Businessmirror october 09, 2015

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Thursday 2014 Vol. 10 No. 40Vol.

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Congress ratifies bill reining in tax breaks T

DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND WILL BE USELESS IF JOBS ABSENT

INSIDE

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MADONNA GETS PERSONAL

Only half a minute will do

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EAR Lord, is it a thousand times we have heard that, “I’d like to pray every day, but I just don’t have time?” Oh, come on, we would retort, and say instead, “only half a minute will do.” The important thing is to pray daily or at anytime, any place any where or whatever. A week is weak without prayers. Prayers are our weapons to any situation. Our perfect ways that lead us to holiness. Prayers make us more respectful in conveying our desires to God. Let then be not only half a minute will do attitude. Amen.

MY DAILY PRAYER AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

ON THE MENU: HICKORYSMOKED BABY BACK RIBS »D3

BusinessMirror

Friday, October 9, 2015

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MADONNA GETS PERSONAL

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B G K Chicago Tribune

HICAGO—Even before Madonna took the stage on Monday at Chicago’s United Center, the senses hit overload.

Warrior dancers hoisted crosses, Mike Tyson issued threats from the video screen, fake blood streamed as if from a tabloid murder photo, and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” provided the soundtrack.

Music isn’t quite incidental to the spectacle that is a Madonna show, it’s more like an ingredient in a multimedia melting pot of outrageous fashion, noir video, theater, dance, performance art and social commentary. There were 20 dancers and three musicians, 22 videos and a whopping 60 people backstage taking care of costumes that ran from Cotton Club fringe to a long, flowing royal cape. There was even a Britney Spears look-alike pulled from the audience.

More difficult to find on many of the singer’s tours was an emotional center. But that wasn’t a problem on Monday—“Rebel Heart” is the most intimate Madonna tour yet. It’s tough for any pop entertainer, let alone a 57-year-old female artist, to retain her chart appeal for one decade, let alone four. Madonna may still be the

most famous woman in the pop world—Beyoncé might take issue with that—but she’s had only a few top-10 singles in the new millennium.

Though she could easily live off greatest hits tours or Vegas residencies, Madonna somehow remains engaged.

Her latest album, Rebel Heart, is a mess, a tangle of proclamations and confessions.

She wants it all. There are songs that expose insecurities and fess up to narcissism. And then there are the tunes that basically say, “I’m old enough to be your mom and I can still do anything you can do better—got a problem with that?”

She set the tone within minutes of arriving on stage: “Who do you think you are?” she barked. Later she demanded, “Get off my pole!” during a profane ode to oral sex that also quoted one of her biggest hits, “Vogue.”

What’s a Madonna concert without a little blasphemy?

“Holy Water” staged the Last Supper as an orgy, including a stunt where Madonna mounted a spinning cross while standing atop a dancer dressed as a nun. It’s probably just as well that Pope Francis avoided Chicago on his American visit.

The defiant attitude, the provocative posturing that defined her early rise to stardom played a part in the show, but these poses felt tired—yesterday’s shock is today’s act of desperation. Fortunately, the attitude

became more playful and introspective as the show proceeded through its four major set pieces.

Half the set list was drawn from the commercially underperforming Rebel Heart, even though the singer has more than three dozen top-10 hits, mostly from the 1980s and 1990s. But even the hits she reprised were often reconfigured, from the jazzy “Material Girl” to the ukulele-led “True Blue.”

Whereas her 2012 tour flirted with darkness and death—yes, Madonna can do Goth, too—the current two-hour performance had a lighter, warmer, more personal tone. There were smiles and something approaching vulnerability.

For “Like a Virgin,” Madonna dialed down the bump and grind for a solo performance that came across as quietly celebratory, as though dancing by herself in a darkened bedroom. A solo “La Vie en Rose” may not have approached the towering heartbreak of Edith Piaf’s signature version, but Madonna delivered it with a rich tone that would’ve been beyond her during her hitmaking prime.

With fans packed closely around her on a heartshaped stage in the middle of the arena, she prefaced “Who’s That Girl” with a statement: “I’m still trying to figure out who I am.” Who needs shock appeal when you’ve got Madonna psychoanalyzing herself on stage?

SET LIST: ■ Iconic ■ B*tch I’m Madonna ■ Burning Up ■ Holy Water ■ Devil Pray ■ Messiah ■ Body Shop ■ True Blue ■ Deeper and Deeper ■ Heartbreak City ■ Like a Virgin ■ S.E.X. ■ Living For Love ■ La Isla Bonita ■ Dress You Up ■ Who’s That Girl ■ Ghosttown ■ Rebel Heart ■ Illuminati ■ Music/Candy Shop ■ Material Girl ■ La Vie En Rose ■ Unapologetic B*tch ENCORE: ■ Holiday

LIFE

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he proposed Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (Timta)—one of the important revenue measures of the Aquino administration—has moved a step closer to being enacted into law, after the two chambers of Congress ratified the congressional bicameral committee’s consolidated version of the proposal.

The Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the Timta late Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. The chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Liberal Party (LP) Rep. Romero S. Quimbo, said the proposed Timta will be transmitted to President Aquino for his signature.

Quimbo said the proposed Timta, which was included in the priority bills of the 16th Congress, seeks to promote transparency and accountability in the grant and administration of tax incentives to business entities, private individuals and corporations.

The consolidated version of the

Timta was principally authored

by Quimbo, LP Rep. Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo of Camarines Sur, Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara and Sen. Ralph G. Recto. Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said the measure sought to provide a solution to the lack of empirical data on fiscal incentives, thus, enabling the government to “evaluate and maximize revenue spent toward boosting the country’s economic growth.”

Drilon, meanwhile, said the main purpose of the bill is to “make public and let the sun shine on the tax Continued on A2

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‘PHL farm sector needs ₧200B annually’

SUBARU All-wheel adventure

MOTORING

BusinessMirror media partner

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

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he national government must allocate some P200 billion to the local farm sector annually to enable Filipino farmers to compete with their foreign counterparts.

Dr. Santiago R. Obien, senior technical adviser of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) National Rice Program, said the annual budget being allocated to the agency is “small.”

“While the [absolute] amount was higher compared to the budget 10 years ago, it’s small. If you account for inflation and the increase in costs, it’s almost on a par with what the sector was allocated [a decade ago],” Obien said during the BM Coffee Club forum held in Makati City on Thursday.

The DA’s proposed budget for next year is P93.4 billion, 5 percent higher than the P89.1 billion allocated to the agency this year.

Continued on A8

PESO exchange rates n US 46.2730

Manuel Chase M. Castaño III (from left), science research analyst, Be Riceponsible Campaign; Dr. Calixto M. Protacio, executive director, Department of Agriculture (DA)-Philippine Rice Research Institute; Jaime A. Manalo, head, Development Communication Division; and Dr. Santiago Obien, senior technical adviser of the DA’s National Rice Program, at the BM Coffee Club Forum held at the BusinessMirror offices in Makati City on Thursday. NONOY LACZA

By Cai U. Ordinario

he demographic dividend that will speed up the country’s growth rate will only be realized if there are enough jobs to match the growing working-age population, the World Bank said.

In a report titled “Global Monitoring Report 2015/2016: Development Goals in an Era of Demographic Change,” the World Bank said the Philippines is considered an early-dividend country due to the huge number of working-age Filipinos. “Pre- and early-dividend countries also face the challenge of creating enough jobs for the growing working-age population share and in investing sufficiently in raising their skill levels,” the report stated.

The World Bank estimated that the country’s labor force is expected to post an average growth of 2.4 percent between 2015 and 2030.

The growth of the Filipino work force will be supported by the increase in total fertility of 2.87 percent between 2015 and 2020.

This fertility-rate level, however, is lower than the 4.53 percent registered in the 1985-to-1990 period.

