www.businessmirror.com.ph n�TfridayNovember 18, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 40 P. | | 7 DAYS A WEEKn�Friday, May 22, 2015 Vol. 10 No. 225

A broader look at today’s businessBusinessMirrorBusinessMirrorTHREETIME

ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDEE2006, 2010, 2012U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

ROTARY CLUB

JOURNALISM

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PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 44.6110 n JAPAN 0.3678 n UK 69.3210 n HK 5.7551 n CHINA 7.1909 n SINGAPORE 33.3790 n AUSTRALIA 35.1544 n EU 49.5137 n SAUDI ARABIA 11.8960 Source: BSP (21 May 2015)

‘Govt wins, public loses in Calax rebid’BUSINESS GROUPS SAY COMMUTERS FACE HIGHER TOLL RATES DUE TO HIKED PREMIUMBID REQUIREMENT

EL NIÑO PUTS INFLATION RISKBACK ON INVESTORS’ RADARSTHE specter of an El Niño wea-

ther pattern, causing drought and spurring inflation, is mov-

ing onto investors’ radars in the Phil-ippines, though relatively low oil prices and Thailand’s rice glut will soften the blow. Australia joined the United States and Japan last week in declaring the onset of an El Nino, which leads to lower-than-average rainfall in Asia. The Philippines is “especially vulner-able” due to its dependence on food imports, according to Barclays Plc. Even a mild rice shortage may push inflation closer to the top end of the central bank’s 2-percent to 4-percent target band, and there’s no room for

monetary easing this year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch says. During the last El Niño in 2009, Philippine inflation accelerated from 1.7 percent in August to 4.4 percent by December, and the 10-year sovereign bond yield rose 76 basis points to 7.88 percent over the year. A similar jump in inflation this time would reduce the allure of the nation’s debt, as the US moves toward raising borrowing costs. Consumer prices rose 2.2 per-cent in April from a year earlier, while Brent crude has averaged 8 percent less in 2015 than in 2009. “Even if it adversely impacts May, June, July production, I don’t think it will push inflation up toward 6 per-

cent to 6.5 percent,” said Patrick Ella, an economist at Security Bank Corp. in Manila. “It’s definitely offset by weak energy prices but not completely,” since food makes up a large part of the consumer-price basket, he said. CPI basketFOOD accounts for 47 percent of the Philippines’s consumer-price index (CPI), with rice alone making up 9 percent, according to a May 18 research note by Barclays’s econo-mists, including Wai Ho Leong in Singapore. Thai stockpiles stemming from a government subsidy program are equivalent to about 40 percent

INSIDE

THE HOTNESS

THAT IS DANIEL

PADILLA »D4

D1

Life Friday, May 22, 2015

Life BusinessMirror

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

KK NOWING that the image of Jesus as the good NOWING that the image of Jesus as the good shepherd is one of the most lovable scenes. This shepherd is one of the most lovable scenes. This was also the image used by early Christians

to portray Jesus’ love for them. All Jews knew that a good shepherd is one who knows and loves his sheep, guides them shepherd is one who knows and loves his sheep, guides them to good pastures and fresh waters, and protects them from all to good pastures and fresh waters, and protects them from all dangers. Jesus brought this picture to a heroic degree when He dangers. Jesus brought this picture to a heroic degree when He stated that He was the good shepherd who would give His life stated that He was the good shepherd who would give His life for His sheep and so He did. Amen!

� e good shepherd

EXPLORING GOD’S WORD, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSONEXPLORING GOD’S WORD, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSONWord&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.comteacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

GOOD OL’ DAYSThe original front-camera crew of the once-phenomenal American Idol: American Idol: American Idol(clockwise) Simon Cowell, Ryan Seacrest, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.

B M WLos Angeles Times

THE symptoms were all there for American Idol—falling ratings, high talent costs, advertiser defections. Few were surprised when Fox executives announced recently that the show’s

upcoming 15th season would be its last.What’s perhaps, less obvious is that the one-time

ratings juggernaut lost its way several years ago, when it moved away from the pulse of pop in its broadest and most inclusive sense.

It became less relevant to the overall musical conversation—a smaller and smaller echo chamber reverberating with outmoded ideas.

Or as its detractors put it on Twitter, it became just another forum for WGWG—white guys with guitars. The show was hugely popular in the South, and increasingly seemed to reflect those regional loyalties.

In its heyday, Idol served as a latter-day version of 1960s AM radio, with more stylistic and demographic diversity than network music programming typically offered. Everyone in the show’s audience had a rooting interest, and because the show depended on its viewers to steer the competition, it created the impression that, week to week, something pivotal was on the line—and it required your participation.

The Season 8 finale would have been a good one to end on. That’s when Adam Lambert, the peacocking glam-rock phenom, was up against Kris Allen, a milquetoast folkie.

Picking a side felt important, like a battle in a broader culture war. It reflected something about your identity, or at least about your idea of what you wanted music to represent: adventure versus safety. Innovation versus re-creation. The future versus the status quo.

Popular music had always been a forum for such disagreement, but American Idol turned the conflict into a televised spectator sport.

It was the show’s pop sensibility, along with its freshness and originality, that made it a hit from the beginning, way back in 2002. Idol was the No. 1 show Idol was the No. 1 show Idolon TV for a record eight seasons, with its Tuesday performance episodes averaging more than 31 million viewers in 2006.

Along the way, it changed both TV and music. Other networks raced to get competitive reality shows (Dancing with the Stars, Rising Star(Dancing with the Stars, Rising Star( ) on the air, and Dancing with the Stars, Rising Star) on the air, and Dancing with the Stars, Rising Starsuddenly aspiring performers had a way to find fame and fortune without record companies in those pre-YouTube dark ages.

Most visibly, it made fresh superstars out of Kelly Clarkson, who came in first on Idol’s inaugural edition, and Season 4 champ Carrie Underwood. Today both are still A-list acts, with numerous Grammy Awards, hit singles and platinum albums between them.

The show also helped change the way those superstars do business by heavily promoting the sale of digital downloads (specifically through Apple’s iTunes Store) at a moment when illegal piracy was ravaging the record industry’s original profit centers.

American Idol affected pop more subtly, too. A contest decided, in part, by viewers, the show encouraged an emotional investment among fans that foreshadowed the rise of social media, where artists are accountable to their followings in ways their predecessors could scarcely have imagined. Singers like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have capitalized on that sense of ownership to build so-called fandoms of ultra-devoted enthusiasts.

But following Allen’s pivotal win over Lambert in

HOW ‘AMERICAN HOW ‘AMERICAN HOW

IDOL’ LOST ‘AMERICAN IDOL’ LOST ‘AMERICAN

ITS WAY

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Editor: Tet Andolong

MotoringHenry Ford AwardsBest Motoring SectionBest Motoring Section2007, 2008, 2009, 20102007, 2008, 2009, 20102011 Hall of Fame2011 Hall of Fame

Friday, May 22, 2015

MotoringBusinessMirrorMotoringBusinessMirror

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THE postcard view of the cars by the bay is what spectators and racing enthusiasts alike will remember.

The historical experience drove Cebuanos into a frenzy as six up-coming Cebuano racers joined a total of 44 drivers in the one-make race event. “The fun never stops and it continues down south here in Cebu,” Toyota Motor Philip-pines President Michinobu Sugata enthused. “We’re in a different street race course for the very first time outside Luzon.

And we have about more than 40 dr ivers. So, ex pect more thrills,” he added. And turbo-charged it was, as the race fea-tured intense racing in two high-octane categories—the promo-tional and the sporting class. Cebuanos stood their ground and cheered for their local favorites from Team Toyota Cebu: mul-tititled karter Jette Calderon,

Lord Seno, Sean Velasco, Harold Ong and Oscar Suarez. Cebua-nos Miranda and Sherwin Hing, meanwhile, competed for another Toyota squad.

Race one for the sporting class w itnessed pole-sitter A ndres Calma grab the heat with his classic 14:44.255 finish after 12 laps of blistering action. Coming in 7.921 seconds behind was lo-cal talent was the 15-year-old Mi-randa with 14:52.176. Completing the podium was Bobbie Domingo with 14:59.717.

In the promotional class, Paolo Rodriguez snatched first place with a time of 16:14.458, followed by Suarez with 16:40.658, and the 16.38.094 time of Arthur de Jong in third.

Heat two sti l l belonged to Andres Calma, who evidently in-herited the competitive genes of his father, basketball legend Hec-tor Calma. He topped the sport-ing class with his impressive 19:24.764 finish, spiced up with the best lap time of 1:12.180. Still eagerly trailing him was Daniel Miranda with his 19:28.490, while settling in third place was last year’s title contender Allan Uy with 19:34.748.

In the promotional class, Rodri-guez used his consistency to take heat two with 15:53.176, while Steve Bicknell (15:53.888), and Ferdinand Dysico (15:55.448) finished second and third, respectively.

Aside from this intense spec-tacle, the Cebuanos and the rest of the crowd got to see what this Waku-Doki craze had to offer.

Jaws dropped and shrieks, not just of tires, but of shrill voices that echoed throughout the complex as die-hard fans witnessed their favorite celebrities, such as Derek Ramsey, Jinno Rufino, Fabio Ide, Kylie Padilla and Jasmine Curtis-Smith compete against each other.

Besting the field of celebrity drivers were DJ-host Sam YG (male division) and lanky beauty Phoemela Baranda (female divi-sion). One of the other sidelights of the fun-filled event was the op-

portunity to go on a shotgun ride with Drift King Keichi Tsuchiya in the Toyota 86. The daughter of famous action star, Robin Padil-la, starlet Kylie Padil la person-ally experienced the ride with

the legendary Japanese driver. “It was such an exhi larating high in the passenger seat. This is such a great experience,” the young actress shared.” The next legs will be held in Luzon, with

the possibility of holding a leg in Subic, Zambales. The race series is supported by Bridgestone and Rotam in association with Motul, TRD, Brembo, Super Shuttle, Roro Denso, AVT and OMP.

ANDRES CALMA craftily defends his line from Daniel Miranda.

THE 44 racing participants of the Toyota Vios Cup Season 2 Leg 2

THE winners of the Toyota Vios Cup Season 2 Leg 2

TMP President Michinobu Sugata personally driving in the race.

