Businessmirror march 01, 2015

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

U.N. Media Award 2008

BusinessMirror

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A broader look at today’s business

n Sunday, March 1, 2015 Vol. 10 No. 143

Industrial sector remains bullish on PHL growth

week ahead

ECONOMIC DATA PREVIEW Foreign exchange n PREVIOUS week: The local currency continued to rally in the lower band of the 44 territory during the week. At the week’s opening, the peso hit 44.27 to a dollar, moving sideways from the previous week’s close of 44.24 to a dollar. The peso’s value continued to slide on Tuesday at 44.335 to a dollar, and then appreciated in two consecutive days on Wednesday and Thursday to hit 44.12 to a dollar and 44.075 to a dollar, respectively. The peso ended the week with a correction at 44.09 to a dollar on Friday. The total traded volume was at $3.33 billion in the entire week. n WEEK ahead: The local currency is still expected to stay within the 44 territory in the week ahead, but with a bias toward the appreciation of the peso, according to traders. This, as markets continue to factor in recent statements of the Federal Reserve of its “patience” in raising its own rates.

Inflation (February) n January inflation: The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced a month ago that inflation will hit 2.4 percent in January this year, decelerating further from the 2.7-percent inflation seen at the end of 2014. This is the fifth consecutive month that inflation has been going down since September last year, after inflation hit a peak of 4.9 percent. With the tamed inflation outlook, several economists are in consensus that the central bank will likely keep the current level of rates in several policy meetings in the first part of the year. n February inflation: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. earlier said in a text message to reporters that February inflation could settle within 2.2 percent to 3 percent. “Higher cost of power and water, as well as the recent recovery in oil prices, imply some upward inflation pressures.

However, these could be partly offset by lower rice prices,” Tetangco explained. Bianca Cuaresma

T

By Roderick L. Abad

HE Philippines looks to be well-positioned for manufacturing activities, as multinationals continue to locate their production facilities in the country.

“Manufacturing activity [is seen] to continue treading an upward growth trajectory through 2015, with foreign investors becoming more bullish toward the country, given the government initiatives to market the industrial sector,” said Kash Salvador, investment and capital markets manager at CBRE Philippines.

Data from the National Statistical Coordination Board revealed that the manufacturing sector accounted for the bulk of foreign direct investments in the country, at 60.01 percent.

Poised to benefit from it, Salvador said, is the real estate’s industrial sector.

He noted that the increase in industrial production and capacity utilization prompts manufacturers to expand factory space in the country.

Primarily, the steady influx of foreign locators could be attributed to cheap industrial space rates, Salvador said.

Monthly lease fees in Clark Field, Pampanga, for instance, are pegged from P130 to P220 per square meter.

See “Growth,” A2

P25.00 nationwide | 7 sections 32 pages | 7 days a week

Leaders in Asia face jail, arrests–often

due to politics

Central bank reins in cash supply T

HE total cash circulating in the local economy was lesser in the first month of this year, as previous policy actions put in place by the central bank still continue to work their way into the local cash stream.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that domestic liquidity—or the volume of money currently in the economy, broadly measured as M3—grew by 7.7 percent in January 2015, as compared to the same month last year to hit P7.5 trillion.

This is the lowest cash-supply growth in the country since September 2012, when it hit 6.4 percent.

A growing cash supply in a growing economy is beneficial, as it gives fuel to productive sectors to increase the nation’s capacity to grow.

On the other hand, an excessively slow cash-supply growth may be bad for a country, especially if it does not provide enough fuel to keep productive activities going.

Meanwhile, an excessively high cash-supply growth in an economy for an extended period of time may heighten the country’s risks in developing instability pockets, such as asset bubbles and upside inflation pressures.

In January 2014 the cash-supply growth hit its peak at 38 percent—prompting the central bank to control the growth of liquidity by putting in place several control measures, such as the hike in the banks’ reserve requirement ratio and in the special deposit accounts (SDAs) interest rate.

While the central bank’s moves continue to be in effect as money-supply growth

See “Cash,” A2

Landbank, DBP explore merger options

T

HE government is exploring ways to fast-track the merger of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to set up a strong governmentowned bank that can compete with other banks in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations group.

Officials said a technical working group (TWG)—consisting of a Governance Commission for GOCCs (government-owned and -controlled corporations) (GCG) commissioner, a director from the Department of Finance (DOF), the president and executive vice

PESO exchange rates n US 44.0870

president of DBP and the president and EVP of LandBank—will be created to work on the immediate passage of the law on the merger of the two banks.

GCG has invited a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) representative to the TWG. Two other members from DBP and LBP were also named.

In a meeting called by Senate President Franklin M. Drilon on Friday, officials of DBP, LBP and GCG discussed the two options on how to effect the merger. The main discussant was GCG Chairman Cesar L. Villanueva.

See “Merger,” A2

A

series of legal cases—some legitimate, some politically motivated—has swept up powerful politicians across Asia in recent years. There’s the former Thai prime minister living in exile and the jailed opposition leader in Malaysia. There’s the former president of the Maldives, who was arrested early this week. Sometimes, it is obvious when the charges are politically motivated. But, very often, that never becomes clear. GlobalEye»C2

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

News

BusinessMirror

A2 Sunday, March 1, 2015

Cash...

Growth...

continued from A1

Merger...

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sustains its downward trend, the BSP also said that the high statistical base effects— as seen in the 38-percent growth in January last year—helped explain the further slowdown of cash-supply growth in the country.

In a discussion earlier with the BusinessMirror, BSP Deputy Governor for Monetary Stability Diwa C. Guinigundo maintained that the P7.5-trillion cash supply in the country is enough to feed a growing economy which targets to grow by 7 percent to 8 percent in the next years.

Likewise, the central bank said in its recent release that the BSP will continue to keep a close eye on monetary dynamics and remains prepared to put in place appropriate measures, if needed, to ensure that cash supply stays sufficient to support the growth requirements of the economy.

The growth of cash supply during the period came mostly from the sustained demand for credit in the country, the BSP said.

Bianca Cuaresma

In both Subic and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), the range is from P80 to P260 per sq m.

Apart from comparable rental charges, competitive work force is what also elicited a vigorous industrial sector here, he added.

Salvador noted, though, that Manila’s outskirts should be further developed into areas for industrial growth as space in established industrial parks and economic zones is mostly occupied.

Concerted public works from both the state and business community also help buttress the expansion of investments and manufacturing in the country, he pointed out.

“Collaboration projects between public and private corporations in improving the Philippines’s infrastructure are needed to sustain and support the reemergence of the manufacturing industry,” he added.

continued from A1

The first option was the exercise by GCG of its power granted under Republic Act 10149 to merge governmentowned institutions, particularly those performing the same or similar functions.

“My guiding principle for the passage of the GovernmentOwned and -Controlled Corporation Governance [GOCCs] Act of 2011, or RA 10149, is to improve the governance of the GOCCs and to exact from them efficient and effective public service. To this end, we purposely passed a law that created a strong Governance Commission for GOCCs to conduct regular assessments and evaluations of the state firms’ performance, including

the power to implement mergers of GOCCs,” Drilon said.

