The petitions were filed by militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and other concerned individuals, and for-mer Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco. Petitioners are seeking the is-suance of a temporary restrain-ing order (TRO) to stop the gov-ernment from collecting higher LRT and MRT fares. They questioned the legality of an order issued by Transpor-tation Secretary Jose Emilio A. Abaya in December, which called for collecting higher fares from users of LRT and MRT.

Bayan said Abaya acted with grave abuse of discretion in rais-ing the fares, as the three train systems are supposedly “public services” that are “subject to regu-lation.” Hence, “their fare rate may not be adjusted unilaterally.” “As public services, they are subject to regulation, not only as regards their route and the quality of service they offer to the public, but also as regards the manner of fixing the rate of fees that they impose for the use of their services,” the petition of

By Joel San Juan, Butch Fernandez & Lorenz S. Marasigan

TWO petitions seeking to suspend the implementation of fare increases for the

Light Rail Transit (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), which took effect on January 4, were filed before the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday.

www.businessmirror.com.ph n Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 40 P25.00 nationwide | 7 sections 32 pages | 7 days a weekn Tuesday, January 6, 2015 Vol. 10 No. 89

A broader look at today’s businessBusinessMirrorthree-time

rotary club of manila journalism awardee2006, 2010, 2012u.n. media award 2008

Rail fare-hike debate shifts to SCd.o.t.c.’s ‘unilateral’ adjustment of lrt, mrt fares challenGed before hiGh court

Peso exchanGe rates n us 44.7400 n jaPan 0.3714 n uK 68.6222 n hK 5.7690 n china 7.2115 n sinGaPore 33.6189 n australia 36.3651 n eu 53.7059 n saudi arabia 11.9180 Source: BSP (05 January 2015)

Continued on A2

PAPAL VISIT 2015

8 DAYSINSIDE

DECORATINGRESOLUTIONSFOR 2015

BUSINESS-LIKEALL GAME LONG

Life Tuesday, January 6, 2015 D1BusinessMirrorEditor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

DEAR Lord, give us courage and equip us with practical plans to show that we are really a true friend. For example, if our friends edge

somebody out of the group, we should reach out to them by text or over lunch, or change the subject if our friends are gossiping or picking on someone. “A friend loves at all times...some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one’s nearest kin. (Proverbs 17:17, 18: 24). Help us, oh Lord to be a true friend. Amen.

A true friend

CHRISTOPHER NEWS NOTES AND LOUIE M. LACSONWord&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

SONY INSIDER,NOT NORTH KOREA,

LIKELY INVOLVEDIN HACK... »D2

B M C GTribune News Service

WHAT decorating projects and plans do you have in store for the new year? Are you renovating a key space like your kitchen or bath? Redecorating a well-used

room, like your bedroom or family room? Hoping to add a bit more personality to an area that feels blah or unfinished? I like to make decorating-related New Year’s resolutions every year to spark my creativity as I make my spaces lovelier. Want to join me? A few Nell Hill’s designers and I share resolutions for making your home more beautiful in 2015.

■ Resolution No. 1 from Mary Carol: Stop hoarding. After many years living in our beloved old home in Atchison, Kansas, Dan and I have officially moved to a bungalow near Kansas City. I loved my majestic fixer-upper and will always treasure the fabulous memories we made there, but I was more than ready to downsize, to have less home to take care of. As we got ready to move, I was blown away by how hard it was to go through all our stuff, deciding which things would go with us to our cottage and which would have to find a new home.

I had no idea I was such a hoarder! Not to the point where someone was going to do a TV documentary on me, but still! As I stood in my basement and looked at the tubs and tubs of accents I had saved through the years, I wished I had undertaken this task earlier and purged on a regular basis. But when I was done

emptying out my closets and garage and basement, I felt fabulous and free. You don’t have to move to begin to sift through your belongings and simplify.

During 2015, I’d encourage you to set aside some time to review the items in your home. If something is no longer of use to you, or no longer brings you joy, give it to someone who needs it. Then, when and if you ever move, you’ll be so thankful this big job is done.

■ Resolution No. 2 from Mary-Christine: Find and embrace your own style. As an interior designer, Mary-Christine has seen lots of trends come and go. While it’s fun to incorporate new looks you love into your décor, her advice is to always be true to yourself and embrace a style that suits you. In 2015 she encourages you to discover your signature style. It sounds really hard to do, but, she says, it’s actually super simple to pinpoint your decorating passion.

First, she says, figure out what you need from your home. For example, since she works with so much color and pattern every day as a designer, she needs her own home to be very simple and serene. You may be just the opposite. Next, fill your home with things you really love. You want to look forward to walking through your door every day and drinking in the furnishings and accents you’ve used to feather your nest. What do you gravitate toward? What colors or patterns or styles capture your eye over and again? It’s that simple to find your style.

■ Resolution No. 3 from Scott: When decorating, don’t just stop with the furniture. Scott says he’s noticed that, when people redo spaces in their homes or move to a new home, they usually start

the decorating process by selecting the upholstered pieces they want to include in the room. The style and fabric they choose does a great job of setting the tone for the space. But that’s only the first step, Scott explains.

Too often, he sees people stop with their redesign once the new sofa is in place. Then, they aren’t quite satisfied with the results, and aren’t sure why. There’s an easy explanation, he says. The room isn’t done. A well-designed space includes much more than great furniture. All the other elements in the room, like the artwork, accessories, rugs and lighting, are essential for completing the design. They work together to give the room its individuality and dramatic flair, to ensure the space is a reflection of you. If you’re redecorating a space this year, Scott advises, “Make sure to see the vision through to the end!”

■ Resolution No. 4 from Nicole: Add a bit of luxury to your home. Everyone loves indulging in a little luxury now and then. And Nicole says 2015 is the year to explore ways you can add some glitz to your everyday life through your home décor. Even if you like things casual and simple, a dot or two of glam will give your spaces a spark of new energy.

Nicole suggests picking one little space, maybe a corner of a room or one piece of furniture, and adding a touch of luxury there. Perhaps it’s tossing a pillow corded in a yummy velvet onto your bed, sofa or favorite chair. Gold accents are super hot right now, so you will find lots of options for adding sparkle to your home. How about replacing a tired old lamp with one that features a gold base or a gold-line shade? Place a cluster of gold pottery on your mantel or weave gold picture

frames into the display on a side table. You will be surprised by how much a dash of gold warms up your spaces and makes you feel pampered.

■ Resolution No. 5 from Kristen: Explore the power of stripes. Stripes are Kristen’s new decorating crush. She loves big, bold stripes. She loves little tiny stripes. She loves them turned vertically, horizontally and everywhere in between. She loves them on bedding, furniture and accents. And, in 2015, she invites to play around with the power of stripes in your home, too.

When she’s designing gorgeous custom beds, Kristen blends a variety of fabrics and patterns to add dimension to the grouping and give it visual interest. Stripes are always a part of the mix. Want to freshen up your bedding this winter? Bring in a stripe, she advises, whether it’s a large, bold stripe duvet or just an accent pillow that features a ticking ruffle.

Stripes belong all over the house, Kristen maintains. Drapes done in a striped fabric add height to a room. Want the window to look larger? Include a striped fabric going horizontally at the base of the drape. It will bring added weight to the space. Have you avoided using a bold stripe on a larger piece of furniture, like a sofa or chair, because you’re afraid it will be too much pattern? Don’t be, she says. It will add lots of drama to the room, and, when accessorized correctly, will recede into the background. Still not convinced? Then cover a piece of furniture in ticking, like I did for my new lake house!

■ Nell Hills is a home furnishings store in Kasas City, owned by Mary Carol Garrity. This article was adapted from Garrity’s blog at www.nellhills.com.

B A WMilwaukee Journal Sentinel

IT happens year after year. You spend 12 months filling in birthdays, appointments and other reminders.

You cross off the days of the week until you get to the weekend. And the days, weeks and months just fly by.

And then January 1 hits and your trusted calendar hits the garbage. What a shame! So many pretty pictures with such a dismal fate.

After buying a fancy calendar from a premium paper store last year, I refused

to succumb to my usual habits. I vowed to find ways to reuse the gorgeous art housed within these pages—and I did. Here are five ways to repurpose a calendar.

1. Gallery wall. There’s nothing that makes your calendar shine like putting it front and center for everyone to enjoy. The best thing about this project? It’s cheap! The only things you need are frames (mat is optional). Use only one type of frame for a uniform look. See a complete tutorial at The Creativity Exchange blog at http://tinyurl.com/mb8gwmn.

2. Flower vases. In addition to your calendar, save used cans from a fate in the

recycling bin by repurposing them into vases or containers to hold knickknacks. This is best for calendars with thin paper, rather than heavy cardstock. Simply use an acrylic sealer, like Mod Podge, to adhere the paper to the can. After it dries, distress the paper with sandpaper and apply a light coat of a water-based dark stain. See the complete tutorial at the blog Fishtail Cottage at http://tinyurl.com/qg8bwkl.

3. Greeting cards. Impress others with your craft skills by sending them homemade greeting cards. Use a plain, blank greeting card as a template and cut a rectangle the same size as the card from

a calendar picture. Then use a glue stick to adhere the picture to the card. All that’s left is writing a witty note.

4. Gift wrap. Calendars make adorable gift wrap for small gifts. And, with 12 months to choose from, any occasion should be right at your fingertips. Make your packages even more special with pretty ribbons and bows.

5. Bookmarks and gift tags. Put your hole punch to good use by making your own bookmarks and gift tags. Just cut the shape you want, round out the corners and thread a ribbon through a punched hole in the tag.

5 ways to repurpose a calendar

Decorating resolutions for 2015

CLEVELAND’S Kevin Love (left) and Dallas’s Monta Ellis battle for the ball in the third quarter of their game on Sunday. AP

B D PFort Worth Star-Telegram

CLEVELAND—The last thing the Dallas Mavericks were thinking about on Sunday afternoon was falling into the trap of easing off the gas pedal because they were playing a Cleveland Cavaliers

team that was without injured superstar LeBron James. The Mavericks were in a business-like mood all game long and made quick work of the Cavs at Quicken Loans Arena, winning, 109-90, to go to 2-0 on this three-game road trip.

In winning their fifth straight game and raising their record to 25-10, the Mavericks moved into a tie with the Memphis Grizzlies (24-9) for the Western Conference’s third seed. The Grizzlies are just a few percentage points ahead of the Mavs—.727 to .714—and both teams are only three games behind the top-seeded Golden State Warriors.

It would have been easy for the Mavs to have been a bit overconfident on Sunday knowing that James wasn’t going to play because of a strained lower back and strained left knee.

But the Mavericks were so focused that they distributed 30 assists on their 44 field goals, shot a sizzling 56.4 percent from the field, put six players in double-figure scoring, and also made 12-of-26 baskets from three-point range.

“We wanted all games on this trip, so I think

that’s how we approached it,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 15 points and blocked two shots. “No letdowns.

“I think we’re all focused. We talked about it before the game that we want to be in attack mode on both ends of the floor, and we built some nice little leads there.”

Monta Ellis scored 13 of his 20 points in the first half when the Mavs built a 57-47 lead. Then, with Richard Jefferson making a pair of three-pointers and Al-Farouq Aminu adding a lay-up, the Mavs bolted to an 89-69 lead late in the third quarter.

“I thought Aminu was one of the keys to the game,” Mavs Coach Rick Carlisle said. “He was active, he did a great job on [Kevin] Love when he was on him, he rebounded, he ran, he got a couple of big buckets.

“I’m happy for him because it’s been a rough go here in the last week and a half or so, but he’s worked hard.” Without James, the Cavs aren’t half the team they can be. And when the Cavs lost point guard Kyrie Irving for the rest of the game with 6:42 remaining in the third quarter because of lower back tightness, all trends shifted in the direction of the visitors.

The Cavs finished the game with no fast-break points, a stat that’s always been one of the hallmarks of James’s career.

“They’re without the best player in the world and they’re without one of the best point guards

in the game out there for most of the game,” Carlisle said. “That’s going to take away fast-break opportunities, as well.”

The Mavs also saw new point guard Rajon Rondo making a better connection with center Tyson Chandler. Early in the third quarter Rondo lobbed two balls near the rim that Chandler grabbed and dunked, and then jogged happily away, knowing that the synergy between the two is taking shape.

