BusinessMirror November 22, 2014

Through checkpoints on roads Checkpoints in the last few months demanding money from passing cars and trucks. The money purportedly goes into a fund, but some sums go to pay bonuses or salaries of fighters.

How Islamic State gets money Although Islamic State receives some money from outside donors, those donations will come under increased scrutiny from the U.S. With outside donations cut, the group could still make an estimated $100million to $200 million this year through criminal and terrorist activities. Here are some ways they get funding.

Through export of oil The Islamic State now has access to five oilfields in Iraq, each of which has between 40 to 70 oil wells.They deal with middle men, some of whom are affiliated with Iraqi oil companies. They have checkpoints to move around the oil convoys, specifically to export the oil to Turkey. They can make up to $1.2 million a day.

Through extortion of small businesses Some shopkeepers have paid the militants $100 a month six or seven times in fear of retaliation. The militants take money from small merchants, gas station owners, generator owners, even pharmacists and doctors,

Through hostages

Through checkpoints on roads Checkpoints in the last few months demanding money from passing cars and trucks. The money purportedly goes into a fund, but some sums go to pay bonuses or salaries of fighters.

ABC News reported that one U.S. hostage held by Islamic State is a 26-year-old female aid worker. The Islamic military has demanded $6.6 million in ransom. Focus, a German magazine, said in April that France paid $18 million for the release of four French hostages who had been held by Islamic State.

Source: Reuters Graphic: Greg Good

© 2014 MCT

Through export of oil The Islamic State now has access to five oilfields in Iraq, each of which has between 40 to 70 oil wells.They deal with middle men, some of whom are affiliated with Iraqi oil companies. They have checkpoints to move around the oil convoys, specifically to export the oil to Turkey. They can make up to $1.2 million a day.

2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. Media Award 2008 Source: Reuters

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Remembering those who have gone before us something like life

MA. sTELLA f. ARNALDo http://stella-arnaldo.blogspot.com @Pulitika2010

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Mr. Caps, whose boisterous laughter filled the airwaves every morning on the radio show “Karambola” on DWIZ 882, had been a constant presence in my life since I decided to rejoin the journalism profession.

I don’t remember when and where I exactly met Mr. Caps, but we had once worked together at a PR firm in the early 1990s. After I became disenchanted with my job there, he was instrumental in helping me rejoin the media industry—physically even walking me to the office of the defunct Today newspaper.

I also had the opportunity to travel with Mr. Caps when we and a few other colleagues got invited by an airline to travel to New York. I remember standing in line with Mr. Caps and a reporter at Times Square trying to get half-priced tickets to watch Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. He then wandered off and when he came back, he showed us our tickets, which I supposed he had bought from a scalper.

The problem was, we already had been able to buy tickets from the booth which were cheaper than what he got. Realizing this, Mr. Caps marched off and looked for the scalper, accosted the latter in his trademark booming voice for selling more expensive show tickets, and got back his money. It was the scariest thing! I was fearful for Mr. Caps—it was New York after all, and what if the scalper had some Mafia

syndicate backing him?

Of course, by the time Norma Desmond started singing “Surrender”, we were already asleep in our seats, snoring away as jetlag finally kicked in. Try as I could to force my eyelids to open, they would not. All that trouble for nothing! Hahaha. later on, when Mr. Caps finally invaded the radio, he and his fellow Karambolistas (Jonathan de la Cruz, Ed Javier, Cong. Sonny Escudero, Rep. Teddy Boy locsin, Cong. Boying Remulla, Dodo Dulay) would keep listeners in stitches as they took turns bashing another idiot politico or inefficient government official in their own brand of humor. He would never fail to rib me on air when it was UAAP season—he being an Atenean, and I being a la Sallian. When Mr. Caps was already too sick to go to work, the Karambolistas decided it was time to close down the show. It was the saddest thing.

I will always remember Mr. Caps for his great appetite for life and laughter. And while his columns and criticisms against the powers that be were scathing, I will never forget him for his kindness. I can actually hear him in my head joking, “’Wag mo pagkakalat!” (“Don’t spread it around!”)

It was such a joy and privilege to know you Mr. Caps. ’Til we meet again. (Pero huwag muna ha. Tagalan natin. J) n

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MULTIAWARDED TV host Boy Abunda with first-ever Best Nanay awardees.

Best Nanay Awards winners take spotlight living by selling metal scraps, newspapers and other junk materials; Aquino sold movie tickets in a local theater as well as worked as meat vendor in a public market; and Motil collected kaning-baboy in the neighborhood.

Garnace made waves recently when she served as the coordinator of an evacuation center that housed around 3,000 evacuees after Supertyphoon Yolanda’s wrath. Sibunga, on the other hand, often serves as a Department of Social Welfare and Development volunteer in evacuation centers when typhoons and floods in Marikina City occur.

The event, which served as part of Boy Abunda’s birthday celebration, also saw people raving over and getting copies of the Make Your Nanay Proud book that was launched at the recent 2014 Philippine Literary Festival. The book is published by ABS-CBN Publishing and carries testimonials on their mothers by notable personalities like Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Kiefer Ravena, James Yap, Herbert Bautista, Ai-Ai de las Alas, Coco Martin, Luis Manzano and Nancy Binay.

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the best of times in the history of contemporary art The responsibility of parents

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EAR God, of course, producing children is only the beginning of the responsibility of parents. At first, human babies are almost entirely dependent, but as they grow, they need more than physical attention. They need help to develop mentally, emotionally, morally, economically and spiritually. As parents, we have the responsibility to bring our children closer to God daily. Amen.

WHAT CHILDREN NEED FROM PARENTS AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

Life BusinessMirror

Saturday, November 22, 2014

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B S J

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HY has art turned so precious that many people want to get in the buying now that it’s almost tragically too late? Then again, is that really the case? There goes the contention that market analysts would like to dispel with good tidings. As forecasts for the economy seem bright for the next 30 years, so, too, the oracles for the art market and its transition to levels approximating the global. In this process, expect prices to rise. Conclusion: Now’s the best time to buy Philippine art.

Rounding up 2014’s bull run is the last big sale of the year. Before November ends, León Gallery will unleash its “Kingly Treasures Auction,” again iterating that there are opportunities to invest or appreciate art for its own sake. But, why not do both in an era of global emergence?

FOUR FOR GRABS WE need to ask the inevitable: If foreigners have started buying local art, when will the heft of local money follow suit? Because of seeming minimal risk and despite global demand, an opportunity to acquire such “imperviousness” is available through the upcoming auction. On November 29 at 2 pm, León Gallery will sell no less than four pieces by Ventura at the Kingly Treasures sale.

Starting with Lot 47, Untitled (2011-2012) is a limited-edition print (three of three) that features

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UNTITLED (2006)

UNTITLED (2003)

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UNTITLED (2011-2012)

■ The inclusion of data from Artprice.com does not signify a commendation by the web site for the León sale.

Meanwhile, estimates are this analyst’s own.

life

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boxing emerging as big draw with pacquiao in china C1

| Saturday, November 22, 2014 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

BOXING EMERGING AS BIG DRAW WITH PACQUIAO IN CHINA

MAIN ATTRACTION

By Tim Dahlberg The Associated Press

M

MANNY PACQUIAO (top photo, right) has been the biggest draw so far in Macau, while China’s favorite boxer Zou Shimming is the featured undercard fighter in Pacquiao’s return to Cotai versus New York’s Chris Algieri on Sunday. AP

opportunity for us to put on a very good show.”

Zou isn’t the only homegrown fighter on Sunday’s card. Rex Tso from neighboring Hong Kong is 14-0 as a super flyweight, while 154-pounder Kuok Kun Ng is a Macau native.

The Chinese boxing roster isn’t exactly deep, but it’s growing relatively fast.

Pacquiao also seems quite at home here, where he doesn’t have to battle the effects of jet lag to Las Vegas.

His 350-member entourage managed to cram on two planes on Monday for a short flight from the Philippines to watch their own national hero, who is guaranteed more than $20 million and won’t have to pay millions in taxes that would come due from a fight in the US. That doesn’t mean Macau will get the biggest fights.

It won’t, even if they involve Pacquiao, who Tracy envisioned fighting three of his last five fights in Macau when he made the deal with Arum.

The lights of the Las Vegas Strip still shine brightly when it comes to the biggest events.

Pacquiao’s fight here last year against Rios was a pay-per-view disappointment in the US, partly because Rios was not considered a credible opponent by many in boxing and partly because few bought in on paying money for it because of the mystique of a fight coming from China.

There’s increased talk about Pacquiao finally fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year in what could be boxing’s richest bout ever. But no matter who he fights, his next bout will not be in Macau.

“Manny’s next fight will be in the states,” Arum said. “To be relevant in the states you want him to train in California for at least one fight a year.”

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Miguel Corp. (SMC) unit Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc. to set aside its disqualification from the auction.

However, the President did not approve its other appeal to reconsider the firm’s alleged P20.1billion premium offer.

See “Calax,” A2

Obama to immigrants: Come out of the shadows

By Kevin G. Hall & Lesley Clark McClatchy Washington Bureau

W

ASHINGTON—President Barack Obama moved on Thursday to halt deportations for nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants, defying congressional Republicans who called his unilateral action an affront to the constitutional separation of powers.

Obama’s actions reversed his own statements that he did not have the power to make such sweeping changes without Congress. But aides said he had since learned he does have the authority, and that the refusal of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to take up a bipartisan overhaul passed by the Senate left him no choice but to act unilaterally.

“To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer,” Obama said during a prime-time statement from the White House East Room. “Pass a bill.”

See “Obama,” A2

BSP gives up on 2014 goal of $1.1-billion BOP surplus

T

BusinessMirror

casino executives attribute to a government crackdown on corruption and conspicuous consumption among the wealthy.

Macau may not be Las Vegas, but the concept is the same.

Just like the casinos here began as copies of Vegas resorts, the fights follow the same pattern of appealing to sports fans with deep pockets who enjoy a wager or two.

And Chinese fans are not only learning when to cheer, but how long to stay.

“They’re beginning to know boxing,” Arum said.

“It’s a relatively easy sport to understand, which is part of its beauty. But it’s really a universal thing. The Chinese people are becoming boxing fans.”

Zou is the biggest reason for that. He won Olympic gold medals in 2008 at home in Beijing and in 2012 in London, becoming a national hero in the process and introducing the sport to millions of Chinese more accustomed to martialarts contests.

Still, when Arum was first presented with the idea of paying big money to a 112-pounder making his pro debut, he had to think twice about it. With a chance to enter the potentially lucrative Chinese market, he ponied up $300,000 for Zou to fight in a four-rounder.

Zou has fought all five of his pro fights at the Venetian, and reportedly has drawn the attention of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Should Zou win as expected on Sunday, the plan is to have him fight Thailand’s Amnat Ruenroeng for a title as a headliner on February 14 in the same arena.

“You can look for a very, very different event then that is going to be very Asian-centric,” Tracy said. “It’s a hell of an

RESIDENT Aquino has ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to conduct another bidding for the P35.42-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) project, despite a warning from business groups that this move could tinge the formidable name of the administration’s key infrastructure program.

By Bianca Cuaresma

Sports

ACAU—Bob Arum learned something about Chinese boxing fans earlier this year at the promoter’s first fight card in Shanghai, where the crowd yelled and cheered for the home-country boxers all the way up until the main event.

Then, with no Chinese fighter in the ring, they suddenly went quiet.

“There was nothing,” Arum said. “Halfway through the fight half, the crowd walked out.”

That they stayed that long is an indication that Chinese fans are at least beginning to understand a sport once banned in the country. That wasn’t the case in April last year, when two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming made his pro debut and professional boxing made its debut in the gambling enclave of Macau.

“The first show we did with Zou, you could have heard a pin drop,” the longtime promoter said. “They didn’t know how or when to cheer or seem to understand much about it.”

They will be much louder on Sunday morning, when Zou is the featured undercard fighter as Manny Pacquiao returns to the ring in the main event against New York’s Chris Algieri. Hotel officials expect the arena at the massive Venetian resort will be filled with bleary-eyed gamblers long before the main event.