This option needs presidential approval since Section 40 of the Corporation Code requires ratification by the majority of the corporate shareholders.

Bank officials see that this option—even with President Aquino’s approval—will not be able to result in merger soon enough, as well as unable to amend the composition of the board. It cannot provide an acceptable Early Retirement Incentive Program, and move the privileges of DBP to LandBank.

The second option was to effect the merger through a law, which can make the merger move irreversible. This will

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provide for a new composition of the board and it can provide the statutory prerogatives of DBP, like tax exemption to LandBank.

“The recommendation of GCG was to pursue both options simultaneously, such as a presidential instruction to be issued to the two banks to work together to effect a ‘de facto merger’ even as Congress will be asked to pass, probably by mid-July, a law merging LandBank and DBP,” the bank official said.

The TWG will work out the evaluation and implementation of what can be done immediately even prior to the passage of a law. Some areas of focus are organizational structure and

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functions, physical inventories, information-technology capabilities, impact in subsidiaries and equity investments, products and services, policies, and a communications plan to correctly project to the public what is being done.

They will also seek approvals from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., the BSP and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The merger of the two banks would make the resulting bank the second-largest bank in the country in terms of assets.

The merged bank is seen to readily compete with the other banks in the region, under Asean integration 2015. Genivi Factao

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EconomySunday BusinessMirror

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

House bill seeks to hike monthly pay of teachers

T

HE chairman of the House Committee on Revision of Laws is seeking to raise the monthly minimum wage of teachers in all public elementary and secondary schools to P25,000 and nonteaching personnel to P15,000.

House Bill (HB) 5402, authored

by Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Marlyn L. Primicias-Agabas of Pangasinan, chairman of the committee, seeks to attract and retain the best available talents through adequate remuneration.

Under HB 5402, the present minimum salaries of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools should be upgraded from P18,549 to P25,000 a month and the salaries of those occupying higher positions shall be adjusted accordingly.

The bill also raises the present minimum salaries of nonteaching personnel in the public elementary and secondary schools from P9,000 to P15,000 a month and the salaries of those occupying higher positions shall be adjusted accordingly.

Covered by the measure are teaching and nonteaching personnel in all public elementary and secondary schools, including those in technical and vocational schools, and state universities and colleges, the measure said.

The bill also provides that the government shall appropriate such amount as may be necessary to carry out the objectives of the Act, and that the salary increase of teaching and nonteaching personnel in public schools shall take priority over noneducational and nonagricultural budgetary allocations.

The amount necessary to implement the provisions of the Act shall be included in the budget of the Department of Education in the annual General Appropriations Act, it added.

In filing the bill, PrimiciasAgabas said it is an understatement to say that teachers are the most exhausted, abused and taken advantage of among the country’s public servants.

“Teachers are considered as the second parents of our children.

They are tasked to teach classroom lessons and even mold the values of our youth. Aside from their teaching responsibilities, they also perform other duties that the state would delegate them to do. And with their massive work, compensation is not enough,” PrimiciasAgabas said.

She added that the inadequate compensation drives the best of the country’s educators to look for better employment outside academe and some outside the country. “And that leaves our children without the best educators that they could have.”

Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Sunday, March 1, 2015 A3

Solon wants natl housing program for the homeless

T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

HE chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development over the weekend urged the government to create a program that seeks to implement a long-term housing rental for homeless Filipinos.

Liberal Party Rep. Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental, chairman of the panel, in a recent interview with reporters, said that a long-term pubic-rental scheme is needed to address the country’s housing backlog, which he earlier

estimated at 6 million units.

“We, in the House Committee on Housing and our counterpart in the Senate, are pushing for a solution to address the perennial problem in the housing industry, which is the backlog because of the lack of

affordable housing. A Filipino cannot afford a housing unit because it’s too prohibitive,” he said.

The legislator added that affordable housing provides a more costeffective solution to address homelessness in the Philippines.

“We should find ways to make the industry move forward. The only way to make it is through government intervention or on a massive scale that creates a public-rental scheme,” Benitez said.

Benitez said there are many available government lots for the authorities to create housing units for homeless Filipinos.

“The concept of this long-term public rental is after 10 to 20 years of renting [of only P200 and 500 a month in a government land and facility], a Filipino, who at the given time already has a better job and fi-

write the funding requirement on the condition, we have recommendation letter from the DBM saying we are endorsing this housing summit. We only need one paper [from the DBM] to address our perennial housing problem,” he said.

Benitez said the summit aims to tackle different housing issues, such as affordable rental, housing backlog and informal settlers.

Also, he said creation of a national housing planning program will be one of the topics during the summit. Earlier, the lawmaker said that the country’s shelter needs will continue to increase if a national housing planning program will not be implemented.

He said collaboration among the public and private sectors are also important to address the issues of housing in the country.

Land-titling concerns delay P2.5-B ITS contract signing

LGUs told to seek Monetary Board opinion in securing local bank loans

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

I

L

EGAZPI CITY—The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) branch here has reminded local government units (LGUs) in Bicol to secure a prior opinion of the Monetary Board (MB) in securing bank loans to finance projects as next year’s elections are only over a year away.

LGUs need MB opinion as a requirement so that they are advised on the probable effects of their loans and other borrowings on prices, monetary aggregates and the balance of payments (BOP).

In a statement over the weekend, BSP Legazpi Manager Marlyn Paje said the requirement was in accordance with Republic Act 7653, or the New Central Bank Act of 1993, which designated the BSP as the government’s financial advisor on official credit operations.

The same requirement covers the national government, its political subdivisions or instrumentalities, including government-owned and -controlled corporations, local water districts, as well as state universities and colleges.

The process also enables the BSP to monitor the borrowing of the public sector and assess their impact on the monetary sector and external payments position of the economy, in fulfillment of its role and mandate to promote and maintain monetary and financial stability, Paje said.

Banks will be sanctioned if they release loans or other forms of borrowing to LGUs without prior MB opinion, she warned.

The MB opinion is valid for six months from the date of issue and may be extended for meritorious reasons, Paje said.

No opinion will be released if

nancially stable, can now afford to buy his own house,” he said.

“Affordable housing is the most important part of a country’s housing system. Lack of affordable housing can make it hard to achieve other household needs, such as health, education and employment,” Benitez added.

Meanwhile, Benitez said that a housing summit, which is expected to be attended by different stakeholders, will be conducted soon to address the country’s housing problems.

The lawmaker, however, said that his committee could not set a schedule for the summit without a recommendation from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to the World Bank.

“The summit needs funding, and the World Bank is willing to under-

Rolling hardware store A man arranges the assorted products he sells on his mobile

store, ranging from construction and repair tools to motorcycle accessories, at much cheaper prices.

KEVIN DE LA CRUZ

there has been partial or full release of a borrowing by a bank/nonbank financial institution/lender to the LGU since the MB will then no longer be in the requisite position to render the same, she said.

She also clarified that the MB opinion does not pass upon the feasibility of the projects to be financed by the proposed borrowing.

