BusinessMirror May 29, 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, 2014Vol.Vol. 10 No. n Friday, May 29, 2015 10 No. 23240

www.businessmirror.com.ph

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

UNDERSPENDING AGAIN MAIN CULPRIT IN DISAPPOINTING 5.2% GDP EXPANSION IN JANMARCH

Govt takes blame for poor Q1 growth HE national government again failed to deliver on its promise to ramp up its construction spending, dragging down the economy’s growth anew—this time to its slowest pace in almost four years—in the January-to-March period.

PITCHPERFECT

Life

The genuine love of a neighbor

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EAR Lord, then shall we bear the abundant fruits of the new life inaugurated by You with Your resurrection. These fruits will be especially peace, and the genuine love of a neighbor, which expresses itself “in deeds and truth and not merely in words.” Then shall we continually experience in ourselves the reality and the power of Your resurrection and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, as did the members of the apostolate community. May we nurture the genuine love of a neighbor in us. Amen.

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

RIOT GIRLS The

cast of Pitch Perfect 2 show in no small ways that girl power can fuel films to commercial success.

JAKE CUENCA’S ‘PASSION’ CRANKS UP THE SUMMER HEAT »D4

BusinessMirror

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

Friday, May 29, 2015

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‘Pitch Perfect 2’ and beyond: Female filmgoers flex new box-office clout B S H Los Angeles Times

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HEN Rebel Wilson, Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow walked down the carpet at the world premiere of Pitch Perfect 2 earlier this month, the roars of mostly female fans screaming their names resembled an a cappella medley from the film itself.

“I just love their girl power,” said 25-year-old Jessica Hernandez, one of the hundreds who lined up as early as 9 am for a prime spot in the “fan pit” outside Los Angeles’s Nokia Theatre.

“Girl power” seems to be at the heart of Pitch Perfect 2’s $69.2-million opening weekend two weeks ago, with an audience that was 72-percent female. Its debut far surpassed preweekend projections that the film would have a $35- to $45-million opening. For perspective, consider that, in one weekend, the sequel beat the entire $65-million domestic haul for the original 2012 film.

Even the reboot of George Miller’s action film Mad Max, which came in behind Pitch Perfect 2 but ahead of projections with a $45.4-million opening, has a strong woman powering the film. Charlize Theron kicks as much butt in Mad Max: Fury Road as costar Tom Hardy.

These films aren’t outliers—at least this year. Cinderella and Fifty Shades of Grey have earned the year’s third- and fourth-highest box office sales, respectively, to date with largely female audiences. And the year’s No. 1 movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron not only gave Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow a back story and a budding romance with the Hulk, but it also added a second female Avenger, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlett Witch.

“The genie is out of the bottle now,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at the audience measurement service Rentrak.

“Hollywood is catching on to the fact that it’s good business to try and attract female audiences. Having more female-driven film has gone from being a trend to being the norm.”

Studios have long made billions primarily by aiming at young males—the comic-book-loving “fanboys” who flock to theaters to see action films. But, lately, robust totals for films, such as Disney’s Maleficent Maleficent, which was the No. 3 film last summer, have proven the worth of catering to long-underserved female audiences.

“I think, now, there is recognition in the industry that, if you make a film like the Avengers,” said Bruce Nash, who founded the box-office statistics site The Numbers, “you have to make it interesting for everyone who is going to see it.”

Analysts say that this summer’s films will likely set records, helping box-office receipts climb to a projected $11.2 billion by the end of 2015. Much of that revenue is expected to come from female-driven films that are being paired strategically with male-centric films as counterprogramming to help boost the overall box office.

This means that, on the same June 5 weekend that Vinny and the boys hit the big screen with Entourage, Melissa McCarthy’s comedy Spy will make its debut. The malestripper flick Magic Mike XXL, based on the 2012 original that starred Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum, opens opposite sci-fi blockbuster Terminator: Genisys on the Fourth of July weekend. And Amy Schumer’s highly anticipated comedy Trainwreck launches July 17 against Marvel’s Ant-Man. Some of the counterprogramming, propelled by buzz, could outpace their blockbuster counterparts.

Spy, which premiered at the South by Spy Southwest (SXSW) festival this year, will likely top Insidious 3 and Entourage when it comes out next month, according to people familiar with pre-release audience surveys. The espionage comedy is written and directed by Paul Feig, who also directed McCarthy in the hit comedies Bridesmaids and The Heat.