With the growth of the population, the per-capita growth of the bottom 40 percent was at 1.15 percent between 2006 and 2012. The annual growth per capita of the total population was only 0.41 percent.

“More than 90 percent of poverty is concentrated in pre- and early-dividend countries, with swelling working-age populations that lag in key human-development indicators and continue to register rapid population growth,” the report stated. “In these countries, the demographic transition to lower fertility creates a golden opportunity to raise living standards.”

In the results of the July Labor Force Survey, around 66.61 million Filipinos are 15 to 64 years old and considered part of the labor force.

The country’s labor-force participation rate was 62.9 percent. Of this See “Demographic dividend,” A2

n japan 0.3858 n UK 70.9180 n HK 5.9707 n CHINA 7.2789 n singapore 32.7945 n australia 33.3571 n EU 52.0247 n SAUDI arabia 12.3405 Source: BSP (8 October 2015)

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News

BusinessMirror

Friday, October 9, 2015

Congress ratifies bill reining in tax breaks Continued from A1

incentives which companies enjoy.”

“There should be transparency on the taxes that we are not collecting and waiving in the form of incentives granted to the private sector, so that we will see whether, indeed, the public is best served by these incentives being granted to them,” Drilon said.

Under the bill, all heads of the investment-promotion agencies must

submit to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) investment-related data, which will include the list of registered business entities, investment projects, investment cost, actual employment and export earnings.

For tax-incentives data, the Department of Finance will furnish the Neda a copy of the reports submitted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs.

Also, the bill provides that

the data and information will be reflected by the Department of Budget and Management in the annual Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing, particularly in a section to be called the Tax Incentives Information.

The bill said violators of this act will face P100,000 penalty for the first offense, P500,000 for the second and cancellation of the registration of business entities for the third instance.

China anxious over alleged US plan on sea dispute. . .

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Vw’s US Ceo faces tough questions in Congress probe. . .

Continued from A8

“It’s not good,” said Backer, who said he typically sells only a small number of diesels. “It’s definitely a stain on the brand’s image.”

Thursday’s appearance will be the first on Capitol Hill by Horn, a 51-year-old German and veteran VW manager who took the reins of the brand’s American subsidiary last year. He is expected to face blistering questions about when top executives at the company first learned of the scheme.

Horn will tell Congress he only learned about the cheating software “over the past several weeks,” VW Spokesman Jeannine Ginivan told the Associated Press on Wednesday. He will also echo prior statements by the company’s global chief executive apologizing for the cheating.

“These events are deeply troubling,” Horn will say, according to

his prepared remarks. “I did not think that something like this was possible at the Volkswagen Group.

We have broken the trust of our customers, dealerships and employees, as well as the public and regulators.”

Also scheduled to testify on Thursday are two officials at the EPA who oversee emissions testing and compliance with clean air rules.

VW first confessed the deception to US regulators on September 3, more than a year after researchers at West Virginia University published a study showing the real-world emissions of the company’s Jetta and Passat models were far higher than allowed. The same cars had met emissions standards when tested in the lab.

VW was able to fool the EPA because the agency only tested the cars on treadmill-like devices called dynamometers and didn’t use portable test equipment on real roads. The

software in the cars’ engine-control computers determined when dynamometer tests were under way. It then turned on pollution controls that reduced the output of nitrogen oxides that contribute to smog and other pollution, the EPA has said.

Only when the EPA and California regulators refused to approve VW’s 2016 diesel models for sale did the company admit earlier what it had done.

Though VW and US regulators have not yet announced a fix for illegal emissions under a nationwide recall, Horn will say the company is “determined to make things right.”

“This includes accepting the consequences of our acts, providing a remedy, and beginning to restore the trust of our customers, dealerships, employees, regulators, and the American public,” Horn will say, according to his written testimony. AP

Continued from A8

in keeping the peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Hua said.

The Navy Times report said rumors have been circulating since May about plans to send a ship through China’s claimed territorial waters. It cited three Pentagon officials speaking on background as saying that Navy officials now believe “approval of the mission is imminent.”

It’s not clear how China might respond to such an action, although Beijing issued a formal protest over an incident in May, in which a Chinese navy dispatcher demanded eight times that a US Navy P8-A

Poseidon surveillance aircraft leave the area as it flew over Fiery Cross Reef, where China has conducted extensive reclamation work.

The US crew members responded that they were flying through international airspace. The US and its allies, including the Philippines, have repeatedly called on China to stop the massive-island construction, saying it has increased tensions in an increasingly militarized area and threatened regional stability. They say the project, which includes the construction of buildings, ports and airstrips, violates a 2002 regional pact signed by Bei-

jing which urges rival claimants not to undertake new construction or take any step that would worsen tensions.

Speaking in July, Cmdr. of the US Pacific Fleet Adml. Scott Swift said Washington does not recognize any of the territorial claims and its position won’t change even if disputed areas are reinforced by construction work.

“We recognize those claims as being contested, and the contested nature of those claims is unchanged despite the reclamation efforts of any country, any country, not just China,” Swift said. AP

Demographic dividend. . . portion of working-age Filipinos, those who are employed account for 93.5 percent and the unemployed account for 6.5 percent.

Of the employed, the underemployed accounted for 21 percent.

Underemployed Filipinos are employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours.

The Calabarzon region is home to 8.62 million working-age Filipinos,

Continued from A1

the highest concentration of workers nationwide. The lowest number of workers were registered in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) at 1.19 million.

In terms of labor force participation rate, the highest was recorded in CAR at 66.5 percent, while the lowest labor force participation rate was recorded in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at 53.3 percent.

The highest employment rate was posted by Cagayan Valley at

96.6 percent, while the lowest employment rate was in Central Luzon with 91.2 percent.

The highest unemployment rate was in Central Luzon with 8.8 percent, while the lowest unemployment rate was in Cagayan Valley, 3.4 percent.

The region with the highest underemployment rate was Bicol with 33.8 percent and the region with the lowest underemployment was the National Capital Region with 9.8 percent.

The Nation

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo

BusinessMirror Friday, October 9, 2015 A3

Palace disputes UN panel finding on GMA case

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By Butch Fernandez

ALACAÑANG is disputing a United Nations (UN) humanrights panel finding that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s arrest and hospital detention for alleged plunder violated international law.

In a news briefing, Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. insisted Mrs. Arroyo was treated always in accordance with international legal and human standards, and that no international body can interfere with an ongoing judicial proceeding.

Coloma read to Palace reporters on Thursday the position of the Philippine government as stated by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in response to the UN panel’s “opinion” regarding Mrs. Arroyo’s hospital arrest.

“The Philippines takes note of the opinion of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention [WGAD] and will prepare an appropriate response, according to WGAD’s rules,” he said, adding, “The Philippines, as a signatory to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, abides by its international obligations and ensures that all individuals are accorded due process under its laws.”

Coloma said the former President “has been accorded such due process and has availed herself of various legal remedies under Philippine laws.”

“It must be noted that there is an ongoing judicial process in the Philippine courts, which has sole jurisdiction to decide on such matters. The Philippine government or any international body for that matter, cannot interfere nor influence the course of an independent judicial proceeding,” the Palace official said, quoting the DFA position.

Coloma told reporters that government lawyers are now preparing “an appropriate response” to the findings of the UN WGAD, which raised issues on Mrs. Arroyo’s continued detention on charges of “plundering” P366 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

On orders of the graft court, Arroyo was placed under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) after claiming she

BAGUIO FLOWER SHOP

had cervical spondylosis, said to be a degenerative disease affecting her neck and bones.

As far as the government is concerned, the Palace official made the distinction that the UN Working Group’s findings on Mrs. Arroyo’s case should not be taken as the official stand of all the member-countries sitting in the UN General Assembly.