Issues not related to the rendering of an opinion on the monetary aggregates and BOP implications of a proposed borrowing shall be forwarded by the BSP to the appropriate government agency, such as the Department of Finance-Bureau of Local Government Finance (DOF-BLGF) or the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Requests by LGUs for MB opinion on their planned loans/borrowings may be submitted to the BSP directly by LGUs or through the lending banks.

The request should indicate the amount and purpose of the loan, the lending bank, the terms and conditions of the loan, including interest rate, maturity, fees and other charges.

The request should also include

the certification on the debt service and borrowing capacity of the LGU obtained from the DOF-BLGF; designation of a contact person/s responsible for coordinating with the BSP along with contact information, and—if he/she will act as representative on behalf of the LGU/chief executive—a Sanggunian resolution on the specific acts/services he/she has been authorized to perform; and indication by the lending bank of the source of funds it will lend.

Within 30 days after the full release of the loan proceeds, a postborrowing report on the final terms and conditions and the utilization of the loan proceeds must be submitted to the BSP. Proponents are, likewise, advised to consult other agencies, such as the DOF-BLGF and the DILG about their requirements, if any, apart from those of the lending bank.

For the release of the proceeds of the loan, the LGU has to submit to the lending bank/lender a copy of the ordinance approving the proposed loan’s terms and conditions, as well as the specific purpose/s and corresponding amount of the project to be funded. PNA

SSUES pertaining to land titling have somehow spooked the private-sector partner for the construction of the P2.5-billion Integrated Transport System (ITS) Southwest Terminal, prompting it to seek for the deferment of the project’s contract signing slated for last Wednesday.

The consortium, led by Megawide Construction Corp. and Walter Mart Property Management Inc. of billionaire and retail magnate Henry Sy said it called for a delay in the contract signing as there are ongoing clarifications regarding the process of property titling for the 4.59-hectare project site in Parañaque City “MWM Terminals was made aware only last night that the transfer certificate of title [TCT] for the Project Site II is still in the process of being issued and will only be available sometime in 2016,” MWM Terminals President Oliver Y. Tan informed the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) last week. “While the company is aware that the TCT is not yet available, it did not expect and is understandably concerned about the lengthy period before the issuance of the said TCT.” Particularly, his firm is concerned about how the extended delay or even the nonissuance of the TCT will affect its rights over Project Site II. “Hence, MWM Terminals respectfully requests that it be appraised of the exact status of the TCT application process, i.e., at which stage it is at in the process,” Tan said.

He added, “May we also request that an explanation of titling process and copies of the deeds transferring Project Site II and Project Site I from the Public Estates Authority to the DOTC together with their respective tax declarations be made part of the schedules.”

In an e-mailed reply to the Busi-

nessMirror’s queries, Tan said these processes are just technicalities that are inherent in infrastructure projects.

“MWM Terminals shares the DOTC’s vision in improving critical infrastructure for nation building.

We believe the DOTC will take the necessary steps to resolve the matter quickly and efficiently,” he said.

Transportation Spokesman Michael Arthur C. Sagcal said the process for titling reclaimed land was tackled during the one-on-one meetings for this project.

“Unfortunately, MWM Terminals was not present to make these clarifications then. We do not see a problem in expounding on the process at this point for MWM’s comfort, however, we feel that this should not cause any further delays to the project since it will have a profound impact on managing traffic in Metro Manila, improving convenience for commuters, and instilling road discipline among public-utility vehicles,” he said in a text message.

MWM Terminals, whose bid carried a request for P100-million annual subsidy all throughout the 35year concession period, won the deal on January 23.

The group’s bid was declared superior over its only competitor’s offer. Filinvest Land Inc. sought for a higher P650-million annual subsidy.

So far, the contract is the first public-private partnership contract that the government has awarded this year.

The multibillion-peso transport terminal contract provides for the construction of an intermodal terminal near the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway to connect passengers coming from Cavite to urban-transport systems in Metro Manila.

It will include a passenger terminal building, arrival and departure bays, public information systems, ticketing and baggage handling facilities and park-ride facilities.

SundayV

Busine

A4 Sunday, March 1, 2015

editorial

President Hollande’s visit of far-reaching significance

T

HE visit a few days ago of French President François Hollande was occasioned by the need to involve the Philippines in the campaign against climate change. Being a victim of the most devastating typhoon ever recorded in history, the Philippines would be a highly credible partner in the protection and preservation of the natural environment.

In the course of the visit, President Hollande offered to be of assistance to the Philippines in the mobilization of resources for its development, signing with our own President Benigno Aquino deals in infrastructure and tourism amounting to P4.7 billion, or €92 million, for building and operation jointly by French and Philippine firms. President Hollande also agreed to two more projects the Philippines put forward for possible French-Philippine collaboration in the future.

With a gross domestic product of $2.3 trillion (purchasing-power parity) in 2013 and a population of 63.7 million, France has a per-capita income of $35,784 (10 times ours). France is one of the world’s most industrially advanced countries.

Our links with France go deep in history. In the 19th century France was home to many young Filipinos studying in Europe. Our national hero Jose Rizal wrote his two novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo in France, where he stayed when he was in exile. Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo also enjoyed French hospitality. Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto were profoundly influenced by Rousseau, Montesquieu and Napoleon Bonaparte.

At this juncture in history, we can learn a thing or two from French experience not just in economics but also in politics and culture. In politics, France is governed by a combination of the Presidential-Parliamentary system, with a president elected directly by the people and a prime minister elected to that position by the dominant party in parliament. Cumbersome from one viewpoint, the French system might offer lessons on how to improve our own broken presidential system.

There is another aspect of French politics that can be of interest to us. France is a nationalistic, independent-minded country. A member of the Western alliance, it refuses to be subservient to American globalism in its foreign relations. It has its own nuclear-deterrent force, the force de frappe. Only recently was it reinstated in the command structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Perhaps, we can learn from France how to forge and pursue an independent foreign policy.

We certainly can benefit from an exposure to French culture. France is an acknowledged seat of the arts, theater, fashion, cuisine and sports. The Louvre is the world’s greatest museum of the arts, the French Quarter the home of accomplished, struggling and simply lost artistic souls. In fashion, our designers can derive inspiration from the great French couturiers, as well as move forward on their own.

In the field of sports, France is a great center of football, a regular host to the World Cup, the culminating tournament of this global athletic event. French interest in this game might just wean us away from our fascination with basketball, a game we cannot hope to win internationally ever.

We have President Hollande to thank for awakening us to the challenges of climate change; also for strengthening our relations with France, and for making us conscious of the great opportunities for cooperation with France in various fields of human endeavor in the years ahead.

Goals for gender equality are not a ‘wish list’–they are a ‘to-do list’

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Inter Press Service

S

ANTIAGO—This weekend, at the invitation of President Michelle Bachelet and myself, women leaders from across the world are meeting in Santiago de Chile. We will applaud their achievements. We will remind ourselves of their contributions. And we will chart a way forward to correct the historical record. History has not been fair to women—but then, women usually didn’t write it.

This meeting will be an opportunity to take a hard look at the world that is, and the world that will be. The case is urgent, not only for individual women and their human right to equality, but for everyone. The “perfect storm of crises” as one expert has called it, threatens food, energy and water supplies. It threatens political and economic stability in all our countries.