Trainwreck, directed by Judd Apatow and Trainwreck written by Schumer, may not beat its Marvel

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U.S., CUBA RELATIONS BusinessMirror

World The

B3-1 | Friday, May 29, 2015 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

INDIANS HEAT TOLL SURPASSES 1,400

A villager herds his buffaloes as they enter the Daya River on a hot afternoon in the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar, India, on May 27. In southern India more than 1,400 people have died since the middle of April as soaring summer temperatures scorch the country, officials said. Eating onions, lying in the shade and crowding into rivers, Indians are doing whatever they can to stay cool amid the brutal heat wave, where temperatures have soared to 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit). AP/BISWA AP/BISW RANJAN ROUT

US, Cuba normal relations ‘weeks away’–US senator

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AVANA—The historic process of restoring longsevered diplomatic relationship between the US and Cuba that began on December 17 will likely come to a successful end in a matter of weeks, a US senator said during a visit to the island on Wednesday.

A 45-day period for Congress to challenge a decision by President Barack Obama to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a key obstacle to improved relations, will expire on Friday, and the remaining issues will then get quickly resolved, Sen. Tom Udall told reporters in Havana.

“We are just two days away. There has not been a vote in Congress so that’s going to stand,” Udall said. “I think it will be a matter of weeks when we have restored diplomatic relations.”

US and Cuban officials have said the two sides are close to resolving the final issues that would allow both countries to reopen embassies and exchange ambassadors for the first time since the US severed diplomatic relations in January 1961.

Udall, a New Mexico Democrat who led a four-member Democratic congressional delegation to Cuba, said there appears to be growing momentum to removing at least elements of the US trade embargo first imposed in 1960.

There is bipartisan support for separate pieces of legislation that would permanently end a ban on travel, allow trade in agricultural goods and enable US telecommunications and Internet companies to

provide services and devices in Cuba, the senator said.

The delegation, which included Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, Rep.

Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Rep. John Larson of Connecticut, spoke to reporters after meeting with Cuban officials and small business owners.

All four members of the delegation support lifting the trade embargo, which the Cubans say has badly damaged their economy over the past five decades.

Obama softened aspects of the embargo and called on Congress to end it during his State of the Union address in January.

Franken said there is strong support among the US public for normal relations.

“I think there is a very small minority, really, in the Senate and Congress who have strong objections to this and I think that a majority of the American people and a majority of Congress would be for lifting the embargo,” he said. “But there is work to be done.”

Some of that work emerged as the members of Congress spoke to reporters. Franken was asked about the presence of the US Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which Castro said must be returned to Cuba.

Franken dodged the question, saying, “I don’t believe that that is a salient issue at this time.” He then added that he doesn’t have a “strong opinion” on the base, though, he supports closing the detention center there for terrorism suspects.

Udall was asked about the presence of criminals suspected of crimes in the US who have found refuge in Cuba. The senator raised the example of Charlie Hill, who fled to the island after killing a police officer in New Mexico in 1971, and said he should be extradited.

“I assume with the normalization of relations we are going to have a lot more discussions about things like that,” Udall said. AP

RESDEN, German—Top finance officials from the Group of Seven (G-7) wealthy democracies are gathering in Germany this week to discuss ways to strengthen the global economy.

US officials are pressing countries, such as Germany, that have strong finances to invest more to stimulate their economies. They’re urging European leaders to find a solution to Greece’s financial problems and will seek ways to cut off financing for extremist organizations, such as the Islamic State (IS) group.

EIJING—A former member of China’s national legislature who is accused of running a brothel with 100 prostitutes at a luxury hotel that he ran in southern China has gone on trial on charges of organizing prostitution.

Liang Yaohui was the biggest name to fall in a wide-ranging crack crackdown on the sex trade in Dongguan, a manufacturing city near Hong Kong famed for its bathhouses, karaoke parlors and seedy nightlife.

Liang allegedly arranged for 100 prostitutes to entertain clients inside sauna rooms at the city’s five-star Crown Prince Hotel, of which he was part-owner and chairman.

The scheme was exposed and the hotel closed, following a series of raids in February 2014 that resulted in detention of more than 1,000 prostitutes and their clients and the removal of dozens of police officials suspected of protecting illegal activity and tipping off the gangs who ran them.

The Dongguan prosecutors’ office said on its microblog that Liang’s trial began on Wednesday and would continue on Thursday. It wasn’t clear when a verdict and sentence would be rendered.