“Iyon ay mga opinyon ng mga indibidwal, ang mahalaga sa posisyon ng ating pamahalaan ay ’yung pagsasabi na naaayon sa batas ’yung lahat ng isinasagawang proseso patungkol sa dating Pangulong Arroyo. Kung meron silang mga opinyon o pananaw hinggil sa ating sistema, karapatan nila iyon. Basta malinaw ang posisyon ng ating pamahalaan: Hindi tayo sumasang-ayon sa pananaw na inihayag nila,” Coloma said.

In an e-mail sent to Lorenzo Gadon, a counsel of Arroyo in the Philippines, international human-rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney said the United Nations WGAD, in its opinion released on October 2, confirmed that the detention of former President Arroyo violates international law.

Gadon, in a weekly Usaping Balita news forum, said the opinion was issued following an individual complaint filed by counsel for Arroyo in February.

Earlier, Clooney also filed a humanrights violation case before the UN against the Philippine government on behalf of Arroyo.

In its opinion, the five-member UN body also urged the government of the Philippines to reconsider Arroyo’s bail plea “in accordance with the relevant international human-rights standards ...and to accord Ms. Arroyo with an enforceable right to compensation… for the deprivation of liberty which already occurred.”

Since 2012, the former President, who is appealing for humanitarian consideration due to her deteriorating health condition, is under hospital arrest at the VMMC in Quezon City for a plunder case in connection with the

alleged misuse of the P366-million intelligence funds of the PCSO. Clooney, citing the UN anew, said that, “Mrs. Arroyo was denied bail on grounds that are not compatible with the international law; she did not benefit from the presumption in favor of bail; she was denied bail exclusively on the basis of the alleged strength of evidence against her; measures alternative to pretrial detention were not considered and there were undue delays in considering her bail position in the proceedings against her as a whole.”

“Accordingly, the UN recommended the reconsideration of Mrs. Arroyo’s application for bail in accordance with the relevant international humanrights standards,” Clooney added.

She also said that the UN finds that the detention of Mrs. Arroyo was arbitrary and illegal under international laws because the Sandiganbayan “failed to take into account her individual circumstances when it repeatedly denied bail, failed to consider measures alternative to pretrial detention and because of the undue delays in proceeding against her.”

“Also, the UN recognized that the charges against Mrs. Arroyo are politically motivated, since she is detained as a result of the exercise of her right to take part in government and the conduct of public and because of her political...opinion,” she said.

Clooney said the UN body highlighted in particular the Philippine government’s “defiance of court rulings removing travel bans” against Arroyo as proof that it is “targeting” the former President and interfering with judicial decisions in her case.

She said the UN body based its finding on the Philippine government’s resistance to lifting the travel restrictions on Arroyo on Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s move to stop her from boarding a Singaporebound plane in November 2011, in violation of a Supreme Court ruling allowing her to seek medical treatment abroad.

Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang said, “We have our own judicial process here that has to be observed and the [Sandiganbayan] First Division [who handling Arroyo’s case] has precisely observed this process that is in place.”

“I don’t think court violated any international law the court has always observed all the processes that are in place in the country,” she said.

With Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Binay wants P.E.T. to dismiss Roxas election protest

By Joel R. San Juan

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ICE President Jejomar C. Binay has asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) to immediately dismiss the election protest filed by former Interior Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II, whom the former defeated in the 2010 vicepresidential race.

In a 19-page submission filed on Monday, Binay cited Roxas’s abandonment of the case in calling for its dismissal.

It appears, according to Binay’s lawyers led by Sandra Coronel, that Roxas is no longer interested in pursuing the case and that he failed to pay the required filing fee amounting to P166,635,000 at

A flower vendor proudly displays newly harvested flowers in her shop at the Baguio City market. Prices of roses per bouquet of 24 pieces is P80, but is expected to rise in the succeeding weeks as All Saints’ Day nears. MAU VICTA

the outset of the case.

They also cited Roxas’s inaction on his earlier plea for forensic examination and random manual audit of the ballots, which the Binay camp branded as a “selfserving fishing expedition” not provided under PET rules.

“Protestee [Binay] thus submits that the protestant’s manifest lack of interest and inexcusable inaction in prosecuting the herein protest amounts to abandonment, which deserves a similar dismissal in order for the honorable tribunal to finally address the ‘paramount need of dispelling once and for all the uncertainty that beclouds the real choice of the electorate with respect to who shall discharge the prerogative of the offices within their gift,” Binay’s camp said in its pleading.

Binay lawyers pointed out that it has been five years since Roxas sought the conduct of forensic examination during preliminary conference on the case, but the latter has since not even filed a motion for resolution of his plea.

“What the protestant has done is to cast doubt upon the credibility of the elections based on his surmises and conjectures, which are also trumpeted in media, that the AES [Automated Election System] was not reliable and that its integrity has been compromised,” they said.

“Protestee Vice President Binay respectfully submits that the inaction of the protestant on his protest, after honorable hearing officer had already issued a preliminary conference report more than 16 months ago, is a clear evidence of his lack of interest in pursuing the case,” Binay’s camp alleged.

Binay’s camp cited previous rulings of the Supreme Court, such as in Ortega v. de Guzman of the Senate Electoral Tribunal; Firdausi Abbas v. Heherzon Alvarez et al.; and of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal Guades v. Uy, where all poll protests were dismissed on the ground of inaction or failure of protestants to prosecute the cases.

Binay’s camp had wanted the

PET, which is composed of all the 15 Supreme Court (SC) justices sitting as a tribunal, to resolve the case based on merits.

Binay and Roxas are both seeking the presidency in the 2016 elections.

If unresolved before the filing of certificate of candidacy next week, the protest of Roxas, who is set to run for president in next year’s polls, is expected to be automatically dismissed under the rules of PET. Last month the PET has convened to designate newly appointed SC Clerk of Court Felipa Anama also as its Clerk of Court.

The last time the PET acted on the case was in December 2012, when it granted a request of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use 75 percent of the ballot boxes containing votes under protest by Roxas for this year’s elections to save the government more than P160 million.

Binay’s camp had asked the PET to junk the protest for lack of merit and for being invalid.

But the tribunal has not acted yet on their plea. The camp of Roxas has a pending motion for forensic examination.

In his protest filed in July 2010, Roxas alleged that election results used for Binay’s proclamation did not reflect actual votes due to what he described as “anomalously high incidence” of null and misread votes in the certificates of canvass in all precincts nationwide, especially in his bailiwicks, Regions 6, 7 and Caraga.

Roxas believed that he should have won the election if only the Comelec counted the null votes, which supposedly largely belong to him and would have made him overtake the final 727,084 vote advantage of Binay.

But Binay, in his answer, said his camp has documented null votes in the automated polls and found that they were the lowest as compared to the 2004 and 2007 polls.

The Vice President, who won by a margin of 727,084 over Roxas, also argued that the results of the Comelec canvass were consistent with the surveys.

Economy

A4 Friday, October 9, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

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‘FORTUNE LIFE BUILDING: NEW LANDMARK IN PUERTO PRINCESA CITY’

The new Fortune Life Building in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, marks the company’s expansion in the island province, bringing its attractive and affordable insurance products within reach of Palawan islanders.

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UERTO PRINCESA CITY—A new landmark rises in Puerto Princesa City as Fortune Life Insurance Co. inaugurates today its building in ceremonies to be attended by local officials led by Mayor Lucilo Bayron.

Designed by the RDB Tecson & Associates Inc., the Fortune Life Building, with its all-glass façade and sleek modern design, is easily the most beautiful and

impressive-looking structure in Puerto Princesa today.

Also attending the blessing of Fortune Life Palawan Building are Brookes Point Mayor Mary Jean D.

