BusinessMirror May 28, 2015

BusinessMirror

THREETIME ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDEE 2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business TfridayNovember 18,2015 2014Vol. Vol.10 10No. No.231 40 Thursday, May 28,

www.businessmirror.com.ph

P.  |     | 7 DAYS A WEEK

n n

RESOLUTION AMENDING CHARTER’S ECONOMIC PROVISIONS HURDLES SECOND READING, UP FOR FINAL VOTE NEXT WEEK

Cha-cha enters final stage in House INSIDE

T

HE House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on second reading the proposed amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, one of the measures being strongly pushed by local and foreign business chambers.

HIGH ON ALBAY One last glance

D

EAR Lord, You have blessed our cross with Your Holy Name, anointed it with Your grace, perfumed it with Your consolation, taken one last glance at us and our courage, and then sent it to us from heaven—a special greeting from God to us, an alms of the all merciful love of God. One last glance is afforded to each one of us as we carry our individual cross each day. Amen.

SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

CRUISING along Sumlang Lake on a bamboo raft.

Life BusinessMirror

REELING: NORA IS ‘NATATANGI’: DISTINCT, SINGULAR »D3

Thursday, May 28, 2015

D1

High on

Albay B B L

W

HEN one thinks of Albay, the first image that comes into mind is Mayon Volcano and its nearly perfect, postcardpretty cone. There is, however, more to see in Albay than just its signature volcano.

Arriving in Legaspi City in the midst of its monthlong Magayon Festival, our media group of travel writers, photographers and Department of Tourism personnel were in for a feast for the senses and a plethora of activities (courtesy calls on Gov. Joey Salceda, our host, as well as Mayor Herbie Aguas of Santo Domingo and Mayor Leo P. Templado of Tiwi; dining, island hopping, lake cruising, spelunking, observation of cottage industries, visits to old churches and ancestral houses, etc.).

To be near the action, we all stayed at the relatively

C  D

LIFE

D1

NORA IS ‘NATATANGI’ www.businessmirror.com.ph

Show BusinessMirror

Thursday, May 28, 2015

D3

Nora is ‘Natatangi’: Distinct, singular REELING

TITO GENOVA VALIENTE

titovaliente@yahoo.com

O

N June 16 Nora Aunor will receive the Natatanging Gawad Urian. The award recognizes and celebrates the actor’s body of works in cinema.

It has been a long journey for Nora Aunor from the time she sang with dwarfs at the backyard in a film that was more about the lack of magic in our life, to essaying the role of a mother searching for life in the valley of death in the aftermath of a most terrible storm. It is one huge filmic arc that, despite the lows in personal life, sustains a high in acting unseen heretofore in this industry.

As always and even with the expectations by the many, when the award was formally and officially announced by the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, there were sectors who asked that the recognition be justified. The question is not impertinent; the question merely demanded an answer.

And there are many answers.

There is the social history of cinema. Before Nora, there was the dominant ideology that required all actresses to be fair-skinned, tall and beautiful in the Caucasian way. More than the physical appearance, these actresses had to flesh out roles that conformed to the template of the idealized woman, the one who would do everything to keep the home intact. The actress/ woman’s duty was to maintain along with the home her virginity, if she was not married, and her purity, if she was a wife or a mother. The allure of the leading lady was that she was part of the breathtaking landscape.

The force to reckon with was this woman who was lovely in her fragility because the men around her were robust in masculinity. When Nora came, even early in those silly musicals, she stood there passive-aggressive in simplicity and unadorned humility. If she had purity, it was shrouded in sincerity that bordered on the naive.

The Great Unwash, if we may use the term, was making herself heard. The voice was Nora’s and the body was instinct and genius.

Came 1976. The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, battling what it perceived to be the lack of ardent film criticism (and we are not even talking about the absence of an institutionalized film education), rose to the occasion with a radical choice and chose Nora Aunor as its very first Best Actress. The film was Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos. The story was set in the Second World War; the enemy was played by a matinee idol about to become a multiawarded actor. Nora played Rosario, leading lady in form but in content a complex person who would sleep with the enemy and allow the generation of audiences to ask the unsettling question: Was that our war we died for?

It was the new world. The country was rushing away from the memories of the Great War. Japan, the grand nemesis in many war films, was becoming a superpower.

It was time to dilute or question the collective memory.

It was time for the leading lady to question life by embodying all the complexities of love, loyalty and fealty to a nation. Even if in the end, Nora Aunor’s Rosario dies and the notion of the nation as a punisher is promoted, we see the audacity of an actress to embrace what all leading actresses of the period avoided: to die at the end of the movie.

Nora, already a phenomenon at the time, became an actor in Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos.

It is often a question I ask: Are the fans of Nora Aunor aware that in most of her heralded portrayals, Nora inhabits roles that are duplicitous and convoluted, tortured and twisted in her understanding of the commonly acceptable valuations of roles and mores in society? Nora taught us the sins of the world not by denying them but by displaying the ineptitude and incoherence.

In Bona, Nora Aunor is this daughter who will never be the ideal member of a Filipino family. It is thus, the vindication of community values when Bona is mauled by her brother when she tries to sneak into the house so she could view the remains of her father. It is our fear and shame that this insensibility will befall upon us and Nora is the persona to show us all this. The show is not the crass, sentimental plot about a fallen woman played with flamboyance by Rita Gomez and Charito Solis, but a quirky ballet about religion, fanaticism and the tragedy that shuttles between poverty and identity.

For all the tremendous mystery of the apparition, Elsa in Himala will declare at the end not only the absence of miracles but the end of transcendence. “Tao ang gumagawa ng himala.” Man makes miracles. Leave it to Nora Aunor and her amazing thespic range that each pause, each taking in of the breath brings us to wonder if we could really believe her Elsa. If we believe

Which came first, good criticism or good film? That, of course, is a chicken-and-egg predicament.

What is clear is that there is a Nora Aunor, whose manifold characters can bring in a slew of questions. Love her or leave her; take her or leave her. Good critics can disagree with her, dispute the best and worst in her but no good critic can ignore Nora Aunor in cinema. Ever.

in the Virgin Mary appearing before the simple girl, then we are the accomplice to a church that upholds the divine vision; if we affirm Elsa’s declaration that there is no miracle, then we are at the mercy of a cult. It is a baffling situation and Nora is part of the puzzle, never completing for us the picture because we are ourselves part of the big picture.

Faith is both shaken and stirred in Himala. A film that brings out of the closet all the tricks of apparitions and faith healing is also the film that represents who we are as people in religion. At the center of this order and peace is this wisp of a woman—unpredictable as a person but predictably excellent as an actor—who unfolds her own mysteries before relentless cameras that never seem to get enough because the actor before the lenses hides and shades her own tremor as a human being. That is acting, that is incarnation, when the word is made flesh and is made to dwell among the viewers.

The new performance and the seeming lack of fear and bias toward any roles enabled critics to look at the performance than the celebrity, the role rather than the royalty. It is late 197os and the military rules but the new film criticism is born, addressing without timidity and this time without question the politics not only of films but of those who make the films.

The extracinematic is born. Nora Aunor’s character in the film is judged within the context of the plot and the resolutions. The same character is investigated following Nora’s fandom, her personal stories, and her politics that while critiqued for unpredictability are, otherwise, always sustained by a sense of daring and independence, even recklessness, rarely seen within the perfumed enclaves of show business. The lines between the reel and the real are once more blurred, this time not for the invasion of the actor’s privacy but for an incursion into her politics and psychology.

If there is a milestone in the career of Nora as an actor, it was in her gradual shift to portraying roles

that stopped addressing the vagaries and vulgarities of commerce.

Nora Aunor’s career swung from those monster box-office hits (that satisfied many) to films that did not cause lines to form outside theatres but inside the minds of the enlightened, Nora’s public who care to learn from this most popular of art forms, the movies.

With the roles and films, there was ultimately the formation of new ways of reading cinema. Nora was still the leading lady but there was no more the leading man. In fact, her leading ladies led only because she was Nora Aunor in the film; otherwise, in the narrative they were peripheral personas, not template for good behavior but trails to a forest of symbols. The characters are not always likeable, better for us to look at how life can be unfair and, well, better. Without us knowing it, Nora has lifted the contravida from the dark side of the stock and the stereotype into the center, the spotlight of importance for us to contemplate both the evil and the good, for us to savor the grays and the anomalous, those inscrutable in-betweens that mark us imperfect, human.

B J M N.  C

In Thy Womb, Shaleha the midwife holds the child that her husband had fathered with another woman. She praises the heavens but could not let go of the infant.

When she does, the camera follows the sky. The woman is lost in the eternity that appears to be made for man.

Before we got there, we are treated to how an actor suffuses the screen with awesome ordinariness that appears only ordinary because the mind behind those gestures has the gift to make the everyday profound.

Which came first, good criticism or good film? That, of course, is a chicken-and-egg predicament. What is clear is that there is a Nora Aunor, whose manifold characters can bring in a slew of questions. Love her or leave her; take her or leave her. Good critics can disagree with her, dispute the best and worst in her but no good critic can ignore Nora Aunor in cinema. Ever.

Nora Aunor is the Natatangi, separate, singular, distinct for the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino. n

SHOW

D3

UNDERSTANDING H.I.V.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the lower chamber will pass the bill on final reading next week, or before sine die adjournment of Congress on June 12.

“This is the first time it ever reached this point, and I’m very happy. However, the biggest hurdle is still to come, three-fourths vote [on final reading] of everybody, including those who are absent,” he said.

Belmonte said the so-called economic Charter change (Cha-cha) will be a larger contributor to economic growth, as foreign direct invest-

Mindanao Bureau Chief

D

Conclusion

AVAO CITY—With the 2016 election campaign set to start rolling by the first day of November, political pundits proferred to explain the sudden rush of the House of Representatives committee to pass the amended Bangsamoro basic law (BBL).

