Businessmirror march 02, 2018

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n Friday, March 2, 2018 Vol. 13 No. 142

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PESO exchange rates n US 52.0700

is in line with the government’s move to rationalize perks for businessmen as part of the second package of the Duterte administration’s flagship Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP). See “Govt,” A2

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epending on the economic standing of families illegally occupying government and private lands without the tacit approval of the owners, squatting is a social problem that is also rooted on distorted moral values. That being so, there emerged two kinds of squatters— the real and professional squatters. Continued on A10

Continued on A2

@BNicolasBM

Govt promises new perks for investors in CTRP-2

Make Sense

Lopez told the BusinessMirror he just got a copy of the draft EO transmitted by labor groups to President Duterte and is now in the process of reviewing it. He, however, was quick to say he will go for whatever will make the country more attractive to foreign investors.

By Bernadette D. Nicolas

adb uses solar panels A visitor takes a video of the solar panels installed at the roofdeck of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila. The regional financial institution said the solar panels help them reduce the use of electricity by adopting an alternative power source. Solar power does not need to be subsidized because the technology behind it is mature enough to compete with other power-generation technologies, the top official of a solar-power company said. NONIE REYES

Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

LOPEZ:“What we know is that legitimate labor contracting is allowed in the Labor Code.”

CON-COM’S GOVT VERSION OKAY WITH DUTERTE, ROQUE SAYS

stay the course, saying that the government is planning to give them other perks. Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said the Board of Investments (BOI) is assessing other incentives that it can give to investors. This

Squatting problem and its social ills

@alyasjah

rade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez vowed to prioritize the interest of investors and their preferred employment scheme in the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) review of the draft executive order (EO) outlawing contractualization.

hile the rationalization of incentives under the proposed second package of the tax-reform measure would affect some investors, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) asked them to

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DTI: Contractualization EO should not hurt investments By Elijah Felice E. Rosales

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RESIDENT Duterte is supporting the consultative committee’s (Con-com) decision to adopt a federal-presidential form of government, according to Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. In a briefing on Thursday, Roques said the Con-Com’s recommendation is in line with what the President expressed in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last year. “This is in line with what the President said during his Sona that he wants to have a French model,” he said. “But he emphasizes that, even though he wanted a federal form of government, he wants that the President be elected by the people.” In that Sona, the President said he wanted to have a federal form of government patterned after France. Duterte said the system should be parliamentary, but that there should still be a president. See “Con-com’s,” A2

Tap private consortium to decongest Naia–Poe By Butch Fernandez

POE:“With the help of the private sector, we can implement projects faster, and especially if the consortium is composed of credible investors.”

@butchfBM

& Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

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@joveemarie

he Senate Public Services Committee is prodding the Duterte administration to tap private consortiums to froant-load a multibillion-peso plan to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia). “We have to admit that, sometimes, with the help of the private sector, we can implement projects faster, and especially if the consortium is composed of credible investors,” Sen. Grace Poe, the panel’s chairman, told reporters after presiding over a hearing on Senate Resolution 635 on Thursday to address decongestion of the country’s main airport. Poe, however, voiced reservations over suggestions to relocate the bulk of arrival and departure operations of airlines using Naia terminals to the former United States base facilities at Clark Air Base in Pampanga and Subic Naval Base in Olongapo. “If we transfer some of these airlines now to Clark and Subic,

their passengers may be inconvenienced due to lack of connectivity,” she said, noting that plans to ferry airline passengers by train to inbound and outbound flights at Clark and Subic airports have yet to materialize. W hile awaiting completion of train connectivity, Poe said transport authorities must focus their efforts on the expansion of facilities at the Naia complex by tapping a “super consortium” of airline indistry players. “The real solution there is not to transfer airline terminals but to expand Naia.” The senator added this was the reason she prefers a consortium of airline industry players to get together and come up with a decongestion plan. Continued on A12

n japan 0.4881 n UK 71.6900 n HK 6.6536 n CHINA 8.2337 n singapore 39.3070 n australia 40.4324 n EU 63.5410 n SAUDI arabia 13.8846

Source: BSP (1 March 2018 )

A2 Friday, March 2, 2018

BMReports BusinessMirror

DTI: Contractualization EO should not hurt investments Continued from A1

Lopez also stood his ground and said talks on a total ban on contractualization is all “nonsense” if it will cause investment pledges to go down, which he claimed will further burden the labor sector. He also told workers what they need is not an EO against contractualization, but an increase in productivity, a “work-centered mind-set” and personal development to be regularized. “We just got a copy of the draft EO, and [it is] undergoing review, but what we know is that legiti-

mate labor contracting is allowed in the Labor Code. It is prohibited when it is undertaken to circumvent existing law, specifically workers’ right to security of tenure,” the DTI chief said. He also said “the DTI has always been of the position that what is important is we encourage and attract investors so that our country can generate more jobs.” Without the proper flexibility given to employers, he argued it will cost the country investment pledges and job opportunities, as well. “We have presented before a solution that will make workers still

permanent and enjoying the benefits of regular status, even at the contractor side, as long as the business has the option to contract and outsource. This is the model done in other countries,” Lopez said. Labor groups last February held a dialogue with President Duterte to once again convince him to approve their draft EO prohibiting contractualization. The President once again delayed his decision on whether to sign the order, and asked for more time to assess the radical labor-policy reform. It was the second time Duterte left labor groups hanging, as a

previous draft EO“submitted by labor groups” banning all forms of contractual employment also gathered dust in Malacañang. The prohibition of contractualization was one of the President’s campaign promises that enabled him to earn the support of labor groups during the elections. In a separate text message to reporters, the trade chief said an EO cannot and will not change the legality of contractualization. “We wish to pursue [the] position that legitimate contractualization is allowed by the Labor Code, that it is legal and that an EO cannot change that.”

You can still visit Boracay Island this summer, but... Continued from A12

to take over the island’s management, fast-track infrastructure projects and address the violations of environmental and easement regulations. “We will be recommending that [state of calamity]to the President, but he will decide whether to approve it or not.” If and when approved, he said, the implementation should be immediate. “We can see the state of Boracay now. It needs to heal,” Año stressed. On Friday morning, the Senate committees on environment and natural resources and on tourism,

Naia. . .

Continued from A12

According to her, a “super” consortium composed of some of the country’s biggest conglomerates and GMR-Megawide have submitted to the government their unsolicited proposals separately worth P350 billion and

along with the committees on finance and on local governments will make an ocular inspection of Boracay Island. After lunch, the same committees will hold a public hearing at Paradise Garden Resort and Convention Center to discuss the local government’s compliance to environmental laws, the severe pollution in Boracay, a proposal for sustainable development of the island, the noncompliance by several Boracay establishments of environmental laws, among others. Expected on the island today are Senators Cynthia A. Villar, Nancy S. Binay and Emmanuel Joel J.

Villanueva. Meanwhile, Teo acknowledged that Chinese tourists, which accounted for a large bulk of visitor arrivals last year, prefer to come to Boracay, which is the reason there are many charter flights to Kalibo coming from about eight points in mainland China. But, she said, “they’re actually looking at Palawan, and there are some looking at Davao. So we just have to tell them that, while we are fixing Boracay, we will be diverting them to other destinations.” Last year a total of 968,447 Chinese nationals visited the country,

overtaking the Americans to take the second spot in the list of top source markets for tourists. Arrivals from China jumped by 43.33 percent, from 675,663 arrivals in 2016. “This year we are aiming higher, and we are targeting 1.5 million [tourists from China],” Teo said in an earlier news statement. She underscored that the closure of the island, if indeed implemented, is “only temporary. This is not forever. This is so we could fix Boracay and, eventually, they can go back and, I tell you, it will triple the tourist arrivals in Boracay after the rehab.”

P150 billion, respectively, to upgrade the highly congested Naia. “For as long as there’s an agreement that they will not overcharge passengers, and there are certain safeguards and guidelines, I think that we should welcome as much interest to be able to rehabilitate Naia,” Poe said. The senator made the suggestion as the Manila International Airport

Authority (Miaa) finalized plans to rationalize operations at Manila’s four airport terminals, with Terminals 1 and 3 exclusive to international flights, while Terminal 2 and 4 will accomodate domestic flights. She said this means domestic operations will have to be redistributed within NAIA and Clark airport, which is some 100 kilometers north of Manila, but added

that distributing domestic operations is only a “band-aid solution.”

‘Delinquent hangar lessees’ The leadership of the House of Representatives has directed the management of the Miaa to stop issuing IDs to delinquent hangar lessees. This after Miaa General Manager Eddie Monreal told lawmakers rental fees that

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Govt. . .

Continued from A1

“The BOI always looks after the concern of investors and have presented positions in many fora when it comes to investment incentives in the ongoing tax reform to ensure we are able to generate more investments. However, part of the reform precisely is to rationalize incentives to make it time-bound, more performancebased, relevant and focused on strategic sectors,” Lopez said in a text message to reporters. He, however, admitted some firms will certainly lose perks they enjoy today as part of the streamlining of incentives. “As we rationalize, it is unfortunate that there will be companies or individuals that will be hit, but this is exactly the necessary correction to spread more evenly the gains and remove the years of biases and make incentives more strategic.” Under the CTRP’s second package, the government aims to lower corporate-income tax to 25 percent, from 30 percent. To make up for the revenue losses, fiscal incentives will have to be reassessed and rationalized. “The provisions in the draft tax-reform package 2 included inputs [from the BOI] that makes incentives more relevant [and] even removes the bias against foreign investors and between export and domestic market orientation,” Lopez said. “Incometax holidays will be continued, as it is also provided by other countries.” Lopez also said other perks will be made available for investors, such as double deduction on research and development, accelerated depreciation and net operating loss carryover. “We must benchmark our incentives to make them more competitive compared to other Asean countries.” Citing the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), or the first package of the CTRP, the trade chief said the government is bent on adjusting taxes to make it “more streamlined and relevant.” “Bottom line [is], we are rationalizing need to be collected from companies renting the hangars amount to about P100 million With this, House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said the Miaa should no longer issue identification cards (IDs) to those companies that are delinquent in the payment of their rentals of hangars. “Miaa should stop issuing IDs so that these delinquent rental leases would

incentives to prevent unnecessary perpetual incentives. But we are enriching quality and relevance of incentives [to make them] timebound, more performance-based and focused on selected strategic industries,” he said.

VAT as tax incentive

Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua agreed with the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) that zero value-added tax exemption and VAT refunds should not be categorized as tax incentives, as this will make Philippine exports uncompetitive. “VAT is consumption tax. If you purchase or imported something, you need to pay VAT like any ordinary Filipino. Then, if you export, you will apply for refund. So they are correct that VAT should not be considered as an incentive,” Chua said told reporters in a news briefing in Malacañang on Thursday. The paper, submitted to Chua, said this doctrine is followed by economies in the Asean. Unburdened by input taxes, other Asean exporters will, thus, have lower export prices compared to Philippine exporters, who will have to pay additional VAT under the proposed corporate tax law. Philexport, in a letter to the Department of Finance, expressed reservations over the incentives-reform portion of the draft “Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act,” the second phase of the Philippine taxreform program. The group recommended that “any and all exports are to be given zero VAT exemption on their export products and services, and be given input VAT refunds when [the] new refund system is in place.” Under the TRAIN Act, an enhanced VAT refund system must be established to grant refunds of creditable input tax within 90 days of VAT refund application. The Philexport warned that the removal of VAT refunds would compromise the competitiveness of exporting micro, small and medium enterprises, which could lead to loss of jobs and livelihoods. Elijah Felice E. Rosales and Bernadette D. Nicolas

not be allowed to enter the hangar areas anymore and file cases against them,” Alvarez said. Despite this nonpayment, Monreal said the delinquent companies are still there and that the Miaa has started taking action against them. Monreal said they would enforce the policy of not issuing the IDs immediately. Alvarez also urged the Miaa to refer to the Office of the Solicitor General the case regarding the ownership of the Philippine Village Hotel being contested by the Government Service Insurance System and a certain Panlilio situated on a land owned by the Miaa. The Speaker asked the Miaa if they have intervened in the case or made a manifestation to the warring entities to transfer the building because the Miaa will use the land for a possible terminal site. Currently, the House Committee on Transportation is hearing the resolution strongly urging the Department of Transportation and the Miaa to present a rationalization program for the Naia terminals to ensure “a safe, efficient, and comfortable passenger experience.” On Wednesday Alvarez has extended to six months—from original 45 days— the deadline for airline companies to transfer some of their domestic flights to Clark International Airport to decongest Manila’s airport.

