BusinessMirror1006

BusinessMirror

three-time rotary club of manila journalism awardee 2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. Media Award 2008

www.businessmirror.com.ph

A broader look at today’s business n

Monday, October 6, 2014 Vol. 9 No. 359

P25.00 nationwide | 7 sections 36 pages | 7 days a week

ECONOMIC MANAGERS TO PRESENT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN PRIORITY SECTORS

Econ team sets Tokyo road show

INSIDE

A NUDE AWAKENING No matter how

Dear Lord, help us contain ourselves that no matter how we feel we can overcome it, but for something good, we can forever treasure it. No matter how the situation is, we get up and do something about it for the good of everyone. No matter how we look, we dress up and put on a smile that brings out the best in us. No matter how late we are at appointments, we show up and explain the reason we are not on time. and no matter how hard life is, we should never give up. amen!

YETTA CRUZ And LoUiE M. LACson Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

‘TraNsiT’ bags 9 Trophies aT 11Th goLDeN screeN awarDs

BusinessMirror

coco martin

Monday, October 6, 2014

GEEna rocEro

DEnniS triLLo and tom rodriguez

BenCH And COsMO pHOTOs BY BrUCe CAsAnOVA

SoLEnn HEUSSaFF

he country’s top economic officials will hold an investment road show in Tokyo on October 8 to attract Japanese investors, particularly fund managers and those engaged in the areas of tourism, energy and infrastructure.

D1

ELLEn aDarna

antHonY roqUE

JamES rEiD (FOr OpMB WOrldWIde)

A nUdE AwAkEning

T

he naked truth is that Bench is still the most desirable underwear brand this side of Calvin Klein and Victoria’s Secret. That was my assessment, days before the lifestyle brand’s denim and underwear show at the Arena in the Mall of Asia complex, when I learned that trailblazing transgender model Geena Rocero was in town to sashay down the Broadway-like runway.

How visionary of Bench, I thought. Geena has achieved what the equally gorgeous RuPaul’s Drag Race alumna Carmen Carrera has been petitioning Victoria’s Secret for a spell now: to be its first transgender Angel. While strides have been made to include transgenders in past seasons of America’s Next Top Model, no one from that show has strutted for major labels in the awesome way that Jean Paul Gaultier used Conchita Wurst or Andrej Pejic for his womenswear collections.

And then Coco Martin and his “circus act” dampened my spirits. How gender insensitive of Bench, my media companion and I decried. But I wouldn’t want to dwell on this anymore as much Hong Kong-style protests have since ensued.

Disgruntled women everywhere can instead take comfort in Chanel’s latest collections, which celebrates women’s lib—only with a more haute treatment.

What also disappoints me, however, is the blatant gay-baiting that Bench resorted to in the portion featuring matinee idols/competent actors Tom Rodriguez and Dennis Trillo, who played lovers in the phenomenal GMA hot soap My Husband’s Lover. Apparently, leading gays on is becoming a disturbing trend as evidenced in Supernatural and Teen Wolf, where characters are about to engage in intimate scenes but would then pull back at the last minute. A most cruel coitus interruptus. If Bench can flaunt Jake Cuenca’s untitillating butt (think Michael Douglas’s in Basic Instinct), maybe a little guy-on-guy kiss wouldn’t have hurt in an R-rated show, would it?

The 2014 Bench Denim and Underwear Show decidedly tempered its trademark raunchy and risqué DNA. Rising starlet Ellen Adarna played it sexy-coy, taking over the mantle of Katrina Halili

ToTA pULChRA miss charlize

and Aya Medel in shows past. No comedy queens a la Ai-Ai de las Alas and Pokwang did the funnyis-sexy routine. Pancho Magno served sex appeal in a virile platter, in the same vein that Jon Hall once did.

While other segments suffered from uninspired styling and presentation, Michael Cinco’s Bench/Cinco collaboration provided the haute-couture cred the show incorporates every now and then.

“Undergarments are everyday essentials that people tend to take for granted. I wanted to change the mind-set and design undergarments that would make the wearer feel good about himself or herself, be it in the material, in the cut or color, and even feel confident being caught wearing just them,” Cinco said after the show. “Bench, as always, has been supportive and has given me enough leeway to come up with a collection of undergarments that are very sexy, very now and aptly complement the sheer, light couture gowns the Michael Cinco brand is known for.”

“It Girl” and Renaissance Woman Solenn Heussaff wore a takeoff from Cinco’s Seductress collection, which Queen Bey donned in one of her recent videos. “As with Beyonce, she wore a hint of

bondage queen—only sexier,” Cinco cooed.

Cinco’s Pegasus collection was inspired by the mythological winged stallion. It is featherlike, wears like skin and oozes sexiness. “The Bench team knew my requirements and promptly complied. The international male models were flown in from New York mainly for my segment,” Cinco says.

So, if Michael Cinco were to come back as underwear, whose would it be? “Lukas Ridgeston’s.”

Hottest bachelors in the cosmos JUST a few days after the Bench brouhaha, Cosmopolitan magazine gathered bachelors of only one shape: the deliciously buff. While single dad Paulo Avelino (who gets more covered up as he gradually becomes more famous) was selected as the top bachelor, the banshee-like screams were reserved for heartthrob James Reid, who fell from the stage when he performed. (Careful, James, that fall might be a metaphor for your career trajectory.)

Teen superstars are the biggest draws, it seems. At Bench, Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, though fully clothed, elicited the loudest cheers from the audience. The Kathniel tandem is the current toast, replacing the defunct Kimerald.

Kim Chiu, I must say, gave supermodels a run for their money when she strutted in killer seveninch stilettoes without teetering! For me, Andre Paras was the face of the night.

Incidentally, James performed a song by Chris Brown, someone who is universally known as not gentle with women. Last year, Aljur Abrenica sang “Blurred Lines,” a song with subliminal misogynistic lyrics. I wonder if the “fun, fearless females” even grasped the implications of these performances?

Like the Bench show, the better-styled and better-paced NSFW (not safe for work) Cosmo Bachelors show had a dearth of celebrities. Does this mean that stars’ appeals have dimmed?

Standout bachelors this year were the pageant kings/models: John Spainhour, Vince Ferraren, Miko Raval, Sam Ajdani and Jun Macasaet. Let’s not forget Neil Perez, formerly known as Mariano Flormata Jr., the hot cop who won Mr. Philippines International. Nothing’s hotter than undressing a man in uniform.

Well, that’s it for now for shows with prurient intentions. In the next days, fashion shows that truly show fashion at its best will take center stage: Cary Santiago’s silver anniversary gala and Jesus Lloren for the Red Cross Ball. All’s well in the Philippine fashion front, it seems.

Dominic roqUE

KatHrYn BErnarDo and Daniel Padilla

hyDraTiNg cLeaNser; speciaL eDiTioN NaiL Lacquers; resToraTive skiN care sensitive and mature skin. napoleonperdis.com

By Nedra Rhone

FRESHMAN 15 FOR NAILS Help deborah lippmann celebrate 15 years with a special limited-edition collection of 15 long-wearing nail lacquers housed in a music box. The Until Your dreams Come True 15th Anniversary limited edition Music Box features 15 brand-new polish shades (named for songs) that tell the story of the brand’s beginnings, challenges and triumphs. A special song performed by lippmann—who got her start in the music biz—plays when the box is open and encourages fans to dream big. deborahlippmann.com

ANCIENT BEAUTY MADE MODERN InspIred by Cleopatra’s beauty routine of bathing in milk, napoleon perdis Auto pilot Hydrating Milk Cleanser is a skin-soothing cleanser that removes makeup and softens skin. The newest addition to the Auto pilot skincare collection, the cleanser contains donkey milk to balance the skin. Apply one or two pumps, remove with a cleansing cloth and rinse. The formula is perfect for dry,

RESTORATION SKIN CARE ClArIns super restorative day and night Creams work together to target all visible signs of aging for all skin types. The formulas are designed to visibly lift and plump skin while reducing the look of wrinkles, preventing and correcting the appearance of age spots, creating a more radiant complexion and providing long-lasting moisture. The super restorative day & night Creams are available at Clarins counters.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

life

PURISIMA: “There have been exciting developments for the Philippine economy over the past four years, and even more exciting things are expected to happen over the medium term as the agenda of good governance, infrastructure development and social progress continues.”

d1

THE BASH BUG IS A WAKE-UP CALL BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Monday, October 6, 2014 E 1

The Bash Bug

Is a Wake-up Call

By Karim R. Lakhani

W

e’ve all heard about the immediate threat posed by the Bash bug, aka the Shellshock bug: a software flaw that exploits a vulnerability in a standard piece of software code called the Bash Shell, whose functions give users command over computer systems that are based on Linux and Unix. This enables attackers to take control of your systems and run any command they wish.

Bash won’t be the last threat of this magnitude.

The Internet of Things enables new levels of convenience and efficiency, but its comprehensive connectivity also exposes households, companies and whole economies to attack.

We can’t address every bug as a one-off. Company executives, open-source software community leaders and government organizations must join forces and work proactively to create systems and processes that anticipate weaknesses, defend against attacks and enable rapid, coordinated fixes.

We need three levels of response.

First, executives must give network security a place on the CEO’s and board of directors’ agenda.

Just as we need financial audits to ensure the integrity of business, we need continuous security audits of all information technology-enabled products and services to ensure that customers and businesses aren’t at risk. Second, organizations must create an emergency response team and plan that can swiftly react and solve problems once vulnerabilities are detected. Executives should plan for worst-case scenarios and run their organizations through drills to ensure that they’re ready to handle problems as they may arise Third, companies, open-source community leaders and government organizations must coordinate their activities to proactively detect weak spots in our digitized and networked devices, services and infrastructure.

The vast majority of the world’s Internet and software infrastructure relies on solutions developed in open-source software communities.

Over the past two decades these communities of developers have proved themselves brilliant at creating code.

However, no software system is perfect, and open-source code can have mistakes or omissions, or simply not be capable of evolving with ever changing networked computing systems. The Shellshock bug allowed entry into core systems because there were simply not enough people looking critically at open-source code to detect and defend the networks.

Taking a cue from the banking system, the computing industry must develop an approach that prioritizes proactive stress testing, detection and updating to anticipate and prevent such problems.

Karim R. Lakhani is an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and the principal investigator of the Harvard-Nasa Tournament Lab at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Tell your team what customers should say about them

By Joe Panepinto

H

OW do you get employees to behave in ways that differentiate your brand for clients? Too many companies try to lay out every possible scenario and a corresponding brand-appropriate response—“If they do this, you do that.”

But it’s just not possible to anticipate everything. So if you can’t script every interaction, what are some ways to drive a consistent customer experience from a range of employees across various interactions? you have to work from the outcomes back, by asking a single question: What do you want people to

say after they walk away?

For instance, I can tell my kids I want them to be honest, hardworking and well-behaved. But they—like your employees—can always ask: “What the heck does that mean?” Instead, I can tell them: “I want your teachers to say you’re honest, sports coaches to say you’re hardworking and grandparents to say you’re well-behaved. Not just think or feel it, but actually say it.”

By being specific about the outcomes I expect from the various people they’ll encounter, I’ve done a few things: Changed the accountability. It’s no longer about ticking a box. your responsibility doesn’t end once

you’ve said or done something from a list I gave you. It ends when you’ve driven the outcome we’re looking for.

Accounted for the unexpected. If the focus is on what someone is going to say when he walks away, then it doesn’t matter what the situation is that he’s walking away from.

The consistency isn’t in the behavior, but in the goal.

Activated their cultural knowledge.

Everyone is different.

And how you interact with someone to make him think you’re honest or hardworking or well-behaved may be very different from how I would do it. This puts the onus on the other

person to figure it out. Made it specific. By identifying the audience and the outcome, I’ve moved brand behavior from the land of the vague to the world of the concrete.

Of course, you have to supplement all of this with training focused on positive examples and parameters around what’s acceptable or allowed.

But by starting with the end and thinking about what you want people to say about your brand after you walk away, you’ve made a good start.

Joe Panepinto is a senior vice president at Jack Morton Wordwide and an adjunct professor at Boston University’s College of Communication.

Read Fiction with YouR co-woRkeRs

By Sarah Green

A

NN Kowal Smith, executive director of Books@Work, a noprofit dedicated to bringing pleasure reading to the workplace, talks about how reading groups can make a difference at the office.

You describe Books@Work not as a book club, but as a “voluntary seminar.”

What’s the distinction?

In a book club, people come together in a very informal way. Our programs are led by a professor, and the professor brings a degree of expertise about a text that he or she is very passionate about. At the same time, the goal of the program is not to focus on the text alone, but to use the text as a window to exploring ideas.

I often think of it as a hybrid between a college seminar and a book club.

Who participates?

A large part of our target audience is the 60 percent of the American adult population who haven’t had the chance to go to college. It gives the folks who don’t usually get company-sponsored professional development a chance to have a turn.

At the same time, we have found that cross-functional and cross-hierarchical programs—where participants from the shop floor are sitting next to the division president—can play an important social role in the organization.

Have you seen any impact on organizations themselves, or is this mostly a fun “perk”?

While it is early days, we have seen quite a few cases already of supervisors telling us that they’ve seen people more willing to speak up, to share an idea, to disagree—it’s a lot more comfortable to practice in the seminar and then in the workplace, especially if it’s very hierarchical.

I can’t help but think that this might seem like an imposition on employees’ personal time. Do you ever have any negative reactions to this project?

Everyone has the option to say, “This isn’t for me.” Our offer is not, “This would be good for you, so you should do it.” It’s more, “We think you might enjoy this, and we’d love to provide it for you as an extra.”

What’s the key to guiding an effective discussion in a work context?

Pick a book that has broad human themes that are not necessarily related to a particular workplace, but let the reader stand in someone else’s shoes.

The closer you get to the workplace, the more instrumental it feels and the harder it is to get people excited and engaged. When the book is totally unrelated, it’s amazing how many links the readers find back to [their work].

The facilitator should let people find the connections themselves, not tell them what they should be discussing.

Sarah Green is a senior associate editor at Harvard Business Review.

Most adults don’t Mind 4 Months oF chRistMas ads

By Darrell Rigby & Suzanne Tager

E

vEry fall, many of us complain about how retailers push the holiday season earlier every year. But holiday promotions have been starting in early autumn for at least a century. An August 1914 newspaper ad for Hoosier Cabinet encouraged women to “Just wink your Christmas eye at Mr. Husband.” Even before that, Florence Kelley—famed social reformer, leader of the National Consumers League and a founding member of the NAACP— distributed tens of thousands of posters encouraging customers to “Do your Christmas Shopping Early” to avoid “the inhuman nature of the eleventhhour rush” on sales clerks and child laborers. So early holiday launches aren’t new, yet we continue to gnash our teeth.