“Apparently, the lawmakers would not want to displease President Aquino at this time of the

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 44.6900

PAINTING THE TOWN With the wall of the 28-story One Global Building serving as the canvas, members of the international artists group FAILE work on their contribution to the One Festival, a weeklong mural-art festival at the Bonifacio Global City featuring a mix of international and local contemporary street artists, filmmakers and some of the country’s best musicians. NONIE REYES

C  A

The price and ‘prize’ of peace in Mindanao B M T. C

HEAL H&FITNESS HEALT HEALTH&FITNESS

ments (FDI) are seen to increase once ownership of estates and corporations—one of the issues raised by investors for not investing in the country—is relaxed.

According to Belmonte, “his best effort” is needed to pass his economic Cha-cha in the House of Representatives, as well as in the Senate.

Belmonte said at least threefourths of House members need to vote for Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 1 to pass the final reading at the lower chamber.

homestretch going to the filing of candidacy in October, and risking the needed financial backing of their campaign,” said a male lawyer, who occasionally do legal counseling jobs during elections.

“My take is that these lawmakers may have sensed that there are more political pogi [handsome] points to pass the BBL, and inherit a reputation of helping lay out a legacy for the Moro population, than fighting it and losing clout among the Moro voters,” he added.

C  A

OPEC SEEN BACKING SAUDI ON OIL SUPPLY

W

HEN Saudi Arabia argues next week that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) should keep up production to fight the rise in US shale-oil levels, prices will be on its side.

Crude plunged for eight of nine weeks prior to the group’s November gathering, when the kingdom faced down opposition from the majority of fellow members, who advocated output reductions to tackle a global glut. With oil companies around the world cutting S “O,” A

Growth goal still doable–Purisima

F

INANCE Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said on Thursday the Philippines could still generate local output growth—measured as the gross domestic product (GDP), averaging 7 percent to 8 percent this year—no matter the underspending in the first quarter.

“We’re working to make sure that the full potential of the Philippine economy is realized. Part of that is what we’re trying to do here, which is to improve processes so that we can continue to move up the rank; part of that is that we continue to create fiscal space, and part of creating fiscal space is to make sure that we’re able to implement the projects on time,” Purisima said at the sidelines of the third Ease of Doing Business Summit held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

In a related event, the government revised the country’s output growth to 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter last year, according to data released

by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday.

The downward revision was caused by lower growth recorded by the downward revisions in trade; other services; and electricity, gas and watersupply sectors.

“The preliminary GDP estimates for the fourth quarter were released with a shorter time lag of 30 days and based on limited data that were available as of January 2015,” the PSA explained.

The government also revised the growth of Net Primary Income for the fourth quarter of 2014. It was revised downward to 1.4 percent from the initial 2.8-percent estimate.

The PSA said this resulted in the downward revision of the gross national income to 5.8 percent, from the initial estimate of 6.3 percent.

However, the PSA said full-year economic growth in 2014 remained unchanged at 6.1 percent. David Cagahastian

n JAPAN 0.3630 n UK 68.7600 n HK 5.7650 n CHINA 7.2034 n SINGAPORE 33.1135 n AUSTRALIA 34.5898 n EU 48.6227 n SAUDI ARABIA 11.9173 Source: BSP (27 May 2015)

A2

BMReports BusinessMirror

Thursday, May 28, 2015

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The price and ‘prize’ of peace in Mindanao. . .

There would be no constitutional backlash or personal criticism from their colleagues of like persuasion on the BBL, he said, “because they would just leave it to the Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of the entire document, or its provisions.”

He warned, however, that any succeeding delay in the courts would increase the tension among peace advocates and administration allies and their rush for the deadline, “uncertain of the complexion, sentiment and persuasions of the next administration to a political settlement with the MILF [Moro Islamic Liberation Front].”

The MILF has not made any noticeable move that may reconfigure the political heat already generated by the passage of the BBL at the House committee.

Iqbal: 90-percent OK

A MindaNews dispatch on comments to the BBL passage quoted MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal as saying that the “Congress committee-approved version is 90-percent okay,” but expressed deep concern “about those in the CAB [Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro] and the FAB [Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro] that were deleted or transferred or superimposed.”

“Very hard to describe,” MindaNews quoted Iqbal as saying. He headed the Bangsamoro Transition Commission that drafted the BBL. “Asked to elaborate on his‘90-percent okay’ statement, Iqbal replied: ‘Quantitatively, 90 percent, but qualitatively, baka 50 percent lang,“‘ the MindaNews dispatch said.

Iqbal said the MILF was “still making an accounting of the provisions won and lost.”

Strong reactions

At the communities, the reactions to the passage of the law could be strong enough to fire up sentiments on the contrary situation, said Salic Ibrahim of the Maradeka, a non-governmental organization group based in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur. In an education and training session among the Lanao lakeside communities in October last year, it was found out that many residents have heard of the law and that it was supposed to benefit them.

“But as to how deep was their understanding about the BBL may be deduced from the same biases among tribes and settlers that they hold against each other for decades,” he said. “There are questions about what the law has to say on the lands bought or occupied by settlers, of how would haram, or forbidden acts under Islamic laws, would treat the current practices among non-Muslims.”

Antonio de la Cruz, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who grew up in Zamboanga City, said he would agree with national political leaders “that an acceptable BBL would be one that has consulted all other groups, such as the Moro National Liberation Front [MNLF] and other stakeholders, like the business sector.”

Those who disagree with the BBL may not necessarily be at odds with each others’ opinions.

Former MNLF leader and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Executive Secretary Muslimin Sema, for example, told a MindaNews dispatch that “the strength stipulated in the 42 consensus points and comanagement of strategic minerals and the 50-50 [percent] sharing were even lost. Appropri-

ate discussion or consultation has to be done if the intention is to go back or even connect the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro/BBL with the mother agreement or the use of the products of the Tripartite Review [government-MNLF and the OIC, or Organization of the Islamic Cooperation].”

Sema was the secretary-general of the MNLF when it entered into a political settlement with the government in September 1996, accepting the ARMM and the Southern Philippines Zone of Peace and Development as a major consensus.

The MNLF and the MILF are currently being brought together by the OIC to harmonize their separate peace settlements with the government.

Lawyer Randolph Parcasio, spokesman of the Nur Misuari-led MNLF, told the same news dispatch that he has “yet to read the bill in its entirety but, from initial reading, it seems not adequate to address remaining issues in the Tripartite Review on strategic minerals, territory and provisional government.”

On the same opposing side is Zamboanga City Rep. Celso L. Lobregat Jr., “who raised the most number of questions during the section-by-section deliberations [and who] said, ‘I am not antipeace but we need a BBL that is just, fair, acceptable and feasible and, most important, consistent with the Constitution and the existing laws.”

“I think I have made more than 150 amendments, principled amendments, logical amendments. There was basis in law and Constitution; I explained each and every amendment…. It is really a very, very sad day. I am for peace but I am not for appeasement at the expense of the Republic.”

Must withstand challenges

On the side of the debate on the amended BBL and the original version, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III on Wednesday called on fellow legislators “to ensure that the draft BBL must be able to withstand any and all challenge as to its constitutionality.”

“The Constitution is also the basis and the only reason we can even talk about the creation of autonomous regions in Mindanao and elsewhere in the country,” he said.

He warned of “serious challenges to the constitutionality of the proposed BBL [that] can only result in greater instability in the Mindanao region, and put at risk the people’s trust and confidence in the peace process.” “The proposed BBL is an instrument in the peace process aimed at improving the life of the people in the areas to be covered by it,” he said.

Business community’s concerns

The business community also said it earlier that a diluted BBL from the original draft may arouse suspicion and dismay among the Moro residents “that may, in turn, create conflict.”

“Currently, investors have the convenience of securing permits, licenses, approvals, administrative consents and regulatory framework from the regional government without having to go to Manila or regional administrative offices. They are concerned that if the BBL is less than what the Bangsamoro aspired for, it would lessen the regional government’s autonomy and degrade the ‘investment-friendly environment’ set by the current [administration],” ARMM Regional Board of Investments (RBOI) Chief Ishak Mastura said.

“These business-friendly mechanisms set by the ARMM must be maintained or improved. The only way to have stability of investment policy for private-sector

development in the region is to make sure that the level of autonomy currently being experienced in the ARMM is not reduced by the proposed changes to the BBL,” said the Promotion of Investment Sustainability Organization, the group organized recently by the RBOI. The business organization in Cotabato City, the premier centuries-old trading center in the south and central part of Mindanao, only has a stern warning to lawmakers against diluting or subverting the original content of the BBL, warning of a likely flight of investment out of the region.

International donors

This was also emphasized by the international community, including the donors’ group contributing to the multibillion-peso Mindanao Multidonor Trust Fund (MTF).

“There are projects that are frozen, where they simply said,‘We are not going to touch them until the rules are clear,’” British Ambassador Asif Ahmad said.

“There are others where they have already made an investment, ready to extract and suddenly the rules have changed. If it is a very expensive, extractive investment where there’s downstream investment, as well, you can’t suddenly change therules, because these are global industries— they will simply decide that they have got other places to invest in.”

The United Kingdom is a memberstate of the International Contact Group for the peace process.

The MTF is a multidonor fund that the World Bank created in 2006 to assist “conflict-affected communities in Mindanao.”