“The fact it’s on Sunday is a little inconvenient. The fact it’s on in the morning doesn’t seem to matter,” said Ed Tracy, president and CEO of the Venetian. “Most of them have been up all night anyway.”

On the state-sanctioned CCTV network, a staggering 300 million people are expected to tune in to a broadcast that, unlike in the US, will be free of charge.

If boxing isn’t exactly exploding in China, there’s little doubt it’s beginning to find its own niche. Pacquiao and Algieri are being counted on to fill hotel rooms this weekend and bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue from visitors who are as eager to spend money in the resort’s lavish shopping mall as they are in the crowded casinos.

It’s welcome money at a time Macau’s gaming revenues are in a five-month slump that

n Saturday, November 22, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 44

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

A document obtained by the BusinessMirror showed the DPWH and its Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) were directed to sort out the details of the rebidding for the much-coveted expressway-construction contract.

The decision of Malacañang partially grants the petition of San

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BACKGROUND CHECK THE present economy is calibrated for efficiency, so that deals are closed hard and fast. In the art-buying game that León Gallery eagerly hosts each quarter, the only thing that players regret is the art that they did not buy, especially when a price increase proves their undoing.

To bolster the belief that the market is not a bubble, we present an independent analysis by Artprice.com, the global data bank of auction returns and the world leader in industry information with over 27 million indices. Its 2013-2014 Contemporary Art Market Report dedicates a chapter to “The Emerging Markets,” with a section titled “Focus on the Philippines.”

The group based in Lyon, France, declares that the Philippine art market is now the 20th most vibrant in the planet, ahead of mighty Russia and affluent Switzerland. We are slowly becoming a potential player in the global scene thanks to recent auctions that tip the arrow north. Where’s the bubble in an emerging market?

Art isn’t part of the real economy. Although a vibrant GDP may help, the real price spikes are caused by increases in a country’s Gini coefficient, the measure of inequality, sad to say a glaring truth. As William Goetzmann of the Yale School of Management explains via the academic paper Art and Money, the art market will most likely be impervious to economic gyrations that only affect the majority and not the affluent that constitute the base of art sales the world over. the artist’s mercurial handling of the female portrait.

Beginning at P400,000, the work’s market value is estimated between P700,000 to P1.5 million.

Now let’s talk sculpture. Lot 89 features such specimen. Though primarily known for his paintings, Ventura is noted to appropriate disjointed themes in his sculptures, too.

Scaled Man Figure (2010) is a post-punk rendition of the male form rendered in fiber glass, stainless steel and polyurethane. The sculpture begins at P300,000. Market estimate: P2 million to P3.5 million.

For the heavy-hitters, the two remaining lots are pièces de résistance that must be bought at all costs.

A work in oil, Lot 110, or Untitled (2003) captures the alabaster flesh that the artist has been acclaimed for painting without leaving traces of brushwork. This early work features double images of a hand with the text “Right” mirrored above, signifying perhaps that there is no wrong hand when dealing with the art of Ventura.

Measuring 40 by 48 inches, it begins at half a million.

That’s a bargain compared to estimates of P7 million to P8 million.

Last is Lot 38, which should have been tackled earlier for its numerical calling, but due to subject matter is best considered last. The Untitled 2006 oil on canvas shows a youth amid a mental landscape filled with deities and latter-day icons, such as manga characters and biblical personages. With allusions to pop art and issues of self-identification amid the power of mass media, the work should appeal to the young art collector. The medium-size painting starts at P300,000.

Estimate: P3 million to P 5 million.

The Kingly Treasures Auction of León Gallery also features other pieces by various artists, notably H.R. Ocampo, Jose Joya, Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera and many others. View the catalog at leon-gallery.com/v2/ gallery/ecatalogue.

exclusive

PARENTS: RETHINK MOTIVES, AND BUDGET... »D3

The best of times in the history of contemporary art

RONALD VENTURA THE global report also makes news for naming Philippine visual artist Ronald Ventura as the top 76 contemporary artist in the world. This puts Ventura head and shoulders above more famous names, like Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who ranks below him at 100, or veteran American artists like Barbara Kruger, slotted at a much lower 187.

Being ranked 76th among the top 500 is no mean feat for the man and his race which needs new models to emulate. Ventura is someone to be mighty proud of, a national artist-hero in the making. Quantitatively speaking, he amassed an auction turnover of €3,009,252 (or P169,450,980 in today’s exchange rate) for 34 artworks sold in the past year, besting National Artists and old masters in terms of valuations, thus, making him the star of the auction scene.

This has made his pieces extremely hot for a growing tendency that admires contemporary Philippine art.

Foreign buyers—namely, Asian neighbors and a cabal of Western collectors—see the upward movement as potential for the globalization of art made in the Philippines. For them, it’s a matter of time before the country achieves the same savviness as the West, and for this reason, the marque of Ventura will remain an index for the whole, as PLDT in NYSE has come to represent the Philippine stock market in general.

In short, if you have the cash and love the swagger, buy Ventura.

P-Noy orders Calax rebidding

remembering those who have gone before us

Garnace (43); and Magdalena Aquino (78) from Batangas. Two awardees came from Marikina City—Zoraida Motil (63) and Cecille Sibunga (62)—while Pasig City’s Leonarda Camacho (90) completed the list.

The Best Nanay Awards, according to MYNP, chose “10 exemplary mothers who have made significant achievements and thereby made positive impact on their families and communities.”

The recipients’ “claim to fame” are as follows: Baltar leads an organization for mothers and women in the town of Abucay, Bataan, while her town-mate Balana, founder of Kundirana, made a living and raised her seven children by conducting private piano lessons. Camacho established the Metro Manila Council of Women Balikatan Movement Inc. A retired public-school teacher, Ragonjan is an active member of the federated Senior Citizen Association of Pagudpod, while Olorocisimo is head writer of Tinig ni San Juan Bautista, the newsletter of Saint John the Baptist Parish in Taytay, Rizal. Guiteng made a

SMC APPEAL ONLY PARTIALLY GRANTED AS ITS P20.1-B BID WAS NOT AUTOMATICALLY CONSIDERED

INSIDE

THE winners’ circle of the first-ever Best Nanay Awards says a lot about the kind of roster it wants to be known for.

The 10 mothers, or nanays, cited on October 29 at Windmills and Rainforest Restaurant in Quezon City was recognized for their accomplishments and sacrifices. The Make Your Nanay Proud Foundation (MYNP) gave the Best Nanay plums to deserving mothers from all walks of life regardless of educational attainment and popularity.

“I’m happy with the result,” MYNP founding chairman Boy Abunda expressed.

“Pulido ang pagkakapili ng mga winners and through them we can proudly say that MYNP is truly here to pay tribute to mothers and acknowledge the noblest job in the world: motherhood.”

Most of the winners came from provinces, namely, Abucay, Bataan, natives Gloria Baltar (57) and Rosa Balana (90); Ilocos Norte pride Carmen Ragonjan (68); Josefina G. Olorocisimo (53) of Taytay, Rizal; Angelita Guiteng (61) of Malangas, Zamboanga Sibugay; Palo, Leyte’s Lorna

A broader look at today’s business

© 2014 MCT

Graphic: Greg Good

a strong family figure, and a wheelchair probably just spelled doom for her.

There were times when Mama would express the wish that Papa—who had left us seven years ago— would take her already. Although Mama had easily bounced back from that, these last few years that were debilitating to her health made her pine to be with Papa all the more.

So in the last days of her life, when the doctors told us that Mama’s recovery might be more difficult than usual—she was already on a feeding tube, semiconscious, and hooked up to a respirator—we tried to convince ourselves that it was time to let her go. It was extremely difficult to do so but even I knew Mama would hate us for making her hang on hooked up to all these artificial life-support systems.

Indeed, even as we said our good-byes, Mama’s heart would still beat strongly for a week more, with her blood pressure still stable. This was one woman who would go when she was good and ready. And so she did, around 6 am, on the Feast of the Ascension, her blood pressure plunged dramatically, and then she breathed her last.

I miss you a lot, Mama. nnn WHIlE Mama was in the hospital, a dear media colleague and friend Alvin Capino joined his Creator.

I

RBIL, Iraq—The Islamic State (IS) is accumulating gold, silver and copper in markets throughout northern and western Iraq, dealers report, in an apparent effort to stockpile enough precious metal to follow through on a pledge to mint its own currency.

On November 11 the IS’s Beit al Mal, an ancient Islamic term akin to “Department of Treasury,” announced that the group would reintroduce the dinar currency of the Umayyad Caliphate, which ruled an empire that stretched from modern Iran to Spain for much of the 7th and 8th centuries.

The announcement—which included images of three types of coins in gold, copper and silver— drew skepticism from experts, who doubted that the IS could arrange a system to mint and issue a modern currency.

ABC News reported that one U.S. hostage held by Islamic State is a 26-year-old female aid worker. The Islamic military has demanded $6.6 million in ransom. Focus, a German magazine, said in April that France paid $18 million for the release of four French hostages who had been held by Islamic State.

three-time rotary club of manila journalism awardee

HIS year, I lost a number of people who were near and dear to me.

My beloved Mama, with whom I sometimes had a love-hate relationship (and what mother-and-daughter relationship doesn’t encounter those bumps in the road?) passed away in June after struggling for a month in the hospital. She was 86.

She had been in and out of the hospital for the past three years after doctors found her bile duct obstructed.

After that initial hospital confinement, other health issues slowly cropped up.

My Mama has always been an up-and-about person.

Even while I was little, she oversaw the home with daily diligence but wasn’t tied down to it. And even in her 1980s, she would often be out of the house with her best friend even before I was awake. (Back then, I would wake up at noon.)

She was very sociable and loved shopping; there were only two places which she frequented—Greenhills and TriNoma. If she and her BFF weren’t shopping, they were playing mahjong with another amiga until the wee hours, puffing away on their cigarettes.

For someone who had been very active for most of her life, it was a struggle for Mama to reconcile with the fact that she was not as strong as she used to be.

Each confinement in the hospital just took something away from her.

Her weakening body soon became a burden to her. And, while her mind was still active, and she still managed to have vibrant discussions with us, her family, her friends, or her doctors, we knew she was becoming depressed.

My niece told me that there were times when she’d arrive home—my Mama by then was already staying with my big sister—she’d be ready to take Mama out to go shopping, but Mama would pretend to be asleep. No amount of prodding from big sister could push Mama to go out for even a walk. She had become very frail already, and needed a wheelchair to move about, but her doctor had advised her to practice walking—to no avail.

But Mama was also very vain. I suppose she didn’t like the idea of going to the mall in a wheelchair that was being pushed by a caregiver. She had always been such

I.S. reportedly buying silver, gold; preparing to issue currency

BusinessMirror

Through hostages

D4 Saturday, November 22, 2014

World»B3-4

he country’s financial transactions with the rest of the world, or the balance of payments (BOP), were not likely to end the year in a state of surplus, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said on Friday the policy-making Monetary Board has revised the projected BOP position for this year, with anticipated deficit as wide as $3.4 billion, instead of the original surplus of $1.1 billion.

This was likely also the largest shift or reversion in the estimated payments balance and the first such shortfall since 2004, he said.

Data already show a $3.4-bil-

PESO exchange rates n US 45.1190

lion deficit in the BOP in the first 10 months no matter the reported surpluses the past three months, when the $270-billion Southeast Asian economy generated far more foreign-currency earnings than it was spending for the period.

The BOP is reviewed and recalibrated twice a year to take into account the most recent global and local developments that affect its balance.

According to Tetangco, the expected deficit was due for the most part to external events, particularly the anticipated normalization of US monetary policy, when the world’s largest economy and the country’s biggest trading partner finally begins to increase its interest rates.

The activist group Puente, accompanied by family and friends facing deportation, holds a rally for deferred action for undocumented immigrants outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix on Friday. AP/The Arizona Republic, Nick Oza

See “Surplus,” A8

n japan 0.3822 n UK 70.8098 n HK 5.8178 n CHINA 7.3670 n singapore 34.7203 n australia 38.8689 n EU 56.5928 n SAUDI arabia 12.0269

Source: BSP (21 November 2014)

News BusinessMirror

A2 Saturday, November 22, 2014

Calax...

continued from A1

“The appeal is partially granted. Accordingly, the SBAC resolution is hereby set aside and the DPWH or SBAC is directed to conduct a rebidding,” the document read, referring to the decision of the agency to disqualify Optimal from the deal’s auction.