S R R M. R

THE Queen City of the South was roused by a fun and electrifying HE Queen City of the South was roused by a fun and electrifying HE Queen City of the South was

vibe as it served as the venue of roused by a fun and electrifying vibe as it served as the venue of roused by a fun and electrifying

the action-packed second staging of the Vios Cup Season 2 held at the Toyota the action-packed second staging of the Vios Cup Season 2 held at the Toyota the action-packed second staging of the

SRP Cebu Street Circuit at the South Vios Cup Season 2 held at the Toyota SRP Cebu Street Circuit at the South Vios Cup Season 2 held at the Toyota

Road Properties in Cebu.

SportsSportsSportsBusinessMirrorSports C1 | FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2015AY 22, 2015AY

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.phsports@businessmirror.com.phEditor: Jun Lomibao

OFFENSIVE JUGGERNAUTDEFENSIVE FORCEDEFENSIVE FORCE

B J LAkron Beacon Journal

 

ATLANTA—Right about the time Kevin Love ran off the floor holding his shoulder and Kyrie Irving began dragging his foot up and down the court, the Cavaliers evolved from an

offensive juggernaut into a defensive force. After a slow start on Wednesday, that defense and

JR Smith’s red-hot shooting carried the Cavaliers to a 97-89 victory against the Atlanta Hawks in Game One of the Eastern Conference finals. The Cavs immediately snatched home-court advantage from the Hawks with Game Two set for Friday.

Smith set a new postseason career-high with 28 points, LeBron James had 31 points, eight rebounds and six assists,

including 14 points in the second quarter, and the Cavs yet again won on a night they received little from Kyrie Irving.

Irving scored 10 points, shot four-of-10 and played just three of the game’s final 18 minutes. Just as Matthew Dellavedova replaced Irving’s punch in the closeout game against the Bulls, on Wednesday it was Smith’s turn to do it to the Hawks.

He made eight-of-12 three-pointers, helped patch a defense that struggled early and made big shots throughout the second half. But the Cavs had to survive a scoring drought of six-plus minutes near the end of the game.

The Cavs opened an 82-67 lead with 10:27 left, their largest of the night at the time, on a step-back three-pointer from Smith followed by a lob from Smith to Tristan Thompson. James’s basket gave the Cavs an 89-74 lead with 7:01 left, but they missed their next eight shots, the offense grinded into an isolation game and they turned the ball over three times to allow the Hawks to climb back in it.

James’s dunk down the middle of the Hawks’ defense pushed the lead to 93-87 in the final minute, Thompson grabbed his 10th rebound of the game at the other end and the Cavs made free throws to close out the win.

Thompson was a concern for the Hawks entering the series and prominent on their scouting reports. A few Hawks players mentioned prior to the game the importance of keeping Thompson off the glass, which became apparent in the first quarter, when he had three offensive rebounds in the game’s opening minutes.

Thompson finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds,

Timofey Mozgov had 10 points and 11 rebounds and the Cavs outrebounded the Hawks, 49-37.

“He is one of the best at that in the league,” the Hawks’ Paul Millsap said of Thompson’s rebounding. “If you can get your team extra possessions in the playoffs that’s big.”

The Cavs locked in defensively after a sluggish start. The Hawks’ biggest lead was 24-15 late in the first quarter when the Cavs committed six turnovers and Jeff Teague tormented their guards.

Teague hurt the Cavs on dribble penetration throughout the first half, cutting through the defense for 17 of the Hawks’ 51 points. But the Cavs fought back to tie the game at the half when James turned aggressive in the second quarter, split Hawks double teams and got into the lane with ease.

The defense really sank in during the second half, holding the Hawks to a 24-percent shooting in the third quarter (four-of-17) and forcing five turnovers after they committed just six in the first half. Defense has become a staple of this team since the injuries piled up during the first round.

“The pride that our guys are taking in their defensive approach and a lot of times necessity is the mother of invention,” Coach David Blatt said. “We lost a couple of very, very key offensive players, and one of the things that you have to do when you talk about adjustments and adaptation is recognize how do you find ways to win games? And in order to win games, we really, really had to be outstanding on the defensive end and I thought we were and have been during the postseason.”

Teague finished with 27 points, Al Horford had 16 points and seven rebounds and Millsap had 13 points and seven rebounds. DeMarre Carroll, the Hawks’ leading scorer throughout these playoffs, was limited to five points on two-of-seven shooting. The Hawks’ best wing defender was then helped off the court late in the wing defender was then helped off the court late in the fourth quarter with a left-leg injury.

Carroll’s loss for an extended period of time would be Carroll’s loss for an extended period of time would be crippling to the Hawks’ defense, particularly since they’re crippling to the Hawks’ defense, particularly since they’re already down another long wing defender in Thabo Sefolosha, who is out for the season with an ankle injury.Sefolosha, who is out for the season with an ankle injury.

The Hawks are in the conference finals for the first time since moving to Atlanta in 1968. A team that

typically struggles to fill even half the seats in Philips typically struggles to fill even half the seats in Philips Arena for most home games has come alive Arena for most home games has come alive

in the postseason with loud, capacity crowds every night.

“The buzz around here is great, the “The buzz around here is great, the vibe is great,” Millsap said. “To do this vibe is great,” Millsap said. “To do this

and know where Atlanta at been in and know where Atlanta at been in the past, to be at this stage and the past, to be at this stage and

this point right now, it is great this point right now, it is great for us, this community and

these fans.” That buzz wore off in the fourth quarter,

however, when the Cavs stretched the

lead to 18 and took early command of

this series after dropping three out of four to the out of four to the Hawks during Hawks during the regular season.

STEPHEN CURRY has been fined $5,000 for violating the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) antiflopping rules, the Association’s (NBA) antiflopping rules, the

league announced on Wednesday. Curry fell to the floor after a making a three-pointer in the fourth quarter of Golden State’s 110-106 win over Houston on Tuesday night.

The Rockets’s Terrence Jones ran the length of the floor to defend the shot and appeared to

make slight contact with Curry after the ball was released, but no foul was called.

The play took place with 3:07 remaining in Game The play took place with 3:07 remaining in Game One of the Western Conference finals, and Curry’s shot gave the Warriors a nine-point lead.

During the regular season, Curry was also assessed a pair of $2,000 fines for technical fouls he assessed a pair of $2,000 fines for technical fouls he picked up on January 21 and February 20. According picked up on January 21 and February 20. According to Spotrac.com, Curry’s base salary for the 2014-2015 season is $10.629 million. 2015 season is $10.629 million. AP

Curry fined$5,000for flopping

VITAL INGREDIENTVITAL INGREDIENTOAKLAND—Dwight Howard may not be the

Houston Rockets’ top chef—that title, of course, goes to James Harden—but he’s about as vital an

ingredient as you’ll find on their depleted roster.But the big man who joined Harden in Houston two

summers ago with the hopes of playing in games like these left Oracle Arena with the worst kind of taste in his mouth on Tuesday, hobbled by a left-knee bruise that kept him contained through most of the Rockets’ 110-106 loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game One of the Western Conference Finals. Behold your early X-factor in this series: The Rockets aren’t likely beating the Warriors to begin with, but they’re definitely not doing it if Howard isn’t healthy.

Howard finished with just seven points and 13 rebounds in 27 minutes (one minute in the fourth quarter), but more relevant is the part he played during Houston’s second-quarter surge. He was on the floor during the entire 27-6 run that put Houston up 16 points, an early statement if ever there was one that this matchup might not be as one-sided as so many believed.

His turnovers were a problem, to be sure—five in all and two coming during the end-of-first-half finish in which the Warriors regained the lead. But still, he controlled the boards and defended like he almost always does, started fast breaks and put the kind of pressure on the Warriors’ big men that is a must if they have a shot at winning this taste test. And now, after a regular season in which Howard

missed two months with right-knee trouble and ached to missed two months with right-knee trouble and ached to be healthy again, he finds himself unsure of what his body be healthy again, he finds himself unsure of what his body will be able to give him from here.

“Thank God, it was nothing major, but bruises—“Thank God, it was nothing major, but bruises—especially around the knee and all that—it’s very hard especially around the knee and all that—it’s very hard to do a lot of the things that I want to do,” Howard said. “It’s very painful. I tried to play it off as much as possible, but I couldn’t give my teammates what as possible, but I couldn’t give my teammates what I needed to give them. It was disappointing. It was frustrating. But it’s a long series.”

The silver lining for Howard here is that it’s not the knee The silver lining for Howard here is that it’s not the knee that gave him so much trouble before. He sounded like that gave him so much trouble before. He sounded like someone who will likely play in Game Two on Thursday, but someone who will likely play in Game Two on Thursday, but the question of how effective he can be will remain. The the question of how effective he can be will remain. The

Rockets are already expected to be without starters Patrick Beverley (point guard, wrist injury) and forward Donatas

Motiejunas (back) for the season and can ill afford to take another hit on the health front like this.

“I don’t think that it’s going to be something that is going to restrict me from playing for the rest of the series,” Howard said. “I’m just going to stay positive, stay focused, and the doctors are going to do their job to make sure that I get out on the floor.””

USA TodayUSA Today

After a slow start on Wednesday, defense and JR Smith’s red-hot shooting carry the Cavaliers to a 97-89 victory against the Atlanta Hawks in Game One of the Eastern Conference finals.

STEPHEN CURRY makes STEPHEN CURRY makes a different kind of a different kind of

contribution. contribution. AP

CLEVELAND’S LeBron James tries to get past Atlanta’s Kent Bazemore in a second-half action on Wednesday. AP

FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR. watches Atlanta play Cleveland in Game One of the Eastern Conference finals. AP

SPORTS C1

’AMERICAN IDOL’

WAKUDOKI IN CEBU

DEFENSIVE FORCE

LIFE D1

MOTORING E1

PPP to help govt meet infra-spending target

B C U. O

THE national government is keen on pursuing more pub-lic-private partnership (PPP)

projects to meet its goal of increas-ing infrastructure spending to 5 percent of local output, or the gross domestic product (GDP). 

National Economic and Devel-opment Authority (Neda) Director General and Economic Planning Sec-retary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the government will continue to seek out partnerships with the private sector on infrastructure development.  “As we ramp up our public in-frastructure-spending target to at least 5 percent of the GDP by 2016, the government, through

its PPP Program, will continue to tap the private sector as partners in development to help overcome our resource constraints, deliver much-needed social services and public infrastructure facilities and, importantly, to help sustain the robust economic growth that we have been enjoying in recent times,” Balisacan said in a statement.  Balisacan said that, to date, the Philippines’s PPP Program has a pipeline of about 50 PPP projects worth over $23 billion.  Around nine PPP contracts have also been successfully awarded to the private sector since 2011, totaling to around $3 billion, or  P136.36 billion.