“Every game we’re getting a little more efficient and understanding each other,” Chandler said. “I’m understanding his patterns and the way he likes to pass the ball, and he’s understanding me.

“We’re starting to get a little eye contact and it’s only going to get better.”

As they wind up this three-game road trip at 6:30 p.m. on Monday against the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center, the Mavs do so knowing they’re a perfect 10-0 on the road against teams from the East. But the Mavs, who received 14 points each from Chandler Parsons, J.J. Barea and Chandler, are not about to get comfortable with their rise up the Western Conference ladder.

“You can’t get happy in this league or satisfied, especially in the West,” Nowitzki said. “One loss can drop you all the way to five or six.

“We’ve just got to keep playing, keep working hard. There’s another game [tonight], and hopefully we can keep the same focus and have everybody ready to roll and go from there.” ■

BUSINESS-LIKEALL GAME LONG

FOCUSED MAVS RACE PAST LEBRON-LESS CAVS

B M BLos Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES—Byron Scott swears it’s true.Kobe Bryant has been a model teammate despite the losses piling

up at the Los Angeles Lakers’ feet.“He really hasn’t blown up, to be honest with you. He’s been really

good with his teammates, been encouraging at times,” Scott told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday. “But, at times, just like you know he will, and great players do, he’s going to get on some players’ butts.”

Wait a sec. What about that rant at practice last month, the one where Bryant said teammates were “soft like Charmin” and yelled at Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak to get him better players to practice against?

“His blowup, to me, in the ‘80s that’s a normal practice,” Scott said. “That’s how we used to go at each other. And it was fun.”

Beyond that, Scott said Bryant’s temperament had been “very good. He doesn’t let things fester in the locker room,” Scott said. “We both have to be patient. Neither one of us is very patient but we both understand that we have to be through this whole process. I think we lean on each other a lot. The relationship that I have with him has really kept me going.”

Bryant’s disposition came into question again on Friday night when he yelled at Jeremy Lin to foul Mike Conley late in the game against Memphis. When Lin didn’t do it, Bryant angrily ran out to the three-point line and fouled Conley with 12.6 seconds left and the Lakers down one.

Scott took charge, telling Bryant in a time-out afterward that he’d wanted Lin to wait until there were 10 seconds left.

“Our relationship has grown,” Scott said. “Our communication has always been good. I think it’s even better now because of the fact we see each other every day and we talk about the game and talk about the future.”

The future. When the past isn’t so great, it only makes sense to look at ways to fix it.

The Lakers (11-23) continue to linger near bottom-five territory in the National Basketball Association, almost low enough to potentially keep the draft pick they owe Phoenix for the Steve Nash trade.

After beating Indiana on Sunday, 88-87, the Lakers hold the sixth-worst record. They keep the pick only if they get one of the top-5 selections in the draft lottery.

The Lakers currently have enough salary-cap space to sign one maximum-contract free agent in July. They are projected to have room for another max player in the summer of 2016.

MIAMI—Chris Bosh scored 26 points, Dwyane Wade buried 10 of his 25 points in the final minutes and the Heat held off Brooklyn to snap a four-game losing streak, 88-84, on Sunday in the National Basketball Association.

Hassan Whiteside had 11 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks off the bench for Miami, which won for only the seventh time in 19 home games.

Joe Johnson scored 19, Brook Lopez added 16 and Mirza Teletovic had 14 for Brooklyn, which had won six of seven and was seeking to get back over .500 for the first time since November 12.

In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Brandon Jennings scored 35 points as

the Pistons beat the Kings, 114-95, for their fifth straight win.

Andre Drummond had 15 points and 14 rebounds, and Greg Monroe had 14 points 11 rebounds for Detroit, which improved to 5-0 since Josh Smith was released in December. Detroit is 10-23.

DeMarcus Cousins led the Kings with 18 points and 15 rebounds.

Eric Bledsoe scored 20 points, fellow guards Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas added 18 apiece, and the Suns handed the Raptors their second straight blowout loss, 125-109, in Phoenix. Seven Suns hit double figures in the team’s highest-scoring non-overtime game this season.

The Raptors, who trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half and 27 in the second, finished a season-long six-game road trip with their two most one-sided losses of the season.

Jonas Valanciunas scored 21 and Kyle Lowry 19 for the Raptors. Lou Williams and James Johnson added 17 apiece. Phoenix won for the eighth time in 10 games.

In New York Zaza Pachulia had 16 points and 14 rebounds, as the Milwaukee Bucks handed the New York Knicks their 11th straight loss, 95-82. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 17 points for the Knicks (5-31), who lost a franchise-record 10th straight home game. They are one overall loss from

matching the team’s 1985 record for most consecutive losses.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 16 points and 12 rebounds for Milwaukee (18-17).

Kobe Bryant, meanwhile, scored 20 points and hit the go-ahead short jumper with 12.4 seconds to play to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a comeback victory over Indiana, 88-87.

Roy Hibbert missed a difficult jumper off a broken play as time expired to end the Lakers’ third win in 10 games.

Bryant scored nine points in the final 2:32 while the Lakers rallied past the Pacers, who blew a 13-point lead in the second half. AP

MODEL TEAMMATE

HEAT BREAK OUT OF SKID

KOBE BRYANT is keeping his temper in check. AP

CLEVELAND’S Kevin Love (left) and Dallas’s Monta Ellis battle for the ball in the third BUSINESS-LIKE

FOCUSED MAVS RACE PAST LEBRON-LESS CAVS

C | T, J , mirror_sports@yahoo.com.phsports@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Jun Lomibao

SportsBusinessMirror

life d1

sporTs c1

euro nears 9-yr lowon Greece concernsTHE euro weakened to an almost nine-year low and Euro-

pean stocks fell for a second day amid concern Greece will exit the currency union. Chinese shares jumped, while oil

slumped to its lowest level since 2009. The euro depreciated 0.4 percent to $1.1958 at 8:05 a.m. in London, after touching its lowest level since March 2006. The dollar gained against 14 of its 16 major peers. The ruble slid 5.1 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.4 percent, while Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures fell 0.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index surged 3.6 percent to its highest level in five years. A gauge of global bond yields approached a record low. Crude slid 1.9 percent and gold rose 0.6 percent. Greece’s political parties have embarked on a campaign for elections this month that may determine the fate of the

Ayala constructing ₧1-B mall in LegazpiTHE Ayala Corp. has poured in P1

billion worth of investments in Legazpi City, a year before the

Southern Luzon International Airport operates in the Bicol region, specifically in Albay province. Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal said on Saturday evening during his 51st birthday celebration held at the city motorpool compound, where a P30-million convention center is being built, that Ayala Corp. has invested P1 billion for the construction of a new mall right at the heart of the city. “Because of the great potential and business opportunities in Legazpi, though we’re a small city, the Ayala Corp. did not hesitate and invested P1 billion worth of new mall,” Rosal added. Legazpi City, which is known in

the travel industry as the “City of Fun and Adventure,” was voted as the second livable city in the country in last year’s search for the country’s top 3 most-livable cities. In the ranking among the three, Iloilo came first; Legazpi City, second; and Cebu, third. The search, called the Livable Cities Design Challenge, was organized by the National Competitiveness Coun-cil, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2015 National Organizing Council, World Wildlife Fund, Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Reconstruction, Asia Society, Urban Land Institute and the United States Assistance for Interna-tional Development, which has been supporting the Cities Development Initiative programs, like Project Invest.

rosal: “Because of the great potential

and business opportunities in legazpi, though

we’re a small city, the ayala corp. did

not hesitate and invested p1 billion

worth of new mall.”

commuTers have no choice but to pay the higher light rail Transit and metro rail Transit fares for now, as the various court actions taken by different groups versus the increase are still to take their due course. NONIE REYES

PSEi OFF TO A GOOD START FOR 2015By VG Cabuag

Share prices gained during the first trading day of the year on Monday, as buying picked up although the value of trade was lower due

to the holiday hangover. The benchmark Philippine Stock exchange in-dex (PSei) gained 46.06 points to close at 7,276.63 points, while other subindices ended mixed. “I hope that 2015 will be the year when we see more of our countrymen reap the benefits of invest-ing in the stock market. and with our individual en-deavors, as well as collective effort, I am optimistic that we can help bring financial freedom to more Filipinos,” PSe Chairman Jose T. Pardo said. Volume of trade was at 1.42 billion shares worth P7.37 billion, or lower than last year’s average of about P7.8 billion.

Foreign investors were net buyers at P85.58 million. Gainers led losers 99 to 87, and 42 shares were unchanged. Other subindices ended mixed. The all Shares index closed higher by 18.11 to 4,282.72; the Indus-trial index shed 63.84 to 11,918.92; the Financials index rose 7.37 to 1,703.57; the holding Firms index gained 125.74 to 6,425.68; and the Property index closed lower by 6.73 points to 2,803.52. Property developer ayala Land Inc. was the day’s most traded and gained P0.30 to close at P34. Universal robina Corp. shed P5 to P191; Metropoli-tan Bank and Trust Co. was up P1; Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. fell P32 to P2,874; energy Development Corp. climbed P0.30 to P8.50; SM Investments Corp. rose P6 to P821; alliance Global Group Inc. expanded P0.75 to P23.30; and ayala Corp. added P3 to P697.

philippiNe stock exchange (pse) officials (from left) director alejandro T. yu and director edgardo G. lacson, capital markets integrity corp. president cornelio c. Gison, pse Treasurer omelita J. Tianco, president hans B. sicat, chairman Jose T. pardo and director Vivian yuchengco, capital markets integrity corp. consultant lawyer daisy arse and coo roel a. refran blow horns while leading the bell-ringing ceremony to open the first trading day of the year. ALYSA SALEN

The Ayala mall project is expected to be operational by December. Rosal said Ayala Corp. took over the construction of the mall from Liberty Commercial Center (LCC), which started to build the project in the site of the old public market. Continued on A8

See “Ayala,” A8

the militant group read. Bayan also questioned the power of the transport chief to execute a fare increase, saying that Abaya has no quasi-judicial power to determine fare rates for the LRT and the MRT. The Department of Transportation and Communications order called for the implementation of an P11 base fare plus P1 per kilometer formula for fares at the LRT Lines 1 and 2 and the MRT. Hence, a ride on LRT 1, from Baclaran to Roosevelt, now costs P29, while a one-way trip on LRT 2, from Santolan to Recto, is now at P24, and a trip on MRT 3, between North Avenue and Taft Avenue, now costs P28. Before the new matrices were implemented, a ride on the MRT 3 ranged from P10 to P15, while a ride on LRT 1 and LRT 2 ranged from P12 to P15 and P20, respectively. DOTC Spokesman Michael Arthur C. Sagcal defended his agency’s decision, saying the fare increase will result in better train services.