If we hate them so much, why do they persist? Because enough customers and retailers value them to moot the inevitable criticism.

National retail Federation surveys, for example, show that 20 percent of consumers start their holiday buying by September and 40 percent

by Halloween.

Last month Bain & Co. conducted a survey of 621 American adults.

Nearly two-thirds affirmed that they’d already seen holiday displays.

Overall, one-third reported that early launches drive them crazy, one-third

were largely indifferent or found the displays “a little” annoying, and onethird said they love or like early holiday promotions. The positive responders reported that early holiday marketing puts them in a good mood, helps them to avoid procrastination and gives them helpful ideas.

Those most likely to appreciate early promotions include shoppers under 45, those with children in their households, and those with annual incomes under $20,000, who may welcome the chance to spread holiday spending over longer periods. retailers prefer to spread out the business for obvious reasons.

It creates a less chaotic shopping environment, leading to higher sales.

It minimizes out-of-stock merchandise. It reduces overtime costs, as well as the need to recruit, train, supervise and then dismiss temporary workers and extra security personnel.

Some psychologists contend that premature holiday marketing violates traditions, diminishes the distinctiveness of the holiday itself and makes people feel manipulated.

But, as long as it’s working for enough retailers and customers, early holiday supply and demand will likely win out.

Darrell Rigby is a partner at Bain & Co. and the author of Winning in Turbulence.

Suzanne Tager is a senior director in Bain’s retail and consumer products practices.

© 2013 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. (Distributed by The New York Times Syndicate)

MONDAY MORNING

E1

MEDICAL INNOVATIONS ExecutiveViews E4 | Monday, October 6, 2014 | Editor: Max V. de Leon

IMPROVING PATIENTS’ ACCESS TO

MEDICAL INNOVATIONS F

B J V B.  B

bring hope to half the world’s population who are at risk of diseases,” he stated.

Sanofi has invested over 1.5 billion euros into vaccine R&D and production, showing that it is gravely serious about developing new vaccines especially for diseases that don’t have a cure yet.

When it comes to access to such vaccines, the company has been looking at partnerships with the government in order to effectively reach out especially to the lower class echelon, which incidentally, makes up the majority of victims to diseases like dengue. Viebacher said that apart from dengue, the company is also working with the Department of Health to combat polio and diabetes, and address issues on oncology and many other important healthcare areas.

Viebacher, a significant personality in the global pharmaceutical industry, was awarded a knight of the French Legion of Honor by the French government because of his commitment to public health and business. He also received the prestigious 2012 Pasteur Foundation Award for his leadership role within the pharmaceutical industry’s research and development (R&D). The extensive years he has been in the industry has all the more made him passionate about helping improve the world’s health condition, and he is definitely not backing down anytime soon.

As a first-timer in the Philippines, he looks forward to learning more about the local pharmaceutical industry as well as the country’s culture. When asked about what he knows of the country, he said, “The Philippines is unique in many ways. An interesting description I’ve read is that it spent ‘300 years in convent and 50 years in Hollywood’ - obviously referring to the Spanish and American periods in Philippine history,” he mused. “But beyond your history, you have an amazing culture and a beautiful country.”

Personalized medicines

“Still, the greatest appeal of the Philippines for me, is the Filipino people. Your spirit, your faith and your resilience in the face of many difficult challenges continues to be a positive example for the rest of the world.”

Healthcare in developing countries

INDEED, one of the challenges that Filipinos face is the healthcare system of the country. The healthcare condition especially of developing countries like the Philippines is still of a somber magnitude and the biggest chunk of responsibility, it seems, falls to the pharmaceutical industry.

As a world leader in medicine or vaccines, it is Sanofi’s great expectation to see a time when no person in the world would ever have to die from a disease that could have been prevented by a medicine or a vaccine.

Viebacher mentioned that Sanofi’s vaccines division, Sanofi Pasteur, offers the broadest range of vaccines that protect against 20 infectious diseases. “Our vaccines

VIEBACHER is an advocate of personalized medicines, saying that there is a great need to develop more patient-centric approach because there are different responses to any given treatment. “The pharmaceutical industry has to be patient-centric. Drugs are not simply a commercial product like any other. Patients are at the heart of what we do every day and our activities must show our commitment to going further in meeting the needs of patients,” he said.

To give more focus on the unique needs of patients, Sanofi has appointed a chief patient officer who makes the interaction with patients, their caregivers and healthcare professionals. Viebacher said that paying attention to these interactions has allowed the company not only to develop treatments but also to fully integrate solutions to support the patients in the management of their disease.

Being optimistic about the industry, Viebacher foresees that there will be a vast progress in medicines in the next 10-15 years. “It’s amazing to know that as we understand disease pathology better, together with the technological advances, we will be able to literally target the ‘bad’ cells individually and treat the patient much more effectively.”

He posted, however, that there are still challenges in producing personalized medicines. For instance, the company’s R&D initiatives are getting more expensive

because regulatory systems are not designed to accompany the developments in scientific research. “Most of these new innovations are in biologics, which brings new technologies and processes themselves and a need to forecast capacity and risk at a much higher level than before. That makes things ultimately expensive.” he said.

Another challenge, Viebacher said, is the demographic. “The need to protect and treat the 7 billion people on the planet is putting increased pressures on healthcare systems. Pressure on costs will continue throughout both the developing and developed world.”

He also admitted that a mistake that the Westerns have done was the creation of “sick care systems” instead of “healthcare systems”. “We paid more to treat a sick person, than prevent a healthy person from getting ill,” he explained, adding on the other hand that emerging markets still have an opportunity to not make the same mistake with respect to non-communicable diseases and prevention.

“With this, more investments have to be made to keep the population healthy.

And this will ultimately mean less need for medication and treatment. If we don’t do it now, healthcare systems around the world, will simply collapse,” he stressed.

Research and development

R&D initiatives may have implicating risks but new technologies and advances in science will make it continually easier to identify more targeted and therefore more effective treatments, Viebacher said. On this facet, he talked about the importance of creating partnerships.

“Science has never been more exciting but at the same time it has become incredibly complex. No organization can have all the experts in-house. We have to be modest and acknowledge that although we have great scientists at home, we also need external expertise. That’s why we keep entering into new collaborations,” he noted.

Incidentally, Sanofi has announced its partnerships with The GPCR Institute and Zai Labs, highlighting its commitment to local scientific discoveries that translate into therapeutic solutions for patients in Asia and beyond.

Viebacher is convinced that

opportunities will be maximized by being located close to the world’s leading scientific networks. Personally, he shared that the partnerships have allowed him to witness first-hand the discovery of medicines he finds most exciting in his lengthy career in the industry. He mentioned that back in 2009, the company partnered with Regeneron to test the Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 or PCSK9, a gene that provides instructions for making a protein that helps regulate the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream. The compound has demonstrated remarkable results in clinical trials - current standard of care with statins can reduce bad cholesterol levels by 15-20 percent, but in the company’s trials, the compound has shown that it can bring bad cholesterol down by another 50-60 percent on top of statin therapy.

He also went on sharing about the company’s research on the next generation insulin called Toujeo, the Dupilumab for asthma and atopic dermatitis, the dengue vaccine, a new oral therapy in the Gaucher disease called Cerdelga, NexGard for animal health, and Nasacort, a nasal allergy spray, as an over-the-counter medicine.

Sanofi developed a few years ago a blood glucose meter to help patients monitor their blood sugar levels and therefore help improve their understanding of how the disease was affecting them. What’s more, the meter can be linked up to a family member or physician to track progress.

Viebacher said that this innovation was a step forward for the company, and it left them hopeful that they could still do more. More than doing intensive research, Sanofi has stepped out of its sophisticated laboratories to initiate training programs for healthcare physicians around the globe.

It has also been preparing educational materials and support programs to help their patients truly understand their disease.

The company also signed an alliance with Medtronic to develop not only better devices but also work together to develop integrated care initiatives.

“We are diversified, which is key in our industry because it is risky by nature, so it’s beneficial to balance risks,” Viebacher finally said.

EXECUTIVE VIEWS

The team will be led by Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan, Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr., Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Teresita J. Herbosa.

“There have been exciting developments for the Philippine economy over the past four years, and even more exciting things are expected to happen over the medium term as the agenda of good governance, infrastructure development and social progress continues,”

FRANCIA: “It’s more than 90-percent spent; the rest are committed for ongoing projects. I expect the first batch of five plants—two coal, two wind and one minihydro—to be in a steady state by late 2016 or 2017.”

E4

good-bye, incheon!

Sports BusinessMirror

C1

| Monday, oCtober 6, 2014 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

YE, B d goo EoN!

INCH

GAMES MVP

Japanese swimmer Kosuke Hagino holds his Most Valuable Player award aloft during the closing ceremony of the 17th Asian Games. AP

By VG Cabuag

A

FESTIVE

Fireworks explode over Incheon Asiad Main Stadium during the closing ceremony for the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. AP

NEXT HOST

The 18th Asian Games host country’s flag, Indonesia, flies next to the South Korean (left) flag during the closing ceremony of the Asiad. AP

VETTEL TO LEAVE RED BULL AFTER SEASON

S

Hamilton beats Rosberg to win Japanese Grand Prix

S

UZUKA, Japan—Lewis Hamilton won a rainshortened Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, claiming his third straight Formula One win and widening his lead over teammate Nico Rosberg in the race for the drivers’ championship.

With Hamilton leading Rosberg, a red flag came out on the 47th of 53 laps due to a crash involving Marussia driver Jules Bianchi. Race officials elected not to restart the race and Hamilton was declared the winner. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finished third.

The race celebrations were subdued as Bianchi was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

“Once I was able to get past Nico I was just able to enjoy the ride,” Hamilton said. “It was a great result for the team but obviously I am very concerned about Bianchi right now.”

Hamilton now leads Rosberg by 10 points with four races remaining.

The rain also disrupted the early stages of the race, with the first nine laps run behind the safety car. After things settled down and the race begun, Hamilton did everything possible to gain on

his teammate, who started from pole.

Rosberg held the lead until the 29th lap where Hamilton got a better run onto the pit straight and blasted around the outside of Rosberg into Turn 1 to take the lead for good.

“I had a lot more pace than Nico,” Hamilton said. “It’s not an easy circuit to follow on. But I was able to get close and with DRS was able to get side-by-side and put it in there.”

The race started as scheduled but with the rain getting stronger, the drivers could only complete two cautious laps behind the safety car.

After a 10-minute delay, the race restarted behind the safety car, but Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari ground to a halt with a technical problem. The Spaniard returned to his garage and threw up his arms in frustration as his day was done. AP driver Nico Rosberg of Germany (left) »leadsMERcEDES Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain at Japanese Formula One Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit in Suzuka, central Japan. AP

UZUKA, Japan—Four-time defending Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel will leave Red Bull at the end of the season and is expected to soon announce a deal with Ferrari.

Vettel told Red Bull chief Christian Horner on Friday night that he intended to leave, and the team made the formal announcement on Saturday ahead of qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix.

“After 15 very enjoyable and successful years with Red Bull, I have decided to leave Red Bull at the end of this year,” Vettel said on his personal web site. “Of course, it is a big step and hard to make such a decision.

Red Bull immediately named a replacement, promoting Daniil Kvyat from its associated team Toro Rosso to join Daniel Ricciardo in a youthful 2015 lineup.

While Vettel said that “there will be an announcement very soon” about his future, Horner was in no doubt as to where the German driver was headed.

“As of January 1st he’ll be a competitor,” Horner said. “He’ll be a Ferrari driver.”

“Obviously Ferrari have made him a very attractive offer,” he added. “The lure of Ferrari—a window has opened there with whatever is going on and he has decided the timing is right for him.”

Current Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen are both under contract with the Italian team for next season, but Alonso has been in talks with the team about his future.

Asked on Friday whether he could be driving for either of rival teams McLaren or Red Bull next year, Alonso said: “This is a very difficult question to answer. And I will repeat the answer, probably I will do the best for Ferrari.”

With the Red Bull option now closed, McLaren looms as the likely destination for Alonso should he leave Ferrari. McLaren will enter a new phase in 2015 with a switch to Honda engines as the Japanese automaker reenters the sport.

Outgoing Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo sounded resigned to losing Alonso when he spoke earlier this week at the Paris Motor Show.

“Whether he stays or doesn’t stay, he has done a lot for Ferrari,” said Di Montezemolo, still Ferrari’s president until Sergio Marchionne takes over later this month. “We have a contract and in the next few days we are going to take a final decision with a lot of respect for one another.

“If he says he will stay, we will be happy. If we decide together to end our collaboration, it will be in the best manner possible.”

Alonso said after qualifying at Suzuka that he expects to make a decision soon.

“Let’s say I have had my mind set for two or three months,” Alonso said. “Everything is moving in the right direction but I am still not 100-percent decided. I can go more or less where I want to go in the time I want to go and I will use my time in the best way.”

Alonso said the possibility of Vettel joining Ferrari won’t influence his thinking.

“Anything is a possibility,” Alonso said. “I don’t know if he is going to Ferrari first of all. My first priority is to help my team in

these races, then my future and Sebastian is very low priority at the moment.”

Vettel joined Red Bull from Toro Rosso in 2009 and won four straight championships between 2010 and 2013. He has yet to win a race in 2014, when the Mercedes team has been dominant and he has been outperformed by young Australian teammate Ricciardo.

There had been speculation in recent weeks that Vettel and Alonso would swap teams for next season, but Horner said there was never any intention to poach the Spanish twotime F1 champion.

“Fernando is a wonderful driver, but our philosophy and policy is to invest inwardly, invest in youth and give youngsters a chance,” Horner said. “There were question marks when we signed [Vettel] and question marks when we signed Daniel Ricciardo, but we have demonstrated that it works.”

Kvyat was delighted with his promotion to the Red Bull team. The Russian became the youngest driver to earn a championship point when he made his debut as a 19-year-old in Australia this year.

“I was very honored, very surprised,” Kvyat said. “The people around me know I like to work hard and do my best.”

Toro Rosso will add an even younger driver next year in 17-year-old Max Verstappen, with the other seat to go to one of the many aspiring youngsters in the company’s driver development programs. AP RAcING driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany announces he’s leaving Red Bull after this season. AP

sports

Purisima said in a statement.