It could upend any prospect for balanced and sustainable development.

Mobilizing the potential of women and maximizing their contribution will turn aside some of the worst effects of climate change and help ensure food and water supply; will help correct massive economic inequality between the few and the many; will mitigate conflict and political instability; and help to build lasting peace. Women’s rights are human necessities.

At the heart of our discussion is how to put more women in positions of power. Across the 192 UN member countries: n Only 19 women are heads of state or government; n One in five parliamentarians are women; n One in 20 city mayors are women; n One in four judges and prosecutors; and n Fewer than one in 10 police officers are women.

Women leaders are just as hard to find in economic life—only one in five board seats in major compa-

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Gospel

Sunday, March 1, 2015

A

So how do we get there from here? We already have a road map. It was agreed by 189 world leaders back in 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

Countries have made a good start with better overall education and health care for women; but they haven’t followed through on the rest of the package, especially political participation and economic empowerment. At the present rate of progress, it will take 81 years for women to achieve parity in employment. Women, and their countries, can’t wait that long. nies are held by women. And this is despite evidence of increased company earnings when women are on the board!

So how do we get there from here?

We already have a road map. It was agreed by 189 world leaders back in 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Countries have made a good start with better overall education and health care for women; but they haven’t followed through on the rest of the package, especially political participation and economic empowerment. At the present rate of progress, it will take 81 years for women to achieve parity in employment. Women, and their countries, can’t wait that long.

This year, the 20th anniversary of the Beijing conference, the year when the UN will adopt sustainable development goals for the next 15 years, offers a unique opportunity to make a new start.

First of all, today’s leaders must make a personal commitment to increase women’s presence in decision-making—not just in their

ND after six days, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them, and His garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Eli’jah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for You and one for Moses and one for Eli’jah.”

For he did not know what to say, for they were ex-

numbers, but in their contributions.

There are many ways to do this— quotas and numerical targets for women’s participation; training and mentorship to boost women’s confidence and capacity; private-sector engagement matching public-sector initiatives. Countries will find their own ways, if the will is there.

Employers must ensure equal hiring, payment and promotion policies; support to balance worklife conditions, and give women the opportunity to lead. Managers must learn to welcome women’s input and contribution.

Leaders who lead by example in their daily lives will win allies in every aspect of their work for gender equality. They can win allies in the media, too—at least to avoid reflexive disparagement, negative stereotyping and casual sexism; and, at best, to celebrate the positive and constructive contribution of women leaders, even in the toughest environments.

Then there are many women who struggle and suffer every day. They are the everyday heroines of our age, and their fight for equality deserves a wider audience. We shouldn’t have to wait for another vicious attack or another assassination before we learn their names.

These measures sound ambitious, but they are fully realistic.

We know from our own experience in leadership that we can achieve them all. The 1995 Beijing platform for action is not a “wish list”; it’s a “to-do list.” If today’s leaders front-load gender equality, if they start now to make good on those 20-year-old promises, we can look forward to serious progress by 2020, and gender equality by 2030.

“The arc of the moral universe is long,” Martin Luther King said, “but it bends toward justice.” Where women are concerned, we have to bend that arc a lot faster now, to make up for all the years it didn’t bend at all. At stake are not only justice and human rights, but also, perhaps, survival itself.

ceedingly afraid. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to Him.” And suddenly looking around, they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, He charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.—Mark 9:2-10

Voices

essMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph • Sunday, March 1, 2015 A5

Better Brian N

Free Fire

By Teddy Locsin Jr.

BC news anchor Brian Williams has been raked over the coals since word got out that he was never in a chopper crash in Iraq as he had falsely reported. He probably said it to exaggerate and thereby emphasize the perils of chopper flying in peace and worse yet, in war. For example, my NSC American counterpart at the White House as note taker, during Cory’s first US visit, held me back when I was about to join the two presidents in the US presidential chopper. He muttered, “Don’t.” He and I took a car to catch up with our bosses. “A chopper is a flying rock; it just drops; it cannot glide,” he explained why it should

be avoided if one could help it.

Media basher Ken Auletta has made a good business out of bashing journalists instead of doing journalism; some women journalists here have made unsuccessful careers out of the same endeavor because they are widely ignored by Philippine journalism as those who can’t and, therefore, preach.

Auletta compared Williams to a Hall of Fame quarterback who fathered a child out of wedlock and paid the mother millions of dollars to keep quiet so that his wife and kids wouldn’t learn of it. Actually that was admirable of Dan Marino. Most men just ditch

the woman and the wife, moving on to fresher meat.

Williams has gone on leave.

Auletta thinks it should be permanent if Williams’s other harmless stories turn out to be fabrications, as well; such as that he saw a body float past his hotel window after Katrina.

He said this to convey the extent of the destruction and to emphasize the wanton neglect by the federal and state governments days after the storm.

W i l l i a m s d i d no t s a y h e was with the troops that first breached Baghdad or that he jumped from his window into the flood to save someone who

turned out to be already dead— and he did not claim to have invented the Internet. All Williams said was that he figured in a chopper accident; and by sheer coincidence and no prescience, he saw a corpse float by. In neither story did he claim any sterling quality for himself, not even journalistic enterprise. He just happened to be, as, indeed, he was, in Iraq; and he just happened to be, as, indeed, he was, in New Orleans.

What he falsely claimed to have experienced reflected no credit on him. It could have happened to anyone in those destroyed places. All this in a war that was justified by lies disseminated by

the media, whose savage conduct was covered up by the same, after half-a-million kids had already died from US sanctions though you wouldn’t know it if you depended on the New York Times; and where the words “Mission Accomplished” out of the US president’s mouth were immediately refuted by the defeat of the US in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Between Williams’s trivial inventions and the serious faces of journalists repeating a government’s lies, and looking serious as if the lies were true—pretty much what’s happened here since President Aquino took over, I’ll take Williams as should you.

Water and the world we want

By Corinne Schuster-Wallace & Robert Sandford Inter Press Service

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AMILTON, Canada—We have entered a watershed year, a moment critical for humanity.

As we reflect on the successes and failures of the Millennium Development Goals, we look toward the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to redress imbalances perpetuated through unsustainable economic growth and to help achieve key universally shared ambitions, including stable political systems, greater wealth and better health for all.

More than any other resource, freshwater underpins sustainable development. Not only is it necessary for life and human well-being, it’s a key element of all human industry.

And a UN report launched on February 24, “Water in the World We Want,” outlines what must be done within the world’s water system.

Effective management and universal provisioning of drink-

ing water and sanitation coupled with good hygiene are the most critical elements of sustainability and development, preventing disease and death and facilitating education and economic productivity.

While 2 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water since 2000, it is estimated that just as many do not have access to potable quality water, let alone 24/7 service in their homes, schools and health facilities. Furthermore, 2.5 billion people without adequate access and 1 billion with no toilet at all.

If we don’t regain momentum in water sector improvements, population growth, economic instability, Earth system impacts and climate disruption may make it impossible to ever achieve a meaningful level of sustainability.