Sagcal also said the DOTC is ready to face the petitioners at court. “We will argue our case before the Supreme Court and we are confident that our actions are fully in accord with the law,” he said. “We respect the freedom of those groups to express them-selves and file appropriate cases, but these will not stop us from our modernization and improvement programs for the LRT and MRT systems,” Sagcal added. Despite mounting protests, Malacañang remained firm in cutting the P10-billion annual subsidy for the MRT, say-ing the transport system being supported by taxpayers’ money benefits only commuters in Metro Manila. “This is an issue which is Metro Manila-centric. Certainly, there is unhappy, displeasure or dissatisfaction with riding passengers,” Palace Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said. Lacierda said the subsidy removed from the MRT will be allocated to other regions of the country. He also assured that the government is bent on improv-ing the services of the MRT and its rehabilitation will push through this year.

existence, has been protective of the right of the pub-lic to information on matters that are of public con-cern, as well as balanced news and content that up-hold the morals and public policy of the society,” the Speaker said. “Further, EBC has been proactive in environment, social and humanitarian concerns, promotion of his-torical and cultural heritages, promotion of original Filipino values and artistic creation and communi-tarianism,” Belmonte said. “EBC’s broadcasting expansion abroad, through in-ternational bureaus and correspondents, have opened up windows to the world for the Filipino society,” Bel-monte added. Under the measure, EBC’s franchise shall be re-newed, amending Republic Act (RA) 4916, as amended by RA 7299, the validity of which is until Novem-ber 2, 2018, subject to the provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution and applicable laws, rules and regulations. The renewed franchise shall be in effect for a period of 25 years, and shall be deemed ipso facto revoked if EBC fails to operate continuously for two years. Also, the renewed franchise allows EBC to construct, install, establish, operate and main-tain for commercial purposes and in the public interest, radio and/or television broadcasting stations, where frequencies and/or channels are still available, including digital television and/or radio systems, through microwave, satellite or the use of any new technologies in television and radio systems, with the corresponding tech-nological auxiliaries and/or facilities, special broadcast, and other program and distribution services and relay stations. The facilities of EBC shall be constructed and oper-ated in the minimum interference on the wavelengths or frequencies of existing stations or other stations, which may be established by law, without in any way diminishing its own right to use its selected wave-lengths or frequencies and the quality of transmission or reception thereon as should maximize rendition of EBC’s services and or availability. The measure requires EBC to secure from the Na-tional Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the

appropriate permits and licenses for the operation of its stations and facilities. EBC shall not use any frequency on the radio and television spectrum without authorization from the NTC. Acceptance of the franchise shall be written to Congress of the Philippines through the Commit-tee on Legislative Franchises of the House of Rep-resentatives and the Committee on Public Services of the Senate within 60 days from the effectivity of the proposed Act. EBC shall also submit an annual report to Congress of the Philippines on its compliance with the terms and conditions of the franchise and on its op-erations on or before April 30 of the succeeding year. Failure to submit the Annual Report to Congress, EBC shall be fined P500 per working day of non-compliance, collected by the NTC separate from the reportorial penalties NTC imposed. Congress shall be informed of any lease, transfer, granting the usufruct of, sale or assignment of fran-chise or the rights or privileges acquired within 60 days after the completion of said transaction. Failure to report to Congress such change of own-ership shall render the franchise ipso facto revoked, and that any person or entity to which this franchise is sold, transferred, or assigned, shall be subject to the same conditions, terms, restrictions and limitations of the proposed Act. A special right is hereby reserved to the President of the Philippines, in times of war, rebellion, public peril, calamity, emergency disaster or disturbance of peace and order, to temporarily take over and operate the stations or facilities of EBC. The President may also temporarily suspend the operation of EBC or its facility in the interest of public safety, security and public welfare, or authorize the temporary use and operation thereof by any agency of the government, upon due compensation to EBC, for the use of said stations or facilities during the period when they shall be so operated. EBC shall hold the national, provincial, city and municipal governments of the Philippines free from all claims, accounts, demands, or actions arising out of accidents or injuries, whether to property or to persons, caused by the construction or operation of the EBC stations. PNA

SUNRISE SUNSET

6:23 AM 5:41 PM

MOONRISEMOONSET

6:51 AM 6:41 PM

TODAY’S WEATHERMETROMANILA

LAOAG

BAGUIO

SBMA/CLARK

TAGAYTAY

LEGAZPI

PUERTOPRINCESA

ILOILO/BACOLOD

TUGUEGARAO

METROCEBU

CAGAYANDE ORO

METRODAVAO

ZAMBOANGA

TACLOBAN

3-DAYEXTENDEDFORECAST

3-DAYEXTENDEDFORECAST

CELEBES SEA

LEGAZPI CITY24 – 30°C

TACLOBAN CITY23 – 30°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY

METRO DAVAO24 – 32°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY24 – 33°C

PHILI

PPIN

E ARE

A OF R

ESPO

NSIB

ILITY

(PAR

)

SABAH

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 25 – 30°C METRO CEBU

25 – 30°C

ILOILO/BACOLOD

24 – 28°C

23 – 30°C

24 – 31°C 24 – 31°C 25 – 30°C

23 – 29°C 23 – 29°C 24 – 30°C

24 – 30°C 23 – 31°C 24 – 31°C

24 – 33°C 24 – 33°C 25 – 33°C

25 – 33°C 25 – 32°C 25 – 33°C

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

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JANUARY 6, 2015 | TUESDAY

HIGH TIDEMANILA

SOUTH HARBOR

LOW TIDE

6:16 AM-0.21 METER

TUGUEGARAO CITY 20 – 28°C

LAOAG CITY 18 – 29°C

TAGAYTAY CITY 18 – 27°C

SBMA/CLARK 21 – 30°C

21 – 30°C 21 – 30°C 20 – 31°C

21 – 28°C 21 – 28°C 20 – 28°C

19 – 28°C 19 – 28°C 18 – 29°C

13 – 24°C 13 – 23°C 13 – 23°C

19 – 27°C 19 – 27°C 18 – 27°C

23 – 30°C23 – 30°C 24 – 30°C

25 – 31°C 24 – 31°C

22 – 30°C22 – 30°C 21 – 31°C

24 – 29°C24 – 29°C 24 – 30°C

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies withisolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Cloudy skies with rain showersand/or thunderstorms.

FULL MOON

12:53 PMJAN 05

BAGUIO CITY12 – 23°C

24 – 31°C

10:36 PM1.09 METER

JAN 7WEDNESDAY

JAN 8THURSDAY

JAN 9FRIDAY

JAN 7WEDNESDAY

JAN 8THURSDAY

JAN 9FRIDAY

Partly cloudy to at times cloudywith rainshowers

DIFFUSED TAIL-END OF A COLD FRONT

AFFECTING MINDANAO.NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING LUZON.

(AS OF JANUARY 5, 5:00 PM)

METRO MANILA20 – 30°C

Tail-end of a cold front is the extended part of the boundary, which happens when the cold air and warm air meet. This may bring rainfall and cloudiness over a�ected areas. It is felt at the northern

hemisphere winter season.

Northeast Monsoon locally known as “Amihan”. It a�ects the eastern portions of the country.

It is cold and dry; characterized by widespread cloudiness with rains and showers.

HALF MOON

5:46 PMJAN 13

Euro. . . Continued from A8

BusinessMirror news@businessmirror.com.ph Tuesday, January 6, 2015A2

NewsContinued from A8 Continued from A1

House leaders endorse EBC license renewal Rail fare-hike debate shifts to SC

to say.” European consumer prices probably dropped 0.1 percent in De-cember from a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey. That would be the first decline since October 2009, when the economy was strug-gling to recover from a slump after the financial crisis. German inflation and Spanish unemployment figures are due on Monday. Bond yieldsTHE pound declined to its weakest level since August 2013, while the Swiss franc lost 0.3 percent and the Australian dollar depreciated 0.5 percent. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the US currency against 10 major counterparts, added 0.3 percent, heading for its highest close since March 2009. Australian 15-year yields fell to

an unprecedented 2.97 percent and Japan’s five-year yield dropped to a record 0.025 percent. Bonds in the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Broad Market Sovereign Plus Index had an effective yield of 1.30 percent on January 2, approaching the low of 1.29 percent set in 2013, based on data going back to 1996. Consumer staples and telecom stocks led declines on the MSCI Asia Pacific In-dex, which dropped 0.8 percent. The Kos-pi lost 0.6 percent in Seoul and Taiwan’s Taiex Index retreated 0.4 percent. Japan’s Topix fell 0.5 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.6 percent. The Shanghai Composite extended its rally over the past six months to 63 percent. A gauge of Chinese energy shares rose 8.9 percent on Monday, the most in more than six years, with PetroChina Co. and China Shenhua Energy Co. soaring

by the 10-percent daily limit.

Crude fallsWEST Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped to $51.74 a barrel after capping a sixth straight weekly loss on January 2. Brent crude in London fell 1.8 percent to $55.43 per barrel, with both blends headed for their lowest settlement levels since 2009. WTI and Brent tumbled more than 40 percent last year as the highest US oil output in about 30 years collided with slowing global demand and Opec’s re-luctance to reduce its own production. Iraq plans to boost crude exports this month, according to the oil ministry. Gold for immediate delivery gained to $1,196.26 an ounce. Silver advanced 2.2 percent to $16.0721 an ounce in the spot market, while platinum climbed 1.3 percent. Bloomberg News

ABILL seeking to define any form of smuggling, which involves goods with an aggre-

gate value of P1 million as an act of economic sabotage, has been filed at the House of Representatives. In House Bill (HB) 5179, Unang Sigaw Rep. Estrellita B. Suansing of Nueva Ecija noted that the country has constantly grappled with the problem of rampant smuggling. HB 5179, now pending at the Com-mittee on Ways and Means chaired by Liberal Party Rep. Romero S. Quimbo of Marikina City, seeks to amend Presidential Decree (PD) 1464, oth-erwise known as “The Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines,” to define smuggling as an act of economic sabotage and provide the appropriate punishment and penal-ties thereof. The bill seeks to amend Section 3514 of PD 1464, so that economic sabotage will refer to “any and all ac-tivities that undermines weaken or render into disrepute the economic system or viability of the country or tend to bring about such effects, for the purpose of this Act, any viola-tion of Sections 3601 and 3602 of this Act, which involves goods or articles with the aggregate value of P1 million, shall constitute an eco-nomic sabotage.” The bill also seeks to amend Section 3601 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, pertaining to unlawful importa-tion, and Section 3602, pertain-ing to various fraudulent practices against customs revenue, so that any violation of these provisions that constitute an economic sabo-tage, as defined in the law, shall be punished as follows: Fine equal to twice the fair mar-ket value of the articles involved;   Fine equal to the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties and other charges avoided; Imprisonment of a minimum of eight years and one day up to life imprisonment; and   Confiscation of the articles involved. If the violator is a juridical entity, the penalty of imprisonment shall be imposed on its president and other responsible officers. In addition, the business permits and licenses of the business entity shall be revoked or cancelled. The broker of the violator shall be punished as a principal, the bill provides. In filing the bill, Suansing said, “Considering the detrimental ef-fect of smuggling on the country’s

economy and the problems it pres-ents to the Filipino people, HB 5179 seeks to define any form of smug-gling, which involves goods with an aggregate value of P1 million, as an act of economic sabotage. It aims to ward off such illegal activities by providing appropriate punishments and penalties.” She said smuggling has plagued the national economy, depriving the country of its much-needed revenue and crippling key programs of the government. “Aside from the revenue losses, smuggling constantly poses as a hindrance to the growth of domestic industries. It fosters unfair compe-tition with the local producers and manufacturers, including licensed distributors, wholesalers and retail-ers,” Suansing added. The lawmaker also cited a re-port of the Global Financial In-tegrity, which pointed out that the Philippine government has lost at least $19.3 billion since 1990 in tax revenue due to customs duties-evasion through import under-invoicing alone. Moreover, the report said that, combined with an additional $3.7 billion in tax revenue lost through export under-invoicing, the govern-ment has lost at least $23 billion in customs revenue due to trade mis-invoicing since 1990. Suansing said the report further said that, in 2011 alone, the coun-try lost an estimated $3.85 billion in tax revenues due to smuggling. “The report described the revenue loss as more than double the size of the fiscal deficit and also constituted 95 percent of the Philippines’ total government expenditures on social benefits during the same year. In the 52-year period covered by the study, the Philippines lost $177 bil-lion through capital flight according to the report,” she said. Meanwhile, Suansing said the Bu-reau of Customs reportedly did not meet its collection target even with the reported gains in the first half of 2014, as compared to the same period last year. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz 

By Recto Mercene

THE Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) on Monday announced that it is

ready for the arrival of Pope Francis on January 15, even as it warned passengers leaving or arriving on this date and on January 19, the day of the pope’s departure for Rome, to contact their airlines or travel agents for their revised flight schedules. “As we have earlier announced, there will be no flights arriving in all Ninoy Aquino International Airport [Naia] terminals from 2 to 7 p.m. on January 15 and 6 to 10:30 a.m. on January 19, 2015,” Miaa General Manager Jose Angel Honrado said. Honrado said this consensus was reached with the airlines in a series of consultative meetings, following the announcement of the Pope’s Visit National Organizing Committee that some major roads around the Naia Complex will be closed on the arrival and departure days of the pope. Representatives from govern-ment agencies operating out of the Naia were also present during all the meetings, according to the Miaa Me-

dia Affairs Division (MAD). Following the consultations, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philip-pines issued a Notice to Airmen an-nouncing the suspension of arriving flights on the dates mentioned. However, the Caap said, flights related to the pope’s visit will con-tinue to operate. Honrado said the Notam shall guide the airline operators in revis-ing their flight schedules or adopting other options that passengers with bookings on these days may take. “The prerogative to cancel, ad-vance, delay or divert flights rests on the airline companies,” Hon-rado said. “Whatever it is, Miaa and other

government agencies in Naia will support them. The Civil Aeronautics Board has cleared the airlines of any liability pertaining to the consequen-tial effect of the suspension of flight arrivals on the two days.” Honrado added that the Miaa has scheduled a final consultative meet-ing with the airlines and govern-ment agencies on January 7, where he hopes to obtain information as to the revision preferences being considered by passengers, who will be affected, or the airlines’ plan to implement revised schedules. Since departure f lights will proceed on the 15th and the 19th, Honrado reminded passengers with departing flights on these days to be at the airport much earlier than the usual three hours before a flight.  “It would be best for passengers to make their way to the airport way ahead before the roads within the Naia complex start to close at 3pm on January 15, and at 7am on Janu-ary 19,” Honrado said. “On these days, the Naia Complex will only be accessible via South Lu-zon Expressway through Bicutan, Alabang and Sucat Roads.”

