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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2016 extrastory2000@gmail.com
Will US move away from globalization?
SMART DONATION. PLDT-Smart Foundation and Smart Communications donate a School-in-a-Bag to the Shining Light Foundation, an organization co-founded by celebrity Gary Valenciano in 1989 to support needy students, Christian missionaries, and people with diabetes. Shown at the donation rites are (from left PLDT vice president and head of SME Nation Mitch Locsin, PSF president Esther Santos, SLF president Angeli Valenciano, SLF director Gary Valenciano, Smart public affairs head Mon Isberto, and PLDT first VP and head of enterprise Jovy Hernandez. Smart this year created School-in-a-Bag to provide public schools in remote areas, especially those without electricity, with digital tools and content. Each bag contains a solar panel, a laptop, a tablet, a mobile phone, a pocket WiFi with starter load, an LED TV and learning modules.
Alsons investing $180m in new coal-fired plants By Alena Mae S. Flores
A
LSONS Consolidated Resources Inc. plans to invest $180 million in coal-fired power projects in the next three years, a senior official said Monday.
Alsons executive vice president and chief operating officer Tirso Santillan said the amount would correspond to the company’s 30 percent equity stake in power projects lined up until 2019 and costing about $600 million. He said 70 percent of the projects would be funded by debt and 30 percent by equity. The company plans to build a 105-megawatt second unit in the coal-fired power plant of subsidiary Sarangani Energy Corp. in Maasim, Sarangani province at a cost of $250 million. Alsons started operating the first unit of 105 MW early this year.
The company through unit San Ramon Power Inc. is also set to build a 105-MW power plant in Zamboanga City next year with a cost of $320 million over three years. Santillan said the company was also pursuing renewable energy projects, such as solar and hydro, pending power supply agreements with electric cooperatives. The 15-MW Siguil hydro project is estimated to cost $50 million to construct, while the company’s 20-MW planned solar project will cost $30 million. Santillan. meanwhile, said Alson Power may post a lower net income this year to slightly over P400 million from P600 million. “2016 is the first year of merchant activities in power business,” Santillan said. The power output of Alsons’ Western Mindanao Power Corp. and Southern Philippines Power Corp. were previously under contract with National Power Corp. until it lapsed in 2015. “As a merchant plant, circumstances are different, our revenues from those two plants are much lower. But then, on the other
hand, we added SEC (Sarangani Energy) for 2016—which was a capacity non-existent in 2015,” Santillan said. He said the diesel plants were just expected to earn about P400 million this year from P800 million for Western Mindanao, P300 million for Southern Philippines and P150 million for Mapalad Power. “This year, all three plants will earn about P400 million,” Santillan said. Alsons is Mindanao’s first and most experienced independent power producer and has has played a pivotal role in helping end the power crisis in the country’s second largest island. Alsons’ affiliated power facilities are expected to reach a total generating capacity of 588 MW by 2019, or approximately 25 percent of Mindanao projected peak power demand for that year. The Alcantara Group, through its other units, is also engaged in aquaculture and agribusiness, property development and services. It has been an active player in the economic development of Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines for over 60 years.
Consunji honored by UP alumni engineers DMCI Holdings Inc. chairman and president Isidro Consunji was conferred the Most Distinguished Alumnus Award by the University of the Philippines Alumni Engineers. The annual recognition is given to outstanding UP alumni engineers “who have distinguished themselves in their areas of specialization” and “whose contributions to the university, the society and the country have made them outstanding models of inclusive growth.” A 1971 Civil Engineering graduate of UP Diliman, Consunji led the diversification of premier construction company D.M. Consunji Inc. into real estate, energy, mining and water services. Consunji has been president of DMCI Holdings since its establishment in 1995. Under his leadership, the engineering conglomerate became one of the biggest and most valued publiclylisted companies in the Philippines.
Finance bucks new cigarette tax bid By Gabrielle H. Binaday
CONSUNJI
Salceda files bill creating nuke body ALBAY Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda recently filed a bill in Congress creating the Philippine Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent nuclear regulatory body focused on the control of peaceful uses and application of nuclear energy. House Bill 4369, titled “Comprehensive Nuclear Regulation Act of 2016,” is considered a vital piece of legislation as the country embarks on a renewed effort to strengthen science and technology and boost industrial growth. Salceda said PNRC would be attached to the Department of Science and Technology , and would work to harmonize with similar regulatory structures in other countries, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Chi-
na, South Korea, Japan, Australia and Singapore. Salceda said the PNRC would “ensure consistency with the nation’s obligations under relevant international instruments.” It will also modernize the country’s nuclear civil liability and compensation regime in line with internationally accepted standards. Salceda’s bill aims to harness the peaceful uses of nuclear energy that will benefit various fields, including health and medicine, energy production, scientific research, agriculture, industry, and education. It also seeks to recognize, mitigate and protect individuals, society and the environment from the potentially harmful effects of ionizing radiation, including those
that could result from improper use, accidents or malicious acts. The proposed PNRC will develop an “independent regulatory framework that will decide on and resolve issues affecting public health and safety, protection of the environment, and nuclear security and safeguards, beyond the reach of entities with self-motivated interests,” said Salceda. He said the resolution of these issues within an autonomous regulatory structure would generate in the public a higher level of trust and confidence in the application of nuclear technologies. He added a positive public mindset was “imperative for the continued and improved utilization of nuclear energy and radioactive materials in the country.”