Con-com’s. . . Continued from A1

Also in his speech during the 35th founding anniversary of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) political party last March, Duterte said “a successful federalism [that] would provide a strong president but with a parliament working independently” will be good. On Tuesday the consultative committee tasked to review the 1987 Constitution voted 11-7 in favor of federal-presidential form of government over the hybrid or semipresidential system. This was decided through a runoff voting after the committee failed to reach the majority number of votes from the members who were present in the nominal voting. The federal-presidential system adopts the current setup of the national government with three branches, particularly Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. However, in a federal setup, the country will have states with their respective political authority in line with a Constitution, the same system followed in the United States.

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Garin: Bring Dengvaxia case to court By Charles R. Pepito Correspondent

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F she has her way, former Health Secretary Janette L. Garin prefers to have the Dengvaxia row be brought to GARIN court rather than in the Senate investigation. Garin issued the statement after she filed before Iloilo Provincial Prosecutor’s Office libel charges against former Health Secretary Paulyn Jean B. RosellUbial and three others over alleged “malicious statements” on the Dengvaxia row. “Bring the cases to court. [The] proper venue are the courts where all evidence will be accepted and all voices heard. This will also remove the discussions on air and stop the hysteria and panic [which are] both detrimental to public health,” Garin said. Charged with Ubial in individual complaints were former Health Undersecretary Teodoro J. Herbosa, former Ubial consultant Francisco Cruz and physician Antonio Leachon. “I am filing this complaint because I felt so much maligned and dishonored by the malicious statements,” Garin said in her complaint-affidavit against Ubial. Garin also said Cruz’s allegations of “mafia” at the DOH with her as among the alleged involved is not only malicious but untrue. “To call me and other Department of Health (DOH) officials as belonging to a mafia is purely a malicious statement without any basis,” excerpts of the complaintaffidavit stated. The charges subscribed before Prosecutor Leo Genova are the second round of complaints following the January 26th filing also of Garin against Cruz. Ubial, on the other hand, was also named respondent in a libel case and violation of cybercrime law filed by Rep. Oscar S. Garin Jr. of the First District of Iloilo. Both chambers of Congress have been looking into the possible rush in the process by which the Dengvaxia vaccine manufactured by French firm Sanofi Pasteur was purchased by the Aquino administration and used in a P3.5-billion program during the presidential campaign period. The dengue mass immunization program has been the subject of scrutiny after Sanofi admitted that its product could pose greater risk to those who received the vaccine, but had not been previously infected by the virus. The review came in November 2017 after a six-year study of the new vaccine. At a joint House panel hearing on Monday, former President Benigno S. Aquino III particularly criticized a “noisy” person, whose “certification is seemingly just a notch above the diplomas for sale over at Recto.” He was apparently referring to Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Forensics Head Erwin Erfe, who conducted autopsies on Dengvaxia recipients who later died. Aquino called on those opinions of experts to take precedence, a message echoed by Garin. “Let us continue probes by the National Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health. The DOH should be on top of the situation. The public should be listening to them,” Garin said. The former health secretary is also facing a case filed by the PAO over the Dengvaxia program.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug • Friday, March 2, 2018 A3

13 SC justices castigate Sereno, lawyers for ‘twisting facts’ on leave of absence

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By Joel R. San Juan

@jrsanjuan1573

HIRTEEN associate justices of the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday castigated Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno and her lawyers for causing confusion with regard to the nature of the leave she had agreed to take. Hinting of a possible sanction against Sereno’s lawyers, the justices, in a news statement read by SC Spokesman Theodore O. Te, said they would conduct a “separate proceeding” to tackle the confusion caused by Sereno’s lawyers, which, they said, “seriously damaged the integrity of the judiciary.” “In the ordinary course of events, the Court expected the Chief Justice to cause the announcement only of what was really agreed upon without any modification or embellishment. This matter shall be dealt with in a separate proceeding,” the justices said. The statement was signed by Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Estela PerlasBernabe, Marvic Leonen, Francis Jardeleza, Samuel Martires, Noel Tijam, Andres Reyes Jr. and Alexander Gesmundo. Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa is on leave. Following the magistrates en banc session on Tuesday, Court insiders disclosed that Sereno decided to go on indefinite leave upon the advise of her colleagues. Sereno’s lawyers, however, disputed the reports, saying that Sereno only decided to take her wellness leave from March 1 to 15, instead of March 12 to 23. The following day, the lawyers confirmed that Sereno had taken an indefinite leave. Then, on Wednesday, her spokesman announced that the Chief Justice is taking an indefinite leave to prepare her defense for the impending impeachment trial against her before the Senate. Sereno’s camp, however, issued a stated condemning the alleged “coordinated extra-constitutional” efforts to oust Sereno from her post, including “the reported attempt by

some of her colleagues in the Supreme Court to force her to resign.” In their statement, the 13 SC justices clarified that during the extended deliberations last Tuesday, they arrived at a consensus that the Chief Justice should take an indefinite leave, citing several reasons. After consulting with the most senior justices, Sereno herself announced that she was taking an indefinite leave, with the amendment that she start the leave on Thursday, March 1. The justices said the Chief Justice did not request the rescheduling of her wellness leave. “In view of the foregoing, the Court en banc considered Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno to be on indefinite leave starting March 1, 2018. Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio shall be the acting Chief Justice,” the statement read. The Court en banc directed the Clerk of Court and the Office of the Court Administrator to inform and all courts and offices accordingly. Sereno is facing impeachment trial for alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, corruption, other high crimes and betrayal of public trust. The complaint was filed by lawyer Larry Gadon who claimed that Sereno did not declare in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) the “exorbitant lawyer’s fees” of $745,000, or P37 million, which she received from the Philippine government. The impeachment complainant said the issue of SALN declaration is the strongest case presented against Sereno. The complaint also alleged that Sereno committed corruption when she, among other things, used public funds to: finance her extravagant and lavish lifestyle by ordering the purchase of a brand-new luxurious

Ready for occupancy President Duterte and private-sector partners, led by Tarlac Heritage Foundation (THC) Cofounder Isa

Cojuangco-Suntay, along with top defense military officials, on Wednesday led the inauguration of some 60 newly completed housing units at Bahay Pag-asa Phase 2 at Barangay Mipaga in Marawi City, a 1-hectare plus housing project for Marawi siege survivors. Designed and built for a family of eight, the housing units feature modern essentials like suitable power and water supply. The housing complex, likewise, include volleyball and basketball courts, a children’s playroom and learning center, and a vegetable and flower garden dubbed as “Hardin ng Lunas.” The housing project was completed in such a brief after the siege, owing to the efforts and donations from THC, Chinese-Filipino Business Club Inc., and Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Chan of Liwayway Holdings Co. Photo shows (from left) Army Commanding General Maj. Gen. Rolando Bautista, Suntay, President Duterte and Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana. Nonnie Reyes

Toyota Land Cruiser 2017 model as her personal vehicle, amounting to more than P5 million; and stay in opulent hotels when attending conferences in the country and abroad. As to the alleged acts constituting high crimes, Gadon accused Sereno, among other things, of obstruction of justice by ordering a Muntinlupa judge not to issue warrants of arrest against Sen. Leila M. de Lima in connection with her drug cases; and failure to report her high lawyer’s fees and pay the appropriate taxes, among others. On betrayal of public trust, the complaint alleged that, among others, Sereno hired an informationtechnology consultant with an excessive compensation without public bidding; sent a strongly worded but misplaced reply to President Duterte on the judges linked to drugs, thereby, inviting a head-on collision

Demafelis’s ‘recruiter’ yields to CIDG By Rene Acosta

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@reneacostaBM

he alleged recruiter of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) whose body was found inside a freezer in Kuwait yielded on Thursday to the Philippine National PoliceCriminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at Camp Crame. Agnes Tuballes, tagged as the recruiter of Joana Demafelis, voluntarily surrendered to the CIDG, claiming she was unaware of Demafelis’s fate until she learned about it from stories carried by the media. Demafelis’s body was found inside a freezer at an abandoned apartment in Kuwait, a year after she went missing. Her case was among the reasons the Duterte administration banned the deployment of Filipino workers in Kuwait. “I came out to clear the issue, that I am an illegal recruiter and now a suspect. I hoped you sought my side first before you reported on television,” Tuballes said, particularly decrying a report by GMA 7. “Now, my children are being bullied in school. You should have sought my side before you judged me. I am

not the suspect, now it seems that I am the primary suspect. I was not the one who killed Joana for you to show my pictures without any permission,” she said. Tuballes, single and a former OFW herself having previously worked in Hong Kong and Qatar, was presented on Thursday in Camp Crame by the CIDG. She admitted that she recommended Demafelis to a certain Mariz, a secretary at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel placement agency, which processed the deployment of Demafelis to Kuwait. Tuballes said she received P13,000 as commission for referring Demafelis. She admitted that the amount was unusually higher than the P5,000 standard fee received by agents like her. “I just helped so that she [Demafelis] can go abroad legally. I [helped place] her to [a] legal agency. I did not wish her to get killed or die there,” Tuballes said. “Now, my work is affected. Who will feed my two children?” she said. Tuballes said she did not hear any complaint from Demafelis’s family until she learned of her death from the media.

“I was shocked when I heard the news [about Demafelis]…almost one year I was at home [in Iloilo], why no one from the family came to [to tell] me that they have not contacted her for so long,” Tuballes said. All the while, Tuballes said she thought Demafelis was doing okay in Kuwait. Director Roel Obusan, CIDG chief, said Tuballes is not yet considered as a suspect, but admitted she is included in the ongoing investigation regarding Demafelis’s case. Initially, Obusan noted the modus of Tuballes and her contact in Kuwait, identified as Ara Midtimbang, who is married to a Kuwaiti. According to Tuballes, Midtimbang asked her to find a legal placement agency they can use in deploying OFWs in Kuwait so she established ties with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Obusan said they would continue their investigation into the case, adding they did not present Tuballes as a suspect. He, however, said Demafelis was a victim of what could be a wrong modus in the deployment of Filipino workers by recruitment agencies.

between the Presidency and the Judiciary; and prevented the Court of Appeal justices to do a courtesy call on President Duterte. Sereno, meanwhile, issued a news statement, reiterating that she would not step down despite her decision to go on indefinite leave. She, however, apologized for the confusion with regard to her filing of an indefinite leave and wellness leave. “I have not resigned and I will not resign. This indefinite leave is not a resignation. I will devote my time to the preparation of my Senate defense and work on the cases in my docket,” Sereno stated. Sereno added that, while she agreed to the advise of her fellow magistrates to go on indefinite leave, she had to comply with administrative rules. She noted that the rules do not

contain any provisions on indefinite leave, thus, she was constrained to qualify her leave according to the provisions of Rule 7, Section 6 (c) of the Internal Rules of the Supreme Court. The said provision reads “[c] Members who are on wellness leave or who are on vacation or sick leave, for at least fifteen (15) continuous calendar days, shall be exempt from raffle, xxxx” and the resolution dated January 23, 2018, on the matter of her approved wellness leave. “I requested yesterday [Wednesday] in writing the rescheduling of my wellness leave in view of my restudy of the rules. It is unfortunate that my plan of making use of an already-approved wellness leave in relation to an indefinite leave was inaccurately conveyed for which I apologize,” Sereno said.

DOE, oil firms sign agreement on fuel-price discount for PUVs

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etron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines will provide at least P1 per liter of fuel-price discount to public-utility vehicles (PUVs). According to Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, it was the agency that invited the oil firms to provide the discounts to PUVs in a bid to mitigate the impact of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law. “These corporate social responsibility [CSR] programs of the oil companies are aimed to mitigate the impact of TRAIN on transportation fares,” Cusi said. 
“With these fuel discounts and other CSR programs, we are hopeful that operators of jeepneys and buses will also help lessen the impact of TRAIN to consumers by not increasing the transport fares,” he added. The CSR programs will expand the oil companies’ existing discount programs for public-utility jeepneys, which includes the increase in the number of participating retail stations, higher discounts and inclusion of other PUVs.

The highlights of the agreements between the Department of Energy (DOE), on one hand, Petron, Shell and Phoenix, on the other, are the following:
 a. At least P1 discounts per liter of liquid fuels 
 b. Oil companies to provide a designated lane for PUVs; and
 
c. Additional privileges and other promotional offers to be offered to the drivers of PUVs. 
 

During the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA), Petron said it will implement the price discount in 500 of its stations. “We’ll start giving the discount at least ten days after the MOA signing. We are keeping the discount in place for months [but] will be dependent on market condition,” Petron CFO Emmanuel Erana Jr. said. Phoenix Vice President Raymond Zorrilla said there will be 150 service stations that will participate in the fuel discount. “We have more than 50 stations now that are already giving out discounts. Depending on its success, we plan with this in other areas and limit it to jeepeneys.” Lenie Lectura

Economy

A4 Friday, March 2, 2018 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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Mall expansion to fuel rising demand for retail workers in next three years

SBMA sees huge tourism ROI from ’18 Ad Summit

he demand for retail workers is projected to increase in the next three years on the back of the planned construction of more malls nationwide, according to Monster.com.