A World Bank web site said “The MTF supports economic and social recovery while promoting effective governance in conflict-affected areas in

Continued from A1

Southern Philippines.” The European Union, a major contributor to the MTF, said that it contributed €5 million for its “reconstruction and development program agreement with the World Bank” in the MTF. The amount was 40 percent of the total money in the MTF, between December 2007 and December 2013. Over the same period, it has put up 29 projects on governance, democracy, human rights and support to economic and institutional reforms, and 10 projects on prevention of conflict.

The World Bank said that as of January 2012 “over 300,000 people in 155 war-torn communities from 75 municipalities have benefited from the completion of classrooms, health stations, access roads, water-supply systems and community centers all over Mindanao.”

This would be in contrast to the ARMM data that the 1970s genocidal conflict in Mindanao has caused a more conservative estimate of more than 60,000 deaths, destroyed 535 mosques, 200 schools and wrought other damages to 35 cities or towns damaged.

A data presented by ARMM Executive Secretary Laisa Alamia in one of her talks with local groups said the ARMM has estimated the displacement at 2 million residents. One single displacement occurred in 2008 covering three provinces has reached to more than 600,000 evacuees and placed the country as having the world’s biggest number of evacuees compared to Darfur of Sudan.

The government was also said to have spent P76 billion in the fighting in Mindanao between 1970 and 1996. Everybody is hoping that peace would finally reign in Mindanao so that its population would benefit from the much soughtafter development it would bring.

The Nation BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Thursday, May 28, 2015 A3

Softer China stance seen as change in president nears

T

IME may be on China’s side, when it comes to its South China Sea territorial dispute with the Philippines.

The Philippines will elect a new president in less than a year, bringing a potential reset to ties that have deteriorated to the point President Aquino was once uninvited to visit China.

While candidates have yet to formally declare their plans, those regarded as front-runners are now flagging a softer approach on China, including possible joint exploration of resources in the sea.

That would mark a return to the policies of Mr. Aquino’s predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and could give the Philippine economy further support.

Under President Aquino, the Philippines—vastly outnumbered in soldiers, planes and ships—has taken China to an international court for arbitration on the South China Sea dispute. It has sought to rally support from other Southeast Asian nations for a tougher stance against China, and expanded an alliance with its ally, the United States.

China has rebuffed Mr. Aquino’s actions, escalating the pace of building work on reefs and shoals it claims and using radio to warn Philippine boats and aircraft away from the area.

“Aquino’s semiconfrontational approach has failed to deter China,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science professor at De La Salle University in Manila.

“It may have exacerbated the situation by pushing China to solidify its de facto sovereignty through reclamation.”

Joint ventures

VICE President Jejomar C. Binay, a probable candidate for the May 2016 ballot, said he would seek to improve ties with China by pushing resource joint ventures on the South China Sea, the Straits Times reported in April, citing a radio interview.

“Always, diplomacy and a nonconfrontational stance are ideal,” Sen. Grace Poe, Binay’s closest rival

based on a Social Weather Stations poll, said in a mobile-phone message. It’s also the state’s obligation to protect its territory and people, she said.

Poe said she expects a Senate committee investigating China’s reclamation to “recommend new approaches to solve the conflict that may include regional cooperation, joint exploration based on parity and law, and continuing dialogue.”

President Aquino—limited by law to a single six-year term—has indicated he’ll announce his preferred candidate in the next few months, with contenders making their bids official in October.

Once he leaves off ice, the Philippines could return to the policy espoused by Arroyo under a so-called Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking in the mid-2000s.

Arroyo did not renew the deal, which expired in 2008, amid opposition from some lawmakers and legal experts.

More Arroyo

“BINAY will almost certainly prioritize strengthening trade and investment ties with China, while downplaying the disputes in the South China Sea—in other words, more Arroyo than Aquino,” said Ian

Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “He may also be much less enthusiastic about bolstering Philippine-US ties,” including an increased US presence, he said.

“The US, of course, will adopt a very dim view of Philippine flip-flopping,” Storey said. More China-friendly policies could also stir opposition from the Philippine military.

China has quadrupled its reclamation in the South China Sea to 2,000 acres (809 hectares) and started building at least one airstrip and two lighthouses on the new islands.

It claims more than 80 percent of the sea, overlapping with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Limited exploration

TAIWANESE President Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday urged joint development of the waters as part of a broader call for restraint on the territorial disputes. Taiwan is “willing to exploit resources in the South China Sea in cooperation with the other parties concerned,” Ma said.

China and the Philippines contest areas near the northern Philippine province of Zambales and Palawan province in the southwest.

The sea carries some of the world’s

busiest shipping lanes and is an artery for China’s energy supplies from the Middle East.

There has only been limited exploration work in the sea and estimates of the potential for discoveries vary wildly. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) says the area has proven and probable reserves of about 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Most of the undiscovered oil lies in coastal regions that are not disputed, according to the EIA. The contested areas face geological and technological challenges, not least the depth of the waters and frequency of typhoons, it said.

China’s reclamation work may cost $109 million in annual economic losses to countries near the disputed sea, the Philippine fisheries bureau said last month. More than 300 hectares of reef ecosystems in the Spratlys have been destroyed as of March, it said.

Deng’s approach

CHINA has advocated joint exploration, and said it will only negotiate on territorial matters in a bilateral setting.

The strategy harks back to the concept of “setting aside disputes and pursuing joint development”

first advanced by China’s then-leader Deng Xiaoping as a way of defusing tensions with Japan over islands in the East China Sea. In 1988 Deng told then-President Corazon Aquino that “we can set aside this issue for the time being and take the approach of pursuing joint development.”

“The Philippines doesn’t want to be against China alone as a relatively small country, and China doesn’t want to intensify the tensions in the South China Sea, so a better relationship matches the needs of both,” said Zhu Feng, director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for South China Sea Studies at Nanjing University.

‘Beautiful rhetoric’

STILL, President Aquino’s successor must take into account public opinion that has become more nationalistic, even if the issue is unlikely to be the biggest concern for voters.

A softer tone from the Philippines could just be “beautiful rhetoric,” Zhu said.

“The Philippines has made very clear that the South China Sea issue is the top priority for its national security, and it would be hard for the current leaders or future leaders to change their agenda or to step back easily.” Bloomberg News

‘DOJ filing of pork cases against legislators not BBL connected’

By Butch Fernandez & Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

M

ALACAÑANGmaintained as “maybe just coincidental” the reported imminent filing of cases against the third batch of lawmakers being linked to the pork-barrel scandal, insisting that it was not time to influence crucial congressional voting on the controversial Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Abigail Valte on Wednesday debunked reports that the Palace had anything to do with the Department of Justice (DOJ) preparing the next batch of pork-barrel scam cases just as lawmakers are inching closer to a final vote on the BBL before Congress adjourns in June.

“At least, from our point of view— we would not put any malice as to the timing and, especially, remember that people have already been asking the Department of Justice to get on with the filing,” Valte said.

In a Palace briefing, she insisted that “sa amin po walang ganyan. Wala ho sa…. Kumbaga, hindi po iyan nasa style ng administrasyon.”

Valte added: “Siguro po coincidental lang and you have remember that the DOJ has been readying the third batch of cases for quite some time now.”

The Palace official pointed out

that President Aquino gave specific instructions to government lawyers to make sure the charges they file will stand in court and not just “for PR [press release]” purposes.

“At ang utos naman po lagi sa kanila ng Pangulo ay kung ano ho mang kaso ang ipa-file ninyo ay siguraduhin ninyong tatayo at hindi naman po puwedeng finile [filed] lang para sa PR,” Valte told reporters.

Valte also played down reports quoting Sen. Sergio Osmeña’s observation that Malacañang might dangle pork barrel to buy votes for the BBL. “Well, obviously, we don’t agree with the premise, because we don’t have what you formerly knew as the Pdaf [Priority Development Assistance Fund] existing in the 2015 GAA [General Appropriations Act],” Valte said.

House defers debates on BBL

THE House of Representatives on Wednesday deferred the plenary sponsorship of the proposed Basic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.

Centrist Democratic Party Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro, who will sponsor House Bill 4994 on the floor, said that several lawmakers want to scrutinize the substitute bill of the peace measure first before the start of plenary deliberations.

“The sponsorship and start of plenary debates will be on Monday.

The lawmakers requested for more

time to study the substitute bill of the peace measure,” he said.

He also said that he is still confident the lower chamber would be able to approve the bill on final reading before the Congress sine die adjournment on June 12.

On Tuesday the House Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on Ways and Means have approved the budget provisions and the tax provisions of the bill, respectively.

Moreover, Liberal Party Rep. Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental, chairman of the Visayan bloc, expressed concerns on some provisions of the basic law.

He said that among the contentious parts of the basic law are the “opt-in” provision or the “creeping expansion” and the provision on barter trade.

Under the basic law, areas which are contiguous and outside the core territory may opt on the fifth and 10th year after the BBL’s approval into law—to be part of the territory upon petition of at least 10 percent of the registered voters and approved by a majority of qualified votes cast in a plebiscite.

“Among the issues they are concerned with are the issue on opt-in provision and the barter-trade provision,” he said.

Benitez said that the provision on barter trade might create an opportunity for smuggling to spill over to

Feather in cap

BusinessMirror photojournalist Stephanie Tumampos, who is among the 75 awardees of Girl Scouts of the Philippines’s (GSP) National Young Achievers, is flanked by (from left) Susan Locsin, GSP second national vice president; First National Vice President Cristina Yuson; National Executive Director Maria Dolores Santiago; and National President Salud A. Bagalso. In celebration of the GSP’s 75th anniversary celebration, 75 women were recognized for their achievements in nation-building through their profession and community projects at the GSP headquarters on May 26. Mervin Ray Espiritu

the Visayas, which is near Mindanao.

Under the proposed basic law, the barter trade and countertrade with the Association of Southeast Asian countries were one of the “exclusive powers” granted to the Bangsamoro government.