A POND is dried up due to an El Niño-induced drought in Jones, Isabela province, in this February 25, 2010, file photo. A drought in the Philippines is destroying crops and reducing the country’s water supply. BLOOMBERG/NANA BUXANI

B L S. M

‘MILKING” money from investors by rebidding with high-premium-payment

requirement the P55.5-billion contract to develop a toll road that aims to connect the cities of Laguna and Cavite places ordinary commuters at the losing end. 

C AS “PPP,” A

This was clear in the statements of officials from business chambers that the BM polled hours after the fresh tender of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) deal, which was met by a low turn-out of participants. 

American Chamber of Com-merce Senior Advisor John D. Forbes said the unnecessary rebidding cre-ated a suction in the government’s thrust to improve the quality of in-frastructure in the Philippines. 

Forbes said the controversial Calax rebidding, launched by Pres-ident Aquino himself, also reflects the long-standing problem of poor planning.  

“Calax was needed yesterday to reduce congestion and is being delayed to get more money from bidders who could recover it with higher tolls,” he said.  Indeed, to recover from over P55 billion in investment at the very

least, the winning bidder will have to increase toll rates every now and then, thereby passing the brunt to the consumers, experts observed.  The road network will connect the cities of Laguna and Cavite—two of Southern Tagalog’s agricul-tural and industrial gems—to spur economic growth through trade and tourism. But with the possibility of ridiculously high toll rates, prices of basic goods like food that will be transported through Calax will have to be adjusted for businesses to make money.  The thoroughfare aims to decon-gest road traffic in the fast-growing economic hubs for efficiency and comfort. But this will have to be paid at a higher price.  The government moved to place the deal under a rebidding to in-crease its supposed revenues from the premium offer of bidders. It placed a P20.1-billion floor price for the auction, reflective of dis-qualified bidder San Miguel Corp.’s alleged proposal.  San Miguel unit Optimal Infra-structure Development Inc. earlier sought President Aquino’s interven-tion after the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) de-cided to disqualify the firm from the auction due to a technicality.  The “minor” technicality in-

volved a defective bid security on the part of Optimal. It was asserted that the bid was four days short of the required cover period that could result in a few millions of pesos in losses should the concessionaire fail to deliver the infrastructure above board.  Team Orion of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. topped the original auction with a P11.33-billion premium offer on top of the project cost. Metro Pacific Invest-ments Corp. trailed behind by a hairline difference.  This result outraged disqualified bidder  Optimal, whose chairman is the uncle of President Aquino. It sought to overturn the results of the auction—to which it claims to have topped with a P20.1-billion premium offer—by taking its battle to Malacañang.  It took the government quite sometime before it finally decided on the matter. Several petitions from Team Orion and Optimal reached the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center, the Palace, and the DPWH, with the two firms seeking to con-tradict each other’s position.  The two parties, however, came to a consensus that the road network is a pressing necessity, hence, Mr. Aquino should come to a conclusion.  He did. The Chief Executive called for the rebidding, voiding the clean and transparent tender that

was launched in 2013.  This move received both the cheers and jeers of investors.  Makati Business Club  Execu-tive Director Peter Angelo B. Per-fecto said the rebid of the project when the process was already con-cluded was an inopportune and ill-advised decision.  “The effect is now manifested by the decrease in the number of Calax bidders from four to two,” he said.  Perfecto was referring to the low turnout of bidders for the project, which only saw Optimal and MP-CALA Holdings Inc. of Metro Pacific submitting their proposals.  Two other parties, represented by two different law firms, decided against the auction.  Metro Pacific and San Miguel are separately eyeing the expressway-de-velopment deal, as this would further enhance their toll-road businesses.  The flagship of Hong Kong-listed First Pacific Co. Ltd. currently holds the concession for the North Luzon, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac, and the Ma-nila-Cavite Toll expressways.  San Miguel, on the other hand, controls the Skyway System, the South Luzon Expressway, the South-ern Tagalog Arterial Road and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway Phase 2.  The low turnout, however, al-ready made government officials

cheerful. Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson said his office is contented with the two bidders.  “I thought it will only be San Miguel,” he said, seemingly thank-ing the heavens for the participation of businessman Manuel V. Pang-ilinan’s firm in the auction.  Although this move has sent negative signals to the business community here and aboard, Per-fecto believes investor support for the PPP Program will remain high.  “To say that the entirety of the government’s infra program is al-ready tarnished is too extreme a conclusion, though. Investor inter-est remains robust but, perhaps, cautious due to possible uncertainty in contract awarding and other is-sues,” Perfecto said.  He noted that the state should ensure the sanctity of the bidding process for key infrastructure proj-ects, while eliminating small road-blocks when possible.  “Moving forward, the govern-ment should guarantee the imple-mentation of a project from bidding to its accomplishment with as little blockages and uncertainty as pos-sible,” Perfecto said.  On the other hand,  Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Alfredo M. Yao believes that the rebidding of Calax was the right decision, as this would allow the government to receive more

gains to be used for social infra-structure.  “They should just maximize whatever will go to the government,” he said.  For his part,  European Cham-ber of Commerce of the Philippines External Vice President Henry J. Schumacher wished the govern-ment would review its business strategy as a whole.  “We are looking forward to the implementation of a new govern-ment strategy to allow foreign-owned construction companies to operate fully foreign-owned in this country. That will be good for com-petition, and will hopefully have more than two companies bidding for projects,” he said.  Calax is envisioned as a 47-ki-lometer thoroughfare. The private partner will take on the financing, design, construction and operation and maintenance of the entire four-lane toll road. The project will also include the construction of centralized toll plazas, a toll collection system, via-ducts and bridges. The road should be operational by 2019, based on an indicative timeline.  The government has awarded nine contracts since the infrastruc-ture program’s inception in 2010. It aims to sign at least 15 contracts by the time President Aquino steps down from office in 2016.

BusinessMirror news@businessmirror.com.ph Friday, May 22, 2015 A2

NewsPPP. . .

Continued from A1

Continued from A1 To support the PPP Program in the coming years, Balisacan said the govern-ment is pushing for the enactment of the PPP Act, or Amendments to the Revised Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law.  Balisacan said the government is also seeking to amend the law on Right of Way Acquisition that would address bottlenecks in infrastructure provi-sion, including implementation delays in our PPP projects. “We are continuously working to streamline processes and institution-alize reforms and best practices. In particular, we have advocated mea-sures to further enhance the legal and policy environment for private-sector participation,” Balisacan said.  The Philippine government is cur-rently conducting a PPP Policy Dialogue with the Australian government in Melbourne, Australia. The dialogue should help unluck useful insights on how other jurisdic-tions sustained their PPP Program over the years, including an understanding of their PPP legal and institutional frameworks, appraisal methodologies, procurement policies, and implemen-tation and monitoring of projects.  Representatives from the Philippine government included Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson and PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao, as well as partners from the Australian government, such as the Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade of the State Government of Victoria Adem Somyurek.

‘Govt wins, public loses in Calax rebid’

news@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Friday, May 22, 2015 A3BusinessMirrorThe Nation

Palace rejects fresh Cha-cha bids by Senate, House leadersBy Butch Fernandez

MALACAÑANG on Tuesday curtly rejected separate bids by Senate and House leaders to fast-track proposals

to tinker with the 1987 Constitution in order to relax restrictions on entry of foreign investors and legitimize controversial provisions of the Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) granting greater autonomy to Muslims in Mindanao.

“There is no change in our position,” Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. told the BusinessMirror when asked if President Aquino would now recon-sider his position against economic Charter change (Cha-cha) given the determination of House lawmakers to pursue it. 

The Aquino administration asserts that investments are coming in despite existing restrictions limiting ownership by foreign investors in certain sectors.

Coloma said the same applies to a recent Senate proposal made by Sen. Miriam San-tiago to amend the 1987 Charter, also called the “Cory Constitution” having been rati-fied during the term of Mr. Aquino’s late

mother, former President Corazon Aquino.Santiago suggested that the Constitu-

tion could be amended in order to preclude anticipated legal challenges questioning the constitutionality of the proposed BBL that Mr. Aquino’s negotiators committed in a recent peace pact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Earlier, Coloma calmed concerns the Palace may need to give BBL an extra push amid signals lawmakers may not meet their agreed June 11 deadline to pass the bill.

The secretary indicated that Malaca-ñang remains confident that lawmakers, in crafting the final BBL version that is expected to be submitted to Mr. Aquino in

June for signing into law, “are cognizant of the significance of the timely enactment of the BBL.”

At the same time, Coloma acknowledged concerns over the BBL’s so-called opt-in provision that would allow 10 percent of barangay residents in contigous areas to join the new entity that would replace the soon to be abolished Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

He pointed out that this opt-in provi-sion is not immediately executory and will only happen five to 10 years down the road.

The Palace official added the controver-sial provision adopted by the House ad hoc committee that crafted the new BBL version can still be tackled in the House plenary deliberations on the bill.

Further deliberations in the Senate may also be another venue to raise the opt-in issue, he said, noting that the bottom line for the administration is whether the final BBL version the two chambers of Congress would pass will provide the key for social justice and development in Mindanao.

“That is our aim,” Coloma told Palace reporters at a briefing on Thursday, admit-ting that while Malacañang is anticipat-ing legal challenges against the BBL, the final verdict would come from the people on the issue whether BBL would be “a key-stone in building a strong foundation for long-term peace, progress and stability in Mindanao.”

SEN. Miriam Defensor Santiago said changing the name of the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) will not

make it any less objectionable unless Congress also revamps the bill to address numerous “constitutional infirmities.”

Santiago, chairman of the Senate Com-mittee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes, was commenting on the Lower House’s approval of an amended ver-sion of the bill now called draft “Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.”

“The words ‘basic law’ are attached to the name. ‘Basic law,’ in legal construction, is a synonym for ‘constitutional law’ and ‘organic law,’” the senator said, citing her committee report on the BBL draft, pending as Senate Bill 2408.

She added that the name itself showed that the BBL is intended to have the same effect as the “constitution” or “constitutional law” of the Bangsamoro territory, in the same manner that the 1987 Constitution is supreme in the territory of the Republic of the Philippines.

“It goes without saying that two different constitutional instruments cannot have legal effect at the same time and in the same ter-ritory. The proposed BBL must be consistent with the provisions of the Constitution of the Philippines,” she said.