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By Cai U. Ordinario

In a news statement issued on Thursday, Monster.com Managing Director Sanjay Modi said finance and accounts professionals will also be in demand in 2018 due to the country’s strong economic growth. “The retail sector is also another one to look out for, since there are plans to add up to 630,000 square meters of shopping-mall space in the next three years, defying trends from the rising e-commerce space,” Modi said. In 2017 Monster.com considered the retail sector one of the best performers in terms of online hiring activities with an average of 19-percent growth in hiring in 2017, from an average of 12 percent in 2016. Monster.com said hiring activity in the sector peaked in April 2017

@cuo_bm

at 33 percent year-on-year growth and reported the lowest activity in July 2017 at 8 percent YoY. “The year capped off with a 25percent year-on-year growth in hiring activity in December 2017 and emerged as the best performing industry in the Philippines for the sixth consecutive month,” the Monster.com report added. However, Monster.com said the hiring sentiment for human resources and administration roles have remained feeble over the last 12 months in the country. According to the Monster Employment Index (MEI), the occupational group reported a 1-percent YoY decline on average for overall hiring activity in 2017. Despite starting the year with a

4-percent YoY growth in hiring activity, that growth plummeted into the negatives by March, as it reported eight consecutive months of decreasing hiring activity. July saw the steepest low in hiring for the group, reporting a 16-percent YoY decline. In spite of the consecutive declines, hiring activity slowly picked up by the end of the year, reporting a 15-percent YoY growth in hiring activity by December 2017. Overall, online hiring in the Philippines remained robust in 2017, which will likely continue this year. Monster.com said online hiring in 2017 saw an average of 6-percent YoY growth in online hiring, kicking off the year with a 6-percent YoY growth in January 2017. The growth continued for two quarters, before hitting a low of 2percent contraction in July. But the dip was short-lived, with increases in hiring recorded after August. The year capped off with a 13 percent YoY activity last December, the highest reported for the year. “The Philippines has solidly positioned itself as a shining spot for economic expansion this year, with a strong gross domestic product [GDP] growth projection and an overall growth momentum that fell well within targets. This will have an impact on hiring within the country’s key industries, which include retail, banking and finance, IT [information technology] and BPO

[business-process outsourcing], and more,” Modi said. “This can be attributed to a few factors, including the country’s expansion in export activities and an increase in domestic demand and growth in public-sector investment. Such optimism has definitely provided some peace of mind for employers, considering a rise in headcount this year,” he added. The Philippines’s IT sector also demonstrated outstanding hiring performance in 2017, starting off strong with a 19-percent YoY growth in online hiring in January. Last March the sector reported its highest annual growth in hiring at 27 percent. Hiring activity within the Philippines’s banking sector for 2017 suggests momentum for an even stronger 2018, as the sector recorded

positive hiring activity year-round. In 2017 the sector started with a 19-percent YoY growth in hiring activity and witnessed its peak in February, and reporting a 24-percent YoY growth in hiring activity. The report is based on data collated from the monthly MEI, a gauge of all online job-posting activities in the country that records the industries and occupations showing the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity. Monster has taken due care in compiling and processing the data available from various sources for MEI, but does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or action / decision taken or for the results obtained from the use of such information.

The retail sector is also another one to look out for, since there are plans to add up to 630,000 square meters of shopping-mall space in the next three years, defying trends from the rising e-commerce space.”—Modi

Pernia says TRAIN not main culprit for Jan inflation uptick

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he government’s tax-reform program is not the main culprit for the high inflation rate posted in January, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda). In a news statement, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) is expected to account for only 0.7 percent of inflation this year. Pernia said one of the reasons a January inflation hike is high rice prices, which accounted for 23 percent of the poor households’ expenses. “We have to closely monitor the buffer system of rice to ensure that there is no considerable spike in the price of rice,” Pernia said. “It is also possible that certain merchants have taken advantage of the situation by raising the prices of their goods prematurely. It is so easy to point a finger at TRAIN,” he added. In a recent Senate hearing, the Department of Finance also said among these factors are the increase in the prices of crude oil in the international market and the drop in the exchange rate.

Neda Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie G. Edillon also attributed the increase in the prices of food commodities, such as corn and meat, to typhoons that hit the country in December last year. In order to address these price increases, Edillon said there is a need to encourage more investments, or for existing firms to expand production. “For these, the second round of tax reform, or TRAIN 2, is critical. This should be accompanied by the passage of the ease of doing business bill,” Edillon said. In January the Philippine Statistics Authority reported the increase in commodity prices reached 4 percent, which is the high end of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s target for the year. The uptrend was primarily due to the higher annual increment in the heavily weighted food and nonalcoholic beverages index, as it accelerated by 4.5 percent, from previous month’s growth of 3.5 percent. Moreover, the index for alcoholic beverages and tobacco registered double-digit annual markup at 12.3 percent in January 2018, from 6.4 percent in December 2017. Cai U. Ordinario

By Henry Empeño

UBIC BAY FREEPORT—Prestige and profit are expected to make the upcoming Ad Summit Pilipinas 2018 here a very welcome event for the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and tourism establishments in this free port. According to SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma, the host Subic agency expects to reap a huge tourism return on investment (ROI) when the country’s biggest advertising and marketing event unfolds from March 7 to 10 at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center (SBECC). Eisma said the SBMA would receive some P8.7 million in direct and indirect benefits from hosting the four-day convention. “This will be on top of the income to be made by business establishments in the free port, as well as accredited suppliers during the event. So, the actual ROI is quite huge, overall,” she stated. Eisma said it is the hotels, restaurants and theme parks that would benefit most from the forthcoming event in Subic, but that, in general, Subic would be the biggest winner in terms of promotion and media exposure. According to the SBMA Tourism Department, the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies, which organizes Ad Summit, has committed around P7 million in media mileage to the SBMA for the upcoming event. These include press releases and feature articles in print and online media; posters, flyers and banners for marketing and promotion; official television commercial and radio plugs; as well as exposure on social media. Eisma said this “is the best ROI that we get out of this event.” Organizers, she added, would also have to pay the SBMA close to P1.2 million in SBECC utility fees and ad permits. Meanwhile, the Subic agency would also earn an estimated P450,000 from the environment and tourism administrative fee charged by local hotels on their guests, and around P60,000 in Etaf from theme parks in the free port. SBMA Tourism Department head Jem Camba said that some delegates to the summit bring along family members, who would visit parks and resorts in Subic and patronize local restaurants and shops in the Subic Bay and Olongapo City area. Camba said organizers are charging each delegate P19,000 for Ad Summit inclusions like entrance to plenary sessions and talks, officially sponsored meals, shuttle service within the summit venues and admission to the awards night, parties and special events.

PHL railway training institute in the works

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ANILA and Japan agreed on Tuesday to jointly develop a so-called Philippines Railway Institute envisioned to be a premier training institution that will ensure that the local railway manpower is on a par with international standards and best practices. Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade and Japan International Cooperation Agency Senior Rep. Tetsuya Yamada signed during a transportation summit in Manila the “records of discussion” for the establishment of the said training and regulatory body. According to Tugade, the institution is a reflection of the government’s acknowledgement that construction of new train facilities is not merely enough to sustain a healthy local railway sector, as it is “equally important” to ensure that the people manning rail infrastructure are also competitive in terms of skill and talent.

“We will establish the railway institute, as we have seen a death in training in our existing rail workers. Our partner for this is the Japanese group Metro Tokyo,” he said on Thursday. “This will ensure that we can change the way we maintain the equipment, the operations and even customer service in our train systems.” Tugade added the institute is seen to become a licensing and certification body that will ensure that the quality of manpower to be deployed in the Philippines’s train systems both existing and planned. Transportation Undersecretary Timothy John M. Batan explained that the establishment of the institute is divided into phases. “For phase one, the institute will provide trainings to people — meaning people will enroll to gain knowledge about rails,” he said. “But, eventually, it will be a certification body for other institutions.” For instance, he added, a university would like to come up with a railway

program, the institute may grant a certification for it to offer the program to the public. Tugade noted the said institute is an offspring of the government’s infrastructure thrust, called the “Build Build Build” program, which is seen to usher the country into the Golden Age of Philippine Infrastructure. “This is a result of our initiative to build several railway systems, such as the Subway, the Tutuban-Malolos line and the Malolos-Clark line,” the Cabinet official said. There will be a physical campus to be located in Valenzuela City. It will be opened this year. Aside from these, Tugade also signed agreements with academic institutions such as Mapua University, National University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Technological Institute of the Philippines and University of Santo Tomas that will help the government gain more knowledge in the railways sector. Lorenz S. Marasigan

Agriculture/Commodities BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

‘Poor to gain more from making rice cheaper via scrapping of QR’

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By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM

onverting the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice into tariffs would benefit the poor more than increasing the cash subsidies given to them, an official of the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Thursday.

In a news briefing in Malacañang, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua also told reporters more Filipinos would benefit from the conversion of the QR on rice. “The government’s plan is to reduce the price [of rice] so that everyone would benefit. Because if

you will give a subsidy, that means the government is taking it from the budget,” Chua said. Aside from making rice cheaper, the DOF official said converting rice-import caps will also help the government increase its tax collection. Citing the National Economic

and Development Author it y’s (Neda) estimate, Chua noted that scrapping the QR would slash the price of rice by P7 per kilogram. He added there are other ways to help the poor in case inflation accelerates, such as the provision of conditional-cash transfer (CCT) and the unconditional-cash transfer (UCT). A total of 7.4 million families will receive a cash subsidy of P200 per month to help them cope with the increase in commodity prices following the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law. Amounting to P2,400 for the whole year, the UCT will be distributed within the first quarter to 4.4 million existing beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and to 3 million indigent senior citizens. The UCT is different from the CCT because it requires children of the beneficiaries to continue attending school to undergo regular check-ups.

Chua said 4P beneficiaries have started to receive the conditional cash transfers, adding that the Department of Social Welfare and Development distributes the UCT together with the 4P subsidy. In an economic bulletin on the rice-sector reform, Finance Undersecretary and chief economist Gil S. Beltran said the conversion of the QR would encourage more private traders to import the staple. Citing a Neda study, Beltran said the reduction in rice prices would be beneficial to the majority of households spending at least 20 percent of their income on rice. The DOF ’s chief economist added reducing rice prices would also help the government cut poverty as the staple is a major driver of inflation. The first package of the TRAIN, which was implemented in January, lowered income tax rates but hiked the excise tax of fuel products, sweetened beverages and brand new vehicles.

Worst drought in 30 years adds to Argentina’s economic woes

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rgentine President Mauricio Macri was banking on a near-record soybean crop to drive economic growth of 3.5 percent this year and extend the nation’s recovery. Instead, this year’s drought, on course to be the worst in 30 years, has farmers bracing for the poorest harvest since 2009. It’s an unwanted surprise for a government with a daunting list of tasks that already includes taming inflation, closing the fiscal gap and boosting exports. The government may need to trim its forecast for gross domestic product in 2018 if dryness persists this week, Guido Sandleris, the chief adviser at the Treasury Ministry, said on Monday. No significant rain is predicted. “This will probably have a very serious impact on the economy, exports and tax collection,” said Emilce Terre, chief economist at the Rosario Board of Trade. “Crops are Argentina’s biggest export and it needs the dollars to pay for imports and service debt.” Seven of 10 firms surveyed by Amilcar Collante, an analyst at La Plata-based economic research center CeSur, are cutting 2018 growth projections because of the drought. The average GDP estimate has dropped to 2.5 percent, from 2.9 percent last month. Signs are piling up that the

drought may be worse than what farmers saw on their parched fields in 2009. Soybean and corn shipments account for 36 percent of total exports and the government taxes the former. By this time in 2009 more rain had fallen in much of the Pampas, according to government maps published on Monday. That year, analysts predicted a soy crop of 46.2 million metric tons. By the end of the harvest, farmers had collected just 39.9 million, a record low. The slump dragged the economy into a recession. The Buenos Aires Grain

Exchange has cut its soy estimate to 47 million tons for 2018 and the bourse will likely have to reduce it even further, said Esteban Copati, the chief estimates analyst. Economists are starting to follow suit with GDP forecasts. Eco Go SA slashed the forecast to 1.8 percent from the previous estimate of 2.1 percent, said Martin Vauthier, an economist at the consulting company. In a worst-case scenario, the drought would chop 0.5 percentage points off growth, Lucia Pezzarini, an economist at the LCG SA

consultancy, said in a report on Monday. She is predicting a fall in crop exports of $2 billion based on cuts to harvest estimates since December. However, an easing of monetary policy and an expected uptick in major trade partner Brazil means LCG is keeping its growth forecast at 2 percent for now. If crop estimates continue dropping, “this is going to be bad,” said Ivan Ordonez, an independent economist who’s a consultant to farm-supply companies. “We could be looking at a repeat of 2009.” Bloomberg News