If this occurs we could face stalling or even reversal of development, meaning more people, not fewer, in poverty, and greater subnational insecurity over water issues with the potential to create tension and conflict and destabilize countries.

Threat of a global water crisis is often mischaracterized as

a lack of water to meet humanity’s diverse needs. It is actually a crisis of not enough water where we want it, when we want it, of sufficient quality to meet needs.

Moreover, changes in atmospheric composition and consequent changes in our climate have altered the envelope of certainty within which we have historically ant icipated weat her, producing deeper and more persistent droughts and more damaging floods. These changing water circumstances will cascade through the environment, every sector of every economy, and social and political systems around the world.

So what in the world do we do?

To achieve the SDGs, every country must commit funding, institutional resources and tools to the cause—including major realignment of national economic priorities where needed.

New mechanisms are required for transferring and sharing not only money but knowledge, data, technology and “soft” solutions proven in different contexts. Engagement of the private sector is critical in this transfer of technologies and know-how.

National governments must prioritize water, wastewater, and sanitation management, supported by a dedicated and independent arm’s length water agency.

The balance between environment, human security, and economic viability need to be articulated in a manner which holds all nations accountable for helping one another achieve the highest global standard for sustainable development, does not tolerate compromise, yet provides flexibility on the mechanisms by which to achieve those outcomes.

If we want to live in a sustainable world we have to provide clean and reliable sources of water to the billions of people who do not enjoy this basic right today and provide sanitation services to the more than two and a half billion people on Earth who lack even basic toilets.

Agriculture and energy sectors must be held accountable for water use and other system efficiencies while maintaining or increasing productivity. Companies that rely on, or have an interest in, water have a key role to play in financing and implement-

ing sound water, sanitation and wastewater management strategies. Such companies must step up to the plate or risk significant losses. This is no longer simply corporate social responsibility but sound economic investment.

To ensure financial resources for implementation, new and emerging opportunities must be explored in parallel with more efficient expenditures, taking maximum advantage of economies of both scope and scale and accounting for trickle through benefits to many other sectors.

Additional funds can be freed up through phased redirection of the 1.9 trillion dollars currently granted as subsidies to petroleum, coal and gas industries. Corruption, a criminal act in its own right, siphons up to 30 percent of water sector investments which could be viewed as a crime against humanity within the context of sustainable development.

We can still have the sustainable future we want. But only if the world finds renewed determination and resumes the pace needed to reach our water-related development goals.

The Middle East and perpetual war

By Leon Anderson Inter Press Service

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HILADELPHIA—There is a currently popular idea in Washington, D.C., that the US ought to be doing more to quash the recently born Islamic States of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), because if we don’t, they will send terrorists to plague our lives.

Incredibly, most of the decision makers and policy influencers in Washington also agree that America has no standing in the Middle East; that is, the US has no natural influence based on territorial proximity, ethnicity, religion, culture, politics or shared history. In short, the only apparent reason for our presence in the Middle East is to support Israel.

To say that the US is universally resented by everyone in the region is a massive understatement. That we are hated, despised, and the sworn enemies of many, is not difficult to understand. There is no moral ground under our feet in any religion. Stealing is universally condemned.

Abetting in the pillaging of Palestinians and their land is hard to justify. Yet, we keep sending Israel military and financial aid, we support them in the United Nations, and we ignore the pleas of Israel’s neighbours to stop the spread of settlers on more stolen land.

There was once an old canard that we had to intervene in the Middle East to protect the flow of oil to Western Europe and America. But since the defeat of Nazi Germany in North Africa, that threat has never again existed.

The fact is that the source of most of the wealth in the Middle East is oil, which is a commodity; there’s a lot of it all over the world.

If it’s not sold, the producer countries’ economies collapse, because that’s all they have on which to survive. They are, few of them in the Middle East, industrial economies, or mercantile economies. They are almost completely dependent on oil exports to Europe and Asia for their economic survival.

The oil crunch in 1973 that saw prices rise in the West and shortages grow was a temporary phenomenon produced by the Persian Gulf countries that was impossible to sustain. It was like a protest movement, a strike.

It ended by costing Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries a lot of money and by spurring a world-wide surge in exploration and drilling for more oil supplies.

Oil is not a weapon as some would have us believe. As the Middle East, and now Russia, knows all too well, it is a crutch.

Therefore, we get down to the real reasons the US is involved militarily in the Middle East.

The oil crunch in 1973 that saw prices rise in the West and shortages grow was a temporary phenomenon produced by the Persian Gulf countries that was impossible to sustain. It was like a protest movement, a strike. It ended by costing Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries a lot of money and by spurring a worldwide surge in exploration and drilling for more oil supplies.

One, we clearly don’t need their oil. A possible reason for being there is conquest: we covet Iraq or Syria or Afghanistan for ourselves. I think we can dismiss that notion as absurd and move on.

Then the question screams: Why are we there? Why are we continuing to give ISIS and other extremist, nationalistic groups a reason to hate us and want to destroy us?

The only answer is Israel. We have made Israel the artificial hegemonic power in the region against the will of everyone who is native to the area. We have lost all credibility among Arabs,

all moral standing and nearly all hope of ever restoring either.

The US has become a pariah in the Middle East, and the result is that we will be faced with endless war and terrorist attacks for ages to come unless we make a dramatic change of course in our foreign policy—namely, stop supporting an Israeli regime that will not make peace with its neighbours.

An organization called the Jewish Voice for Peace has endorsed a call from Palestinians for a boycott of Israel, divestment of economic ties, and sanctions (on the order of those imposed on Iran and Russia) to encourage Israel to end its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied since 1967.

The JVP urges Israel to dismantle the grotesque wall they have built to keep the Palestinians out of territory that was once theirs; to recognize Palestinians as citizens of Israel with equal rights; and to recognise the right of refugees to return to their homes and properties in Israel as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

The argument that we are fighting ISIS because they threaten our democracy is absurdly infantile. That’s another of those political throwaways we hear because our leaders think we’re all simpletons who can’t figure things out for ourselves.

How on earth could 40,000 or 100,000 disaffected Arabs

destroy American democracy?

They are fighting us because we are there fighting them. Let us go home, and they would have no reason to fight us.

I suggest this avenue knowing full well that some may say that we must instill the spirit of democracy among these people or there will never be peace in the world. Excuse me, but there will never be peace in the world.

We all thought that when Gorbachev gave up the Soviet Empire a new era of Russian democracy would ensue.

Instead, Russia got drunken and loutish leadership until a strongman, in the Russian historical context, Vladimir Putin, took over. Democracy cannot be exported. It has to be wanted and won in the light of local historical, religious, social and economic needs. If they want what we have, Arab women will find a way to get it.

In spite of all this more or less common knowledge, the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, warns us that if we don’t crush Iran, if we don’t continue to support Israel and back their hegemony, the world will collapse in anarchy, and democracy will be lost to all of us. I ask you: how much of this nonsense are you willing to take? Someone has to begin a discussion on what the hell we’re doing in the Middle East—and do it soon.