The Santiago report is based on two public hearings on the draft BBL, where resource per-sons included former Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban; Associate Justices Florentino Feliciano and Vicente Mendoza; and former UP Law Dean Merlin Magallona.

Aside from Santiago, other senators who signed the report include Committee Vice Chairman Juan Edgardo M. Angara and members Jinggoy Estrada, Ferdinand Mar-cos Jr., Aquilino Pimentel III, Vicente Sotto

III and Cynthia Villar. Senators Lito Lapid and Ralph Recto said they will sign the re-port on Monday.

The 27-page document is one of three com-mittee reports that will form the Senate’s position on the BBL effort. The two others will come from the Committee on Local Government, the primary committee, and the Committee on Peace, Unification and Reconciliation.

Copies of Santiago’s committee report on the draft BBL were released to the media as the ad hoc committee of the House of Rep-resentatives approved its version of the bill. Malacañang hopes to pass the proposed BBL before Congress adjourns sine die on June 10.

“The Committee on Constitutional Amendments appreciates the brilliant efforts of the hardworking men and women who put the BBL together. However, in its present state, the BBL raises many insidious doubts on con-stitutionality,” Santiago said.

She urged her colleagues not to approve the BBL with haste, stressing that the Senate and the House acting only by themselves can-not approve the proposed BBL in its present form. “It has to be promulgated by nothing less than an amendment to the Constitu-tion,” she added.

Santiago also said a constitutional amend-ment should apply the method prescribed by the Constitution itself—constitutional con-vention, constituent assembly, or people’s initiative—with revisions subject to ratifica-tion by the national electorate in a plebiscite.

“The people made the Constitution and the people can unmake it. But the supreme and irresistible power to make or unmake resides only in the whole body of the people, not any subdivision of them,” she said, quoting US Chief Justice John Marshall. Recto Mercene

Sen. Santiago says semanticsonly one of BBL’s problems

THE camp of businessman Michael Romero has sought the ouster of a Quezon City judge from handling

the ownership dispute case filed by his fa-ther, Reghis Romero II, covering the Har-bour Center Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI).

In an eight-page supplemental motion filed before the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City, Romero, through his lawyer E. Hans Santos, sought the inhibitionn of Judge Bernelito Fernandez, presid-ing judge of Branch 79, for his alleged biased judgment.

Romero specifically cited the April 29, 2015, and May 19, 2015, hearings con-ducted by Fernandez on the injunction petition filed by his father.

The younger Romero noted that al-though the hearing on April 29 was scheduled for the plaintiffs’ temporary restraining order (TRO) application, the oral argument that transpired dealt with his motion to dismiss, in particular their position that jurisdiction over the person of the defendants had not been acquired. 

The motion to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds, he stressed, necessarily had to be resolved first, given that there would have been no legal basis to proceed absent the acquisition of jurisdiction by the trial court

Recognizing this, Romero claimed that Fernandez specifically stated that he would resolve the motion to dismiss first. 

“Since the application for a TRO had not yet been heard, the logical assump-tion was that there would be an order granting or denying the motion to dis-miss, and if denied, the TRO application would proceed,” Romero noted. 

“This did not happen. Instead, Judge Fernandez ruled on the motion to dis-miss not ‘first’, but simultaneously with the grant of the TRO in the same May 5, 2015, order,” it added. 

He added that a TRO was granted de-spite the fact that the court’s own records—notably the Officer’s Return and Amended Officer’s Return both dated April 28—unequivocally confirmed that summons was never served on defendant Harbour Centre Port Holdings Inc. (HCPHI). 

It can be recalled that in an order is-sued on May 5, Fernandez enjoined HC-PHI, headed by the younger Romero, from exercising ownership or rights, directly or indirectly, over the port-terminal fa-cility in Manila.

Fernandez granted the petition filed by Reghis seeking the issuance of a TRO barring Michael from taking control of the facility. 

The elder Romero has been insisting that his two companies, R-II Builders Inc. and R-II Holdings Inc., remain the majority stockholders of Harbour Centre, contrary to his son’s claim.

“Indeed, from the judge’s demeanor and actions, defendant is absolutely convinced that the injunction proceedings shall sim-ply be an exercise preparatory to appeal; Judge Fernandez’s ruling granting the injunction is a foregone conclusion,” the younger Romero stressed.

Meanwhile, Romero said Fernandez also showed bias and partiality in favor of his father during the hearing on May 19, which would warrant his inhibition.

He noted that during the hearing, Judge Fernandez motu propio and with-out any motion for either of the parties, proposed that,  given the pendency of several incidents including his motion for inhibition, the parties should just submit simultaneous memoranda, arguing their respective positions on the application for preliminary injunction.  He added that when his lawyer insisted that she be allowed to cross-examine the witnesses, Fernandez initially suggested that the de-fendants just attach their own sworn affi-davits and evidence to their memorandum.

“Either this was a mere lapse on Judge Fernandez’s part, which then raises the is-sue of judicial competence in the conduct of trial, or it reveals an overzealous desire to rush the matter of injunction, which raises an entirely different set of worry-ing concerns,” Romero said. 

The younger Romero pointed out that the TRO was dated May 5, but Fernan-dez scheduled the injunction hearing 14 days after the issuance of the TRO, leav-ing defendant with practically no time to cross-examine witnesses with volu-minous judicial affidavits, much less a fair period within which to present his own witnesses.

“Each of the above events singly would have been sufficient to raise the suspicion of bias; collectively, they define a pattern of partiality that solidifies defendant’s belief that the chance of obtaining a fair trial with Judge Fernandez presiding is a pipe dream,” Romero said. Joel R. San Juan

QC judge’s ouster in HCPTI case sought by Romero’s son

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz 

The house Committee on higher and Technical edu-cation (ChTe) has recently

approved the measure calling for the creation of a transition fund in order to minimize the impact of the implementation of the K to 12 Program on all higher education institutions (heIs).

House panel OKs P29-B fund for K to 12 Program

House Bill 5493, authored by CHTE Chairman and Liberal Party Rep. Roman T. Romulo of Pasig City, seeks to provide fi-nancial assistance to academic, academic support and nonaca-demic personnel, as well as HEIs adversely affected by the K to 12 Program. 

“As early as 2014, we have been convening the committee, together with the representatives of the Commission on Higher Education [CHED], the Depart-ment of Education, Technical Education and Skills Develop-ment Authority [Tesda], the De-partment of Labor and Employ-ment, the Department of Budget and Management [DBM] and other sectors directly affected in order to discuss and come up with proposals on how to address the possible effects of the K to 12 implementation,” Romulo said. 

“We knew we had to expedite action, especially when reports came in that several HEIs were already laying off faculty mem-bers in anticipation of the zero enrollment of first-year students in 2016 and 2017,” he added. 

The lawmaker, citing reports, said that upon the effectivity of the Senior High School pro-gram in 2016, the lack of fresh-men enrollees would mean loss of income for Philippine HEIs, which would affect around 25,000 faculty and nonteach-ing staff. Under the measure, a Tertiary Education Transition Fund amounting to P29 billion will be appropriated to provide financial assistance to school personnel affected by the K to 12 Program. Romulo said both the CHED and the DBM guar-anteed that the amount would be earmarked and made readily available once implementation of K to 12 is in full swing in 2016. 

The bill said that an initial amount of P12 billion will be

appropriated by Congress in 2016, while the remaining P17 billion will be funded through the General Appropriations Act for the succeeding four years.

It added that the proposed fund would be used to provide grants and scholarships to fac-ulty members without teach-ing load in 2016 and 2017 in order for HEIs to upgrade their faculty profile.

Meanwhile, the K to 12 Plus Program of the national govern-ment has been perceived to boost productivity as the country has been embracing the 12-year ba-sic curriculum. Tesda Secretary-General Joel Villanueva, issued this statement in news confer-ence at a hotel in Santiago City, Isabela on Wednesday.

“The people has embraced the program positively and they have been enrolling our technical-vo-cational programs,” Villanueva said. He added that the special-ization of students would be im-proved at the seventh and eighth grades with at least 23 courses be-ing implemented this year.

”By 2018 the assessment and certification will remain with the Tesda. While the Professional Regulation Commission would authorize or certify profession-als, the Tesda would be accredit-ing and certifying skilled work-ers,” he stressed.

With a report from PNA

CIRCUS ACT A delivery man carries a cart filled with goods and two of his coworkers who seem to be performing a circus act. MAU VICTA

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—The provincial government of South Cotabato has col-

lected a total of P3.17 million in mining and quarry taxes during the first quarter of the year, surpassing its target for the period.

Siegfred Flaviano, South Cota-bato Provincial Environment Man-agement Office chief, said on Thurs-day such figure is around P170,000 higher than their collection target of P3 million for the first three months of the year.

He said they were to reach their goal after a significant surge in their collection in March that reached a total of P1.45 million.

The local government only col-lected around P1.72 million in Jan-uary and February, or an average of P860,000.

“We’re currently working on some strategies to further improve our collection performance and

eventually exceed our overall target of P12 million for the entire year,” Flaviano said. The official said the province’s share in the mining and quarry tax collection amounted to P1.306 million, while the rest was divided among the city and munici-pal governments.

The provincial imposition un-der mining and quarry covers sand and gravel tax; mining tax, mining permit fee, ore transport fee, oc-cupational mining tax, verification fee, filing fee, permit fee, projection fee, processing fee, fines/penalties/surcharges, and, miscellaneous (delivery receipts).

Flaviano attributed their im-proved collection performance to their intensified monitoring and enforcement activities against ille-gal quarry and mining operations in the province.

He said they have been regu-larly checking the operations

various quarry and small-scale mining ventures to ensure that they are compliant with the local government’s regulations.

Flaviano said they are currently pushing for vital amendments to the province’s existing quarry and mining regulations to update the present tax rates.

He specifically cited the provi-sions of Provincial Ordinances 7 and 8 that were enacted by the Sanggu-niang Panlalawigan in 2002.

The Provincial Mining and Regu-latory Board endorsed the revision of the two ordinances, which car-ries local regulations on small-scale mining.

“We’re mainly pushing for the revision of their outdated provi-sions, particularly on the imposi-tion of taxes, fees, surcharges, fines or penalties to small-scale mining operators, processors and miners,” he said. PNA

S. Cotabato nets P3.17-M mining taxes

Friday, May 22, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

EconomyBusinessMirrorA4 news@businessmirror.com.ph

THE country’s largest travel agencies belonging to S8 Exhibition Inc. are targeting P7 billion in revenues from

luxury tourists by 2018, as they position the Philippines as a luxury destination.