Editor: Jennifer A. Ng • Friday, March 2, 2018

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Bfar lifts 3-month ban on sardine fishing in Zamboanga By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

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he Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) has lifted on Thursday the three-month sardine-fishing ban in the waters off Zamboanga Peninsula, which the government imposed last December to allow the undisturbed reproduction of sardines. The Bfar, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), said fishermen may now resume their operations in the waters of East Sulu Sea, Basilan Strait and Sibuguey Bay. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, who led the resumption of fishing operations midnight of March 1, said the government’s imposition of the three-month closed fishing season enabled fishermen to hike their catch. “There was an increase from 2015 in the catch of Sardinella lemuru [tamban]. It increased to 143,060 metric tons in 2016 and in 2017, rose to 152,283 MT,” Piñol said. The DA chief said the closed fishing season did not only result in higher sardine population but also increased the sighting of big and high-value fish species that feed on sardines. “It is beneficial to the country because since they started the closed fishing season, the once rare big fish—tuna, salay-salay ginto [scad]—are gradually coming back to the point that even the people in General Santos City are getting

their tuna supply from Zamboanga Peninsula,” Piñol said. He also committed a P50-million livelihood support to the affected fish workers and fishermen during the closed fishing season. The Bfar noted that the sardine closed season was initiated by stakeholders and the government in 2011. Under Joint Administrative Order (JAO) 1, issued by the DA and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the sardine closed season was implemented to conduct scientific research and determine the spawning months of sardines, according to the Bfar. After three years, the Bfar issued Administrative Circular 255 that established a closed season for the conservation of sardines in the waters of Zamboanga Peninsula. “Closed fishing seasons are also observed in other fishing grounds like the Visayan Sea, Northeastern Palawan, Davao Gulf and other parts of the country,” the Bfar said. “The DA-Bfar’s incentivebased program, Malinis at Masaganang Karagatan, lists the observance of closed seasons as one of the five criteria in the search for the country’s most outstanding coastal community,” it added.

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The World BusinessMirror

Friday, March 2, 2018

Kushner’s business got loans from firms after WH meetings

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arly last year, a private equity billionaire started paying regular visits to the White House. Joshua Harris, a founder of Apollo Global Management, was advising Trump administration officials on infrastructure policy. During that period, he met on multiple occasions with Jared Kushner, President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, three people familiar with the meetings said. Among other things, the two men discussed a possible White House job for Harris. The job never materialized, but last November, Apollo lent $184 million to Kushner’s family realestate firm, Kushner Cos. The loan was to refinance the mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper. Even by t he st a nd a rd s of Apollo, one of the world ’s largest private equit y firms, the previously unreported transaction with the Kushners was a big deal: It was triple the size of the average property loan made by Apollo’s real estate-lending arm, securities filings show. It was one of the largest loans Kushner Cos. received last year. A n even larger loan came from Citigroup, which lent the fir m and one of its par tners $325 mil lion to help finance a group of office buildings in Brooklyn, New York. That loan was made in the spring of 2017, shortly after Kushner met in the White House with Citigroup’s chief executive, Michael L. Corbat, according to people briefed on the meeting. The two men talked about financial and trade policy and did not discuss Kushner’s family business, one person said. There is little precedent for a top White House official meeting

with executives of companies as they contemplate sizable loans to his business, government ethics experts say. “ This is exactly why senior gover nment of f ic i a l s, for a s long back as I have any experience, don’t maintain any active outside business interests,” said Don Fox, the former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration and, before that, a lawyer for the Air Force and Nav y dur ing Republican and Democ rat ic ad m i n ist rat ions. “ T he appearance of conf licts of interest is simply too great.” The White House referred questions to Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, who did not dispute that the meetings between Kushner and the executives took place. Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Lowell, said in a statement that Kushner “has met with hundreds of business people.” He said Kushner “has taken no part of any business, loans or projects with or for” Kushner Cos.

since joining the White House and he has followed ethics advice. Christine Taylor, a spokesman for Kushner Cos., said Kushner’s White House role had not affected the company’s relationships with financial institutions. “Stories like these attempt to make insinuating connections that do not exist to disparage the financial institutions and companies involved,” she said. An Apollo spokesman, Charles V. Zehren, said Harris was not involved in the decision to loan money to Kushner Cos. He said the loan “went through the firm’s standard approval process.” A Citigroup spokesman, Danielle Romero-Apsilos, said Kushner Cos. had been a bank client before the election and the relationship had no connection to Kushner’s White House role. She said Citigroup negotiated the 2017 loan with Kushner Cos.’s business partner, a real-estate developer. Kushner’s tenure in the White House has been dogged by questions about conflicts of interest between his government work and his family business, in which he remains heavily invested. Kushner steers US policy in the Middle East, for example, but his family company continues to do deals with Israeli investors. T his blur r ing of lines is a potential liability for Kushner, who recently lost his top-secret secur it y clearance, amid worries from some US officials that f o r e i g n g o v e r n m e nt s m i g ht tr y to gain inf luence w ith the

This is exactly why senior government officials, for as long back as I have any experience, don’t maintain any active outside business interests. The appearance of conflicts of interest is simply too great.”—Fox

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner (center) listens during a Security Council meeting on the situation in Palestine at United Nations headquarters where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speak on February 20. AP/Mary Altaffer

W hite House by doing business w ith Kushner. Investigators working for Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election, have asked questions about Kushner’s interactions with potential investors from overseas, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kushner’s firm has sought investments from the Chinese insurer Anbang and from the former prime minister of Qatar. Mirijanian, the spokesman for Kushner’s lawyer, said Mueller had not sought from the Kushner Cos. or Kushner “any information or document concerning any business dealing either has had.” Kushner resig ned as chief executive of Kushner Cos. when he joined the W hite House in Januar y 2017, and he sold a small portion of his stake in the company to a trust controlled by his mother. But he retained the vast majority of his interest in Kushner Cos. His real-estate holdings and other investments are worth as much as $761 million, according to government ethics filings. They are likely worth much more, because that estimate has his firm’s debt subtracted from the value of his holdings. The company has done at least $7 billion of deals in the past decade. Public filings show Kushner still owns part of the company that received the Apollo loan. The loan was used to refinance a Chicago skyscraper that is the Midwest headquarters for AT&T. Kushner a lso sti l l holds a stake in the entity that owns the Brooklyn buildings and received the loan from Citigroup. Federa l et hics reg u l at ions restrict government employees from participating in some matters that involve companies with which the official is seeking “a business, contractual or other financial relationship that involves other than a routine consumer transaction.” Fox, the ethics expert, said Kushner risked v iolating the regulations in his meetings with Citigroup and Apollo executives. “Why does Jared have to take the meeting?” he asked. “Is there not somebody else who doesn’t have these financial entanglements who can brainstorm freely with these folks?” The Trump administration no longer publicly discloses logs of visitors to the W hite House. In February the W hite House settled litigation with Public Citizen, a nonprofit organization, and agreed to disclose some of that information. Kushner has also met at the White House with Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the private equity firm Blackstone, which in the past has lent money to Kushner Cos. for several projects, though all before the election. Until August, Schwarzman was the head of a White House business advisory council. “Blackstone has not done any business with Kushner Cos. since the election, nor has Steve ever discussed private business matters with Mr. Kushner,” a Blackstone spokeswoman said. All of the executives who met with Kushner have lots to gain or lose in Washington. Apollo has sought ways to benefit from the White House’s possible infrastructure plan. And its executives, including Harris, had tens of millions of dollars personally at stake in the tax overhaul that was making its way through Washington last year. New York Times News Service

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

Abe drops part of work reform after error-ridden data furor

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apanese P r i me M i n i s t e r Shinzo Abe dropped a key element of his labor reforms following the discovery of hundreds of errors in data provided to support the legislation. Abe said late on Wednesday that his government would remove from planned legislation a proposal to expand the socalled discretionar y labor system, under which more employees would be paid for output, regardless of hours worked, to boost productivity. The decision has prompted one of the main opposition parties to launch a critique of another aspect of the package. The government will still seek to pass the three remaining aspects of the legislation in the current session of parliament, Abe said. These are as follows: limit overtime and impose penalties for breaches; narrow the differences in treatment of full time and casual or contract workers; and loosen the restrictions on overtime for highly paid professionals. The retreat is nevertheless an embarrassment for Abe over what he has called a “ historic” bid to combat a labor shortage a s t he world ’s t h i rd- big gest economy ages. M a k i n g t he l a b or s y s te m more f lexible is difficult in a countr y where lifelong employment is entrenched, and where long hours and a lack of help for working parents are common. “There is still a big problem,” with the proposals, the opposition Democratic Party said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. “That is the ‘high-level professional system,’ which allows the legal imposition of excessively long hours and could lead to death from overwork.” The party urged Abe to drop this part of the proposal, as well.

Akio Mimura, the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s chairman, told reporters in Tokyo that it was unfortunate that Abe dropped the key reform, according to Kyodo News. His comments ref lect that of big business in Japan, which has pushed for a broader workrefor m agenda.

Apologies, opposition

Abe told parliament last month that workers on the “fixed-pay” system tended to put in fewer hours than their peers, but the government survey he cited was later shown to be full of mistakes—including one employee doing 45 hours overtime in a single day. He’s repeatedly apologized for citing the survey. Abe has said that the package of measures will help people combine work with caring for children or elderly relatives. Changing working practices is “the biggest challenge of Abenomics,” he said on Wednesday. The three remaining pillars will be submitted to the ruling parties before being approved by the cabinet, he added. A poll published by FNN on February 12 showed that 43.7 percent of respondents had positive expectations for the package, while 51.1 percent said they did not. Robert Feldman, a senior adviser at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co., said he disagreed with some parts of the proposals, and that the government should use the setback as an opportunity to rethink the whole thing. “Some parts of this would be very contractionary for the economy,” Feldman said in a phone interview. “For example, cutting hours without raising hourly wages at the same time by the same proportion would be contractionary.” Bloomberg News

Russia, Syria clash with US and West on Syria cease-fire

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NITED NATIONS—Russia and Syria clashed with the United States and its Western allies on Wednesday over responsibility for the failure of a cease-fire to take hold in Syria, as the United Nations said humanitarian convoys are ready to head to 10 locations, including besieged eastern Ghouta near the capital Damascus. The contentious Security Council meeting four days after members adopted a resolution demanding a cease-fire “without delay” for at least 30 days throughout Syria to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate the critically ill and wounded reflected frustration and anger on both sides at the continued fighting and bombing. UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock asked council members: “When will your resolution be implemented?” And UN political chief Jeffrey Feltman urged all 193 UN member-states “to use their influence with the parties to ensure implementation of the cessation of hostilities.” Lowcock said convoys are ready to go to 10 besieged and hard-to-reach locations, including 45 trucks with aid for 90,000 people in Douma in eastern Ghouta. He said that since February 18 over 580 people were reported to have been killed and well over 1,000 injured in air and ground strikes in the Damascus, home to about 400,000 people. Lowcock also warned that delivery of aid across conflict lines to millions of people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria “has totally collapsed.” “Unless this changes,” he declared, “we will soon see even more people dying from starvation and disease than from the bombing and the shelling.”

