Businessmirror june 28, 2015

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

U.N. Media Award 2008

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A broader look at today’s business

n Sunday, June 28, 2015 Vol. 10 No. 262

Slow GDP growth seen to continue T

By Bianca Cuaresma

week ahead

ECONOMIC DATA PREVIEW

Peso

n Previous week: The local currency traded largely in the lower band of the 45 territory in the previous week. The peso started trading at 45.05 to a dollar on Monday, proceeding to decrease in value on Tuesday at 45.1 to a dollar. On Wednesday the peso hit 45.125 to a dollar and further depreciated at 45.135 to a dollar on Thursday. The peso ended the week with a slight depreciation to 45.085 to a dollar. The total traded value during the week is at $2.72 billion, while the average value of the peso during the week is at 45.099 to a dollar.

n Week ahead: Markets are still keen on the expected data release from the US next week. The peso is still expected to trade within the range in the lower band of the 45 territory, with the bias depending on the results of the economic data from the world’s largest economy.

May 2015 domestic liquidity

Tuesday, June 30

n April M3: Cash circulating in the local economy broadly maintained its pace to a high single-digit growth at the end of April this year, the central bank reported last month. Domestic liquidity—broadly measured as M3—grew by 9 percent in April this year. This is a slightly faster growth from the revised 8.7-percent expansion seen in the previous month.

In absolute terms, money supply in the country hit P7.6 trillion as of the start of the second quarter this year.

n May M3: The central bank, with its unchanged monetary policy, was able to lower the liquidity growth to more normalized rates and sustain this level. In the recent monetary-policy decision, the Bangko Sentral described the liquidity in the country as “ample” to support local growth. Bianca Cuaresma

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With $21T, China’s savers are set to change the world

HE weakness in the growth of the economy in the first three months of the year may continue until the end of the second quarter, as exports and government spending—the main factors behind the deceleration of growth in the first quarter of the year—are expected to continue up to the second half of the year.

In separate research notes, economists of international private banks forecast persistent weaknesses in exports and government spending in the recent and coming months.

JPMorgan chief economist Sin Beng Ong said in a research commentary that the country must watch the slowdown in exports more closely, particularly its impact on domestic demand.

“More broadly, the recent

economic narrative in the Philippines presumes that the lift in exports should engender a positive income effect that percolates into domestic demand, especially investment.

While this narrative still holds, the decline in exports in the first quarter of 2015 has been larger than expected. Thus, there is some risk that this external slowdown could affect nonconstruction investment,” Ong said.

“At this point, the slowdown in growth appears to be specific to the external sector, though, there is some risk that this could spill over into domestic demand. The risks to growth remain modestly tilted to the downside,” the JPMorgan analyst added.

In a separate research note, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. economist Trinh Nguyen said government See “GDP Growth,” A2

PHL still has time to brace for AEC

By Roderick L. Abad

W

ITH a few months before the commencement of the integration of the economies of all the 10 member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in December, the Philippines still has time to prepare, so as not to lag behind its peers once the market becomes open to all the players within the region.

Collaboration among all concerned, including the state and the private sector, is what 2015 Asian Marketing Leadership Summit Overall Chairman Donald Patrick L. Lim called for to strengthen further the country’s competitiveness.

“So, I think, all stakeholder groups—the government, academe and industry—have to really just go all-out there,” he said. “We have to

PESO exchange rates n US 45.1430

work together.”

Lim conceded, though, that the entrepreneurs themselves, and even big industries, like the manufacturing and agriculture, among others, are not fully ready for the upcoming Asean Economic Community (AEC).

“As for my personal assessment—though I don’t have the numbers to back it up—I don’t think a lot of entrepreneurs today are prepared [for that],” he said, while citing that micro, small and medium enterprises comprise around 96 percent of the registered businesses in the country to date.

“And if you look at, for example, our manufacturing and agriculture sectors, I also don’t think they are,” he added.

While their ideas and quality of products or services they provide are on a par with their counterparts abroad, it has been noted that small-

By Enda Curran & Jeff Kearns | Bloomberg

H

ONG KONG—Few events will be as significant for the world in the next 15 years as China opening its capital borders, a shift that economists and regulators across the world are now starting to grapple with. With China’s leadership aiming to scale back the role of investment in the domestic economy, the nation’s surfeit of savings—de-

posits currently stand at $21 trillion —will increasingly need to be deployed overseas. That’s also becoming easier, as Premier Li Keqiang relaxes capital-flow regulations. The consequences ultimately could rival the transformation wrought by the Communist nation’s fusion with the global trading system, capped by its 2001 World Trade Organization entry. That stage saw goods made cheaper across the world, boosting the purchasing Continued on A2

See “AEC,” A2

n japan 0.3653 n UK 71.0777 n HK 5.8238 n CHINA 7.2701 n singapore 33.6261 n australia 34.9892 n EU 50.5827 n SAUDI arabia 12.0385 Source: BSP (26 June 2015)

NewsSunday BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, June 28, 2015

AEC...

continued from A1

scale businesses are the least ready for the Asean single market since they lack the financial capacity to level up their operations needed to stay in the competition.

Strong backward linkages or supply-chain support in the manufacturing sector and agriculture, on the other hand, is likewise wanting here, since a faultless trade and free flow of goods and services in the region is the main goal of the economic integration.

So where does the country go from here?

Lim pointed out that the national economic growth will just go back and depend on the businessprocess outsourcing (BPO) and overseas Filipino workers’ remittances.

As per the latest Philippine Statistics Authority data, the Philippines’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.2 percent during the first quarter of 2015.

While this is lower than the 6.1-percent GDP annual growth last year, the first quater of 2014 also had a relatively slow growth of 5.6 percent and finished with a strong growth of 6.9 percent by the fourth quarter.

The services sector is the main driver of growth for the quarter, which grew by 5.6 percent from 6.8-percent growth last year.

Industry accelerated to 5.5 percent from 5.4 percent, as the agriculture sector grew by 1.6 percent from 0.6 percent.

The BPO industry is the biggest contributor to the Philippines’s GDP and is expected to generate 1.23 million jobs and $21.8 billion in revenues this year.

Bangko Sentral statistics show that dollar remittances from overseas Filipinos from January to March 2015 reached $5.79 billion, as compared to $5.49 billion for the same period last year, or up 5.46 percent year-on-year.

The political will to push reforms, as well as further investments from the business

community, is needed to catch up.

Raising education and awareness of the Asean integration should also be done for the local players to prepare.

“If you look at most of our businesses today, how many have really planned their business already in consideration of the AEC,” said Lim, who is also the chief digital officer of ABS-CBN.

He noted that as simple as identifying their competitors, most of them do not know yet who is coming in to compete with them.

“I don’t think they know. I don’t think they’re even aware of it,” he added.

He lauded, though, the initiatives of various groups from both the public and private sectors for doing a lot of advocacy education programs on the Asean integration.

Developing further the competence of local human resources, according to PMA President Henry S. Tenedero, will also help in pushing forward the nation’s edge in a single economic community.

“I would like to believe that Filipinos are very skillful technically and professionally. But to become competitive in the Asean world, I think what is very important is developing their soft skills for competitiveness in the bigger world,” he said.

This, he noted, can be achieved by empowering them to “communicate beyond the syntax of language, being able to be a team worker and being able to negotiate well beyond the usual parameters.”

“Developing their soft skills is having a powerful mind-set that they can do it. The Asean integration will be in three fronts: political, sociocultural and economic. So one of our best assets is our human capital,” he added.

The PMA is set to launch the First Asian Marketing Leadership Summit dubbed “Fifty Shades of Marketing” on July 8 and 9 at a hotel in Pasay City.