The road show will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Tokyo on October 8, and will have the theme “Sustaining Inclusive Growth Through Infrastructure and Capital Market Development.”

The Philippine delegation will discuss before Japanese investors the updates on the Philippines’s economic performance and outlook, as well as the country’s development plans and targets for the medium term.

The Philippine delegation will also talk about the income potentials from investing in the priority sectors of the government, as well as the processes involved in securities and tax registration in the Philippines.

The Philippines grew by an average of 6.3 percent from 2010 to 2013, becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia. This year the government expects the economy to hit the growth target of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent.

Other officials who will be part of the delegation are National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon; Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao

AC Energy seeks 1,000-MW output in three years

BusinessMirror

OR many years, global healthcare leader Sanofi has made a stand to become a partner in improving the health of 7 billion people around the world - and to do so, it has been expanding its presence in emerging markets throughout the developing world. This time, Sanofi’s main man, its chief executive officer Christopher A. Viebacher, visits the Philippines. He could not have come at a better time.

By David Cagahastian

T

>> D3

c1

yala Corp. said it is confident that the company will hit its goal of generating 1,000 megawatts of power within three years, as it spent almost all of its allocated spending to buy several power plants.

Eric Francia, president of AC Energy Holdings Inc., said the company’s portfolio covers coal, wind and hydro, with the group already committing $400 million in equity to partly finance the projects.

“It’s more than 90-percent spent; the rest are committed for ongoing projects. I expect that the first See “AC energy,” A2

PESO exchange rates n US 44.7570

See “Econ team,” A2

GERMAN-PHL TIES German Ambassador Thomas Ossowski (left) cuts the cake for Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario, signifying Germany’s commitment to further its bilateral relations with the Philippines. JENZINE ALCANTARA

U.S.WORKS ON ASIA TIES AMID TURMOIL IN MIDDLE EAST

A

military agreement with the Philippines and easing an arms embargo against Vietnam show that the Obama administration wants deeper security ties with Asia, even as turmoil in the Middle East has undermined its hope of making Asia the heart of its foreign policy.

The “pivot” was intended to be President Barack Obama’s signature push in foreign affairs. As the US disentangled from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would devote more military and diplomatic attention to the Asia Pacific and American economic interests there.

The world hasn’t turned out as planned. Washington is grappling with the chaotic fallout of the Arab Spring, a growing rivalry with Russia and the alarming rise of the Islamic State group that is prompting the US to launch air strikes in Iraq and Syria.

Against this chaotic backdrop, the growing tensions in the South and East China Seas, and US efforts to counter the rise of an increasingly assertive China appear peripheral concerns. The pivot gets few people excited in Washington these days.

Obama didn’t even mention it in a sweeping foreignpolicy speech in May, and negotiations on a transpacific trade pact—the main economic prong in the pivot— Continued on A2

TMPC boss sees 2014 sales exceeding target

By Catherine N. Pillas

M

arket leader Toyota Motor Philippines Corp.

(TMPC) said total domestic industry sales may exceed the 250,000-unit target this year, and reach as much as 260,000 units on the back of the steady yearlong uptick in demand.

“As I look at the trend right now, it’s possible that sales may be 250,000 to 260,000 plus,” said TMPC President Michinobu Sugata in a chance interview with reporters.

But Sugata clarified that the 20-percent projected rise in automotive sales for the year will not be revised just yet, although exceeding the 250,000-unit goal is a possibility based on market demand in the first three quarters of the year.

For its part, TMPC is expecting to sell at least 100,000 units in 2014, from around 90,000 in 2013.

The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines

SUGATA: “As I look at the trend right now, it’s possible that sales may be 250,000 to 260,000 plus.”

Inc. (Campi) previously set a 10-percent sales growth for the year to reach 230,000 units by end-2014.

The 230,000-unit target was revised to 250,000 units, or a 9-percent increase from the original target for the year, due to the solid performance of the auto industry in the first quarter.

In August alone car assemblers notched a sales figure of 19,116 units, down by 8.4 percent over July’s 20,730 units, bringing year-to-date sales to 148,803 units.

Continued on A2

n japan 0.4128 n UK 72.2602 n HK 5.7656 n CHINA 7.2774 n singapore 35.2029 n australia 39.2709 n EU 56.7026 n SAUDI arabia 11.9311 Source: BSP (3 October 2014)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Monday, October 6, 2014

news@businessmirror.com.ph

US works on Asia ties amid turmoil in Middle East TMPC boss sees 2014 Continued From A1

have been mired in differences between the US and Japan over agriculture and auto market access and by opposition to the pact among many of Obama’s fellow Democrats.

But the administration is still chipping away at its grand plan for a rebalance to Asia that began within months of Obama taking office in 2009, when the US signed a cooperation treaty with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The US has since ended its decades-long isolation of Myanmar, also known as Burma, in response to democratic reforms there. It has taken a more strident diplomatic stance against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea and some concrete steps to shore up its allies’ ability to

respond. In April the US signed a 10year agreement to allow thousands of US troops to be temporarily based in the Philippines, 20 years after US bases there had been closed.

Like the Philippines, Vietnam has been engaged in standoffs with China over disputed reefs and islands.

Tensions spiked between May and July after China deployed a deep-sea oil rig near the Paracel Islands. The vessels of the two sides rammed each other near the rig, and there were deadly anti-China riots in several industrial parks in Vietnam.

On Thursday the State Department announced it would allow sales, on a case-by-case basis, of lethal equipment to help the maritime security of Vietnam—easing a ban that has been in place since communists took power at the end of

the Vietnam War in 1975.

The US won’t be rushing to Vietnam’s defense, nor does it want to be directly involved in negotiating the territorial disputes themselves, that also involve Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. But Washington says it has an interest in the maintenance of peace and stability and equipping nations to defend themselves and deter aggression.

Hanoi welcomed the step, saying it would promote the US-Vietnam partnership. It was opposed by rights activists, unpersuaded by Washington’s argument that Hanoi has shown some improvements on human rights and would be encouraged to make more.

John Sifton, the Washington-based Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said Vietnam’s changes

have been superficial and contended that the US is reversing decades of policy for marginal strategic benefit.

Republican Sen. John McCain, who is an arch-critic of the Obama administration’s foreign policy, but supports the rebalance and pushed for the easing of the Vietnam ban, said it would strengthen defense cooperation to the benefit of both countries.

But McCain foreign policy adviser Chris Brose said the US still has to convince Asia that the rhetoric of the pivot can become reality.

“The question is not whether America is doing something. Clearly America is,” Brose told a Washington think tank on Friday. “The question is whether what America is doing adds up to a set of actions that’s fundamentally impacting China’s calculus.” AP

sales exceeding target Continued From A1

On a year-on-year basis, however, August tally of 19,116 units is a 39.5percent growth over the 13,700 units sold in the same month in 2013.

Combined with car importers’ August sales of 3,302 units, the car industry’s total of 22,418 units outpaces the 16,046 units sold by the local automotive industry in the same month of 2013, reflecting a 39.7-percent year-onyear industry sales growth.

In August TMP remained the market leader among car assemblers, selling 8,424 units, bringing its market share to 44 percent.

Meanwhile, on the $600-million fund mentioned by Cabinet Secretary

Jose Rene Almendras to direct investments to the automotive industry and induce job generation, Sugata said he will wait for the official announcement of the final figure and the distribution mechanism. “We will wait for the official statement. At least, the government has an intention. We welcome the movement but we don’t really know the amount and how they’re going to give it,” Sugata said.

At the sidelines of the Philippine Economic Briefing held last week, Almendras cited a figure of $600 million as a support fund for a competitive auto industry and will be a component of the yet-to-be-released automotive industry road map.

DWIZ WELCOMES VP BINAY DWIZ officials (from left) Ely Aligora, AM Programming director; Rey Langit, vice president and station manager; ALC Group of Companies Founder Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua; and Frederick M. Alegre, senior vice president, welcome Vice President Jejomar Binay (center), who graced the launching of Leo Martinez’s (not in the photo) new program aired over DWIZ. ROY DOMINGO

Econ team. . . continued from a1 of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center; Assistant Governor Johnny Noe Ravalo of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; Deputy Commissioner Nelson Aspe of the Bureau of Internal Revenue; Undersecretary Rene Limcaoco of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC); Undersecretary Raul Aguilos of the Department of Energy; and Executive Director Editha Martin of the Investor Relations Office.

From t he Japa nese side, Etsuaki Yoshida, director and senior economist at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and Hidetoshi Irigaki, director general for Southeast Asia and Pacific at the Japan International Cooperation Agency, were invited to talk about the Japanese outlook on the Philippines’s monetary and fiscal system and on the Philippines’s infrastructure sector.

This is a fitting follow-up to the road show conducted by high-rank officials from the government and private sector in Singapore last month, where they engaged British businessmen for possible tie-ups and investment opportunities in infrastructure andpublic-private partnership (PPP) projects.

“The road show in Singapore was an idea of the Philippine-British

Business Council [PBBC] and the Embassy of the United Kingdom in the Philippines, because a number of UK companies are based in Singapore. The idea [for the Philippine businesses] is to engage the United Kingdom business community there,” said Peter Angelo V. Perfecto, executive director of the Makati Business Club (MBC).

The MBC is the secretariat in the Philippines for the PhilippineBritish Business Council.

Representatives from firms, such as Ayala Corp., Aboitiz Equity Ventures and Asia Gas, Planters Development Bank, Shell Companies Philippines, SGV and HSBC— all MBC members—joined the road show held in Singapore on September 29 and 30.

On t he gover nment side, Canilao and Transportation Undersecretary Rene K. Limcauco were present to showcase all the PPP projects in the pipeline.

Perfecto said there has been no commitment yet, but the interest from the UK business community was there.

Perfecto mentioned that one British company, Arup, presented the subway system they built in Singapore to the DOTC. The DOTC is now conducting a study on the feasibility of setting up an underground railway system in Metro Manila.

AC energy. . . continued from a1

batch of five plants—two coal, two wind and one mini-hydro—to be in a steady state by late 2016 or 2017,” Francia said.

“We’re hopeful that this will be the next core business of Ayala Corp.

Undoubtedly AC Energy will come ahead. In the power business, once you spend on equity investments, you spend it on a period of three to four years when you’re building the plant.

Once operational, it’s on a steady state already because it’s either contracted, or the power is covered by the feedin-tariff,” he said.

Among the company’s power portfolio are the 135-MW Calaca coal-fired power plant in Batangas, which it co-owns with Trans-Asia Oil and Development Corp.; the 81-MW wind farm in Ilocos Norte with partner North Luzon UPC Asia Corp; and the 18-MW expansion of the 33-MW Bangui Bay wind farm with Northwind Power Development Corp.

Francia said AC Energy is also set to close the financial agreement for the 405-MW Lanao coal plant in Lanao del Norte in partnership with GNPower Ltd. Co. within the year.

It also expects to close the financing for a 600-MW Bataan coal-fired plant that the company will build, also in partnership with GNPower.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Palace wants to see how teachers’ pay-hike bill will affect budget

M

ALACAÑANG said it wants to assess the multibillion-peso budgetary implications of the House-approved teachers’ pay-hike bill before committing to endorse its enactment.

Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. on Sunday said the Aquino administration joins the nation in paying tribute to tutors on the observance of World Teachers’ Day and National Teachers’ Month, as President Aquino had done in issuing Proclamation 242 in 2011.

“Patuloypongsinisikapngpamahalaannamapahusayatmabigyanngkarampatangsuportaangating mga guro,” he said, noting that under the proposed 2015 national budget, the government already allocated P92.3 billion for hiring 39,000 new teachers, the construction of additional classrooms, as well as educational materials for public-school teachers.

Coloma confirmed the government also set aside P2 billion for the training of public-school teachers in preparation for the nationwide implementation of the K to 12 Program.

“Halos doble na ang budget na inilalaan ng pamahalaan para sa sektor ng edukasyon kung ihahambing sa pagsisimula ng panunungkulan ng administrasyon ni Pangulong Aquino,” he said.

Coloma said that for the current school year, over P309 billion will be spent by the government for the

education sector, compared to the P174-million allocationin2010,inlinewithPresidentAquino’sbelief thatthepeoplearethecountry’smostvaluableasset.

But when asked about a separate House proposal to grant an additional P10,000 compensation to public- school teachers, Coloma could not readily commit Palace support for it. “’Yan pong usapin na ’yan ay kinakailangang isaalang-alang ang budgetary considerations dahil nandiyan na po tayo sa panahon ng pagdedeliberate sa 2015 national budget,” he said.

Noting that the measure had already been approved by the House of Representatives on second reading and is expected to be subsequently transmitted to the Senate, Coloma said Executive officials still need to assess if the budget can bear the extra expense.

“Kailangan lang pong alamin natin kung ano ang mga budgetary parameters ng panukalang ‘yan,” he said.“Angakingbatidaykapagmayroongpanukalang batasnamayroongbudgetaryconsiderations,katulad nga niyan, isa sa mga standard na procedure na sinusunod ng ating Kongreso ay inaalam ’yung budgetary implications niyan, tinatanong sa ating Department of Budget and Management dahil mayroon silang patakaran na hindi sila magpapasa ng batas na hindi tiyak ’yung pagkukunan ng pondo.” Butch Fernandez

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Monday, October 6, 2014 A3

Mayon expected to erupt any day

L

By Manly M. Ugalde | Correspondent

EGAZPI CITY—Albay residents are bracing for the expected eruption of Mayon Volcano as the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the volcano is heating up for a violent eruption similar to the one that took place in 1984.

The 1984 eruption had buried national roads including the 70-meter-long concrete bridge crossing the 25-meter deep Basud River in Santo Domingo town that paralyzed transportation in the First and Second Districts for a month. Hundreds of wild and attended animals such as carabaos, cows and pigs were found dead at the downstream of Basud River carried by

lava from the foot of Mount Mayon.

Mayon resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta said the reduction in sulfurdioxide emission from the usual daily average of 500 tons to only 308 tons recorded Thursday last week was a clear indication Mayon is bound for a big eruption.

This explains the lava dome protruding at the volcano summit and

blocking the crater, he said, adding that “this is a prelude to eruption.”

Early last week, Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda indicated to the local media that Phivolcs is expected to raise its alert level 3 to 4. More than 3,000 animals owned by residents at the danger zone have been evacuated to safer grounds.