Feliciano, Puerto Princesa Vice Mayor Luis D. Marcaida III, and councilors Victor S. Oliveros, Rogelio M. Castro and Eleutherius L. Edualino.

Fr. Jesusinio B. Panganiban of

Immaculate Conception Parish will officiate at the blessing ceremonies and celebrate a Thanksgiving Mass.

Fortune Life executives from head office in Makati City will be on hand to welcome guests, led by D. Arnold A. Cabangon, president; and Evelyn T. Carada, executive vice president and general manager.

Top officials of Fortune Life’s sister companies under the ALC Group of Companies of Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, founder and chairman emeritus, are arriving from Manila to attend the event. Led

by the ambassador, they include D. Edgard A. Cabangon, managing director of automotive dealer Gencars Inc.; Benjamin V. Ramos, Citystate Savings Bank president; and executives of the sister companies located in the Fortune Life Building.

Located at Lot 9, Fernandez Street, Barangay Tanglaw, in front of the Palawan Provincial Capitol, the three-story building also houses the Palawan branch offices of Fortune General Insurance Co., Fortune Medicare Inc., or FortuneCare, Health Protect Medical Clinic

and Eternal Plans.

Following the blessing of the Fortune Life Building is the blessing and inauguration of Citystate Asturias Hotel on South National Highway, Tiniguiban, Puerto Princesa City. A haven for both local and foreign tourists, Citystate Asturias has 62 guest rooms equipped with modern, stateof-the-art facilities for the luxury and convenience of the guests. It also features additional amenities, such as the spacious function hall where the reception for the inaugurations will be held after the ceremonies.

Citystate Asturias Hotel: A haven for local and foreign travelers

Interior of the luxurious Citystate Asturias Hotel in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. The spacious function hall can accommodate up to 350 guests, making it the perfect venue for various corporate events and special family occasions.

FRONT view of Asturias Hotel

Economy BusinessMirror

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Friday, October 9, 2015 A5

House set to OK ₧3.002-T budget for 2016

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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

he House of Representatives is set to approve today (Friday) the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA), as the Palace certified as urgent the 2016 P3.002-trillion national budget.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said he already asked House Majority Leader and Liberal Party Rep. Neptali Gonzales II of Mandaluyong City to include in the order of business the letter of President Aquino certifying House Bill (HB) 6132, or the proposed 2016 P3.002-trillion budget, as urgent measure.

“I am hereby transmitting for the immediate inclusion in the Order of Business the letter of Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr., Office of the President, transmitting the letter of His Excellency, President Benigno S. Aquino III, certifying to the necessity of the immediate enactment of HB 6132,” Belmonte said in his letter to Gonzales.

Belmonte said that, with an urgent certification from the President, lawmakers can approve the budget bill on second and third reading within a day.

Both chambers of Congress will go on a break from October 10 to November 2, in consideration of the scheduled filing of certificates of candidacy from October 12 to 16 for the May 2016 elections.

Moreover, President Aquino, in his letter to Belmonte and Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, underscored the importance for Congress to immediately approve the national budget, adding that his certification to the budget bill is in pursuant to the provision of Article VI, Section 26 (2) of the 1987 Constitution.

PEACE ADVOCATE Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman and CEO of Ayala Corp. and honorary chairman of the Eisenhower Fellows Association of the Philippines, delivers his closing remarks during the “Breakthroughs in Peace Buildings” forum at the Ayala Museum in Makati City. ROY DOMINGO

Cheaper oil pulls down retail prices in Metro Manila–PSA

By Cai U. Ordinario

C

heaper oil tempered the increase in retail prices in Metro Manila, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said in its latest report.

PSA data showed that the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) in the National Capital Region (NCR) slowed down to 0.4 percent in August.

The GRPI recorded a 1-percent gain in July 2015 and in August 2014 at 3.7 percent.

“The GRPI is a statistical measure

of the changes in the prices at which retailers dispose of their goods to consumers or end-users relative to a base year,” the PSA said.

Data showed that indices of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, and machinery and transport equipment continued to contract at 19.6 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

The PSA also said food items in Metro Manila were also cheaper.

The food index slowed to 2 percent in August.

Other commodities that post-

ed slowdowns were beverages and tobacco, 3.8 percent; crude materials, inedible except fuels, 2.9 percent; and manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials, 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the month-onmonth growth of the GRPI in the NCR slowed to 0.2 percent in August from July 2015.

Price rollbacks in petroleum products, such as gasoline, liquiefied petroleum gas, diesel fuel and kerosene, pushed down the index of mineral fuels, lubricants and

related materials by 3.9 percent.

“The heavily weighted food index also moved at a slower pace of 1.1 percent. Higher prices of fruits and vegetables were tempered by the price cuts in rice and selected fish species,” the PSA added. The GRPI is an indicator used to monitor the economic situation of the retail trade sector.

It is also used as a deflator of the National Accounts, especially on the retail trade sector, and serve as a basis for forecasting business in the retail trade.

Apec aims increased women’s DOTC eyes 30-percent jump in use of high-capacity mass transport inclusion in transport sector

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EBU CITY—Member-economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) target to improve women’s participation in the transportation sector by adopting the Women in Transportation (WiT) Framework.

During the WiT Forum held here on Thursday, Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs of the United States Department of Transportation Susan Kurland said women are source of economic growth and prosperity.

“Women must also have the opportunity to contribute, and all too often that opportunity is not available,” Kurland said.

The Apec region loses around $42 billion to $47 billion due to women’s limited participation in the work force, she said.

Kurland also noted that women’s labor participation in the transportation sector is relatively low.

“Women are not adequately well-presented in the transportation work force,” she said.

Kurland said the transportation sector

is crucial for women’s economic empowerment, as it allows mobility and provides career opportunities.

In crafting the WiT Framework, Apec economies should consider women’s unique needs as transportation users, Kurland said.

The WiT Framework will focus on key pillars:

Promoting education, which aims women to receive necessary training to qualify to transportation-related jobs and to improve awareness on opportunities in the sector;

Hiring and entrepreneurship, which targets to increase work-force participation of women in transportation sector and enhance the work-force condition to retain women in the industry;

Advocating women leadership; and

Promoting women’s safe use to transportation system The Philippines cochairs the WiT Forum with the US and Vietnam on the margins of Transportation Ministerial Meeting in the province of Cebu. PNA

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he Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is eyeing the fielding of more high-capacity mass-transport units to reduce traffic in Metro Manila.

Transportation Undersecretary Rene Limcaoco said in a recent news conference that the goal was to lessen the number of private vehicles plying the streets with more high-capacity mass-transport units, such as trains and buses.

“At least 20 percent of our Filipinos go to work using highcapacity trains and buses. We need to move that number up to 50 percent in order to have a more sustainable solution to traffic,” Limcaoco said.

“Once we achieve that and when buses are in a reliable schedule and are not part of the daily gridlock, then [we] will see a migration of people from cars to buses,” he added.

Limcaoco further said that the goal also focused on the eventual phase out of regular buses and replace them with higher-capacity buses that were also environment-friendly.

“With the plans that we have for the bus reform, you will see a transition toward those types of buses,” the DOTC official said.

“There will [also] be new bus routes that are going to be established so that people will have more choices of what buses to take,” he added. PNA

“In order to address the need to maintain continuous government operations following the end of the current fiscal year to expedite the funding of various programs, projects and activities for Fiscal Year 2016, and to ensure budgetary preparedness that will enable the government to effectively perform its constitutional mandate,” the President said.

The proposed budget for 2016— which is 15.2 percent higher than the P2.606-trillion 2015 national budget—is the Aquino administration’s blueprint for greater inclusive growth and reform expansion in the country.

Based on allocation by sector, social services will have the biggest budget allocation of P1.1059 trillion, which is 36.8 percent of the proposed budget. It covers education, health care, housing, and social welfare and employment.