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With $21T, China’s savers are set to change the world continued from a1

power of low-income families at the cost of hollowed-out industries.

Some changes are easy to envision: watch out for Mao Zedong’s visage on banknotes as the yuan makes its way into more corners of the globe. China’s giant banks will increasingly dot New York, London and Tokyo skylines, joining US, European and Japanese names.

Property prices from California to Sydney to Southeast Asia already have seen the influence of Chinese buying. Other shifts are tougher to gauge. International investors, including pension funds, which have had limited entry to China to date, will pour in, clouding how big a net money exporter China will be. Deutsche Bank AG is among those foreseeing mass net outflows, which could go to fund large-scale infrastructure, or stoke asset prices by depressing longterm borrowing costs.

“This era will be marked by China shifting from a large net importer of capital to one of the world’s largest exporters of capital,” Charles Li, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., the city’s stock market, wrote in a blog this month.

Eventually, there will be “fund outflows of historic proportions, driven by China’s needs to deploy and diversify its national wealth to the global markets,” he wrote.

The continuing opening of China’s capital account will also promote the trading of commodities in yuan, and boost China’s ability to influence their prices, according to an analysis

by Bloomberg Intelligence.

As was the case with China’s WTO entry, where many of the hur-

dles had been cleared in the years leading up to 2001, policy-makers in Beijing have been easing restrictions on the currency, the flow of money and interest rates for years.

What’s making 2015 notable is the International Monetary Fund’s once-in-five-year review of its basket of reserve currencies. China wants in, and is accelerating reforms to get there.

Recent steps to promote its currency have included setting up five offshore yuan centers, a new link between the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges and letting the tightly controlled yuan trade against the dollar in a wider band. It has promised to remove a cap on interest paid to savers.

“The integration of China— the world’s second-largest economy with the highest saving rate but still a low per-capita income—into the global capital markets is an unprecedented event,” China International Capital Corp. economists led

by Beijing-based Liang Hong wrote in a note this month.

There are already signs of that potential. Chinese buyers topped Canadians to rank as the biggest foreign purchasers of US homes by sales and dollar volume in the year through March, accounting for more than a quarter of all international spending.

Lenders are speeding up their ambitions: Bank of Communications Co., China’s fifth-largest lender, is making its first overseas acquisition by buying a lender in Brazil, while China Construction Bank Corp. plans to open branches in Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa.

The global community is watching. US Treasury Secretary

Jacob L. Lew said after meetings this week between US and Chinese officials that China is committed to pushing through necessary reforms to liberalize interest rates, open capital markets and open up more to foreign enterprises.

The US wants more access to the world’s second-biggest economy for its financial companies, something that’s been elusive since China’s WTO entry.

Few expect the yuan to soon threaten the dollar’s role as the global reserve currency, with a wave of domestic reforms needed first up to reassure international investors—such as bolstering liquidity in the local bond market.

While US policy-makers are betting that a more open China will ease currency tensions between the two nations, any rapid depreciation in the yuan could trigger large-scale capital outflows, prompting intervention and new restrictions from China’s policy-makers.

“If they’re going to be gradually opening up to be like the US, then vast amounts of money are going to flow overseas,” said David Dollar, who served as US Treasury attache in China and is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “I would speculate that it favors the US over everything else.”

Other nations, from Argentina to South Korea, have suffered whiplash from volatile capital flows after they eased restrictions.

While China is unlikely to tear down the barricades altogether, the opening of the nation’s capital borders will reverberate across the world.

“I don’t think you can find any significant economic system where deposits in the banking system are twice GDP,” said Nicholas Lardy, who has studied China for more than three decades and is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “That’s the potential.”

GDP growth...

continued from A1

spending will likely continue to slump in the coming months.

“While we do not expect the government to resolve this issue in the short term, as it is still trying to streamline spending through reducing wasteful expenditure, we believe this challenge needs to be resolved in the future,” Nguyen said.

“What is actually holding the Philippines back from achieving sustainably above the 7-percent growth rate is not the Filipino household spending power but government expenditure…. This means that GDP [gross domestic product] can grow much faster than our projected 6-percent growth for this year if all the money allotted were spent,” she added.

Earlier, Fitch Ratings expressed the same sentiment, saying that it is not convinced that government spending will pick up in the coming months, owing to still unresolved bottlenecks in fund disbursements.

In the first quarter of the year, the local economy decelerated to 5.2 percent, owing to weak exports and anemic government spending.

NewsSunday

A6 Sunday, June 28, 2015 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

BusinessMirror

PHL officials confirm China island-building in full swing

P

UERTO PRINCESA—China is pressing ahead with the construction of artificial islands on at least two reefs that are also claimed by the Philippines in an increasingly tense territorial dispute, Filipino officials said, despite Beijing’s pronouncement that some work would end soon.

Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon of Kalayaan islands, which are under Philippine control, said on Friday he saw Chinese construction in full swing, with many dredgers and huge cranes visible when he flew last week near the Subi Reef.

It’s one of at least seven reefs and atolls in the South China Sea, where the United States and the Philippines have expressed concern that China’s island-building could be used to base military planes and navy ships to intimidate other claimants; reinforce China’s claim over virtually the entire area; and threaten freedom of navigation in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

“It’s full-blast construction. It’s massive and incredible,” Bito-onon told The Associated Press, adding that it was evident it would take months before the Chinese complete the work.

In the midportion of the emerging manmade island, a 3-kilometer-long landfill is taking the shape of a runway, he said.

His comments followed similar findings by the US military and independent defense analysts.

US Deputy Secretary of State

Anthony Blinken said China’s large-scale land-reclamation projects threaten peace and stability, and called on Beijing and other claimants to freeze such activities and resolve their difference in accordance with international law.

“In both eastern Ukraine and the South China Sea, we’re witnessing efforts to unilaterally and coercively change the status quo —transgressions that the US and our allies and partners stand united against,” Blinken said, in remarks on Friday at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.

Two senior Philippine military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the media, said that, aside from the Subi Reef, China’s island-building has also continued on the Mischief Reef on the Spratly Islands, based on recent military surveillance.

Chinese Embassy officials in Manila did not immediately comment. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on June 16 that the landreclamation projects on some islands and reefs “will be completed in upcoming days.” However, in a sign that the developments were

far from over, the ministry also said on its web site that China would follow up by building infrastructure for maritime search and rescue, environmental conservation and scientific research.

Asked when the island-building would be completed, Chinese Defense Ministry Spokesman Senior Col. Yang Yujun gave a vague reply to reporters on Thursday, saying that it “depends on the progress made on the ground.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu K ang said island-construction projects "do not affect the freedom of navigation and overf light enjoyed by all countries in accordance with international law in the South China Sea.” However, a US Navy plane flying near one of the artificial islands last month was told to leave the area by the Chinese military. In a separate incident several weeks ago, a Philippine air force plane was also ordered by the Chinese navy to leave the area. The incidents raised fears that China was preparing to enforce an air-defense identification zone over the South China Sea, similar to one it declared over disputed Japanese-held islands in the East China Sea in 2013.

The US argues that China can’t use artificially constructed islands to expand its sovereignty. US officials have said they were considering stepping up patrols to ensure free navigation in the contested region and have defied Beijing’s warning for Washington to stay out of the Asian disputes.

“We are committed to operate safely in international waters, as we believe every nation has the right to do and, we look forward to operating throughout Southeast Asia,” US Navy Capt. Fred Kacher, who helped oversee annual exercises between US and Philippine navies that ended Friday on western Palawan island, told AP. AP

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COA urged to probe LTO’s P3.8-B vehicle-plates program

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

A

senior member of the House of Representatives’ minority bloc on Saturday urged the Commission on Audit (COA) to investigate Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) questionable and anomalous P3.8-billion new vehicle plates program and its alleged abusive profiteering by tacking on a P100 surcharge “as service fees.”

Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela, also a member of the House committee on transportation, in a news statement, said the COA is also duty-bound to ensure that the millions of pesos in profits are untouched and not remitted to the national treasury because a refund to all vehicles victimized by the LTO could be imperative.

“It is not enough for the COA to order a stop to all payments to the LTO car plates supplier because it must look into other scandalous ‘milk and bilk’ tricks imposed by the LTO on helpless motor owners—from scooters and motorcycles, tricycle, jeepneys, trucks, buses and car owners—all over the country,” Albano said.

The lawmaker, citing a recent Senate hearing on the LTO’s new vehicle plates program, said the officials admitted that they tacked a P100 profit for every new car plate forcibly imposed on registered vehicles with usable car plates.

Albano said the P3.8 billion LTO contract with the car plate manufacturer, Power Plates Development Concepts Inc. and J. Knieriem BV Goes or JKG, “will be one big black mark on the Aquino administration if it is allowed to continue, and erring LTO officials tolerated to act with impunity.”

“The LTO is a government agency that renders public service. It is not a private corporation, whose mission is to render a service for profit,” Albano said.

Albano added that it is “abominable enough” that owners of registered vehicles, which only require renewal every year, were forced to purchase the new

car plates, despite their having usable, serviceable car plates, “but to impose a profit surcharge of P100 per new car plate is unconscionable greed and grave abuse of power and authority.”

Earlier, the chairman of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development and Liberal Party Rep. Winston Castelo of Quezon City had said that the panel will recommend soon to the LTO to stop the mandatory replacement of car plates.

Castelo said the Department of Transportation and Communications and the LTO should stop the ongoing replacement of all motor vehicles license plates amid questionable replacement of old car plates and massive complaints from the motoring public.

Validity extension

AS soon as it resumes session late next month, the Senate will hear proposals to extend the validity of motor vehicle registration and driver’s license.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said resolutions will be filed and public hearings will be called to study the feasibility of extending the life of both car and driving permits.

“We will be crowd-sourcing ideas on how this can be done. We’ll be getting the views from all sides: from those who apply for these licenses to those who issue them,” Recto said.

At present, the registration of a brand-new motor vehicle is effective for three years, after which it must be renewed annually.

In the case of a driver’s license, it is valid for three years, with the expiry coinciding with the holder’s birthday.

Recto said senators “have taken cognizance of requests to have the legal life of these documents extended.”

“There is, for example, a proposal to increase the validity of the rehistro of a new car to at least four years, and old ones to two years. So we’d like to know if this can be stretched to five years for new cars,” he said. With Recto Mercene

Boracay resorts brace for ‘habagat’

B

OR AC AY ISLAND—Resor t ow ners here have started to put up windbreakers in anticipation of the southwest monsoon, or habagat, that is expected to induce rains.

At least 20 resorts at the beachf ront now have windbreakers made of giant bamboo poles, nets or plastics.

Even during the rainy season, tourists continue to arrive on this island, which boasts of one of the longest, white sand beaches in the world.

“Yearly, we install wind breakers to protect our establish- A WORKER installs a windbreaker made of giant bamboo poles and clear plastic at the beachfront on Boracay ments from the ef- Island in preparation for the southwest monsoon. fects of the southwest bers. The resorts are the biggest source of revenue of monsoon. The southwest monsoon brings heavy Malay, Aklan. rains and strong winds that blow the sands inside The Department of Tourism field office here, said our establishments,” says Dioniso J. Salme, presitourism in Boracay no longer has lean season. It is now dent of the Boracay Foundation Inc. and owner of “peak season” or “super-peak season,” with over a milJony’s Beach Resort. lion tourists visiting the island every year.

Salme said Boracay continues to draw local and forGuest arrivals from January to May 15 alone had eign tourists, and the number of tourists is expected already reached 735,376. to increase with the improvement of the runway of the Last year, the local government of Malay recorded Boracay Airport in Caticlan by 2016. a total of 1,472,352 registered guests, with tourists “Definitely, we expect more tourists by the time the airport’s runway expansion is completed.” from South Korea topping the list, followed by China, With the extension of the airport’s runway, bigTaiwan, US and Malaysia. ger passenger planes will be able to make trips from Boracay continues to attract tourists from Australia, various airports directly to Boracay. This also means Japan and European countries. more flights going in and out of Boracay, bringing in Tourist-arrival records also show slight increase in more tourists. the number of tourists coming from Middle Eastern countries and Russia.

The Boracay Foundation has 150 resorts as mem-

Diamond Hotel offers Platters of the Americas themed buffet

Y

our Friday night just got more delicious with Diamond Hotel Philippines’s Platters of the Americas themed buffet. Savor succulent steaks and other popular American dishes at the dinner buffet of Corniche restaurant.

The themed buffet is available every Friday at P2,550 net per person. The spread features an all out Angus grill station—fillet, rib-eye, rib-eye and sirloin steaks— made richer by the hotel’s own blend of Garlic Chimichurri Sauce, Cracked Peppercorn Sauce, Bleu Cheese Sauce, Diane Sauce, Garlic Butter and Hickory barbecue sauce.

Also served at the buffet are Spicy Parsnip Soup with Gluten-free Bread; Rocket and Tomato salad; Beer Battered Onion Rings served with Aioli Garlic Mayo

and Mini Angus Beef Burger Patty in Buns served with ketchup, pickles, mustard and chopped onions, among others. Desserts include the Traditional Warm Apple Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream, New York Cheesecake with Blueberry Topping, Spiced Carrot Cake with Orange Crème and more.

Corniche also has other themed buffet nights that may delight you. Tuesday features Bounty from the Sea with a selection of fresh seafood to kickstart your week. On Thursday nights the restaurant offers Island Favorites with classic Filipino dishes.

Saturday night highlights Food of the Gods where you can feast like a god with a week-ender banquet of Mediterranean dishes.

SundayV

Busine

A4 Sunday, June 28, 2015

editorial

A word to presidential aspirants

T

HE deterioration of the quality of politics has easily been the most distinguishing characteristic of the last several decades in the Philippines.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, one had to be a Bar topnotcher or a professional of sterling academic achievement to qualify for positions of national leadership, a person in the like of Claro Recto, or Jose Diokno, or Diosdado Macapagal, or Ferdinand Marcos, or Emmanuel Pelaez, or Carmen Planas, or Arturo Tolentino.

In the decade of the 1990s, the necessary qualification was “name recall,” the possession of a name that the masses could readily remember. And who were the people whose names could readily be remembered by the majority? The people in the entertainment industry, exemplified by the likes of the Revillas, the Lapids and, yes, the late Fernando Poe Jr. More currently, there is what some writers call “funeral politics,” the election of nincompoops to stratospheric positions simply because they happen to be the sons or daughters of recently departed political icons.

This one directional deterioration has prompted a newspaper columnist, former Sen. Francisco Tatad, to call it the “idiotization” of Philippine politics.

This is sensible analysis, and we cannot just stand idly by and allow this idiotization to continue unabated. Now that Vice President Jejomar C. Binay has parted ways with President Aquino, the way is clear for all aspirants for the presidency, including the Vice President himself, to identify themselves and give us an idea of what they stand for beyond the generalities that our politicians spew out every day.

It may be that we must wait until after these aspirants have filed their certificates of candidacy in September for them to articulate their views on the issues of the day; but whenever the proper time is, we demand that these people show us their program of government in the period they expect to be in office.