With 56,000-plus evacuees packed in 40 evacuation centers, soldiers started scouring the Mayon 6-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) to ensure no person is inside the declared “no man’s land.”

This developed as many evacuees expressed their desire to return home, believing Mayon may not erupt yet. Evacuees also complained about their health condition as health authorities admitted the number of sick evacuees continues to rise. As of Saturday, a total of 717 sick evacuees were reported.

Bicol Philippine National Police Regional Director Chief Supt. Victor Deona said the 6-kilometer PDZ

and the 7-kilometer extended danger zone are 24-hours guarded, warning that anyone seen inside the area will be arrested.

Last Wednesday an evacuee was found dead inside the danger zone after she was declared missing when the forced evacuation began two weeks ago.

Asked how prepared authorities to avoid isolation of certain communities in the event roads are buried by lahar following an eruption, Salceda said, “I think the Department of Public Works and Highways [DPWH] have their ready contingency plans.”

DPWH Regional Director Melvin Navarro cannot be contacted for comment while his assistant regional director Armando Estrella was also in Manila. Estrella, however, said he would advise his maintenance chief Antonia Saguinsin to get in touch with the media about the DPWH contingency plans in preparation for the impending Mayon eruption.

Saguinsin cannot also be contacted.

Economy

A4 Monday, October 6, 2014 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

Govt to tap private sector in P29.14-B Clex project

T

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

hegovernmentispartneringwith the private sector in pursuing the P29.14-billion Central Luzon Expressway (Clex), which will facilitate the movement of goods and services in Central Luzon, a document from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) showed.

The first phase of the proposed Clex will involve the construction of a thoroughfare that will connect Tarlac and Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija. The state has earmarked P14.94 billion for this phase.

“It will be funded through a loan, an official development assistance fund. The road will connect the Subic-Clark-Tarlac and the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressways to Cabanatuan City,” Public Works Undersecretar y Rafael C. Yabut said, when asked for comment.

The first phase will be funded by a loan from the Japan Inter-

national Cooperation Authority.

The contract for the additional 30 kilometers of road, which will be auctioned off by the end of the year, is expected to be completed by 2018.

“By mid-2015 we will start the construction of the first ph a se,” Yabut noted , add i ng that the deal has been approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board, which is chaired by President Aquino.

The second phase of the thoroughfare, meanwhile, involves the construction of another expressway

that will interconnect Cabanatuan to San Jose City. It carries a P14.20billion price tag.

Yabut explained that the second phase will be added to the pipeline of public-private partnership (PPP) projects under his agency.

“Phase II will also involve the operations and maintenance contract for the expressway. It will be auctioned off under the PPP program of the Aquino government,” the state official added.

The second phase of the proposed expressway is still being studied for feasibility. The 35.7-km road is expected to be auctioned off by the first half of next year.

The proposed Clex is part of the 386.18 km of road that the DPWH aims to construct, 170.79 km of which are currently being built.

The public works department has a number of key infrastructure deals that aim to improve the road network around the Philippines. It has so far awarded two PPP projects: the P1.96-billion Daang HariSouth Luzon Expressway bagged

by Ayala Corp. in 2011; and the P15.68-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport expressway, given to San Miguel Corp. (SMC) unit Vertex Tollways Development

Inc. in 2013.

The awarding of the P35.2-billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway, meanwhile, is being stalled by a petition of a disqualified bidder before Malacañang. Team Orion of the Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. has seen three months of delay in the awarding due to the motion for reconsideration of SMC. The agency is also auctioning off the P122.81-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway-Dike deal, which has attracted 22 companies, to head to the prequalification stage of the bidding. The deadline for the submission of bids is scheduled on July 6 next year. A notice of award is targeted to be issued a month after.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson said his office aims to increase infrastructure spending by 2016. He explained the government has set its sights on spending 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, totaling to as high as $18 billion by 2016, from $4 billion in 2011.

“We commit that by 2016, all national roads and bridges, estimated to measure 32,000 km, will have been paved,” he said.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

DBM to release P3.7 billion for relocation of squatters

By Estrella Torres

he Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is releasing P3.7 billion to the National Housing Authority (NHA) for the relocation of informal settlers in danger zones in Metro Manila due to rising hazards of typhoons and calamities in the country.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said the funds will be sourced from the 2014 national budget to assist thousands of families living in the hazardous areas in Metro Manila, particularly those along the creeks, rivers and esteros.

“This move is part of the Aquino administration’s continuing efforts to ensure the safety and well-being of these families, given the constant problem of flooding in Metro Manila,” said Abad in a statement over the weekend.

He said the funds aim to enable the NHA to provide assistance to poor families to build stronger homes in safer areas—whether within the city or outside—as well as ensure the protection of these families during calamities or emergencies, like typhoons and heavy rains.

The funds will assist the NHA’s land development and construction of low-rise buildings (LRBs) on government-owned lands within the city, as well as housing settlements outside the city.

The NHA said LRBs and off-city housing settlements currently being

constructed can accommodate 1,234 units and 10,546 units, respectively.

The budget chief said a total of P5.49 billion from the 2014 national budget had been allocated for the relocation and resettlement of informal settlers living in danger zones in Metro Manila.

The DBM, he said, has earlier released P600 million to the NHA for the initial implementation of the program.

“The NHA’s relocation and resettlement program serves multiple purposes. It supports our local governments in providing housing and assistance and ensures the families’ safety in danger zones. Beyond that, relocating these families will help improve the sanitation and disaster preparedness in problem areas in Metro Manila,” Abad said.

The administration’s relocation program for informal settlers is based on a Supreme Court ruling to clean up the 3.0-meter easement of the Pasig River and its tributaries by 2015.

T

ABAD: “This move is part of the Aquino administration’s continuing efforts to ensure the safety and well-being of these families, given the constant problem of flooding in Metro Manila.”

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Domestic trade growth in Q2 slowest since 2008

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

he growth of the country’s total quantity of domestic trade transactions in the second quarter of 2014 registered the slowest rate since 2008, when it grew by only 1 percent, preliminary data recently released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

The country’s total quantity of domestic trade transactions reached 4.87 million tons from 4.81 million tons reported in the same period of last year.

“The commodities were traded mostly through water comprising 99.8 percent, the same percentage recorded in the second quarter of 2013,” the PSA said.

Data showed that commodities that were traded through water reached 4.8 million tons, lower than the 4.85 million tons posted a year ago and the 5.12 million tons posted in the first quarter of the year.

The PSA also said commodities that were shipped domestically via air freight increased to 10,105 tons in the second quarter, higher than the 8,966 tons in the same period last year and 8,298 tons in the first quarter this year.

There were also no commodities shipped via rail during the quarter. The PSA said there were

also no rail transaction in the second quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014.

Meanwhile, the PSA said there was a 16.4-percent increase in the total value of commodities that flowed within the country in the second quarter.

Data showed the total value of commodities traded in the country amounted to P170.20 billion in the same period of 2014, from P146.24 billion in the second quarter of 2013.

“Shipment through water was the principal mode of transport in the second quarter of 2014, comprising 99.7 percent, the same percentage recorded in the second quarter of 2013,” the PSA said.

Data also showed that food and live animals contributed the largest share among the commodities transacted throughout the country in the second quarter of 2014, amounting to P49.65 billion, or 29.2 percent of the total.

This was followed by machinery and transport equipment with P38.71 billion, or 22.7 percent, and manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials with P23.72 billion, or 13.9 percent.

Further, the PSA said animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes had the least value of P2.14 billion, or 1.3 percent.

Monday, October 6, 2014 A5

Economic Cha-cha still a priority–Belmonte

T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

he resolution amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution remains a priority measure of the 16th Congress, the leadership of the House of Representatives said.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., reacting to the latest Pulse Asia survey, said Congress will give economic Charter change (Cha-cha) ample time during the 16th Congress.

“We still prioritize Cha-cha, but only our economic, [not political], Cha-cha,” Belmonte said.

According to the new survey

by Pulse Asia, around three out of five Filipinos do not want the 1987 Constitution amended at this time, though nearly half of them are open to having it amended sometime in the future.

The survey, which was conducted from September 8 to 15, also showed 62 percent of Filipinos do not want the Charter amended to allow a second term for President Aquino.

“For 62 percent of Filipinos, there is no need to amend the 1987 Constitution at the present time—with 32 percent opposed to Cha-cha at any other time and 30 percent being open to Cha-cha at some future

time,” it said.

But Belmonte said members of the lower chamber are continuously conducting public consultations in their respective districts on the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 1.

RBH 1, filed by Belmonte and Sen. Ralph Recto, is eyeing to amend provisions on the 60-40 rule, which limits foreign ownership of certain activities in the Philippines.

The resolution will include the phrase “unless provided by law” in the foreign-ownership provision of the Constitution, particularly land ownership, public utilities, natural resources, media and advertising industries.

Under Article XII of the Constitution, foreign investors are prohibited to own more than 40 percent of real properties and businesses, while they are totally restricted to exploit natural resources and own any company in the media industry.

The amendments to the Charter will be approved through separate votings by both Chambers, with a three-fourths vote required from them.

Meanwhile, the so-called Visayan bloc in the House of Representatives, led by Liberal Party (LP) Rep. Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental, on Sunday said the group’s 34 members would still vote in favor of Cha-cha despite the survey.

“We, the members of the bloc, do hereby express our support to the immediate approval of RBH 1, proposing amendments to certain economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, particularly on Articles XII, XIV and XVI,” Benitez said.

According to Benitez, his group recognized that the Philippines is currently enjoying a growing confidence from foreign investors, and that minimizing the economic restrictions sends a strong signal to the investment community that the government is serious in improving the business climate in the country, and in sustaining the positive outlook of the economy.

“We are also confident that liberalizing the economy will increase foreign direct investments and capital accumulation, thereby allowing our country to maximize the benefits of the inclusive growth that is being promoted by the current administration, such as employment generation and poverty reduction across all the regions in the Philip-

pines,” he added.

Caucus

Meanwhile, LP Rep. Edgar Erice of Caloocan said he will ask the party to call for a caucus to discuss its position on the moves to amend the Charter’s term limits and the economic provisions.

“The Liberal Party and other partner political coalitions should hold a caucus to discuss the proposed political and economic amendments on the Constitution....

Because if we will not talk about [the amendments], it will die a natural death,” he said.

He said he is still planning to file a political amendment to the Constitution lifting the six-year single-term limit for the President after the passage of the economic Cha-cha of Belmonte.

Erice said he believed that only President Aquino can sustain the reforms.

The lawmaker said he is also planning to file a bill calling for a Constitutional Convention (Concon), as the latest Pulse Asia survey showed that the majority of Filipinos opposed the economic Cha-cha, particularly the amendmentsonforeign-ownership provisions.

“I will call for a Constitutional Convention after the 2016 elections. Meaning, we will have to elect members of the Concon....

So they can have enough time to debate...at least three years to debate,” Erice said.

A6

A BusinessMirr

Monday, October 6, 2014 | www.businessmirror.com.ph

SANOFI’S CEO VISITS THE PHILIPPINES, BRINGS INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE

D

B J V B.  B

located close to the world’s leading scientific ecosystems.”

Adding to its existing hubs in the world, Sanofi recently inaugurated its Asia Pacific Research R&D hub in Shanghai, China.

The Asia Pacific branch now covers 12 countries, has 1400 employees and currently has 50 collaborations with partners in the region to maximize Asia Pacific’s potential for innovation and deliver on diseases that are prevalent to the markets.

RIVEN by a commitment to bring healthcare advancements to emerging countries, Sanofi’s chief executive officer Christopher A. Viebacher is visiting the Philippines for the first time to learn more about the country’s healthcare sector.

Sanofi, a global company present in more than a hundred countries, leaps further on its worldwide scale through reaching out to countries that have less access to healthcare innovations.

“These countries are not the so called ‘rest of the World’, they now represent ‘most of the world’,” said Viebacher. “Emerging markets are one of our seven growth platforms and they are doing very well, with a 16.5 percent growth in the 2nd quarter.”

“Emerging markets are the single biggest region of the company and now represent 35.4 percent of total Group sales,” he added.

Scope in the Philippines

VIEBACHER said that emerging countries such as the Philippines offer great opportunities, hence the company significantly built its businesses in such areas through investments, local manufacturing or through acquisitions and partnerships.

Sanofi’s focus on emerging countries had enabled its Philippine affiliate, Sanofi-Aventis Philippines,

to become a key player in the local pharmaceutical industry and one of the largest affiliates of Sanofi in Southeast Asia.

With its mission to improve the quality of life and well-being of its market, the Philippine affiliate offers innovative medicines and vaccines, quality generics and consumer health products, delivered by highly empowered professionals and in partnership with the medical community.

Sanofi in the Philippines is also leader in several therapeutic areas including cardiology, thrombosis, metabolic disorders, oncology, internal medicine and personal healthcare.

Meanwhile, the company does not nullify the fact that the Philippines—as with other emerging countries—is still struggling with different healthcare system issues.

Lack of health personnel, the absence of adequate facilities, and the lingering barriers for the poor to access health care are just some of the setbacks of the country, and the presence of Sanofi in the Philippines means that it is

Drive towards sustainable growth

VIEBACHER

continually helping the government to address these hitches.

“We have and will continue to partner with the Philippine government in supporting initiatives to address the problems,” assured Viebacher.

Nevertheless, Viebacher remains hopeful about the country. “The Philippines is already being called the next Asian tiger economy and I think this is an excellent opportunity to unleash the country’s full potential.

This is something the rest of the world is looking forward to see and certainly is very excited about,” he remarked.

Launching of R&D Hub in Asia Pacific

Back in 2009, the company has reorganized and refocused its businesses and structures— it transformed its Research and Development (R&D) strategy and organization and moved to a model of open innovation. The approach

has eventually led to setting up R&D hubs located in various regions all over the world, which serve as an access to expertise inside and outside of the company.

“In R&D, you need a rich ecosystem in which pharma companies, hospitals, academics talk to each other. That’s why we developed the ‘hub’ concept,” said Viebacher.

“We have great people in our R&D organization, but the opportunities will be maximized by being

IN the recent years, the pharmaceutical industry had gotten through a rough patent cliff, costing for the biggest companies tens of billions of dollars. However, Sanofi is moving forward and embracing innovations. “At Sanofi, this cliff is now behind us and we pretty much have innovation coming out across all of our businesses,” Viebacher said.

“The best strategy we have is simply to be one step ahead of the rest, be ready to continually evolve, identify and then concentrate on our strengths.”