The infrastructure arm of the diversified conglomerate SMC pleaded before Malacañang in June to accept its bid by way of judicial notice.

However, Malacañang argued that awarding the deal to Optimal, by way of judicial notice, cannot be granted.

The order of the President also

Obama...

provided for the dismissal of the motion of Team Orion that urged Mr. Aquino to award the deal to either party.

DPWH Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Officer-in-Charge Ariel C. Angles said his agency has yet to discuss the final details of the rebidding.

“We haven’t discussed it. But we will be meeting next week to discuss the bid parameters, the target dates and the draft concession agreement,” he told the BusinessMirror.

A source familiar to the matter commented that Mr. Aquino decided to rebid the expressway deal due

continued from A1

Obama’s actions will suspend the threat of deportation for millions, including about 4.1 million who will be temporarily protected and allowed to apply for work permits, provided they are parents, pass a background check and pay fees, and 270,000 who were brought to the country illegally as children.

At the same time, Obama announced plans to enhance security at the border and to shift focus inside the US, away from all undocumented immigrants to criminals.

“What I’m describing is accountability, a commonsense, middle-ground approach,” Obama said. “If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported.”

His moves were the most sweeping changes in immigration policy, arguably since Congress and Ronald Reagan agreed to changes in the 1980s. Since then, there has been a

wave of immigration into the US, legal and undocumented, that has changed the culture, divided the country and defied political solution.

Today there are as many as 13 million unauthorized immigrants in the US. Neither party believes it possible to deport them en masse, although many Republicans favor making it harder for them to continue working in the US, which, they argue, could pressure them to leave on their own. Other legislative proposals have called for them to return home and reapply for authorized immigration.

Obama’s moves did not settle the political debate—and might have inflamed it.

“Instead of working together to fix our broken immigration system, the president says he’s acting on his own. That’s just not how our democracy works,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

“The president had said before that

to the disparity between the two groups’ premium offers.

“The President finds the P8billion difference as wasteful,” the ranking government official said.

“He wants to get a more economically sound offer.”

Team Orion of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Land Inc. emerged as the front-runner during the auction, having submitted an P11.66-billion premium to win the deal.

Now that the deal is subject to a fresh bidding, the government expects to receive higher premiums, given the need of other groups to match the P20.1-billion disqualified offer of Optimal.

The food-to-infrastructure firm’s unit was disqualified from t he bidding after its proposal failed

the technical evaluation due to a defective bid security.

Business groups, led by the Makati Business Club, earlier warned President Aquino that his PPP program’s good name may lose its credibility due to inconsistencies in rules and a violation of the law.

But the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the largest business group in the Philippines, backed Mr. Aquino’s decision, as this would maximize the economic benefits of the state from the bidding.

PCCI President Alfredo M. Yao said the government stands to gain at least P8.45 billion more from the fresh tender, as premium bids to build the thoroughfare would start from the floor

price of P20.1 billion.

The project is a 47-kilometer thoroughfare that would start from the Manila-Cavite Expressway in Kawit, Cavite, and end at the South Luzon Expressway (Slex)-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.

It would consist of nine interchanges and a toll barrier before the Slex.

The third PPP project under the DPWH, the expressway is seen to decongest the traffic along the CaviteLaguna road network.

The construction of the multibillion-peso expressway is seen to start by October next year and expected to be completed in September 2017.

The government has awarded eight contracts since the infrastracture program’s inception in 2010.

‘he’s not a king’ and he’s ‘not an emperor’, but he’s sure acting like one.

And he’s doing it at a time when the American people want nothing more than for us to work together.”

“The president will come to regret the chapter history writes if he does move forward,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, soon to become the Senate majority leader.

But advocates heralded the move as overdue and just.

“I’ve been fighting for immigrant rights for over 30 years now, and this is the biggest victory our movement for immigration reform has seen in all that time,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, which advocates for an immigration overhaul.

By acting on his own, Obama’s executive order could create uncertainty for immigrants because it is temporary and subject to the results of the 2016 presidential election. The next president could maintain the program or end it immediately with the same stroke of a pen as Obama.

“We can’t commit a future administration,” acknowledged a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as a matter of policy.

That sets up the 2016 election as a referendum on Obama’s decision, one in which candidates will be asked to either promise they will continue the policy or end it. If they say they will end it, they will be asked to say whether they would actually start deporting the millions of people and how they would do it. Administration officials expected that a president from either party would be unlikely to take away benefits that already have been granted.

The action represented a reversal for Obama, who, under pressure from immigration advocates to stem deportations, had insisted he couldn’t implement some of the same immigration reforms he will now sign.

In a Telemundo interview in September 2013, for example, Obama said that, if he were to

broaden the exception he made in 2012 for the children of undocumented immigrants, “then, essentially, I would be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said earlier this week that Obama had since asked his team for a review of existing immigration law to see “what authority he did have and to ensure that we were sort of leaving no stone unturned.”

Obama and his aides insisted on Thursday that Obama was doing what many of his predecessors had done.

“The actions I’m taking are not only lawful, they’re the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every Democratic president for the past half-century,” he said.

Republicans accused Obama of exceeding his executive powers and warned that, by not waiting until the new Republican-led Congress takes office in January, he is poisoning any chance for compromise.

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

TODAY’S WEATHER

NOVEMBER 22, 2014 | SATURDAY

NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON. (AS OF NOVEMBER 21, 5:00 PM)

Tail-end of a cold front is the extended part of the boundary, which happens when the cold air and warm air meet. This may bring rainfall and cloudiness over affected areas. It is felt at the northern hemisphere winter season.

NOV 24 MONDAY

METRO MANILA

23 – 32°C

23 – 33°C

TUGUEGARAO

23 – 30°C

23 – 31°C

LAOAG

BAGUIO CITY 15 – 24°C SBMA/CLARK 24 – 32°C TAGAYTAY CITY 21 – 29°C

24 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

BAGUIO

15 – 24°C

16 – 24°C

SBMA/ CLARK

23 – 32°C

23 – 32°C

TUGUEGARAO CITY 22 – 30°C

METRO MANILA 23 – 32°C

NOV 23

SUNDAY

NOV 25 TUESDAY

TAGAYTAY

LEGAZPI

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

continued from A1

both the National Capital Region (NCR) and Areas Outside the NCR both turned more optimistic during the period—with the businesses with main offices in the NCR having more confidence than those outside Metro Manila.

Similarly, firms across all employment size were more upbeat in their outlook for the fourth quarter of the year—with large firms having the most bullish outlook in the fourth quarter.

In terms of sectors, the wholesale and retail-trade sector was the most bullish for the October-to-December period, due largely to the expected seasonal pick up in demand because of the holiday season.

The services sector, construction firms and industry firms’ outlook turned more upbeat during the period, as well.

Optimism was also seen in the outlook of international trading firms in the country.

For the next quarter, however, sentiment dipped slightly to turn less optimistic, but still positive at 43.1 percent CI. “Respondents attributed their less sanguine outlook for the first quarter of 2015 to the typical downturn in demand after the holiday season. Other reasons cited by firms were concerns over the backlog in deliveries caused by the port congestion problem and a looming power crisis as well as uncertainties in the global economy, particularly emanating from Europe and Japan,” the BSP said. Bianca Cuaresma

NOV 23

SUNDAY

NOV 24 MONDAY

NOV 25 TUESDAY

24 – 33°C

METRO CEBU

24 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

24 – 31°C

TACLOBAN

25 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

24 – 33°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

25 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

METRO DAVAO

24 – 34°C

24 – 33°C

24 – 33°C

23 – 34°C

24 – 33°C

23 – 34°C

21 – 29°C

21 – 29°C

16 – 25°C

23 – 33°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 25 – 32°C

TACLOBAN CITY 24 – 32°C

METRO CEBU 25 – 32°C

PUERTO PRINCESA

24 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

ZAMBOANGA SUNRISE

SUNSET

MOONSET

6:00 AM

5:23 PM

5:19 AM

24 – 32°C

NEW MOON

NOV 22

24 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

HALF MOON

5:30 PM

LOW TIDE MANILA HIGH TIDE SOUTH HARBOR

8:32 PM

24 – 31°C

MOONRISE

22 – 30°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 30°C

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 25 – 31°C

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

Confidence...

TAIL-END OF A COLD FRONT AFFECTING EASTERN SECTION OF CENTRAL LUZON AND SOUTHERN LUZON.

eastern portions of the country. It is cold and dry; characterized by widespread cloudiness with rains and showers.

LAOAG CITY 24 – 32°C

news@businessmirror.com.ph

NOV 29

4:43 PM

-0.13 METER 6:06 PM Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

9:33 PM

1.04 METER

Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms.

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 24 – 32°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

24 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

Light rains Partly cloudy to cloudy skies withisolated rain showers

ZAMBOANGA CITY 24 – 33°C

Watch PANAHON.TV everyday at 5:00 AM on PTV (Channel 4).

METRO DAVAO 25 – 33°C

Weekday hourly updates: 6:00 AM on Balitaan, 7:00 AM & 8:00 AM on Good Morning Boss!, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM on News@1, 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM, and 6:00 PM on News@6

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The Nation BusinessMirror

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CA OKs trial of damage suit vs BOC computerization project contractor

T

HE Court of Appeals (CA) has affimed its decision issued in June giving the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Manila City the go-signal to hear and resolve the damage suit filed by a losing bidder against Dubai-based Webb Fontaine Group FZ-Llc. in connection with the P442-million computerization project of the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

In a one-page resolution written by Associate Justice Mario Lopez, the CA’s former Eighth Division held that Webb Fontaine failed to raise new arguments that would warrant the reconsideration of the appelate court’s decision on June 17, 2014.

“After a study of the arguments in the petitioner’s motion for reconsideration, we find no cogent reason to amend or set aside our decision dated June 17, 2014. The issues raised have already been resolved and discussed in the assailed decision,” the CA said.

The CA, in its June 2014 ruling, did not give credence to its claim that Omniprime Marketing Inc.’s damage suit against it should be dismissed on the ground of forum shopping.

It explained that forum shopping exists where the elements of lis pendens (pending suit) are present, and where a final judgment in one case will amount to res judicata (a case decided on the merit) in the other.

But, in the case of Omniprime, the CA said there was no adverse decision against the latter either in the first or second case amounting to lis pendens or to res judicata,” the CA said.

It pointed out that the first case was withdrawn by Omniprime as a matter or right and without prejudice pursuant to the Rules of Court.

Webb Fontaine and Omniprime were former partners for the National

Single Window Phase 2 (NSW2) Project of the BOC. On July 30, 2012 Webb Fontaine and Omniprime executed a joint-venture agreement to bid for the NSW2.

However, Webb Fontaine allegedly acted alone and joined the bidding, prompting Omniprime to file a complaint for specific performance against the former before the RTC in Manila.

However, Omniprime decided to withdraw the case before the trial court could rule on the merit of the complaint.

Later Omniprime filed a new complaint for specific performance or damages or both against Webb Fontaine and the members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) who were assigned to the project before Branch 24 of the RTC in Manila.

The trial court however, decided to drop the BAC members from the case because they were nominal parties who should not be inlcuded in the complaint.

In a resolution issued on September 19, 2013, the RTC in Manila denied the motion to dismiss for lack of merit, prompting Webb Fontaine to elevate the case before the CA.

De Lima on Ampatuan Massacre case trial: Understand process

J

USTICE Secretary Leila de Lima on Friday appealed for understanding from various sectors for the seemingly slow proceedings in connection with the gruesome Maguindanao massacre case which claimed the lives of 58 individuals, including 32 journalists.

In an interview with reporters, de Lima assured that government prosecutors are doing their duty in order to speed up the trial of the 197 accused led by former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. and Zaldy Ampatuan, former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

De Lima made the remarks in response to criticisms of various media groups and the relatives of the victims on the slow pace of the case.