Owing to the road closures, Naia Terminals 3 and 4 will be isolated since the entire stretch beginning from Sales Avenue fronting Terminal 3 all the way to the Domestic Road fronting Terminal 4 will be closed and will not be accessible to vehicu-lar traffic,” Honrado said. On the other hand, for the ben-efit of Terminals 3 and 4 passengers with departing flights on these days, Miaa will set up a drop-off point-cum-staging area for them at the Naia Terminal 1 Parking B. He said the passengers shall be initially gathered there and ini-tial security procedures will be in place to secure both passengers and their baggage. From Parking B, the passengers will be taken by the Miaa shuttle buses to Terminals 3 and 4 through the airside. “The Miaa also encourages a drop-and-go system for those who will bring their passengers to Naia.” Honrado added that the Miaa shall also close Naia Terminal 3 ar-rival and departure lobbies to non-passengers during the entire day on January 15 and from 12 midnight to 12 noon on January 19.    

MUSLIM leaders gathered on Monday in a discussion to convey their call for a sectoral representative of Muslims residing outside

the Bangsamoro entity. Led by 1-Bangsamoro movement, the event served as a venue for leaders to justify their recommendation for the Bangsamoro basic law (BBL). Among the factors that support their recommendation are said to be the large number of Moros living outside the Bangsamoro entity, who have found residence in some parts of Luzon and Visayas and also the “big contribution” of the sector of Moros. Apart from having a sectoral representative, Muslim leaders also urged for the creation of Shari’ah courts in certain areas in the country, where there is an “appreciable” number of Muslims. This is due to some cases of Muslims, which are only covered by the Shari’ah law, they said. Adding to their list of demands for the BBL is the conduct of special voters’ registration for Muslims outside Mindanao and also for Moro overseas workers. In the House of Representatives, only two committee hearings are left before the panel’s voting on the BBL bill. “We are looking forward to the passage of BBL before the year ends,” Sultan Mohammad Bano of the National Federation of Police-Accredited Muslim Nongovernment Organizations said. PNA

By Manuel T. CayonMindanao Bureau Chief

DAVAO CITY—The enactment, or rejec-tion, of the body of laws governing the new Bangsamoro political unit would

be crucial to the economic projections of Min-danao, the government’s socioeconomic plan-ning unit for the island, said. “Aside from having the highest incidence of poverty and slowest growth among all regions, the Moro areas are also the areas with almost all sordid situation: very low ratio of physicians, or nurses, or midwives to population,” said Romeo Montenegro, chief of the international investment and public affairs division of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA). Montenegro said the central and western regions of Mindanao, the areas that are domi-nantly Moro, “are also the areas where we have experienced decades of conflict.” “That is why it is difficult to bring Mindanao to the next level [of economic growth without bringing these areas to the road to peace],” he told a regular Monday news briefing. Montenegro said the signing of the Bangsamoro basic law into a law is one of the crucial elements that would propel Mindanao into steadily increasing growth during the next years. Among the other former disadvantageous positions that have turned positive for Mind-anao was its electric power supply, where at least

three coal-fired power plants with minimum aggregate capacity of 900 megawatts would come into full operation within the next three years, with the 300-MW plant in Davao City to start streaming to the Mindanao grid by the last quarter of this year. He said infrastructure constructions have also intensified, and disclosed that the Depart-ment of Public Works and Highways would be spending this year its biggest allocation on in-frastructure in Mindanao. The DPWH has already allocated 30 percent of its budget to Mindanao, which Montenegro said has vastly improved road networks and sea and air ports. These steady infrastructure spending and increasing attraction of Mindanao to invest-ments have led to the highest growth in 2012 at 8.1 percent, “much higher than the national growth of 7 percent that year.” If not for the Zamboanga siege by armed fol-lowers of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Typhoon Pablo late in the year, “the is-land could have improved on its still high 6.3- percent growth.” “We expect 2014 to hit 7-percent growth,” he said. “We are highly optimistic for 2015, because of the predictable coming in of more corporate investments, not only on agribusiness which is the strength of Mindanao, but also of the needed big investments in manufacturing,” he said.

By Butch Fernandez

M ALACAÑANG, ignoring Sen. Antonio Trillanes’s warning against resum-

ing talks with  communist rebels, on Monday affirmed its readiness to reopen negotiations for a last-ing cease-fire with Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peo-ple’s Army-National Democratic Front leaders. But President Aquino’s chief Spokesman, Secretary Edwin Laci-erda, clarified that the government panel would sit down for a new round of peace negotiations with the CPP-NPA-NDF, “only if they are time-bound and doable.” “We have always said we are open to resuming talks, provided that we avoid the mistakes of the past,” Laci-erda told Palace reporters at a news briefing on Monday. “And, I think, that’s not an unreasonable request,” he quickly added. And, even if the resumption of peace talks with the rebels do not quickly materialize, Lacierda said the Aquino administration would simply continue to do its mandate to serve the people. “As far as we are concerned,

our burden is to uplift the con-cerns of every Filipino,” Lacierda said, adding that “our concern is to make sure that the welfare of every Filipino, whether you’re a rebel, whether you’re a civilian, or whether you’re a law-abiding citizen is taken cared of.” He said this simply means that, “If they [CPP-NPA leaders] are not willing to talk peace, we are go-ing to continue to go and go to ar-eas where we can help the people [with the] poverty-intervention programs that we have, other al-leviation measures that we can do to help the poor.” At the same time, Lacierda as-sured that the Armed Forces will, likewise, proceed to enforce the gov-ernment’s Internal Security Plan to protect unarmed civilian communi-ties from rebel forces. He noted that both the govern-ment and the rebels are “coming from a situation where there are no peace talks...so we’re status quo right now.” But Lacierda also admitted that “there are friends of the [peace pro-cess,] who are channeling back and forth to see if there is a possibility of restarting the peace process.”

“We are going to the Supreme Court as soon as it seems there is no more chance to be heard in the Come-lec,” C3E  Coconvener Hermenegildo Estrella said. C3E’s statement was issued in response to reports that the poll body has already decided to do away with the bidding for the P1.2-billion contract for the repair of the 80,000 Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines in favor of Smartmatic.

However,   Comelec Chairman Sixto  Brillantes immediately denied that the poll body has already decided to award the P1.2-billion contract to Smartmatic. Brillantes said the Comelec awarded only the first portion, which is the P300-million maxi-mum contract, and not the en-tire  P1.2-billion contract. The first portion, according to Brillantes, refers to P300-million

news@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, January 6, 2015 A3BusinessMirrorThe Nation

contract for diagnostics examina-tion and minor repairs. On the other hand, the Comelec chairman said the second stage of the contract, worth P900 million, will be used for the actual repair and maintenance, while the third stage, which would be worth anoth-er P300 million, is for the upgrade of the machines. Brillantes stressed that public bid-ding may still be conducted for the second portion depending on the  re-sults of the first stage of repairs. But, the C3E warned that it will exhaust all legal remedies to prevent the Comelec from giving the con-tracts to Smartmatic. “We will use all available means to stop the Comelec from further rewarding the inefficiency of Smart-matic,” Estrella said. Estrella said the poll watchdog group and their allies are strongly opposed to the reported decision of the commission en banc to extend the poll body’s warranty contract with Smartmatic-TIM, instead of holding a public bidding.

“We are manifesting our strongest rejection of this callous and despi-cable act,” he added. He said this is because they believe that Smartmatic has already lost control and ownership of the PCOS machines when the units were sold to the Comelec in 2012. Citing provisions of the 2012 Deed of Sale between Comelec and Smartmatic, C3E pointed that “the control and ownership of the hard-ware and software shall be trans-ferred to the buyer upon acceptance per batch of 20,000 units during the Hardware Acceptance Process.” Estrella said this makes the threat of legal actions by Smartmatic-TIM for intellectual-property violation being committed by the Comelec when it contracts a different service provider, “false and bereft of basis.” “The machines belong to the Com-elec…. As the owner of the machine, opening it for repairs is not a violation [of the law]. An owner of a Toyota ve-hicle can opt to have his car repaired in any shop or by any mechanic he prefers,” Estrella added.

Comelec’s P1.2-billion PCOS contractwith Smartmatic faces court challenge

By Joel R. San Juan

ELECTION watchdog Citizens for Clean and Credible Elections (C3E) said it is ready to stop the

Commission on Elections (Comelec) from eventually awarding the P1.2-billion contract for the repair and refurbishing of the 80,000 voting machines that were used in previous elections.

Palace ignores Trillanes, to pursue peace talks with communist rebs

Premier airport ready for pope’s arrival Lawmaker wants to define any formof smuggling as economic sabotage

‘Moros living outside Bangsamoro entity should be represented’

‘BBL crucial to Mindanao economic development’

HONRADO: “As we have earlier

announced, there will be no flights arriving

in all Ninoy Aquino International Airport

terminals from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on January

15 and 16 to 10:30 a.m. on January

19, 2015.”

SUANSING: “Aside from the revenue losses, smuggling

constantly poses as a hindrance to the

growth of domestic industries.”

By Rizal Raoul ReyesCorrespondent

IN this age of environmental deg-radation, global warming and climate change, the alternative

is to pursue  sustainable  develop-ment. But before pursuing the path toward sustainable development, a country must also, at the same time, pursue good governance.

“Good governance is essential for any institution to work, or any organi-zation for that matter. Assigning and electing abusive government officials do not only have hazardous repercus-sions on government efficiency, but also affects investor confidence and aggregate productivity, said Edgardo Manuel Jopson, a professor of eco-nomics at the De La Salle University-Manila in an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror.

In expounding his viewpoint, Jop-son cited the work of economists Da-ron Acemoglu and James Robinson called “Why Nations Fail.” In order to achieve sustainable development, Acemoglu and Robinson pointed out that political and economic in-stitutions of nation should have an inclusive—instead of an extractive group—to ensure the path of growth

is equitably distributed. On the other hand, the authors said an extractive act hinders development. Corruption, for example, is a form of an extractive act.

The authors define an extractive institution as a “small” group of indi-viduals who do their best to exploit—in the sense of Marx—the rest of the population, and while “inclusive” institutions in which “many” people are included in the process of govern-ing, hence the exploitation process is either attenuated or absent.”

The recent controversies on the Priority Development Assistance Fund and the Disbursement Acceler-ated Program are very good referenc-es in the study of extractive process.

For Acemoglu and Robinson, po-litical institutions must be solid and centralized to ensure economic suc-cess and provide basic public services including justice, the enforcement of contracts and education.

Furthermore, he said a govern-ment must be concerned on misallo-cation of resources because this would cause market failure which will have strong economic repercussions, such as shortage of resources in the fight against poverty alleviation, among others. “This, in turn, would have a dire effect on the aggregate economy

as markets will be mispriced, making them prone to higher risk, dispelling potential investment and market credibility,” he said.

With the absence of good gover-nance, Jopson stressed the economy itself will be inefficient. He said providing opportunity for growth should be included in the march to-ward  sustainable  development.  “If the government becomes a hin-drance to such, then the disparity be-tween the elite and poor will widen, which is not sustainable,” he said.

In general, Jopson said a pro-poor government is usually concerned with providing sustainable employ-ment for everyone in the economy, as well as improving the living condi-tions of every household. However, he said this becomes a challenge when a mismatch between academe and industry arise. For instance, col-lege graduates are facing challenges to find jobs because there is little or no need for their skills in the market. In response, the government and pri-vate sector recently formed the Na-tional Industry-Academe Council to address the mismatch in the country.