Meanwhile, Benitez said that his 42-man group would vote as one on

the measure once it is put to a vote in plenary session.

“All members of [the] Visayan bloc will vote as one. We’re voting as a bloc,” Benitez said, adding, “bloc stand will prevail over party stand.

For those who will not follow the agreement, then I guess they’re not serious with the bloc.”

Congress is eyeing to pass the proposed BBL, which seeks to stop the conflict in Mindanao, on June 11 or before the Congress sine die adjournment on June 12.

The BBL aims to create the new Bangsamoro juridical entity replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Lawmakers tell PCGG to restudy sale of Payanig property

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

T

HE House Committee on Metro Manila Development on Wednesday urged the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to restudy the auction of the Payanig property.

Liberal Party Rep. Winston T. Castelo of Quezon City, chairman of the panel, said the PCGG should re-study the auction, as several people questioned the sale of the property.

“The PCGG, despite the questionable manner how its [auction] would be conducted, continued the public auction of the property in question; so we will find if there’s really legal basis [to auction off the property], I hope they will think twice and study the matter,” Castelo said.

However, Castelo said the lower

chamber will respec t whatever the decision of the PCGG will be on the proper t y. “But they should take a second look, because the committee is very worried with the accompanying legal problems attached with [the auction] because there are adverse claims; so the issue here is whether it is legal for the PCGG to auction off the property despite the adverse claims,” he said.

Castelo said he is still studying if the committee needs to conduct another meeting to address the issue.

He added that his committee hearing on the Payanig property last week was made upon a motion of a committee member acting on a letter of the counsel of Blemp Commercial of the Philippines Inc. During the meeting, lawyer Dennis P. Manalo was identified as the BLEMP representative

and was given the opportunity to explain Blemp’s serious concern over the PCGG’s public bidding of the Metrowalk-Payanig property, considering its ongoing legal battle on the issue of ownership with the PCGG. It was pointed out that the PCGG has categorically declared that it “does not assume any obligation to compensate or indemnify parties for any expense or loss that they may incur as a result of their participation in the bidding process, nor does it guarantee that an award will be made.”

This, according to Manalo, is a mockery of the public-bidding process and renders the intended state auction a sham.

“Who, in his right mind, will shell out at least P16.5 billion without an assurance that seller will transfer ownership of the property?”

Manalo asked.

Party-list Reps. Terry L. Ridon of Kabataan and Juan Johnny Revilla of OFW Family raised their concern over the prospects of losing investor confidence in the Philippines if bidding will follow the PCGG pattern.

“Why don’t you wait for the court to settle the issue of ownership before selling the property?” Ridon asked.

The PCGG, however, assured the committee that it is the owner of the property and that, by virtue of its reconstituted title, it will proceed with the public bidding, unless restrained by the courts.

On the other hand, Manalo cited a Supreme Court case that said the PCGG’s ownership is presumptive only and “does not prevent a third party with a better right from claiming such properties in the proper forum.”

Earlier, criminal charges were filed before

the Ombudsman against the PCGG and other Cabinet officials for alleged violation of the Antigraft and Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the sale of the Payanig property in Pasig City.

Facing the complaint filed by Blemp Commercial of the Philippines Inc. owner Richard Singson, nephew of Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson, are PCGG Chairman Andres Bautista, and commissioners Maria Ngina Teresa ChanGonzaga and Vicente Gengos Jr. Bautista has been appointed chairman of the Commission on Elections.

Also included on the charge sheet are Cabinet officials and members of Privatization Council, namely, Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima; Finance Undersecretaries John Phillip P. Sevilla; Jeremias Paul Jr. and Jose Emmanuel Reverente; Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad

Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo; Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima; Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan; National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon; Department of Finance Chief of Staff Maria Lourdes Recente, Finance Assistant Secretary Maria Teresa S. Habitan; and Privatization and Management Office chief officer Karen Singson.

The complainant said that the Payanig property in Pasig is owned by Blemp company and not among the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

The complainant also said that “the law provides that they [PCGG] are only allowed to sequester properties of Marcos cronies.”

The Privatization Council—tasked the PCGG—to publish the bidding of the 18.5-hectare Payanig property auction at a minimum price of P16.45 billion.

Economy

A4 Thursday, May 28, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

ARMM proposes P833-M PRDP projects Govt spending up by P21B in Q1–Abad

B

udget Secretary Florencio B. Abad on Wednesday said government spending increased by P21.5 billion for the first quarter this year to P504 billion.

He said the highest spending was in March this year, which reached P188.5 billion, an 11.2-percent increase yearon-year. Abad added that budget spending in February grew by 9.6 percent.

“Our spending levels from January to March show a very clear trend toward faster government spending. [At] first glance, spending in the first quarter may seem unremarkable, but the fact that it accelerated sharply by March gives us good reason to be optimistic. The second quarter of the year should continue this trend, especially since we’re still working with agencies on improving their spending,” Abad said in a news statement.

The budget chief added that the surge in disbursements by the end of the first quarter was driven by quicker spending in maintenance and other

operating expenditures and capital outlay in key spending agencies. These include the departments of Education, the Interior and Local Government, and the Social Welfare and Development, and the Office of the President.

“When our agencies spend more efficiently on their operations and capital outlay, we can expect faster project implementation. Faster spending also means that the public will benefit, because government services are getting to them at a better pace,” Abad said.

Reforms in the procurement systems in the agencies are also expected to boost government spending within the year.

“The numbers tell us that we’re on the right track. Our major concern is to clear as many spending bottlenecks as possible, especially when it comes to agency procurement. We saw that projects often got stuck in the procurement stage, so we’re resolving that with the cooperation of major agencies,” Abad said. Estrella Torres

D

By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has proposed P833 million worth of farm roads under the World Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP), as the program enters its first year of operation after taking off from its successful forerunner—the Mindanao Rural Development Program.

Secreta r y Ma k mod D. Mend ing Jr., chairman of the ARMM’s agriculture and fisheries department and secretary of the Regional Program Advisory Board (RPAB), said on Tuesday the board approved the infrastructure- and enterprise-development projects for the three ARMM provinces of Maguindanao, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan.

The ARMM RPAB approved for endorsement the six farm-to-market roads (FMRs) in Tawi-Tawi amounting to P246 million, and eight similar projects in Maguindanao amounting to P459 million. The farm roads were approved under the infrastructure-development component of PRDP. Mending said the infrastructure-development component aims at improving the links from production areas to markets to enhance the efficiency of transporting agricultural products.

Under the enterprise-development component, the ARMM RPAB approved a crumb rubber processing and marketing project in

Basilan worth P127 million.

“The rubber-processing plant in Basilan will help regulate the price of rubber in the region and generate employment in the processing plant and in buying stations,” Mending said.

The projects would begin implementation and actual construction after they would be deliberated and approved by the PRDP’s National Program Advisory Board this year.

The town of Talayan in Maguindanao was the first local government to access an FMR under the program. It has a length of 12.3 kilometers and traverses five barangays.

The PRDP is an upscale program of the MRDP that ended five years ago. The six-year rural-development initiative is under the Department of Agriculture. It has a total budget of P27.5 billion for the entire country with project cost shared by the national government, the World Bank and local government units, mainly in providing counterpart efforts, including labor.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Apec hosting opens FTA talks for PHL, Asia-Pacific countries

T

he Philippines has discussed possible bilateral trade agreement with other countries in the Asia Pacific during its hosting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meetings.

Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said in a news briefing on Wednesday that the country’s hosting of the recently concluded Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting in Boracay in the province of Aklan was very successful.

Domingo said the Philippines was able to push its initiatives for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Apec meeting, and it was also able to conduct bilateral meetings with other countries in the region for possible freetrade agreement (FTA) with the Philippines.

On the other hand, Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said the MRT meeting became a platform for the Philippines for bilateral trade discussions, particularly with Mexico, Canada, Chile and Peru.

“With Mexico, we’re ready to explore the possibilities engaging for preferential trade agreement for an FTA,” Cristobal said.

“For Canada, this is a follow-through of the recent visit of President Aquino to Canada. We reaffirmed the intention of both countries to launch an exploratory discussion on mutual and comprehensive trade agreement,” he added.

He mentioned that there will also be a review on the separate investment-promotion protection treaty with Mexico and Canada that was signed during the 1990s to update and upgrade the agreement.

The trade official mentioned that the country also had bilateral talks with Chile to enter discussions for an FTA. “There’s also indication for Peru for possible FTA,” Cristobal said.

He noted that the Philippines is active in exploring FTAs with other economies aside from its strong interest on regional trade deals, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Currently, the Philippines only has bilateral FTA with Japan. PNA

Cha-cha enters final stage in House. . . continued from a1

“I will convince them [senators] about the benefits of this measure until its final passage in the Senate,” he said. The measure also needs three-fourths of senators’ votes.

According to the Speaker, the lower chamber is still the main proponent of the economic Cha-cha, and senators would still wait for the House version once it passes the third reading before the Upper House could tackle it.

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

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

Under Article XII of the Constitution, which was ratified during the term of the President’s mother, then-President Corazon Aquino, foreign investors are prohibited to own more than 40 percent of real properties and businesses, while they are totally restricted to exploit natural resources and own any company in the media industry.

Moreover, after Congress’s approval, RBH 1 will be submitted to the Commission on Elections for the plebiscite process.

Belmonte said the government may hold the plebiscite for Cha-cha alongside the 2016 national elections, instead of spending in a separate election, which needs

Opec. . . continued from a1

investment, US output peaking and prices up, Saudi Arabia’s strategy will be extended at Opec’s semiannual meeting on June 5, Société Générale SA and Bank of America Corp. said.