THE Finance Department on Monday expressed strong opposition to the decision of a House committee level to keep the two-tiered excise tax structure for machine-packed cigarettes in the country. Finance submitted its position in a paper to the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, objecting to House Bill 4144 filed by ABS Partylist Rep. Eugene De Vera on November 18. Despite the strong opposition from Finance, several stakeholders and tobacco farmers, the House committee approved the bill during its second reading. The bill seeks to discard the unitary tax imposing a P30 excise tax on all brands slated for January 2017 as provided under RA 10351. “Tax differentiation is not germane to the principle behind the excise taxation of cigarettes. More than a revenue measure, the Sin Tax Reform Law or RA 10351 is a health measure with a primary goal of curbing tobacco use in particular among the young and the poor because of its known detrimental effects to health,” Finance said. “Prices and equity reason therefore should not figure in the tax structure. Thus, one of the key features of the law is the gradual shift to unitary taxation. A unitary rate by 2017 will further the gains of the law when it comes to its revenue and health objectives,” Finance added.
ARGUABLY the most powerful element of the campaign platform of Republican candidate (and now President-elect) Donald Trump in the recent US Presidential campaign was his argument that the outgoing Obama administration had pursued external trade policies that took American jobs abroad to foreign workers. Trump took aim at the regional free-trade organizations that the US had entered into and was in the process of joining. Candidate Trump was emphatic about NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association), which is made up of the three North American countries, and TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), which has yet to become operational. The Donald was imprecise about what he would do with NAFTA, but he knew what he would do with TPP. One of the first actions he would take as President would be, he said, to take the US out of the Pacific-area organization. This raises an existential question. Is the country with the world’s largest economy, after seven decades of advocacy of the idea of universal free trade—this began with its signing in 1947 of GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), the forerunner of WTO (World Trade Organization)—about to turn its back on globalization? Is the world about to see the emergence of the economic equivalent of Fortress America? The American-jobs-are-being-exported campaign rhetoric appears to have resonated with workers in states—mostly in north-central America—that had been considered safely blue (Democratic). The Electoral College votes of Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan brought Trump to the 270-vote winning mark. In recent days President-elect Trump has reiterated his desire to pull the US out of TPP, and, with a Republicancontrolled Congress, he might very well try to do that. But the US’ turning its back on globalization completely is another, far more serious matter. I offer two reasons why there is likely to be no turning back, not even during the four years of the Trump administration. The first reason is historical in character. In the modern era the US has been a staunch advocate and unwavering supporter of the concepts of free trade and globalization. The politicians in Washington D.C. always have one eye focused on America’s manufacturing industries and have always tried to strike a balance between the welfare of America’s working class and the need to achieve high levels of production efficiency and consumer welfare, which are attained by subjecting to foreign competition the products of the US’ factories, workshops and farms. Whenever the policymakers in Washington D.C. have perceived a real threat to America’s industries and workers, they have usually reacted not by disengagement from trade arrangements and prohibitions of foreign goods but by appropriate changes in the US Tariff and Customs Code. As stated earlier, Donald Trump may move for the US’ disengagement from the not-yet-operational TPP. But disengagement from NAFTA would be a very serious and highly disruptive action. Not only has NAFTA been operating for nearly two decades but it involves US relations with Canada and Mexico, two of its closest allies. My second reason for believing that the US is not about to turn its back on globalization relates to present geopolitical circumstances. China has become the world’s second largest economy and, some observers say, could before too long, overtake the US economically. And, although the US is still the only superpower, China is beginning to flex whatever military muscle it has. In no part of the globe is American-Chinese rivalry more intense than in the area encompassed by the ocean that the US and China share. Indeed, this growing rivalry is the explanation for the pivot to Asia effected by the administration of President Barack Obama. On China’s side, Asia-Pacific influence is demonstrated by its establishment of a development financing institution to rival ADB (Asian Development Bank), which is controlled by Japan and the US. The American architects saw the 12-member TPP not only in terms of its economic benefit—chiefly the exchange of production efficiencies and employment opportunities—but also in terms of its strategic value, viz., its being a vehicle for the further projection of American power and leadership. To withdraw from TPP would be to offer China a strategic advantage on a silver platter. Free trade has for a long time been the cornerstone of US trade policy and globalization has become entrenched as a part of America’s economic vocabulary. Was the US not one of the principal moving spirits behind WTO’s creation? To be sure, American workers need relief from competition from foreign producers. But the answer lies not in a turning away from globalization. Mr. Trump’s administration should look in other directions for that. E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com
SEC Memorandum Circular No. 18 Series of 2016 To
: FINANCING AND LENDING COMPANIES
SUBJECT
: STREAMLINING THE DOCUMENTARY REQUIREMENTS FOR FINANCING AND LENDING COMPANIES
DATE : 8 November 2016 x-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------x WHEREAS, in accordance with the requirements of the Securities Regulation Code, the Amended Code of Corporate Governance and other laws, rules and regulations being implemented by this Commission, registered financing and lending companies are required to submit, among others: (1) SEC Form Q-EPS; (2) Certification of the Corporate Secretary on the attendance of Directors on Board Meetings; and (3) Corporate Governance Scorecard. WHEREAS, it is the government’s policy to make doing business in the Philippine easier. IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING, covered financing and lending companies are no longer required to submit (1) SEC Form Q-EPS; (2) Certification of the Corporate Secretary on the attendance of Directors to Board Meetings; and (3) Corporate Governance Scorecard. This Circular shall take effect immediately. Mandaluyong City, Philippines. 8 November 2016 For the Commission:
TERESITA J. HERBOSA Chairperson (MS-DEC. 6, 2016)
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