S8 Exhibition Inc. said it is launching the first Asia Premium Travel Mart (APTM), a high-end business-to-business networking event which focuses on the Asia-Pacific luxury travel market, this month.

Some 50 exhibitors offering premium des-tinations, products, services and properties in the country are expected to participate in the event.

Edward Villanueva, director of S8 Exhibi-tion Inc., said travel agencies expect luxury travellers—those who earn twice as much as the average earnings of the population in their country—to bring in P1.6 billion in revenues next year.

By 2018 S8 Exhibition Inc. said it expects as much as 60,000 luxury tourists to spend P7 billion in the Philippines.

Specifically, the group said it is eyeing to corner the “very high upper middle income class,” who can spend as much as P 100,000 to P 120,000 for three to five days exclud-ing meals. 

S8 Exhibition Inc. said it expects these big spenders to come from the usual high-income economies, such as the Gulf countries, who are increasingly looking at the Asia-Pacific region as the new luxury destination. 

Villanueva said with the launch of the APTM, the Philippines hopes to join other Asia-Pacific countries that increasingly turn-ing to luxury tourism, such as India, Australia, China, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan, Singapore, and Bali, Indonesia. 

S8 Exhibition Inc. expects the APTM to draw as much as 300 luxury buyers from Eu-rope, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, Middle East, Australia, and Latin America.

S8 Exhibition Inc. consists of top officials of Arfel Travel & Tours , Corporate Interna-tional Travel & Tours Inc., DCTC R. Devel-opers Corp., Let’s Celebrate Life Travel & Leisure, Light Miles Travel Inc., and Luxus Pacific Travel Inc.

The APTM will run from May 26 to 28 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. 

Catherine N. Pillas

PHL eyes P7-B revenue from luxury tourists

ZAMBOANGA CITY—First District Rep. Celso Lobregat has urged the Zamboanga

City Electric Cooperative (Zamcel-co) to “act with urgency” in solving this city’s pestering long hours of daily rotational brownout.

Lobregat made the call on Thursday during a power forum held at a local hotel spearheaded by Energy Secretary Carlos Jeri-cho L. Petilla and attended by Zamcelco officials and other local stakeholders.

Lobregat’s call came as Petilla presented ways on how to eliminate, if not reduce, the number of long hours of brownout daily.

This city is experiencing five- to six-hour daily rotational brownout due to power-supply deficit brought about by decline of water level that powers the hydroelectric plants, which supply the Mindanao grid.

Pet i l la sa id Zamcelco can eliminate, if not reduce, the number of hours of brownout by sourcing out power from other Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and not to rely much on hydro power.

Petilla cited the case of the South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative (Socoteco II) of General Santos City, wherein Socoteco II decided to pur-chase more power from IPPs than relying much on hydro power after they experienced the worst brown-out in 2013.

However, he said Zamcelco has to pay the cost, since the IPPs sell their excess power at higher price.

“Solution comes with a price, it doesn’t come free,” he said during the forum.

At present, Zamcelco has a power deficit of more than 20 megawatts (MW), which translates to five- to

six-hour daily rotational brownout.Zamcelco is being supplied

power by the Power Sector As-sets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp. and two IPPs—Therma Marine, Inc. and Mapalad Power Corp.

Lobregat told the Zamcelco of-ficials during the forum to act im-mediately in solving the problem on brownout.

“It is a decision that has to be made right away,” Lobregat said, explaining on what he means that Zamcelco should “act with urgency.”

The holding of the forum on Thursday was initiated by Lobre-gat when he met Petilla last week in Manila, together with Zamcelco officials.

Also present during the fo-rum here were representatives of PSALM, IPPs, business sector, and other stakeholders. PNA

Zamboanga City power cooperatives need to act with urgency on brownouts

ROMULO

By Joel R. San Juan

THE Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that the Department of Health (DOH) has no authority

to regulate the promotion schemes of tobacco firms.  

SC: DOH has no legal authority to regulate tobacco promotions

In an 11-page decision penned by Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, the SC’s First Division af-firmed the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) in 2011, which granted the petition filed by two giant to-bacco companies—Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMPMI)  and intervenor Fortune Tobacco Corp.—seeking to nullify the resolution issued by the DOH prohibiting the tobacco industry from conducting promotional ac-tivities in accordance with Republic Act (RA) 9211, or the Tobacco Regu-lation Act of 2003.   

The SC said it agrees with the ap-pellate court that it is the Inter-Agen-cy Committee (IAC)-Tobacco that has exclusive power and function to ad-minister and implement provisions of RA 9211 and not the DOH.   

It did not give weight to the claim of the DOH that its authority to rule

upon applications for sales-promo-tion permits emanates from Article 116 in relation to Article 109 of RA 7394, or the Consumer Act of the Philippines.  

 The said provisions states:  “No person shall conduct any sales cam-paigns, including beauty contest, national in character, sponsored and promoted by manufacturing enter-prises without first securing a permit from the concerned department at least 30 calendar days prior to the commencement thereof....”  

But the High Tribunal noted that   the same provision has been repealed by RA 9211, which created the IAC-Tobacco. Under the same provision, IAC-Tobacco will have exclusive power and function to ad-minister and implement the provi-sions of RA 9211, including promo-tion regulation.

“After a meticulous examination

of the...pertinent  provisions of RA 7394 and RA 9211, the Court finds that the latter law impliedly repealed the relevant provisions of the former with respect to the authority of the DOH to regulate tobacco sales pro-motions,” the SC said in denying the DOH’s petition seeking the reversal of the CA ruling.   

  “In fine, the Court agrees with the CA that it is the IAC-Tobacco, and not the DOH, which has the primary jurisdiction to regulate sales promo-tion activities...,” it added.

Thus, the Court ordered  the re-mand of the permit applications filed by PMPMI for its tobacco sales promotions to the IAC-Tobacco for appropriate action.

Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-Castro, Lucas Bersamin and Jose Portugal Perez. 

Prior to the controversy, PMP-MI,  through the advertising agency the PCN Promopro, and invoking the provisions of the Consumer Act of the Philippines, applied for a sales-promotion permit before the Food and Drug Administration (FAD) for the tobacco company’s “Gear Up Promotional Activity” in November 2008.       

PMPMI was later verbally in-formed by the FAD that there is a DOH memorandum supposedly prohibiting tobacco companies from

holding any form of tobacco promo-tion in the country.               

Meanwhile, on   November 28, 2008, PMPMI, through another ad-vertising agency, the Arc Worldwide Philippines Co., also applied for a promotional permit for its “Golden Stick Promotional Activity.”               

The FAD again denied PMPMI’s permit application for  promotional activities, citing an instruction from the DOH that since July 1, 2008, all promotions, advertisements and sponsorships of tobacco products are already prohibited.          

  The PMPI appealed the FAD’s denial of its permit application for promotional activities with the DOH.              

In a decision dated April 30, 2009, the DOH denied PMPMI’s appeal along with all similar actions filed by other tobacco companies.                

This prompted PMPMI to im-mediately elevate the case before the CA, considering that the issue involved a legal question.                

Meanwhile, Fortune Tobacco moved to intervene in the case on the ground that it has a direct and immediate legal interest in the out-come of the petition, being engaged in a business similar to PMPMI.      

In ruling in favor of the tobacco industry, the CA held that the DOH and FAD committed grave abuse of discretion in declaring that all promotions, advertisements and

sponsorships of tobacco products are already prohibited starting July 1, 2008, as mandated under RA 9211.               

The appellate court noted that Section 22 of RA 9211 (Ban on Ad-vertisements) prohibits all forms of tobacco advertisements in mass me-dia, “except tobacco advertisements placed inside the premises of point-of-sale establishments.”      

On the other hand, Section 23 of RA 9211 allows tobacco promo-tions, with some restrictions, such as  it should be directed to persons at least 18 years old; all stalls, booths and other display concerning tobac-co promotions must be limited to point-of-sale of adult-only facilities; telephone communications concern-ing promotional offers, programs or events must include a recorded health warning message; and sev-eral others.  

Furthermore, the CA declared that the DOH has no authority to enforce the provisions of RA 9211.                

It noted that Section 29 of the Tobacco Regulation Act states that IAC-Tobacco   shall have the exclu-sive power and function to admin-ister and implement the provisions of the said law.      

The IAC-Tobacco is chaired by the secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, with the DOH secretary as vice chairman.

FOOD EXPO OPENS AT SMX The 10th Asia’s Ethnic Food & Ingredients Show Philippines opened on Thursday, with (from left) Center for International Trade Exposition and Missions Executive Director Rosvi Gaetas, Trade Undersecretary Ponciano Manalo Jr., Sen. Cynthia Villar and Agriculture Undersecretary for Operations Emerson Palad leading the ceremonial toast to welcome the attendees to the annual event at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. ROY DOMINGO

By Mary Grace Padin 

GLOBAL real estate and in-vestment management firm Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) an-

nounced  on Thursday  that Metro Manila is now recognized as one of its Top 30 Real Estate Investment Cities in the world. Jeremy Kelly, director  of JLL Global Research, said during the Asia Real Estate Summit 2015 in Makati City that the Philippine economy’s robust growth is crucial in making Manila one of the most attractive commercial real-estate spots today. He listed economic output, pop-ulation, corporate presence, con-nectivity, real-estate stocks and investment as some of the criteria that JLL considered in its Global City Commercial Attraction Index in real estate and development. “The key feature of a successful

city is about sustainable momen-tum, adaptability and ability to re-invent itself. Manila definitely has these qualities,” Kelly said in his presentation. JLL predicted that by 2030, Manila will be top 18 in the world in terms of city gross domestic product (GDP), having one of the highest economic momentum glob-ally, along with Jakarta and Istanbul. Kelly also mentioned the Philip-pines’s specialization in the business- process outsourcing (BPO) sector as one of its strengths in the global city competitiveness scale. He cited AT Kearney Emerging Cities Outlook 2014 and Tholons Top Outsourcing Destinations in 2015, both placing Manila in the No. 2 spot. “The Philippines should leverage its position as a BPO destination so that it can evolve fundamentally into a technology hub,” Kelly added. The city’s population and de-

mographics also play a big role in the city’s success, as it is one of the densest cities in the world. Kelly said Manila is on its way to becoming a supersized city, reaching 30 million people by 2030. “This will shape endless pos-sibilities and pathways to future developments. Interestingly, many cities around the world are looking at densification as the answer to some of their challenges,” he said. It also provides the city with a huge work force and numerous talents. JLL also named other factors in a city’s competitiveness, namely, transparency, consistency, business friendliness, livability, sustainabil-ity, innovation, identity and confi-dence, among others. Sustaining the Philippines’s suc-cess in the real-estate industry will rest on how it absorbs its growth, Kelly said. That said, he described Manila

as one of the so-called multipolar cities, having multiple central busi-ness districts (CBD)—cities that are close to their talents. Kelly recommended that renova-tions should be made in Manila’s in-frastructure system and mass tran-sit in order to improve its potential in the real-estate business. He said major transportation should be near business hubs and that key gaps in infrastructure should be identified to create a great sense of space and vibrancy in the Metro. Among JLL’s visions for Manila are the realization of the Metro Manila Greenprint and the Metro Manila Dream Plan by 2030: in-frastructure spending equivalent to 5 percent of GDP, $65-billion infrastructure investment, new international airport, first subway system, enhanced connectivity be-tween CBDs, to name a few.