“I don’t blame them for spousing that thought dahil nababagalan sila, pero paulit-ulit kong sinasabi sa part ng prosecution hindi kami nagkukulang and paulit-ulit ko sinasabi na intindihin nila kung gaano ka-complex ang kaso which explains the delay,” de Lima said.

She noted that the Ampatuan Massacre case involves 58 victims, 197 accused, 147 prosecution witnesses and 300 defense witnesses.

Despite of this, de Lima said the wheels of justice is moving for the victims and that Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of Branch 221 of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City, who is handling the massacre case, as well as the prosecution are all trying their best to speedup the

BIFF explodes bomb to embarrass Catapang

L

By Joel R. San Juan

DE LIMA

proceedings.

“Kanya kanyang pananaw iyan lalo na iyong mga hindi nakakaintindi sa legal processess, easy to look at the case from the outside na hanapan pagkukulang ung mga nagha-handle, pero kung tignan mo ang over view ng kaso, kung alam lang nila gaano karami ang witnesses na ipinrisenta, malalaman nila kung bakit [mabagal ang takbo ng kaso],” de Lima added.

The Ampatuan Massacre happened on November 23, 2009, in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

Earlier, de Lima said the government is hoping to secure the conviction of the principal accused before the end of President Aquino’s term in 2016. Two of the 197 accused—Police Officer 2 Hernanie Decipulo and Sukarno Badal, died while in detention while another accused Johan Drapper was dropped from the complaints.

Out of the remaining 194 accused, 106 are now detained while 88 are still at large. Joel R. San Juan

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Saturday, November 22, 2014 A3

By Rene Acosta

ESS than a day after the Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, ordered military forces in Central Mindanao to wipe out the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a homemade bomb lobbed by a man believed to be a BIFF guerrilla exploded on a busy highway in Cotabato City.

The blast occurred just 12 hours after Catapang visited Central Mindanao. During his visit, Catapang ordered military commanders to hasten the operations against lawless groups in the region, particularly the BIFF whom he dubbed

as a “spoiler of peace.”

Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, public affairs officer of the Army’s Sixth Infantry Division (GID), said the latest attack in the series of harassments and terrorist activities by the BIFF occurred at around 6 p.m. on

Thursday along Sinsuat Avenue, particularly infront of a Petron gasoline station at the crossing of Luna Street, Cotabato City.

During the explosion, two persons identified as Leslie Encina, 18, and Kristel Mae Uy, 20, were wounded. They were taken to the nearest hospital for treatment.

Petinglay said the explosion was witnessed by soldiers who were onboard a military vehicle that was incidentally passing by.

According to the public affairs officer, one of the soldiers saw a man throwing a package that exploded on the highway.

She said the bomb was made from a 60mm high explosive mortar shell, hinting that it was the handiwork of the BIFF which had used similar type of explosive in its previous terrorism attacks in the region.

On T hursd ay mor ning

Catapang visited the 6ID and ordered its commander, Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, and other military commanders in the area to step up their operations against all lawless groups operating in the region, including the BIFF. On Monday suspected members of the BIFF members led by a certain Commander Obetin detonated a homemade bomb near a primary school in Kabacan, North Cotabato, that wounded 16 people and killed Monique Mentawil, 19.

On Tuesday heavily armed BIFF members led by Commander Abunawas also attacked a Christian community at Sitio Lunok, Barangay Baliki, Midsayap, at around 10 p.m. but the villagers engaged the attackers in a gun battle.

On Wednesday an Army patrol briefly clashed with BIFF members at around 9 p.m. in Maguindanao.

Palace unfazed by terror index ranking

By Butch Fernandez

M

ALACAÑANG said on Friday that the government is moving to contain isolated incidents of violence to improve the Philippines’s dismal international ranking in anti-terrorism measures.

This, even as Palace Deputy Spokesman Abigail Valte disclosed that authorities are still verifying the real nationality of a Filipino-looking terrorist suspect linked to an Islamic terrorist group, also known as Isis.

In a news briefing, Valte played down reports giving the country a low ranking in the latest Global Index due to alleged proliferation or terror groups or frequency of terrorist activities.

“Hindi naman maraming terorista.

May mga insidente,” she said.

Valte said government officials concerned with security issues are “trying to see what incidents have been counted kasi nakita natin iyong difference from the incidents in 2011, 2012, 2013 and ang most recent year.”

“We’d like to see what those incidents are and compare it with the data that our law-enforcement agencies have. But certainly, I think everyone is unified in the goal that we want to lessen these incidents,” Valte added. She confirmed that Palace officials are also reviewing the report.

“We have been discussing [it].... You’ve seen also the President talk about Isis in the past few days,” she said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria linked to recent terrorist attacks abroad.

Economy

A4 Saturday, November 22, 2014 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

IBON: Emergency powers beneficial to big biz groups

R

By Lenie Lectura

esearch group IBON on Friday said big business groups stand to benefit from the proposed joint resolution that seeks to grant President Aquino special power to deal with the anticipated power crisis next year.

IBON, in a news statement, expressed concern that the real intention of granting emergency powers may be to promote the interests of big power firms whose projects have been delayed or mothballed because

of regulatory and other issues.

According to IBON, one of the possible beneficiaries of emergency powers is the AboitizPangilinan group, which controls the planned 600-megawatt Subic

coal-fired power plant.

In 2012 the Supreme Court issued a Writ of Kalikasan against the coal plant, while the Court of Appeals eventually invalidated its environmental compliance certificate (ECC) in 2013.

The proposed resolution states compliance to ECC and other requirements shall be deferred until the completion of the power project. As such, emergency powers could be used to revive the Subic coal power plant despite the judiciary’s prior decisions, IBON warned.

The research group also stressed that the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) has already been implemented in the Visayas and Mindanao without requiring presidential emergency powers.

“In fact, Energy Secretary Jericho [L.] Petilla was already broaching the idea of using ILP in Luzon as early as January this year. The idea then was to mitigate the impact of price spikes in the Whole-

sale Electricity Spot Market. There was no mention of needing emergency powers for the President,” IBON noted.

The committee on energy of the House of Representatives has recently approved on first reading Joint Resolution 21, which authorizes the President to secure additional generating capacity through the ILP. The group reiterated that instead of emergency powers, Congress should devote its time in crafting a law that will replace Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira).

IBON blamed the Epira not just for the insufficient power supply, but also for the steep rates of electricity in the country.

“The country should not entrust to the private sector the power industry because of its strategic role in development and the people’s quality of living,” IBON added.

From trash to cash

Using a pair of scissors, a cigarette lighter and his deft creative hands, 69-year-old Ruben Delimon of BalicBalic, Sampaloc, Manila turns banana bonsai-shaped plants and flowers out of empty plastic soft-drink bottles on a portion of the sidewalk along A. H. Lacson Avenue near the University of Santo Tomas Hospital. He says he is earning between P200 and P400 a day by selling his products to passersby and motorists in the area. PNA

Neda Region 1 exec: Slow project approval threatens Ilocos MDGs

By Cai U. Ordinario

S

AN FERNANDO, La Union— The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Regional Development Office (RDO) in Ilocos (Region 1) disclosed that only two of the region’s nine priority projects may be approved for funding in the last two years of the Aquino administration.

The two projects are the P3.5billion Agno River Flood Control Project Phase 3 and the P2.65-billion Agno River Irrigation System Extension Project.

The region’s Strategic Investment Program 2014-2016 contain nine big-ticket projects worth P22.35 billion.

“Ang trend kasi dito sa amin is one [project approval] per year,” Neda Region 1 Project Development Investment Programming and Budgeting Division Chief Caroline Castro said in a briefing on Wednesday.

The projects that may be not be approved include the P3.9 billionIlocos Sur Transbasin Irrigation Project, which has been on the table since 1985.

The Neda RDO 1 said the feasibility study for the project is currently being updated by the National Irrigation Administration and was already included in the agency’s pipeline.

“We’re pushing for the implementation of this because this was started in 1985 pa but it will really affect a number of LGUs [local government units],” Castro said.

Another project that may be bypassed is the P3.64-billion Alaminos Airport, which was recently deemed not a priority by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

In a letter dated October 20, Transportation Assistant Secretary for Planning Sherielysse R. Bonifacio wrote Neda RDO Region 1 Director Nestor Rillon that the DOTC could not allocate funds for the development of the airport.

“The priority of this department is to utilize our available infrastructure budget to pursue improvement/development of our national airports, particularly those with scheduled commercial airline operations,” Bonifacio wrote.

“Further development of the airport, however, may be considered by this department, or the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, both being an infrastructure agency concerned with civil aviation, once the need is fully established in the future,” she added.

Meanwhile, the development challenges of the region remain.

Based on a presentation on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), around 54 percent of the indicators have a low probability of being met by next year.

This means, Neda Region 1 Policy Formulation and Planning Division Chief Lily Grace Orcino said, that only 46 percent of the MDG indicators have a high or medium probability of being attained by the 2015 deadline.

Indicators that have a low probability of being attained include lowering the poverty gap ratio; increasing the net enrollment ratio; primary education completion rate; all indicators under MDG 5, or maternal health; and lowering under 5 mortality rate, among others.

Data showed that indicators that have a medium probability are lowering poverty threshold; functional literacy; the ratio of boys and girls in tertiary education; and deaths associated with tuberculosis.

Indicators that have a high probability of being achieved in the region include lowering the food threshold; simple literacy; wage employment of women in non-agriculture sectors; lower infant mortality; and access to safe drinking water, among others.

The region aims to bring down poverty incidence by population to between 13.6 percent and 16 percent by 2016. Currently, the poverty incidence is at 18.5 percent, or 876,649.7 people.

Region 1 also aims to unemployment to between 6.2 percent to 7.2 percent and underemployment rate to 11 percent to 13 percent by 2016.

In 2013 the unemployment rate in the region was at 8.5 percent and the underemployment rate was at 20.4 percent.

It can be noted that both unemployment and underemployment rates increased from the 7.4 percent and 19.5 percent posted in 2012, respectively.

NVAP: Endgame for tobacco consumption gets local push

T

he New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) has expressed hope that the international call for the elimination of tobacco use by 2050 will also get local support.

NVAP President Emer Rojas said anti-smoking advocates are hoping that government officials would look into the possibility of acceding to the international declaration toward a tobaccofree world.

“If we are to save as many lives as possible, local government officials may want to consider adopting the endgame strategy for tobacco use, which means reducing consumption and availability of tobacco for the public,” Rojas said in a statement.

In particular, Rojas suggested that the government may want to adopt the target of the World Health Assembly for a 30-percent relative reduction in tobacco use prevalence by 2025.

“The endgame strategy does not mean an immediate stoppage to the tobacco use but a well-thought, step-by-step plan to gradually reduce tobacco usage initiated primarily in local communities,” Rojas said.

Back in September 2013 an international conference attended by 600 delegates from 52 countries adopted a declaration that specified the strategy in achieving a tobacco-free world.

In the said declaration, the delegates agreed that their goal is to make the 21st century the last period in history, where any harm is caused to humans by tobacco.

“The Conference calls on governments, WHO [World Health Organization], other UN [United Nations] agencies and the Conference of Parties to take leadership position in advancing the actions under FCTC [Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] and its protocols, as well as the Global Action Plan on NCDs [noncommunicable diseases] 2013-2020 while linking them to the evolving UN agenda for sustainable development, and support the recommendations

contained in this declaration to realize the vision of a world free from tobacco, within this century,” said the Declaration made in New Delhi, India.

Among its recommendations include adoption of national action plans for moving toward the ‘Endgame’ target; adoption of policies to prohibit the sale of tobacco to all persons born after 2000, to ensure tobacco free millennium generations; harmonizing priority to public health, particularly to tobacco control measures while entering into multilateral and bilateral trade and investment agreements; mandatory training in health promotion and tobacco control as a part of education across sectors at the graduate and postgraduate levels and especially for health professionals, social workers and teachers; and adoption of the “No More Tobacco in the 21st Century” as the symbol of global movement for elimination of tobacco.

Rojas cited as an example the endgame strategy being eyed by the Board of Health of Westminster, Massachusetts in the United States.

Earlier this month reports came out that the Westminster Board of Health is already set to hold a public hearing on a proposed regulation that will ban sales of all tobacco products within the town. If approved, the Westminster town could become the first municipality in the US to impose such a measure.