Oil prices have recovered more than 40 percent from a six-year low in January, as US production eases from the highest in more than four decades. The rebound will help vindicate the approach taken by Saudi Arabia as it steers the Opec to favor market share over prices in a bid to drive out high-cost producers.

“The Saudis probably feel their strategy is working and rightly so,” Francisco Blanch, Bank of America head of commodities research, said by phone from New York. “There’s a major decline in the US rig count, and a huge reduction in capex spending. That’s a sign the strategy is working.”

At Opec’s November 27 meeting, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar rebuffed objections from the other eight members—in particular Iran, Venezuela and Algeria—to their plan. While there may be resistance at the June 5 conference, all but one of the 34 analysts and traders surveyed by Bloomberg said Opec will maintain its daily production target of 30 million barrels, ratifying the Saudi strategy.

“The fact that prices have recovered somewhat, and we appear to be past the bottom, that’s something the Saudis will be able to point to in their discussions,” Mike Wittner, head of oil market research at Société Générale , said by phone from New York on May 19. “And the other thing they’ll be able to point to is that US production has topped out.”

Brent futures tumbled 33 percent from last summer’s peak of $115.71 a barrel by the start of Opec’s November

at least P7 billion.

“We might have a difficult time to get these several billions necessary for the plebiscite. The plebiscite is the crucial thing for economic Cha-cha,” Belmonte said.

He also said many Filipino voters participate during presidential elections.

Earlier, the Joint Foreign Chambers and Philippine business groups expressed support for the passage of the economic Cha-cha.

Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan said that to promote inclusive growth in the country, Congress should pass the resolution amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

Makati Business Club Chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. also threw his support for the amendments of the Constitution, particularly the economic provisions to attract FDI, as the unemployment rate in the country is increasing.

But the House of Representatives minority bloc expressed fear on the moves amending economically or politically the 1987 Constitution, saying any form of Cha-cha now, whether it be economic or political, is dangerous because it will open the floodgates for any or wholesale amendments to the Constitution.

“This is very dangerous and would further open up our economy to foreign exploitation. We would still try to block this in the third reading and we will exhaust all legal means to stop this sellout of our patrimony,” Deputy Minority Leader Neri Colmenares of BayanMuna said.

meeting and extended the loss to $45.19 on January 13. It traded at $63.89 at 11:32 a.m. Singapore time on Wednesday.

Bank of America forecasts the grade averaging $62 a barrel this year, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sees it slipping to $51 in six months.

US shale oil —extracted by blasting underground rock with liquids at high pressure in a process known as hydraulic fracturing—poses a more serious threat to Opec than previous forms of new supply because it can be restarted more quickly, according to Goldman Sachs. The number of wells that have been drilled but are waiting to be fracked—known as the fracklog —could help add an extra 500,000 barrels a day by the end of the year if prices remain at $65, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

“Because of the fast-cycle nature of shale—meaning it can be turned on very quickly and turned off very quickly —it should be the marginal barrel,” said Jeff Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs in New York. “It neutralizes Opec.”

While the members who opposed Opec’s November decision criticized it again early this year, the most recent comments from ministers signal the group will hold steady.

It’s “unlikely” Opec’s output ceiling will change, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on May 24, according to Mehr news agency. The organization will “stick with” its present strategy, Abdulmajeed Al-Shatti, a member of Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council, said on May 12. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who in January urged the group to consider supply cuts, said on May 23 only that he is working with Opec to raise prices.

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

DOTC, Mitsubishi-Chiyoda sign pact for New Bohol Airport deal

T

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

he planned airport in Bohol’s prime tourist destination—which will dwarf its current aviation hub by more than 10 times—will rise two years after President Aquino steps down from office in 2016, a Cabinet official said.

This was the assurance of Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya on Wednesday, after he and key officials of Japanese joint venture Mitsubishi Corp. and Chiyoda Corp. signed the P7-billion contract for the construction of the New Bohol (Panglao) Airport that day.

“Tourists in Bohol continue to grow each year that passes. Unfortunately, the current airport may not be able to accommodate the increase

over time. This gives us the need to cater to the increasing number of tourists, and this means modernizing and expanding the airport with a design that is of international standards,” he said.

The project will commence in June and is expected to be completed within 30 months, or in late 2017 to early 2018.

The New Bohol Airport will replace the current Bohol gateway,

the Tagbilaran Airport, which is the 11th busiest airport in the country.

Tagbilaran airport catered to around 789,800 passengers in 2013 despite its size of only 850 square meters.

“The airport compound could be developed as a commercial space,” Bohol Gov. Edgardo M. Chatto said separately.

Abaya added that the Tagbilaran Airport will have to be cease its operations once the new aviation hub opens due to its proximity to each other.

The first greenfield airport under the Aquino administration is 10 times bigger than the Tagbilaran Airport, with a floor area of around 8,800 sq m, boosting the annual passenger capacity to 1.7 million passengers.

In line with Bohol’s eco-tourism branding, the airport will have environment friendly and energy saving features such as the installation

of LED lights. To add to that, only the predeparture area will have air conditioning, operating with solar powered energy, while the rest of the areas will be open.

“Our past experience shows that implementing a project of big magnitude, such as construction of a new airport from scratch, is not an easy task,” Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) Chief Representative to the Philippines Niwa Noriaki said.

“At times, project implementation challenges can test the harmony between contracting parties, which, if not resolved, may lead to delays in project progress and more so the postponement of delivering the intended benefits to the people.”

In order to provide better service for passengers, the transportation department is also in the process of bidding out the operations and maintenance of the airport.

Thursday, May 28, 2015 A5

Relaxing foreign investment rules will not make PHL first-world country–IBON

By Cai U. Ordinario

I

F the country wants to reach first-world status, the national government must craft policies that aim to strengthen and protect local industries and human capital, according to Ibon Foundation Inc. Ibon said President Aquino’s vision is to further open up the economy to attract big local and foreign businesses to invest in the country.

However, Ibon said this was not the path chosen by now—industrial countries which are considered as “first world.”

“Countries like the United States, the European Union and Japan, for instance, protected, nurtured and strengthened their local industries alongside maintaining foreign participation restriction in key sectors and imposing trade tariffs before opening up their economies, if at all,” Ibon said.

Ibon said that, on the other hand, the country relaxed restrictions in the economy, particularly in the last two decades.

Unfortunately, Ibon said, that while foreign investors made prof-

briefs

Customs eyes Treasury bonds to hasten release of shipments

By Joel R. San Juan

LINA: “Kumikita rin ’yun, at the same time, protected ng government at mabilis.”

facilities and a holder of Certificate of Registration for that purpose; and the importer is willing to undergo voluntary audit as per CAO 5-2001.

“On top of that meron kaming idadagdag na proseso, parang sa America, ang tawag nila doon ay term bond. Doon talagang pagdating ng shipment mo meron silang isang maliit na slip of paper and then you can file the entry after three days ganoon dun eh pero clear ka agad,” Lina explained.

“Pero meron silang bond, ito ang ating gagawin diyan aside from SGL and green lane...magpa-file sila ng term bond, pero ang bond na ipa-file namin na still under consideration ay treasury bonds, treasury notes parang trust, ng tinitingnan naming estimated duties and taxes,” he added.

DFA’s del Rosario tops Aquino Cabinet ‘millionaires’ club’

By Butch Fernandez

F

nreb endorses new fit rate for wind projects

C

ustoms Commissioner Alberto Lina disclosed on Wednesday plans of the bureau to allow importers to pay their duties and taxes through treasury bonds in order to hasten the release of their shipments.

Lina, at a news briefing, said the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has already sought the Department of Finance's position on the matter and will finalize the plan once all their queries are addressed.

Lina said the plan will complement the present super green lane (SGL) facility that the BOC has set up to give special privileges related to the speedy release of shipments to so-called good guys in the industry.

Under Customs Memorandum Order 28-2003, an importer may be accredited as an SGL user based on the following qualifications: The importer is accredited by the BOC in accordance with existing rules and regulations; the importer has been actively engaged in the import business for at least one year at the time of filing his/her application for SGL accreditation; the importer is a regular importer of the same type of articles; the importer is a BOCregistered user of remote lodgment

oreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario topped the Aquino Cabinet “millionaires’ club,” reporting an P838.8 million net worth in his 2014 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), far above the P68.3 million in total assets and zero liabilities listed by President Aquino in his own SALN. Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima came second to del Rosario, declaring his net worth at P298.9 million, followed by Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr. at P283.4 milllion.

Also among the top 10 richest Cabinet members are Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, ranked fourth in the list with P202 million net worth; followed by Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo, P148.6 million; Cabinet Secretary Rene D. Almendras, P134.2 million; Energy Secretary Jericho L. Petilla, P122 million; Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Alfredo S. Caguioa, P117.1 million; Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilion A. Abaya, P108.1 million; and Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona, P93.6 million.

Waving the flag

About two weeks before the commemoration of Philippine Independence Day on June 12, a street vendor hawks miniature replicas of the flag to motorists along Roxas Boulevard in Manila. Alysa Salen

He added that using treasury notes is advantageous to the government as it will also redound to more profit for the bureau.

“Kumikita rin ’yun, at the same time protected ng government at mabilis,” Lina said.

Lina also said he would be introducing a “change management” scheme that would allow officers of the Intelligence Group and Enforcement Group of the BOC to perform other functions such as to assess the duties and taxes of shipments.

“Our employees should be cross trained because we have ports that have only one or two IG [intelligence group] or EG [enforcement group] men and we want to train them on Cus-

toms matters and not only doing a police line work,” Lina added.

He noted that the setup is patterned in other countries wherein the security personnel are taught how to be an appraiser.

Lina thought of the plan after visiting several ports where he discovered that there has been an increase in the volume of cargoes coming in but their personnel are insufficient to ensure a speedy facilitation of the cargoes.