Liang was dismissed from the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, following his arrest last year.

The largely ceremonial body, which meets for two weeks only once a year in Beijing, has increasingly become a millionaires’ club, with more than 100 members boasting personal wealth of a billion dollars or more.

While requiring little in the way of legislative work, membership in the body accords considerable prestige and facilitates contacts, government connections and other privileges that can be a boon to business.

Members of the roughly 3,000-member body are elected from provincial assemblies, whose members are themselves drawn from city and county legislatures.

However, the nominating process is murky, and VIPs, such as prominent businessmen and star athletes, are of often invited to join, while government critics are blocked from doing so.

Along with his hotel, Liang had interests in various businesses, including a property portfolio worth about $325 million, according to state media. The prostitution scheme netted his hotel almost $8 million in 2013 alone, the official Xinhua News Agency said. AP

Greece insists deal ‘very close’; Schaeuble quashes optimism

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U.S. Sen. Tom T Udall (center) talks with US Rep. Raul Grijalba (seated, left) and US Sen. Al Franken (standing, with glasses) after a news conference in Havana, Cuba, on Wednesday. AP/RAMON ESPINOSA

WORLD’S WEALTHY DEMOCRACIES DISCUSS HOW TO HELP GROWTH

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FORMER CHINESE LEGISLATOR ON TRIAL FOR RUNNING BROTHEL

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Ahead of the meeting, activists urging more help for poor countries floated large balloons bearing the faces of government leaders next to Dresden’s historic Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady, urging the meeting to produce more than “hot air.”

The G-7 meets against the back background of a recovering global economy that faces risks on a number of fronts: n Turmoil in the Middle East and Russia’s pressure on Ukraine are potential risks to growth. n The economies of Europe and the US are growing, but not as quickly as

hoped. The jobless rate remains high in Europe. n The US Federal Reserve is weighing whether to start raising interest rates from levels near zero. Federal Reserve Chair Chairman Janet Yellen has said she expects a rate hike this year. The impact of a hike on financial markets long used to cheap money remains unclear. n Greece’s struggle to reach a new bailout deal with creditors is likely to come up, even though the country is not a member of the G-7.

Creditors like Germany have insisted

Greece must commit to controlling spending and reform its economy before it gets more money; US officials don’t want a Greek default and possible chaotic exit from the shared euro currency to roil markets as the economy is getting going.

Officials from host country Germany, which has the rotating leadership of the G-7, said the meeting over three days through Friday was envisioned as a relaxed discussion forum to set up decisions and positions to be taken at a June 7 and 8 summit of heads of state and government at the Schloss Elmau resort outside Munich. AP

THENS, Greece—Greece’s cashstrapped government insisted on Wednesday it was “very close” to reaching a vital deal with bailout lenders, but the optimism in Athens was swiftly shot down by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Greece’s four-month-old government is days away from loan repayments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) it says it may not be able to honor.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras paid a rare visit to the Finance Ministry to announce that a break breakthrough was in sight.

“We have taken very many steps.

We are in the home stretch, close to the final agreement,” he told reporters.

The news buoyed markets, with the main Athens stock index closing up 3.6 percent, and other European markets also posting gains.

Giorgos Stathakis, Tsipras’s economy minister, insisted a compromise could be reached as soon as this weekend.

“The deal is very close,” he told private Mega television, adding that Greece would maintain emergency taxes and agree to simplify sale-tax rates to raise additional annual revenue worth nearly €1 billion ($1.1 billion).

Lenders, he said, had made concessions on axing labor rights and pension reforms.

In the German city of Dresden, where finance ministers of the Group of Seven economic powers were pre-

paring to meet, Schaeuble said he did not share Athens’s view.

“We’ve been hearing a lot of positive news from Greece—and that’s good—but in essence, the negotiations have not progressed much,” he told Germany’s ARD television.

Since the start of Greece’s bailout program in 2010, the IMF and eurozone creditors have been releasing rescue loans on condition the country implements strict austerity measures.

Tsipras’s radical left-led government, which has promised to end austerity, needs a deal for the latest installment by June 5, when it has to repay some €300 billion to the IMF. Failure to make the repayment could put Greece on a slippery slope, forcing it to impose limits on money withdrawals to avoid a bank run, and threatening its euro-zone membership.

Earlier on Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew spoke to Tsipras on the phone. A Treasury Department statement said Lew “reiterated that failure to agree on a path forward would create immediate hardship for Greece and broad uncertainties for Europe and the global economy.”

