not the case for Areas Outside NCR where rice inflation increased to 4.7 percent, from 4.1 percent in April. However, other components of inflation still exhibited a rising trend. Notable increases were observed in household furnishings increasing to 2.9 percent from 2.7 percent, transport increasing to 6.2 percent from 4.9 percent, restaurant and other services increasing to 3.7 percent from 3.4 percent.

These data show that inflation may still be increasing and has not yet turned corner. Using these trends and applying them to our estimates for the rest of the year show that inflation will still increase up to August, where it will

most likely be close to 5 percent. This is due to base effect where we are coming from a low base last year. After that, we expect it to slow down a bit but remain at above 4 percent for the rest of the year. It will most likely still average about 4.5 percent. It is possible that in 2019, inflation will average lower and that the economy will have absorbed most of the expected impact of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law and hoping that oil prices would have stabilized by then.

Inflation at these levels will remain close to the higher end of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas inflation target. Nonetheless, we do not see any immediate increase in interest rates as long as the rates do not go beyond 5 percent.

At these levels, we think that people are already adjusting to higher prices and expectations have started to taper off. This is critical because it lessens the pressure for people to purchase more and for business to take advantage by increasing prices unnecessarily. What is important at this point is to ensure that people are assured that products and services are available and affordable. Thus, the call to suspend the TRAIN law or portions of it is not necessary because it has more bearing on the overall financial health of the economy.

The TRAIN law is supposed to affect only a portion of the total inflation basket and its pass-through effects are not expected to raise prices by more than 1 percent. The challenge was that the TRAIN law requires a significant policy and supply coordination among government agencies outside of the Department of Finance. For instance,

As we are used to Christianity being an accepted religion, a given in most of people’s lives, the views about Christians allow us to rethink our dominance and our role in the present world. For Julian, it is always Helios, the Sun that is divine.

He closes his eyes and he feels he has seen the truth. How different is this from revelations?

The Trinity, which is seen as abhorrent, is described by Julian as the three-headed monsters, quite unthinkable now in our theology.

Christ is always called the Nazarene. It is when we are afforded by Julian to witness him in his experience of the Eleusinian mysteries that we understand why Christianity is a fluid movement from the Hellenistic thoughts to the notions of the afterlife. The descent of Persephone to Hades is not anymore strange because we now consider Hell as common knowledge, the rebirth of the God, an acceptable tenet in our religion that began as a destructive force in ancient times. Or, when Julian has to pray to a thigh bone of some saints in a Christian Church supplanting Greek temples, because Empress Helena is a hoarder of relics.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

within package one of the TRAIN law, subsidized NFA rice should have been made available and that beneficiaries of the cash transfers have been identified. Yet, as TRAIN was implemented, these mechanisms were not in place and thus created undue pressures for the poor. Likewise, an overall communication plan for ordinary people was not made available, which led to the departments of Trade and Industrty, Agriculture and Social Welfare and Development explaining the effects of TRAIN. Also, the TRAIN law coincided with higher oil prices than what was estimated and anticipated further pushing the general price levels higher. These factors necessitate that government come up with a concerted effort toward ensuring supply availability of staples and basic commodities throughout the country, not only in Metro Manila. It is also critical for government to have a communication strategy on what the following TRAIN packages will do. For instance, TRAIN 2 is mostly focused on revising corporate income taxes and incentives. In general, they should not lead to inflationary pressures.

It is important for people to be aware of changes in the global environment that will continue to put pressures on prices. For instance, the peso has weakened to a 12-year low.

With a significant portion of consumer and related items, oil in particular, there will definitely a pass through effect that cannot be attributed to the TRAIN law. It will be crucial to observe how government will make the case of the rest of the TRAIN under these changing global scenarios.