We want to know what their understanding is of the problems that confront our people and our country. What do they think of poverty, unemployment, economic stagnation, Mamasapano, the Bangsamoro basic law, the Chinese problem, amendments to the Constitution, graft and corruption, to mention a few of the issues that challenge us? We want to know how they propose to respond to these problems.

Our leaders, particularly our senators, have so degraded themselves by their sheer incompetence and association with plunder and other forms of moral depravity that anybody, including a newcomer emerging from nowhere, who can utter a sensible sentence or two and appear to be uninterested in financial matters, instantly becomes an eminent candidate for the presidency.

Is funeral politics, or a version of it, rearing its ugly head again, never mind that the icon’s departure has been 10 years ago? Heavens forbid.

Still and all, funeral politics or not, we demand that all aspirants for the presidency of our country present us their program of government for the years 2016 to 2022.

Problems in Greece show European ‘Union’ is falling apart

By Markos Kounalakis The Sacramento Bee/TNS Forum

A

THENS, Greece—Anxiety is a constant presence for those living in Athens these days as they continue to ride the sevenyear see-saw of economic survival and revival.

European institutions have bailed out and chewed out Greece for its profligacy and political dysfunction, but in the process Europe continues to fail to deal with its own survival or identity.

As a result, what the world is witnessing is the slow death of the European project and the ongoing dissolution of the European Union (EU).

What started out in 1951 as a Coal and Steel Community between a handful of previously warring nations has evolved into today’s 28-member state hodge-podge EU. As the most articulate EU visionary, Jean Monnet, put it in 1978: “We can never sufficiently emphasize that the six [original] Community countries are the forerunners of a broader, united Europe.”

Early European visionaries like Monnet imagined a federal European state, much like a United States of Europe, where the things that united member-countries were stronger than those that divided them.

In the process, there would be shared political institutions and deeply intertwined economic relations. Erasing national borders and freeing up trade between countries began to dissolve national differences and divisions. Until 2008, that is, when the global economic recession hit and hit hard.

Suddenly, it was every man for

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Gospel

Sunday, June 28, 2015

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himself. A Europe whole and free quickly became a house divided.

Instead of circling the wagons, the larger states and their leaders began performing triage on smaller, weaker countries characterized as parasites.

These less-competitive countries —aided and abetted by shameless leaders—had for years grown fat and happy living and skimming the free-flowing and generous European subsidies and credit that suddenly stopped.

They, in turn, became unwilling to reform patronage systems or live within their means, setting the stage for the ongoing euro-zone economic crisis and political confrontations that continue to roil global financial markets.

There is plenty of blame to go around for Europe’s systemic failures and frailty. In fact, there is plenty of blame directed at Berlin, Brussels, and some of the political bomb-throwers and blackmailers on the farthest fringes of Greece’s recently elected SYRIZA radical left party and government.

Blame, however, should not only land on the vocal and vituperative. It needs to be shared by those who gave up on the larger European idea.

Greece may make it through the latest round of negotiations with promises it either cannot keep or that take it further down the rabbit hole of economic retraction. As Greek Minster of Administrative Reform George Katrougalos put it this week, any economic deal without debt relief or forgiveness is a deal to “extend and pretend.”

Perhaps, that is the best way to characterize the fiction that there

ND when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about Him; and He was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Ja’irus by name; and seeing Him, he fell at His feet, and besought Him, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”

And He went with him. And a great crowd followed Him and thronged about Him. While He was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house someone who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

And He allowed no one to follow Him, except Peter

is a European “Union.” The continent is showing that it is more a European trade association than a political union.

Or maybe it is just a failing “confederacy” where the idea is not to unify, but to extend and pretend the fiction of a “union.” Will there soon be calls to remove the EU’s goldstarred blue flags from European national capitals?

This is a defining moment in both European and world history. A mere generation ago, at the end of the cold war, a strong and confident Europe was growing and unifying at an unprecedented pace while the former Soviet Union shrank and weakened.

Ironically, the one person who just stepped up to speak in favor of greater European unity is literally defined by the term “sovereignty”: Britain’s sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II. At a Berlin state dinner in her honor this week, she made a surprising appeal for a unified Europe.

Speaking in the royal and popular “we,” the queen said: “We know that division in Europe is dangerous, and that we must guard against it in the West, as well as in the East, of our continent. That remains a common endeavor.”

Clearly, Europe has gone topsyturvy when the United Kingdom’s queen paraphrases Abraham Lincoln and warns against a European house divided.

And regardless of any imminent European agreements, bailouts, or breaks, Greece may turn out to be the first card to fall in a growingly fragile European house of cards.

Anyone believing in the European project now has a new “cri de Coeur”: Long live the Queen!

and James and John the brother of James. When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, He saw a tumult, and people weeping and wailing loudly.

And when He had entered, He said to them, “Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at Him. But He put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with Him, and went in where the child was.

Taking her by the hand, He said to her, “Tal’itha cu’mi;” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”

And immediately the girl got up and walked (she was 12 years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And He strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.— Mark 5:21-24, 35-43

Voices

essMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph • Sunday, June 28, 2015 A5

Say what you mean C

Free Fire

By Teddy Locsin Jr.

ONFUCIUS said: To reform government, first reform language; to reform language, every word must mean the thing or action to which it refers, nothing more and nothing else. In particular, a ruler’s words must mean what they say and not mean what he wants the wrong choice of words to say. This is called knowing the root of the problem.

The problem is knowing, without which we cannot find the solution.

We cannot know the problem if we cannot describe it precisely. It is proven that you can’t say you know anything if you cannot tell, and better yet, write down clearly and

coherently what you think you know. Precision requires the right choice of words. It is not important for a speech to soar, although eloquence is important in communication; but speech that just soars could be flying in circles. Enduringly effective speech means what it says, and says what it means.

The problem with this administration is that it talks for the sheer pleasure of the sound of it. Daang matuwid means straight and narrow, but that begs the question: Straight to where?

The other day, the President talked about “the stakeholders in the 2016 elections.” A stakeholder

has a material interest into whatever he drives a stake, like a mining claim or another racket or Dracula’s chest.

That limits his stake in the 2016 elections to the profit he can make out of its conduct and outcome. The President should not address that kind of person.

A stakeholder might mean someone with a moral interest in the 2016 elections, meaning those who want clean elections. Then he should say so, so the Commission on Elections is on notice. It can also mean the voters, and that means everybody with a mild interest in voting, which means everybody; and, therefore, no one in particular and so nobody in effect.

“Stakeholder” is just the wrong word from civil society. Civil society likes to take a materialistic word like stakeholder and turn it to ideal account, because civil society is embarrassed to sound moralistic. So, it tries to sound pragmatic.

Well, if you are that timid about fighting for the right, don’t bother.

In the People Power Revolution, the talk-gooders contributed nothing; the cynical did all the good. We won because hardnosed operatives said what they meant, and did what they said. The President of People Power spoke with a tough realism and a hard clarity. Ezra Pound, who translated Confucius, said, “Fundamental

accuracy of statement is the one sole morality of writing.”

Daang matuwid might mean walking—true in no particular direction—but straight, on the narrow path between corruption and compromise; slowly so as not to trip; backtracking a lot at the slightest obstacle; hence the MRT; but never swerving left or right, even if it means staying in the wrong when wrong, like with the Bangsamoro Basic Law; and keeping to the right when right, like in quite a lot of other things.

And, perhaps, that is good enough given the zigzagging path taken by past and likely to be taken by future administrations.

Obama stakes black claim on US history

By Francis Wilkinson Bloomberg View

T

HE president of the United States is a black man. That’s not news. But on Friday it nonetheless became new.