The low amount of foreign direct investment is another challenge the country needs to address immediate-

ly because it is the most important element in achieving higher employ-ment and growth.

“Basically, investment is the key to providing opportunities for com-merce and trade to flourish in the economy, which, in turn, hires labor. Without making the county more attractive to domestic and foreign investors, then it would be difficult for the country to improve further. Actions that the government may do in order to solve these problems is to increase its expenditure on ba-sic services (education and health) and infrastructure. It is also equally important to make the investment climate more conducive to investors by improving the processes involved in setting up a business,” he said.

As far as the working class is con-cerned, Jopson said they have the right to pursue a dignified existence as long as it is within the bounds of respect for human rights. Further, Jopson remarked that market forces will eventually adjust in case there are violations committed against labor organizations.

For as long as the market exists, and there are individuals who are willing to work under such conditions, Jop-son said the workers in the long run

who push that their standard of living must improve, without any incentive for firms to do so, may lose their jobs. “This move is not without danger in the aggregate economy, as well; an in-crease in wages may drive away inves-tors simply because the price of labor has now increased,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, an increase in the purchasing power of workers will not only increase their productivity but also their consumption. Based on the Keynesian framework, Jopson said it is well known within the bounds of the Keynesian framework that the inevitable effect of increased wages results to inflation, but since prices are sticky, this move may even im-prove the aggregate economy due to increase in consumption.

He said the Philippines will face a big challenge to pursue the green agenda. Jopson said the country lacks the technological capabilities of adapting green technology for now. However, Jopson said this does not mean the country should not par-ticipate in the green movement right now. The country can contribute in the green movement by funding its research and being part of the devel-opment team in order to make green technology more sustainable.“

 “But green technology, in its cur-rent state, cannot be fully utilized by the country as of now.  At least for some private institutions, they are able to invest in green technology which could be a source of best prac-tices for other institutions,” he said.

On the controversial population issue, Jopson stressed to look at both sides and consider the advantages and disadvantages of an increase or decrease in population.

In practice, however, Jopson said the best way to address the population issue is to provide investments in hu-man capital which include education and health. Currently, Jopson said the   biggest problem in the population issue is rooted on the fear that the ad-ditional individuals will be less produc-tive than before that will “consume” resources available in the economy. “By making these additional peo-ple more productive in the economy, then an increase in population is not really a bad thing. Another threat of overpopulation is the supposedly in-evitable increase in population den-sity in urban areas. If businesses and job opportunities were decentralized from Metro Manila, then the dangers of an increase in population is still quite far off,” he said.

BusinessMirror news@businessmirror.com.ph A4

EconomyCEBU CITY—An official of the Cebu

Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) said 2014 could be considered

another banner year for the organization. In her year-end report, CCCI President Ma. Teresa Chan said the chamber became an important voice of the local business community when it became a member of several government committees. Chan said CCCI was invited to become member of the Metro Cebu Development Coordinating Board, chairman of the economic sector committee of the Cebu City Development Council, member of the Small-Medium Enterprise Development Council, the Solid Waste Management Board, Rivers Management Council and the Cebu City’s South Road Properties Joint Venture Committee. Chan said the CCCI was also invited to chair the infrastructure committee and vice chair of the investment board of the Cebu Provincial Government. They also hold memberships in the Regional Development Council 7, its Economic Sector Committee and the Regional Peace and Order Council. CCCI also received accreditation from the Department of Public Works and Highways. Chan said they became part of so many committees that they had to decline participation to some, such as invitations to become part of bids and awards committees of different government agencies because they felt they could no longer give enough time to attend to the responsibilities. Chan said being asked to be part of these bodies means local government units recognize CCCI’s role as liaison and channel for communication of the business community in Cebu.

CCCI, she said, was geared to advance the well-being of Cebu by initiating, submitting, recommending and assisting in the formulation, development, implementation and evaluation of plans, policies, programs and activities that will promote and enhance the interests and growth of private businesses. Chan said they also facilitated international events, projects and inbound missions last year such as hosting the World Economic Forum’s young global leaders event, liaisoning with international humanitarian aid agencies for the recovery and rehabilitation of typhoon-stricken northern Cebu. They have also been active in the preparations for the hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in coordination with the Cebu Provincial Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The CCCI also held trade missions in Nigeria, Sabah, Turkey, Canada, Israel, Vietnam and Indonesia. Chan said these trade missions have helped local enterprises in their partnerships and strengthened their relationships with international business chambers. Chan said business chambers based in Singapore and Thailand have signified interest in sending delegates to this year’s Cebu Business Month in June and participate in the exposition during the activity. CCCI has 708 member-companies, with an addition of 47 last year. Chan said 2014 was a good year for membership because aside from the addition of member-companies, existing members that have not been as active in the past began paying attention and paying membership dues once again. PNA

Data obtained from the ADB web site showed the Senior High School Support Program will receive the largest chunk of ADB’s assistance with a $300-million loan.  The project, which was approved on December 15, 2014, aims to im-prove teaching and learning at the secondary education level.  The project that was approved with the second largest assistance from ADB is the Local Government Finance and Fiscal Decentraliza-tion Reform Program-Subprogram 1, which will receive $250 million worth of technical assistance.  The project aims to help improve

the efficiency and transparency in local government units (LGUs). The project will also include fiscal man-agement for LGUs.   Other projects that were approved by the ADB last year included a non-sovereign financing for the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Passen-ger Terminal Project. However, as of press time, the BusinessMirror could not confirm the amount ex-tended by ADB for the project.  The expansion of the MCIA is one of the major public-private partnership (PPP) projects of the Aquino administration.  The P17.22 billion worth project

Tuesday, January 6, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

was awarded to GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. in 2013. Another project included in the list is the Strengthening Evaluation and Fiscal Cost Management of PPPs Project that will receive a $2-million-worth grant from ADB.  The project aims to improve the financial sustainability in-frastructure investments made through PPPs by strengthening the National Economic and De-velopment Authority’s capacity to appraise PPP projects. Meanwhile, other projects ap-proved by the Manila-based multi-lateral development bank include the Enhancing Rural Enterprise and Rural Employment Project and Metro Manila Water and Sani-tation Development Project that will each receive an assistance of $1 million.  The project outputs for the En-hancing Rural Enterprise and Rural Employment Project is still being drafted. According to ADB docu-ments, the design will be conducted this month until June 2015. 

The Metro Manila Water and Sani-tation Project will finance priority water and sanitation investments of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.  It will also contribute to improv-ing the living and health conditions in the National Capital Region, which accounts for 33 percent of the coun-try’s gross domestic product. The other projects on the list are Teach for the Philippines Project and the Strengthening Treasury Op-erations and Capital Market Reform Project that will receive an estimated $500,000 worth of technical assis-tance from ADB.  The Teach for Philippines Project aims to improve the country’s prog-ress in meeting the education-related Millennium Development Goals. The project will focus on regional and income-based inequalities.  The Strengthening Treasury Operations and Capital Market Reform Project seeks to improve the Bureau of the Treasury staff capacity in dealing, processing and asset management.

ADB extended $555-M loan for 8 PHL projects in 2014

By Cai U. Ordinario

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a total financing of at least $555 million

for eight Philippine project loans and grants in 2014. 

CCCI: 2014 another banner year for Cebu biz chamber

Good governance bedrock of sustainable development, economics professor says

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

PROPERTY developers Filin-vest Land Inc. and Megawide Construction Corp. will once

again meet on the battlefield of the government’s Public-Private Part-nership (PPP) Program after they were deemed qualified to officially vie for the P2.5-billion Integrated Transport System (ITS) Southwest Terminal deal. Transportation Spokesman Mi-chael Arthur C. Sagcal said the two firms’ qualification documents passed the evaluation conducted by the agen-cy’s bids and awards committee. “Our bids and awards committee will now proceed to the opening and evaluation of technical proposals,” he said. Out of a dozen potential inves-tors that expressed their interest in the project, only Filinvest and Mega-wide joined the long-delayed auction, submitting their offers before the

agency last month. The two groups last year fought over the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport Expansion deal, with one party accusing another of illegally bidding for the said project. The airport contract was then awarded to top bidder GMR-Mega-wide Cebu Airport Corp., which is now operating and maintaining the aviation hub in Cebu. After battling for the airport deal, the two camps will now wage war for the contract to build an intermodal terminal near the Manila-Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex) to connect pas-sengers coming from Cavite to urban transport systems in Metro Manila. It will include a passenger termi-nal building, arrival and departure bays, public information systems, ticketing and baggage handling fa-cilities and park-ride facilities. The government has awarded eight contracts since the infrastruc-

It’s Filinvest vs Megawide again in ITS Southwest project bidding

MANIlA Mayor Joseph Estrada has ordered the suspension of classes, city hall work on Friday, the Feast of Black Nazarene.

“Classes for all levels, in all universities, colleges and schools in the city of Manila is suspended on January 9, 2015, Friday,” Executive Order (EO) 01, signed by Mayor Estrada on Monday, said.

The EO does not cover work in national govern-ment offices and private offices, or in select frontline and security services

“Work is suspended on January 9, 2015, Friday, in all departments, offices and bureaus in the city government of Manila, except those involved in the maintenance of peace and order, traffic enforce-ment, disaster and risk-reduction management, health and sanitation and in the issuance of business permits and collection of taxes,” it said.

The suspension of classes was based on the recommendation of various offices con-sidering the thousands of pilgrims the city is expecting to participate in the procession of the Black Nazarene.

“The Traffic Management Committee, the Ma-nila Traffic and Parking Bureau, the Manila Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office and the Manila Police District have recommended the suspension of classes for all levels in all universities, colleges and schools in the city of Manila, as well as the suspension of work in the City Government Offices to ensure public order safety and convenience and to reduce traffic congestion during the occasion,” the EO read. PNA

Manila suspends classes, city hall work for Feast of Black Nazarene

A worker works overtime to meet the spike in the demand for printed Black Nazarene T-shirts ahead of the culmination of the Black Nazarene feast on Friday in Quiapo, Manila. NONIE REYES

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga—The Clark Development Corp. (CDC) is gearing up for the Asia

Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Se-nior Officials’ Meeting inside this Freeport this month. CDC President Arthur P. Tugade on Monday said that among the Apec re-quirements include the convention hall and hotel rooms to host the delegates that will arrive during the First Senior Officials’ Meeting and Related Meetings (SOM1) from January 26 to February 7. Tugade also said that Clark-Apec appli-cations are now available on all Android phones or tablets. This would allow the android us-ers to keep track on the Apec events in Clark, he said. He added that Wi-dus Hotel and Casino had allotted one tower hotel and would request for an-other 30 rooms. Oxford and Casino Hotel is also setting aside two floors, which are expected to be

completed before the Apec meet in Clark. He also thanked the new owners of the newly renovated Oxford Hotel for expe-diting the renovation and rehabilitation of the hotel. Earlier the Oxford hotel agreed to invest P200 million for the beautification and renovation of the hotel and its grounds. Fontana Hotsprings and Leisure Parks has also reported the nearing completion of its convention hall that can accommodated more than 1,800 people in a seating capacity. Fontana has also improved some of its villas in preparation and accommoda-tion of Apec delegates during the SOM1 meeting here. Other hotels with improved rooms include Holiday Inn Clark and Stot-senberg Hotel. Tugade said that the P15.14-million Bayanihan Park Rotunda in Balibago, which would serve as the main entrance to the Freeport zone, is expected to be completed before the Apec. PNA

By Lenie Lectura

ATOP official of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said 2015 is going to be a “challenging” year for the util-

ity firm because of the impending power shortage feared to happen during the sum-mer months.  “It is going to be a very challenging year for us and for the industry. The challenge lies in the power supply,” Meralco President Oscar Reyes said in an interview.  While 2014 was a “relatively good year” for Meralco because of stable power sup-ply and lower rates, Reyes urged industry players to work together to ensure a reli-able power supply during those months when demand is at its peak.  “There had been no major disruption and supply was always available. Prices were also lower. In fact, we just had our lowest generation charge recently. These all happened in 2014. We hope that ev-eryone will do its part to ensure supply availability this year,” Reyes explained.  For Meralco’s part, the utility firm continues to entice companies to sign up with its Interruptible Load Program (ILP), a government initiative meant to address the looming power shortage.  Meralco utility economics head Lawrence Fernandez said the company will continue to invite captive and contestable customers to participate in the program and is targeting to formally sign up the ones currently under negotiations before January 31.  As of December 5 last year, 141 companies have signed up for the pro-

gram. These represent 593 megawatts (MW) of committed interruptible load (CIL) capacity.  Of the total number if ILP participants, 105 are retail electricity suppliers (RES) customers and 36 are Meralco customers. The RES have committed a total of 402 MW of capacity and 191 from Meralco customers.  ILP works by calling on business cus-tomers with loads of at least 1 MW to run their own generator sets, if needed, instead of drawing power from the grid.   With the ILP, power supply from the grid that will not be consumed by partici-pating customers will be available for use by other customers within the franchise area. Through this, the aggregate demand for power from the system will be reduced to a more manageable level, helping en-sure the availability of supply during the anticipated power crisis this year.  Meralco also continues to source ad-ditional power from power producers to mitigate its exposure to the Wholesale Electricity Sport Market.  The projected power shortage for two weeks in April is estimated to reach 678 MW. This translates to a one-hour rotat-ing brownout per day for two weeks.  The imminent threat of electric power shortage in the months of 2015 is a threat to the country’s economic and social life.  The power crisis would be brought about by higher demand, the Malampaya gas facility shutdown, the coming El Niño months and the Pagbilao 1 facility shut-down in May.