Russia ordered a five-hour daily humanitarian pause starting on Tuesday to allow civilians to exit eastern Ghouta. But no civilians have left, and no humanitarian aid has entered. Russia asked council members to support a presidential statement asking all countries to ensure that armed groups support the Russian humanitarian corridors. The US, supported by other Western nations, objected because the statement didn’t reflect the resolution’s demands, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because consultations were private. Lowcock reiterated the International Committee of the Red Cross’s assessment that it is impossible to deliver humanitarian aid in five hours, noting that it often takes convoys with all the required clearances a day just to get through checkpoints. Kelley Currie, the US ambassador for economic and social affairs, called a five-hour pause “cynical, callous, and in flagrant defiance of the demands” for a cessation of hostilities “for at least 30 days— every day, all day.” “Russia does not get to unilaterally rewrite the terms of the resolution they negotiated and they sat here and voted for,” she said. “Russia, Iran and the Assad regime are not even trying to hide their intentions,” Currie told the council. “They are asking civilians to leave eastern Ghouta on the false premise that they can then attack anyone left in the area as much as they would like.” Sweden’s deputy ambassador Carl Skau, speaking on behalf of resolution sponsors Sweden and Kuwait, also declared: “A fivehour cease-fire does not meet the requirements of the resolution.” AP

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

The World

Companies expecting China’s legislature to act for quick reforms

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EIJING—Businesspeople a re lo ok i n g t o C h i n a’s ceremonia l leg isl at ure for assurance that President X i Jinping is speeding up refor ms a imed at ma k ing t he cooling economy more productive as he prepares t he countr y for a retur n to one-man r u le. Next week ’s annual session of the National People’s Cong ress (NPC) comes af ter the Communist Party’s decision to end presidentia l ter m l imits prompted hopes Xi, already China’s most dominant figure since the 1980s, might feel more confident about embracing painful changes needed to curb surging debt, overhaul state industr y and open the economy wider to private competitors. “China’s reform process has been very sluggish. We need to watch whether reforms can accelerate,” said Citigroup economist Li-Gang Liu. “If we continue to be disappointed, then sentiment on China will turn for the worse.” A party statement on Wednesday affirmed promises to give market forces the “decisive role” in allocating resources. But moves to centralize power in Xi’s hands and give the party more control over business have fueled doubts about Beijing’s commitment. The meeting of the full NPC does little lawmaking work. Instead, communist leaders use the gathering of 3,000-plus delegates as a platform to publicize new initiatives and set the tone for the year’s development plans. The decision on term limits triggered complaints that China is setting back market-oriented reform that requires impartial institutions. But some analysts suggested Xi might be more effective in the short term if officials who might resist change can no longer be sure when he will leave. The 64-year-old leader has tempered pledges to promote market forces by also affirming plans to build up state companies that control energy, telecoms and most other industries. The party’s ambitious agenda includes nurturing more sustainable growth driven by domestic consumption instead of trade and investment and doubling incomes from 2010 levels by 2020. Last year’s economic growth ticked up to 6.9 percent, among the world ’s strongest. But that is forecast to fall as regulators try to get rising debt under control by tightening controls to cool twin booms in bank lending and real-estate sales. X i ha s embraced c ha nges, including slashing more than 2 million jobs in an effort to st rea m l i ne bloated coa l a nd steel industries and has tightened financial regulation. But he faces criticism that he has avoided fundamental challenges, such as curbing the costly privileges of state companies, cutting bank lending that keeps some af loat and possibly allowing them to go bankrupt. A key indicator being closely watched by businesspeople and economists next week is the expected promotion of Liu He, a top Xi adviser who is believed to support freer markets. The Harvard-trained Liu is believed to be in line for a sweeping role overseeing reform, possibly from a post as a vice premier, while also serving as head of a new financial industry regulator or governor of the central bank. Giving one official such a broad portfolio would be a throwback to the 1990s and Zhu Rongji. As vice premier and then premier, Zhu overhauled state industry and the housing market, setting the

stage for the following decade’s explosive growth. Total debt has surged to 270 percent of annual economic output—high for a developing country—as regulators propped up growth with repeated infusions of credit after the 2008 crisis. T h at prompted t he Moody ’s and Standard & Poor’s ratings agencies last year to cut China’s government-credit rating. The party has declared reducing financial risk a priority, though Beijing has yet to make clear how far it will go in cutting lending if that threatens economic growth or elite companies. A promotion for Liu might suggest Beijing will clamp down harder on financial risks “because they can afford to take some of the pain early on, given that Xi Jinping and his closest advisers expect to be in power for quite a long time,” said Julian EvansPritchard of Capital Economics. Still, he said, Xi appears to favor a prominent economic role for the ruling party. The party announced in 2013 it would take a more direct role in managing state industry. More recently, foreign companies are under pressure to give it a formal voice in hiring, investment and strategy decisions of their joi nt vent u res w it h C h i nese partners—a move some worry is meant to turn them into tools of the party’s development plans. “ We’re not rea l ly seeing a willingness to step back and let market forces do their job,” said Evans-Pritchard. “That seems to reflect a calculation that, basically, they can’t give up state control over key parts of the economy for political reasons,” he said. “So they are putting the continued survival of the Communist Party ahead of what is needed to put the economy on a more sustainable footing and really achieve the growth rates that China could achieve with the right reforms.” Companies and investors also will be watching Beijing’s economic growth and budget-deficit targets, due to be announced on Monday by Premier Li Keqiang, the ruling party’s No. 2 leader, for signs of whether the leadership accepts the slowdown required to pay for reforms. Chinese media sug gest the growth target might be “around 6.5 percent,” only a slight reduction from 2017. T hat would help avoid greater job losses but signal reluctance to accept a deeper dow nturn. A possible cut, also suggested by Chinese media, in the deficit target to 2.9 percent of GDP from last year’s 3 percent would weigh on the economy. That would indicate Xi is serious about pursuing “quality growth,” or slower activity that is more energ y-ef f icient and generates higher-paying jobs. Cleaning up corporate debt and ma k ing the state-ow ned banking system more marketor iented requ i res B eiji ng to wrestle with other politically thorny challenges, according to Citigroup’s Liu. Banks that subsidize stateow ned enter prises (SOE) w ith low-cost credit need to clear a back log of unpaid loans before they can act like commercial lenders. Beijing is allowing some to repay debts w ith stock and says others might sell stakes to outsiders, but that is mov ing slowly. “Without SOE reform, it is very difficult to talk about sustained financial-sector deleveraging,” Liu said. “You need to work more on the ownership side.” AP

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Beijing envoy looks to defuse trade tensions as conflict looms

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ASHINGTON—China’s top economic adviser arrived in Washington this week in an attempt to defuse rapidly escalating tensions with the United States as the prospect of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies looms. But Liu He, the Americaneducated technocrat who is now President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser, may face an insurmountable task. The Trump administration appears less predisposed to engage with China than perhaps any other W hite House in decades—a dramatic turn given the US’s long campaign to persuade China to open its markets to United States products and investment. President Donald J. Trump and his top trade advisers share a widespread view that China cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith and believe that past administrations spent fruitless years pushing the Chinese to make minor changes to their economy that arrived too late, and were too often reversed. News that X i has moved to abolish ter m limits for himself and his v ice president has only increased suspicion in recent weeks that China has no intention of shif ting toward a more market-or iented economic model and plans to have a state-dominated economy. The lack of engagement is a worrying sign for relations, given that the Trump administration is poised to deliver what could be the harshest economic sanctions on China in decades. In t he com ing week s, t he Trump administration will decide whether to impose stiff tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum and restrict investments to penalize China for its alleged theft of US intellectual property. Economists fear trade sanctions could prompt retaliation from China, and even tip the world ’s two largest economies into a trade war that would harm businesses and consumers in the United States and abroad. “Certainly, the United States has gotten China’s attention with these threats,” said Susan Shirk, a former diplomat and the chairman of the 21st Century China Center at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. “ The question is, what are we going to do with that attention?” Shirk said the Trump administration seemed to have little interest in negotiating an outcome that would benefit both sides. If the US chooses to take a more punitive approach, “then I think we are at the brink of heading for a more Cold Wartype relationship,” she added. Liu has been dispatched to Wa sh i ng ton to e v a lu ate t he likelihood of such a clash, as well as to try to defuse tensions. He plans to tell US officia ls about areas where the Chinese economy w ill be opening up, and push for an official commitment to restore economic meetings between the two countries, which stalled after a falling-out over trade in July. Liu was scheduled to meet with a handful of top executives from American companies and organizations on Wednesday, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; Laurence D. Fink of BlackRock; David M. Solomon of Goldman Sachs; Marc Allen of Boeing; Evan

Greenberg of Chubb; Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former Treasury secretary; and Thomas J. Donohue of the US Chamber of Commerce. On Thursday Liu and a Chine s e de le g at ion w i l l joi nt ly meet with top administration officials, including Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council; Robert E. Lighthizer, the US trade representative; and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, for a “ frank exchange of views on the trade and economic relationship,” a W hite House official said. Liu will not meet with the president himself. Tr u m p ’s a i d e s , i n c l u d i n g Lighthizer, have discouraged the president f rom engag ing w ith China. It has been a shift from Trump’s first months in office, when he warmly received Xi at Mar-a-Lago and started a new “Comprehensive Economic Dialogue” between the countries that would include 100 days of talks over trade. But, when Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross presented the results of those talks to the president, Trump, counseled in part by Lighthizer, concluded the outcome was a bad deal for the US, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to

speak publicly. One of the breakthroughs from the 100 days of talks, China’s agreement to start receiving shipments of American beef, was first promised to the Bush administration. Another deal, to lift caps on foreign investment in Chinese insurance, banking and securities, had already been pledged to former President Barack Obama. The US pushed unsuccessfully for much tougher concessions from the Chinese at a meeting between the countries in Washington in July, and the shortlived Comprehensive Economic Dialogue fell apart. One of Liu’s tasks during his six-day trip is to revive that dialogue, which the Chinese believe gives them an important channel with Washington. But some of Trump’s advisers believe the Chinese used these dialogues not for meaningful exchanges, but simply to stall United States objectives as China’s economic power grows. The view underlines a broader shift in the US strategy toward China from using some carrots to a reliance purely on sticks. Trump has already jettisoned the primary tool the Obama administration had been using to encourage China to reform—the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The multicountry deal did not include China, but its members said Beijing would be allowed to join after making significant reforms. Suspicion of China has only grown in recent months. Trump’s aides are united around the prospect of trade measures against China, though they differ on how to tailor those measures so as not to hurt United States consumers. In addition, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have introduced legislation that would crack down

The United States has gotten China’s attention with these threats. The question is, what are we going to do with that attention?” —Shirk

Smoke and steam spew from the sprawling complex that is a part of the Jiujiang steel and rolling mills in Qianan in northern China’s Hebei province on December 30, 2016. The Commerce Department is urging President Donald J. Trump to impose tariffs or quotas on imported aluminum and steel. AP/Ng Han Guan

on Chinese investments in the US that could pose a security risk. T he Trump administration has introduced tariffs on washing machines and solar cells and modules that are aimed at China, and it is soon expected to announce new restrictions on imported aluminum and steel. In its 2018 trade-policy agenda released on Wednesday, the Trump administration criticized China for undermining market competition and distorting markets, behavior it said had left the world poorer overall. “Countries that refuse to give us reciprocal treatment or who engage in other unfair trading practices will find that we know how to defend our interests,” the report said. The last few months have been marked by uncer taint y, w ith China experts and Washington trade lawyers expecting tough measures on China to be issued at any time. In return, China has f loated retaliation on US exports of airplanes, sorghum and soybeans. “ T here’s no question that, post-f inancia l cr isis, China’s policies and practices have made it more difficult for foreign investors in some sectors of the economy to compete on a level playing field,” said Myron Brilliant, executive vice president at the US Chamber of Commerce. “There is a frustration that has been boiling over in recent years that the dialogues have not produced enough tangible results.” Economists say China has fulfilled some of the promises it made to open its economy when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. But, under Xi ’s guidance, the country has slowed and even reversed some reforms that would reduce the government’s control over the market, tracking by the Asia Society Policy Institute and the Rhodium Group shows. A m i d t h i s r e t r e n c h m e nt , business leaders, policy-makers and academics who have long defended China against more h awk i sh v ie ws a re sudden ly changing their tune. New York Times News Service

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A8 Friday, March 2, 2018 • Editor: Jun B. Vallecera

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High inflation regime hurts bottom line of PHL manufacturing industry By Bianca Cuaresma

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@BcuaresmaBM

he falling export sales of the Philippine manufacturing sector is putting additional pressure on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to raise its rates soon to curb inflationary pressures as an upward inflationary trend is seen hurting the profit margins of the country’s producers.

