BUSINESS

By Rey E. Requejo

THE European Union extended until 2027 the Philippines’ inclusion in its list of countries enjoying trade privileges after seeing “progress” in human rights issues, EU President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday.

Von der Leyen announced the extension of the Philippines’ inclusion in Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) in her historic Manila visit which was the first for an EU president. She also said the European bloc decided to soon resume negotiations on free trade talks after agreeing to “accelerate” its cooperation with the country.

“We evaluated the situation, and we

Gov’t debt increased to record P14.15t in June

THE government’s debt climbed to a record P14.15 trillion as of end-June 2023 from P14.10 trillion in May on continued borrowing to finance the budget deficit, latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury show.

“The NG’s [national government’s] debt portfolio increased by P51.31 billion, or 0.4 percent, compared to the previous month, primarily due to the net issuance of domestic securities,” the Treasury said in a statement Tuesday.

It said of the total debt stock, 31.4 percent was sourced externally, while 68.6 percent represented domestic borrowings.

The government’s domestic debt amounted to P9.70 trillion, P114.32 billion or 1.2 percent higher than the end-May 2023 level.

“For the month, domestic debt growth amounted to P114.32 billion due to the net issuance of government bonds driven by the NG’s financing requirements. Year-to-date, domestic debt has an increment of P494.44 billion or 5.4 percent,” it said. Julito G. Rada

Petron’s income dropped

20% to P6.14b in first half

PETRON Corp. said Tuesday net income fell 20 percent in the first half of 2023 to P6.14 billion from P7.7 billion in the same period last year on rising financing costs due to successive interest rate hikes.

Consolidated sales volume reached 57.61 million barrels in the first half, up 12 percent from 51.41 million barrels sold a year ago. Petron’s sales volume from Philippine operations jumped 16 percent to 34.93 million barrels on the back of the country’s strong demand recovery. It said consistent increases were recorded across various business segments, signifying the company’s steady post-pandemic transition.

Combined sales volume from commercial business increased 13 percent in the first half, while total retail sales from the Philippines and Malaysia improved 8 percent year-on-year.

The oil price correction, which began in the second semester of last year following the record-high price surge in the second quarter due to the war in Ukraine, persisted in the first half of 2023.

Alena Mae S. Flores

AirAsia PH posted 64% growth in Q2 passengers

THE Philippine unit of budget airline Air Asia said Tuesday passenger traffic grew 64 percent in the second quarter on the back of strong demand in the domestic market.

Air Asia Philippines said passengers it carried from April to June reached 1.63 million, higher than 994,527 passengers it served in the same period last year. Load factor was at 91 percent, down by 2 percentage points from 93 percent last year.

“Throughout the second quarter of 2023, the domestic performance was incredibly strong, and international market traffic remained buoyant with favorable load factor,” Air Asia said.

“In response to the robust international market demand, the group has reallocated more capacity to international routes to meet the strong resurgence from the international market,” it said.

Air Asia’s Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes earlier pledged to invest $1 billion for the expansion of its operations in the Philippines. “So, over the next few years, we think we will invest about US$1 billion into the Philippines. We have about 300 million so far. We wanna grow our aircraft from 23 to 50 including wide-body aircraft,” he said. Darwin G. Amojelar found that we can extend the status quo. That is good news... till 2027,” the EU president said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

GSP+ is a scheme that grants select countries zero-tariffs on exports to the EU.

The Philippines was initially at risk of renewing its GSP+ status, which was set to expire in December 2023, over the alleged lack of compliance with the GSP conventions set by the regional bloc.

EU Special Representative for Human Rights Eamon Gilmore said during his April visit to Manila that while the

Philippines already made progress in a number of areas covered by the conventions, more needed to be done to ensure effective implementation of all human rights conventions.

He said that three convictions out of the 6,000 alleged cases of extra-judicial killings in the country, which were among the human rights concerns of the EU, were “not enough” to ensure that the Philippines would continue enjoying the benefits of the GSP+.

Von der Leyen said, however, the European Commission saw “progress” in terms of the country’s response to human rights concerns.

“Well, the government now is much operating with the United Nations and other international organizations. This is very important, and therefore we see progress,” she said.

“We have also with the European Union an ongoing, constant human rights dialog where we raise all the specific questions that have to be raised, and here, too, we see progress and this made the difference with a new government,” she said.

The EU Parliament first warned the Philippines in 2020 of its possible withdrawal from the GSP+ amid cases of EJKs under the Duterte administration. It issued the warning again in 2022.

Before President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. headed for Belgium for the ASEAN-EU Summit in December 2022, he said he would ask the regional bloc to retain the zero tariff being enjoyed by the Philippines.