NewsSunday

A6 Sunday, March 1, 2015 • Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

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Zamora, Albano push house arrest for Enrile

T

WO senior members of the minority bloc in the House of Representatives are set to file a resolution on Monday urging the Sandiganbayan to grant house arrest to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.

In their draft resolution, House Minority Leader and Partido Magdiwang Rep. Ronaldo Zamora of San Juan City and Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela cited humanitarian grounds, pending the resolution of the plunder charges against Enrile over his involvement in the P10-billion porkbarrel fund scam.

“Senator Enrile’s advanced age and current state of health require

certain medical procedures and facilities to ensure his continued well-being,” Zamora and Albano said.

Enrile, who was accused of pocketing P172 million from his pork barrel and is facing plunder and graft cases, was rushed to the Makati Medical Center before dawn on Thursday owing to pneumonia.

He is under hospital arrest at the National Police General Hospital

(NPGH) at Camp General Rafael A. Crame in Quezon City.

Zamora and Albano also said that the NPGH does not have adequate facilities to address the health needs of Enrile.

“National Police Health Serv ice Sp ok esm a n C h ie f I n s p.

Raymond Santos has admitted in news reports that the hospital lacks the necessary facilities to properly address Senator

Enrile’s current condition,” the draft resolution said.

Albano also said a hospital is not a favorable area for Enrile’s condition, saying that such environment “is very stressful.”

“Pending his trial, Senator Enrile should be given a chance to stay in his home because hospital is a stressful area, and he cannot stay there for a long time,” Albano said.

Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

SC orders reinstatement of dismissed Japanese TV-network employee

By Joel R. San Juan

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HE Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the reinstatement of a female employee of Fuji Television Network Inc., who was dismissed by the Japanese company after she was found suffering from lung cancer.

In a 45-page decision written by Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, the High Court’s Second Division denied the petition for review filed by Fuji Television Network Inc. seeking the reversal of the Court of Appeals (CA) ruling issued on June 25, 2012, favoring its employee Arlene Espiritu.

The SC, howerver, modified the CA ruling as it ordered Espiritu’s backwages be computed from June 2009 instead of March 2009.

The Court said the CA was correct in finding that the successive

renewals of Espiritu’s contract indicated the necessity and desirability of her work in the usual course of Fuji’s business, thus making her a regular employee, with the right to security of tenure.

The Court agreed with the CA that, since Espiritu enjoys security of tenure, she could only be dismissed for just or authorized causes and after the observance of due process.

The expiration of her contract does not negate the finding of illegal dismissal by Fuji.

Likewise, the SC said, “An employee can be a regular employee with a fixed-term contract. The law does not preclude the possibility that a regular employee may opt to have a fixed-term contract for valid reasons.”

The Court held that Espiritu had been illegally dismissed, since

Fuji failed to comply with the requirements of substantive and procedural due process necessary for her dismissal since she was a regular employee.

Espiritu did not sign the nonrenewal contract voluntarily and it was a mere subterfuge by Fuji to secure its position that it was her choice not to renew her contract.

The Court noted that for disease to be a valid ground for termination under the Labor Code, two requirements must be complied with: (1) the employee’s disease cannot be cured within six months and his or her “continued employment is prohibited by law or prejudicial to his or her health, as well as to the health, of his or her coemployees”; and (2) certification issued by a competent public health authority that even with

proper medical treatment, the disease cannot be cured within six months.”

“The burden of proving compliance with these requirements is on the employer. Noncompliance leads to the conclusion that the dismissal was illegal,” the SC ruled.

In Espiritu’s case, the Court said that there was no evidence showing that she was given due process, considering that she was not even given the chance to present medical certificates.

Espiritu was employed in 2005 by Fuji as a news correspondent-producer “tasked to report Philippine news to Fuji through its Manila Bureau field office.”

Her e mploy me nt cont r ac t was initially for one year, but was successively renewed on a yearly basis with salary adjust-

ment upon every renewal.

In 2009 Espiritu was diagnosed with lung cancer and, upon informing Fuji, she was asked to sign a nonrenewal contract, where it was stipulated that her employment contract would no longer be renewed after its expiration on May 31, 2009, and that the parties release each other from liabilities and responsibilities under the employment contract.

She received $18,050 as monthly salary from March 2009 to May 2009, year-end bonus, midyear bonus and separation pay.

Espirity affixed her signature on the nonrenewal contract with “UP” for “under protest.” Espiritu then filed a case for illegal dismissal with the Metro Manila Arbitration Branch of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

The labor arbiter dismissed the case for illegal dismissal filed by Espiritu against Fuji, citing Sonza v ABS-CBN, and held that Espiritu was not an employee but an independent contractor.

Upon appeal, the NLRC reversed the labor arbiter’s decision and ordered Fuji to pay backwages, computed from date of the illegal dismissal.

The CA affirmed with modification the NLRC’s decision by ordering Espiritu’s reinstatement to her position without loss of seniority rights, and pay her backwages, 13th-month pay, midyear and year-end bonuses, sick leave and vacation leave with pay until reinstated, moral, exemplary damages, attorney’s fees and legal interest of 12 per annum of the total monetary awards.

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Sunday, March 1, 2015 A7

Abu bandits killed in ongoing Sulu operations now at 24

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Flowers everywhere Foreign and local tourists crowd Baguio City in the monthlong celebration of Panagbenga Flower Festival on Saturday along Session Road in Baguio City. PNA

Tribal leaders’ alliance holds congress

By Marvyn N. Benaning Correspondent

C

LOSE to 100 tribal leaders will be in Metro Manila from March 3 to 6 to represent their organizations as the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) holds its fourth congress.

KAMP will hold the congress in Quezon City with the theme, “Intensify the struggle for ancestral land and self-determination within the frame of national liberation and democracy.”

KAMP Spokesman and National Coordinator Piya Macliing Malayao said the congress will tackle the struggle of tribesmen to win their ancestral lands and pursue the principle of self-determination.

“KAMP was steadfast in its aim to represent the IPs since it was established two decades ago. It was the oppressed and marginalized situation of the indigenous peoples that called for an organization that advances our rights as a people all those years ago. In our fourth congress, we are looking forward to looking back on our triumphs and tribulations, and strengthen our ranks and determination to continue the struggle for

our lands and self-determination, alongside the struggle of the Filipino people,” Malayao said.

KAMP’s affiliate organizations number to more than 600, including Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (Kalumaran), Cordillera People’s Alliance, Central Luzon Ayta Association, Bigkis at Lakas ng Katutubo sa Timog Katagalugan and Bai Indigenous Women’s Network.

The congress is being held on the 20th year of the enactment of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 on March 3.

Malayao said the law had legalized wholesale land-grabbing of ancestral lands by mining corporations, and is considered as the largest threat to the survival of indigenous peoples across the nation.

“This gathering of indigenous peoples will start with a big rally in Mendiola, protesting the two decades of the implementation of the Mining Act of 1995. Around 200 indigenous peoples from all over the country will be joined by environment advocates and other support groups to demand the scrapping of the Mining Act of 1995,” Malayao added.