Economic services took the second-largest budget allocation, with P829.6 billion, which is 27.64 percent of the proposed budget. Transport and communications infrastructure will get the bulk of this budget.

General Public Services will get P517.9 billion, debt burden P419.3 billion and interest payment P392.8 billion.

Last, defense will get P129.1 billion. This allocation will fund the Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization, in light of the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea.

Government to pilot-test processing plant for gold, copper in ComVal

By Manuel T. Cayon Mindanao Bureau Chief

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AVAO CITY—The government is set to pilottest a processing plant for gold and copper in mineralrich Compostela Valley, the provincial information office said on Thursday.

The provincial government signed on Monday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the project Field-testing of the Integrated Gold-Copper Mineral Processing Pilot Plant in the Regions at the provincial capitol lobby.

The processing plant with integrated operation to process gold and copper would be funded by the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Experts from the Department of Mining of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman said the plant would apply “the method [that] helps produce more, since this technology extracts double amount of gold than the usual method.”

“This also extracts coppers from the same ores in a single process,” the provincial information office said, quoting UP experts who accompanied their officials to the MOU signing.

The information office said the pilot-testing of the processing plant “is to help small-scale mining communities through the new technologically innovative and pro-environment mineral processing and extrac-

tive methods.”

“This is a safer method on gold-processing for it uses no harmful chemicals like mercury and cyanide,” it added.

The DOST said the technology is now being used in Benguet, Bicol and the Caraga region.

The provincial office said it has partnered with UP Diliman, the DOST-Region 11, the barangay government of Katipunan and the Nabunturan Integrated Miners Development Cooperative, whose town would host the field testing of the plant.

It added that small-scale mining communities of barangays Mainit, Tagnocon and Katipunan will participate in the pilottesting of the plant.

Dr. Herman Mendoza, who represented UP Diliman Chancellor Dr. Michael L. Tan and DOST 11 Regional Director Dr. Anthony Sales have assured of their commitment to help the province. The two institutions would serve as the research and technology agency.

The signatories to the MOU were Vice Gov. Manuel Zamora, who represented Gov. Arturo Uy, and Mendoza.

DOST Director Dr. Anthony Sales, NIMDC Chairman Miguel Bagaipo Sr. and Vice Chairman Mr. Gil Indino; Provincial Director of National Commission on Indigenous People Roger S. Lumbin; Officer in Charge of Compostela Valley State College Dr. Jonathan Bayogan and Nabunturan Vice Mayor Dodong Sotto witnessed the signing.

A6 Friday, October 9, 2015 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Is TPP good for the Philippines?

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1962 episode of the American television series The Twilight Zone tells the story of the arrival of aliens on planet Earth. A representative of the Kanamits addresses the United Nations promising their benevolence, to share their technology, put an end to hunger and energy shortages. The Kanamit leaves a book behind at the UN and after deciphering the Kanamit language, is found to be titled To Serve Man. Humans are soon volunteering in throngs to visit the Kanamits home planet, said to be a paradise. However, when the book is finally fully translated, To Serve Man is a cookbook.

Led by the United States, trade officials and nearly 1,000 representatives of corporations of nations from Chile and Peru to Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Japan is a part as is Australia and New Zealand. Both Canada and Mexico are on board.

Philippine government officials are excited about the TPP with Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo saying, “I want to state clearly and irrevocably that we [the Philippines] want to join the TPP.” What Domingo does not mention is that he, like the legislatures of the countries that must approve the TPP, has never seen a final copy of the agreement.

But even without knowing what is in the agreement, Domingo says that there is no question the Philippines is “unequivocally joining.” Perhaps, he has only seen the title: “To serve the Filipino.”

Perhaps, the best way to evaluate the TPP is to listen as to why the US is so anxious for it to progress forward. This is what US Trade Representative Michael Froman said at the conclusion of the TPP talks. “The deal would eliminate all tariffs on US manufacturing exports to TPP countries, and most on US agricultural exports—everything from plastics to poultry, seafood to steel, chemicals to cotton, apples to aircraft parts. The TPP would eventually eliminate all tariffs on made-in-America industrial products: machinery, car parts, ink, everything.”

Does that sound like it is in the best interests of the Philippines? Some Filipino businesses will be happy and more profitable. No longer will American frozen chicken have to be smuggled into the Philippines. Of course, the government will not receive any customs duties and local poultry producers may not be able to compete with their American counterparts, but “All Hail Free Trade.”

Vietnam is joining TPP for good reason. The US will eliminate tariffs on rice importations and Vietnam is the world’s second-largest exporter of rice.

New Zealand exports 95 percent of its dairy production and will now have greater access to the North American market.

The argument, in favor of TPP for the Philippines, is that American companies will be inclined to invest and set up operations here for export to the US. On paper, that sounds good. But what, if any, assurances do we have that it will happen and is the chance of more investment worth the risk of being flooded with duty-free American products?

Maybe before we get so excited about unequivocally joining TPP we should find out what the “aliens” are really offering.

No better reason James Jimenez

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spox

S we edge ever closer to the filing of certificates of candidacy for the 2016 national and local elections, I cannot help but ruminate on the distractingly low numbers of new and unheard of family names being floated about for the electorate’s consideration.

It is not something we can deny.

Filipino voters do sometimes base their electoral choices on family names, rather than on any other, more significant, criteria. This is true for national elections—where, perhaps, it is tempting to blame the “family name bias” on the fact that voters know precious little about the national level candidates foisted on them by political parties—as much as it is true for local elections—where it demolishes the thesis that a lack of information about candidates predisposes to the family name bias.

A while back, confronted with the dynasty question, a political celebrity said—and I paraphrase—that it is only the intellectual A and B classes, in Manila, who have a problem with dynasts; that it isn’t even an issue for nearly everyone else (presumably referring to the less intellectual C and D classes, whatever that might be); and that some people associate certain family names

with good service.

Said with enough aplomb and confidence, these rationalizations are powerfully seductive in their seeming reasonableness. After all, it is an accepted fact that people in the capital are normally oppositionist—obviously because the capital is where the national media can be found, and oppositionists and the media do tend to develop a kind of symbiotic relationship—and that the capitals of nations are normally where the intellectuals can be found in the greatest densities. It follows, it would seem, that high-level arguments about democratic principles would be most discussed in the capital.

Flowing from this premise is also reasonable sounding conclusion that those outside the capital are less concerned about high-flown democratic principles and are more preoccupied with practical considerations. Maslow’s heirarchy and all that.

And, of course, like brands, surnames do eventually build up goodwill leading people to make sweeping generalizations about the sons and daughters bearing those surnames. I would, for instance, probably trust a Kennedy more than I would trust a Smith.

But as reasonable as all these arguments seem to be, they are not.

First of all, it is not the intellectual snobs in Manila that have a problem with dynasties. It is the Constitution. Article II, Section 26 of that threadbare document states: “The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law.”

The legislative machinery may have dawdled in the task of bringing that provision to life, but that delay does not erase the fact that the prohibition of political dynasties is one of the foundations of this government.

It is an idea that the people ratified, and aren’t the people the source of all government authority?

Second, it is ,therefore, very wrong to presume that dynasties are not a problem for anyone else, just as it is misleading to say that dynasties are not an issue for those who are preoccupied with the complicated business of living. Nor should this preoccupation be considered a license to ignore the clear intent of the people speaking through the Constitution. Otherwise, we would be faced with an interesting state of affairs where people know that the constitution explicitly calls for the prohibition of a particular

practice, but nevertheless take advantage of the absence of an actual law.

With regard to the argument that surnames are brands, while it is true that some surnames do enjoy a great deal of credibility, this does not mean that they have a monopoly on what it takes to govern and to legislate. This is where the conceit of dynasts is exposed: a surname is not necessarily a guarantee.