According to Rojas, adopting the endgame strategy at the local front is not impossible since some cities have already passed smoke-free ordinances. These are in Davao City in Davao; Maasin City in Leyte; Balanga City in Bataan; and Amlan City in Negros Occidental, among others.

“This is a doable mission for the sake of public health. The less available tobacco products are, the smaller chance to smoke cigarettes, the better since we can prevent smoking-related illnesses and save more lives in the process,” Rojas said. PNA

MMDA, mall operators agree on new shopping hours starting November 28

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco Correspondent

M

all operators have agreed to extend their operating hours to help ease the anticipated traffic congestion this coming Christmas season.

In a meeting with mall operators on Friday Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis N. Tolenino has proposed a staggered mall operating hours to help untangle traffic snarls being experienced in the vicinity of shopping malls.

“Almost all shopping mall operators along Edsa agreed that their operating hours will be from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.,” he told reporters

after the meeting, adding that shopping malls along the busy Edsa have agreed to extend their operating schedule by an hour.

Among the malls who have agreed to extend their operating time include Robinsons, SM, Ayala, Megaworld and Walter Mart malls.

At present, shopping malls open at 10 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

In his proposal, Tolentino said some malls could open early, while others can operate on late hours.

The MMDA chief explained that with the extended operating schedule, the opening and closing time of malls are no longer simultaneous with the rush hour.

“This will be the first time that

malls will open at 11 a.m., but it will not be simultaneous with the rush hour, so we will ease traffic,” he said.

He noted that traffic volume usually rises 15 percent to 20 percent between November and December.

Because of this, the new mall operating time is proposed to be implemented from November 28 to January 3, 2015.

Tolentino also advised shoppers to do their Christmas shopping early and try to avoid the holiday rush and the expected traffic jams, especially around the big shopping malls.

He also suggested that shoppers visit the shopping malls nearest to their residences to avoid being trapped in traffic jams.

PCSO-IBP-Bulacan pact

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Acting Chairman and General Manager Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II (third from right) and Lawyer Purificacion Bernabe (third from left), president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Bulacan Chapter, hold copies of a memorandum of understanding that they signed at the PCSO head office in Mandaluyong City on Wednesday. The agreement provides that IBP-Bulacan will conduct legal aid clinics, legal aid forums, including free simple affidavit preparation and legal consultations during PCSO’s medical-dental and other charity-related missions. With them are from PCSO, Directors lawyer Francisco Manuel G. Joaquin III (from left), Betty Nantes, and lawyer Mabel V. Mamba, and lawyer Neil Tabo of the Office of the Board Secretary. Joseph Muego

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

briefs MANILA HOSTS asean PPP NETWORKING forum NEXT MONTH THE first Asean Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Networking Forum that aims to further enhance the economic integration and global competitiveness of the region will be hosted by the Philippines next month.

President Aquino announced this during the Asean Business Advisory Council dialogue that was part of the 25th Asean Summit in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, earlier this month.

“The forum will take stock of the outcomes of recent PPP initiatives in Asean and will serve as an avenue for exploring the future direction of PPP efforts in the Asean region,” he said.

Mr. Aquino added: “In this way, with both the public and private sectors working together, we will soon realize our vision of an inclusive, interconnected and progressive region, one that serves as a wellspring of opportunity for all our people.”

The two-day forum will tackle the challenges, opportunities, and innovative PPP practices, as well as insights from the private sector and the sharing of experiences from the 10 Asean member-states (AMS).

The forum will also discuss the Asean guidelines or principles on PPP that encompass policy and organizational framework for private participation; project selection, development and implementation; affordability and budget transparency; and transnational infrastructure connectivity which expects to harmonize policy, institutional and regulatory frameworks of AMS. The event also aims to establish a network of PPP units or similar institutions that will be a venue for regular interaction of member-countries.

It will also bring together members of the Asean Connectivity Coordinating Committee, national coordinators, PPP focal points and officials responsible for infrastructure projects from AMS. The forum will be held at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel on December 16 and 17. Jae Denise Adolfo

Saturday, November 22, 2014 A5

EDC drops arbitration case against BacMan contractors

E

By Lenie Lectura

nergy Development Corp.

(EDC), the geothermal company of the Lopez Group, is no longer pursuing for arbitration of its dispute with contractors it tapped to rehabilitate the Bacon-Manito (BacMan) geothermal plants in Albay.

EDC said its unit BacMan Geothermal Inc. (BGI) and the contractors—EthosEnergy TC Inc., formerly TurboCare Inc., and Siemens Inc.— have amicably settled their dispute.

“BGI and EDC are pleased to announce that, as of today’s date (Friday), all claims under the arbitration have now been settled with the contractor on terms satisfactory to

BGI and EDC, and that the arbitration will be discontinued as a result,” EDC said in a disclosure on Friday.

“EDC looks forward to pursuing new opportunities with the Siemens group, and strengthening the commercial relationship between the two companies,” EDC added.

In November last year BGI filed with the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce a request for arbitration of its dispute with the contractors.

The contractors had been engaged

by BGI in 2010 to carry out the rehabilitation of BacMan Units 1 to 3. Disputes arose in relation to the carrying out of those works, which were the subject of the arbitration.

BGI initiated the arbitration in order to enforce its rights under

the contract for works, following a favorable determination from the engineer that sums are owed by Turbocare and Siemens to BGI. To date, all units at BacMan are operational and the facility is producing a gross output of approximately 130 megawatts.

“The permanent fixes have now been completed on both BacMan Unit 2 and Unit 3, while BacMan Unit 1 will continue to operate with its interim solution until December 27, 2014, when it will then be shut down to install the new steam turbine rotor from Toshiba,” EDC said.

By March 20 next year BacMan Unit 1 is expected to resume commercial operations.

EDC acquired BacMan from the government auction block in 2010 for P1.28 billion.

HEARING ON ONLINE ENABLED TRANSPORTATION SERVICES set on monday The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is inviting transport groups and other interested parties to a public hearing on Monday to tackle the issue on regulation of online-enabled transportation services and other similar applications used by private vehicles to render transport service.

“Nais naming marinig ang panig ng mga nagmamay-ari ng pribado at pampublikong sasakyan na gumagamit ng makabagong teknolohiya sa pagsasakay at paghahatid ng mamayan sa kanilang destinasyon bago namin ipatupad ang mga updated na regulations,” LTFRB Chairman lawyer Winston Ginez said.

Online-enabled transportation services that were invited during the public hearing at 10 a.m. in LTFRB’s central office in Quezon City include Uber, Grab Taxi, Easy Taxi, Tripid, Tripda and similar services.

Earlier this week, the House Committees on Transportation and Metro Manila Development held a joint meeting to address the concern about some of such vehicles are operating without the required authority from the LTFRB. Several resolutions were approved by the Committee during the meeting, including recommending the LTFRB to study if new information-technology solutions can be adopted by current public transport providers to improve their services.

Ginez said that board plans to discuss this issue during the public hearing on Monday.

“The Board is ready to embrace new technology that can improve public land transportation and promote safety of the public, but we also have an obligation to exercise our duty to regulate public services,” Ginez added Under the Section 18 of the Public Service Act CA 146, it is unlawful for any individual or corporation to engage in any public-service business, like transportation of passengers for hire or compensation, without having first secured from the LTFRB a new Certificate of Public Convenience. Violators face imprisonment and/or pay the necessary fines/penalties. PNA

dressing up santa

A Filipino man puts on finishing touches on a Santa Claus figure as people begin shopping for Christmas decorations in Manila on Thursday. Christmas is one of the most important holidays in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation. AP

Livestock Philippines Expo in June to focus on 2015 Asean integration

I

n preparation for the Asean Economic Community (AEC), the Philippines has launched its national single window program that would speed up customs processing for importers and exporters and will also enhance transparency and efficiency in transactions.

The Philippines just recently reduced tariffs for agricultural products, having a small 0.1-percent average tariff rate, thus giving local stakeholders better business opportunities by having lower production costs such as getting inexpensive raw materials and farm inputs.

Livestock Philippines 2015 Expo will once again open its doors for trade visitors, including integrators, farmers, feed millers, manufacturers and traders of feed ingredients, additives, supplements and premixes, meat and meat-products processors, farm equipment fabricators and suppliers, slaughterhouse operators, veterinarians, veterinary drugs and products manufacturers, and other industry stakeholders who are all expected to converge and take part in the vast opportunities for the Philippines livestock, feed and meat industry.

The focal points of the events to be held from June 24 to 26 next year at the SMX Convention Center are the integration of the AEC, as well as to showcase the viable solutions and innovative concepts via state-of-the-art displays of equipment and the exchange of the latest technological advancements through face-to-face consultations and discussions to improve and commercialize the industries.

Simultaneous with the exhibition is the Asean Food Conference 2015 which will be hosted by the Philippine Association of Food Technologists Inc., and is envisioned to be a gathering of the food industry’s greatest minds to share their latest insights in the pursuit of greater cooperation between member-states of Asean and the rest of the world.

Apart from the AEC, the Livestock Philippines 2015 Expo will co-locate two events that will focus on the “farm to shelf” concept. Food Processing & Packaging (FPP) Philippines 2015 and the Philmeat 2015 Expo and Forum aim to present the industries’s best profile in Food and Meat Processing, Ingredients and Packaging.

These shows will be a one-stop shop, from livestock production, processing, to packaging. PNA/PRNewswire

Rehab of 650-MW Malaya plant to ease 2015 power shortage pushed

T

he fast but efficient repair and rehabilitation of the 650-megawatt (MW) Malaya diesel power plant in Pililla, Rizal, can help the Aquino administration to efficiently respond to the looming power shortage next year, Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III said on Friday.

Albano, member of the Minority Bloc of the House Committee on Energy, said the 650-MW capacity of the Malaya Thermal Plant provides ample support to the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) which will be adopted by the government to address the power-supply shortage in the summer of 2015.

The government-owned Malaya power plant is a 40-year-old facility, composed of two units with a dependable capacity of 290 MW and 340 MW, respectively.

Malaya Unit 1 has been inoperational since March 21, 2014, due to a material loss of turbine rotating parts that led to high turbine vibration. Malaya Unit 1’s overhauling is expected to be completed before the year-end, based on a 90-day completion period, Albano said.

Malaya Unit 2, on the other hand, is now operational after undergoing repair but is also due for overhauling, he said.

“The government should be able to work double time to rehabilitate the Malaya power plant to ensure that the country would have a steady and stable supply of electricity amid the feared power-supply shortage in Luzon next year,” said Albano, former executive director of the Joint Congressional Power Commission.

The Department of Energy has reported the maximum projected shortfall in reserves next year is expected to be 1,001 MW, of which 600 MW are needed as required dispatchable reserve, and 401 MW for required contingency reserves. PNA

Poro Point Freeport keen on expanding land area

S

By Cai U. Ordinario

AN FERNANDO, La Union—The Poro Point Management Corp. is looking at the possibility of combining Freeport Zone and Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) conditions at the Poro Point Freeport Zone.

In a briefing here on Friday, Poro Point Management Corp. (PPMC) President and CEO Florante S. Gerdan said this will allow Poro Point to extend the land area of the free port and still provide incentives to locators.

“Ang tinitignan namin ngayon is kung pwede ’yung combination ng Peza and Freeport kasi maliit kami so we wanted to get more lands outside, can we now have a combination of Peza and free port? So that’s being pursued,” Gerdan said.

The current land area of the free port is around 146 hectares. But because of ongoing court litigation, the free port has not been able to tap 50 hectares of its property.

Gerdan said the case is now being appealed at the Supreme Court. This is because the PPMC already lost its case based on the decisions made by the lower court and the Court of Appeals.

Meanwhile, Gerdan said other factors such as the need to find relocation for the Philippine Air Force and the issues in the development of the San Fernando Airport prevent the PPMC from maximizing its potential.

Based on the plan drafted for the PPMC

by Palafox and Associates, the development will create Cliff Side Homes at the current location of the Philippine Air Force.

The plan drafted by Palafox also included a possible reclamation area near the existing Porro Point seaport. The area will be patterned after Dubai’s “The Palm,” a reclamation project in the Middle East.