However, in some other ports, the scenario was the opposite because employees have more idle time due to low number of shipments entering their port.

Online hiring in PHL plummeting–MEI

O

its, these did not translate into a real contribution to domestic social and economic development.

Ibon said the country’s poverty incidence remains high. It estimated that about 65 million Filipinos live on P125 or even less per day.

Further, more than 1,200 elementary and high schools were allowed to hike their tuition, while health care remains inaccessible, especially to the poor.

Ibon also said that, while there was a recent decrease in unemployment, around 90 percent of jobs created in 2014 were only parttime jobs.

“The Aquino administration is even aiming to open up the economy even more under the most liberal terms possible. This will not result in the so-called first world status but will only mean an aggravation of the dismal trends of the last decades,” Ibon said.

Ibon is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.

nline hiring in the Philippines has shown a huge decline over the past year, according to the Monster Employment Index (MEI) Philippines.

The MEI showed a 31-percent decline, in activity between April 2014 and April 2015, with a 20-percent month-on-month decline, as well, between March and April 2015.

The MEI, a gauge of online job posting activity, also showed industries and occupations that indicated the highest and lowest growth in recruitment activity across the Philippines. In April the business-process outsourcing/information technology enabled service (BPO/ITES) industry showed the highest activity, although this was still in decline overall at -2 percent. The production/manufacturing, automotive and ancillary industry showed a steep decline in online hiring activity at -51 percent year-on-year.

The second lowest growth industry was advertising, market research, public relations, media and entertainment at -43 percent.

“The Monster Employment Index Philippines has registered a decline of 31 percent in the past year, with the BPO/ITES industry showing the most amount of promise. The Philippines’s economy has recently emerged as a global hub for BPO, currently employing over 1 million people,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director of Monster.com (India, Middle East Southeast

Asia and Hong Kong).

“As production and manufacturing jobs continue their steady decline, it is important for the country to focus on high growth industries to continue to create jobs and encourage growth. The recent approval of the Information Technology-BPO Roadmap 2016 initiative is a step in the right direction and incredible vital for the country’s prospects,” he said.

“Additionally, the Philippines banking sector is expected to deepen its ties with its Asean counterparts, so as to strengthen its own financial institutions. This should see a boost in finance and accounting jobs in the future,” Modi added.

In April the only occupation to register positive growth is marketing and communications roles at 6 percent, followed by customer service at -5 percent. The lowest growth occupation is engineering/production and real estate at -44 percent. This is followed by hospitality and travel jobs at -33 percent.

The MEI Philippines is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity, based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career web sites and online job listings across Philippines. The index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.

The National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) has endorsed to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) a new feed-in-tariff (FiT) rate of P8.49 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for wind projects.

“We complied with ERC directive and submitted revised wind FiT of P8.49 per kWh on May 6. The proposed rate is equal to the degressed rate,” NREB Chairman Pete Maniego said.

The ERC will adopt a new FiT rate, from the current P8.53 per kWh, for wind-power projects to accommodate the increase in capacity allocation from 200 megawatts (MW) to 400 MW. The NREB is the body tasked by the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 to recommend policies, rules and standards to govern the implementation of the law, which granted fiscal and nonfiscal incentives to renewable-energy projects.

Maniego said many of the wind projects, which are over the initial 200-MW installation target, are either finished or nearing completion. Thus, there is a pressing need for more capacity to accommodate new wind projects.

The new FiT rate for wind projects will have to be evaluated, so the ERC can arrive at a reasonable rate. “A hearing is scheduled on June 9, according to the ERC,” Maniego added. Lenie Lectura

villar urges pnr to resume commuter operations before the opening of classes Sen. Cynthia Villar urged the Philippine National Railways (PNR) on Wednesday to resume operations before schools start classes on June 1.

“With the opening of classes, ridership is expected to rise again and we need the cheapest mode of transportation that can carry more people,” Villar said.

“We hope the PNR will make good on its promise to hasten the investigation and the repairs needed to ensure the safety of passengers,” she added.

On April 29 two coaches of a PNR train bound for the Nichols station derailed in Magallanes, Makati City, causing minor injuries to 80 passengers. PNR suspended its operations to make way for investigation and repairs.

According to a copy of PNR General Manager Joseph Allan Dilay’s report on the derailment incident provided to Villar, PNR’s third-party consultant, TUV Rheinland USA, will finish its investigation on May 22. PNA

fake lee jeans worth p29 millION seized in pasay city Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation-National Capital Region seized 14,669 pairs of counterfeit Lee jeans worth P29 million during operations in Pasay City on Tuesday.

Raided were the retail outlet and two stockrooms of Baleco Marketing and/or Ming Yue A. Zhang, alias Ella Sui, and/or Bealyn Kaibigan Baleco, at Stalls I-23, I-25 and I-27, Sunnyline Shopping Center, 2988 Taft Avenue Extension; Units 29 and 30, 142 Cuneta Avenue, and Unit 3-128, Third Floor, Khatar Region, 142 Kapitan Ambo Street, all in Pasay City.

The NBI obtained the search warrants from Acting Presiding Judge Rainelda H. Estacio-Montesa of the Regional Trial Court Branch 46 in Manila.

Charges of Trademark Infringement under the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines, or Republic Act 8293, are being prepared against the owners of the raided establishments. PNA

A6 Thursday, May 28, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

A good performance

H

ERE’S giving credit to whom credit is due.

In what can be perceived as a rare display of common sense and historical acumen, the Aquino administration takes a sudden leap forward with its decision to infuse P27 million for the restoration of The Metropolitan Theater (The MET).

The money will be used by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts to purchase the theater from the Government Service Insurance System for a series of restoration efforts.

The MET has suffered decay and extreme neglect through the years. The theater, a one-of-a-kind art-deco structure designed by Juan Arellano, opened in 1931 as a venue for the performing arts.

It stood on what was once called the Mehan Garden along historic Padre Burgos Avenue (now called Sining Kayumanggi), right across from the Manila Central Post Office building, which Arellano also designed together with the Legislative Building.

Decades earlier, around 1862, the Teatro del Príncipe Alfonso XII stood near where The MET stands. Found along Plaza Arroceros, the Teatro burnt down 14 years later. The idea of again building a theater in Manila came during the early years of the American colonial period and was approved by the Philippine legislature.

The first 10 years that came on the heels of its opening saw performances from foreign classical artists such as Amelita Galli-Curci, Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz. Local zarzuelas and shows were also featured at The MET. In one of its most courageous displays of nationalism, various artists used The MET to support anti-Japanese plays and dramas that helped spread the resistance headed by the guerrilla underground.

It was then that a concert scheduled for the Manila Symphony Orchestra was canceled due to a raid conducted by the Japanese army.

The level of neglect and disrepair it suffered forced the government to close down The MET in 2012. Since then, The MET had deteriorated further and stood as a crumbling monument to how the Philippine government views our culture and heritage.

If the government’s infusion of fresh capital stands as a sign of its commitment to the arts and the preservation of heritage sites, then The MET’s restoration could signal a step toward the right direction.

In many European countries, vintage theaters have raked in millions of dollars in tourism money. Who knows what The MET could bring once it’s restored to its former glory?

PHL is ready for winter John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

D

URING the last 10 years, the Philippines has progressively moved forward to now become the call-center capital of the world. We began taking the title from India in 2008 and the fact that the Philippines accomplished this is a little surprising.

At that time, you could have made a list of the pros and cons of setting a call center in either country and it would have been relatively balanced. The overall costs were about the same. The pool of available employees was large in both. Technology infrastructure might have leaned to India but was not significant. India had an established track record but the Philippines was being aggressive in attracting investment.

The person who, probably, is owed the most credit for the Philippines becoming No. 1 in call centers is Ferdinand Magellan.

While from a wealthy Portuguese family, Magellan was commissioned

by King Charles I of Spain to find a sea route to the “Spice Islands,” or Indonesia. Apparently he missed Indonesia and ended up in the Philippines. That started a chain of events, coincidences if you prefer, that created our call-center business.

Companies were hesitant to outsource their customer-service op-

erations to the Philippines, but their English-speaking customers in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe could not clearly understand Indianaccented English. The British colonized India in the mid 1800s, while Spain had been here about 300 years earlier. The first modern Europeanstyle university in the Philippines was the University of Santo Tomas established in 1611. It was 250 years later that India had a similar learning establishment. Because of Spanish and then-American colonization, Filipinos were exposed to western languages and accents, literally over centuries. While the use of Spanish was mostly limited to the upper classes, it was still familiar and the Americans pushed the use of English.

The series of events over centuries that bought the call centers to these shores actually started with Magellan landing on Homonhon Island in Eastern Samar.

German psychiatrist Carl Jung created and was fascinated by the

concept he called “synchronicity” the idea of “meaningful coincidence” or when seemingly unrelated events have, in his word, “togetherness.”

This has been illustrated in the phrase of unknown attribution, “All coincidences traced back became inevitable.”

Not only are events linear, as in my silly story of Magellan, but events are also interconnected seemingly without obvious connection.

The Americans would never have been in the Philippines if not for the Spanish-American War. That war might never have occurred if not for the anti-Spanish propaganda led by newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Hearst which used yellow journalism to criticize the Spanish administration of Cuba.

Hearst never created a scheme for the US to go to war against Spain to then be able to colonize the Philippines, to teach English to Filipinos that would eventually lead to the Philippines being the call-center capital of the world. But that is what happened.

The global financial system is not one huge clock where all the gears and wheels operate in synchronicity. But it is inescapable that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Shanghai does affect the winds off the western coast of Ireland if you are able to see the big picture.