Between 2014 and 2018, Sanofi has 9 potential launches, and will concentrate on bringing sustainable growth back through the focus on its 7 growth platforms: producing innovative products, conducting studies on diabetes, developing vaccines; giving focus on emerging markets, consumer healthcare and animal health; and empowering Genzyme, its biotechnology subsidiary.

“Innovation is important because it can really accelerate growth.

More importantly, it provides new treatments and hope to people who are managing challenging health care conditions. I am excited about our future,” concluded Viebacher.

SANOFI’S INITIATIVES AGAINST DIABETES: A 360 DEGREE APPROACH WITH PATIENTS IN MIND

F

ILIPINOS die due to diabetesrelated complications every single day according to health experts said. This is because diabetes, if left uncontrolled, can lead to stroke, end-stage kidney failure, heart attack, among other illnesses.

Medical research warns that with the prevalent rate of diabetic cases at present, there will be an estimate of 6.16 million diabetic Filipinos by the year 2030.

As a leading pharmaceutical company in the Philippines and worldwide, Sanofi has been developing programs that address and even potentially prevent this rising health problem.

“Sanofi’s diabetes initiatives gives every Filipino the assurance that we will continue to offer a 360 degree approach to care and will keep investing cutting-edge research to develop new and innovative ways that will benefit those who are diagnosed with diabetes,” said Hector Reyes, Sanofi’s Diabetes Division Director.

First on the company’s initiatives is a training program for hundreds doctors and health personnel throughout the country named Leadership in Education and Awareness of Diabetes or LEAD PH. The program, in partnership with the Institute for Studies of Diabetes Foundation, provides a 12-day intensive training on diabetes diagnosis and proper therapeutic management focused on areas where they are most needed. A complementary program helps provide access to medicines, particularly to insulin, for vulnerable segments of the population.

Meanwhile, studies show that one of the reasons why diabetes is so

widespread in the Philippines is because of the misconceptions regarding the disease. For instance, most Filipinos think that an overweight child is a healthy child, when in fact, this child could already bear the earliest symptoms of diabetes. Filipinos also don’t commonly know how devastating the consequences of diabetes could be, so some tend to become complacent about this “silent killer.”

The lack of understanding which Filipinos commonly have about diabetes has further reinforced Sanofi’s 360 degree approach to diabetes care and management. Reyes said that Sanofi wants every Filipino to “be an advocate of healthy living and ‘balanced’ lifestyle.”

Through the Value Added Program 360 or VAP 360, the company partners with hospitals and diabetes centers to provide valuable information about diabetes. The VAP 360 emphasizes among its recipient establishments the value of complying with what is prescribed by doctors and the importance of having adequate knowledge about the disease. Some hospitals that currently support this project are Saint Luke’s Global, Makati Medical and University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital.

Reyes said that in order to undertake significant activities to alleviate diabetes and provide better healthcare for Filipinos, Sanofi will continue to partner with other institutions. “We will engage as many stakeholders as possible. We look forward to fruitful 360 degree collaboration with all concerned sectors and in discovering new medical breakthroughs in the coming years,” he said.

ror Special Feature

P

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Monday, October 6, 2014

A7

MAINTAINING A ‘POLIOFREE’ PHILIPPINES

OLIO is a crippling and potentially fatal disease. It invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours. The disease may be rare now in Western countries, but it's still a threat for the developing world. In May of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern because of the renewed spread of polio.

To stay “free” from the polio virus, the Philippines needs to ensure the following: at least 3 years of zero confirmed cases due to indigenous wild polio virus; excellent laboratory-based surveillance for polio virus; demonstrated capacity to detect, report and respond to imported cases of polio; and assurance of safe containment of the polio virus in laboratories.

“Polio is a virus that likes to travel,” said Dr. Nicholas Alipui, UNICEF Country representative for the Philippines. “As long as there is polio anywhere in the world, children in the Philippines cannot truly ever be free of polio.”

Sanofi Pasteur partners with Department of Health to eradicate Polio There is no cure for polio, but there are safe and effective vaccines available to prevent it— so that we can completely rid the Philippines and the whole world of this disease. The immunization of every child will be key.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, has partnered with the Department of Health (DOH) to help complete the eradication and containment of the 3 types of wild polio viruses.

Working so that one day no Filipino ever suffers from the disease again, Sanofi Pasteur and the DOH are leading a nation-wide roll-out of the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV). The introduction of IPV is a necessary step toward the eradication of polio.

Introducing at least one dose of IPV and switching progressively over the next few years from an oral polio vaccine (OPV) to IPV is critical to

ending transmission and improving immunization rates.

Ching Santos, Sanofi Pasteur’s country manager in the Philippines, said that the IPV is needed to reduce health risks after OPV. “IPV helps protect children who may become susceptible to Type 2 polio and maintain immunity,” she said.

Santos added that the IPV is essential to interrupt transmission in the case of outbreaks. “Should Monovalent OPV Type 2 (mOPV Type 2) be needed to control an outbreak, the immunity levels needed to stop transmission will be easier to reach with the use of mOPV type in an IPV vaccinated population compared to use of mOPV type 2 in a completely unvaccinated population.”

Finally, she explained that the IPV is needed to hasten eradication. “The IPV will boost immunity against Polio Types 1 and 3 in children who have previously received OPV, which could further hasten the eradication of these two wild viruses.”

Some countries belonging to the GAVI Vaccine Alliance have already started the IPV introduction last year. A multi-faceted financing strategy is now being developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) that will allow other countries to introduce IPV as part of their routine immunization programs before the end of 2015.

The GAVI Vaccine Alliance will also extend its support and assistance to non-GAVI countries by subsidizing IPV introduction. With this, the Philippines will be the first nonGAVI country to introduce IPV. Aside from introducing the IPV, Sanofi Pasteur and the DOH are also implementing supplementary immunization activities that aim to interrupt circulation of polio by immunizing every child under five years of age with two doses of oral polio vaccine, regardless of previous immunization status. Through this initiative, children who are either not immunized, or only partially protected, will gain an immune system boost and protection against polio.

A CALL TO CHANGE THE NATIONONE HEALTHCARE INITIATIVE AT A TIME

S

ANOFI’S success in the Philippines does not only lie in its innovative products and extensive research. On top of that, the company’s commitment to socially-responsible practices has enabled its position in the industry today.

The company is proud to have adopted Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as an integral part of doing business. Its flagship CSR programs in the Philippines are classified into two categories: access to healthcare initiatives and disaster relief and rehabilitation.

“Access to healthcare remains one of the biggest challenges in the country. Sanofi has and continues to partner with the Philippine government in supporting initiatives to address this,” said Atty Darwin Mariano, ASEAN Director for Public Affairs of Sanofi.

Improving access to healthcare

THE company’s vision for its healthcare initiatives is to make it accessible to as many Filipinos as possible, which is why it always tries to work with as many partners as possible in its projects. It has tapped in the help of the Department of Health (DOH), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and local government units and non-government organizations in the many access programs it has.

Under its partnership with the

DOH, the company serves as the supplier for innovative medicines like the anti-cancer Taxotere for the government’s “Breast Cancer Medicines Access Program”.

Meanwhile, it also supplies its Taxotere and Thymoglobuline products which are included in PhilHealth’s new “Catastrophic Illness Benefit Packages” or “Z Packages.”

The company is hoping to revive its “Innovation for Life” partnership on diabetes medicines that provides education and supplies insulin to government hospitals at differential prices.

Sanofi, through Sanofi Espoir Foundation, also has a multi-year partnership with the Philippine Children’s Medical Center called “My Child Matters”. Since 2006, this program has improved the management of childhood cancer in the country: Late diagnosis of cancer was reduced from 70 to 30 percent, treatment abandonment is now at 10 percent from 80 percent, and survival rates have increased from 16 to 68 percent.

Disaster relief and employee volunteerism

WHEN calamities strike, Sanofi is proud to be one of the companies first to respond. Through the Sanofi Espoir Foundation, the company continues to support the Philippines during natural disasters. For instance, when Supertyphoon

Yolanda (Haiyan) struck the country, Sanofi donated a combined 1.1 million Euros for post-disaster relief as well as the rehabilitation of destroyed healthcare facilities through the Philippine Red Cross and Medicins Du Monde. Sanofi in the Philippines also donated medicines and vaccines worth P7M for the victims of the typhoon.

An equally important part of the company’s CSR programs are the volunteer-led activities of its highly dedicated Blue Hands employee volunteer corps.

“Through Blue Hands-led activities, employees are given an opportunity to share their talents and resources in community outreach projects. These activities also reinforce Sanofi’s corporate values such as solidarity and creativity,” said Atty. Mariano

Focus on sustainability

THE guiding principle of the company’s CSR initiatives is sustainability. “We believe that companies everywhere should always be a force for good,” said Atty.

Mariano. “As much as possible, we focus our work in addressing what our stakeholders genuinely need.”

Through this, he hopes that Sanofi is able to make a positive contribution in improving the healthcare status of the country and that other people and organizations would also be encouraged to do their share.

SANOFI PASTEUR SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES PHASE III CLINICAL EFFICACY STUDY FOR DENGUE VACCINE CANDIDATE

D

ENGUE is one of the world’s most omnipresent infectious diseases, with 166,107 cases and 457 deaths in 2013, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region.

The Philippines is also fourth in dengue burden in the whole Southeast Asian region. There have been no previous treatments for the disease, and current efforts of preventing mosquito vector have proven insufficient in ending dengue outbursts.

But last September 3, 2014, Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, announced that the final landmark Phase III efficacy study of its dengue vaccine candidate done in Latin America and the Caribbean successfully achieved its primary clinical endpoint. Results showed an overall significant reduction of 60.8 percent of dengue disease cases in children and adolescents 9 to 16 years old after a 3-dose vaccination schedule. Importantly, the vaccine’s efficiency was observed against the 4 dengue serotypes.

Observations of the results also showed that there was an 80.3 percent decrease in the risk of hospitalization due to Dengue. Moreover, the results revealed an efficacy against dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), the severe form of dengue, which is consistent with the results released from Sanofi’s phase III Dengue study in Asia. Lastly, the results suggest better protection in case of prior exposure to dengue.

For more than 20 years, Sanofi Pasteur has been working on a dengue vaccine which could become an important tool for the WHO’s goal of reducing dengue mortality by 50 percent and morbidity by 25 percent by 2020.

The company’s phase III studies for the vaccine involved two pivotal large-scale randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled multicenter trials. Earlier this year, Sanofi was successful in completing the 1st part of the phase III studies in Asia. Subsequently, the 2nd part in Latin America and the Caribbean was conducted in a total of 20,875 children aged 9 to 16 years from dengue endemic areas of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and Puerto Rico. Each participant in the study was randomized to either receive 3 injections of the dengue vaccine or a placebo (2 to 1 ratio) at 0, 6, and 12 months.

Ultimately, Sanofi Pasteur’s dengue vaccine candidate is the most clinically and industrially advanced vaccine candidate in development.

Over 40,000 volunteers participated in the Sanofi Pasteur Dengue vaccine clinical study program for all 3 phases.

“These new positive phase III results from Latin America are very encouraging because they are consistent with the results reported in July in the Asian phase III trial.

Together, the results of these trials suggest that a vaccine solution that can help control dengue, is on the horizon,” commented Professor

Duane Gubler, professor and founder of the Signature Research Program on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, and chairman of the Partnership for Dengue Control.

The phase III evaluations provide pivotal data on efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate in a broad population and different epidemiological environments and assess the potential impact of the vaccine on the disease burden.

Olivier Charmeil, president and chief executive officer of Sanofi Pasteur, said that the data generated from the company’s research and clinical will be submitted to the health authorities in countries where Dengue is a public health priority.

The company has invested over 1.5 billion euros into vaccine research and development-and all investments are worth it. “For the first time ever, after 20 years of research and industrial commitment, Dengue is set to become a vaccinepreventable disease,” Charmeil said.

A full analysis of the efficacy and safety data from the phase III study will be completed and reviewed by external experts before publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and presentation at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Annual Meeting on November 2 to 6,2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana, US. Sanofi anticipates supplying the Dengue vaccine beginning in 2015.

TheElderly A8 Monday, October 6, 2014 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

BusinessMirror

Nation celebrates Elderly Week

Older women and men coming from different barangays in Baguio City march along the central business district on Session Road as they celebrate the Month of the Elderly on October 3. MAU VICTA

R

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco | Correspondent

EITERATING the importance of good health and wellness among older people, Dr. Enrique Tayag, head of the National Epidemiology Center, enjoined 2,000 elderly in a “dancercise” activity to highlight the kick-off celebration of Elderly Week 2014 in a Pasay City mall.

Older people aged 60 years and older flocked to SM Mall of Asia to celebrate the “Walk for Life” marking Elderly Filipino Week observed every first week of October.

This year’s theme is “Ang Nakatatanda ay Yaman, Katuwang sa Pag-unlad ng Bayan, Pangalagaan Kanilang Kapakanan.”

Those who joined the activity, the Philippine Information Agency said, will get free health services, including bone scanning, random blood-sugar testing, cholesterol testing, free pneumococcal vaccines and medical consultation.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona said last year that the country’s older citizens are provided free Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) membership after retirement.

Ona said the move is a token of the government’s appreciation for the elderly by giving them affordable and quality health-care services, as well as sustain their function, self-esteem and life satisfaction.

On September 22 the Senate approved on third and final reading a bill providing mandatory healthinsurance coverage to all Filipinos 60 years and above, regardless of their social or economic status.

Once Senate Bill 712 is enacted into law, the elderly need not present a PhilHealth card but only a valid identification card to avail themselves of the benefits. The bill, which was introduced by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and sponsored by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, seeks to provide automatic PhilHealth coverage to all elderly.

At present, only indigent elderly are entitled to PhilHealth coverage under Republic Act (RA) 7432, as amended by RA 9994, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.

Guingona said that, as of June of this year, PhilHealth has covered 3.9 million elderly as lifetime members, dependents, sponsored or indigents.

He said the government would need about P5.2 billion annually to provide the remaining 2.16 million citizens with insurance, but added that the amount was small compared to the hope that would be given to the senior citizens.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

2nd BM Dangal Awards for Elderly Care

T

HEBusinessMirror,inpartnership with the United Bayanihan Foundation, will be holding the second Dangal (Dakilang Adhikain ng Ating Lahi) Awards for Elderly Care gala night on October 17, at the Resorts World Manila, coinciding with the ninth anniversary celebration of the BusinessMirror.