Metro Manila now in JLL’s top 30 investment cities globally

BusinessMirror Friday, May 22, 2015news@businessmirror.com.ph A5

Economy

By David Cagahastian

THE Insurance Commission (IC) has clarified that all in-vestments in foreign curren-

cy-denominated bonds to be made by insurance companies after the ef-fectivity of the amended Insurance Code in 2013 should have prior ap-proval from the IC. Insurance Commissioner Em-manuel F. Dooc issued Circular Let-ter 2015-25, which clarified that under the amended Insurance Code, all investments in foreign currency-denominated bonds should comply with certain requirements for them to be considered as assets of the in-surance company. Such requirements include a cred-it rating from Standard & Poor’s of “BBB” for the foreign currency-de-nominated government bond, which is a notch higher than the minimum investment-grade rating, and prior approval by the commission. “For investments in foreign cur-rency-denominated bonds made after the effectivity of the amended Insurance Code, compliance with the credit ratings and requirements, and prior approval of the Insurance Commission must be complied with, otherwise, the investment made will be deemed a non-admitted invest-ment,” the new circular said Being deemed a non-admitted in-vestment, the said foreign currency-denominated bonds shall not be in-cluded in the computation of assets for the purpose of determining an insurance company’s liquidity and financial viability. The circular clarified that only those foreign currency-denominated bonds that were acquired before the effectivity of the amended Insur-ance Code are exempted from the requirement of prior approval from the commission. But even such bonds should still comply with the minimum credit-rating requirement of “BBB” as as-sessed by Standard & Poor’s, or its equivalent in the grading system of Moody’s or Fitch Ratings, before such bonds shall be considered as an admitted asset. “For investments in foreign cur-rency-denominated bonds made pri-or to the effectivity of the amended Insurance Code, prior approval of the IC is not required if the investment made complies with the credit ratings of S&P, Moody’s or Fitch provided under IC Circular Letter 29-2005, the prevailing circular at that time,” the new circular said. “But if the investment made prior to the effectivity of the amended In-surance Code does not comply with the credit ratings, approval of the IC is required, otherwise, the invest-ment made will be deemed as non-admitted asset,” the circular added.

NEW York Stock Ex-change-listed Mon-ster has announced the

region-wide launch of Talent-Bin by Monster, which provides recruiters access to previously “unfindable” candidate profiles through aggregated social sourc-es across the Web.

The company said through this platform, Monster aims to use a storehouse of actionable information and Web-based re-cruiting tools to help locate hard-to-find talent.

In a tight labor market, a com-pany’s ability to find, attract and access the right skilled profes-sionals is critical to success, the company said.

TalentBin by Monster not only automates and streamlines the talent-discovery process via site monitoring, interpretation and matching, but also simplifies the hiring process to allow recruiters to do more in less time.

“Skilled technology talent is hard to find and we have found that many potential candidates are not active job seekers and are less likely to have, and regularly update, a résumé or a profes-sional online profile. However, the talent recruiters are trying to find are online in many ways, leaving bits of information dem-onstrating the professional skills that make them desirable candi-dates. This prompts for a need for a disruptive technology to find this talent,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director, Monster (In-dia, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong).

TalentBin by Monster scans relevant sites such as GitHub, Twitter, StackOverflow, Meetup, Google+ and other forums where candidates are active online.

“TalentBin by Monster is a so-lution to the evolution of online and social recruitment. It has an intuitive and specialized com-munication template that can assemble candidate profiles from

publicly available sources, lim-ited to professionally relevant information. This will ensure the ‘unfindable’ can be found,” Sanjay added.

By harnessing the vast amount of professionally relevant infor-mation people share across social platforms, TalentBin by Monster brings potential job candidates to the surface.

Already launched and imple-mented in the US and the UK, TalentBin by Monster is now also available in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and the Gulf region.

“Technical talents are rarely active seekers, with profiles that are nonexistent or seldom updated. TalentBin by Monster helps you find talent where they already live online—not where you wish they would be,” Monster said.

TalentBin by Monster provides direct access to e-mail addresses, so employers can reach profes-sionals on the platforms where they are already active.

It also allows recruiters to pri-oritize their time on profession-als who are engaged so they can reduce their time-to-hire.  Monster Worldwide Inc. is a global leader in connecting peo-ple to jobs, wherever they are. For more than 20 years, Monster has helped people improve their lives with better jobs, and employers find the best talent. Today, the company offers services in more than 40 coun-tries, providing some of the broadest, most sophisticated job seeking, career management, recruitment and talent-manage-ment capabilities. Monster continues its pioneer-ing work of transforming the re-cruiting industry with advanced technology using intelligent digi-tal, social and mobile solutions, including its flagship web site monster.com and a vast array of products and services.

IC issues new circular on insurers’ bond investments

New York-based Monster widens reach of talent hunters in Asia Pacific

Friday, May 22, 2015

OpinionBusinessMirrorA6

The new population bombeditorial

STANFORD University Prof. Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife Anne wrote a best-selling book in 1968, titled The Population Bomb.

It began with this statement: “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of mil-lions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”

Just about every prediction Ehrlich made was completely wrong. In fact, the United Nations (UN) reported last year that the percentage of the global population that qualifies as “undernourished” has fallen by more than half, from 33 percent to about 16 percent, since 1968.

Ehrlich wrote in 1968, “I don’t see how India could possibly feed 200 million more people by 1980.” That sentence was removed from the 1971 edition, as India’s food self-sufficiency improved dramatically. In fact, while the number of malnourished children in India is high, the rates of malnutrition and poverty in India have declined, from approximately 90 percent at the time of India’s independence to less than 40 percent today.

The total number of living humans on Earth is now greater than 7 billion, and between 1900 and 2000 the increase in world population was three times as great as the increase during the entire previous history of humankind.

According the economist Max Roser, world history can be divided into three periods of distinct trends in population growth. The first period was a very long age of very slow population growth. The second period, lasting until 1962, had an increasing rate of growth. Now, the population-growth rate is falling and will continue to fall, leading to an end of growth before the end of this century.

According to the UN data, Chinese, Russians and Brazilians are no longer replacing themselves, while Indians are having far fewer children. If this strengthening trend continues, global fertility will fall to the replacement rate in a little more than a decade.

Total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of live births per woman over her lifetime. The global population will remain stable if the TFR is at or above 2.3 for the world as a whole. Germany and Japan now come in at 1.4 TFR. In 1950 China and India were 6.1 and 5.9, respectively. Based on the imbalance of more men to women, effectively, China is now at 1.5 and India is at 2.45 TFR.

Certainly, in view of the planet’s limited carrying capacity, a slower birth rate is beneficial. However, this change in demographics creates its own set of problems. India is the only large economy whose work force will grow sufficiently over the next 30 years to increase economic growth. China’s pool of women of childbearing age will drop 8 percent between 2010 and 2020. Germany, Japan and Russia already have declining num-bers in their work forces.

The one global region that is projected to stay in the “not too fast” (West Africa) and “not too slow” (Europe) category is Southeast Asia.

EVERY Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine used in our last two elections took digital photographs of each ballot that was fed into it, creating a comprehensive record of how

the ballots appeared at the very moment they were cast. These digital images are then used after the elections, in case the final results are questioned and a recount becomes necessary.

Dodged a bullet

In the last elections, during the Ran-dom Manual Audit (RMA)—the process by which ballots from select precincts are recounted immediately after the polls—a number of these digital images showed vertical lines of varying width, running from top to bottom, some of them cross-ing over the ovals that voters need to black out to signify their vote. In short order, this phenomenon—consisting as it did of lines appearing on digital images —was christened “digital lines.” With no evidence to prove anything either way, these digital lines quickly became touted as a kind of smoking gun to prove that the PCOS machine manipulated the results of the last elections.

So it wasn’t a surprise that, at the May 14 hearing of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on the automation of elections, one of the most-anticipated topics up for discussion was the matter of these digital lines.

Almost as soon as the topic was brought up, hands shot up into the air as nearly every other resource person in the room wanted to get on the record with his or her theory on where those lines came from, what they signified, and well, you get the picture. And then the head of the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC)—created under the Automation Law, to certify the auto-mated election systems—delivered his committee’s report.

Early on, the presentation categori-cally stated that the appearance of these lines was a common problem in optical scanning devices, where it is the object being scanned—such as the ballot—is the one which moves over a stationary scanning element. The presentation also clarified that it was not even a problem unique to the Philippines, citing similar issues in recent elections in Mongolia.

According to the presentation, the

most common cause of digital lines was foreign-matter contamination. Things like dust particles stuck on the surfaces of ballots could become temporarily lodged between the ballot and the scan-ning element and, essentially, block the scan—technically referred to as “optical- path disruption”—as the paper moved through the PCOS and into the ballot box.

Ink stains would have the same ef-fect, as would bits of paper, insect body parts (that one elicited a collective “eww” from some of the younger people in the session hall at the time), and even just scratches on the thin and transparent celluloid sheet—called mylar—covering the PCOS’s scanning elements.

By this time, the presentation had made it abundantly clear the so-called mysterious digital lines were neither mysterious—the underlying clauses were physically demonstrable and the resulting lines repeatable—nor even digital in origin. However, there was still the issue of how these lines affected the outcome of elections.

Based on the study conducted by the TEC in December 2014, on ballots com-ing from 383 precincts, 84 percent of the 200,403 manually reviewed ballot im-ages did not show any line. And for those images that did show lines, the results of 94.7 percent were not affected at all; overall, a mere 0.55 percent of national positions and 0.28 percent of local posi-tions were affected.

