Compliance Management—is it really needed? By Henry J. Schumacher
Read this press clipping from October 12: ‘TOKYO—The chief executive of Kobe Steel warned on Thursday that more quality data about the company’s products may have been falsified than has previously been disclosed, suggesting that fallout could widen further from a scandal that has already affected hundreds of companies worldwide. We are reviewing data, including from overseas. It is possible that there could be more cases of wrongdoing,” the executive, Hiroya Kawasaki, told reporters. He added, “Trust in our company has fallen to zero.” Kawasaki said it could take Kobe Steel two weeks to complete a review of its records to determine the full extent of the data falsification and decide whether any of the improperly certified products it shipped to customers presented a safety hazard. Makers of cars, airplanes and trains use metal from Kobe Steel, making such a safety assessment imperative.”
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Kirill Makarov | Dreamstime
he answer can only be yes. Quality control is only one area; data protection, cybersecurity, anticorruption, etc., are other areas that need compliance management. Of course, the compliance managers must not report to the management, they must report to the board of directors, which must have independent board members.
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»continued on A14
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Tuesday, October 17, 2017 Vol. 13 No. 6
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he rice sector may get at least P27 billion in government assistance, or nearly half of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) P60.6-billion budget for 2018, once Congress approves the tariffication of the staple.
ESPENILLA: NO PRESSURE TO TWEAK RATES EVEN IF FED TIGHTENS FURTHER C
entral Bank Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said contained inflation means there isn’t a need to increase interest rates in the near term. “Right now, there is no need to move policy rates looking at the inflation outlook,” Espenilla said in Washington, where he was attending the annual International Monetary Fund meetings. “It might be too much of an anticipation to say we will raise interest rates at the next review.” An economic boom accompanied by surging credit growth has fueled speculation that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) may need to tighten monetary policy. That would be a divergence from other central banks in Southeast Asia— like Indonesia’s and Vietnam’s—that have eased this year. The Philippines kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 3 percent last month. The BSP is next scheduled to decide policy on November 9. The Philippine economy is headed for a sixth year of growth exceeding 6 percent, among the world’s fastest. That hasn’t yet translated into an inflation problem with the Central Bank maintaining forecasts for this year and next year at 3.2 percent. The bank’s goal is to keep inflation within a range of 2 percent to 4 percent until 2020. “If you look at it purely from that perspective, that is not really a big driver for us to move policy rates,” Espenilla said last Sunday in Washing-
ESPENILLA: “Our monetary policy is not hostage to what happens in another jurisdiction. We are in a different cycle.”
ton. “Nonetheless, we review this on a six-week cycle.” The Central Bank governor said he won’t be pressured to lift rates if the Federal Reserve (the Fed) pushes ahead with further gradual tightening. In past economic cycles, central banks in Asia moved in tandem with the Fed. “Our monetary policy is not hostage to what happens in another jurisdiction. We are in a different cycle.”
Weak peso Describing the economy as increasingly strong, Espenilla played down concerns about the impact of the weak peso, which has declined more than 3 percent against the dollar this year, according to Bloomberg data. “Currency traders will do what they do.” On the nation’s credit boom, the central bank governor said demand for credit is based on underlying fundamentals and that its scrutiny of banks shows that loans quality remains high. Growth in net loans accelerated to 20.4 percent in August, the fastest pace since 2014. See “Espenilla,” A2
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Tariffication to give rice sector ₧27-B safety net By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas
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Upper middle-income status within grasp Manny B. Villar
₧60.6B
THE ENTREPRENEUR
The budget of the Department of Agriculture for 2018
Removing the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice by amending Republic Act (R A) 8178 would allow the government to generate P27 billion annually, according to a paper published by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (Pids).
Part One
A
lot of foreigners who have seen Metro Manila and have observed the signs of prosperity almost everywhere in the metropolis often wonder why the Philippines is classified as a lower middle-income country. The World Bank classifies countries based on their gross national income (GNI) or each country’s final income (also defined as GDP plus overseas income) divided by their population, or GNI per capita.
See “Tariffication,” A2
Continued on A10
BMReports
Can PHL wean itself off coal? By Rea Cu
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@ReaCuBM
Part Two
NVIRONMENTAL activists group Greenpeace Philippines claims the burning of fossil fuels, specifically coal, is detrimental to the environment and human health. “Specifically, [the] traditional means of generating energy that involves the burning of polluting fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas and oil, have been scientifically proven to be extremely hazardous to the environment and to human health,” the group’s statement issued in a forum in mid-September said. “Of the three types of fossil fuels, coal has inflicted, and continues to inflict, the biggest blows to public health.” According to documents provided by Greenpeace Philippines, the use of coal as energy source releases the most carbon dioxide (CO 2) per unit of energy. Coal accounts for 43 percent of global emissions released annually from fossil-fuel combustion, with 28 percent being emitted from coalfired power plants. Coal-fired power plants, which are the largest producers of manmade CO 2 emissions, contribute to the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG). This gas traps heat in the
This October 5 photo shows activists at the Bank of the Philippine Islands headquarters in Ayala Avenue, Makati City, protesting the bank’s planned financing of a new coal-fired power plant in Atimonan, Quezon. Environmentalists are urging financial institutions to rechannel investments to renewable-energy sources rather than in “dirty fuel”, like coal. ALYSA SALEN
Earth’s atmosphere, resulting to increase in global temperatures. “Experts predict that the rising global temperatures will continue to increase overall health burdens, which disproportionately affects the poorest and most vulnerable communities, resulting in the widening of current unacceptable gaps in health outcomes,” it said.
Deaths
ACCORDING to Raphael Lopez of the Health Care Without Harm Inc. Asia (HCWHA), coal-related deaths in the Visayas region every year may reach up to 650 from the current 240 should the country continue to rely on coal-fired power plants. However, he said the estimated increase in premature deaths can be reduced.
“A track pursuing renewable energ y [RE] would help reduce, if not avoid, the number of mortality,” Lopez said during the same forum. He was referring to the HCWHA case study that sought to provide a more detailed analysis of the health impact of coal-power plants within a 1,500-kilometer radius. Continued on A2
n japan 0.4577 n UK 68.1571 n HK 6.5814 n CHINA 7.7978 n singapore 38.0038 n australia 40.1779 n EU 60.7987 n SAUDI arabia 13.7023
Source: BSP (13 October 2017 )