Five individuals and three associations of older citizens at the local-government level will receive citations from the BusinessMirror and its partners RiteMed and CDO-Foodsphere.

Every Monday, the Business-

DSWD ‘Dalaw Kalinga’ gives elders in Graces love and attention

T

HE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Saturday provided entertainment and fun to the elderly at the Golden Reception and Action Center for the Elderly and other Special cases (Graces) in Quezon City.

The activity, dubbed“Dalaw Kalinga,” is held every year by the department through its employees as a way to show elderly their concern and love as part of the Elderly Week celebration.

SocialWelfare Secretary Corazon J. Soliman, said that through this activity, they want to bring happiness to the elders by

Near-death experience not as rare as public thinks

By Oliver Samson

Correspondent

A

RE you scared of death because you doubt afterlife?

Like many others who are skeptical about the hereafter, it is more likely you are, maybe totally, or just partly.

But Teresa L. Exmundo, an educator who hailed from Pampanga, and hundreds of others whose account of near-death-experience (NDE) gave them a glimpse of another world during an out-of-body experience, affirm there is an afterlife.

Exmundo, wife of former Tapaz Mayor Romualdo Exmundo, was diagnosed with acute leukemia in June 2001, weeks after she actively campaigned for her husband during the 2001 local elections.

She went through chemotherapy six times at the Manila Doctors Hospital. Her symptoms disappeared, but in November of that year, it came back.

Her doctor conceded and advised her to undergo bone-marrow transplant as the only recourse left to treat her cancer, she told the BusinessMirror in an interview in Antipolo last month.

In 2002 she flew to the United States, where she is a citizen, to seek help from medical institutions there.

She was admitted at the Olive ViewUCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, California, and later to the City of Hope National Medical Center in Monrovia, California.

At the City of Hope National Medical Center she underwent total body radiation that killed both her bad and good cells, before the transplant, she said.

Stem cells (baby bone marrow) were transplanted to her in March 2002. The donor was her own sister.

Due to her condition, she developed Graft-versus-host-disease and rejected the stem cells. After

Teresa L. Exmundo at First Crayons Learning Center, a school she runs in Antipolo City. Photo taken on September 18. Oliver Samson

the procedure, she slept for three straight days.

Sometime, during her three-day sleep, she heard voices of elderly people around her bed who spoke in Capampangan, which was very unlikely since she was in California, Exmundo said.

“My life flashed in my mind,” she said.

She had a glimpse of herself when she was a baby, when she was bullied as a first grader, when she got married and when she gave birth to her two children.

Then she sensed herself floating over her own body that was lying on a hospital bed. Her mother, dead these many years, was holding her hand as she looked down at her own body.

Her separation from her body was very vivid, Exmundo said. She and her mother went to a place where she saw darkness, pillars and a white light.

“I felt very safe and was very peaceful,” she said. “There was darkness. The white light grew bigger and bigger as it approached.”

She was 44 at the time. Her daughter was only 7 years old, her son, 5.

She told her mother she could not go with her yet.

At that instant, her nurse found her lying on the bathroom floor.

The hospital staff thought she awoke and walked to the toilet.

She herself had no idea how she got there.

Exmundo is not alone. Thousands of people from across the globe had the same experience.

They saw a dark tunnel, white light, dead relatives and experienced a deep sense of peace and safety, and abundant love.

There was Howard Storm, a professor of Art at Northern Kentucky University and an avowed atheist at the time of his NDE at the age of 38 in 1985. He nearly died from a stomach perforation.

Storm sensed himself standing next to his hospital bed and was looking down at his own body. He was yelling to call attention, but no one could hear him. He was sure it was not a dream.

There also was Dr. Mary Neal, a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon, who drowned during a kayaking event on a South American river. She was 15 to 25 minutes underwater before her rescuers found her body. During that period, she said she separated from her body.

Neal saw an abundant stream of white light before she got back into her body. She awoke with broken legs, hospitalized for a month, and published the book To Heaven and Back in 2011.

Some scientists argue that NDE is only a hallucination due to a surge of electrical activity in the brain as a result of intolerable stress.

In a report by BBC on August 13, 2013, Dr. Jimo Borjigin of the University of Michigan said “a lot of people thought that, after clinical

Mirror has devoted a weekly page, titled “The Elderly” featuring articles that concern elderly, including their rights, care and how they can enjoy the rest of their lives to the fullest.

Lastyearthenewspaperalsostarted giving away the annual BusinessMirrorDangalAwardstoexemplary older people and local government units that have the best programs for the elderly during its eight anniversary celebration on October 17, 2013 at the Dusit Hotel in Makati. It was attended by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte,membersofthediplomatic community and businessmen.

death, the brain becomes inactive or hypoactive, with less activity than the waking state, and we show that is definitely not the case.”

Borjigin based her statement on a study on nine rats at the same university, where the rodents demonstrated a sharp increase in highfrequency brainwaves called gamma oscillations 30 seconds after their heart stopped beating.

But the question is how the NDE of Exmundo, and many others, could have become so clear, with a sense of safety and love like no other, under a surge of electrical activity in the brain as a result of intolerable stress?

In a report by ABC News on June 27, Steven Laureys, director of the coma science group and the department of neurology at Liege University Hospital in Belgium, after interviewing 190 individuals with NDE, said “we found near-deathexperiences were richer and more real than any experience.”

“It’s hard to explain how such a rich experience can happen in such a situation where we know the activity of the brain is very, very abnormal,” he said.

To Dr. Donald Whitaker, who was a hardcore atheist at the time of his NDE in 1975 due to acute hemorrhagic narcotic pancreatitis, science cannot measure NDE. Whitaker was very ill and a respirator was breathing for him. He was told he would die before morning.

That night, he drifted from his body into darkness. He could remember coming back into it. He left and returned twice.

“We have a spirit,” Exmundo said.

“God works in a very mysterious way. I consider myself very blessed for that experience and the second chance to live.”

Her glimpse of an afterlife in another world taught her not to fear death and, instead, value life.

bringing gifts and interacting with them.

During the activity, DSWD employees from different departments danced and sang with the elders, accompanied them to their seats and walked them to their cottages and distributed food to show them their concern and love.

Aside from Graces, the employees also visited jails specifically abandoned, visitorless, sick and indigent older persons to make them feel remembered.

The Elderly Filipino Week celebration is held pursuant to Proclamation 470 issued by former President Fidel V. Ramos on September 26, 1994. PNA

Older people take over Baguio City govt on Oct. 7

B

AGUIO CITY—The office of Baguio City Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, chairman of the council on Committee for Social Services, Women and Urban Poor with the City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD), Federation of Senior Citizens of Baguio, on Saturday released the list of elderly who will take over the reins of the city for a day, after turnover ceremonies on October 7.

The activity is part of the Elderly Week celebration, with the theme “Ang Nakatatanda ay Yaman, Katuwang sa Pag-unlad ng Bayan, Pangalagaan Kanilang Kapakanan.”

The elderly are given this opportunity through Republic Act 7432, or the act to maximize the contribution of senior citizens to nation-building, grants, benefits and special privileges and other purposes.

Retirees’ president Isaias Barongan, Adorado de Guzman, Alberto Bravo and Edita Ibarra of the Senior Citizens Association Federation joined Tabanda and CSWD officer Betty Fangasan in the screening of 35 executives and legislative officers for a day on September 18.

Former city hall employee Eduardo Gamayon takes over the office of Congressman Nicasio Aliping Jr., while Flora Balaba takes over the office of Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan.

Hrothgar Mori presides over the city council in place of Vice Mayor Edison Bilog.

The senior citizens councilors earlier observed legislative proceedings of the city council, and will receive instructions on Tuesday. PNA

Tourism&Entertainment BusinessMirror

tourism@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay • Monday, October 6, 2014 A9

ILOCOS SUR

Bill on stamps showing PHL tourist spots OK’d PROGRESSING WHILE PRESERVING THE PAST on second reading

I

S  P  E A. L

T

First of two parts

N a time when our country of more than 7,100 islands is making progress on the road to, lasting prosperity and enjoying the benefits of free trade and globalization, as well as the advances in technology, it is very nice to see that, among our provinces, there is one rich in culture, history and opportunities that firmly believes that its colonial heritage serves as the foundation and source of its wealth.

A MAN and his calesa on Calle Crisologo.

That province is Ilocos Sur, whose vibrant activities, both in the past and present and God-given resources seem to defy time and the changes it brought. From the time the Spanish conquistadores set foot on it until today, Ilocos Sur remains timeless.

Ilocos Sur is on the western coast of Northern Luzon. It is bordered by Ilocos Norte province to the north, Abra province to the northeast, Mountain Province to the east, Benguet province to the southeast, La Union province to the south and the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) to the west. Its measures 2,579.58 square kilometers and occupies about 20.11 percent of the total land area of Region 1 (Ilocos).

Since its inhabitants, especially its leaders, have successfully managed to preserve the province’s natural gran-

scoff at. They are Bangkok, Thailand; Barcelona, Spain; Beirut, Lebanon; Chicago, the United States; Doha, Qatar; Durban, South Africa; Havana, Cuba; Istanbul, Turkey; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; La Paz, Bolivia; London, the United Kingdom; Mendoza, Argentina; Mexico City, Mexico; Mumbai, India; Perth, Australia; Quito, Ecuador; Reykjavik, Iceland; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Seoul, South Korea; and Shenzhen, China.

Mayor Eva Marie S. Medina of Vigan said that, since the announcement, she has been utilizing every possible way to get Filipinos here and abroad to vote for the city and help it make it to the final list. The voting phase is up to October 7, when the 21 competing cities will be reduced to 14. The New7Wonders Cities will be announced on December 7. (To vote, visit www.

deur and colonial features, it is unsurprising, then, that tourism is one of its biggest generators of revenue.

Worldwide recognition

IT is undeniable that Vigan City is the heart of Ilocos Sur; and Calle Crisologo, which features a long row of Spanishperiod houses, is the heart of Vigan.

Walking around this city is like traveling back in time.

Many people, especially from overseas, have noted the wondrous qualities that make the provincial capital unique. One of them is Bernard Weber, founder and president of the New 7 Wonders, who announced on July 8 that Vigan is one of 21 official fi nalists competing for a spot on the list of the New7Wonders Cities of the world.

The other finalists are nothing to

n7w.com/en/cities or text VIGAN10 to 29290777.)

Set to go global

OF course, Ilocos Sur is not just about Vigan and its historic streets. Municipalities also contribute greatly to the province’s tourism sector.

“Aside from the two cities—Vigan and Candon—we [also] have the towns of Cabugao and Bantay, which are now also frequented by tourists,” Gov. Ryan Luis Singson of Ilocos Sur said.

Besides the centuries-old structures and the monuments, local and foreign tourists are also raving about Ilocos Sur’s culinary practices, annual festivals, beaches and, last but not least, the hospitality of the Ilokanos, long known for being frugal and practical.

To be concluded next Monday

HE House of Representatives recently approved on second reading a bill requiring the Philippine Postal Corp. to issue postage stamps depicting Philippine tourist spots and use these in international mail.

House Bill (HB) 5023, which substituted HB 2417 that Rep. Eric Olivarez of Parañaque City authored, emphasizes the need to further promote the country’s tourist destinations and encourage more foreigners to visit them.

The measure also directs the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) to assist in the identification, illustration and labeling of the tourist areas to be depicted on the stamps and in the preparation and placement of posters in the Philippines and abroad.

“Tourism is one of the anchor industries upon which the national government is relying in order to attain the status of a newly industrialized country in Asia,” Olivarez said.

According to him, tourism authorities in the world have conceded that the Philippines has plenty of indescribably beautiful areas, and that some of these have been developed and others are already breathtaking in their natural state.

Olivarez said that, to further boost its tourism-promotion ef-

OLIVAREZ

forts with the DOT’s “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign slogan, the country must make known the existence of its famous tourist destinations, arouse the interest of tourists about these areas, show how beautiful they are and tempt these people to visit.

“This we can do by means of postage stamps affixed on ongoing mail, especially to foreign destinations. These will depict the tourist areas in our country and advertise these beautiful spots to potential foreign tourists without extra cost to the government,” the lawmaker said.

“Surely, this could [generate] interest for more information about the tourist areas, which the DOT and the TPB can provide,” he added. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

Opinion BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, October 6, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial

Is PHL a pawn of the US?

F

OR a century, beginning with the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813, two empires clashed for control of central Asia. Faraway Great Britain’s influence over what is now Afghanistan, Iran and the area east of the Caspian Sea was challenged by Tsarist Russia.

Great Britain wanted more control over the region to protect its economic interests in its nearby colony of India. The rivalry resulted not only in open warfare between the two “superpowers”, but also between their proxies, the local rulers and warlords.

Intrigues, espionage and shifting alliances prompted writers to refer to this regional rivalry as “The Great Game”.

Some months ago, we cautioned that the Philippines must walk a careful line in its relations with China as regards the United States. We wrote that the Philippines could not assume that the US would operate in our interests, but only in its own.

The Great Game that Russia and Great Britain played in central Asia is now being played in Southeast Asia, between China and the US. The US has dominated Southeast Asia in a variety of ways since World War II through a proxy war in Vietnam. US military bases once stood not only in the Philippines, but also in Thailand.

China and the US’s struggle for control of the region is no less intense today than it was 50 years ago. But the stakes for the Philippines are much greater and the consequences for our country are much more serious.

Last Thursday the US government relaxed a 40-year arms embargo on Vietnam. Details have not been released, but it appears that the US will sell P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft to Vietnam. While this is being wrapped in “closer economic ties”, there is no doubt it is meant to help counter the Chinese in its territorial disputes in the region and to advance US involvement.

The pro-democracy protests currently gripping Hong Kong now appear to be held out of frustration at Beijing for not allowing a direct vote for the Hong Kong chief executive. But the timing is suspicious.

In 2010 a timetable for greater voting rights was proposed for 2017, and opinion polls showed that 60 percent of Hong Kong residents favor it. Last year Hong Kong Chief Executive C.Y. Leung reaffirmed that timetable.

The US government has been actively promoting Hong Kong’s “democracy” through its funded non-governmental organizations, the National Endowment for Democracy and the National Democratic Institute. What would we do if the US were attempting the same thing in Mindanao, for example?

With tens of thousands of Filipinos working in Hong Kong and substantial Filipino investment in China, the country cannot afford to be caught in the middle.