Despite the appeals to one’s family history of service, despite the repeated references to how much one’s family is loved, despite the apparently welcoming attitude toward competition, the truth of the matter is that dynasts enter the electoral race with clear advantages arising from their entrenchment—money, for instance, and “machinery.”

That’s why dynasties were sought to be prohibited by the Constitution, I think. Not because there is anything intrinsically wrong with elected officials being related to each other, but because it predisposes to conditions that make it practically impossible—even in the absence of fraud or tyranny—for people to choose anyone else.

No better reason exists, to challenge dynasts. nnn The period for filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) for the 2016 national, local and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao elections starts on the 12th of October 12 and runs until the 16th.

Voter registration and validation will be suspended for the duration of the COC filing period.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Confronting aging concerns early on Fernado T. Aldaba

EAGLE WATCH

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sia has reaped benefits from a demographic transition in the last decades. But now, its population has been aging and is affecting economic growth through various channels, like employment, dependency burden, capital accumulation and labor productivity. The graph below from an Asian Development Bank study in 2011 shows the population aged 65 and older as a share of total population in 11 Asian economies from 1950 projected till 2050. In the same graph, the Philippine trajectory shows an increase from around 4 percent in 2010 to around 13 percent in 2050. According to the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA), the proportion of population in the older age group (65 and over) has increased from 2.9 percent in 1970 to 4.3 percent in 2010, but in terms of absolute number, this age group has increased at a faster rate of 3.4 percent per year (Castro, 2015).

Source: Park and Shin (2011) citing UN (2009) Today, while the aging issue is not as urgent, the Philippines has already around 7 million individuals in this age bracket. According to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), this will balloon to around 24 million by 2050.

According to the Population Commission life expectancy for males in 1970, the life expectancy for Filipino males and females were 57.3 and 61.5 years, respectively.

Now it is 67 for males and 72 years for females.

A major problem in the country, though, is that a relatively substantial portion of the elderly fall below the poverty line. In the official poverty statistics for the basic sectors compiled by the PSA, senior citizens had poverty incidence of 16.1 percent in 2009 and 16.2 percent in 2012.

Old-age dependency ratio has also increased from 5.6 percent in 1970 to 7.0 percent in 2010, but this will increase at a faster rate in 40 years.

The elderly are challenged with various constraints when it comes to employment activities because of their diminishing strength and lack of agility. There is also strong age bias as the elderly finds it tough to access the labor market. At the same time, the lack of adequate retirement funds where they can source their daily needs is also a major concern.

Many also do not have access to any form of social protection (e.g., health insurance and pension system), which can assist them in confronting these concerns. While culturally, the children of an elderly takes charge of their basic needs, the changing economic landscape, which requires husband and wives to work, has left many senior citizens to fend for their own.

The Philippine government has already initiated policies and programs that deliver services and benefits to the elderly.

Through the Senior Citizens Act, they are granted benefits and privileges that range from a 20-percent discount and value-added tax exemption to mandatory membership in the government’s healthcare system, Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) provides residential care services

for the elderly but only in three regions—National Capital Region, Region 9 and 11. There are, however, some other private institutions providing similar services, which are granted fiscal incentives by the government through the Expanded Senior Citizens Act. The DSWD also provides social pension of P500 per month for senior citizens who are indigents.

While all these programs are definitely welcome, senior citizens’ groups hope to be provided better access to and additional services from the government.

An aging population also has several economic consequences.

First, labor force participation will decline but possibly be mitigated by extending legal retirement ages or opening the labor market to foreign workers.

Employment must be maintained because contributions to social security must be sustained to be able to cover the costs of the increasing number of retirees.

Second, domestic savings and capital accumulation may decrease but again the country needs to welcome more foreign investments to be able to minimize the impact of this problem.

Health and social-welfare expenditures will also increase because of the need to care for them but these will have to compete with other important expenditures like education and infrastructure.

Thus, it is strategic for the Philippine government to already begin comprehensive planning for the steady increase in elderly population in terms of crafting key policies and programs for the elderly and for the sustainability of social security and pension funds.

With actions implemented now, today’s young population can all benefit from the longevity dividend in the next decades, as they may also continue to contribute to a more inclusive economic growth for the country.

Aldaba is a professor of Economics and dean of the School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University.

Aldaba is also senior fellow of Eagle Watch, Ateneo’s macroeconomic forecasting unit.

Friday, October 9, 2015 A7

Four vice presidents from Bikol and still counting Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

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hen the smoke was down, there were four standing at the trenches. All of them are from this region called Bikol, a place that has always been called one of the backwater economies of the country. All four are running for vice president.

As I write this column, one of the candidates, Leni Robredo, is problematizing the notion of being a Bikolano. She is saying on TV how one being born in Bikol does not necessarily make the person Bikolano.

She talks of persons born in the region but growing up somewhere. But, that position is as naive as the title of my column.

For those who believe in the ideology of the post-national, where boundaries of ethnicities and nations are blurred, my title is naive. I post no singular Bikolano perspective because I ask the question, what is it to be a Bikolano? For that matter, what is it to be a Filipino?

Out there in the other parts of the world, there are communities of individuals who claim to be Bikolano— by birth and by language even. They are in a position to define what it is to be Bikolano. Authenticity loses its power in the face of deterritorialization, in which culture is not anymore determined by location. Within the frame of diaspora and migration, one can be, or claim to be, a Bikolano or a Filipino even if he or she lives somewhere else.

What the politics of the country has to contend with now is this claim regarding the four vice-presidential contenders and their link to one similar space.

Chiz Escudero, running mate of Grace Poe, was one of the first to declare his intention; Antonio Trillanes IV declared his candidacy this month; Leni Robredo, in one of the more awaited decisions in contemporary politics since Cory Aquino, accepted the responsibility to run side by side with her president, Mar Roxas, some days ago. At the backstage stands Gringo Honasan.

Escudero belongs to the political family in Sorsogon with connection to the Marcoses during the martial-law years. Honasan is also from Sorsogon.

Trillanes had a meteoric rise in his popularity with the common people.

He became a figure in the infamous Oakwood Mutiny, survived the inquisition and doubts, and won a seat in the Senate. Trillanes is from Albay.

There are people who know Leni Gerona Robredo, widow of Jess Robredo, who still cannot believe she has accepted the offer of the Liberal Party. There are mixed feelings from Naga City, with many who believe she could make a significant difference if she stayed local and ran instead for the position of governor of Camarines Sur. That Robredo opted for the big picture of serving the entire nation also opened the gate for two formidable families to stake the claim to the province—the Fuent-

Facebook is following you

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By Megan McArdle | Bloomberg

ou knew that, right? How else would Facebook know to serve that panda video straight into your newsfeed, and leave your college friend’s ill-informed rant about Pacific trade deals in the dark bowels of its servers? How else would it know to serve you with 7,000 ads for wedding-dress vendors the very day you announce your engagement? How, my friend, could it deliver that invitation to “like” the Doritos Locos taco when you had only just yourself realized that you were craving terrible Mexican food?

Facebook knows what you like. It knows what you don’t like. It probably knows whether you have been naughty or nice, and will be selling that data to Santa this Christmas season.

This bothers many people, especially since Facebook keeps expanding the list of things it knows about you, and the ways it is willing to use that data to make money. The recent announcement that Facebook would soon target ads using your “likes” and “shares” has triggered some Olympic-level teethgnashing from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, because Facebook will get information from you not just when you actually like, “like” something, but when you load a page that has a “like” button on it. They want Facebook to agree to use a “Do Not Track” standard that will keep all that potentially profitable data from

the greedy eyes of advertisers.

Of course, people should be able to hide data about what sites they use.