Before heading to Dresden, Lew spoke at the London School of Economics, and warned of the potential risks globally of a Greek impasse.

“It’s a mistake to think that a failure has no consequences outside of Greece,” he said. “We don’t know the exact scope.” AP

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WARRIORS IN FINALS Sports BusinessMirror

VIVA LA FRANCE! P

ARIS—Gael Monfils delivered one final ace, his 21st, and closed out his latest raucous, five-set victory on Court Philippe Chatrier to the delight of roaring, partisan spectators.

An entertainer at heart, Monfils pounded his chest with his right fist repeatedly and, after hugging opponent Diego Schwartzman at the net, used his right shoe to etch a sketch of a smiley face on the French Open main stadium’s red clay.

Needless to say, his adoring public loved that, too.

Since 1983, when Yannick Noah became the most recent man from France to win the championship at Roland Garros, the locals have not had a whole lot to cheer about at their Grand Slam tennis tournament. So mark Wednesday as a rare bright light along the way: All five of the host country’s men in action advanced to the third round, including three who were seeded—No. 12 Gilles Simon, No. 13 Monfils and No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga—and two who defeated seeded players— Nicolas Mahut and Benoit Paire.

“Everybody,” Tsonga said, “remembers Yannick’s victory.”

Monfils trailed Argentina’s Schwartzman two sets to one, before coming back and improving to 14-10 in five-setters with a 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win filled with loud cheers between points and plenty of supportive cries of Allez!

“Actually, today I won because I had the crowd behind me,” Monfils said. “They give me, let’s say, some wings.”

The 5-foot-7 Schwartzman, who is 9 inches shorter than Monfils, noticed the fans’ effect, saying: “He always uses the people [to his advantage], in all his matches.”

While some French players through the years have found the expectations of their countrymen too much to bear during these two weeks—Amelie Mauresmo comes to mind— Monfils and Tsonga occasionally thrive in the setting.

Both men have reached the semifinals in Paris—Monfils in 2008, and Tsonga in 2013. And both say they find the attention from the crowds more help than hindrance.

“For me,” Tsonga said, “it’s something positive.”

What, he was asked, might the reaction in France be if someone could end its 32-year wait for a men’s French Open title?

“First of all, I would be interested in winning! What would happen next? I don’t really know. I have absolutely no idea. The fans are happy when we win a first-round match,” a grinning Tsonga replied, enjoying his own one-liner, “so I guess winning the tournament would be something extraordinary for a country like ours.”

Tsonga, the Australian Open runner-up in 2008, had little trouble on Wednesday while defeating Israel’s Dudi Sela, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.

Simon also was a straight-set winner, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3, over Slovakia’s Martin Klizan.

“If everything goes fine,” Simon said, “I feel capable of doing great things.”

He’ll next face the 116th-ranked Mahut, best known for losing the longest match in tennis history to John Isner at Wimbledon in 2010. Mahut eliminated No. 24 Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, a French Open semifinalist last year, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Paire, ranked 71st, beat No. 28 Fabio Fognini, 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.

The only seeded Frenchwoman, No. 29 Alize Cornet, added to the general joie de vivre around the grounds—more crowded and louder than on other days of the week, because schoolchildren have half-days on Wednesday—by winning 6-2, 7-5 against Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru.

Cornet now plays Croatia’s 33-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who is ranked 70th and authored the biggest surprise of Day 4, compiling a 29-5 edge in winners to beat 2014 runner-up Simona Halep, 7-5, 6-1.

Halep, seeded third, also lost to LucicBaroni at the US Open last year. That tournament marked Lucic-Baroni’s first trip to the fourth round at a Grand Slam event since 1999, when she was 17. Problems with financial backing and injuries contributed to years away from the tour.

“I take a lot of pride in what I went through in my life, the difficulties.

And I know for a fact that a lot of people couldn’t do it,” Lucic-Baroni said. “I was stubborn.... I believed in myself enough and I was strong enough to be here today.”

Aware Cornet awaits, as does a crowd that can be expected to take sides, Lucic-Baroni said: “I wish at least three people will cheer for me in that match.” AP

a good day for »GaelIT’SMonfils (left) and Wilfred Tsonga at the French Open. AP

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San Jose Mercury News

AKLAND, California—They became Western Conference champions after defeating the Houston Rockets, 104-90, on Wednesday to win the series in five games.