As China and the US play a chess game for the region, the Philippines may only be a pawn in it, and pawns can be sacrificed any time.

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

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Jun B. Vallecera Armin A. Amio

News Editor City & Assignments Editor Special Projects Editor

Dionisio L. Pelayo Vittorio V. Vitug Max V. de Leon

Online Editor

Ruben M. Cruz Jr.

Research Bureau Head Creative Director Chief Photographer Editorial Consultant Chairman of the Board & Ombudsman President VP-Finance VP-Corporate Affairs VP Advertising Sales Advertising Sales Manager Circulation Manager

Dennis D. Estopace Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes

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

Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 2nd Floor, Dominga Building (Annex), 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725. Fax line: 813-7025.

(Advertising Sales) 893-2019; 817-1351, 817-2807.

(Circulation) 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. E-mail: news@businessmirror.com.ph.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

REGIONAL OFFICES

n DYQC - 106dot7 HOME RADIO CEBU STATION MANAGER: JULIUS A. MANAHAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homecebu@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Ground Floor, Fortune Life Building, Jones Avenue, Cebu City CONTACT NOs.: (032) 253-2973/ 234-4252/ 416-1067/ 0922-811-3994 n DWQT - 89dot3 HOME RADIO DAGUPAN STATION MANAGER: RAMIR C. DE GUZMAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeradiodagupan@ yahoo.com ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Orchids Hotel Building, Rizal Street, Dagupan City

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

RISING SUN

A

S part of its continuing efforts to extend its reach nationwide, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) will open a branch in the province of Zamboanga del Norte two weeks from now.

The new branch is at the PDRRMO Bu i ld ing , Barangay Biasong , Dipolog City, and will be headed by Analisa Narciso.

This branch will bring the number of PCSO branches nationwide to 41, from the initial 25 when the current PCSO Board of Directors—Betty B. Nantes and lawyers Ma. Aleta L. Tolentino, Mabel V. Mamba, Francisco Manuel G. Joaquin III and myself— assumed office in mid-2010.

On September 18 the five of us inaugurated the PCSO’s 40th branch at the Provincial Capitol compound in Kalibo town, Aklan province. The following day, we attended the blessing of the Iloilo branch, which was transferred to the Iloilo Provincial Sports Complex.

These new branches, and others, are in government buildings and

were opened under rent-free agreements. This was arranged in cooperation with the governors and other local officials of the provinces and cities concerned.

Through this means, the PCSO saves on rent and extends its reach, while the public in those areas get easier and more convenient access to the charity agency’s services and products.

Each branch acts like a mini-PCSO head office, accepting requests for medical assistance, processing Lotto-prize claims up to a certain amount and supporting the operations of PCSO Lotto outlet and other game agents.

The branches even have a Lotto terminal, where Lotto and other PCSO game players can buy tickets.

T he PC SO boa rd i s a l so

A parting of the ways

Romeo M. del Castillo

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror

n DXQR - 93dot5 HOME RADIO CAGAYAN DE ORO STATION MANAGER: JENNIFER B. YTING E-MAIL ADDRESS: homecdo@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Archbishop Hayes corner Velez Street, Cagayan de Oro City CONTACT NOs.: (088) 227-2104/ 857-9350/ 0922-811-3997

PCSO to open branch in Dipolog City

CONTACT NOs.: (075) 522-8209/ 515-4663/ 0922-811-4001 n DXQM – 98dot7 HOME RADIO DAVAO STATION MANAGER: RYAN C. RODRIGUEZ E-MAIL ADDRESS: home98dot7@gmail.com ADDRESS: 4D 3rd Floor, ATU Plaza, Duterte Street, Davao City CONTACT NOs.: (082) 222-2337/ 221-7537/ 0922-811-3996 n DXQS - 98dot3 HOME RADIO GENERAL SANTOS STATION MANAGER: AILYM C. MATANGUIHAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homegensan@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Ground Floor, Dimalanta Building, Pioneer Avenue, General Santos City CONTACT NOs.: (083) 301-2769/ 553-6137/ 0922-811-3998 n DYQN - 89dot5 HOME RADIO ILOILO STATION MANAGER: MARIPAZ U. SONG E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeiloilo@yahoo.com ADDRESS: 3rd Floor, Eternal Plans Building,

Ortiz Street, Iloilo City CONTACT NOs.: (033) 337-2698/ 508-8102/ 0922-811-3995 n DWQA - 92dot3 HOME RADIO LEGAZPI STATION MANAGER: CLETO PIO D. ABOGADO E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeradiolegazpi@ yahoo.com ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Fortune Building, Rizal St., Brgy. Pigcale, Legazpi City CONTACT NOs.: (052) 480-4858/ 820-6880/ 0922-811-3992 n DWQJ - 95dot1 HOME RADIO NAGA STATION MANAGER: JUSTO MANUEL P. VILLANTE JR. EMAIL ADDRESS: homenaga@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Eternal Garden Compound, Balatas Road, Naga City CONTACT NOs.: (054) 473-3818/ 811-2951/ 0922-811-3993

Printed by BROWN MADONNA Press, Inc.–San Valley Drive KM-15, South Superhighway, Parañaque, Metro Manila

Paul Donovan

T

HE United Kingdom caused a brief moment of concern in the global financial markets in September, when Scotland held a referendum on independence. For a few days, investors contemplated the possibility of the disintegration of one of the world’s more enduring multinational states. The decision went against independence, and the risks associated with separation faded from the markets.

However, what happened in the UK is not the only thing that investors need to worry about. They need to consider the possibility that the world’s major central banks will pursue opposing policies.

In the United States, barring an unforeseen calamity, the quantitative policy of printing money on purpose will come to an end at the US Federal Reserve’s (the Fed) meeting in October. With that, investors will ask the inevitable question: “What next?” What is next is monetary policy tightening, raising the Fed funds’ interest rate from its current zero percent.

When and how quickly the Fed chooses to start raising interest rates will be a source of considerable speculation. Already, two Fed members dissented from the stablepolicy majority view (albeit over different facets of that policy).

The Bank of England (BOE) is also experiencing dissent within its ranks.

This signals a desire to raise UK interest

rates, perhaps, as early as November.

This is less to do with the threat of inflation (which remains well-contained in the UK) and more about maintaining a balance in the economy. After almost six years of unchanged interest rates, it would appear that British consumers have forgotten that interest rates can go up, as well as down. With consumer spending accelerating, the BOE has an incentive to remind the public that there are costs associated with credit.

The Anglo-Saxon economies are, therefore, moving to tighten interest rates, and in the case of the UK, that could come as early as this year. Elsewhere, the euro area is going in completely the opposite direction. European Central Bank (ECB) President Draghi has crossed the monetary-policy Rubicon and taken one of the ECB interest rates to negative territory. While not prepared to make an open-ended commitment to buy

considering the establishment of a branch in Marinduque province within the next few months, with more branches to be opened until 2016. The board’s policy is to provide access to the PCSO’s services in remote and underserved areas, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Many local government units (LGUs) have approached us offering rent-free space in their buildings, so that their provinces will have a PCSO office. As much as we would like to open a branch in every province as soon as possible, we are constrained by factors, such as the need to properly train people. This issue of employee development is being resolved through trainings and mentorings.

We have already added 16 new branches to the PCSO network in just two years. Other locations that are being considered for development in the near future are the provinces of Antique and Catanduanes.

We encourage LGUs, especially in provinces that are yet to have a PCSO branch, to partner with us in delivering medical- and health carerelated services to their residents by providing a small office space that can accommodate about five to 10 PCSO personnel and a waiting area for the public.

We also hope that more provinces

will support their entrepreneurs who wish to open Lotto outlets. LGUs that host Lotto and other PCSO game outlets receive a percentage of the revenues generated from games operations. The more outlets in an area, the higher the share that the LGU will receive.

For example, on September 18 and 19, during our visit to Panay island, we turned over the following Lotto LGU share checks for the Januaryto-June 2014 period: P131,914.27 to Capiz province; P447,228.24 to Roxas City; P1.87 million to Aklan and 16 of its municipalities; and a little over P1 million to Iloilo City.

The entire PCSO family looks forward to the opening of the Dipolog branch, where we will be able to serve the residents of Zamboanga del Norte and surrounding areas.

As we celebrate the agency’s 80th founding anniversary this year, we anticipate establishing more branches, delivering enhanced service to our fellow Filipinos, and fulfilling the PCSO’s mission of hope and charity, in line with President Aquino’s policy on universal health care, or “Kalusugan Pangkalahatan.”

government bonds, the ECB’s governing council has committed to expand its balance sheet—the “diet” version of quantitative policy. More measures may yet be necessary, as growth remains weak.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the illusion of Abenomics seems to be losing some of its luster. The approval rating of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet has dropped to below 50 percent, which signals depressed domestic consumers and, at the same time, makes the political process of achieving reform more difficult. If structural change and fiscal stimulus become harder to achieve, the pressure on the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to do even more with regard to its quantitative policy is only likely to increase.

How has this divergence of policy come about? The simple answer is “banks”. In the Anglo-Saxon economies the 2008 financial crisis led to the swift reform of the banking sector, with banks being required to recapitalize early.

While painful at the time, US and UK banks are now strong enough that they are cautiously prepared to lend money.

The quantitative-policy accommodation of the last several years is finally being put to work in the economy and is stimulating growth. The US economy has exceeded 3-percent annualized growth for three of the last four quarters, and the UK economy is expected to be the fastest-growing economy in the Group of Seven this year.

Meanwhile, in the euro area, banks are still reluctant to lend—or, at least, reluctant to lend at a price that borrowers wish to borrow. The ECB’s flood of

liquidity is held back by banks that fear the consequences of further regulation and higher capital requirements (under the new regulatory regime of the ECB).

Meanwhile, Japanese banks are willing to lend, but they are biased toward lending outside of Japan, not inside. As a result, domestic demand in the Japanese economy remains weak.

The differences in the Anglo-Saxon banking sectors, on one hand, and that of the euro area and Japan, on the other, mean that policy and economic-growth divergence is likely to stay in place for some time. Until now, the focus of investors has been on the euro area and, with that, a bias toward policy accommodation. In October and November that mentality is likely to shift. With the Fed and the BOE clearly signaling higher policy interest rates, the mentality of the markets is likely to be biased toward policy tightening. If investors think in terms of tightening, rather of more easing, then the implications for financial markets could be felt quite widely.

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II is the vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Paul Donovan is the managing director and deputy head of global economics of Zurich-headquartered UBS. He is responsible for formulating and presenting the UBS Investment Research global economic view, drawing on the bank’s worldwide resources.

Donovan took up philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University. He holds an MSc in financial economics from the University of London.

In the Philippines his column appears exclusively in the BusinessMirror once a month.

Opinion BusinessMirror

oped@businessmirror.com.ph

China’s reputational risk in Hong Kong

Bad idea Teddy Locsin Jr.

William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

C

HINA views the fate of Hong Kong as a purely internal affair.

But how its leaders resolve the ongoing confrontation on the streets of the former British colony will determine China’s external reputation for years to come.

The world sees two Chinas. One represents all that is hopeful and ambitious about Asia: boundless economic growth, 1.3 billion consumers of tomorrow and Alibabas as far as the eye can see. The other reflects a repressive regime that’s more bully than global stakeholder.

For a week now, as the shadow of Tiananmen hangs over Hong Kong’s protests, that second China has, once again, dominated the headlines.

Chinese President Xi Jinping may think this doesn’t matter. For the past quarter-century, the Chinese Communist Party has believed it got away with its violent crackdown in 1989, when tanks rolled through Beijing. The world’s horror and condemnation quickly faded, replaced by an eagerness to benefit from the mainland’s 7-percent-plus growth and emerging middle class.

This narrative is delusional, however. Even China’s Asian neighbors—many of whom, like Vietnam, don’t spend much time worrying about human rights—haven’t forgotten 1989. That legacy explains why China’s strengthening economic relationships aren’t translating into genuine soft power across the region. In one recent survey of elites in 11 Asia-Pacific nations, more than 60 percent thought that China was having a negative impact on regional stability.

This has much to do with China’s territorial aggressiveness, which has spread fears and riled up nationalist passions, from Japan to Vietnam to India. But how China handles this latest crisis will be equally crucial to relationships with its neighbors, as well as the West. If Beijing shows itself to be patient, pragmatic and mature in the coming days and weeks, it would raise its global standing and

soothe some of the anxieties it has been causing along its periphery. A harsh crackdown on students would only confirm what many fear: China’s rise will likely destabilize all of Asia.

In this sense, China has more to lose from another Tiananmen than Hong Kong’s 7 million people do. Any move by Xi to crack down on students would be carried live on the British Broadcasting Corp., Cable News Network and networks in Taiwan, where the mainland is trying to curry favor. It would have the vast majority of Asian governments edging closer to Washington as the United States seeks to shore up its position in Asia.

What’s more, even if the protests wind down peacefully, Xi must show that he can grapple with the widening inequality that has frustrated so many citizens in Hong Kong. The mostly middle-class demonstrators are fighting for democratic rights, but they’re also aggrieved by skyrocketing living costs, a soft labor market and a widening rich-poor divide.

At the very least, Hong Kong must broaden social-safety nets, increase access to affordable housing and help first-time home-buyers bridge the gap between the city’s frothy property market and stagnant wages.

Xi faces very similar challenges on the mainland, of course, and success there will be no less critical to China’s standing. Barring a massive debt crisis, China could become the largest economy on a purchasing-power-parity basis within five years. With that status comes great responsibility to the global financial system and the community of Asian nations. Will China spread its wings with finesse or wield them like blunt instruments? How Xi handles Hong Kong will say much about the kind of power his country aims to be.

Why print still matters

P

RINT media, those of us in the newspaper industry have been told for years, is a dying trade. With the proliferation of cable news, Internet outlets and social media, consumers can get their news in real time. The result is the irrelevancy of outlets that operate at the comparatively glacial pace of print.

That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway.

We may be entering a bold new era in media, but, based on what Americans are telling pollsters, it’s hardly a golden age. Survey results released last month by Gallup showed that only 40 percent of Americans trust the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.” That number is tied for an all-time low.

We can’t say that we disagree with the public’s skepticism. All too often, the mainstream media seems interested only in the facts that fit a preexisting narrative. To be sure, there’s a place for advocacy in journalism—but it’s on the opinion pages, like these, not in straight news reporting.