Barac k Obama’s eu log y in Charleston for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the South Carolina state senator killed by an avowed racist, put Pinckney’s death in the context of Christian grace. But the speech cast everything else—Pinckney’s life, his cause, his church, his politics, his meaning—as part of the

long, brutal, sacrificial, triumphant history of black Americans.

Obama wrapped his presidential arms around the black church and black life more completely than he has ever done, pushing black history into the center of the American stage and demanding that it be recognized as a central, undeniable fact.

Obama was unusually explicit.

Discrimination? Why does Johnny get a job call back and Jamal doesn’t? Confederate flag? Don’t wave that around here anymore.

“For too long, we were blind to

the pain that the Confederate flag stirred,” Obama said at the College of Charleston. “The flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride. For many, black and white, the flag was a symbol of systemic oppression and racial subjugation.”

In a week in which the Affordable Care Act was convincingly upheld by the Supreme Court, in which gay marriage became the law of the land, in which conservative lawmakers across the South and retailers across the nation called for the removal of Confederate symbols

from places of honor and commerce, Obama’s speech was a confirmation of, and call for, change.

He has in the past dipped into the rhythms of the black church when speaking. But the sight of Obama leading the assembled in “Amazing Grace,” singing from the pulpit, awkwardly and sometimes off-key, was a milestone.

The president was forcibly making elbow room for black culture—including the real history of black oppression—in the A merican mainstream.

“Their church was a sacred

place,” Obama said of Pinckney and the eight other victims, “not just for blacks, or Christians, but for every American who cares about the expansion of liberty.”

Liberty expanded, emphatically, this week. Friday morning, gay marriage was mainstreamed by order of the high court. Hours later, in Charleston, black experience was validated by a president seemingly determined to elevate and enrich a slogan of protest: Black lives matter.

This may be the week the 21st century really began in America.

The UN at 70: United Nations disappoints on its 70th anniversary

By James A. Paul Inter Press Service

Conclusion

N

EW YORK—While member-states, weakened in the neoliberal era, have pulled back from the United Nations (UN) and cut its budgets, a charity mentality has arisen at the world body.

Corporations and the megarich have flocked to take advantage of the opportunity. They have looked for a quietly commanding role in the organization’s political process and hoped to shape the institution to their own priorities.

The UN Global Compact, formed

by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1999 to 2000 to promote corporate “responsibility,” was the first sign that the UN as an institution was beginning to work with the corporations and listen closely to them.

Critics point out that the corporations were getting branding benefits and considerable influence without any serious change in their behavior, but the UN was happy to lend its prestige in exchange for proximity to the czars of the global economy.

The World Economic Forum (WEF), organizers of the Davos conferences, soon afterward installed conferencing screens, disguised as picture frames, in the offices of top UN officials, so that corporate chieftains could have a spontaneous chat with their counterparts at the world body.

By that time, it was clear that Ted Turner’s dramatic donation of a billion dollars to the UN in 1997 was not a quirky, one-off gesture but an early sign that the UN was a target of Big Money. Today the UN is riddled with “public-private partnerships” and cozy relations with the corporate world. Pepsico and BP are hailed as “partners.” Policy options have shifted accordingly.

As corporate voices have amplified at the UN, citizen voices have grown considerably weaker.

The great global conferences, organized with such enthusiasm in the 1990s on topics like the environment, women’s rights and social development, attracted thousands of non-governmental organization representatives, journalists and leaders of grassroots movements.

Broad consultation produced progressive and even inspiring policy statements from the governments.

Washington, in particular, was unhappy about the spectacle of citizen involvement in the great matters of state, and it opposed deviations from neoliberal orthodoxies.

In the new century, the US warned that it would no longer pay for what it said were useless extravaganzas. The UN leadership had to shut down, downsize or otherwise minimize the conference process, substituting “dialogue” with carefully chosen interlocutors.

The most powerful governments have protected their domination of the policy process by moving key discussions away from the UN entirely to “alternative venues” for invitation-only participation. The G-7 meetings were an early sign of this trend.

Later came the G-20, as well as private initiatives with corporate participation, such as the WEF. Today mainstream thinkers often argue that the UN is not really a place of legislative decisions but rather one venue, among others, for discussion and coordination among international “stakeholders.”

The UN itself, in its soul-searching, asks about its “comparative advantage,” in contrast to these other events—as if public policy institutions must respond to “free market” principles. This race to the bottom by the UN is exceedingly dangerous.

Unlike the other venues, the UN is a permanent institution,

with lawmaking capacity, means of implementation and a “universal” membership. It can and should act somewhat like a government, and it must be far more than a debating society or a place where secret deals are made. For all the hype about “democracy” in the world, the mighty have paid little attention to this most urgent democratic deficit.

Though the UN landscape is generally that of weakness and lack of action, there is one organ that is quite robust and active—the Security Council. It meets almost continuously and acts on many of the world’s most contentious security issues.

Unfortunately however, the council is a deeply flawed and even despotic institution, dominated by the five Permanent Members and in practice run almost exclusively by the US and the UK (the “P-2” in UN parlance). The 10 elected members, chosen for two-year terms, have little influence (and usually little zest to challenge the status quo).

Many observers see the council as a power monopoly that produces scant peace and little enduring security. When lesser council members have tried to check the war-making plans of Washington and London, as they surprisingly did in the 2003 Iraq War debates, their decisions have been ignored and humiliated.

In terms of international law, the UN’s record has many setbacks but there have been some bright spots. The nations have negotiated significant new treaties under UN auspices, including major humanrights documents, the Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Conventions on the Rights of the Child, the Rights of Women and the Rights of the Disabled.

The Montreal Protocol has successfully reduced the release of Chlorofluorocarbon gasses and addressed the dangerous hole in the Earth’s ozone layer. But the treaty

The UN may not have solved the centuries-old conundrum of international law, but it has produced some good thinking about “development” and human well-being. The famous Human Development Report is a case in point and there are a number of creative UN research program, such as the UN Research Institute for Social Development, the UN University and the World Institute for Development Economic Research. bodies tasked with enforcement are often weak and unable to promote compliance.

Powerful states tend to flout international law regularly and with impunity, including treaty principles once considered inviolable like the ban on torture. International law, the purview of the UN, is frequently abused as a tool of states’ propaganda, to be invoked against opponents and enemies.

Legal scholars question the usefulness of these “norms” with so little enforcement. This is a disturbing problem, producing cynicism and eating at the heart of the UN system.

The UN may not have solved the centuries-old conundrum of international law, but it has produced some good thinking about “development” and human well-being.

The famous Human Development Report is a case in point and there are a number of creative UN research program, such as the UN Research Institute for Social Development, the UN University and the World Institute for Development Economic Research. They have produced creative and influential reports and shaped policies in good directions.

Unfortunately, many excellent

UN intellectual initiatives have been shut down for transgressing powerful interests. In 1993 the secretary-general closed the innovative Center on Transnational Corporations, which investigated corporate behavior and economic malfeasance at the international level.

Threats from the US Congress forced the Office of Development Studies at United Nations Development Programme to suddenly and ignominiously abandonment its project on global taxes. Financial and political pressures also have blunted the originality and vitality of the Human Development Report. Among the research institutions, budgets have regularly been cut and research outsourced. Creative thinkers have drifted away.

Clearly, the UN’s 70th anniversary does not justify self-congratulation or even a credible argument that the “glass is half full.” Though many UN agencies, funds and program, like the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization, carry out important and indispensable work, the trajectory of the UN as a whole is not encouraging and the shrinking financial base is cause for great concern.

As climate change gathers force in the immediate future, setting off mass migration, political instability, violence and even food-supply failure, there will be increasing calls for action among the world’s people.