As it turned out, the decision by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to set thresholds for mark recognition—

the percentage of the oval that needed to be covered by a mark in order for it to be recognized as a vote—proved to be a significant safeguard. Although in 2013, this threshold was set lower than 50 per-cent, which was not low enough that a mere straight line through the oval would trigger recognition as a vote. While some of the lines that crossed the ovals did get marked as votes, the number of such in-cidences was too low to be significant.

After the TEC’s sobering presentation of these findings, much of the specula-tion ceased and the way forward for au-tomation was that much clearer.

Obviously, these lines were not some-thing that could be shrugged off, and the Comelec laid out its plans to replace all the mylar sheets used in the PCOS, and to require that all machines either be equipped or—in the case of the PCOS machines already owned by the govern-ment—retrofitted with software that will enable the detection of conditions that would give rise to these lines. This apart from the extra attention being given to the kinds of paper being used for ballots; the kinds of marking pens that will be rolled out on election day; and the establishment of procedures to minimize the problem of foreign mate-rials getting into the PCOS machines.

No question about it. The Comelec dodged a bullet with this one. Time to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections’s education and information department.

spoxJames Jimenez

Friday, May 22, 2015

OpinionA7BusinessMirroropinion@businessmirror.com.ph

annotationstito Genova Valiente

CLASSES in the old Jesuit school will begin this August. This is no big deal insofar as education management goes. Seasons and their ephemera rightfully belong to the creative. And

there are many things that should be big deal for education people but are ignored, seasons and weather and climate included.

In praise of the last summerThe Global Development Agenda should be the National Development Agenda

“I’ll see you in September when summer is gone.” Gary Lewis and the Playboys sang the song with those lines. Summer in that song is going away, for a while. June nights sur-round lovers but one always waits in another place, when summer is gone. This makes August the gateway to summer, the summer of other coun-tries, the signifier for the hot days for our colonizers. But we sing this song even if August and part of September do not constitute the summer for us. March, April and May are our sum-mer months. Try as we may harder, we can never feel the poignancy of those lines.

The fact is by September, summer is long gone in this country.

Summer is something tentative in terms of the more permanent events in a human group’s life. The ephem-era are the permanent element, the charm of such season filled with indeterminate pains and pleasures.

Edna St. Vincent Millay tells it all: “I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full seasons of the year.” The lines can take any feeling man’s breath away but in our country, as I always put it, summer is the full season of the year.

In the songs of the temperate countries, summer is about fleeting affairs. One, it seems, is allowed to be unfaithful in summer. Films abound about the beauty of the transient and this all takes place during the sum-mer months that extend until the first few days of September. Take note of the film The Summer Knows, and remember the Michel Legrand song that goes with it: “The summer knows/The summer’s wise.... She sees the doubts/within your eyes.” The secret of childhood, the loss of innocence are there in the lines: “And if you’ve learned your lesson well/There’s little more for her to tell.”

We do not have these bittersweet

recollections. Morality is an annual commitment, although we do not adhere to such a vow. We pretend to be faithful from January to Decem-ber. We assure ourselves that fidel-ity is a contract sealed with the kiss of a region that it either dry or wet, or sometimes, dry and wet, and all the time hot. We are given reprieve when the chills come in the morn-ings from December to February. Then the true season of this republic asserts itself again.

What happens now that some uni-versities are globalized (summer can-not contend with globalization) and the school calendars have shifted?

I may sound flippant but when classes extend to April and May, we technically, and in fine romantic form, really lose the summer of our childhood. Yet, when foreign univer-sities abroad contemplate regarding their schedule, the universities that dispense of the summer of old will be fully integrated to a world calendar.

Looking back, the summer of March until May is in tune with the harvest season. The families rest their finances and summon back their children to work in the farm. This was when farms were far from the towns. Urbanization was then viewed as a force that will soon en-croach upon rural lands. That is not the case now, when farms are being subdivided and farmlands are van-ishing. The flood that covers most of big cities has nowhere to go. The pad-dies are gone and where there were

rice and trees, we have pavements and roads, as well as highways that killed woodlands and marshlands.

The new calendar has not fully conquered the other schools. In some areas where August is the beginning of classes, somehow, summer is gone. The old months of vacation are gone, whether we like or not.

Where do we put those easy, laid-back summer classes?

Where will the summer of cir-cumcision go? What occurs in the months when boys lose their boy-hood? Where will those summer afternoons be? Henry James, “Sum-mer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” 

The bureaucracy of education, some say, is the slowest to move of all bureaucracies. And yet, this time, with the change they are imposing, these men and women of knowledge have just swiftly al-tered, to a certain degree, the clime of this nation.

I do not know if my thoughts make sense. Perhaps, these are memories of a generation that relied on the rhythm of the seasons, when ty-phoons were used to reckon mile-stones and misfortunes.

Believe me, for those who will attend classes in August or early September, they should salute this summer, for this is their last summer.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

ON May 19 I assigned somewhat disappointing grades to the would-be economic reformers of Asia’s three leading economies: India (B), Japan (C-) and China (C+).

Three Asian economies with room for improvement

EaGLE WatCHalvin P. ang Ph.D.

BLooMBERG ViEWWilliam Pesek

But those aren’t the only Asian coun-tries with ambitious leaders and a need for economic reform. Today I’ll turn my attention to Park Geun-hye of South Ko-rea, Benigno Aquino of the Philippines and Joko “Jokowi” Widodo of Indone-sia, in order to evaluate how far they have—or haven’t—gotten with their plans to generate growth and raise liv-ing standards.

Parkonomics: Park was always an un-likely reformer. In February 2013 she followed her father’s footsteps into the

presidential Blue House with a pledge to undo the economic system he built between 1962 and 1979 in order to re-store the nation’s global competiveness. More than two years later, she hasn’t fared very well.

Her goal was to transform South Korea, Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, into a “creative economy,” driven more by services and innovation than indus-trial brawn. That meant reversing the economic model, heavily reliant on ex-ports by family-owned conglomerates (or

chaebol), set up by her strongman father Park Chung-hee. Early on, things looked promising: She rolled out measures to support small and midsize enterprises, inspire start-ups and curtail the influence of companies like Samsung, Hyundai and LG. Park even proposed tax changes to force the chaebol to either invest, or share with workers, the approximately $2 tril-lion of cash sitting on their balance sheets.

Over the last 12 months, however, Park’s government has lost its reformist zeal. It has even fallen back on the oldest trick in the South Korean policy-maker’s playbook: browbeating the central bank to cut interest rates to boost the country’s housing and stock markets. Meanwhile, Park has allowed the chaebol’s influence over the national economy to grow even larger. (Samsung’s revenues now equal 25 percent of South Korea’s gross do-mestic product.)

A court ruling this week determined Samsung copied Apple’s smartphone de-signs, underscoring South Korea’s lack of progress: The country is still good at

cribbing existing technologies, but not at inventing them. And that’s partly be-cause Park has been too timid. For that, she earns a C.

Aquinonomics: The Philippine presi-dent carried his own family baggage into office in June 2010. After his op-position-leader father was assassinated in 1983, Aquino’s mother, Corazon, led the street protests that toppled dicta-tor Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and later became president.

Since his own election five years ago, Aquino has transformed the Philippines from the “Sick Man of Asia” into an economy that won record foreign-direct investment in 2014—66 percent above 2013’s impressive haul. He has attacked corruption, gone after tax cheats and imposed higher levies on cigarette and alcohol tycoons. He even crossed the powerful Catholic Church by supporting population-control measures.

Aquino needs to do a better job, how-ever, of preparing the country for his departure. Aquino, who is limited to one

six-year term, will step down as president in June 2016. Absent reforms to the country’s political institutions, which are less transparent and accountable than they ought to be, the Philippines will likely remain one bad leader away from renewed economic chaos. (It’s worrying, in that sense, that the perceived front-runner to replace Aquino, Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, recently had his bank accounts frozen after an investigation by the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Council.) Still, Aquino earns a solid B+.

Jokowinomics: Admittedly, it’s pre-mature to grade a leader just 213 days after his election. But Jokowi’s disastrous showing in recent weeks demands scrutiny.

Jokowi is the first Indonesian leader who isn’t the scion of a dynastic family or the military. Early on, he proved his independence by cutting subsidies, going after dodgy dealings in the energy sector and increasing transparency at govern-ment ministries. Jokowi pledged more “inclusive” growth and an infrastructure

boom that would attract investment; his hikes to gas prices freed up $17.5 billion for the government to spend on ports, roads and other projects.

But when Indonesian growth started sputtering in recent months, that Jokowi disappeared. In his place, we’ve had an economic nationalist who prefers play-ing to the masses. He has been talking up a national Indonesian car (how did that work out for Malaysia?), and endorsing protectionist laws that require technol-ogy companies that sell their products in the country to source their components domestically. He has also been handing money to inefficient state enterprises in order to please the Indonesian Dem-ocratic Party of Struggle that backed him in his election campaign. All this is especially troubling because, as south-east Asia’s biggest economy, Indonesia’s health matters greatly to neighboring Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

On the bright side, Jokowi still has four years to rescue his legacy. For now, however, he gets a C-.

THE national election is upon us. Potential presidential candidates are now racing for that critical name recall less than a year before the actual election day.

Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, front-liner in the surveys, has pointed out that experience is what is needed for a success-ful presidency. On the other hand, Sen. Grace Poe, running second, disputed this, and said that honesty is more important. We are not going to argue for or against their perspectives. There is a much larger campaign that has started for the race to end global misery that should be aligned with our local perspectives.

Amid the varying national agendas, we have seemed to lost track of a commit-ment we made in 2000 under the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are eight in-ternational development goals that UN member-states committed to achieve by end of 2015. The goals are to eradicate poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat diseases, ensure environmen-tal sustainability and develop a global partnership in development.

In order to measure progress, these goals were designed various indicators to monitor. As a signatory to this com-mitment, the Philippines has done well in some and remains a laggard in others. As can be noted, many of these goals are basic to human capital formation and national development. They should be implemented with or without any inter-national commitment and achieved by a well-functioning bureaucracy at all levels.

Let us take the case of two indicators where the Philippines will most likely not achieve its targets for 2015: Proportion of students who started Grade 1 and will finish Grade 6 (Elementary Cohort Survival Rate) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), or the number of mothers who died from childbirth. The baseline for Cohort Survival was in 1990, with about 69.7 percent. As of 2013, it has only reached 80.6 percent, when the target for 2015 is 100 percent. Mean-while, the baseline for MMR is 209 for every 100,000 in 1990, this has actually increased to 221 for every 100,000 in 2011, against the target of 52 for every 100,000 for 2015.