However, this reclamation plan is still considered by Gerdan as a “wish” project that the government needs to study first before being considered for implementation.

Meanwhile, the San Fernando Airport has already been included in the current pipeline of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center.

Based on the PPP Center, the project is estimated to cost P8.1 billion, or $180 million. The feasibility study for the project is currently being done with a transactional advisor.

However, Gerdan said the P8.1-billion cost could still change given that there are considerations in the expansion of the width of the runway for the airport.

Gerdan said the optimum width of the runway is 300 meters. This would allow major aircraft such as Airbus 320s and Boeing 737s to land.

But Gerdan said expanding the runway to 300 meters would displace all the residents in at least one barangay in San Fernando, La Union.

As an alternative, Gerdan said what is

being studied now is the possibility of having the minimum requirement of 150 meters. If this is undertaken, it will lower the project cost for the San Fernando Airport to around P3 billion.

Meanwhile, Gerdan said the initial estimate for the plan, without the reclamation project and the development of the San Fernando Airport will cost P81 billion.

The whole development will be undertaken in five phases with the first phase costing as much as P34 billion. Phase 1 will be divided into Phase 1a and Phase 1b which have a total land area of 17.2 hectares and 34.67 hectares, respectively.

Phase 1a will have a leasable area of 8.92 hectares and non-leasable area of 8.28 hectares, while Phase 1b will have a leasable area of 18.79 hectares and non-leasable area of 15.88 hectares.

Phase 2 will have a total area of 14.04 hectares consisting of a leasable area of 5.94 hectares and non-leasable area of 8.1 hectares.

PPMC data also showed that Phase 3 will have a total area of 6.41 hectares with 5.55 hectares of leasable area and 0.86 hectares of non-leasable land.

Phase 4 and 5 will have total land areas of 18.38 hectares and 14.86 hectares, respectively. The leasable area in Phase 4 will be 12.68 hectares while the leasable area in Phase 5, 10.87 hectares.

The non-leasable areas in Phase 4 and 5 are 5.69 hectares and 3.99 hectares, respectively.

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Saturday, November 22, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial

‘The Generals’ Girls’

A

T the 75th anniversary celebration of the Department of National Defense, President Aquino outlined the government’s intention to spend about P90 billion to procure equipment for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) between now and 2017.

This is part of the commitment of the government to modernize the capabilities of the AFP in defending the nation and its sovereignty from both domestic and foreign foes. The President said his administration had spent more on the direct procurement of military equipment and approved more “acquisition programs” than the three previous administrations combined.

We fully support President Aquino’s plan and efforts to modernize the Armed Forces.

With all the branches of government operating under a cloud of suspicion because of the distribution of too much ill-gotten wealth gained from government procurement, it is natural that some have raised doubts about the military receiving more money.

In the late 1980s it was alleged that there was a group of ladies known as “The Generals’ Girls”. When anything was needed, from spare parts for helicopters to bond paper for the photocopiers, “The Girls” received the purchase orders. It was also alleged that these ladies needed to make extensive trips to the provinces with some of the generals for on-site inspections. One can wonder if this was graft and corruption or more fun and games.

Whether this was true or not, it makes for a titillating story. But now these girls would all be “golden girls”, and many of the military commanders of that time have passed on to the great battlefield in the sky.

While the AFP does need more modern equipment, what the P90 billion will be spent on is of great concern. Advanced technology is important, but, according to some of those in command positions now, ballistic missiles and battleships are not what’s needed. Off the record, the United States military always seems to leave behind some “surplus” gear whenever a new group is rotated for Philippines-US joint exercises.

One key to supporting our military is basic, well-functioning equipment that directly affects the troops. As American Gen. George S. Patton once said, “Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.” Our soldiers need durable uniforms and protective gear. The logistic teams need reliable transport equipment and a generous supply of spare parts that troops on the front line can depend upon.

Since the AFP is also very critical in managing disaster relief, rolling stock and related supplies can help our military respond to calamities more rapidly and effectively.

Furthermore, we would hope that the Executive branch and the AFP command will remember that some of the equipment they need can be sourced and manufactured locally.

If a large portion of that P90 billion is going to be used for the upgrading of basic equipment, that money should be spent here at home as much as possible.

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Fictional economics John Mangun

W

OUTSIDE THE BOX

HEN economic historians write their account of the last 10 years, it should be called “The decade of being wrong”.

On November 16 the Financial Times published this forecast: “Flash estimates of Japanese gross domestic product [GDP] in the third quarter will start the week. The expectation is that the economy will rebound, growing by an annualized 2.2 percent.”

On November 17 the paper said: “Monday’s surprise data on thirdquarter GDP showed just how ambitious government targets were. Far from expanding at an annualized rate of about 2 percent during the period—as almost every private-sector economist assumed it would—real GDP shrank 1.6 percent.”

Granting that every nation’s economy is complex, the public has been persuaded to believe that economists, both in the government and the private sector, actually know what they are doing. But they do not.

Every so-called school of economics promotes itself as having a genuine insight into how the economic system works and what should be done to make it work better.

Marc Daubenbuechel

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The Fed’s quantitative-easing program was supposed to bring the US economy back to pre-recession levels. It has not even come close.

The trillions of dollars of unsecured derivative contracts should have brought the global banking system down. The last time I looked, PayPal is still sending money to and from the banks.

But this is what is different now: Trillions of dollars of new money pumped into the global economic system should have done something.

Either the central banks and governments or the gloom-and-doomers should have been right about greater economic growth A lot of people sold their Apple Corp. shares at $10, and a lot bought Citibank shares at $400 and saw them drop to $4. But when the best and brightest economists are constantly wrong about what is going to happen next, that means the game has changed.

Maybe decades of government interference have so badly damaged the economic system that there is no longer any functioning reality.

Economics today is like a fictional murder-mystery case where no one can guess who committed the crime.

Send me an e-mail at mangun @gmail.com. Visit my website at www. mangunonmarkets.com. Follow me on Twitter at @mangunonmarkets.

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Quality care for seniors: The needs and wants

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror

regional offices

The definition of economics is this: “A social science that studies how individuals, governments, firms and nations make choices on allocating scarce resources to satisfy their unlimited wants.”

This goes back to what I wrote in Tuesday’s column, “Simple economics”. How does a society allocate human and physical resources to keep everyone healthy and wealthy? Nomadic tribes moved around because they understood intuitively, or from a bad experience, that if they hunted too long in one area, all the game in it would be completely gone.

The Age of Exploration, which started in the 15th century, not only resulted from a desire to “explore”, but also to find new supplies of resources. But there are no continents left to discover. Modern civilizations are dependent on using the resources they already have, and this is where modern economics comes in to help find answers.

But 90 percent of the time, when the actual economic numbers are

released, media reports use the words “unexpected” or “surprisingly” to describe how wrong the economists’ forecasts were.

But didn’t “Dr. Doom”, American economist Nouriel Roubini, predict the collapse of the United States housing market and subsequent recession? It depends on your definition of “predict”. He once predicted that the US economy would go into recession in 2004. Then he predicted that that would happen in 2005, in 2006 and, finally, in 2007. The US economy went into recession in 2008.

Roubini claimed that he had warned the public about the subprime mortgage and the financial crisis in an International Monetary Fund speech in 2006. The only documented evidence showed that he warned about the crisis at an IMF seminar on September 13, 2007.

Subprime loans started failing in August 2007.

The US Federal Reserve (the Fed) did not see a problem was coming. US stockbrokers were still recommending buying Lehman Brothers shares days before it collapsed.

In the last five years we have been told that gold would go to $3,000, $5,000 or even $10,000 per ounce. It has not. The Chinese economy was supposed to have collapsed due to its “property bubble”.

We are still waiting for that. Because of massive money-printing, we’re supposed to have hyperinflation by now. Wrong again.

First of two parts

M

Y previous column on senior residences and homeowners’ associations was one of the most commented articles I have written so far. The feedback I received for it was entirely positive. Bringing the concept of nursing homes closer to communities and making it culturally acceptable will not only benefit the local market, but also enable more foreign clients to receive nursing care in the Philippines.

As highlighted in my last column, nursing homes are not the solution; rather, they are an option for those in need of care. A nursing home or home for the aged usually caters to the needs of clients, whereas communities for seniors, like continuous care retirement communities (CCRC), cater to the wants of the client.

There is a fine, but significant, difference between CCRCs and nursing homes. CCRCs cater to active seniors.

These seniors still want to experience life to the fullest and engage in social or recreational activities. The marketing strategies of CCRC developers are based on the lifestyles of the elderly and on realizing the potential this market segment has.

Nursing homes, on the other hand, address the needs of their clients. First and foremost, these homes cater to people with medical needs. People in need of minor

assistance would mostly stay in their own homes and avail themselves of assistance from househelp, caregivers, family members and so on. But what if the family cannot handle those needs anymore? This is exactly where the nursing home comes in. It looks into what the potential resident, as well as his or her family, needs. The marketing strategies of nursing homes are more tailored to the children of the resident than to the resident himself or herself.

This is based on the fact that, for CCRCs and other similar residences, it is mostly the senior citizen himself or herself who makes the decision by saying: “This is what I want for my life. I can identify myself with this facility and its services.” For nursing homes, in most cases, it is the children or other close relatives who make the decision to transfer the senior citizen to the facility to address his or her medical needs properly.

However, for many families, a nursing home is not an option. This is not only a fact in the Philippines, but also in many other countries. It is in our nature to feel obliged to take care of our parents when they cannot do so anymore. After all, it is time

for us to repay the care they had extended to us when we were children.

Another option available is home health-care services. Home care in the country is completely different from that in Europe or the United States.

An elderly person in Europe who is enrolled in a home-care program receives, on average, between one and four hours of care a day. A nurse goes to one client in the morning to help him or her in bathing and dressing himself or herself before going to the next client. At lunchtime, a second nurse comes to assist the senior in eating his or her lunch and, after that, administer some medication. In the evening, a third nurse visits the client to help him or her get ready for bed.

To be concluded next Saturday Marc Daubenbuechel is the executive director of the Retirement & Healthcare Coalition. He is also the project manager of the Philippine Healthcare Initiative, as well as at the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines. Send your comments to daubenbuechel @eccp.com.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Indian women’s safety schemes go mobile

Evangelii Gaudium

By Sujoy Dhar

N

Rev. Fr. Antonio Cecilio T. Pascual

Inter Press Service

SERVANT LEADER

EW DELHI—It was 9:45 p.m. when 23-year-old Manira Chaudhury, a masteral student in New Delhi who was traveling home in a rickshaw, pressed a button on her smartphone that sent out emergency alerts to two of her closest friends.

Immediately, two frantic calls followed.

“I am safe,” Chaudhury assured her distressed friends. “I was just checking that the app works.”

She uses VithU, a mobile-phone application developed by Channel V, which was launched last November in India in the aftermath of the horrific rape-murder of a 23-yearold paramedical student in a moving bus in the Indian capital on December 16, 2012.

The app is activated by tapping twice on an icon on the screen, which instantly sends the following message to preloaded emergency contacts: “I am in danger. I need help. Please follow my location,” along with details of the sender’s whereabouts.

“Fortunately I have never faced a situation where I felt the need to use it,” Chaudhury tells Inter Press Service. “But, I think, it is important to have it. I don’t think girls should have to live in constant fear of an attack, but, at the same time, we cannot live in denial.”

“We know bad things are happening out there, and it’s wise to take certain precautions,” she explains.

After ‘Nirbhaya’

WHILE dime-a-dozen safety apps are now available in India, mostly launched by mobilephone companies and other private groups, the Indian government plans to launch a safety app of its own later this month as an auxiliary service to the existing 181 Helpline for women, which was started after the fatal Delhi bus rape.

“This new app will also facilitate preregistering of crimes based on perceived threats,” says Khadijah Faruqui, a women’s-rights activist and human-rights lawyer who is heading the 181 Helpline.

Safety apps are just one of many responses to the 2012 gang rape, which sparked massive protests around this country of 1.2 billion, with scores of people taking to the streets to demand tougher laws, increased security measures, sensitization of the police force and stronger government action to tackle sexual violence against women.