In its monthly assessment of the region’s manufacturing sector, global research firm IHS Markit announced the overall Nikkei Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of the Philippines slipped anew to 50.8 in February. The latest reading is lower than the already low 51.7 index in January and is the second lowest reading in the survey’s history. The PMI is a composite index to

gauge the health of the country’s manufacturing sector. It is calculated as a weighted average of five individual subcomponents. Readings above the 50 threshold signal a growth in the manufacturing sector, while readings below 50 show deterioration in the industry. “February data showed tentative signs of recovery in demand after new excise taxes reportedly

EastWest Bank posted 48% hike in net income to ₧5.1B

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astWest Bank ’s net income grew strongly in 2017 on the back of broad expansion in its revenue streams, the bank reported on Thursday. The bank ’s profit expanded 48 percent in 2017 to P5.1 billion, up from the previous year’s P3.4 billion. Core earnings, which exclude trading and nonrecurring revenues, reached P24.2 billion in 2017, up 21 percent from the 2016 level. This, as net-interest income grew 19.8 percent while fee-based income was up 29.2 percent. The bank achieved the rise in income despite its higher operating expenses, which reached P13.9 billion, or 19.1 percent higher than the previous year’s. Trading income was also down 16.6 percent at P760 million. EastWest’s return on equity was at 13 percent, the highest reported among listed universal banks. Total assets went up by 8.8 percent. “We are pleased to see the

48-percent increase in net income after 2016’s 70-percent increase. I am sure these results will only motivate our colleagues to continue to exert efforts to serve our customers better and show their deep appreciation for our customers’ continued trust and confidence in EastWest,” EastWest CEO Tony Moncupa said. The bank ’s loan portfolio was also up 10.7 percent to P220.1 billion, as consumer loans grew 17 percent to P160.3 billion. Consumer loans accounted for 71 percent of the bank ’s total loans. Total deposits went up 7.7 percent to P258.7 billion. Low-cost deposits grew 11.1 percent. Bianca Cuaresma

Duterte extols Eternal Plans on its 37th Anniversary

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resident Duterte lauded loca l pre-need industr y leader Eternal Plans Inc. for its “long-standing success as an insurance provider committed to the financial growth and security of its clients.” In a special message for the 37t h A nniversar y of Eter na l Plans, Duterte commended the company for its persistence in ensuring that it reaches its goals and become one among the most trusted in the business. “Truly, its unwavering perseverance and determination in realizing its objectives make it one of the leading players in the pre-need industry,” the President said. He called on Eternal Plans to pursue its goal of securing a

stable and worry-free future for Filipinos in the years to come, expressing hope that its milestone “may enable the company to set good standards of practice and reliable services that meet its clients’ and stockholders’ needs and expectations.” Eternal Plans will be celebrating its 37th Anniversary on March 4. Founded by Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua in 1981, Eternal Plans is part of the ALC Group of Companies, a conglomerate engaged in various businesses such as pre-need, insurance, memorial parks, banking and financial services, print and broadcast media, car dealership, real-estate and property development.

restricted order book growth at the start of the year,” the report said, adding foreign demand remains soft as indicated by the fall of export sales for the second straight month. IHS Markit Principal Economist Bernard Aw said the further loss of momentum of the Philippine manufacturing sector in February is likely a predicate of the entire quarter’s weak performance. Among the indicators of a weak performance across the board in the manufacturing sector include the tax reform’s “adverse impact” on demand, as well as the steep fall of job gains during the month. “However, what’s particularly of big concern was the tighter squeeze on profit margins as inflationary pressures built rapidly to survey-record rates. There were reports of layoffs as part of efforts to reduce costs,” Aw said. “Fir ms cont inue to bl a me higher excise tax rates and increased commodity prices, especially oil, plastics and paper for the sharp cost increase. A weaker peso also worsened the impact of higher import costs,” the economist added.

Inflation in January hit 4 percent, touching the ceiling of the government’s 2-percent to 4-percent target range. It also marked the sharpest spike in local commodity prices since 2014. The BSP said inflation further accelerated in February, projecting the month’s inflation rate to have hit anywhere between 4 percent and 4.8 percent.

Aw said this adds pressure to the BSP to tighten its monetary policy stance to curb inflationary pressures. “While the influence of tax reforms is expected to fade in the coming months, price pressures could still become more entrenched on rising cost of imported materials, which will add to calls for the BSP to raise interest rates,”

the economist said. “At the recent BSP policy meeting, Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said that headline inflation is likely to break above the 2-percent to 4-percent target range in 2018, but more evidence of rising price trends is necessary before the BSP decides to tighten policy,” he added. In February—the Monetary Board’s first meeting for 2018— the BSP decided to keep its monetary-policy rates unchanged despite their projection of 4.3-percent inflation for 2018. The current inflation level at the 4-percent territory was last seen in 2014—when inf lation averaged 4.1 percent during the year. Inflation then peaked at 4.9 percent between July and August before consequently coming down in the last months of the year. It was also in 2014 when the BSP last changed its monetary policy stance to tighten rates—a move that was then made on the basis of curbing excessive inflationary growth in the country. The BSP will be having its next monetary-policy meeting on March 22.

SSS announces delay in pension disbursement T By Rea Cu

@ReaCuBM

he Social Security System (SSS) announced on Thursday that pension disbursement for the month of March may be delayed due to the enhancements being done to the agency’s electronic-disbursement (e-disbursement) system, which would delay the release of funds to partner banks. The state-run pension fund said some of its pensioners might experience a slight delay in the release of their monthly pension this month due to the enhancements in the e-disbursement system. The improvement in its e-disbursement system is one measure the agency is undertaking to further ensure the delivery of

enhanced quality service to its member-pensioners. “SSS, however, assures the pensioners who might be affected by the delay that they will receive their monthly pension starting March 6. The SSS management also appeals for understanding as it works on its system enhancements for better service delivery,” the SSS said in a statement. In February the SSS announced that its ATMs in 94 branches nationwide already accepts contribution payments from employers and individually paying members under its enhanced contribution collection system, using generated Payment Reference Numbers (PRNs), thus increasing accessibility and convenience for members. Si nc e Ja nu a r y 16 , 2018 ,

self-employed, voluntary and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), were required to have their PRN when paying to enable real-time posting of their contributions (RTPC). The PRN-based system will address delays in the posting of contribution payments that result in ineligibility to SSS benefits and loans and delays in the processing of claims. RTPC-compliant collection partners include Bayad Center Inc., SkyFreight, Bank of Commerce, Security Bank Corp., i-Remit, Asia United Bank, Ventaja Inc. and Unionbank of the Philippines. The state-run pension fund also said that it shoulders the cost of standard service fee applied for local collection and disbursements of benefits of accredited collecting

banks in accordance with the Social Security Commission (SSC) Resolution 870s 2017. SSS President and CEO Emmanuel F. Dooc said the application of standard service fee is in compliance with the Department of Finance directive to shift to fee-based compensation agreement, which will take effect upon amendment of the agency’s existing agreement with its partner banks. He added that the SSS will pay its partner banks P10 for every payment made by members and employers as stated in the SSC Resolution, and no amount will be collected from members. In Januar y 2017 President Duterte approved the pension hike of P2,000 under two tranches for SSS member-pensioners.

Visayans need not die without seeing a doctor

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HERE were grim years in the past when many poor Filipinos died without getting the right medication, much less having seen a doctor, at all. If the sick one is the breadwinner, the entire family is hard up answering for his medical costs. Then there is the horrible cost of dying—the funeral services— such that the term KBL or “Kasal, Binyag, Libing” became a politician’s almost obligatory lookout. Years back, the poor were treated arrogantly. They were refused hospital entry if they did not have the money for deposit; were kept hostage in the hospital if they were not able to pay their hospital bills. Before the Generics law, unscrupulous doctors also prescribed exorbitantly priced medicine brands that killed the poor sooner than their ailment would have. Transport was so difficult that the “Doctors to the Barrios” volunteer program under the late Department of Health Secretary and Sen. Juan M. Flavier came into being. Over the years, as the economy progressed and the government had the wherewithal and the conscience to help the poor, things have, finally, changed.

Finex free enterprise Zoilo ‘Bingo’ Dejaresco III The government had always aimed to “give free medicines and hospitalization” to the poor because, frankly, their income was just enough for a hand-to-mouth existence. What is the solution? According to Undersecretary Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino, by April this year the Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (currently in Tagbilaran City) and the Don Emilio del Valle Memorial Hospital (Ubay, Bohol), Saint Anthony Mother and Child Hospital (Cebu City), Eversley Child Sanitarium Hospital (Talisay, Cebu) and the Talisay District Hospital (Talisay) will implement the “Malasakit Center.” The pilot project was recently opened in Cebu at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center from which the five other hospitals will draw lessons from once they open their respective centers. Under the Malasakit Center

Concept, the indigent patients will fill up only one form and will not spend time and money v isiting var ious agencies to get separate approvals. The poor man’s application will be processed simultaneously under the “help the poor” budget of the Department of Health, PhilHealth, Department of Social Welfare and Development, a nd t he Ph i l ippi ne C h a r it y Sweepstakes Office. In the past, if one had no political connections or does not know the medical center personnel, the homes of the poor became “Mona Lisa” centers—where “the sick just lie there and they die there.” Dino reiterated that it is the government hospitals who provide the Malasakit Center office within the hospital premises; if the four agencies run out of GAA budget, the office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas will provide the gap. The six hospitals were chosen on the basis of the number of indigent patients who registered there in the past. Soon, 50 other hospitals in the Visayas will also have their own Malasakit Center. The Malasakit Center program could be the answer to a longing

to have a one-stop office to help defray the high cost of hospitalization, especially for the poorest of the poor. This can’t be but “helping the least of our brethren,” as the Holy Book says. The “brains” behind the Malasakit Center is Michael Lloyd Dino, 48, who gave up a lucrative COO position in a real-estate group to found “Bisaya na Pud,” a movement organized to help then-Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (who speaks Cebuano) into the presidency in 2016. A La Salle business graduate, Dino was asked by t he President to find projects to help the poorest of the poor in the Visayas. Fortunately, Dino is no politician and does not hanker for any elective post. He says: “I will not stay one day longer in government office than the President.”

Bingo Dejaresco, a former banker, is a financial consultant, media practitioner and book author. He is a life member and chairman of the Broadcast Media of Finex. His views here, however, are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of Finex. dejarescobingo@ yahoo.com.

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The Regions BusinessMirror

Finance chief: BBL should be open to changes to allow Bangsamoro autonomy to evolve naturally By Rea Cu

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@ReaCuBM

HE Department of Finance said the Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) should be open to changes to allow Bangsamoro autonomy to evolve along with the crafting of a basic law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III called on Congress to tread carefully and learn from the Philippine experience in the devolution of the national government’s health and agriculture functions to the local government units in crafting a basic law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region. “We recommend that lawmakers look at past experiences in devolving certain basic services to learn from them and take into consideration these lessons when crafting the BBL,” Dominguez said at the joint public hearing on the BBL led by the House committee on local government. “Devolving power is a process. It requires some hard thinking. It requires time to build capacities, grow institutions and evolve appropriate civic cultures. When it comes to reinventing the institutions of governance, haste may sometimes make waste,” he added. “The end goal of devolution or autonomy should be to bring economic development to

the people of the area covered by this arrangement.” Based on 2016 data, the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had the lowest gross national income among the country’s regions. The per-capita gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in the national capital region (NCR) was the country’s highest at P431,783, and that of ARMM was the lowest at only P27,345 in current prices. The NCR’s economy grew by 7.5 percent in the same year, while the ARMM’s expanded by only 0.3 percent in real terms. ARMM’s percapita GRDP was a measly 6 percent of NCR’s, Dominguez said. Dominguez added that, when he was secretary of the Department of Agriculture, he and former Health Secretary Alfredo R. A. Bengzon had strongly opposed the devolution of the functions of their respective departments under the Local Government Code and, while they lost the debate, the country’s experience showed this move had hardly improved the public health status in the regions and failed to boost agricultural production. “Let us make sure that the law enacted for the purpose of establishing a Bangsamoro entity is designed precisely to make economic progress more feasible for its defined area,” he said.

Editor: Efleda P. Campos • Friday, March 2, 2018

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​ RMM warns LGUs: Observe ‘no A fraud’ policy in implementing 4Ps By Manuel T. Cayon

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@awimailbox Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—Local government executives must implement the national government’s conditional cash transfer program without any shade of irregularity, the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DSWD-ARMM) warned. Otherwise, the ARMM would file criminal and administrative charges against erring officials, sa id L a isa Masu hud A l a mia, ARMM executive secretary and concurrent regional DSWD chief. Alamia led the fourth round of LGU Assembly on Social Welfare Protection, which gave a special focus on the implementation of the conditional cash transfer program called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps. The fourth round was held for the local governments in the prov-

ince of Maguindanao. The assembly was held on Wednesday at the Camp Siongco, Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division. She said her department would be stern on monitoring the observance of the “no fraud” policy as she also explained the importance of the 4Ps “and the dos and don’ts of implementing it.” She said the clean slate that must be observed was meant “to lessen, if not totally eradicate, irregularities in 4Ps’ implementation.”