“Thankfull no, oil rigs are not clos-ing in the country,” Monsada said.

Currently, there are three petroleum production sites in the country, name-ly, Malampaya, Ga-loc and the Cadlao fields, which are all based in Palawan. The three fields are projected to have an output of 43,190 bar-rels per day by 2018, according to Fitch Group’s Business Monitor International.

Other areas, run through awarded service contract operatorships, are still at exploration stage. It involves the study of the area to ensure the highest production of oil and gas.

Monsada assured that projects in the explora-tion stage are also not being canceled due to the global glut that originated from increased shale oil production and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ decision not to cut supply.

Moreover, the energy undersecretary added that the energy department hopes that the inter-est for the Philippine Energy Contracting Round 5 (PECR 5) will still be converted to applications from international companies despite the con-tinuous fall of oil prices. PECR 5 is the bidding for service contracts on potential petroleum and coal-rich sites. PNA

news@businessmirror.com.ph Tuesday, January 6, 2015 A5BusinessMirrorEconomy

Global glut won’t halt local oil drillings and explorations–DOE Companies are not canceling oil-rig drillings

and explorations amid the continuous slide in global oil prices, according to energy

Undersecretary Zenaida monsada.

Not for kids Children attempt to tinker with a cluster of water meters installed at a residential area in Kamias, Quezon City, amid the reported increase in monthly water bills imposed by Metro Manila water concessionaries Maynilad and Manila Water. NoNoy Lacza

Meralco exec sees ‘challenging’ 2015

Clark gears up for Apec-SOM1

Monsada

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

OpinionBusinessMirrorA6

The failure of govt subsidies

editorial

THE fare increases for the Light Rail Transit Lines 1 and 2 (LRT-1 and LRT-2) and the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT3) come down to one issue: government subsidies. Most of the other argu-

ments both for and against the increase are just noise.

“Why should taxpayers outside of Metro Manila pay for a rail system that they do not use?” is one of our favorites. By the same logic, why should taxpayers in Metro Manila pay for national roads in provinces hundreds of kilometers from the metropolitan area? Both arguments are nonsense since a nation’s economy and infrastructure is completely connected one way or another.

The justification for the transit rail fare increases is that the actual cost of taking a passenger from one point on the system to another is not being covered by the amount of the fare. However, no one really knows the actual cost for that transportation.

Even the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) uses ambiguous terms as the “government subsidizes around 60 percent of the cost for each LRT-1 and LRT-2 passenger and around 75 percent of each MRT-3 passenger.” The word “around” can cover a multitude of financial sins and absolutely would not be accepted in the private sector.

But the real issue and the real problem is the government subsidy.Government subsidies of any price paid by the consumer distort

the market. Indonesia’s fuel subsidy is a classic example. The fuel sub-sidy will cost Indonesia $20 billion this year, which is one-fifth of the country’s national budget and the artificially low price of gasoline has made Indonesia one of the least fuel–conservation conscious countries in the world.

The Philippine government has been subsidizing the MRT at about P6-7 billion a year. Some say that this is because of a bad public and/or private sector operation agreement that should have been voided.

But, if true, what it really proves is that hybrid projects like these are inherently flawed. The private sector operates within market forces. The government operates within political forces. You cannot mix apples and mangoes successfully.

The subsidization program is a failure both financially and politically. The consumer has suffered in ways that would not have occurred if the rail system were totally private. The taxpayers have suffered supporting a sys-tem that has not served the train passengers well.

If the government builds, owns, operates, and subsidizes prices, at least we know what we are getting into both good and bad. The same is true for private sector ownership. But the current situation seems to gives the public only bad results and this system should be stopped.

Conclusion

Growth Drivers remain intact

RECENT moves by the government support my expectations of increased public spending in the next two years, which should help reverse the slowdown in

economic growth in 2014.

SIMPLISTICALLY, the world is divided into two economic philosophy and policy camps. There are the “Keynesians” who follow a 21st century version of the works of John Maynard

Keynes. Then there are the “Austrians” who believe in the theories of the so-called Austrian School of economic thought.

2015, 2016 augur well for the economy

Heads, I win; tails, you lose

THE EnTrEprEnEurManny B. Villar

The P2.606-trillion national bud-get for 2015 will boost spending for infrastructure, including the rehabili-tation of Eastern Visayas and other areas damaged by natural disasters.

The government also hopes to ac-celerate the implementation of projects under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program, including eight proj-ects worth about P625 billion.

Increased infrastructure spending will also contribute to the growth of the BPO industry, as it will open more areas outside Metro Manila for development as BPO hubs. This, in turn, will boost the real estate industry by increasing demand for office buildings.

The government says the tourism

industry, which also stimulates the real estate industry and generates a lot of employment, is already recovering from the setback caused by the natural calamities in 2013. Tourist arrivals for 2014 are expected to reach 6.8 million and will continue to increase in the next two years to reach the target of 10 million by 2016.

Remittances from overseas Filipi-nos, both workers and immigrants, also continue to grow despite conflicts in some foreign countries.

Data from the Bangko Sentral show that cash remittances coursed through banks amounted to $2.2 bil-lion in October 2014, up 7 percent from the same month in 2013. This

brought the total remittances for the first 10 months of 2014 to $19.9 bil-lion, higher by 6.2 percent compared to $18.7 billion in the same period in the previous year.

The Philippines is also attracting more investments, partly because of the numerous credit rating upgrades that international rating agencies have given the country.

In another report, the Bangko Sentral said foreign direct invest-ments (FDIs) posted net inflows of $680 million in September 2014, more than double the net inflows of $314 million in the same month in 2013. For the period January to Sep-tember 2014, net FDI inflows surged by 61.3 percent to $4.9 billion com-pared to $3 billion a year ago.

Even local investors are pouring capital on different projects through-out the country. In particular, the tycoons are very aggressive in invest-ments, whether on their own or in partnership with other local or foreign investors.

Thus, we see big projects rising in Cebu and Iloilo in the Visayas, and in Cagayan de Oro and Davao in Mind-anao, in addition to Mega Manila.

I believe FDI is one of the things that we lack. It is the missing link between slow or moderate growth and the fast-paced growth that we need to develop an inclusive economy.

Despite the temporary slowdown

in 2014, the Philippine economy is ready to take off and the government must make sure that no other obstacle stands in the way, by continuing its reforms to make it easy for investors to do business here.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) shares this optimistic outlook for the Philippines, citing robust do-mestic demand and investment, low inflation and interest rates, increased remittances and upbeat business sen-timent.

At the same time, however, the ADB laments that growth has not been creating enough jobs, as more than a quarter of Filipino workers remain jobless or underemployed.

I mentioned the ADB’s observation both to serve as a reminder and as a challenge. The large number of Filipino workers who have no jobs or do not have enough income should remind us that the growth of the economy should include the objective of generating em-ployment and livelihood.

For policymakers, the large number of Filipino workers who have no jobs or do not have enough income should be a challenge that must be addressed if we are to solve the problem of poverty.

In closing, let me greet all Filipinos a happy New Year!

For comments, e-mail mbv.secretari-at@gmail.com or visit www.mannyvil-lar.com.ph.

The “Keynesians” embrace the idea that during times of economic stress, mainly recessions, it is beneficial in the short term for the government to stim-ulate the economy through whatever means necessary. This includes low interest rates to encourage borrowing and increased government spending through increased debt if necessary.

The “Austrians” believe that Keynesian practices will lead to as-sets price bubbles that will eventually burst, debt bubbles that will create hyperinflation, and bad investments that will distort future economic growth. The Austrian solution to re-cessions and the like is to allow the normal business cycle to work things out without too much government interference. Austrians would let the market decide interest rates and not the central banks.

The global economic system

through the banks and the govern-ment have adopted Keynesian polices for the most part over the last 6 years. Even the most dedicated Keynesians can only say at best that things would have been much worse without govern-ment borrowing and stimulus. At best, economic growth in the US and Europe is increasing at a miserably slow rate. Unemployment in Europe is a disaster and in the US the number of people available for work that are actually employed is very low.

Median wages in the US are at the lowest level since 1998. Adjusted for inflation, Americans are earning less today than they did even as recently as 2012.

Keynesians who might have bet on a strong economic recovery has lost. However, Keynesians who put their money in the stock market have been huge winners. Your investment in an

Exchange Trade Fund (ETF) that tracks the Morgan Stanley World index of markets in 23 developed countries has gone from $10,000 in July 2009 to its current $20,374. The ETF for the 21 nation Emerging Markets Index has also double in value since 2009.

Congratulations to the Keynesians you made a killing in the stock market. Of course if you are a Keynesian who works a real job, you’re making less money if you still have a job.

“Austrians” who bet on $3,000 per ounce gold, hyperinflation, or a col-lapse in the price of government bonds are big losers. And, in constant antici-pation of the bubble breaking, they did not buy the stock markets. The only consolation at least from the Austri-ans I read, is that they are still right and they have more time to get ready for the global economic Armageddon.

In truth, both the Keynesians and the Austrians have spent many years being wrong. Global economic growth and particularly in the US and Europe is not happening. The stock market increase has benefited the wealthy by whatever way you measure it. The eco-nomic future still looks dim.

Global debt continues to rise with many European countries having a higher debt to economic output higher than in 2009. Japan has no economic growth and an unmanageable debt.

But the worst insult and slap to the face of both Keynesians and Aus-trians is an insignificant little coun-

try sitting on the edge of nowhere. Stable economic growth-check. Stable currency exchange rate-check. Low government, corporate and personal debt-check. Low government budget deficit-check. One of the best perform-ing stock markets-check. Low and very manageable inflation-check.

The Philippine does not follow ei-ther the Keynesian or the Austrian economic ideas. While always subject (mainly by Filipinos) to intense criti-cism of how we do things here, the na-tions’ economic policy might be best called “Common Sense Economics”.

This philosophy includes: don’t spend too much, don’t borrow to spend, don’t buy what you can’t afford, and don’t spend on too many foolish things.

Another key component to Phil-ippine economic theory is that gov-ernment can rarely solve important problems. Filipinos have learned over at least 100 years that government often makes things worse, not better. And the moment you really depend on government, it usually fails.

In the last few years, no matter what the result from the global economic coin toss, it has been, “Heads, PHL wins; Tails, PHL still wins”.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Visit my web site at www.mangunon-markets.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis tools provided by the COL Financial Group Inc.

OuTSIDE THE BOXJohn Mangun

HOM

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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

OpinionA7BusinessMirroropinion@businessmirror.com.ph

BCDA suffers yet another legal setback

WHEN it rains, it pours. The legal setbacks of the Bases Conversion and Devel-

opment Authority (BCDA) never seem to end.

ABOUT TOWNErnesto M. Hilario

Last month before the year came to a close, the government agency was castigated anew by Judge Pedro Gutierrez of Regional Trial Court in Pasay City Branch 119 for having engaged in “selective prosecution” and violating the Bill of Rights in filing an estafa case against Robert John Sobrepeña, chairman of the Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevco), its private developer-partner at the former Camp John Hay in Baguio City.