The advantage, if you will, that the Philippines has is that because, in part by geography and its lagging economic development, we have been

China blows its debt bubble bigger William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

T

HERE are plenty of reasons one could argue China isn’t on the verge of a debt crisis: The country has $3.7 trillion in currency reserves, a closed financial system and ambitious leaders who claim to be on the case. And doesn’t the biggest rally in Chinese stocks since 2008 count for anything?

But like Japan and other highly indebted countries that have struggled to deleverage, China isn’t showing the requisite tolerance for pain.

A case in point was the government’s May 15 decision to order banks to prop up the same local-government financing vehicles, or LGFVs, that it claimed to be reining in. Then the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) decided this week to guide the threemonth Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate to its lowest level since 2008. By manipulating “shibor” in this way, the PBOC is helping regional leaders accelerate their unsustainable borrowing.

Neither of these steps will help China avoid a Japan-like crisis.

Rather, they are likely to ensure a belated financial reckoning in the years ahead with the potential to shake the global economy.

The encouragement of local government borrowing is especially alarming. Even among China’s many questionable credit vehicles, LGFVs are a standout. They allow provincial governments to use stateowned resources and assets, like land, to borrow from banks. LGFVs have become a potent symbol of the country’s post-2008 overindulgence

in debt, with local government obligations now exceeding the entire German economy.

The Chinese government has also been urging banks to increase lending to borrowers with liquidity troubles, relaxing rules for companies to conduct off-balance-sheet borrowing and prodding the PBOC to do whatever it takes to cap localgovernment bond yields. Meanwhile, by allowing local government to shift their LGFV debt to fresh bonds, the Chinese government has eliminated any remaining semblance of transparency in those markets. Entrepreneurial government officials who want to raise some cash to fund dubious projects now have a license to do so without leaving a paper trail.

It’s no mystery why President Xi Jinping is taking it so easy on borrowers: Above all, the Chinese government wants to avoid a chain reaction of defaults that would lead to credit downgrades on bonds.

The fallout would make it harder for China to generate the 7-percent growth Xi has promised. It also might spook investors. In the last six days alone, the Shanghai Composite In-

loosely connected or even disconnected for a disproportionate part of the time. The Philippines has made giant strides in cell-phone penetration and usage because for decades we were far behind our neighbors in land line phones. We have become the text messaging nation because other forms of communication were lacking and our relatives might be a two-day boat ride or a two-hour airplane ride away.

The change in the cycle that I have spoken of several times will affect the Philippines also. But as I also said, we raised interest rates when others were still stable or lowering, so once again, the Philippines is ahead of the curve.

As confidence in the government turns negative, money will move into the private sector and into the stock markets including here in the Philippines. The reason the Philippines will not suffer the negative affects is that Filipinos, individually and collectively, do not depend on the government for their health, wealth and survival. That is another reason I am so bullish on the Southeast Asian region.

Winter is coming and the Philippines is ready.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

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

dex surged 15 percent. Xi’s strategy seems to be to keep the good times going, while gradually deleveraging credit markets.

The trouble is, China’s debt bubble is expanding, not contracting.

Rather than absorbing the pain of wayward local governments, the Chinese government should be policing them more closely. Here, Japan’s cautionary tale is worth heeding.

After its asset bubble burst in 1990, Tokyo spent a dozen years trying to grow its way to solvency and bailing out would-be defaulters. By the time the government began forcing banks to dispose of bad loans in the early 2000s, it was too late—lending and borrowing had slowed down so much that the financial system was scarcely redeemable at that point.

The only way China can avoid Japan’s fate a few years from now is by accepting slower growth and less borrowing today.

Judging from their rhetoric, officials in Beijing understand the scale of the country’s debt problems. It’s too bad that, when it comes to designing policies, they lack the courage of their convictions.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Integrating the automated: Undivided unity The LRA-BIR eCAR Verification System Project Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

Atty. Esther M. Weigand

Tax law for business

O

ur tax laws provide that before documents transferring real properties are registered, it is first required that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), through its commissioner or duly authorized representatives, has certified that such transfers have been reported, and the corresponding taxes thereon have already been paid.

To comply with this, the BIR issues Certificates Authorizing Registration (CARs). It is also required that the Registry of Deeds (RD) notify the regional director or the revenue district officer of the place where his office is located, if he discovers that property has been transferred without the proper payment of the taxes due on such transaction. Thus, the law creates a dual relationship between the BIR and the RDs under the Land Registration Authority (LRA) in relation to transactions involving real properties.

Currently, the LRA has set in place a Land Titling Computerization Project (LTCP), which allows for full computerization of its operations, and all documents, deeds and instruments involving real properties are electronically registered. Similarly, the BIR has also implemented the electronic CARs System for the processing and generation of CARs. To integrate these two systems, the BIR, under the Department of Justice, and the LRA executed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to evidence their agreement to set up the necessary infrastructure to link the two systems that each agency has set in place. This was executed to enable the LRA, through its RDs, to verify all real-property transfers against BIR clearances and, simultaneously, to enable the BIR to check that all of such transfers have the corresponding BIR clearances.

Under the said MOA, the BIR undertook to ensure the implementation of a comprehensive information campaign to inform the public of the changes brought about by the automated verification process adopted by the two agencies. Thus, in line with this, the BIR, on April 17, issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 28-2015, which published the full text of the joint memorandum circular (JMC) between the LRA and the BIR dated April 6, 2015. The JMC implements the use of the LRA’s Philippine Land Registration and Information System (Philaris) for the automated verification of the BIR eCARs. The LRA-BIR JMC, as published by RMC 28-2015, covers all transactions involving transfer of real properties processed by RDs requiring the presentation of the eCAR, which shall be automatically verified using the Philaris prior to the processing of a transfer transaction. Generally, the eCARverification procedure will involve the following steps: 1. The BIR will provide the LRA with data relevant to the eCAR by directly updating the LRA-BIR eCAR database; 2. The BIR shall issue the eCAR only after successfully updating the LRA-BIR eCAR database; 3. The eCAR shall contain a bar code, which will be scanned by the RD for verification, after the entry into the Electronic Primary Entry Book of the eCAR as a supporting document of a transaction; 4. The eCAR presented shall then be automatically validated against the

data provided by the BIR in the LRABIR eCAR database, and only transactions that have validated eCARs shall be approved by the RD; and 5. The LRA shall provide the BIR relevant data relating the eCAR to its corresponding Certificate of Title.

Though eCARs are already being issued by most BIR offices, manually issued CARs are still valid, provided they were issued within one year prior to the implementation of the eCAR system.

Those that have not yet been presented within their validity period can no longer be used. Thus, they are to be replaced by eCARs by the concerned revenue district officer/LT division chief, if the new eCAR system is already being implemented within their Revenue District Office (RDO). If not, a new CAR will be manually issued, instead.

The circular also provides that only one eCAR will be issued per title in case of registered land and/or improvement, and one eCAR per tax declaration in case of those which are unregistered. Such eCARs will have a validity period of one year from the date of their issuance and, if not presented by the taxpayer within such period, a new eCAR will be issued.

If the eCAR is lost or destroyed, it will just be reprinted by the RDO/LT division chief concerned.

The circular reiterates that there shall be no registration of any deed or instrument resulting in the transfer of real property, unless the BIR has issued the corresponding eCAR, which should now be properly verified under the LRABIR eCAR Verification System Project.

When the RDs issue new certificates of title over real properties under names of the transferees, the RD should annotate on the canceled certificates of title the following information: 1. eCAR number; 2. Date of issuance of eCAR; 3. RDO number; 4. Na me of revenue d ist r ict officer; and 5. Type and amount of taxes paid The implementation of this integrated automated system between the LRA and the BIR is a welcome development in setting up a more efficient process for registration of real properties. Not only does it serve the purposes of the law, but it also serves to provide efficient service to taxpayers who wish to comply with the legal requirements for registration of their newly acquired properties.

The author is a junior associate of Du-Baladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member-firm of World Tax Services Alliance.

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed, as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter.

Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at esther.weigand@bdblaw. com.ph, or call 403-2001, local 340.

A

ll the earth is filled with the kindness of the Lord, and blessed are the people He has chosen as His own (Psalm 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22). Jesus ordered His followers to share to all the saving love of God and promised to be with them always (Matthew 28:16-20).

Your kindness be upon us Psalm 33 is a hymn of praise, outlining why the Lord should be praised.

The outstanding reason to praise God is God Himself: His loving kindness (hesed). He has revealed Himself to be faithful always, faithful to His covenant and trustworthy, loving justice and what is right. Then, there is the power of God the Creator. In an echo of the opening chapter of Genesis, by His word the heavens were made and by His breath human beings live. God’s will, God’s word, is behind the order maintaining the universe. The marvels of creation reflect God’s faithful care (aman) for the world, and His love for justice and right judgment.

Specifically, in God’s dealing with humankind there is so much of his kindness and providence and might.

God’s faithful adherence to His purposes, His continuing love is evident in His care for all who fear Him— those who stand in awe of Him and

S

when it is time, obtain the necessary hormones and surgeries for a female body.

As scientists who study gender and sexuality, we can tell you confidently: At this point no one knows what is better for your son.

We do know a lot about such boys. This includes some important facts rarely mentioned in the discussion about how they should be raised. We suspect this is because those facts are inconvenient to the narratives that have come to predominate.

Perhaps, the most influential account is that gender-dysphoric children have the minds and brains of the other sex, adult transgenderism is inevitable, and early transition to the other sex is the only humane option.

But this narrative is clearly wrong in one

Teach them My commandments

IN Galilee where He began His ministry and established His friendship with His disciples, and on a mountain reminiscent of His groundbreaking teaching about the blessed life in the reign of God, Jesus declared that all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. He is the Son of Man exalted by God and granted eschatological authority (Daniel 7:14).