The public may even demand a stronger UN that can carry out emergency measures. It’s hard, though, to imagine the UN taking up great new responsibilities without a massive and possibly lengthy overhaul.

Rather than waiting for disaster to arrive in full force, citizens should demand now a functional, effective and strong world body, democratic and proactive, protecting the environment, advancing peace and working in the people’s interest.

EconomySunday

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

BusinessMirror

Sunday, June 28, 2015 A3

Bill seeks 2-year real-property tax Obamacare seen to benefit Filipino relief to calamity-stricken areas health-care givers and BPO industry

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O grant additional tax relief to victims of calamities, a lawmaker from the Visayas has filed a bill providing a two-year real-property tax moratorium in calamitystricken areas.

House Bill 5827, or the proposed Calamity Tax Relief Act of 2015, authored by Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Arthur Yap of Bohol, wants the government to implement the real-property tax moratorium in the affected areas for two fiscal years from the date of declaration of a state of calamity by the proper local sanggunian.

The bill aims to alleviate the sufferings of the victims of calamities by granting them reasonable relief from their tax liabilities on their real properties affected by the calamity within a specified period of time to accelerate their pace of economic recovery.

Under current tax laws, relief for losses, as a result of calamities, is granted only to individuals or corporations engaged in trade or business or practice of profession.

The measure said that it shall be the state policy to assist taxpayers in areas affected by natural calamities, through tax relief, to reasonably recover from the financial burden caused upon them by such natural disasters.

In such cases of severe suffering of the people, there is a need to balance the government’s primordial need for funds and the people’s right to life, liberty and property, according to the measure.

Likewise, the bill provides it shall also be the state policy to provide tax exemption to donations and assistance given to victims of calamities in order to encourage donors and for the maximum utilization of the donations extended.

The bill, now pending at the House Committee on Ways and Means, defines calamity as a state of extreme distress or misfortune, produced by some adverse circumstance or event cause by natural forces, such as, but not limited to, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or similar natural disasters.

The measure provides that a declaration of ad state of calamity by the proper local sanggunian shall make effective certain tax reliefs. One of these is that the real-property tax in the affected area shall not be assessed and collected for two fiscal years, starting from the date of declaration of a state of calamity.

The real property shall refer only to residential lands and buildings, commercial and industrial buildings, agricultural lands together with the plants and growing fruit trees, and permanently installed machineries intended

YAP: “Losses of property used in trade or business, resulting from fires, storms or other casualties, that are actually sustained during the taxable year and not compensated for by insurance or other forms of indemnity can be claimed as deductions for income tax purposes.

The amount of the deductible casualty loss is limited to the difference between the value of the property immediately preceding the casualty and its value thereafter.”

by the owners of the buildings or structures for an industry or business.

The other proposed tax relief is that any donation in the name of any organization that declares that the funds donated shall be in favor of the calamity victims shall be exempt from donor’s tax.

Moreover, such donation shall be certified by the Department of Social Welfare and Development and that no more than 10 percent of the donation shall be used by the donee organization for administration purposes.

The Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue shall, within 30 days from the effectivity of the Act, promulgate the rules and regulations for its implementation, the bill provides.

In filing the bill, Yap, chairman of the House Committee on Reforestation, said that, while the government depends upon taxation to serve the people for whose benefit taxes are collected, it must also be sensitive to the needs of victims of natural calamities and assist in the alleviation of their serious economic dislocations.

“Losses of property used in trade or business, resulting from fires, storms or other casualties, that are actually sustained during the taxable year and not compensated for by insurance or other forms of indemnity can be claimed as deductions for income tax purposes. The amount of the deductible casualty loss is limited to the difference between the value of the property immediately preceding the casualty and its value thereafter,” he said . Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

F

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

ilipino health-care professionals, as well as the Philippines’s booming business-process outsourcing industry, will benefit from America’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), which the US Supreme Court has just upheld, the chairman of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education said on Saturday.

Liberal Party Rep. Roman T. Romulo of Pasig City, the panel chairman, said that for years, the Philippines has been America’s chief supplier of foreign health-care workers, mostly nurses.

“We expect the ACA, or Obamacare, to stimulate America’s demand for Filipino nurses, physical and occupational therapists, pharmacists, speech pathologists and other health-care workers,” Romulo said.

Obamacare, he added, basically means that millions of lower middle-class Americans who currently do not have any health-insurance protection will enjoy subsidized coverage.

“A greater number of Americ a ns w i l l now h ave access to health care, especially hospitalization, thus creating new demand for such services,” Romulo said, adding that “simply put, the US hospital industry is bound to boom, and so will their demand for

ROMULO: “We expect the ACA, or Obamacare, to stimulate America’s demand for Filipino nurses, physical and occupational therapists, pharmacists, speech pathologists and other healthcare workers.”

foreign staff.”

Romulo also said he expects Obamacare to drive US health-insurance companies to aggressively expand their back offices in the Philippines.

“US health insurers will be under pressure to slash operating costs in order to stay profitable. They will have no choice but to relegate more jobs to the Philippines, where labor and other costs are lower,” he said.

“They will be compelled to transfer more contact center, insurance claims processing, clinical support analysis,

medical coding, and other noncore, business-support jobs to the Philippines,” he added.

Meanwhile, House Assistant Majority Leader and Nacionalista Party Rep. Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr. of Cebu said that a total of 1,183 Philippine-educated nurses took the US National Council Licensure Examination (NCLE X ) for the first time from January to March this year, in the hopes of prac t ic i ng t hei r profession in America. “ The number is up 37.5 percent when compared to the 860 Filipino nurses who took the NCLEX for the first time, excluding repeaters, in the first of 2014,” said Gullas, vice chairman of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education.

The NCLEX refers to the National Council Licensure Examination administered by the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (USNCSBN).

The number of Filipino nurses taking the NCLEX for the first time is considered a reliable indicator as to how many of them are trying to seek gainful employment in America.

Gullas said USNCSBN statistics show that among foreign-educated nurses, Filipinos remain the most active job-seekers in America.

He said 180 Indians, 107 Puerto Ricans, 95 South Koreans and 79 Canadian also took the NCLEX for the first time from January to March this year.

Since 1995 a total of 158,551 Filipino nurses have taken the NCLEX for the first time.

RegionsSunday

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo

BusinessMirror

Opposition to Singaporean-backed Capilion project at Clark intensifies

A

By Ashley Manabat | Correspondent

NGELES CITY—Opposition to the P7-billion Capilion Project at the main gate of the Clark Freeport went into high gear on Wednesday with the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM) joining the Sangguniang Panlungsod in calling for its scrapping.

PGKM Chairman Ruperto Cruz described the multibillion project as a “second-rate duplicate” of SM City Clark.

“It looks like a template of SM,” Cruz said, noting that the project would also involve retail, businessprocess outsourcing and even residential units.

“They realized the success of SM and, now, they want to duplicate it by putting it at the main gate of the free port,” he said.

This is a clear redundancy of a project that can be put up somewhere else or at the so-called Clark Green City and not directly opposite SM, if the proponents are serious in putting it in Clark, he added.

If the Capilion Project pushes

through, the main road leading to Clark will be choked with traffic, Cruz said, pointing out that Clark’s M.A. Roxas Avenue, which is the main road of Clark, is already choked with traffic during rush hour and special events, like the hot-air balloon fiesta.

“It will greatly contribute to the traffic gridlock in Clark leading to the airport, just like the horrendous traffic on roads going to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport,” he added.

Angeles City Mayor Ed Pamintuan said he was initially informed

by Clark Development Corp. (CDC) President Arthur Tugade that the Capilion Project would double the city’s income it derives from SM.

