‘TURNING POINT’ PHL VISIT BY XI JINPING SEEN TO FOCUS ON BELT-ROAD INITIATIVE By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolaTsBM
A
MID the maritime dispute in the West Philippine Sea and just after the conclusion of the Asean summit and the Apec meetings where Beijing clashed with the US, Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in the Philippines today CHINESE President Xi Jinping listens during the IMF informal dialogue on the State of the Regional & Global Economy as part of the Apec activities at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, on Sunday, November 18, 2018. AP/AARON FAVILA
DEPT. OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY
2018 BANTOG DATA MEDIA AWARDS CHAMPION
for a landmark two-day state visit. Malacañang said President Xi’s visit to the Philippines is a “turning point” in both countries’ histories, as this is his first state visit to the country and the first of its kind by a Chinese leader since 2005, reciprocating President Duterte’s earlier visit to China. The state visit comes days after both leaders attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Papua New Guinea. The two-day state visit will officially start today with a welcome ceremony in Malacañang in the afternoon followed by guest book signing, expanded bilateral meeting, witnessing of the signing or exchange of
See “Xi Jinping,” A2
BusinessMirror
www.businessmirror.com.ph
A broader look at today’s business
n
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 Vol. 14 No. 41
October BOP deficit puts 10-month gap at $4.49B
T
By Bianca Cuaresma
@BcuaresmaBM
HE Philippine economy continued to bleed dollars in October, widening the total deficit of the country’s dollar transactions for the year. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday reported a deficit of $458 million in the country’s overall balance of payments (BOP) position in October this year, higher
Senators allay fears over budget bill timeline
than the $368-million deficit in the same month last year. The continued deficit for October brought the 10-month BOP position of the country to a deficit of
See “BOP deficit,” A2
S
UPREME Court Associate Justice Lucas P. Bersamin leads the group of honorees and awardees in this year’s Gusi Peace Prize International Awards. Bersamin is currently the most senior SC Justice in the Judiciary, with 32 years of service in the third branch of government. While Bersamin ranked as the third most senior magistrate of the SC, he is the most senior justice in terms of service in the courts. The Gusi Peace Prize International Awards will be held at 6 p.m. on November 28 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). Awards will be given to honorees from Argentina, Costa Rica, Australia, Ethiopia, Germany, India, USA, Portugal, Pakistan, Turkey, South Africa and Poland for their outstanding contribution to peace in performing their profession and calling. Bersamin will be one of the two Filipinos who will receive the award this year, along with Gen. Antonio Tamayo. Bersamin entered the Judiciary right after the Edsa 2 People Power Revolution, on November 5, 1986, as a Regional Trial Court judge in Quezon City at the age of 37. In his stint in the RTC, he became the recipient of the Chief Justice Fred Ruiz Castro Memorabilia Commission with the coveted distinction of writing the Best Decision in Civil Law and the Best Decision in Criminal Law, topping all RTC judges in 1999—the only time that both awards were won by the same judge in the same year. Justice Ricardo C. Puno, Sr., as the chairman of the awarding Commission, described Judge Bersamin’s feat as “unprecedented” because no other trial judge has accomplished such.
S
JUSTICE BERSAMIN
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.6800
See “Bersamin,” A2
BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR
Let us cherish our growth Manny B. Villar
The balance of payments deficit in the January-October 2017 period $4.494 billion. This is worse than the $1.735-billion deficit in the same January-to-October period in 2017. The BOP is the summary of the country’s dollar transactions with the rest of the world. The BSP blamed the October
2017 EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS
P25.00 nationwide | 4 sections 20 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK
$1.735 billion
BERSAMIN LEADS GUSI PEACE AWARDS
ENATORS on Monday sought to allay concerns over a looming scenario that the government will operate under a reenacted national budget in January as members of the two chambers of Congress, set to adjourn in midDecember, are not likely to approve the P3.757-trillion 2019 budget bill before going on holiday break. “A reenacted budget is not impossible,” Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III admitted to reporters on Monday. “The way the Committee on Finance [tasked to hammer out the final version of the annual money measure] is saying [it], the schedule is that there is need for a reenacted budget, but only for January.” Sotto said the Senate leadership is leaving it up to “the budget committee and all the senators [to] decide by Wednesday” confirming that the annual money measure, supposed to emanate from the House of Representatives, will still See “Budget,” A8
agreements, joint press statements and a state banquet. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. earlier said the focus of the visit will be the Philippines’s joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive trade and infrastructure project that aims to link Asia, Europe and Africa, covering at least 68 countries. Before leaving on Wednesday (November 21) afternoon, the Chinese leader is also scheduled to attend to a joint call of House Speaker and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Senate Presi-
THE ENTREPRENEUR
T
HE fact that our gross domestic product grew 6.1 percent in the third quarter of 2018, despite the many challenges in the global economy, is something that we should cherish as a nation. While this is slower than the 7.2-percent growth registered in the second quarter of 2017, the most recent GDP figure points to a sustained expansion of the Philippine economy that will eventually translate into a better quality of life for most Filipinos. Continued on A6
Diokno cites ‘healthy’ debt-to-GDP ratio on China-loan jitters By Cai U. Ordinario
T
@cuo_bm
HE President’s budget secretary expressed confidence on Monday that the Philippines’s public debt remains at acceptable levels amid alarm bells raised by US Vice President Mike Pence that Chinese loans could lead countries into a debt trap. In the Pandesal Forum in Quezon City on Monday, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno told reporters the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio was currently at 40 percent and is expected to fall to around 38.5 to 38.6 percent by 2020. He said having a debt to GDP ratio of 60 percent or lower was still considered “healthy.” The statement was a reaction to the statement made by US Vice President Pence at the 2018 Apec CEO Summit that Chinese loans, particularly those financing infrastructure projects, “come with
strings attached and lead to staggering debt.” “Our debt-to-GDP ratio is very low. Under Mrs. [Corazon] Aquino, it was 100 percent; our debt was equivalent to the size of our economy. Under Erap [Joseph Estrada], since we were coming out of the Asian Financial Crisis, it was still very high. We had about 70, 80 percent but President Duterte’s debt-to- GDP ratio is 40 percent and declining,” Diokno, who served as budget secretary for all three presidents, said. “What’s the significance of this debt-to-GDP ratio? The rule of thumb is a country whose debt, public debt divided by the GDP is 60 percent or better is in pretty good shape. So we are much lower than 60 percent at 40 percent. Other countries like Japan, for example, have a debt-to-GDP ratio of 250 percent. Their debt is 2.5 times bigger than the size of their GDP. The US has
n JAPAN 0.4673 n UK 67.5990 n HK 6.7286 n CHINA 7.5961 n SINGAPORE 38.3993 n AUSTRALIA 38.4827 n EU 60.0868 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.0435
See “Debt,” A2
Source: BSP (19 November 2018 )