Alamia warned officials caught involved in fraudulent activities “during and after the payouts to the beneficiaries would be ousted from their respective posts and could even face criminal charges with the assistance of law-enforcement authorities.” She said the agency already coordinated with Smart Telecommunications to set up the Infocast Messaging System that, once operational, “would enable 4Ps beneficiaries and others to send their concerns to DSWD-ARMM regarding 4Ps.” “The department is also coordinating with other agencies, such as the National Bureau of Investigation, the Commission on Elections, the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in counterchecking and evaluating the list of 4Ps members,” she added. Alamia also elaborated on the different variations of corruption in 4Ps implementation and how manipulations of the program have been done by erring officials. “We thought of having this LGU [local government unit] assembly. Let us help each other to correct this problem,” Alamia said in Filipino. “Other than LGU officials, those at the Department of Educa-

tion and Integrated Public Health Office could also be part of corruption. With this, the significant role of the Department of Health and DepEd in checking and monitoring ghost beneficiaries could be valuable,” she added. Aside from these agencies, the DSWD-ARMM also sought the help of the Darul Ifta, or the local Islamic consultative body, to provide religious guidance. The Darul Ifta is also Islam’s house of jurisprudence and the final interpreter of the Koran and other Islamic concerns. Alamia said a well-implemented 4Ps program would redound to a contented beneficiary saying that “helping the needy in the community is not just a responsibility as public servants but also as Muslims.” The ARMM Bureau of Public Information said it was conducting the LGU assemblies in its mainland provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, and in the southwestern island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to maximize the intent of the declaration of martial law in Mindanao. It said the Mindanao Martial Law Instruction Order 01 directed government “to monitor and check LGUs to ensure projects and programs of the government are properly implemented and delivered.”

A10 Friday, March 2, 2018 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

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editorial

The bolo and the ‘balisong’

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he English word “finesse” is defined as “subtlety in action and skill in handling a difficult or sensitive situation”. Winston Churchill described it as “the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip”. The loose Filipino equivalent of finesse might be pagkapino but the problem is that only a few entries away in the dictionary is the word pagkainis, with again a loose translation into English as “disturbing.” Another way to illustrate the point might be to compare a balisong with a bolo. The former requires a somewhat delicate and nimble approach to carve an opponent into pieces without them knowing what happened until it is too late. The bolo, on the other hand, is a brute force weapon that the adversary sees coming but cannot avoid. President Duterte would never be accused of being subtle. When he has said “go to hell,” no one smiled back and pleasantly asked for directions. Perhaps, the President is reflecting not only his own personality but the psyche of the Filipino that is not attuned to picking up on subtlety. That may be why satire—which requires reading between the lines—is not well understood or appreciated in the Philippines. Brutal honesty and blunt words have a place even in the highest office of the land. However, if language is used like a bolo too often, it dulls the senses and loses its intended impact. Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque Jr. recently was quoted, “I have been saying again and again, do not take the President literally but take him seriously.” The reality is that sometimes you cannot have one without the other. If a person says he’s going to jump off a bridge, do we take that person literally, seriously or simply ignore the statement? The speaker has an obligation to make sure that the listener knows exactly the intended thought or what is being communicated. If the listener still has to interpret what does a particular statement mean, that is not direct communication. Maybe we could call it poetry. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the following conversation takes place. “Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on. “I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least—at least I mean what I say—that’s the same thing, you know.” “Not the same thing a bit!” the Hatter said. “You might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!” There is a proper time for rhymes and riddles but all the time is not the proper time. We have no doubt that the President’s advisors have his best interests at heart. Likewise, each of us has our own style. But Roque’s comment on “literally” and “seriously” should warrant some reflection. There is a time for the bolo and a time to use the balisong. The President is perfectly capable of using both effectively. However, if his message is being lost or distorted, then his words become ineffective and that is neither to his nor the nation’s best interests. Since 2005

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business ✝ Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Publisher

James Jimenez

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ord of the President’s desire to have the 2018 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections held, coming by way of his spokesman, is a welcome addition to the ongoing discussion about the fate of the village polls. Coming as it does, on the heels of renewed rumblings of postponement, the clear stand taken by the Chief Executive should quiet things down and finally give the public a respite from this back-andforth that’s been going on since 2016. Now, we can focus on the more important business of getting voters ready to sensibly exercise their right of suffrage. First of all, find out who’s running for office. Although the official period for the filing of certificates of candidacy is still more than a month away—April 14 to 20, to be more precise—it’s a safe bet that everyone in the barangay already knows who’s interested in what position. After all, the first rule of the candidate’s club is to never shut up about being a candidate. So take advantage of these early announcements and start looking closer at those who intend to run for office.

Second, get your priorities straight. Too often, we put off choosing who to vote for until the very last minute. Some do it because they’re waiting for the highest bidder, most do it out of sheer inattention—they simply don’t notice how quickly the days fly by. If you let that happen, however, then you’re only selling yourself short. If you have to rush the decision, then you’re probably not going to have enough time to think things through, never mind figuring out

Jun B. Vallecera

Managing Editor Associate Editor News Editor

Max V. de Leon Jennifer A. Ng Vittorio V. Vitug Lorenzo M. Lomibao Jr., Gerard S. Ramos Lyn B. Resurreccion, Efleda P. Campos Dennis D. Estopace Ruben M. Cruz Jr. Angel R. Calso

Dr. Jesus Lim Arranza

Creative Director Chief Photographer

Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes

Continued from A1

Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Benjamin V. Ramos Adebelo D. Gasmin Marvin Nisperos Estigoy Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Rolando M. Manangan Loida S. Virtudazo

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what would be in the barangay’s best interest. So, while it’s still relatively early, take the time to list down all the things your barangay sucks at. Is it garbage collection? Is it safety and security? Is it providing for the community’s basic needs? If you can pin down the three biggest shortcomings of your barangay, then you have a basis for comparing the hopefuls and determining which among them will be most likely to meet the challenges of running a barangay. Third, evaluate the wannabes. A lot of groups will be presenting you with criteria you can use. The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting, for example, will give you faith-

Squatting problem and its social ills

Online Editor Social Media Editor

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

Take your right to vote seriously, and consider it the biggest contribution you can give to your community. Remember, you’ve already been denied this right to choose your leaders twice before and it’d be a crying shame if, now that you’ve got it, you waste it. Carpe diem? Well, I say carpe suffragium—seize the vote— and make it count, not just for your own benefit, but for the greater good.

based standards to measure the candidates against. The Department of the Interior and Local Government, on the other hand, will encourage you to select a candidate who is—among other things—tough on drugs. While these criteria are good enough, know that you are under no obligation to adopt any of them. The choice of who to vote for is yours exclusively, and how you arrive at that choice is really a matter for which you are answerable only to your own conscience. Having said that, however, I would make a number of requests: In deciding who to vote for, do not be lazy and just go with whoever is popular; do not be selfish and think only of what you can get from a candidate; and—most important—do not be an idiot and allow yourself to be blinded by money. Take your right to vote seriously, and consider it the biggest contribution you can give to your community. Remember, you’ve already been denied this right to choose your leaders twice before and it’d be a crying shame if, now that you’ve got it, you waste it. Carpe diem? Well, I say carpe suffragium—seize the vote—and make it count, not just for your own benefit, but for the greater good.

T. Anthony C. Cabangon

Editor in Chief

Senior Editors

Carpe suffragium!

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he real squatters are those that can be called informal settlers for they are really poor. Thus, they need government help to be relocated to safer relocation sites. On the other hand, professional squatters are those who are gainfully employed but they choose to live as squatters. Some of them have been illegally occupying government and/or private lands for over 20 years, and they even brag about it. Thus, three-story air-conditioned concrete homes are now a common site in many squatter communities. Squatter communities along water tributaries considered danger zones by the government have been found to be one of the causes of siltation and clogging of critical waterways. Moreover, poor access of fire trucks to squatter colonies poses great risks to entire communities as fire fighters are practically

helpless in combating fires in these areas. It is, therefore, imperative for concerned government officials to act on this problem seriously and immediately. Emboldened by the soft treatment of squatters by the private and public sector, including the church, which even branded squatter

I wonder why utility companies would require land titles as proof of ownership for their property and a duly-approved electrical plan by building officials, when legitimate homeowners apply for their services. And yet, when squatters apply for power or water service, a barangay clearance is all that is required of them. Does this not pose a fire risk to an entire community of legitimate homeowners and not only the community of squatters? colonies as developing communities, squatting has become a problem that needs to be addressed comprehensively at its social, economic and moral aspects.

Addressing this social ill

Solving the problem on squatting is a very tall order. But with determination, commitment and community involvement, squatting can be prevented, especially in areas

considered danger zones by government authorities. To do this, full implementation of housing rules and laws is needed among the barangay officials, utility companies and community members. For instance, local barangays must undertake a census of squatter communities to identify the residents, their livelihood and origin, among others. The procedure should be able to identify the real from the professional squatters. Second, utility companies, like water and power, should also scrutinize the legitimacy of applicants for water and power service in squatter communities, including the structural integrity of their housing units, which must comply with building regulations such as electrical and sewage plans, among others. I wonder why utility companies would require land titles as proof of ownership for their property and a duly-approved electrical plan by building officials, when legitimate homeowners apply for their services. And yet, when squatters apply for See “Arranza,” A11

Opinion BusinessMirror

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Don’t let the Olympic truce end By Fu Ying | Bloomberg View

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ow that the winter Olympic Games in South Korea have ended, it’s unclear how long the recent diplomatic thaw on the Korean Peninsula will last. It’s not in anyone’s interest—America’s least of all—that it should soon dissolve. Even though US and North Korean representatives refused to meet at the Games, despite sitting meters away from one another, both sides have indicated directly or through South Korea that they’re open to talks. How to start those discussions is the question, as both are trying to portray any meeting as a victory for their uncompromising strategy. The US insists that the North Koreans demonstrate their sincerity and peaceable intentions by offering to negotiate away their nuclear arsenal. Meanwhile, the North Koreans have no intention of surrendering the relative security, which they believe their nuclear program has ensured. The US has added yet more sanctions, provoking yet another angry response from the North. To make progress, both sides need to try harder. The US is the relatively stronger and more capable party in this dispute. As such, the responsibility falls on America to show greater foresight—and empathy—toward its smaller rival. Weak nations, too, deserve their dignity and won’t long abide being denied it. Ignoring this reality will only return the situation to the vicious cycle of provocation and retaliation, which has dominated the nuclear standoff for so long. Looking back at the history of this dispute, North Korea has several reasons to feel insecure. Though more than 60 years have passed since the end of the Korean War, there’s still only an armistice agreement in place on the peninsula, not a peace treaty between warring parties. Confronted with a US military presence across the border—not to mention the nuclear shield extended to South Korea— the North has, over the years, wavered between pursuing negotiations to win security guarantees and developing nuclear weapons for self-protection. The 1994 Agreed Framework— in which the North agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for heavy fuel and lightwater reactors provided by the US and its allies—fell apart because neither side fully honored the deal. After 2003, the six-party talks managed to reach several more important agreements. Those all collapsed as well, because of lack of good faith on both sides. If the North deserves blame for reneging on its 2005 pledge to abandon all nuclear weapons, the US, too, undermined mutual trust by imposing financial sanctions on Macaubased Banco Delta Asia just as the parties had begun to implement the agreement. In its years of back and forth with

Arranza. . .

continued from A10

power or water service, a barangay clearance is all that is required of them. Does this not pose a fire risk to an entire community of legitimate homeowners and not only the community of squatters? Who would be liable if homes of legitimate landowners would be burned because of fires that started in squatter colonies? Would local government officials be culpable for reneging on their responsibility to monitor the community of squatters? This, for all intents and purposes, is an act of omission on the part of local government officials. In 2017, for instance, how many of the fires in Metro Manila originated in squatter communities? A big part of it started in these areas. Keeping informal settlers off

In its years of back and forth with the US, North Korea has concluded that America’s only real goal is to bring down its government. Having lost confidence in gaining security through dialogue, it’s pinned its hopes on developing a fullfledged nuclear capability. That choice has prompted the US to intensify its own threats. the US, North Korea has concluded that America’s only real goal is to bring down its government. Having lost confidence in gaining security through dialogue, it’s pinned its hopes on developing a full-fledged nuclear capability. That choice has prompted the US to intensify its own threats. Since the North’s first nuclear test in 2006, annual US-South Korea military exercises have reached a scale unseen since the end of the Vietnam War. The United Nations Security Council has adopted 10 sanctions resolutions that have almost entirely halted North Korea’s foreign trade. All of this has only made the North even more determined to cling to its nuclear weapons. No outside party can solve this problem. The North Koreans regard the US as the central threat to their survival—so only the US can address their security concerns. China can only encourage the two sides to take steps toward dialogue. The parties should be confident that, as with a car that’s been idle for too long, just getting discussions started is the hardest part. Once the car is on the road, progress will become easier. Remember, five of the North’s six nuclear tests took place when there was a setback in talks or no talks at all. The evolution of this confrontation tells us that as long as the door for negotiations is open, tensions can be controlled and the North’s nuclear program is less likely to be accelerated. In that sense, entering peace talks would itself qualify as an achievement. So far, neither side has officially accepted China’s proposal that the US freeze its joint military drills with South Korea in exchange for North Korea suspending nuclear and missile tests. Yet, both parties essentially implemented such a “freeze-for-freeze” scheme during the Olympics, which suggests that there is some flexibility in their stances. They should exploit that ambiguity to extend this state of calm and begin talks soon, hoping to build momentum. The US has every right to be concerned about its national security. But peace can’t be achieved on one side alone and, in the current situation, the US will have a hard time truly feeling safe unless North Korea does, too. That’s why China calls for building common security in the region and the world at large. critical waterways is the principal responsibility of barangay officials. Unfortunately, the problem on squatting has become a political issue. It has become an issue between political and community interests. In vote-rich squatter communities, many politicians do not even want to meddle with the legitimacy issues of squatters. It is about time, therefore, for legitimate property owners like us to have our voice heard by political and business leaders, if only to send the message that we also have our rights as legitimate property owners. And that it is the responsibility of concerned government officials to protect our homes from being conflagrated with fires that started in squatter colonies. And, most important, that it is also the responsibility of concerned local government officials to protect our legitimately owned properties from being illegally occupied by squatters.