In an MDG Acceleration Workshop for Maternal Mortality Rate, which I participated in April 2014, many of the issues hampering the achievement of these goals are not solely the responsibili-ties of government agencies in charge of these concerns. For example, providing educational resources, such as school buildings and teachers, will not ensure that students will come to school every school day. The same is true that moth-ers died from child birth, even when you have health facilities and doctors avail-able for child deliveries. Providing the

necessary infrastructure is one thing, but having an overall coordinated mech-anism is another. During the workshop, it was identified that about 45 percent of mothers still give birth at home. Many of them reasoned that they lack money for treatment, the facilities are too far from where they live and they need transport.

These reasons will not be different from children who have to go to school every day. These reasons can be inter-preted as due to poverty and accessibility. In a chart, it can be seen that poverty and birth deliveries in facilities have nega-tive correlation. Therefore, in order for the system to work and meet these tar-gets, responses cannot be left solely in the hands of agencies concerned. These are cross-cutting issues that can only be responded to through a concerted effort from the national to the local governments.

Connecting this to the global agen-da and the coming national elections, these data are saying that beyond the characteristics that candidates are try-ing to sell are real issues that need to be responded to. As the MDGs are about to close this year, the UN has been working on the post-MDG agenda. In this new campaign, various preparatory activi-ties have already been made leading to what is now known as the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.

The SDGs will have 17 goals com-pared to only 8 in the MDGs. However, many of the MDGs will still be part of the SDGs, including these two examples that were presented here. Nonetheless, there will be more indicators to measures and more challenges to be included in the process, with emphasis on combating climate change and building effective and responsible institutions.

From September 25 to 27, 2015, the UN will have a summit to adopt the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda. Soon after that, the country will know who the candidates are for the presidency. The timing is right. What will be the national agendas of the candidates, and how will they relate to the global agenda, particularly, as this post-2015 demands more than the basic—it requires a more specific collaboration from the global to the local in preparing countries from the challenges brought about by natu-ral disasters and will demand an effec-tive responsible governmental system. In short, the global agenda should also be the national agenda for the coming 2016 elections.

Alvin P. Ang, PhD, is professor of eco-nomics and senior fellow of Eagle Watch, the macroeconomic and forecasting unit of the Ateneo de Manila University.

El Niño puts inflation risk back on investors’ radars. . . Continued from A1

of global trade and likely to keep prices depressed for the time being, they wrote. Twenty-three of the Philippines’s 81 provinces are affected by drought and an additional 31 are suffering a dry spell, the agriculture department said on May

6. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) cited El Niño as a reason for adjusting its 2015 inflation forecast last week to 2.3 percent from 2.2 percent. “Just in case El Niño adversely im-pacts rice production, we have addi-tional supply coming in” via imports, BSP

Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. told reporters in Manila on Tuesday. Severe drought is a key inflation risk and could also affect hydroelectric generation, pushing up power prices, according to a Bank of America note released on Wednesday that includes

research by Jojo Gonzales, an analyst at Philippine Equity Partners in Manila. The lender forecast consumer prices will rise 2.4 percent this year and 3.5 percent in 2016, saying the risk to in-flation is now “tilted to the upside.”

Bloomberg News

A8

2ndFront PageBusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.phFriday, May 22, 2015

560 million pieces of old notes still circulating–BSP

‘Growth without infrabuildup not sustainable’The country’s lack of appro-

priate and carefully laid-out infrastructure is a major

deterrent to the country’s eco- nomic stability and subtainable growth path. In an interview late Wednesday, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gover-nor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. told reporters this was the considered assessment of the international credit-rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P). “They recognized the continuing good economic performance and the reforms that have been put in place that are supporting this per-formance…although they are also looking at further improvements in certain areas, like in infrastruc-ture,” Tetangco said, quickly add-ing that this was something most people “agree with.” he further said the acceleration of infrastructure development plays a critical role in strengthening the foundation for medium-term growth and to expand the absorptive capac-ity of the economy. The government has boosted the budgetary al locations for public infrastructure programs, the target having been set at 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016, and considered broadly on track based on recent statements from government officials.

MANILA PRESSES ‘GREENING’ OF MSME’s AT APEC MEETING

By Catherine N. Pillas

Micro, small and medi-um enterprises (MSMEs) need to “go green” in

their production process to boost their chances of participating in the global supply chains, the Phlilippines stressed at a recently concluded Asia-Pacific Economic cooperation (Apec) meeting. As the host economy, the Philip-pines put the spotlight on the green-ing of MSMEs during the “Dialogue on Apec cooperation Network on Green Supply chain” in Boracay. Apec member-economies dis-cussed best practices in manag-ing green supply chains and the creation of a work plan to create an Apec cooperation Network on Green Supply chain. “over the recent years, Philip-pine development programs con-verge on mainstreaming MSMEs into domestic and regional trade.

Apec 2015 is a valuable venue where the Philippines can high-light the value of MSMEs to move forward our advocacy for initia-tives to further enable MSMEs,” Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. cristobal Jr. said. The industry roadmap Project of the Department of Trade and industry (DTi) was also discussed during the dialogue, as the road-mapping initiative aims to inte-grate green measures to the gov-ernment’s interventions for the manufacturing sectors. Trade Undersecretary rafaelita Aldaba added that the industry road-map project aims to identify policies that would enable indus-tries to improve their competitive-ness and increase their chances of participating in supply chains through cleaner production pro-cesses; efficient use of materials, water and power; reducing the impact on the environment; and

compliance with global health and environment standards. Specifically, the interventions will be integrated into the road maps of the automotive manufac-turing and auto-parts sector; pulp and paper; plastic; mass housing; and copper and furniture sectors. Aside from greening the indus-try road maps, the DTi’s initiatives focus also on supporting local com-munities in the rural areas. MSMEs are estimated to account for 97 percent of all registered busi-nesses in the country.They employ about 60 percent of the work force and contributes about a third of the country’s gross domestic product. The common goal for Apec 2015 is the widening and deepening of MSME participation in trade. initia-tives include more actions that will further advance their international-ization, utilizing a set of indicators to track the progress of their direct and indirect contributions to trade.

TETANGCO said the acceleration

of infrastructure development plays

a critical role in strengthening the

foundation for medium-term growth and to

expand the absorptive capacity of the economy.

By Bianca Cuaresma 

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipi-nas (BSP) urged the public on Thursday to help deplete the

stock of old-design banknotes, as the process of demonetization has already begun and soon the bills are no longer legal tender.   In a news conference on Thurs-day, BSP Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa C. Guinigundo said that as of end-April, there remains 560 million

pieces of the old-design banknotes circulating in the economy.  This amounted to more or less 20 percent of the total 2.8 billion pieces still in circulation.

The BSP previously said the old banknotes, which were launched in 1985, may still be used for day-to-day transactions up to December this year. Starting next year, however, Guinigundo said the old-design banknotes may not be used in daily transactions anymore, although they can still be exchanged for new-design banknotes in banks and at the regional offices of the central bank nationwide. The old-design banknotes will be stripped of its value starting 2017. By then, the old-design banknotes may no longer be accepted in day-to-day transactions and may not be exchanged with new banknotes in any financial institution anymore. “The demonetization process of the old banknotes is in line with the

provisions of Section 57 of Repub-lic Act 76653, otherwise known as the New Central Bank Act, which authorizes the BSP to replace banknotes that are more than five years old,” the BSP said. The old de-signs have already been in circulation for nearly 30 years. “This will result in the circula-tion of a single currency series in the country—the New Generation Banknotes introduced in December 2010, which have more enhanced se-curity features to protect the safety of the public against counterfeiters,” the BSP said. As for the introduction of new- design coins, Guinigundo said the security features and the kind of tech-nology that goes with the minting of the coins have yet to be approved.

Also earlier this month Tetang-co said the boost to infrastructure spending this year likely provided additional lift to GDP in the first three months of the year. In April S&P affirmed the coun-try’s “BBB” rating with a stable out-look, indicative of an economy likely to sustain the growth trajectory over the next 12 to 18 months. Although the economic manag-ers lauded this development, some said further upgrades are forthcom-ing based, for instance, on state-ments attributed to Finance Secre-tary Cesar V. Purisima, who said the Philippines remains underrated. “If compared with those of other emerging markets, fundamentals of the Philippines are one of the strongest. And with continually improving major credit indica-tors, including debt manageabil-ity, credit ratings ideally should adjust accordingly,” Purisima said in a statement following the S&P credit affirmation in April.

 Bianca Cuaresma

AGAuGe of Chinese manu-facturing remained slug-gish, underscoring the tepid

response to government efforts to cushion a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. The preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) from hSBC holdings Plc. and Markit econom-ics was at 49.1 for May, missing the median estimate of 49.3 in a Bloomberg survey. Numbers below 50 indicate contraction. The government has escalated efforts to prevent a hard landing, adding fiscal loosening to monetary easing. In the latest moves, it re-laxed financing rules for local gov-ernments in a bid to boost demand for credit, while three interest-rate cuts since November aim to lower borrowing costs.

“The policy easing hasn’t shown its effect, yet,” said Ding Shuang, chief China economist at Stan-dard Chartered Plc. in hong Kong, adding that he expects the economy to stabilize in the third quarter. “Credit supply has been sufficient, but demand has remained weak.” Manufacturing output slipped to a 13-month low, the PMI report showed, while employment re-mained in contraction zone. “Softer client demand, both at home and abroad, along with further job cuts, indicates that the sector may find it difficult to expand, at least in the near term, as companies tem-pered production plans in line with weaker demand conditions,” An-nabel Fiddes, economist at Markit, wrote in the report. Policy-makers are considering relaxing rules for

bond sales in a bid to boost growth, while banks have been instructed to keep funding projects that were ap-proved before year-end 2014, even if borrowers can’t make repayments. “It remains extremely hard, if not impossible, for any revival to be sustained,” Wang Tao, chief China economist at uBS Group AG in hong Kong, wrote in a report before the data release. “Further policy support is still needed to sta-bilize China’s growth momentum and arrest the passive tightening of monetary conditions.” Premier Li Keqiang’s government is balancing structural reforms, in-cluding new fiscal arrangements, and moves to open the nation’s capital ac-count with the need to keep economic growth ticking along rapidly enough to sustain employment.Bloomberg News

Chinese factory gauge remains sluggish on slowing economy