The Golden State Warriors, who will face LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals, punched their ticket after Stephen Curry scored 26 points and Harrison Barnes poured it on in the fourth quarter to finish with 24 points.

Klay Thompson added 20 points before leaving the game with an ear laceration but was all smiles afterward along with his fellow Splash Brother.

“We’re four wins away from the goal,” Curry told the crowd at Oracle Arena, which cheered so loudly that his words could hardly be heard.

The Warriors, who went to the postseason in only three of the previous 20 seasons before hiring rookie coach Steve Kerr, will host Game One of the NBA Finals on June 4.

Rockets guard James Harden, the Most Valuable Player runner-up to Curry, was held to 14 points on two-for-11 shooting and suffered the indignity of committing an NBA playoff-record 13 turnovers. Dwight Howard led the Rockets with 18 points and 16 rebounds, but they shot only 35.1 percent from the field.

Barnes scored nine straight Warriors points on a jumper, three-pointer, runner and dunk to give his team an 87-72 lead with 7:10 left.

The outburst came immediately after the Warriors saw Thompson leave for the locker room after suffering the laceration when he was kneed in the head by the Rockets’ Trevor Ariza.

When the Rockets cut the Warriors’ lead to eight points with 4:19 left, Barnes hit two free throws and ran the floor for another dunk.

The Warriors led 74-65 after a 7-0 run capped off by Curry’s three-pointer and a dunk from Andre Iguodala, who had stolen the ball for Harden’s 11th turnover that tied the NBA playoff record. The assist came from Draymond Green, who started the game One-for-10 from the field but contributed on the defensive end.

Jason Terry scored seven straight Rockets points before the Warriors’ run.

Thompson scored the first five points of the second half to push the Warriors’ lead to 57-46. But he would soon be forced to the bench after committing his fourth and fifth fouls only 22 seconds apart. The Rockets responded with an 8-0 run capped by Ariza’s steal in the backcourt and three-point play.

The Warriors led 52-46 at halftime, with Barnes and Curry hitting back-to-back three-pointers to push their first-half lead to as many as eight points.

Harden was held to 11 points while committing eight turnovers in the half.

Thompson caught fire in the second quarter, hitting three three-pointers in a row to spark a 13-2 run that gave the Warriors a 30-24 lead. He hit his sixth shot in a row with a dunk in transition off a missed Harden three-point attempt and Curry’s rebound and quick pass.

The Rockets led 22-17 after the first quarter as the Warriors got off to another slow start, committing six turnovers and going one-for-eight from three-point range.

Howard in the quarter collected eight points, five rebounds and two blocked shots.

Andrew Bogut also committed two of his fouls and had to take a seat on the bench.

The Warriors started the game one-for-nine from the field as the Rockets jumped out to an 8-2 lead.

Bouncing back, the Warriors took back the lead after Curry stole the ball from Harden and Thompson made a reverse lay-up in transition to give them a 10-9 lead.

Harden hit all seven of his free throws in the quarter, stretching out the Rockets’ lead to 20-12.

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income accounts,” he added.

With the disappointing result in the first three months of the year, the economy must now post an average of 7.5-percent growth in the second to fourth quarters to hit the government’s full-year target of 7 percent to 8 percent. The consensus estimate given by private economists on the first-quarter growth was 6.6 percent.

“This is a very weak set of numbers,” said Michael Wan, an economist at Credit Suisse Group AG in Singapore. “Industrial production, government spending were a drag to the economy. Moving forward, C  A

BSP: No need to tweak rates to boost economy

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WARRIORS IN FINALS Stephen Curry had 26 points and eight rebounds, Harrison Barnes added 24 points and the Golden State Warriors advanced to the National Basketball Association Finals for the first time in 40 years.

The economy only grew 5.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015, the slowest since the last quarter of 2011, when the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.8 percent, and the government admitted it was largely due to its underspending.

“The slower-than-programmed pace of public spending, particularly the decline in public construction, has slowed down the overall growth of the economy,” Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said. “[Further] the recent uptick in disbursements from the Department of Budget and Management has not yet been reflected in the national

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| FRIDAY, MAY 29, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

STEPHEN CURRY and the Golden State Warriors will take on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals starting on June 4. AP

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INSIDE

HE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) ruled out on Thursday an easing of its monetary-policy stance, no matter the below-consensus output growth numbers in the first quarter, saying that there is enough liquidity in the financial system to support the continued expansion of the $272-billion economy.