Friday, March 2, 2018 A11

Speak to us of faith Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

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he old man at the plaza gazebo was looking at me when he asked, “What is faith?” I had been reading Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, and I was in a prophet mode. It was the 1970s. The nation was scrambling to make sense of martial law. The man in the palace was called a dictator, but only in whisper. In our city the debate about religion continued uninterrupted. The government had already killed press freedom. Rumor-mongering was declared a crime. Each day a law, a rule, a conduct was being declared. It was an era of declaration, an act which tricked one’s memory. As someone was always declaring something, there was a feeling speech was unhampered. Within that plaza, people could talk about the meaning of the Sabbath, the illusion of Sundays, the question about the Son of God becoming Man, Virgin birth and which was the true Bible. So long as one spoke of God or His absence or His person, one was free. “Ano an pagtubod [What is believing?]” He could have also meant what is faith. But he was not asking me. His gaze pierced through me and went up the early evening sky. He was looking up as if faith and religion were located above, with the clouds. This makes any discourse about faith abstract, airy and elusive. That is why when a person is reasonable we often say he is grounded; his feet planted

firmly on the ground. This must not be believing but accepting. To believe, to have faith, is to be with the clouds in the sky, the heavens. To have faith is to ask without questioning. The old man was not really talking to me. He was addressing his peers—all old men believing that age brought wisdom. In that park, they were all wise men dealing with the questions of faith. If the old man said “speak to us of faith” that would have been easy. The person addressed became the prophet. As in Gibran’s overwhelming and shamelessly overflowing romance with the huge concepts about life and love, the people asked, the prophet responded, the wind blew, the world whirled faster in its orbit, and the people listened. The people were believers. Look at the word faith and

transform it into a modifier. It becomes “faithful.” One has fidelity to another if one is to believe. One must not be an infidel. One must surrender everything to one that talks of believing. It has been years and years already since I was confronted by— and feared —the gaze of an old man asking another man to define faith. I have since learned to distinguish whether the gaze is for me and, more if the question is directed at me. I have learned how to not look and now not to answer questions. I have even become wiser not to ask and not to be bothered by questions. The world around me do not have anymore questions. There are plenty of answers, multitude of perspectives. The spot in the park where wise men debated among themselves has been replaced by blind men easing tired muscles. These blind men talk a lot about anything—from economic crisis to love lost. If they are not teasing each other, they are singing of

unchained melodies and rivers of no return. They do not talk about God and faith. It seems people are just tired now and the fatigue is of the body and not of the soul. In that park, as with all other parks in our archipelago, there is a monument to a great hero. One early evening, as a blind oversaw and ministered to what he described as cold air in my muscles, he slowly and gently pulled up my chin. This made me look up. Then and there I saw the object of gaze of the wise man of Faith. The old man asking anyone to define faith was not looking at the Heaven and connecting with God; he was contemplating the Angel, his or her robe swaying even as it was made of stone, his or her hand holding aloft a wreath above the fearless head of the hero, careful not to touch this man dressed eternally for the cold season, unbelievably divine and distant from everyone else.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

How taipans maximize their surplus wealth Edgardo J. Angara

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June 2017 Forbes article said that, out of the country’s 72 Filipinos who were included in the magazine’s billionaires’ list, a handful owned universities, which they had acquired within the last two decades.

Henry Sy, the country’s richest taipan, owned one college (the Asia Pacific College which the SM Investments Corp. has owned since 1991) and two universities (National University and Far Eastern University). The late Alfonso Yuchengco and his family bought Mapua University and the Malayan Colleges. Lucio Tan bought the University of the East since 1990—acquiring one of the best dentistry programs in the country. Emilio Yap acquired Centro Escolar University, one of the oldest private universities with the best

health programs. R amon del Rosar io Jr. of Phinma Corp. owned three universities (Araullo University, University of Pangasinan and University of Iloilo) and one college (Cagayan de Oro College). Jaime Zobel de Ayala and his family acquired in 2015 a 60-percent stake in the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga City, Camarines Sur, and later established a chain of basic education schools. On the other hand, Manuel V. Pangilinan, through Metro Pacific Investments Corp., relentlessly chased after hospitals and his

provincial hospital network includes the Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod, the Sacred Heart Hospital of Malolos (Bulacan), the West Metro Medical Center in Zamboanga City and Central Luzon Doctors Hospital in Tarlac City. In addition, MPIC dominates Metro Mani la— Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Manila; the Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Muntinlupa; the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan; the Marikina Valley Medical Center, the De los Santos Medical Center and Dr. Jesus C. Delgado Memorial Hospital in Quezon City; and the Makati Medical Center. Pangilinan’s most recent acquisitions are the Manila Doctors Hospital (formerly of Metrobank’s George Ty) and the St. Elizabeth Hospital in General Santos City. The Jose Y. Campos familyowned Unilab, through its subsidiary Mount Grace Hospitals Inc., has also purchased several hospitals, including the Fe del Mundo Medical Center, the Victor R. Potenciano Medical Center, the Mother Teresa of Calcutta Medical Center, the Grace General Hospital, the

Tagaytay Medical Center, the Westlake Medical Center, the Mary Mediatrix Medical Center, the HealthServ Medical Center (in Los Baños) and the Manila Medical Center. Buying schools and acquiring hospitals appear to be one of the best modes of doubling, even tripling, surplus money of the taipans. Some justify this accumulation as helping modernize and upgrade education and health—two of the noblest professions. But others argue that this commercializes basic services, which is every person’s right. Quite a smart investment strategy. Why? Under the National Internal Revenue Code, the corporate incometax rate of a proprietary education institution is 10 percent only, compared to 32 percent imposed on other businesses. And the owner who donates to a charitable education and health foundation is entitled to 100-percent deduction from his net taxable income. A similar charitable tax system in the UK has been branded as “undemocratic.”

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

Lent is a time of offering our time and ourselves to God Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

SERVANT LEADER

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S we embark ourselves to our journey to the third Sunday of Lent, we must also strengthen our faith to our Savior Jesus Christ by means of offering our time and ourselves through prayers and sacrifice. The season of Lent is not only a time for reflection and repentance, but also an opportunity for us to offer some prayers and doing some sacrifice. As what Cardinal Tagle said on his pastoral letter for Lent, “now, God’s love awaits a response of love from us.” In essence, during this week of Lent, we must practice some good deeds that will serve as our response to God’s love. Offering help to people in need all day

is the first thing we should have accomplished at the start of this week. “If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him?” (1 John 3:17). Second, giving a simple smile followed by bringing something special for everyone and anyone are things we should have done in the following days of the week. This is in accordance to what Cardinal Tagle said,

“our love for God is best expressed by the love we have for our brothers and sisters.” As part of our sacrifices, refraining from bashing and saying bad things to others is also part of our journey to the third Sunday of Lent. This is to give importance to the gifts of God to us, including the life of other people. As what Cardinal Tagle also said, “a gift should not be taken for granted. A gift is something that we should be thankful for because that is a fruit of the love of the one who gives it.” Also, we should offer a prayer for our family, the Church and friends in observance of our offering toward the third Sunday. By doing such thing, we are preparing not only ourselves but our brothers and sisters to be united with God. “Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, so that we may not die” (1 Samuel 12:19-23). Finally, we should also give away the things and clothes that we do not

need any more as part of our sacrifice in our journey. This is in line with what Cardinal Tagle said, “we are especially called upon to exercise charity in our dealings with our neighbor.” “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me…” (Matthew 25:35-40). My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not forget that the season of Lent is also a time of offering to God as “the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). To know more about Caritas Manila, visit or follow us on Facebook: CaritasManilaInc. For your donations, call our DonorCare lines 563-9311, 564-0205, 09997943455, 0905-4285001 and 0929-8343857. Make it a habit to listen to Radio Veritas 846 in the AM band, or through live streaming at www.veritas846.ph and follow its Twitter and Instragram accounts @veritasph and YouTube at veritas846.ph. For comments, email veritas846pr@gmail.com.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Friday, March 2, 2018

You can still visit Boracay Island this summer, but... By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

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ORACAY Island, Malay, Aklan— Boracay Island will remain open to tourists this summer.

This was confirmed by Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo, who made an aerial survey of Boracay’s resorts and other nearby islands, ahead of the public hearing on the island to be conducted on Friday afternoon by the Senate Committees on Environment and Natural Resources, and on Tourism, with the Committees on Finance, and local government. “Actually we talked to the tour operators and we said, ‘for summer, if there are already bookings, then they’re okay.’ But during habagat [monsoon] season, we have to disallow that. So we will start

telling them, as much as possible, ‘rebook in other places already; skip Boracay.’ But let’s finish the summer tourist bookings first,” she told select reporters upon arrival on the island. She noted that during the monsoon season, which is from June to September, “there are less tourists anyway, so that’s the most appropriate period to close the island, if the recommendation is indeed a total closure.” She added that the closure could be less than 60 days: “If we could shorten it, the better.” Teo suggested destinations such as Cebu, Bohol, Masbate, Iloilo, Ba-

2 million

The number of tourists who visited Boracay Island in 2017 colod, Coron in Palawan, Siargao, Camiguin and Davao as alternatives for local and foreign tourists to visit. “We have many other destinations; in that way, at least the others will also earn more income from more tourists.” In 2017 Boracay Island attracted some 2 million tourists and earned P56 million in visitor receipts for the tourism industry. Also on an inspection tour of the island is Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año, who said a decision on whether Boracay would be closed for rehabilitation, could be made as early as the next Cabinet meeting on March 5. He told reporters that after Thursday’s inspection tour with Teo, there will be another assessment

made by the task force on Boracay before finalizing any recommendations to President Duterte. “We are going to weigh between income and safety. For me, I would prefer safety first before income. When Boracay is safe [from environmental damage], then that is good for development and income generation.” Aside from Teo and Año, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu is also a member of the task force, which was formed to implement the rehabilitation of Boracay. Duterte gave Año and Cimatu six months to fix the problems of Boracay, or else he will close it. Año said there were “many other options” that the task force could adopt to meet Duterte’s challenge of rehabilitating Boracay. “With a closure, with no tourists, we could do many things.” The Department of the Interior and Local Government is also recommending that a state of calamity be declared here to allow the national government agencies Continued on A2

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Tap private consortium to decongest Naia–Poe Continued from A1

“Six months [to craft a decongestion plan] is okay but, in order to ensure safety and convenience of airline passengers, we can agree to extend it some more. Maybe not one year but definitely a little longer,” Poe said. She, however, did not completely rule out the option for airlines to relocate operations at Clark or Subic. “Clark has not just the potential, but also it’s there already and we need to be able to move fast when it comes to the development of the Clark airport and connectivity to the main financial districts in Metro Manila,” she added. The senator said she fully suports the “outward development” of airline operations, but would want to be sure that facilities are in place. “Of course, the priorities are basic facilities like airline transfers, remember the distance is about 100 kilometers from Clark to Metro Manila. So, if we transfer domestic airline operations there, it will affect passengers who benefit from domestic flights and low-cost

cassiers, including overseas Filipino workers [OFWs],” she said. Poe foresees OFWs paying additional fare for interconnectivity, which is why they prefer to land at cramped Naia facilities because they are already in Metro Manila. But once the government’s interconnectivity plans are fulfilled, she envisions these will include “highspeed trains.” At the same time, the senator suggested that the Duterte administration “seriously consider” unsolicited proposals from the private sector to bankroll Naia’s rehabilitation and maintenance efforts. “We have the interest of the private sector to be able to help the government.... We have to admit that sometimes with the help of the private sector, we can implement projects faster and especially if the consortium is composed of credible investors,” Poe said. She addedthe existing Naia complex only has two runways designed to handle 30 million passengers, noting that travelers who used the four terminals has reached nearly 40 million in 2016. See “Naia,” A2