Tribesmen have suffered the

worst from dislocation and environmental destruction caused by liberalized mining under the Mining Act of 1995, she claimed.

Based on KAMP’s study on existing mining permits, five of the six Financial Technical Assistance Agreements are within the ancestral lands of tribal people.

Also in tribal territories are 148 of the 339 approved Mineral Production Sharing Agreement, 23 of the 61 Exploration Permit, 30 of the 84 Mineral Processing Permits and 45 of 222 industrial sand and gravel operations.

More than 60 percent of all mining permits cover 607,779 hectares that encroach on the ancestral tribal lands.

KAMP and the Scrap the Mining Act Network are gathering 20,000 signatures to scrap the Mining Act of 1995.

“On the occasion of the 20th year of the Mining Act of 1995, KAMP restates its firm position to scrap the Mining Act of 1995 and enact a pro-people, pro-environment, and pro-indigenous peoples mining law,” Malayao said.

KAMP supports the People’s Mining Bill filed by the Makabayan bloc in Congress in 2011.

Mindanao’s most influential women

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HE late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said, “There is a type of woman who does not let her husband narrow her horizon.”

Once homemakers turned Muslim Mindanao’s most powerful women, Mayor Eleanor Dimaporo Lantud of Pantao Ragat, Lanao del Norte, and Party-list Rep. Princess Sitti Hataman of Anak Mindanao are an inspiration for their courage and commitment.

Bae Eleanor strives to improve the quality of life of her constituents, while Princess Sitti has been crusading for human rights and women’s causes. These pedigreed women embody the gentleness but steely strength of the Muslim spirit.

Eleanor’s father-in-law and husband were mayors, who served for three terms. While her male predecessors faced tough opposition, Bae Eleanor ran unopposed. “It’s probably because I’m a woman,” she says.

Since taking the helm, she has pushed for reforms. On her first year in 2007, there were no day-care centers to prepare young children for elementary school. She then hired unemployed undergraduates to tutor the children and to help them overcome their timidity.

“We, Maranaws, in remote areas are too shy. I encourage them [children] to do what they can to the best of their ability,” Eleanor says.

In seven years, more than a hundred day-care centers have sprouted in 20 barangays.

“The education standards have improved. The products of these day-

care centers are now into higher education and have become achievers,” Eleanor says. The town also saw more infrastructures, such as better roads and school houses. “We believe in the future of Pantao-Ragat,” she says.

Her husband, Lacson, who was development-oriented during his term, exposed her to the rigors of bidding and building. Bae Eleanor takes pride that she finishes projects ahead of schedule, thereby saving the government millions in expenses.

Still, one of her challenges is finding livelihood projects for her constituents and making do with the lack of funding from the national government. “I want to help my people, especially the farmers, so that they can improve their agriculture. For the fresh graduates, I try to find jobs government agencies that would suit them.” With her firm but suave approach, Bae Eleanor is looked upon as a mother, rather than a politician.

“I’m the only mayor who goes around without a bodyguard. I don’t want to flaunt my position.”

Her charisma is also attributed to her upbringing as a member of one of Mindanao’s enduring political clans, the Dimaporos. From her famous uncle, Mohammad Ali Dimaporo and her father Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Bae Eleanor learned how to earn the trust of the people. “They were good listeners and they acted immediately when people sought for their help.

They would tell me that the people are the reason for your position and, so, you must love them,” Bae Eleanor recalled.

Bae Eleanor, 47, constantly reminds her seven children of oldfashioned values, such as respect and the need for continuous learning. “I tell my children that possessions will disappear, but education won’t.”

In legislation, Princess Sitti Hataman, who is the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao’s first lady, brings her experience as a non-governmental organization worker to Congress.

As the former executive director of the National Commission for Muslim Filipinos, she brings up the realities in remote Muslim communities when filing or supporting of bills.

She cites the example of her contribution to the Committee on Millennium Development Growth.

By convention, hospitals and civil registry offices are the source of information for maternal mortality.

However, Muslims are not accustomed to putting in their details to registry offices.

“If we rely on traditional sources, then we don’t get accurate statistics because we miss out on those who don’t register. Local government units and people’s organizations can be the bases for data gathering,” she says.

Princess Sitti is most vocal about Muslim rights.

She points out that one of the reasons for conflict in the South is that government plans without consulting the locals and understanding their background. “The interventions are not what these people want or inapplicable to the community.”

By Priam F. Nepomuceno Philippines News Agency

ITH military operations against the Abu Sayyaf Group still ongoing in Sulu province, the Armed Forces (AFP) announced on Saturday that the number of bandits killed in the now weeklong campaign has climbed to 24 dead and 24 wounded.

The announcement was made by the AFP Affairs Office chief, Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc.

Military casualties include two soldiers killed and 26 wounded.

Cabunoc said these figures were obtained from the military’s sources in Patikul, Sulu.

“Reports from our sources in the villages in Patikul indicate that the Abu Sayyaf Group is on the run and the bandits are running out of ammunition, even as the elite [Army] Scout Rangers are

relentlessly tracking them down,” he said.

As of press time, pursuit operations in Sitio Baunoh Butang, Barangay Buhanginan in Patikul, Sulu, is ongoing.

Earlier, the AFP chief of staff, Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, ordered the military to conduct an intensified operations against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Sulu provinces.

As this developed, Catapang stressed that he intends to use

both military and nonmilitary approaches to deal with the Abu Sayyaf problem. “ There is no purely military solution to this lingering social problem. I will commit troops to relentlessly pursue the armed bandits who are hiding in the jungles.

Another group of soldiers will work with the local government and non-governmental organizations in addressing the wide array of community issues that are also attributed to the existence of the Abu Sayyaf,” he said.

Catapang added that the military will involve different stakeholders in helping local governments deliver basic social services to the people.

He said he is considering the option to send more troops to help flush out the Abu Sayyaf bandits still remaining in Sulu.

C a t a p a n g s a i d t h e A F P, through the Western Mindanao Command, will support socioeconomic programs that will cater to livelihood, education and counter-radicalization as part of the military’s “Whole of Government Approach” of addressing the problem.

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‘More than half of ₧2.606-trillion natl govt budget subject to misuse’ F

By Estrella Torres

ORMER National Treasurer and Social Watch convener Leonor Magtolis-Briones raised concern on Saturday that more than half of the P2.606-trillion national government budget this year is prone to misuse, as the Aquino administration embedded the funds in pork-barrel-style appropriations in spending agencies.

Briones said, of the total P2.606-trillion budget under the 2015 General Appropriations Act (GAA), Congress has only scrutinized the agency allocation worth P866.2 billion, while the rest of the funds are executive discretion.

“Congress’s power of the purse is weakened and eroded,” Briones said in her speech at the recent forum on national budget held at the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance (UPNCPAG).

Briones, who teaches at the UP-NCPAG, said: “Only 23 percent of the budget were subjected to Congress’s scrutiny. Ironically, it is

Congress itself that yields the power of the purse. Congress presided over its own requiem.”

She said that, although the Supreme Court has declared as unconstitutional the Priority Development Assistance Fund (Pdaf), also known as pork barrel, and major portions of the Disbursement Acceleration Program, such types of appropriations are still embedded in key spending agencies.