But there’s a perfectly good way to do this: Stay signed out of Facebook and tell your browser not to accept cookies, or otherwise let advertisers follow you around the Web. The problem is, this level of security is incredibly inconvenient, because you have to spend a lot of time painfully reentering data. The other problem is that naive users, who probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about privacy, won’t bother.

But what obligation do companies really have to naive users who don’t spend a lot of time thinking about privacy?

Some of these users undoubtedly don’t realize that they are exposed, but we should not reject out of hand the possibility that most of them really don’t

ebellas and the Villafuertes.

That the Liberal Party has gained Robredo is ultimately the grand story of Camarines Sur. The province had always been Liberal and anti-Marcos.

Even when the membership of the party had dwindled to a number that could fit a tricycle, as one wag put it, Naga City and the entire province of Camarines Sur held on to its loyalty to the party. In those years when it was difficult to wear on one’s sleeve his party affiliation, Salonga, Aquino and all the Liberal Party stalwarts were winning in Naga City and Camarines Sur. There is a claim that in the late 1970s the regional offices of the government that were in Naga City were transferred to Albay to spite the Nagueños who never liked the Marcoses. When Manila, itself a staunch anti-Marcos till the martiallaw years, folded before the Marcos machinery, Naga and a significant portion of the province of Camarines Sur, were strategically brave during the dark years.

It is strange to announce with grandeur the regional identification of the four candidates because Bikol, through these years, is still one of the poorest regions in the country. What will these candidates offer by way of development plans if they themselves are linked to a site of poverty? One can

say that being vice president does not mean one serves the place that one belongs to. Given that premise, then being Bikolano is an accident we can append to these individuals.

The region called Kabikolan has always puzzled human geographers and social scientists. The study of social stratification done by Frank Lynch, the Jesuit anthropologist, has painted a land where “big” people (dakulang tao) and “little” people (saradit na tao) interact with harmony, with the poor accepting their fate.

Bordered by the strong Tagalog cultures of Laguna and Quezon provinces, Bikol is struggling with its own languages that are slowly marginalized. In Naga and other cities of the region, Tagalog/Pilipino is preferred as the language of commerce. Young mothers speak Tagalog/Pilipino to their children and, in schools, visitors would notice how students do not use the Bikol language. Writers and cultural workers wage a war to maintain the languages of the land.

Given the fluid state of their regional identity, the Bikolano vicepresidential candidates posit the question of what Bikol can bring to the table of this political beast called the Philippines.

care enough—at least, not enough to put up with all that inconvenience. Enforcing someone else’s preferences about privacy may not be liberating; it may be counterproductive.

For let us remember that, dingy and dispiriting as it may be, these companies do need to make money.

There’s an old saying in advertising: If you can’t figure out what’s being sold, then you’re the product. “Free” products and services usually aren’t; someone has to finance them, and if they’re not charging you for your use, then they’re charging someone else to use you. Privacy-obsessed folks who carefully hide their activity from the Internet, and ad-hating readers who install blockers, are effectively having their free media and social-media platforms subsidized by the folks who don’t know or don’t mind. Because someone has to read the ads that pay the bills.

The interwebs are full of splendid things that social-media companies could do to make life easier for various people, and perhaps better for society, if only those social-media companies didn’t have to make money. The problem is, if the social-media companies implemented them all, they would probably go out of business. That would, of course,

take care of problems like Twitter harassment and Facebook’s stalker-like record of your Internet activity, but most people do seem to like having those social-media platforms, even at the expense of some exposure to these risks.

No one fix would be unlikely to bring about the death of the firm. But there’s a problem with this, which you see a lot in politics: Someone will say “We’ve got this modest plan, and it would only raise costs [or lower revenue], by some small amount, say, what we could raise with a one-cent surtax on ballpoint pens,” and this is true. Except there are several thousand people who have similarly modest plans, and the next thing you know ballpoint pens cost $20 apiece and the drugstore has to lock them up with the pregnancy tests. The collective weight of the suggestions for improvement (and the third-party software to facilitate same) might well make the Internet kinder and gentler. It might also kill off many of the ways we spend our Internet time.

Privacy matters, but privacy is not free. And the best people to assess the trade-offs between privacy, access and convenience are probably the individuals wielding the mouse, rather than the activists wielding the megaphone.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

Ayala Alabang Village homeowners clarify news story MAIL

Please e-mail your letters to the editor to oped@businessmirror. com.ph. Letters chosen for publication in this section are edited for brevity and clarity.

WE have read your news story on October 5, 2015, headlined “Ayala Alabang Village homeowners contest opening more village gates.” While we find the article short of research, may we ask for equal space in the BusinessMirror

in the name of professionalism, justice and fairness.

We take note that not a single resident who is in favor of the opening of more gates was interviewed. When, in fact, a large majority of residents, at least the 800 residents who took the initiative to call for a referendum, and the vast silent majority who were disenfranchised when a small minority of four moved for a cease and desist order (CDO) from the HLURB. May I bring to your attention some points for your enlightenment?

1) By constructing gates at San Jose and Champaca, AAVA did for Ayala Land what the latter was supposed to do as a developer in accordance with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Boardapproved subdivision plan. Those gates were deliverables of the Ayala Land.

Moreover, under Republic Act 9904, the Magna Carta for Homeowners and Homeowners’ Associations, AAVA has

the power to regulate ingress and egress to the Ayala Alabang VIllage.

2) The CDO issued by the HLURB arbiter expressly enjoined the holding of the referendum, NOT the gate construction. In fact, the holding of the referendum wasn’t necessary under RA 9904. It was an act of grace on the part of AAVA in favor of those against the gates. An act of grace they repudiated by securing the CDO that would have allowed them to express their will in the most democratic process.

3) The residents near San Jose gates know, in fact or by operation of law, that those gates are part of the approved subdivision plan, therefore, a certainty. The principle “caveat emptor,” or “let the buyer beware” applies.

Their enjoyment of relative peace is a privilege, yet temporary, given the approved subdivision plan.

4) San Jose is a road lot as indicated in the approved subdivision plan. If

those against the gates find it narrow, they ought to blame the developer, including lack of foresight about the inadequacy of just one exit to Commerce Avenue. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that the San Jose Road lot is of the same configuration as three other subsidiary gates at Anahaw, Molave and Kalapi, all exiting into Commerce Avenue.

5) As you will note, all other Ayala Land subdivisions, much smaller in size and population, especially in Makati City, all have more than just one exit point. This ensures not just a steady flow of traffic but access to emergency services, as well.

We hope the above salient points will receive equal space and prominence in response to the initial article quoted above.

Eppie Joaquin President Ayala Alabang Village Association

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Friday, October 9, 2015

Strengthening of peso could be temporary–ING

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By Bianca Cuaresma

he local currency, the peso, displayed strength on Thursday when it averaged 14.8 centavos higher to 46.125 per dollar at the local currencies market, or the Philippine Dealing System (PDS).

However, ING Bank Manila economist Joey Cuyegkeng immediately issued a warning that some of the peso’s strength could prove only temporary.

Data from the PDS show the peso exchanging at the close for only 46.11 per dollar on Thursday or stronger by 3 centavos than the

46.14 per dollar the previous day.

The peso steadily trended higher since Monday.

“Market takes a more cautious stance after the recent significant strengthening of peso and other Asian currencies. Minutes of the FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] meeting last month may

provide some clues of how close the FOMC decision could have been in raising policy rates in September and of the likelihood of a December 2015 rate hike,” Cuyegkeng said.

But no matter the strengthening outlook of the local currency going forward, Cuyegkeng said its strenght down the line is paved with downside risks.

“There are still risks ahead with the Fed rate hike still expected in the next six months. The IMF [International Monetary Fund] also warned of the substantial over borrowing of emerging market, or EM corporations and that commodity prices remain low despite the recent bounce that also supported the recovery of EM financial assets,” Cuyegkeng said.