In this light, Jesus commis-

sioned His followers to go forth and make disciples of all nations.

God’s saving love is for all, and no social, cultural, ethnic and gender boundaries are to restrict them in their mission. Jesus and His gospel, and so His followers, are open to the fullness and diversity of life. Creative dialogue and inculturation are basic aspects of their mission of evangelization.

The followers of Jesus are to teach and to baptize. They are to teach, not just abstract doctrines but the way of life, the morality, that conforms to the reign of God in the gospel.

The Trinitarian formula for baptism is a compendium of the fundamental elements of the teachings of Jesus. The Father is the source of all life and goodness, who sent His Son to save erring humankind. The Son, in total obedience to the Father, sacrificed Himself so that we may have life and in fullness. The Holy Spirit, the gift of the Father and the Son, is the bond of love that leads to eternal life. Adopted by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, the believer is recreated and reborn to a new life of communion with God.

I am with you always

TO live according to the commandments Jesus entrusted to us is to live in union with the Almighty, to exist in the mystery and life of the Triune God. Jesus, the Emmanuel, guarantees us in this until the end of time, a union that becomes everlasting at

A7

the end as in a pilgrimage.

This transformation into a life of communion with God begins and continues in the name of the Trinity in their undivided unity. Interestingly, the divine name is simply referred to, but not actually given, in accord with the Jewish tradition. It is one name, not three, threefold in the manifestation of creative, saving, sanctifying love for us.

To be disciples of Jesus is to share in His intimacy with the Father and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is to live a life of love inclusive of all and to be clothed ultimately with divine glory.

Alálaong bagá, the command of Jesus to His followers to make disciples of all nations, sharing communion to all, is part of the ongoing creating love of God. Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (292) teaches. The psalm pictures this undivided unity: God the creator, the Father and author of life, works by His Word—the Son, and by His Breath—the Holy Spirit, the Father’s “two hands,” according to Saint Irenaeus. This creative cooperation by the Triune God clearly goes on in the baptismal initiation of the believers, in the Christian way of life.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio-streaming on www.dwiz882.com.

Tobacco taxes too effective to overlook in financing for devt

N

By Katie Dain | InterPress News Service

taxation, in general, as a way to generate funding for sustainable development.

Yet, 180 of the world’s governments have already agreed that tobacco taxation is an important tool to both generate revenue and save lives.

Meeting as the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), these governments have even agreed on guidelines that set out how to tax tobacco as effectively as possible.

Notably, these guidelines, to the FCTC’s Article 6, represent the first time that governments have agreed on what makes—and what doesn’t make—good tobacco tax policy.

Raising tobacco taxes, and subsequently tobacco prices, is good for health because it reduces the amount of tobacco consumed in three ways: n Some existing smokers quit entirely; n Some people, mostly teenagers, are deterred from starting to use tobacco; n Some people continue to use tobacco, but reduce how much they use each day.

As a result, tobacco sales decline; however, the revenue generated by the higher taxes on the remaining products sold more than makes up for lower sales. That is why increasing tobacco taxes is a win-win for

governments: good for health and good for the bottom line.

Most of the revenue would initially be generated in rich countries, as taxes and prices there are much higher to begin with, but developing countries could still raise substantial revenue.

For example, the Philippines hiked specific excise taxes in 2013, raising the average price per cigarette pack by 48 percent. Sales declined and the number of smokers dropped from 28.3 percent of adults in 2009 to 25.4 percent in 2013, while government revenue from tobacco taxes more than doubled, from $702 million in 2012 to $1.5 billion in 2013 .

To be effective, tobacco tax increases must be accompanied by other measures, as FCTC Article 6 guidelines point out. Governments should also: n Implement the simplest, most efficient tax systems; n Make regular adjustments so that tobacco products become less affordable over time; n Tax all tobacco products consistently to avoid substitution; n Phase out tax-free and dutyfree products; and n Set long-term policies, which could include a tax target.

Parties to the FCTC are not alone in recognizing the potential of tobacco taxation. In their recent paper on financing for sustainable development, Jeffrey Sachs and Guido Schmidt-Traub praise tobacco taxes: “Consumption taxes on tobacco products have been shown to have a very positive impact on reducing

tobacco use and improving health.

Higher tobacco taxes are particularly effective at reducing consumption by vulnerable populations, particularly youth. In many countries, tobacco taxation is also an important source of government revenue and is dedicated to tobacco-control activities, hospital services and other health prevention or promotion services.”

The authors also refer to a 2011 report that Bill Gates presented to a meeting of G-20 leaders.

In the executive summary Gates wrote: “Among the revenue proposals I have examined, tobacco taxes are especially attractive because they encourage smokers to quit and discourage people from starting to smoke, as well as generate significant revenues. It’s a win-win for global health.”

Gates continued: “Tobacco taxes are already ubiquitous. Ninety percent of countries have some form of them. And they work. In Thailand, as cigarette taxes rose from 1994 to 2007, revenues doubled, even though the number of smokers went down significantly.”

The SDGs provide the road map for creating a healthier, more equitable and prosperous world, and as such are extremely ambitious. Considerable resources will be needed for these goals to be realized in the next 15 years.

Already endorsed by a large majority of the world’s governments, and with a clear road map for implementation, tobacco taxation should be highlighted in the Addis Ababa Declaration as an effective domestic tool for financing sustainable development.

dysphoric boys live as girls, the percentage of persisters may increase dramatically. But, again, we don’t yet know whether it’s better to encourage adjustment or persistence.

(We have focused on gender-dysphoric boys because their parents have contacted us much more often than parents of similar girls.

Moreover, many fewer gender-dysphoric girls have been studied scientifically. The same basic facts appear to be true for both sexes, however.)

Let’s take a look at the likely life trajectories of two imagined gender-dysphoric boys: David, whose parents insist he stay David, and Max, whose parents allow him to become a girl, changing his name to Maxine.

In the short run, David will experience more psychological pain than Maxine. Adjustment to

being a boy necessarily means accepting that he can’t be a girl, something he desperately wants. Still, most gender-dysphoric boys have managed the mental transition.

In the long run, Maxine will need serious medical interventions. In late childhood she will need hormones to block puberty; she will then take estrogen for the rest of her life. Eventually, she may want genital surgery.

Although this surgery is usually satisfactory, side effects requiring additional surgery are not uncommon.

Each way has obvious advantages and disadvantages. We would prefer to save David the greater pain he will endure during childhood.

And we would prefer to save Maxine the serious medical interventions and possible side effects.

Despite the lack of clarity in this debate, the Obama administration recently appeared to take sides, issuing a statement that decried the use of “conversion therapy” to change either sexual orientation or gender identity.

President Barack Obama is correct to oppose sexual-orientation conversion therapy, which is usually offered because of religious objections to homosexuality, and which doesn’t work. But therapy to help a preadolescent child overcome gender dysphoria can be entirely different. Some professionals who do this therapy have no moral issue with transgenderism but are trying to help children avoid later medical stress. That is a reasonable goal, even if it is not the only possible goal.

EW YORK—Governments are in the midst of tough talks in New York over the text of the Addis Ababa Accord, which is scheduled to be adopted at the end of the Third Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Ethiopia in July.

However, at last report, negotiators continued to downplay a powerful mechanism that governments could use to help achieve and finance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September: tobacco taxes.

According to a recent estimate, increasing specific excise taxes on tobacco worldwide, in order to double prices, would raise about $100 billion per year in revenues, in addition to the approximately $300 billion that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates governments already collect on tobacco.

Tobacco use is the world’s leading preventable cause of death, and the one risk factor common to four major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs): cancers, cardiovascular and lung disease, and diabetes.

Tobacco use killed 100 million people in the 20th century and, if trends do not change, it will kill 1 billion people this century.

The proposed SDGs recognize the devastating impact of NCDs and the tobacco-use risk factor, and set targets for reducing the deadly impacts of both.

Fear of trampling on governments’ right to decide on taxation is reportedly at the heart of the negotiators’ reluctance to recommend

Should your young son change his sex?

INCE the age of 2, he has been a very different kind of boy. He enjoys wearing his mother’s shoes and his sister’s dresses. He likes to play with girls and hates playing with boys, who are too rough. Now 5, he has told you that he wants to be a girl. In fact, he insists that he is a girl. Your son isn’t just feminine; he is unhappy being a boy. He has gender dysphoria.

You love him and you want him to be happy. But you’re worried. Some older kids have started to tease him, and some parents have expressed disapproval.

It seems you have two choices. You could insist that he is a boy and try to put an end to behavior such as cross-dressing. The alternative is to let him be a girl: grow long hair, choose a new name, dress as he (or “she”) pleases and,

are afraid to lose Him. And He looks after those who thus hope in Him and confidently wait for His kindness.

The Lord looks upon them with eyes of steadfast love and compassion; He is their help and shield. As their savior, He will preserve them in their great needs and deliver them from final destruction. That is why the worshipping community can only cry out: “Let Your steadfast love, Lord, be upon us! We hope in You!”

Thursday, May 28, 2015

respect. Gender-dysphoric children have not usually become transgender adults. For example, the large majority of gender-dysphoric boys studied so far have become young men content to remain male. More than 80 percent adjusted by adolescence.

Granted, the available research was conducted at a time when parents almost always encouraged their gender-dysphoric children to accept their birth sex. And this is changing. For example, the parents of Jazz Jennings, a transgender teen and YouTube celebrity, let their son live as a girl starting at age 5, and all the evidence suggests that she will remain female.

The little data we have indicate that parental acquiescence leads to persistence.

As more and more parents let their gender-

Los Angeles Times/TNS