Lawmakers and politicians responded to the tragedy by pushing out the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance 2013, which incorporates various sexual crimes into the penal code, and promising stiffer penalties for such offenses as stalking, voyeurism or harassment.

The government also established six new fast-track courts to hear rape cases, and experts say there has been an explosion in public debate about women’s safety.

Still, millions of women continue to live in fear, while the frequency and brutality of rapes appears unchanged, despite tougher laws.

The latest figures provided by India’s National Crime Records Bureau in 2012 point to 24,923 rapes a year, while police reports from various cities show an alarming rise in assaults in 2013 and 2014.

India’s financial hub, Mumbai, which used to be considered a safe place for women, witnessed a 43-percent rise in the number of reported rapes this year, compared with the number recorded in previous year, according to the city’s police.

Meanwhile, the capital saw an alarming five-fold rise in sexual assaults in 2013, police records reveal.

An abundance of apps

AGAINST this backdrop, many women have welcomed the rise in innovative solutions to the constant threat of sexual violence.

For instance, Microsoft India recently released the safety app called “Guardian” for Windows phones, which allows users to select a “track me” feature that enables friends and family to follow the person in real-time using cloud services, among others.

The app also comes with an SOS alert function and a feature that allows the user to record evidence of an attack.

“It is a robust personal security app with more safety features and capabilities than any other comparable app available to Indian smart-phone users today,” Microsoft-Information Technology [IT] India Managing Director Raj Biyani says.

Then there is Circle of 6, which won the 2011 Apps Against Abuse challenge sponsored by the Obama administration and works by offering users a number of icons that send the user’s select “circle” messages for help, interruption or advice.

Originally designed to guard against date rapes in the US, the app’s developers saw a 1,000-percent rise in the number of downloads in India after the Nirbhaya tragedy, prompting them to translate the app into Hindi and tailor it to fit the Indian context.

According to Circle of 6-New Delhi, the app has been programmed in both English and Hindi and it has been designed in a genderneutral manner.

Nancy Schwartzman, a representative of the team who created Circle of 6, says, “Administrations should make Circle of 6 a priority and should invest in the future of safety with this technology. Circle of 6 is...a smart and efficient way to centralize both social and emergency communications.”

The app’s creators say the hotlines have been preprogrammed, so that they are in sync with the 24/7 women’s hotline of New Delhi, and the women counseling and support service run by the non-governmental organization Jagori.

A user of the app, who feels uneasy to contact the police, can also reach out to the Lawyer’s Collective, a leading public-interest legal-service provider.

Government gets onboard

TAKING its cue from private initiatives by IT firms and advocacy groups, the government is now pouring resources into the issue of women’s safety.

Under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the finance ministry approved proposals aimed at streamlining police, mobile and legal services in the country, resulting in the creation of a fund worth 1 trillion rupees (about $16 billion) to be used exclusively on projects aimed at enhancing women’s safety.

For example, a proposal by the Ministry of Home Affairs, designed in consultation with the Ministry of Information Technology, calls for the integration of the police administration with the mobile-phone network to rapidly trace and respond to distress calls.

The IT ministry also plans to issue instructions to all mobile-phone manufacturers to introduce a mandatory SOS alert button to all handsets.

The scheme will be launched in 157 cities in two phases.

Yet another project—known in its initial stage as “design and development of an affordable electronic personal-safety device”—being undertaken by the Indian Institute of Technology aims to roll out a self-containedsafetysystemintheformofawristwatch.

India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has proposed a scheme that will cover 32 towns, each with a population of over 1 million people, where public vehicles will be fitted with global-positioning-system tracking devices to enhance law enforcement’s ability to respond to attacks.

Still, an app alone cannot solve the massive problem of violence against women in India, with an average of 57 rape cases reported every day, according to an analysis of government data by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI).

Jasmeen Patheja, founder of a student-led project at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore known as Blank Noise, says the “solution is not in the app itself, but its function, role and space for intervention.”

But Rimi B. Chatterjee, a writer and activist based in Kolkata, who also teaches English in the prestigious Jadavpur University, which is leading a viral protest against the molestation of a female student on campus in September, is skeptical about the effectiveness of the apps.

“I am personally not sure about their efficacy, and I fear that they can actually be launched by companies to bank on the insecurity of women to make money. So I have never advised my students to use them,” Chatterjee says.

“The solution to women’s safety is in the counseling and training of men and not in [the] development of apps. The problem is not with the women; it lies with men and their mindset, as young men are learning to disrespect women from their seniors,” she adds.

However, according to Faruqui, an app like the one to be launched in connection with the 181 Helpline on November 25, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the aim will be to address the gaps in the existing apps and ensure that a woman in distress can find timely assistance.

39th part CHAPTER FOUR The social dimension of evangelization

T

O evangelize is to make the kingdom of God present in our world. Yet, any partial or fragmentary definition that attempts to render the reality of evangelization in all its richness, complexity and dynamism does so only at the risk of impoverishing, and even distorting, it. I would now like to share my concerns about the social dimension of evangelization, precisely because if this is not properly brought out, there is a constant risk of distorting the authentic and integral meaning of the mission of evangelization.

I. Communal and societal repercussions of the kerygma THE kerygma has a clear social content: at the very heart of the Gospel is life in community and engagement with others. The content of the first proclamation has an immediate moral implication that is centered on charity.

Confession of faith and commitment to society

TO believe in a Father who loves all men and women with an infinite love means realizing that He, thereby, confers upon them an infinite dignity. To believe that the Son of God

assumed our human flesh means that each person has been taken up into the very heart of God. To believe that Jesus shed His blood for us removes any doubt about the boundless love that ennobles each human being. Our redemption has a social dimension, because God, in Christ, redeems not only the individual person, but also the social relations existing between men.

To believe that the Holy Spirit is at work in everyone means realizing that He seeks to penetrate every human situation and all social bonds: the Holy Spirit can be said to possess an infinite creativity, proper to the

Saturday, November 22, 2014

divine mind, which knows how to loosen the knots of human affairs, even the most complex and inscrutable. Evangelization is meant to cooperate with this liberating work of the Spirit.

The very mystery of the Trinity reminds us that we have been created in the image of that divine communion, and so we cannot achieve fulfillment or salvation purely by our own efforts. From the heart of the Gospel, we see the profound connection between evangelization and human advancement, which must necessarily find expression and develop in every work of evangelization. Accepting the first proclamation, which invites us to receive God’s love and to love Him in return with the very love that is His gift, brings forth in our lives and actions a primary and fundamental response: to desire, seek and protect the good of others.

This inseparable bond between our acceptance of the message of salvation and genuine fraternal love appears in several scriptural texts, which we would do well to meditate upon in order to appreciate all their consequences. The message is one that we often take for granted, and can repeat almost mechanically, without necessarily ensuring that it has a real effect on our lives and in our communities. How dangerous and harmful this is, for it makes us lose our amazement, our excitement and our zeal for living the Gospel of fraternity and justice! God’s word teaches that our brothers and

Society and the environment Cecilio T. Arillo

database

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NVIRONMENTAL issues are now inseparable from social and economic problems. Yet, actions across these disciplines appear disconnected. By presenting a qualitative analysis of global trends, the Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs, Volume 21 “makes it clear that positive global change can only be achieved if the social, economic and environmental dimensions are fully addressed.”

“A failure to connect—to think and act across the boundaries of different disciplines and specializations—could well be diagnosed as human civilization’s fundamental flaw in the face of growing and real threats,” said Michael Renner, Worldwatch senior researcher and director of the Vital Signs Project.

Renner highlighted this disconnect (discrepancy or lack of connection) between sectors by providing authoritative data and a concise analysis of significant global trends in food and agriculture, population and society, and energy and climate.

For example, Volume 21 shows that agricultural subsidies, valued at $486 billion in the top 21 food-producing countries in 2012, supported factory farms that have colossal environmental footprints.

They also often favored wealthy farmers and undermined farming in developing countries.

By predominantly funding a few staple crops for the largest farms, subsidies support industrial-scale operations with low crop diversity that often sap soil nutrients and require heavy loads of fertilizers and insecticides.

Renner pointed out that social concerns suffer from similar disconnects. “At a time when climate change increasingly intersects with social and economic upheavals, [and] disasters and conflicts, governments continue to invest large sums in traditional forms of security policy,” he wrote.

These troubling priorities mean that the United Nations’s peacekeeping budgets of about $8 billion a year are not enough to cover even two days’ worth of global military spending. Military spending by highincome countries also dwarfed aid flows tenfold, with $1,234 billion spent on military programs in 2012.

“Governments have created a large and well-funded apparatus of security agencies,” Renner wrote, “but, in numerous ways, have failed to address many of the underlying reasons for the world’s conflicts and instabilities.”

On the energy front, technologies, like wind and solar photovoltaics, are rapidly becoming more cost-competitive. But governmental support is still essential, and policy uncertainties have put a break on investments in renewable technologies.

Meanwhile, global fossil-fuel use is still growing, with coal, natural gas and oil accounting for 87 percent of global primary energy demand in 2012, and greenhouse-gas emissions are hitting record levels (9.7 gigatons in 2012 from fossil-fuel consumption and cement production alone).

“Energy policy across much of the globe can only be labeled as schizophrenic,” Renner wrote. “It seems driven more by the ideology of endless growth than by concern for a livable future, more by corporate strategies than by the public interest, and more by considerations of supply security and geopolitics than by shared human needs.”

Volume 21 is an invaluable guide for gover nments, businesses, teachers and concerned citizens everywhere to make the changes needed to build a sustainable world.

The Worldwatch data demonstrate that there is both increasing pressure on natural resources and

Word of the year: Vape, Oxford says

By Kim Geiger Chicago Tribune (TNS)

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OU’RE not alone in thinking that e-cigarettes have made a push into the mainstream this year.

The wordsmiths at Oxford Dictionaries think the trend is so significant that they’ve named “vape” the word of 2014.

The meaning of the word is, “to inhale or exhale the vapor produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device.” It originated as an abbreviation of the terms vapor and vaporize.

The word beat out other contenders like “bae”—a term of endearment for one’s romantic partner—and “budtender”—a person whose job

is to serve customers in a pot dispensary—as the dictionary’s word of the year.

“You are 30 times more likely to come across the word ‘vape’ than you were two years ago, and usage has more than doubled in the past year,” the dictionary’s editors said in a blog post announcing the selection.

Use of “vape” peaked in April, which was around the time that the UK’s first “vape café” opened, and when people started protesting the ban on indoor vaping in New York, the editors said. That’s the same month when Chicago’s ban on smoking e-cigarettes in restaurants, bars and most indoor public places took effect.

The rise in popularity of e-ciga-

In selecting a word of the year, lexicographers and consultants to the dictionary team, plus editorial, marketing and publicity staff look for a word that is deemed “to reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations of that particular year and to have lasting potential as a word of cultural significance,” the dictionary said. rettes—which have been marketed as a safer alternative to smoking and a quit-smoking aid—is unmistakable, especially in cities like Chicago, where e-cigarette users are about as

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sisters are the prolongation of the incarnation for each of us: “As you did it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). The way we treat others has a transcendent dimension: “The measure you give will be the measure you get” (Matthew 7:2). It corresponds to the mercy that God has shown us: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you…. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back” (Luke 6:36–38).

What these passages make clear is the absolute priority of going forth from ourselves toward our brothers and sisters as one of the two great commandments that ground every moral norm and as the clearest sign for discerning spiritual growth in response to God’s completely free gift.

For this reason, the service of charity is also a constituent element of the Church’s mission and an indispensable expression of her very being.

By her very nature, the Church is missionary; she abounds in effective charity and a compassion that understands, assists and promotes.

To be continued For comments, send an e-mail to caritas_manila@yahoo.com. For donations to Caritas Manila, call (632) 563-9311. For inquiries, call (632) 5639308 or 563-9298, or fax 563-9306.

scaled-up efforts to live more sustainably. Through its insightful analysis, Worldwatch offers a starting point for those seeking solutions to the future’s intensifying challenges.