Gutierrez upheld his September 3 decision that BCDA President Ar-nel Paciano Casanova had failed to establish probable cause in filing an estafa case against Sobrepeña for alleged failure to pay rentals for its  247-hectare holding at the John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ).

“BCDA agreed to restructure the debt under the lease agree-ment,” Gutierrez said in his final decision last December 19. “The ac-cused [Sobrepeña] cannot be held liable for CJHDevco’s failure to pay those rentals.”

“This case was filed with the De-partment of Justice (DOJ) after a lapse of 14 years when the obligation

was incurred in 1998. This violated the Bill of Rights under our Consti-tution for accused to have a speedy trial and due process of law,” Gutier-rez added.

Moreover, Gutierrez said that in acting on BCDA’s estafa complaint, the DOJ “made a palpable error of se-lective prosecution” in filing this case against Sobrepeña without including all the members of CJHDevco’s Board of Directors.

Also this year, the Court of Ap-peals (CA) upheld the earlier decision by the RTC in Baguio City ordering BCDA to settle its long-standing dispute with CJHDevco over the lease and development of a JHSEZ property.

In a 14-page decision penned by Associate Justice Victoria Isabel Paredes, the CA’s Special 11th Divi-sion affirmed the July 13, 2012 order by Baguio RTC Judge Cecilia Corazon Archog ordering the BCDA to submit itself to arbitration proceedings to resolve its financial dispute with CJHDevco.

The appellate court emphasized the Supreme Court’s (SC) policy fa-voring arbitration as an alternative

method of dispute resolution: “Fi-nally, the records of the case reveal that the factual allegations of the parties already refer to the merits of the controversy between them, which is the alleged breach of their RMOA [restructuring memoran-dum of agreement]. These issues are best threshed out in the appropriate arbitration proceedings.”

At the SC, meantime, the justices ordered the BCDA last August 13 to abide by its original agreement with SM Land Inc. (SMLI) on a Swiss or competitive challenge for the devel-opment of the 33-hectare Bonifacio South Pointe property at Bonifacio Global City (BGC).

This SC order made permanent the temporary restraining order (TRO) that it issued in January 2013 after SMLI filed a petition for cer-tiorari, prohibition and mandamus against BCDA for reneging on its commitment to carry out a competi-tive challenge on SMLI’s unsolicited proposal in arbitrarily deciding to hold a public bidding instead for this state property in BGC.

Penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., the 26-page SC ruling ordered the BCDA to go ahead with the Swiss or competitive challenge as petitioned by SMLI, as the High Tribunal said that do-ing otherwise might turn away investors eyeing public-private partnerships.

“To permit BCDA to suddenly cancel the procurement process and strip SMLI of its earlier-enumerat-ed rights as an original proponent at this point—after the former has already benefited from SMLI’s

proposal through the acquisition of information and ideas for the devel-opment of the subject property—would unjustly enrich the agency through the efforts of petitioner,” the SC said in its August 13 ruling.

BCDA’s recent legal setbacks come close on the heels of two similar court debacles two years ago in which the RTC in Baguio City issued separate TROs stopping the agency from tak-ing over the properties either built or managed by CJHDevco such as Manor Hotel, Camp John Hay Suites and the Camp John Hay Golf Club.

As of now, BCDA and CJHDevco are waiting for the resolution of their case at the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center Inc. The PDRCI is poised to hand out its decision any time now on issues pertaining to the lessor’s serial violations of its original MOA and subsequent RMOAs with the lessee.

Apart from losing its cases against CJHDevco at the RTC and CA and against SMLI at the SC, BCDA is also facing a possible court battle with the Manila North Tollways Corp. over the state-run firm’s unexpected move to subject the MNTC-run Subic-Tarlac-Clark Expressway to a price challenge despite the thrice-negoti-ated operation and maintenance deal under the Aquino presidency that the Arroyo administration already approved in 2009. 

With its losing streak, this gov-ernment-run agency should, at the very least, study carefully its legal position before going to court. Or else get better lawyers.

Email: ernhil@yahoo.com.

Edgardo J. Angara

By Mark WhitehouseBloomberg View

BY any measure, the US is among the wealthiest countries in the world. Judging from new research, though, it’s becoming an increasingly hazardous place to be poor.

Every advanced nation has a mechanism to protect its most vulnerable members from economic shocks. In the US, government transfer programs such as unemployment insurance, food stamps and the earned income-tax credit act to offset the impact of recessions, particularly for the poorest fami-lies. By putting much-needed money in the pockets of the people most likely to spend it, these “automatic stabilizers” also help the broader economy recover.

In a paper presented over the weekend at the annual meeting of the Ameri-can Economic Association, economists Hilary Hoynes of the University of California at Berkeley and Marianne Bitler of UC Irvine explored how well automatic stabilizers in the US are working. Using state-level data on unem-ployment rates and a measure of household income that accounts for taxes and transfers, they compared the effects of the most recent recession to those of the last deep recession in the 1980s.

The result: The US is doing a significantly worse job of protecting its most vulnerable households than it did a few decades ago. Specifically, the econo-mists estimate that during the 2008 recession, a 1-percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate was associated with a nearly 10-percent increase in the share of 18- to 64-year-olds with household incomes of less than half the poverty level. That’s roughly double the effect of unemployment in the 1980s recession.

Here’s a chart showing the estimated effect of a 1-percentage-point in-crease in the unemployment rate on the share of households that fall below various income levels, for both recession periods (ATTI means income after taxes and transfers):

It’s hard to imagine how anyone can survive at 50 percent of the poverty level. As of 2013, using the measure of income employed by Hoynes and Bitler, that corresponded to $9,384 a year for a family of three. Nonetheless, more than 7 million people were living below it.

Hoynes and Bitler attribute the increased vulnerability of the poorest house-holds in part to the welfare reforms of the 1990s, which sharply reduced access to cash aid. In 1996 for example, Congress replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which was aimed at getting people back to work faster.

There are various ways the US can improve its social safety net with-out unduly reducing the incentive to work. The Affordable Care Act, for example, subsidizes health care for the poorest families. Congress could expand the earned income-tax credit, which provides added income to people in low-paying jobs. Rules restricting access to emergency cash as-sistance could be relaxed during severe recessions.

Over the past three decades, economic output per person in the US has in-creased more than 60 percent, to an estimated $54,678 in 2014. Surely such a rich country can afford to do better for the poor.

Being poor is getting scarier in the US

THE daughter of the KoreanAir chairman, herself a Vice President of the airline, forced a taxiing airplane to return to its gate to eject a senior flight attendant who angered her

over the way macadamia nuts were served in first class.  

By Katie BennerBloomberg View

LAURA POITRAS’S new documentary about mega-leaker Edward Snowden, Citizenfour, makes no pretense at being evenhanded. It’s a polemic against the National Security

Agency’s (NSA) effort to spy on people in the US and around the world—innocent, guilty, or simply suspect—all in the name of national security.

The State of the World

Online privacy and the Snowden documentary

Chief Executive C.Y. Leung, in the midst of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong that demanded direct popular vote to choose his succes-sor, rather than a hand-picked, pro-Beijing and pro-business selection committee, said that allowing free and open elections was undesirable,

because it would empower  Hong Kong’s working poor to dominate its politics.

In an interview with the Interna-tional New York Times, he stated that the Hong Kong system of preselected electors ensures broad sectoral rep-resentation.

And his justification: “You have to take care of all the sectors in Hong Kong as much as you can. And if it’s entirely a numbers game and nu-meric representation, then obviously you would be talking to half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than US$1,800 a month. Then you would end up with that kind of poli-tics and policies.” 

The Korean “nut rage” incident and the Hong Kong Chief Executive’s political stance strikingly illustrate two of the stark realities of our time:  the arrogance and insensitivity of the rich and the authoritarian ruler’s ut-ter disdain of the masa. Both seem to describe the suspicion and indif-ference the rich and the powerful feel towards their constituents.  The powerful can blithely ignore public sentiment while the rich disregard

individual dignity. The upshot is the systematic

hollowing out of the middle class and global youth unemployment. According to Credit Suisse’s 2013 Global Wealth Report, the world’s richest 15 percent holds as much as 83 percent of global wealth, while 70 percent of the global population holds only 3 percent. And as 2014 fades away and 2015 begins, we see horrific atrocities being committed and terrorism exploding even in opulent societies. 

Five years ago, pundits were talk-ing about democracy on the march.  Now, we see the opposite happening because so-called democratic leaders are in fear and awe of the rich and powerful.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.

Snowden, a former government contractor who famously stole and delivered information to the press about the NSA’s spying efforts, is por-trayed as an intellectually thoughtful hero (albeit young and often naïve).

Poitras shot her documentary in a grainy, verite style and it has the pace and feel of a John le Carre nov-el. That’s because Poitras wants us to believe that the real life story of US mass surveillance is as incredible and gripping as a well-told thriller. The twist, of course, is that the tale is true. Thus, the outrage.

Like so much of le Carre’s work, Poitras’s film doesn’t have a tidy or satisfying conclusion. The ostensible good guys in her story –Snowden and, later on, the journalists who help him get his message out– are left in limbo. Snowden still lives in exile in Russia, and Poitras herself is unwilling for a time to return to the US because of concerns about her own freedom. Snowden, Poitras and others continue

to fight, despite the odds that the bad guys in “Citizenfour”–national securi-ty authorities and espionage agencies - will prevail because the system that would otherwise hold them in check has been seriously compromised.

If you don’t agree with Poitras’ poli-tics and point of view in “Citizenfour,” you’re not alone. Michael Cohen at the Daily Beast is (rightfully) concerned that she and fellow reporter Glenn Greenwald work from the assump-tion that the government’s actions have black and white parameters, and thus mine the Snowden data to sup-port that story. (Of course, Poitras has been spied on, and she says that she was followed while working in Hong Kong, so for her the politics are also deeply personal.)

“Citizenfour” leaves little room for a more nuanced look that takes into account the reality that countries around the world are using cyber es-pionage (and increasingly cyber war-fare) to wage an unseen and seemingly

never-ending war.Concerns like Cohen’s, however

valid, don’t make Poitras’ film any less significant. “Citizenfour” may spark the same kind of outrage about the surveillance state that Matt Taib-bi’s Rolling Stone article about (the “vampire squid”) Goldman Sachs and Michael Lewis’ book about the mort-gage market, “The Big Short,” sparked about the financial crisis several years ago. Lots of solid, nuanced and hard-won reporting from other media sur-rounded the financial meltdown - and Taibbi and Lewis’ work relied on all of that reporting. But Taibbi and Lewis used rhetorical, narrative power to define the financial crisis in ways that gave the event meaning and clarity for a broader audience.

Poitras’ documentary is consid-ered a likely Oscar winner by some observers and while nothing has arisen proving that the NSA has used data it has collected to harm inno-cent citizens, the threats created by unfettered data collection are what animate “Citizenfour.” By Snowden’s reckoning, a huge database that can be used to monitor our communiqués is potentially a “weapon of oppression.” Even some of Snowden and Poitras’ critics largely agree that this threat to our privacy and freedoms should be taken seriously.

The roots of this issue run deep and extend, of course, well beyond

the NSA. Concerns about online pri-vacy ramped up in the late ‘90s as the Internet’s popularity and accessibil-ity boomed, and heightened further when we began voluntarily ceding ever greater quantities of our personal data to telco and data giants such as Verizon, Facebook, Google and Apple.

The initial bargain - our data fed to advertisers in exchange for the abil-ity to live online lives - has in some ways been a Faustian one. We volun-tarily made surveillance easier and made it a key part of the Internet’s business model, conditioning our-selves to become more comfortable with that reality along the way. The NSA’s desire to use the intimacy and reach of the Internet to monitor our communications more aggressively in the wake of the 9/11 attacks is of a fit with all of this. The revelations in the million or so documents that Snowden released have shown how ef-fectively the government has pursued its goals. We now seem ill equipped to know exactly how to respond to that.

“Citizenfour” is useful, in that it may help some of us define our feel-ings and judgments about govern-ment surveillance. It’s also a problem-atic work, in that effective narrative (whether in the hands of a Poitras or a Taibbi) can elevate emotional truths at the expense of nuance and complex-ity. Even if the government’s “weapon of oppression” has yet to harm any in-

nocents, the NSA has tried to obfus-cate the true reach of its surveillance programs and, according to “Citizen-four,” may have lied to Congress when asked about those practices. (Clips of former NSA director General Keith Alexander testifying before Congress provide some of the film’s most infu-riating moments.)