“Economic growth in the first quarter of 2015 was modest. The BSP continues to see monetary policy as appropriate, given the continued

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 44.7250

growth in the economy and the good prospects for the rest of the year,” BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said in a text message.

“There is sufficient liquidity in the economy, while domestic credit remains supportive of growth. The BSP will continue to promote an enabling environment of stable prices and strong banking system,” he quickly added.

In recent months, several central banks in the region and around the world surprised markets by reducing interest rates to boost growth S “BSP,” A

MORE COMMUTING WOES A Metro Rail Transit (MRT) train makes its way through Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. Metro commuters will

have to endure more commuting woes, as funding for the MRT Line 7 project could be delayed by the ongoing tussle on where the common station will be situated, as conglomerate San Miguel Corp. said it cannot talk to funding agencies until the issue is resolved. NORIEL DE GUZMAN

Meralco has 5 reasons to hike 2015 capex

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HE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) may boost its capital expenditure (capex) for the year by some P1 billion in anticipation of more robust business in the months ahead.

“I think, for this year, we are probably looking at P13.5 billion and potentially up to P14.5 billion,” Meralco

President Oscar S. Reyes said.

In 2014 Meralco’s capex stood at P12.6 billion. Capex in the first three months this year totaled P3 billion.

The Meralco official explained that the additional budget was “directed at five things.”

“One, is continue to meet [the] growing number of customer accounts [which is] increasing at 4 percent to 5 percent per annum,” he said.

At end-March Meralco customers aggregated 5.63 million, up by 4 percent and buoyed by residential, commercial and industrial sale segments.

Residential customers, which account for 91 percent of its subscriber base, rose by almost 198,000.

“Number two, being able to respond to load growth and decrease in energy sales with more awareness S “M,” A

n JAPAN 0.3617 n UK 68.6887 n HK 5.7640 n CHINA 7.2121 n SINGAPORE 33.1027 n AUSTRALIA 34.4967 n EU 48.7816 n SAUDI ARABIA 11.9267 Source: BSP (28 May 2015)

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Friday, May 29, 2015

BlackBerry . . .

Continued from A8

“There’s too much value in the brand for it to go away. It has so many strong suits there and so many complements there,” he stressed.

He added that the company has been hiring employees in the areas “where it’s going” and has made a few acquisitions in the last months of companies to boost its services—a sure sign that BlackBerry isn’t going away anytime soon. The company bought Secusmart GmbH, a voice and data-encryption firm; and Movirtu, a virtual SIM solutions company in 2014.

In April BlackBerry also bought WatchDox Ltd., a company that made enterprise data sync and share apps.

The focus of the company’s marketing campaign for its devices in the Philippines are the “new power users,” he said, those who value productivity and security in their communications, whether it be voice, e-mail, or sharing of documents.

Other than its devices, BlackBerry is also looking forward to make more inroads on enterprises, where its software and services may be used across any mobile platform.

Three phones that will be sold in the Philippines is the newly launched Leap (P13,490), which the company considers as its “entry- level” phone for new professionals and junior executives; the BlackBerry Classic (P20,000), a throwback to its raised qwerty keyboard devices; and the Passport (P30,000).

Globe will be the first to launch the BB Leap, which features the latest 10.3.1 operating system, a 5-inch HD display and over 24 hours of battery life.

“With an all-touch screen, BlackBerry Leap rounds out our portfolio of BlackBerry 10 devices, offering an affordable choice to mobile professionals, who require a smartphone that safeguards sensitive communications and keeps them productive,” said Cameron Vernest, managing director, BlackBerry Philippines.

The company, likewise, announced an exclusive prepaid mobile Internet promotion with Globe, available to customers who buy a BB10 smartphone from MemoXpress.

Customers buying a new BB Leap are entitled to a free Globe prepaid SIM offering 700-MB mobile Internet per month for the first three months. The offer is also available to those who buy a BB Z3 smartphone. Those buying a BB Classic or Passport will be eligible for a free 1GB mobile Internet plan for the first two months.

BlackBerry reported a turnaround in its finances for the fourth quarter in 2014, surprising many analysts. It posted $28 million in profit, a reversal from $148-million net loss in the same period in 2013, and recorded a 20-percent increase in software revenue to $67 million. The company was founded in Waterloo, Ontario, in 1984 as Research in Motion.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Govt takes blame for poor Q1 growth. . .

I would be biased to look past this weakness. The macrofundamentals are intact and the Philippines compares more favorably to other Southeast Asian countries.”