Other pertinent data presented in Volume 21: n Natural disasters. Natural disasters beginning in 2012 climbed to 905, roughly 100 more than the 10-year annual average, with 90 percent of it being weather-related. n Organic farming. Land farmed organically has tripled since 1999, although it still makes up less than 1 percent of total farmland. n Solar and wind power. Solarpower consumption increased by 58 percent and wind-power consumption increased by 18 percent. n Fossil fuels. Coal, natural gas and oil accounted for 87 percent of global primary energy consumption. n Greenhouse-gas emissions. Carbon-dioxide emissions from fossilfuel combustion and cement production reached 9.7 gigatons of carbon, making it the highest annual total to date. n Food prices. Continuing a decade-long increase, global food prices rose 2.7 percent, reaching levels not seen since the 1960s and 1970s. n Green business. More companies are seeking new legal requirements or third-party certifications that will hold them accountable to higher standards, embracing a triple bottom line prioritizing profits, people and the planet.

E-mail: cecilio.arillo@gmail.com.

common a sight as traditional cigarette smokers.

Industry analysts predict that consumption of e-cigarettes will surpass traditional cigarettes within 10 years, according to researchers at the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products.

In selecting a word of the year, lexicographers and consultants to the dictionary team, plus editorial, marketing and publicity staff look for a word that is deemed “to reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations of that particular year and to have lasting potential as a word of cultural significance,” the dictionary said.

Last year’s word was “selfie”. In 2012 it was the verb “GIF”.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

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Senate wants DOST to get ₧3B for free Wi-Fi spots

By Recto Mercene

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he Senate version of the 2015 national budget has set aside funding for free wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) spots all over the country so Internet access can aid learning, link farmers and traders to markets and connect the public to information that will improve their lives.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the Committee on Finance has recommended to increase next year’s budget of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) Public Wi-Fi Program from P338 million to P3 billion.

Recto, who chairs the finance subcommittee in charge of the DOST and sponsored the amendment, said agency officials led by Science Secretary Mario G. Montejo “welcome, support and are pleased with the Senate initiative.”

Last Tuesday Finance Committee Chairman Francis Escudero read the amendments on the floor.

The DOST has drawn up a list of 50,872 Wi-Fi spots from which the initial batch will be rolled out next year.

Included are 7,917 public high schools, 38,694 public elementary schools, 113 state colleges, 1,118 public libraries and public spaces in 1,490 towns.

In the blueprint drafted by the DOST, Wi-Fi connectivity will eventually be installed in 895 provincial, regional hospitals and government-run medical centers in Metro Manila.

“The reason behind this is that if you’re a son of an OFW [overseas Filipino worker] and you would like to Skype with your father who is in the Middle East because a member of the family has been stricken ill, then you can do it within the hospital premises,” Recto said. “Or if the hospital staff would like to transmit patient data, then there’s a facility for that.”

Recto said their goal is to tap the program for social good. “So it’s the reason why it will be set up in libraries and schools so it can aid in research and instruction, and promote reading.”

The senator said Wi-Fi will also be set up in Public Employment Service Offices to help the jobless search for employment.

“It will also be set up in town halls. Kaya kung, halimbawa, ang isa ay malapit sa Municipal Agriculture Office, pwedeng gamitin ito upang alamin ang presyo ng gulay sa Maynila.

Ito naman ang layunin talaga: to help real farms and not just to play Farmville. Or kung nasa Civil Registrar’s Office ka at may problema ka sa birth certificate mo, doon mismo pwede kang tumawag sa sino mang makakatulong sa ’yo.”

Free Wi-Fi will also be installed in 85 airports, 41 seaports and 69 Light Rail Transit, Metro Rail Transit and Philippine National Railways stations, Recto said.

“The Department of Tourism has declared 2015 as Visit Philippines Year. Not only that, we are expecting visitors ranging from the Pope to Putin. If we’re expecting millions more travelers, then among the convenience we can offer them is free Wi-Fi,” Recto said.

Pope Francis will visit the Philippines in the third week of January, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin will join 20 other Pacific Rim leaders for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit in November.

“If our vehicular highways are congested, then we should tap the information highway and we can telecommute if the infra is there,” he said.

Recto said the Wi-Fi funding was a result of the Senate’s decision to defer by one year the lease-purchase by the Department of Budget and Management of laptops, which will later be issued to select government employees.

Moody’s echoes concerns over state underspending

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By Bianca Cuaresma

he research arm of a major credit-rating agency cited the government’s reluctance to spend in the third quarter as the main factor that likely dragged down growth during the period.

In reviewing economic data from countries in the region, Moody’s Analytics on Friday said the $270-billion economy might have expanded at a slower rate in the third quarter to only 5.9 percent.

“In the Philippines, a slowdown in public-infrastructure spending likely curbed third-quarter growth,” the research arm of the sovereign credit watcher said.

Earlier this week, the minutes

of the latest Monetary Board meeting indicated an economy facing so-called downside risks as direct consequence to the lower publicsector spending during the period.

A regional banking giant, likewise, revised its growth forecast for the country in the third quarter for basically the same reasons cited

by Moody’s Analytics.

“The flow of new government infrastructure projects slowed, which may weigh on gross domestic product growth. Conversely, export grow has accelerated and imports have improved, reflecting a stronger domestic economy,” Moody’s Analytics said.

“Industrial production, the best monthly gauge of overall growth, slowed in the three months to September. The Moody’s

Analytics tracking model suggests a modest third-quarter slowdown,” the research arm added.

Despite the slower forecast growth, however, the researchers at Moody’s Analytics said the economy continued to grow strongly during the period.

“The Philippines’s economy grew strongly through the third quarter of 2014. Production has fully recovered from last year’s typhoon and business sentiment remains upbeat,” the Moody’s unit said.

The Philippine Statistics Authority is scheduled to release the country’s third-quarter growth numbers next week.

In the first six months, the economy grew by 6 percent, on the back of strong domestic demand.

BSP NOTES strong REBOUND IN BUSINESS CONFIDENCE IN Q4

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ocal firms in the country gained renewed confidence in the Philippine economic prospects for the last three months of the year owing largely to the increase in consumer demand during the quarter, coupled with the expectations of higher businesses, the harvest season and new product offerings during the period.

In a briefing on Friday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that the overall business confidence index (CI) of Philippine businesses rose to 48.3 percent for the fourth quarter of the year, after turn-

ing sour in the third quarter of the year at 34.4 percent.

This is the largest CI gain in a single quarter for the survey since the first quarter of 2010.

The CI is the measure of sentiment in the central bank’s business expectations survey (BES). A higher positive CI means that the number of optimists outnumbered the number of pessimists for the period at a larger margin. A negative CI, meanwhile, means that the number of pessimists exceeded the number of optimists during the period.

The latest BES—as conducted by the central bank every

quarter—showed that respondents turned more upbeat on the country’s economic activity in the last quarter of the year due particularly to the expected increase in consumer demand during the holidays and main palay harvest seasons, the sustained increase in orders and projects leading to higher volume of production, the expansion of businesses and new product lines, and the introduction of new and enhanced business strategies and processes.

“Their more positive outlook was further driven by expectations of an acceleration in the rollout of infrastructure

and other development projects under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program and the favorable macroeconomic conditions in the country, particularly stable inflation and low interest rates, sustained foreign investment inflows and the steady stream of overseas Filipinos’ remittances,” the central bank added in its statement.

The significantly more positive outlook during the period was seen across all sectors, as well as all economic sizes and locations.

Tracking the national trend, the sentiment of businesses in See “Confidence,” A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Surplus... continued from A1

“Developments since July up to the present and the dominant factors affecting the BOP are external in nature, specifically the normalization of monetary policy in the US, which has affected financial markets,” Tetangco said.

“So the impact of this normalization of monetary in the US has affected not only the Philippines but also other emerging markets around the world. This is not something that is peculiar to us but a phenomenon that has been observed around the world in reaction to what is happening in advanced economies, particularly the US,” he added.

Tetangco gave assurance that while the BOP would likely revert to deficit state, the same was not expected of the country’s gross international reserves as the latest numbers, according to Tetangco, already factored in a $3.4-billion BOP shortfall.

Tetangco further said the country’s external accounts will continue to be strong as the current account, a component of the balance of payments that keeps track of the net flow of trade, investments and income, will remain in a state of surplus.

The current account consists of transaction in goods and services and primary and secondary income, including remittances from overseas Filipino workers and businessprocess outsourcing receipts.

Tetangco said the current-account surplus is now expected to hit $6.6 billion, up from an earlier projection of only $6 billion in July. This was forecast to equal 2.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) from 2 percent of GDP under the July projected numbers.

“Based on the assessment of impact of latest developments, we believe that the current account will show a surplus which is higher than the forecast or the projection that we issued in July because of the smaller trade deficit given that imports have increased slower than earlier projected,” Tetangco said.

“Structural flows continue to be strong as seen in the current account. What is being affected is the capital account because of the reaction of asset managers and foreign funds to policy decisions in the advanced economies, particularly the Fed. Structurally, the external accounts continue to be sound,” he added.

Other revisions to the projection include export growth averaging only 2 percent under latest forecasts, from growth of 6 percent when first projected in July.

The number excludes the performance of the electronics sector now classified under services based on the so-called new balance of payments and international investment, or BPM6 computation.

Imports, meanwhile, are now expected to grow by 5 percent, slower than the 9-percent growth earlier anticipated.

Remittances are now also expected to grow faster to 5.5 percent from only 5 percent projected earlier.

US promotes entrepreneurship to counter extremism

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ARRAKECH, Morocco— The US is promoting entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa as a way to create jobs and counter extremism in the region, senior American officials said on Thursday at a conference in Morocco.

The environment needed to encourage these new businesses is difficult to find, however, in the highly regulated economies of the region.

“We don’t have a culture of innovation,” said Anis Aouni, a Tunisian inventor from Saphon Energy whose new model of a wind turbine was being showcased by Microsoft.

But US Vice President Joe Biden and other American officials attending the fifth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Morocco were hopeful of change.

Biden called for education systems that questioned orthodoxy, well-defined legal systems that fight corruption and freedom of expression—elements that local activists have said are in short supply in the Middle East and North Africa.

“You cannot think different where you cannot breathe free,” said Biden, using the famous slogan of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

“You cannot think different when you cannot challenge orthodoxy.

You cannot think different where you cannot speak your mind.”

He added that the countries in the Middle East and Africa are racing to create tens of millions of jobs as their overwhelmingly young populations enter the work force.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (center) gestures as he addresses entrepreneurs from around the Middle East during the opening session of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Marrakech, Morocco, on Thursday. US Ambassador to Morocco Dwight Bush is seated left and Moroccan entrepreneur Yasmine El Baggari right. Biden is attending the fifth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit established by the US in the latest vote of confidence for this North African kingdom. AP/Paul Schemm

US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker told the Associated Press that governments in the region were coming around to the importance of entrepreneurship as a way of employing the masses of young people not finding work in the current economies.

“We have heads of countries

who have gone from no understanding of entrepreneurship to how do we do it the way you do it in the United States,” she said. “What they see is job creation, greater economic growth potential, security and stability, not allowing idle minds to find trouble.”

The speech by Moroccan King

Mohammed VI, read out by Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, gave strong support for supporting young businesses and many attending the conference expressed hope the business environment in Morocco would improve.

Young businesses in the region have trouble finding access

to funding, with most banks and investors very averse to risking money on new businesses.

Several countries have set up business incubators and programs to help start-ups, but experts say it is not yet enough.

“The start-up companies get a bit of support, some money or offices and they get on their way, but then what? They die on the vine,” said Deborah Magid from IBM’s Venture Capital Group. “In the middle there is a huge gap.”

Many people in the region are also wary of working for new companies because of the taboo against failure. Young entrepreneurs admitted that their parents often hid what they did until they considered the new businesses sufficiently successful.

Lamiaa Bounahmidi, a young Moroccan who set up a business producing couscous in Morocco and selling it in the US admitted that she could never have created her business without access to US investors.

But she said the king’s apparent support for new businesses at the conference speech gave her some optimism that the climate was changing in the country, if not the region—even if most of the speakers on stage that day were from big established companies, rather than start-ups.

“I was very happy of the content from the king’s speech,” she said, but worried that the ideas might not actually be translated into reality. AP