“But what about the social cost?” asked Cruz, who said this could also be part of the sabotage against the full and immediate development of the Clark International Airport (CIA).

The main entrance to Clark should be free of any structure to accommodate future road expansions, he said.

M.A. Roxas Avenue should be expanded from its present four to six lanes and Don Juico Avenue, which runs parallel to the main Clark road, should be widened into a four-lane highway to make the CIA easily and more accessible, Cruz said.

Councilor Max Sangil, a columnist of a local daily, wrote that “the Capilion area was precisely freed by the various comprehensive land,

Filinvest tops off first condo building in Cagayan de Oro

By Butch D. Enerio | Correspondent

C

AGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) topped off its first building, one of the five condominiums that it is constructing here on Saturday.

Filinvest’s One Oasis Cagayan de Oro (CdO) was the first to be completed among the condominiums that are rising in this city’s downtown, The project is the first resort-themed, midrise condominium development in this city. It was inspired by Asian-Balinese architecture and sits on a 2.7- hectare complex on Rosario Limketkai Avenue.

Ara Solidum, FLI area general manager for Northern Mindanao, said owners of One Oasis CdO will have their units turned over to them by the next quarter.

“Completion and delivery dates are our top considerations, which sets our project apart from the rest, which have a five-year time lag.” Solidum said.

FLI has positioned One Oasis CdO, which offers the quickest return for unit owners, who wish to invest their savings in assets that appreciate in time.

Its timely delivery ensures earlier generation of steady income flow for its investors, she said.

Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno, who

graced the occasion, said FLI’s coming to the city is an investment that contributes to the growth of the community.

“FLI’s investment in CdO is a manifestation of business confidence...that it sees a promising progressive city, and that FLI wants to be part of the economic growth not only in CdO, but the whole Northern Mindanao,” Moreno said.

FLI said its Oasis communities are midrise enclaves that allow urbanites to enjoy their patch of green in the city. With resort-inspired amenities and refreshing landscapes, owners can enjoy a convenient, laidback lifestyle, while staying close to their daily needs.

FLI’s One Oasis has an atmosphere of centralized leisure amenities, such as swimming pools for adults and kiddies, a club house, fitness building, basketball court, multipurpose hall and children’s play area, among others.

“With all these amenities, every single day is a chance to indulge, relax and enjoy a vacation in the city, notwithstanding that for residents, who are looking for alternative investments for their hardearned earnings, will find One Oasis as a wiser option than simply putting their money in the bank.”

Solidum said.

CdO mayor pushes waste segregation at source

C

AGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Mayor Oscar Moreno has ordered the creation of the Barangay Solid Waste Management Committee (BSWMC) to implement waste segregation at source in consonance with Republic Act (RA) 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

Through Executive Order (EO) 063-15, Moreno also required the 80 barangay councils in the city to submit on or before June 30 the list of members of their respective solid-waste management committees to the City Solid Waste Management Board through the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office.

While RA 9003 remains largely unimplemented in the city 14 years since its signing on January 21, 2001, the Moreno administration is doing all it can to clean up the city despite no budget allocated to it by the city council.

The City Solid Waste Management Board, whose creation was mandated in Section 12 of RA 9003, was only created when Moreno became mayor in 2013, Clenro chief Edgardo Naguio said.

Moreno’s EO 063-15 mandates barangay solidwaste management committees to oversee the implementation of Section 21(b) of RA 9003, which provides “segregation of waste shall primarily be conducted at the source, to include household, institutional, industrial, commercial

and agricultural sources.”

While the city’s previous administration passed City Ordinance 8975-2003, it was not implemented because the barangays did not constitute their respective BSWMCs during the past administrations.

Section 3(a) of Ordinance 8975-2003 mandates that “the segregation of solid waste shall primarily be conducted at source...” Section 3(b) of the same ordinance states that “the segregation of waste shall be primarily conducted and managed at the barangay level specifically for the compostable, recyclable and reusable waste.”

In order to carry out these mandates, the same city ordinance mandates in Section 4(a) the establishment of a Materials Recovery Facility in the barangay or cluster of barangays.

“It is the duty of the Barangay Council to supervise waste segregation and recovery from the household, building, premises, or place of business within their respective territory,” Section 4(c) of Ordinance 8975-2003 states.

Solid-waste management is a major responsibility of the local government unit, Naguio said, but it “requires appropriate organizational capacity” because it is a “complex task” that “needs cooperation between numerous stakeholders in the private and public sectors.”Bong D. Fabe

use plans as a buffer zone.”

Sangil sponsored City Council Resolution 7184, S-2015 expressing “vehement opposition” to the project.

Sangil also agreed with PGKM’s observation that the main road to Clark and the parallel road beside it should be free of any structure for future expansion and widening.

City jurisdiction

MORE important, Sangil pointed out that the biggest argument against the Capilion project is the fact that it is already beyond CDC’s jurisdiction.

The CDC cannot unilaterally sign a lease agreement for the area without the approval of the city government after a public consultation, he said.

Sangil cited House Bill 5064 and the Senate Bill 2260 that were filed in Congress that eventually became Republic Act (RA) 9400, which is an act amending RA 7227, or the Bases Conversion Development Act. Sangil said the amendment exempted 29.5 hectares from the Clark Free Port Zone, including the Capilion area.

“For clarity, it is specifically expressed under Section 15 of RA 9400 that “The Clark Air Base proper, with an area of not more than 4,400 hectares, with the exception of 22-hectare commercial area situated near the main gate and the Bayanihan Park consisting of 7-and-half hectares outside the main gate of the Clark special economic zone, is hereby declared freeport zone,” Sangil wrote.

“It is as clear as the morning sun on a summer day that 29.5 hectares were exempted as part of the Clark Freeport, hence, they are now part of the territorial jurisdiction of Angeles City,” he added.

Barangay Chairman Rey Gueco of Malabanias, which covers the Clark main gate, supported the project based only on his personal assessment because he never consulted his constituents about the pros and cons of the project in a public consultation, the PGKM said.

Sunday, June 28, 2015 A7

Clark Customs exec: What irregularities?

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LARK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT— Even before he started investigating, the chief of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Clark denied the reported irregularities exposed by Korean nationals disembarking at this airport.

In a statement issued late Friday afternoon, the Customs District Collector of Clark, retired Brig Gen. Esteban A. Castro, refuted reports of “crooked Customs men” assigned here.

Castro, a member of Philippine Military Academy Class 1979, said his personnel “were taught on professional courtesy and proper decorum whenever detailed or posted as examiners or baggage inspectors or both at the airport’s arrival area.”

Castro said he has requested the review of the CCTV recording at the Customs counter at the arrival area, which is under the supervision of the Clark International Airport Corp.

He said it was unfortunate that the time and date of the flight carrying the Koreans cited in the news report was not mentioned.

He said “It would have been very helpful to know the flight details and the names of the Customs examiners or inspectors.”

Castro said Customs personnel on duty at the airport are in uniform with their names and identification cards clearly seen by anyone.

He said he also talked to his men detailed at the passenger services department of this airport and they all denied the allegations or having committed any irregularitt as he reiterated the BOCs’ support for the development of this airport.

“The BOC is not sabotaging the development of Clark International Airport,” he said. Ashley Manabat

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Sunday, June 28, 2015

Hopes dim for Bangsamoro region during Aquino’s term

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AVAO CITY—A member of the government peace panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) admitted on Friday that the major features of the signed peace agreement would not be fully implemented by the time President Aquino steps down from Malacañang next year.

Former Agriculture Secretary Senen C. Bacani, a member of the government panel, said the delay in the schedules—including the submission of the draft Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) to its rough sailing in Congress—would also mean a snowball in the delay of the other items in the agreement.