The rationale for the NSA’s co-vert, sweeping approach is a mystery. The White House has acknowledged that most of the bulk phone records collected covertly by the NSA “could readily have been obtained in a timely manner using conventional… orders.”

And the very promise of mass data collection–that we can draw conclu-sions from links between data sets–goes only so far. As Poitras reminds “Citizenfour’s” audience, such so-called metadata always tells a story, but that story’s not always true, so es-tablishing its value requires an appre-ciation of context and other factors.

But, as I noted above, the espionage game is global, and every country is playing it. The US has to be in that game, which “Citizenfour” doesn’t acknowledge at all. Establishing that reality might allow for a more sophis-ticated analysis of how we want our own spy agencies to act.

Snowden seems to have an appre-ciation for some of these dynamics and he’s a fascinating character, but we never come to fully understand

him. Poitras has more access to his thoughts and actions than almost any other journalist, but her picture of his motives remains incomplete. He wants to be known as the source of the NSA leaks, while also claiming that he doesn’t want to become the focus of the story once his identity is revealed. Even the most casual ob-server knows that both of those things can’t co-exist. Snowden never gives a fully satisfying reason for why he was so adamant about taking credit for the leaks. He was only 29 when he came forward, and he’s of a generation that likes to talk about the importance of transparency. Visibility will mean that there are no secrets, Snowden says, without, apparently, hearing echoes of the NSA’s defenders in his statement - or without realizing that a world entirely without secrets may be unappealing.

Even so, it’s now impossible to ig-nore “Citizenfour’s” most important question: What happens when, as Snowden puts it, the “people’s ability to meaningfully oppose” the govern-ment’s willingness to take advan-tage of our newly connected world is secretly taken away? Or as Jacob Appelbaum, a security researcher who helped develop the anonymous Internet network Tor, also says in the film. “What we used to call liberty and freedom we now call privacy. And now people are saying privacy is dead.”

country’s membership in the euro area, with Der Spiegel magazine reporting Ger-man Chancellor Angela Merkel is ready to accept a Greek exit. Data this week will probably show con-sumer prices in Europe fell for the first time in five years in December, adding to the argument for European Central

Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi to extend stimulus. “The reasons to be selling the euro were pretty clear over the weekend: Draghi being a step closer to QE and deepening concerns about the Greek political situation,” Sean Callow, a currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. in Sydney, said by phone. “The euro was so close to such a keenly watched round number as $1.20 that we

didn’t need any fresh news to tip us over the cliff.”

Dollar strengthThE euro reached a low of $1.1864 on Monday, extending its loss over the past year to 12 percent as euro-region and US monetary policy diverged. While the Federal Reserve has wound back its own bond-buying program and floated the

prospect of raising interest rates from near zero, the ECB reduced rates and started asset purchases in a bid to stoke economic growth. Draghi said in an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt published last week that while deflation risks are “limited,” policy-makers “have to act against such risk.” Asked how much the ECB might spend on govern-ment bonds, he answered that it’s “difficult

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www.businessmirror.com.phTuesday, January 6, 2015

See “Euro,” A2

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Continued from A1

Euro nears 9-year low on Greece concerns

By Bianca Cuaresma

The moderating impact of lower oil price, timely importation of the rice staple and the so-called

base effects were seen conspiring to bring inflation in December sharply lower, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said on Monday. 

December inflation likelyeased to 2.9 percent–BPI

Govt looksto aid teamssearchingfor seafarers

By Recto Mercene 

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday said the lone Filipino survivor in the ill-fated cargo vessel Bulk Jupiter, Angelino

Capindo Rojas, is currently under the care of the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordinat-ing Center in Bong Tao City. “The repatriation of Roxas is being worked out,” Foreign Affairs Spokesman Charles Jose said in a news briefing, adding that the search for 16 other Filipino crew members of the vessel continues, with Vietam authorities leading the efforts. The investigation as to the cause of the inci-dent is also ongoing, Jose added. he said the embassy in hanoi has identified the retrieved bodies so far as those of Capt. Rom-mel Aqueza Andrin, 45, and 3rd Officer Jerome Maquilang, 23. he said both bodies were transferred to ho Chi Minh City, where the honorary consul general and the representative of the manning agency, Magsaysay Maritime Corp., are making arrangements for their repatriation. “The DFA willl try to bring them back to the Philippines as soon as possible, but there’s no definite time when that would be,” Jose added. he said Rojas was still in shock and was not able to give his statement to investigators. “On the part of the DFA, we will be working very hard to repatriate the remains, extend consular assis-tance to the two deceased and provide mortuary certificates.” he said more benefits would be given by other agencies, such as the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Philippine Overseas employment Administration and the Depart-ment of Labor and employment. The ship, which was carrying 46,400 tons of bauxite, was manned by 19 all-Filipino crew and left Malaysia on Friday en route to China. except for Rojas, there are no other known survivors. Search and rescue operations for the 16 other missing Filipino seafarers are hampered by bad weather. Ships from Liberia, Oman, Singapore and China were helping the Vietnamese authorities in the search, the DFA said. Meanwhile, Malacañang has ordered the Department of National De-fense to look into the possibility of sending a team to help in the search. “We are asking the secretary of National De-fense if we can extend assistance,” Palace Spokes-man edwin Lacierda said in a briefing on Monday aired over state-run Radyo ng Bayan. “The Vietnamese Navy has already added three helicopters for the search and they are asking other countries to help. So far, no new re-mains have been recovered or survivors rescued,” Lacierda said. The ship’s cook said he did not know what caused the ship to sink. he said the ship simply tilted and he immediately put on the life vest.

OIL EXTENDS DECLINE AS SUPPLY GLUT LINGERSOil fell for a third day, extending

its decline from the lowest level in five and a half years amid signs a

global supply glut that’s driven crude into a bear market may continue this year. Futures in london dropped as much as 1.3 percent, after sliding 5.1 percent last week. iraq plans to boost crude exports this month, according to the oil ministry in the second-largest producer of the Or-ganization of Petroleum Exporting Coun-tries (Opec). Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro is traveling to China to hold talks on financing and energy and will visit

other Opec member-nations to develop an oil-pricing strategy. “iraq’s crude production is one of the contributors to the glut we’ve been see-ing,” hong Sung Ki, a commodities analyst at Samsung Futures inc. in Seoul, said by phone. “The glut is expected to continue if demand fails to catch up with supplies. Venezuela’s oil industry is in recession amid falling production but, if it can attract new investments, it can boost output.” Brent for February settlement fell as much as 71 cents to $55.71 a barrel in electronic trading on the london-based

iCE Futures Europe exchange, and was at $55.92 at 10:08 a.m. Seoul time. The European benchmark grade slumped 48 percent last year, and capped a sixth weekly decline on January 2. it traded at a premium of $3.65 to West Texas inter-mediate, compared with $3.73 on Friday. WTi for February delivery slid as much as 54 cents, or 1 percent, to $52.15 a bar-rel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 3.7 percent to $52.69 last week. Total volume of all futures traded was about 15 percent below the 100-day average. Bloomberg News

Privatizationof Naia seento encounterresistance

House leadersendorse EBClicense renewal

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

ThE Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) expects to generate flak once it starts the bid-

ding process for the contract to operate and maintain the main international gateway in Manila.  Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said some employees of the Ninoy Aquino international Airport (Naia) who will be laid off once the project has been imple-mented would surely take action.  “There will be  a little resistance, some from the employees of the Naia,” he said.  however, citing the recent experience in the privatization of the Mactan-Cebu inter-national Airport, Abaya said the prospect of tapping private-sector expertise to run the airport is bright.  “i think the experience will not be too far from the one we saw in the Mactan-Cebu air-port project, wherein some employees were absorbed, some opted to retire. it was a smooth transition,” the transportation chief said.  Currently, the feasibility study for the privatization of the Naia is being finalized by consultants, he said.  The deal will be presented before the Na-tional Economic and Development Author-ity -investment Coordination Council by the first half of the year.  “Some would say that the auction for the operations and maintenance of the Manila air-port is just administrative in nature. But this could be a game-changer if you allow private sector, like Changi or incheon, operating the whole Naia complex,” the Cabinet official said.  The state wants to auction off the opera-tions and maintenance of the Naia to tap the expertise of foreign airport operators to im-prove the services at the aging aviation hub. The deal will also involve the redevelop-ment of the four terminals of the decades-old airport. The optimal capacity of the airport in Ma-nila’s four terminals is at 30 million annual passengers, while the maximum capacity is at roughly 35 million passengers per year.  This year the airport is expected to handle 37.78 million passengers, bulk of which, or 21.31 million, would be domestic traffic, while the remaining 16.46 million would be international passengers. Come 2040, the Naia’s passenger traffic would reach 101.49 million.

hOUSE leaders are pushing for the renewal of the franchise granted to Eagle Broadcasting Corp. (EBC) for

another 25 years. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. of the Fourth District of Quezon City, Majority leader Neptali Gonzales ii of the lone Dis-trict of Mandaluyong City and house Com-mittee on legislative Franchises Chairman Rep. Marcelino Teodoro of the First District of Marikina City filed house Bill 5227 seek-ing to extend EBC’s legislative franchise ef-fective until November 3, 2018. Belmonte said the measure recognizes EBC’s faithful compliance to its mandate: providing quality public service to the Fili-pino society it serves through broadcasts with quality multifaceted content. “EBC, in its almost half-a-century of

BPi economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa said the rate of change in prices, or inflation, probably slowed to only 2.9 per-cent in December from 3.7 per-cent in November.  This was due to the favorable base effects on the inflation print

during the last months of 2013, as well as the addressed issues of rice supply and the oil-price reduction in the period. “We see inflation decelerating to 2.9 percent as food inflation continues to dip on the back of base effects [4.1 percent in De-

cember 2013 due to storm] and better-late-than-never rice im-portation by the government to help bring down the staple rice prices,” Mapa said. “Other components seen to bring the overall inflation print lower will be sectors related to the free fall seen in global crude oil prices. Transportation and utilities seen to be accelerating at a slower pace compared to last year’s December pace,” he added. Mapa’s forecast was within the range given by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. of 2.4 percent to 3.2 percent for December. Should inflation hit 2.9 per-cent in December, the annual inflation for 2015 should aver-age 4.2 percent. This is higher than the 3 percent reported in 2013. This should also be within the target

inflation range for the year of 3 percent to 5 percent. This should also be the sixth consecutive year that the central bank achieved a within-target annual inflation. Mea nwh i le, i NG Ba n k Manila economist Joey Cuyeg-keng was also of the view that inflation should sharply deceler-ate in December on lower food and energy prices. But he fore-casts inflation slightly higher at 3 percent, as seasonal demand may have “prevented a more pronounced slide in December inflation,” he said. The Philippine Statistics Au-thority is set to release inflation numbers for December today, January 6. For next year, the central bank adopted slower inflation aver-aging 2 percent to 4 percent up until 2016. 

SECURITY PREPARATIONS UNDER WAY A picture of Pope Francis hangs on a pole, while a Philippine military rescue helicopter takes off from an area where he will hold Mass as part of security preparations for his visit at Rizal Park, Manila. Pope Francis will visit this predominantly Catholic country from January 15 to 19. AP

The lCC has a chain of malls in Bicol and is owned by the Filipino-Chinese Tan family from Tabaco City, who pioneered the establishment of malls in three key cities of the region—Tabaco, legazpi and Naga. The new investment is expected to generate more jobs for the Bicolanos and ad-ditional income for the government. Aside from the additional P1-billion invest-ment of the Ayala Corp., SM and Robinsons managements are trying to secure big lands, where they would put up multibillion-peso investments, apart from their chains of su-permarkets in the region. The Asian institute of Management de-scribed legazpi as a fast-rising city in terms of infrastructure development, business growth and notable peace and order condi-tion following good governance —bouncing rapidly back on its feet after the devastat-ing impact of Supertyphoon Reming eight years ago. legazpi is the center of trade and com-merce in the Bicol region, where the seat of national government and the university belt of the region are located. With massive infrastructure development, business growth and big influx of foreign and domestic tourists in this city, legazpi, accord-ing to Rosal, is the next investment hub in the country after to Davao and Cebu. PNA

Ayala. . . Continued from A1