Briones said the pork-barrel style of allocation in key spending agencies has reached P46.1 billion, and this will not be subject to government auditing and Congress scrutiny.

Of these funds, the Depart-

ment of Public Works and Highways has the biggest allocation, worth P27.3 billion. The funds will be used for medical assistance of indigent patients, as well as key health projects of local governments.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development, meanwhile, has a P14-billion share from the pork-barrel-style funds embedded in key spending agencies. The funds are intended for assistance to families affected by natural calamities, families in difficult circumstances, and to provide livelihood programs.

The Department of Labor and Employment, meanwhile, obtained

an allocation of P1.97 billion for its capacity-building programs for Filipino youth to help them get decent employment. The funds are also intended to provide livelihood programs and jobs for families affected by calamities.

The Department of Health was given an allocation of P1.9 billion from the pork-barrel-style budget to provide assistance to indigent patients and help poor communities in health-related projects.

The Commission on Higher Education has obtained an allocation of P1.8 billion from the questionable allocation to sustain the scholarship programs of poor but deserving college students.

PIDS disputes PSA report on poverty

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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eco-marathon The starting grid is set for the opening ceremony on Day Two of the Shell Eco-Marathon in Manila on Friday. Shell Eco-Marathon challenges student teams from around the world to design, build and test ultra-energy-efficient vehicles.

Doug Benc/AP Images for Shell

HE number of poor Filipinos is increasing on account of population growth, a study of the state think tank Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) said.

The PIDS came up with a policy note analyzing the recent Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report, which suggested that the welfare conditions in the Philippines are improving. It was attributed to programs such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps.

However, PIDS senior research fellow Jose Ramon Albert and coauthor Arturo Martinez, who wrote the report “Is Poverty Really Decreasing? And If Not, Why Not?”, said there is no evidence suggesting that the number of poor Filipinos, indeed, decreased. In fact, Albert and Martinez claimed that the number of poor Filipinos may have actually grown bigger because of population growth.

The PIDS study said the PSA, in its official estimated poverty figures for the first half of 2013, reported that 24.9 percent of Filipinos were poor in the first semester of 2013, based on the 2013 Annual Poverty Indicator Survey (APIS).

However, the PIDS report argued that, while these descriptions of poverty are based on official statistics released by the PSA, the PSA report did not actually claim or report a “drop” in poverty incidence in 2012 and 2013.

The PSA mentioned that 24.9 percent of Filipinos were poor in the first semester of 2013, and that in the same period in 2012, poverty incidence among Filipinos, based on the 2012 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), was recorded at 27.9 percent.

According to Albert and Marti-

nez, 24.9 percent is seemingly a decline from 27.9 percent, only that the methodologies used to arrive at the poverty reports were different.

They explained that the PSA’s technical notes stated that the source of poverty data on the first half of 2013 is the 2013 APIS, a nationwide sample survey designed to provide information on the different indicators related to poverty and uses a different questionnaire from that of the 2012 FIES.

Although the 2013 APIS used more questions on income (than it used to) with its 19-page questionnaire, the 2012 FIES income module used 24 pages of questions, the PIDS study said.

The PIDS report added that, even if APIS 2013 made use of the 24-page income module of FIES 2012, this would still not make poverty data from the APIS and FIES comparable, since FIES also asks households detailed information on their expenditures before income questions are asked using a total of 78 pages of questions. The FIES interview could take an average interview time of five hours.

The APIS 2013 questionnaire had six pages of questions on expenditure, aside from 19 pages of income questions, and several pages of other questions, which, overall, took three hours to accomplish.

“We, therefore, do not have clear evidence to suggest a reduction in poverty from the first half of 2012 to the first semester of 2013. To get definitive recent trends on income poverty, we have to await the results of the 2014 APIS,” the PIDS policy note authors said.

Historically, the PIDS said poverty rates have been unchanged.

Based on the latest available figures from FIES, the researchers observed three clear trends on

poverty conditions. First, poverty rates have been unchanged in the first-semester periods from 2006 to 2012, since minute differences in estimates are within margins of error. Second, poverty rates also have been unchanged in the fullyear periods from 2006 to 2012; and, third, estimates of the proportion of Filipinos who are poor are lower in the full year, compared with first-semester figures, on account of extra income received from 13th-month wages and bonuses, and other income received in the second semester.

“Since poverty rates are unchanged, the number of poor Filipinos is increasing on account of population growth,” the researchers noted.

Furthermore, they pointed out a barely changing income inequality, a pattern that could mean that the new opportunities created by economic growth do not allow the income of the poor to catch up with the rest.

They also pointed out that although poor Filipinos were more likely to experience higher income growth, some nonpoor also have been vulnerable to slide into poverty.

The state think tank said the government should not only be concerned with the poor, but also with the nonpoor, who are plagued by economic risks, in designing the country’s social-protection infrastructure. Also, the PIDS recommended the development of policies for risk management, such as adequate social insurance and social-protection coverage.

“It is also important to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these programs because, if left unaddressed, income shocks may hamper the thrust for inclusive growth and for sustained prospects of the country’s development,” the PIDS report said.

Manufacturing woes rise; experts eye higher wages

By Len Boselovic Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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ITTSBURGH—An estimated 2 million US manufacturing jobs will go unfilled over the next decade because workers lack the skills to fill those positions, according to a study released this week by an industry research group and a major accounting firm.

But skeptics say that shortfall would be significantly lower if

manufacturers raised their wages.

The estimate by the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte is based on projections that 2.7 million baby boomers who currently work in manufacturing will retire over the next decade and that economic growth over that period will create another 700,000 manufacturing jobs.

The 450 manufacturing executives surveyed by the two organizations said they are worried that about 60 percent of their current

jobs are unfilled because applicants lack the required skills. Applying that 60-percent rate to the 3.4 million projected openings results in an estimated 2 million jobs going unfilled between now and 2025.

The Manufacturing Institute is the research arm of the National Association of Manufacturers. Deloitte is a global accounting firm that also provides consulting and other services. Their projection assumes workers will retire at age 64. About

two-thirds of those surveyed last year by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a Washington, D.C., research group, said they retired when they were 64 or younger.

Skeptics questioned whether the skills shortage explains why so many manufacturing jobs go unfilled. “I wouldn’t go anywhere near that 60 percent,” said Arthur Wheaton of Cornell University’s Worker Institute.

“The skills shortage disappears

once you raise wages.” Wheaton said the failure of applicants to pass drug-screening tests could also explain why some jobs go unfilled. Alan Tonelson, whose RealityChek blog covers economic, trade and related issues, said sluggish growth in manufacturing wages since the recession ended in mid2009 may have something to do with the unfilled positions.

“You have to wonder if more generous wages and compensa-

tion numbers would go a long way” to alleviating the shortage, Tonelson said. A spokesman for Oberg Industries said the study’s estimate of the skills shortage is believable even though it does not apply to the Pittsburgh-area manufacturer.

David Getty said he ran the 60-percent figure by several colleagues and “they can’t seem to dispute those numbers even though they seem to be high.” TNS