Although the MILF has proceeded with its scheduled decommissioning of its forces, with a ceremonial processing of its 145

fighters and 75 high-powered weapons last week, he said that items like the plebiscite and subsequent phases of the decommissioning, identification of actual beneficiaries of livelihood trainings and incentives among combatants and their families would have to wait with the enactment of the BBL, which has been renamed Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, in the Aquino-controlled House of Representatives.

BACANI: “We hope that people would look at this entire process as a way to peace in Mindanao.”

“We expect the first phase of decommissioning to follow, but only after Congress would have passed the BBL,” Bacani said.

“By our estimate now, we hope to see this by October 15, after which we expect to proceed also with the plebiscite by January or February next year,” he said.

The plebiscite is a necessary political activity to determine and make official the scope of territory of the Bangsamoro, the name of the new political entity that would replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao [ARMM]. The ARMM covers the adjacent Central Mindanao provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, and the

geographically distant southwestern island-provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, the provinces that are considered the country’s southern backdoor.

Bacani said that political and financial structures and processes would also proceed from there, “and, therefore, we cannot expect the entire peace process to be finished by May 2016.”

Asked how it would look like after the elections in May next year and the posture of a new President toward the signed peace agreement this year, Bacani said that “we can only hope for the better.”

“We hope that people would look at this entire process as a way to peace in Mindanao,” he said.

Bacani also appealed to people to get the adequate and appropriate information, as he assured that “many of the fears are unfounded about the Filipino Muslims.”

He also believed that lawmakers were appropriately informed that there “is this thing called the right of peoples to self-determination, only that behind their minds are also the fear and misimpressions that many of us wanted to correct.” Manuel T. Cayon

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Escudero: ’16 natl govt budget won’t be used for polls

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By Recto Mercene

EN. Francis Escudero allayed fears that the 2016 national government budget may be used for political campaign, saying that necessary control mechanisms are in place to prevent the potential use and abuse of government coffers for the election bid of administration candidates.

Escudero, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, assured that there are enough safeguards to protect government funds from embezzlement or misappropriation.

“The mechanisms are in place to ensure that Escudero: “Crystalfunds under the 2016 General Appropriations clear and transparent.”

Act will not be used as campaign kitty,” he said.

One of the measures, Escudero said, is the strict aplication of line-item budgeting, which was put in place to ensure transparency in public spending.

“By itemizing, we are able to control spending, as it gives us a better idea of where all the funds go. It’s what-you-see-is-what-you-get, crystal-clear and transparent,” he said.

The legislator said his committee and Congress, as a whole, have provided for “definite mechanisms to pinpoint accountability” and determine who is at fault for lost or misappropriated funds.

Escudero said lawmakers have also imposed additional and stricter reportorial requirements in the utilization of the budget.

“Kung may kalokohang ginagawa or gagawin sa kaban ng bayan, mas madali na itong mahuli at makita sa ilalim ng kasalukuyang sistema,” Escudero said.

He added: “Matagal nang isinabatas ng Diyos na bawal ang magnakaw, pero nagnanakaw pa rin ang tao. Pero tinitiyak namin sa budget na kung may gagawa man no’n, mas madaling makikita at mahuhuli.”

PHL lags behind other Asean countries in attracting foreign banks–PIDS report

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HE Philippines is lagging behind other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) both in attracting banks into the country and in penetrating the banking market in the region.

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said the Philippines has attracted fewer foreign banks as compared to its counterparts in the region.

The report on the country’s financial system titled “Enhancing Access to Financial Services through a More Competitive Financial System,” showed that the Philippines was able to attract only three banks, one each from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, as of end 2013.

Other Asean countries were able to attract more banks from AMS than the Philippines.

For instance, two banks each from Malaysia and Thailand and three banks from Singapore had established their presence in Vietnam.

The report, which was presented by former PIDS President Mario B. Lamberte and his research associate, Ammielou Q. Gaduena, is a component study of the Advancing Philippine Competitiveness (Complete) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

The authors have examined the actual penetration of domestic banks in other Asean countries.

Ten largest domestic banks, in terms of assets of each country, were considered, since these banks were in a better position to set up branches or subsidiaries in other countries.

For the Philippines, they identified Banco de Oro, Metrobank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine National Bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., China Bank, Union Bank, Security Bank and United Coconut Planters Bank.

They also verified their presence in other Asean countries either in the form of a branch or a subsidiary.

Among the six AMSs, only the Philippine and Vietnamese banks did not have presence in other AMSs.

The report showed two Indonesian banks had each a branch in Singapore. Four Malaysian banks had a presence in other AMSs. Among them, Maybank appears to be the most aggressive in extending its presence in other AMSs.

Of the five domestic banks in Singapore, three banks had established their presence in other Asian countries.

Among them, only United Overseas Bank had branches and subsidiaries in the other five Asean countries. Three Thai banks had branches or subsidiaries in other countries in the region.

It noted that all the three global banks, namely, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citibank, have presence in six Asean countries.

As to the banks’ sizes, in terms of total assets and deposits of banks in the six Asian countries, researchers have focused only on the first three largest banks of each country.

The three Singaporean banks stood out among the banks in the Asean in terms of total assets. A far second and third were the three banks in Malaysia and Thailand, respectively.

“Philippine banks were among the smallest banks in the region. The total assets of the third-largest bank in Malaysia and Thailand were roughly three times higher than those of the largest bank in the Philippines,” the report said.

“The assets of the largest bank in the Philippines were even smaller than those of the third-largest bank in Indonesia,” it added.

The PIDS said the Philippines has a lot of catching up to do to make its financial-services sector at least as developed as those of Malaysia’s and Thailand’s.

The Philippines has to enhance its capacity to contribute to the country’s development, which is even more compelling in light of Asean’s plan to establish an integrated financial system. Genivi Factao

Drought, dry spell likely till December

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HE country could be in for a long, dry haul this year.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), the country is facing up to six straight months of drought and a maximum four consecutive months of dry spell in 2015’s second semester after experiencing scorching heat earlier this year.

“Such forecast will most likely come true,” said Pagasa senior weather specialist Anthony Lucero. Lucero noted that rainfall reduction in some areas can exceed 60 percent.

Latest data indicate the droughtdriving El Niño that’s already in progress can possibly further intensify this year from “moderate” to “strong” and persist until early 2016, Lucero said.

Such intensification will likely approximate the 1997-1998 El Niño that

ravaged the country, he added.

Lucero said El Niño’s development at present is already comparable to its 1997-1998 counterpart.

Experts already identified the 1997-1998 El Niño as the strongest of its kind to affect the country during the 20th century.

Data from Pagasa this week indicate that neither drought nor dry spell will affect several provinces during the second semester of 2015.

Those provinces are Batanes in Luzon and Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Oriental, Davao Oriental, Surigao del Sur and Lanao del Sur, all in Mindanao.

Citing results of its rainfall analysis, however, Pagasa said provinces facing six straight months of drought, from July to December, this year are the Visayas’s Leyte and Southern Leyte, as well as Mindan-

ao’s South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, Basilan, Maguindanao and Sulu.

The agency also forecast five months of drought, from August to December, this year in Luzon’s Isabela and Camarines Norte provinces, as well as the Visayas’s Guimaras, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Cebu and Biliran provinces.

Four months of drought, from September to December, is forecast for Luzon’s Aurora, Batangas, Quezon, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro and Romblon provinces; and the Visayas’s Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Iloilo provinces, Pagasa continued.

Pagasa also expects threemonth drought, from October to December, in Metro Manila and Luzon’s Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Cavite and Laguna provinces. PNA