The problems go beyond ideological bias, however. One of the casualties of our right-this-minute news culture is a tendency to play fast and loose with the facts. Because the dominant incentive in modern media is to have a story first, the result is often that reporters get the story wrong. Look at any complicated story from recent years—Trayvon Martin, the

Boston Marathon bombing, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370—and you’ll find almost comically inept reporting, all done with the goal of beating other outlets to a scoop.

In this environment, we believe that print media can actually serve a uniquely corrective role. Unlike the talking heads on cable news, we don’t have to fill every moment of the day with content, regardless of whether there’s anything meaningful to say. And, unlike Internet pundits and Twitter grandees, we don’t face the pressure to analyze events in real time, even when the relevant facts remain murky.

Most Americans understand that they make better decisions when they engage in thoughtful deliberation, rather than acting on their first impulse. They ought to recognize that a similar dynamic is at work in the media. Print outlets are uniquely able to take a longer view than other media. They can vet the facts more thoroughly, attempt to fit them into a broader context, and—most important— take the time to actually engage in a little reflection.

There’s no doubt that the speed at which we can now access information represents an improvement for society. We must be vigilant, however, to ensure that depth and perspective aren’t sacrificed as a result. If print journalism embraces that mandate, it’s likely to survive far into the future.

The Orange County Register/TNS

Free fire

T

O ease traffic, it is proposed that not just trucks, but also certain people, be banned from roads. How? By cutting the workweek of government workers from five days to four, and increasing their work hours from eight to 10. The Kilusang Mayo Uno is right: What about the daily-wage workers? There are such people in the government, like new nurses who slip in money to the Department of Health to hire them. The weekly take will be less than a day’s wage. And there is also health to consider. There is a reason eight hours was fixed as the maximum number of work hours, one that is consistent with good health and efficiency. It isn’t how long you are at a job, but how well you can still do it with your eyes wide open.

Monday, October 6, 2014 A11

Some who don’t have regular jobs, but are well-paid, say why not give it a try; others say it will affect government service, or what passes for it.

The former say government workers can do as much work in a four-day workweek with longer hours, as they do—or not do—in five days with eight hours. But public service is not about putting in more hours in fewer days, but being available every working day. Everyone is better off today after Banco de Oro Unibank added more banking days and longer banking hours; ditto for mall operations. The ideal is that government workers are on the job the whole workweek, so that the working public can, whenever possible, slip out of their respec-

Why I dislike President Aquino Dong Puno

MY VIEW POINT

A

S I continue with my reflections on President Aquino, I am still wondering why I dislike him. After all, all the columns I have written so far have, in one way or another, focused on the President, including those about the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and United States President Barack Obama’s last-minute thoughts on the Philippines.

Perhaps, I am just looking for the perfect presidency or the perfect president, but I have to ask: Has anyone heard of the perfect president?

Does anyone know him or her? Is it, perhaps, Fidel V. Ramos, whom everyone praises for his work hab-

its and knowledge of the key issues affecting the nation? Or Corazon Aquino, who’s admired for her prodemocracy stance? I’m afraid that if you cite these two, you are mistaken.

Remember Ramos’s pro-Electric Power Industry Reform Act stance;

or Cory’s pay-all-debts attitude and her seven- to eight-hour brownouts?

Ramos is noted for his provisions in contracts with builders of energy facilities that call for pay-whetheryou-use-it-or-not. When you mention them, you also mention a lot of the problems they caused.

Now comes the problem that is Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima. President Aquino continues to defend him, an act that is sure to haunt him.

Purisima had invited the President to visit his “ordinary” house in Nueva Ecija province. He admitted to having another piece of property in the province’s Palayan town, which he acquired from local farmers. The house has a swimming pool, which, he said, is not even 10 percent of the size of an Olympic one. The house also has a garage, worth P52,630;

China’s cartoon crackdown Adam Minter

O

BLOOMBERG VIEW

N September 25, just two days before pro-democracy protests began in Hong Kong, the Wen Wei Po, Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-Beijing newspaper, ran a column purporting to expose the “three channels” by which the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had infiltrated Hong Kong university campuses. It was a well-timed, if a bit off-the-wall, conspiracy theory designed to undermine the student movement that has since taken over large swathes of Hong Kong. Indeed, in a related article published the same day, the paper went so far as to suggest that “US forces” had recruited 17-year-old protest leader Joshua Wong while he was still in junior high school.

This would be laughable agitprop, easily ascribed to a cynical Communist Party unwilling to take responsibility for whatever lapses may have inspired the Hong Kong protests. But the paper’s charges also reflect a longstanding conviction among Chinese leaders that they are engaged in an intense ideological war with geopolitical rivals. In this scenario, the marketplace of ideas has become a battlefield, and seemingly innocuous characters are, in fact, dangerous warriors.

One of them apparently is Doraemon, a big, blue, robotic cat and Japanese manga character that’s been popular in China for decades.

In August the city of Chengdu even opened an exhibition of 102 largescale Doraemon figures. Nobody complained until September 26 (a day after the loopy Wen Wei Po commentary), when the state-owned Chengdu Daily published a nownotorious editorial suggesting that Doraemon was part of a Japanese plot to brainwash Chinese youth.

The key passage, as translated by the South China Morning Post, reads: “Doraemon is a part of Japan’s efforts of exporting its national values and achieving its cultural strategy; this is an undisputed fact. Taking this to heart, we should be less blind and keep a cool head while kissing the cheeks of the chubby blue guy.”

Two other Chengdu newspapers, and several national news outlets, including the influential Global Times, swiftly joined the Chengdu Daily in its critique of Japanese robotic-cat imperialism. Global Times columnist Wang Dehua wrote: “Doraemon is cute, but he also represents Japan’s soft power. We must never let a little robotic cat take control of our minds.”

Based on such commentary, one would be justified in wondering if China’s state-owned news sector had lost its collective mind. In truth, the fears about CIA infiltration and those about Japanese cartoon characters are part of the same anxiety: a feeling that China’s lack of soft power presents a weak underbelly to the outside world. “America uses McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Hollywood movies to conquer the world,” wrote the Hong Kong journalist Yang Jinlin last week on Sina Weibo.

“Every country spares no effort in

tive workplaces to avail themselves of public services, for which their wages are deducted.

But what about traffic? How would we solve this problem with the same number of people in vehicles today? The solution to traffic was already implemented with former President Fidel V. Ramos’s sky train, or the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT 1) and the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3). We are the only country with two sets of initials for the same friggin’ service. But succeeding governments threw away the solution and even questioned the public-fare subsidy, even if that subsidy is far less than what the public generates for the economy by riding the sky train, or the LRT 1 and the MRT 3, to work. Screw it.

an attached gazebo, worth P17,890; and a guard house-cum-guest house, worth P510,420. Purisima claimed that the house is now worth P3.7 million, based on market value. No way can this house be described as ordinary.

The fact is, Purisima is a liability.

The sooner President Aquino sees this, the better.

The President has been sinking in the ratings. He says he is standing by whatever the people say. He also says economically well-off people are claiming that he cannot commit a mistake.

I guess it’s an issue of management. He can say what he really feels, but he must manage us out of this problem. The President must tell us the truth while he is thinking his way out of this problem. That is why I look at the presidency with loathing.

spreading its values.”

This is a joyless view of global culture, and it carries considerable weight within the Chinese regime. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the country is actively building up media companies designed to broadcast Chinese values to the world and to compete with those—like Doraemon—that the regime considers hostile.

Among the Chinese public, though, there seems to be a limited audience for such paranoid musings. On September 28, for example, the Tencent news portal posted an online poll asking users whether Doraemon should be boycotted due to ideological concerns.

As of Thursday, more than 78,000 users had responded, with 77 percent opposing a boycott.

It’s a small, unscientific result, but if considered alongside the considerable online chatter mocking and opposing the anti-Doraemon campaign, it’s a good reminder that the Chinese state’s propaganda efforts have their limits. If the government imagines it can convince citizens that even their most innocent likes and dislikes are being manipulated by foreign forces, it’s not likely to be taken seriously for long.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, October 6, 2014

Generation charge to go up in October O

economists now see 2014 inflation at 4.4%

By Bianca Cuaresma

higher inflation in 2014 was due to possible upticks in food prices as a result of tight domestic supply conditions; delays in shipments due to port congestion; pending petitions for adjustments in utility rates; and the looming power shortages,” the central bank said.

Meanwhile, for 2015, economists said inflation will likely hit the ceiling of the target range next year and settle at more or less 4 percent.

This was higher than the central bank’s official forecast of a 3.8-percent inflation for 2015.

For 2016, inflation was expected to ease slightly to 3.9 percent.

Inflation targets have been lowered for the years ahead, to 2 percent to 4 percent, from 3 percent to 5 percent originally.

Earlier, BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said that inflation likely eased in September to hit between 4.1 percent and 4.9 percent.

However, Tetangco also said there should still be “fluctuations” in the inflation in the final three months of the year.

The Philippine Statistics Authority will release the official inflation numbers for September on Tuesday.

I

nflation was seen breaching the upper limit of the 2015 target recalibrated to only 4 percent, as price pressures were to remain elevated over the policy horizon even though this year’s target was likely to remain within bounds, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

Local economists backed the BSP’s inflation views for the year, saying the pace of consumer goods price expansion this year will likely hit the target, although next year’s target, was in danger if breaching its upper limit.

In the latest central bank survey, 28 private bank economists said that inflation will likely hit 4.4 percent this year, up from earlier forecast of 4.3 percent.

In the first eight months, the country’s inflation averaged 4.4 percent after hitting 4.9 percent in July and again in August.

The private economists’ forecast is slightly lower than the central bank’s forecast of 4.5 percent for the year and within the official target range of 3 percent to 5 percent this year.

“Analysts’ expectation of

By Lenie Lectura

ctober bills of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) customers indicate an uptick in generation charge for the supply month of September.

“We are looking at a slight upward adjustment in the generation charge,” Meralco Spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said.

Last month Meralco customers consuming 200 kilowatt-hour (kWh) a month enjoyed a P0.58-per-kWh reduction in their electricity-consumption charges.

The power-rate cut, equivalent to savings of around P116 in the monthly charges, was brought about by a lower generation charge, lower transmission charge and a decrease in other charges.

For October, Meralco will release the full figures by next week. “We will be able to announce the final figures

by middle of next week, when we expect to receive all suppliers’ billings,” Meralco Utility Economic Head Larry Fernandez said.

The generation charge for the August supply month, which is reflected in the electricity bill for September, went down to P5.19 per kWh, the lowest from year-to-date and a 44-centavo-per-kWh reduction from August’s P5.63.

The reduction was primarily driven by the improved availability of generation plants as less forced outages were registered by power plants during the month. In contrast to July, when the Luzon grid experienced instances of generation

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST OCTOBER 6, 2014 | MONDAY

Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is the result of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere tradewind convergence. Widespread cloudiness, occasional thunderstorms, precipitation and moderate to strong surface winds are the associated weather conditions.

INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE (ITCZ) AFFECTING MINDANAO. (AS OF OCTOBER 5, 5:00 PM)

METRO MANILA

TUGUEGARAO CITY 23 – 30°C BAGUIO CITY 16 – 25°C

SBMA/CLARK 24 – 33°C

TAGAYTAY CITY 21 – 29°C

OCT 8

WEDNESDAY

deficiency, no yellow or red alerts were declared in August.

The improved availability of power plants led to higher utilization levels, with corresponding 27-centavo and 6-centavo-perkWh decreases in the average rate of suppliers with power supply agreements (PSAs) with Meralco and of independent power producers (IPPs), respectively.

The improved reliability of power plants also led to lower prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). While the secondary price cap was triggered in 56 trading intervals in July, the cap was triggered for only 18 intervals in August to mitigate price spikes in the WESM. Charges from the WESM, excluding adjustments

OCT 9

THURSDAY

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 23 – 31°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 31°C

OCT 7

OCT 8

OCT 9

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

23 – 30°C

22 – 29°C

23 – 30°C

23 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

TUGUEGARAO 23– 30°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

TACLOBAN

24 – 31°C

23 – 30°C

23 – 30°C

24 – 32°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

23 – 32°C

24 – 33°C

23 – 33°C

25 – 33°C

25 – 33°C

24 – 34°C

24 – 31°C

23 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

23 – 31°C

23 – 32°C

BAGUIO

15 – 24°C

15 – 23°C

16 – 24°C

METRO DAVAO

SBMA/ CLARK

24 – 32°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

ZAMBOANGA

21 – 30°C

20 – 28°C

LEGAZPI

PUERTO PRINCESA

23 – 31°C

23 – 30°C

SUNRISE

SUNSET

MOONRISE

MOONSET

5:46 AM

5:42 PM

3:56 PM

3:17 AM

20 – 29°C

LEGAZPI CITY 23 – 32°C TACLOBAN CITY 24 – 32°C

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

from prior periods and line rentals, went down by P5.34 per kWh. In terms of share to Meralco’s total power requirements for the August supply month, PSAs, IPPs and the WESM accounted for 52 percent, 47 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Contributing also to the overall downward adjustment in the bills to households was the 4-centavoper-kWh decrease in transmission charge. This was attributed mainly to lower ancillary charges.

There was also a cumulative decrease of 2 centavos per kWh in subsidies and the system-loss charge.

Taxes, likewise, decreased by 8 centavos per kWh. Meralco reiterated it does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges. Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, such as the plants selling to Meralco, through the WESM and under the PSAs, as well as the IPPs. Payment for the transmission charge, meanwhile, goes to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines. Of the total bill, only the distribution, supply and metering charges accrue to Meralco.

24 – 33°C

TAGAYTAY

METRO MANILA 23 – 33°C

OCT 7

TUESDAY

ZALDARRIAGA: “We are looking at a slight upward adjustment in the generation charge.”

METRO CEBU

LAOAG

LAOAG CITY 23 – 32°C

www.businessmirror.com.ph

22 – 30°C

HALF MOON FULL MOON

OCT 2

23 – 30°C

24 – 29°C

23 – 28°C

3:33 AM

OCT 8

6:51 PM

LOW TIDE

MANILA SOUTH HARBOR

3:08 PM

0.12 METER

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers and/or thunderstorms

METRO CEBU 23 – 31 °C CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 24 – 32°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

23 – 30°C

22 – 29°C

22 – 29°C

Cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers and/or thunderstorms

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

METRO DAVAO 25 – 34°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY 23 – 30°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

www.panahon.tv

SABAH CELEBES SEA

@PanahonTV

HIGH TIDE

7:41 AM

1.01 METER