“The strength could be temporary,” he reiterated. The volume of trade at the PDS on Thursday moderated to only P936.7 million,

cuyegkeng: “Market takes a more cautious stance after the recent significant strengthening of peso and other Asian currencies.”

sharply down from trades aggregating P1.242 billion on Wednesday.

According to published data, the local currency averaged 46.82 per dollar the past eight years and was reported at its weakest in October 2004 when it averaged 56.34 per dollar.

The same set of data show the peso at its strongest in May 1999 when it averaged 37.84 at the local currencies market.

‘PHL farm sector needs ₧200B annually’. . .

Dr. Calixto M. Protacio, executive director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), said increasing the allocation for the farm sector would enable the DA to address the “inherent disadvantages” of the Philippines.

“For one, the Philippines is an archipelago, unlike Vietnam and Thailand which experience frequent

flooding, making their soil more fertile,” Protacio said.

Aside from this, PhilRice said farmers also have to contend with climate change as changing weather patterns now make it difficult for farmers in the Visayas to grow rice.

In recent years, strong typhoons have been making landfall on provinces in central Philippines. The

most damaging by far is Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) which hit Leyte in November 2013.

Protacio said the continuous increase in population is also compounding the challenges now being faced by Filipino farmers.

“In Angat Dam, for example, water there is for domestic use. Farmers

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in Bulacan are already complaining because they do not get irrigation water,” he said. Obien, a former executive director of PhilRice, noted that land preparation and cultivation in some parts of the country remain “primitive.”

“We have always been thinking small. It’s time for us to put more money into our farm sector,” he said.

VW’S U.S. C.E.O. FACES TOUGH QUESTIONS IN CONGRESS PROBE V olkswagen’s top US executive is expected to face tough questions on Capitol Hill as the emissionsrigging scandal enveloping the world’s largest automaker appears to be deepening.

Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn is scheduled to testify on Thursday before a US House subcommittee investigating last month’s admission the company had installed onboard computer software designed to cheat on government emissions tests in nearly 500,000 of its four-cylinder “clean diesel” cars starting with the 2009 model year.

An advance copy of Horn’s prepared remarks provided to the committee on Wednesday revealed VW’s plans to withdraw applications seeking US emissions certifications for its 2016 model Jettas, Golfs, Passats and Beetles with diesel engines. That raised questions about whether a so-called defeat device similar to that in earlier models is also in the new cars.

By withdrawing the applications for the 2016 models, VW is leaving thousands of diesel vehicles stranded at ports nationwide, giving dealers no new diesel-powered vehicles to sell.

It wasn’t immediately clear when

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VW would refile its application, but Horn’s testimony said the company is working with regulators to get certification.

It was also unclear late Wednesday exactly what the newly disclosed device does. Environmental Protection Agency Spokesman Liz Purchia said VW recently gave the agency information on an “auxiliary emissions control device.” The EPA and California Air Resources Board are investigating “the nature and purpose” of the device, she said.

A Volkswagen spokesman in the US said he didn’t know what the device did, but the company said that such devices sense engine performance, road speed “and any other parameter for activating, modulating, delaying or deactivating” emissions controls.

The lack of certification is bad news for American VW dealers, who were hoping to put the new models on sale soon. For some dealerships, the diesel models accounted for about a third of sales.

Tom Backer, general manager of Lash Volkswagen in White Plains, New York, said on Wednesday his dealership had already lost three deals with potential buyers because he couldn’t get the new cars.

Auto sales up 29% in Sept, 21.5% year-to-date

China anxious over alleged US plan on sea dispute eijing expressed “serious concern” on Thursday about a reported US plan to challenge China’s South China Sea territorial claims by sailing a Navy ship near one of its newly built artificial islands.

The US newspaper Navy Times reported on Wednesday that the Navy may soon receive approval for the mission to sail inside the 12-nautical- mile (21-kilometer) territorial limit surrounding one of the man-made structures.

That would drive home Washington’s stance that the artificial islands do not constitute sovereign territory and build a legal case under international law for the US position, the newspaper said.

Five other governments also claim the region in part or in total.

The US doesn’t take a formal position on sovereignty but insists on freedom of navigation in the vital sea lanes and airspace above.

Asked about the report at a daily briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hua Chunying said China has long made clear its position on the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety, along with its islands, reefs and atolls.

“I have not noticed the latest report you have mentioned. However, having heard what you said, we express serious concern about it,” Hua said.

China and the US have discussed the issue on numerous occasions, including during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington last month, Hua said.

“We hope the US can look upon the current situation of the South China Sea from an objective and fair perspective and play a constructive role together with China

www.businessmirror.com.ph

ehicles sold by local assemblers jumped 29 percent in September, according to a joint report of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA).

According to the Campi-TMA report, officially released on Thursday, vehicle sales in September increased to 27,069 units from 20,924 units in the same month last year.

Year-to-date, the local auto industry already sold 206,284 units, a 21.5-percent increase from the 169,727 units purchased by consumers in the comparable period in 2014. All vehicle categories experienced growth on a year-to-date perspective, with passenger car’s share increasing from 30 percent of total sales three years ago to 40 percent.

With this healthy growth, the industry is maintaining its target of selling 310,000 units for 2015.

Catherine N. Pillas

First Belmont Hotel opening A dragon dancer performs during Megaworld’s First Belmont Hotel opening in Resorts World Manila, a 480-room hotel that caters to highly mobile business travelers. Gracing the event are (from left) Lourdes T. Gutierrez, Megaworld CEO; Arnel Paciano Casanova, Bases Conversion and Development Authority president and CEO; Lorenzo Tang, Belmont Hotel Manila general manager; William Co, Megaworld Estates Resorts Inc. president; Kevin Tan, Megaworld first vice president; and Kingson U. Sian, Megaworld executive director. NONIE REYES

Searchers find no sign of kidnapped Italian P

hilippine forces searched on land and sea on Thursday but were unable to find any sign of a former Italian Roman Catholic missionary who was abducted by gunmen in the south, where he has lived for years despite a history of violent attacks on fellow Italian priests, officials said.

At least six men, some armed with rifles, dragged Rolando del Torchio from his pizza restaurant into a van on Wednesday and then fled from Dipolog city in Zamboanga del Norte province in motor boats, city police chief Supt. Ranie Hachuela said.

Del Torchio’s abduction came after two Canadian tourists, a Norwegian and a Filipino

woman were kidnapped last month from a marina on Samal Island in Davao del Norte province, also in the south. There has been no trace of the four.

Long-running security problems have hounded the region, which has bountiful resources and promises but is hamstrung by poverty and an array of insurgents and outlaws.

Hachuela said security cameras caught images of some of the gunmen and that may help authorities identify them. They showed the Italian man, his back on the floor, being dragged away by the kidnappers, who held him by the feet.

The kidnappers also tried to seize two

Filipino customers but they resisted and a gunman barked an order that the two be set free because they already had their target, said Leonor Rabino, a Dipolog city information officer.

A restaurant staffer tried to help del Torchio but one of the kidnappers pointed a gun at him, Rabino said. He said the Italian was very friendly and spoke the local Visayan dialect.

Air Force helicopters, Navy patrol boats and Army and police forces were deployed to search coastal areas and suspected hideouts, including in southern Sulu province, where alQaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants have held hostages for ransom in jungle camps, but del Torchio was not immediately found.

Police said they have not discovered who is behind the latest kidnappings.

Del Torchio was an agriculturist who became a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, a Catholic group founded in Italy which has about 500 members in 17 countries. He helped farmers hone their skills and set up cooperatives in poor communities, according to a colleague, Father Gianni Re. “We’re praying that he will be freed as soon as possible and in good health,” Re said by phone, adding that del Torchio has helped many poor people in the southern Philippines, where he has chosen to stay rather than in his Italian hometown of Angera.