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that public construction contracted 24.6 percent in the first quarter this year, from a growth of 17.5 percent in the same period in 2014.

Apart from the contraction in construction spending, the economy also suffered from a contraction in net exports of 1.8 percent. This was largely due to the slowdown in both exports and imports growth to 1 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.

On the production side, the agriculture sector only contributed 0.2 percentage points to GDP growth, despite posting a 1.6-percent expansion, higher than the 0.1-percent growth in the first quarter of 2014.

“Although its contribution is small, agriculture has a stronger impact because many people are employed in the agriculture sector,” Ateneo de Manila University economist Alvin Ang said.

He said the low growth in agriculture could lead to an increase in unemployment and/or underemployment in the farm sector. This may be observed in the April Labor Force Survey results to be released in June.

Meanwhile, data showed that industry posted a growth of 5.5 percent, which is higher than the 5.4 percent recorded in the same period last year.

The industry sector was boosted by Manufacturing, which contributed 4.2

percentage points to Industry’s growth for the first quarter this year.

The growth in manufacturing was boosted by the manufacture of the radio, television and communication equipment and apparatus, and production in basic metal industries.

However, usual top manufacturing industries, like food manufacturing and furniture and fixtures, posted slower growths at 0.8 percent and a contraction of 0.4 percent in the first quarter, respectively. “The exports have something to do with that [low manufacturing production growth in the first quarter],” National Economic and Development Authority Deputy Director General for Planning Emmanuel Esguerra said. “[But] the decline in imports came from minerals and oil, but the positive point there is the capital equipment are, in fact, double digits. That is an indication that the private sector is in a way still optimistic because that’s part of building capacity and because that is equivalent on a gamble on the future; that is indicative of a positive outlook,” Esguerra explained. This optimism, Balisacan said, is enough for the government to be confident that the economy can meet its growth targets for the year.

Balisacan said the government’s disbursement performance in the first quarter already points to a higher trajectory in government spending.

He added that the government is carefully monitoring the spending of its line agencies to ensure that funds are not only allocated but also disbursed.

This will ensure that the economy will

be able to post better growth in the succeeding quarters.

“If this disbursement trajectory is sustained and reflected in all government agencies, the higher government spending will fuel even more activities in the private sector and, thus, push economic growth in the next quarters of the year,” Balisacan said. Ang said this is possible, particularly in the third quarter. He estimated that the third quarter will be where the government’s spending will peak, based on the country’s previous experience under the Aquino administration.

However, he said, this increase in government spending will not be inflationary, or cause a sudden spike in inflation. He said 60 percent of the country’s economy is derived from spending and, if prices of basic commodities like rice remain stable, inflation will only stay within, or even below, 3 percent this year.

Balisacan added that there is still a lot of reason to celebrate a 5.2-percent GDP growth rate. He said, with this, the country’s average growth in the past five years is at 6.3 percent, the highest five-year average in 40 years.

“The growth performance in this quarter tells us that there are still issues that the government needs to confront in order to maintain the high level of confidence that the business sector is showing and entrusting the country,” Balisacan said. “We must keep in mind that the economic performance in the first five years of this administration remains the highest

Continued from A1

five-year growth average recorded by the country since the mid-1970s—a testament to the private-sector support for the governance and economic reforms that we have been implementing,” he added.

Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. he said attributed the slower-than-expected growth to “delays in actual disbursement of funds” that, he added, are “usually experienced at the start of the year.” According to Coloma, President Aquino had already order the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Transportation and Communications, Department of Educations, and Agriculture, and all other departments to accelerate the implementation of vital public infrastructure projects.

“Among these agencies it is noteworthy that the DPWH has posted the highest utilization rate of obligated appropriations,” Coloma pointed out.

He recalled that on March 30, Mr. Aquino issued Administrative Order 46 to address key institutional areas of improvement that were noted in the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) year-end 2014 disbursement report, specifically on planning and program/project design, procurement and program/project implementation bottlenecks. Coloma cited a DBM report that national government spending for the first quarter of 2015 was P504 billion, or 4.5 percent higher than the comparable 2014 disbursement level of P482.5 billion.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Palace: Senate free to correct BBL flaws

M

ALACAÑANG indicated on Thursday it need not mobilize Aquino administration allies dominating the 24-member Senate to reverse the position of 12 senators that the Palace-endorsed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) version submitted to Congress contained key provisions found to be “essentially unconstitutional.”

Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr., communications chief, assured that the Palace fully recognizes the separation of powers between the Executive and the lawmakers belonging to a co-equal branch of government.

“Their [senators] view was formed on the basis of the original draft BBL,” Coloma pointed out.

He added: “They are free to do what is needed to ensure that the law will pass constitutional scrutiny.”

Coloma’s clarification signaled a shift in the Palace position conveyed by officials earlier to pass the BBL as is, discouraging lawmakers from introducing amend-

ments that would tend to “water down” the proposed legislation creating a new entity for Muslims in Mindanao.

The Palace remains hopeful Congress leaders would fulfill their pledge to Mr. Aquino to pass the final version of the BBL before the Senate and the House adjourns for a monthlong recess in June, according to Coloma.

But the Senate committee hearing the BBL is not yet done with public hearings on the bill, which means deferment of Senate floor deliberations and further delay voting to pass the final version of the BBL before Congress adjourns on June 11, as earlier agreed by lawmakers.

Malacanang, however, has yet to signify readiness to convene Congress to an extended special session just to tackle the BBL, given Mr. Aquino’s approved timetable for installing officials of the new entity that would replace the soon-to-be-abolished Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Butch Fernandez

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Friday, May 29, 2015 A3

De Lima says lawmakers’ approval of antitrust bill done ‘in bad faith’

G

OVERNMENT prosecutors said on Thursday they are “gravely concerned” on the proposed measure that seeks to rein in monopolistic greed through an antitrust, or anticompetition, law.

“After a diligent comparative review rooted in global best practices and informed by the enforcement experience by the department, we sincerely believe that the present House Bill is designed to fail in its stated objectives and will, instead, crystallize the existing monopolistic and oligopolistic practices in the economy today,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said a letter to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte dated April 28.

De Lima’s letter came shortly before the House of Representatives formally approved on second reading its version of the anti-trust bill, which was subsequently passed on

third and final reading last week.

The anti-trust bill, now approved by both House and Senate, was supposed to check monopolistic behaviors and protect small businesses from being disadvantaged or bullied by bigger companies.

De Lima, likewise, took to task the House leadership for drastically altering the Malacañang version it sent to the Lower House, pursuant to a directive of President Aquino under Executive Order 45, which also created the DOJ-led Office of Competition (OFC).

She said changes to the Malacañang draft was “unilaterally made

without the requisite study and consultations”, thus undermining “the current competition regime under the OFC.” “The bill is also littered with terms and concepts that are not consistent with law and jurisprudence or not in accord with the tenets of competition policy and law,” she stressed.

Minority congressmen, led by Abakada Partylist Rep. Jonathan de La Cruz, had earlier said the “good faith” provision in the proposed Fair Competition Act of 2015 provides an “escape clause” for big companies, should they abuse their dominant position by running to the ground their smaller competitors in the guise of “acting in good faith.”

Both the House and the Senate versions provide that individuals and companies may resort to undercutting their competition, as long as it was done “in good faith.”

The House version even contains a new section not found in the Senate version called “Forbearance,” which allows any individual or company to apply for suspension of the applica-

tion of the law to dodge, among others, possible prosecution.

The Competition Commission, acting as the regulator, was also given expanded powers under the House version exposing its members to corruption and bribery.

De la Cruz has stressed that the good faith provision “has no place in an anti-competition act, just like what we are discussing right now.”

In the aftermath of the bill hurdling third and final reading, De La Cruz further said: “By ignoring the clear need to level the playing field and open up competition and fair play, the House has thrown away the opportunity to establish a culture of excellence innovation and entrepreneurship.”

“We are back to the corrosive monopolistic tendencies abetted by undue reliance on good faith,” he added.

Bicameral conference members from both the Lower House and the Senate are expected to sit down this week to reconcile the conflicting provisions of the two versions. Joel R. San Juan

Economy

A4 Friday, May 29, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Senators commit to pass economic Cha-cha in 16th Congress

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

T

he leadership of the House of Representatives has expressed confidence that the Senate will find time to pass the proposed amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, based on the commitment given by senators.

BELMONTE: “I was told by the Senate leadership that they can do it [passage of economic Cha-cha] this 16th Congress.”

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that even their counterparts in the Senate recognized that the passage of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 1, or the so-called economic Charter change (Cha-cha), will give the economy a big boost.

“I was told by the Senate leadership that they can do it [passage of economic Cha-cha] this 16th Congress,” he said.

The Joint Foreign Chamber of Commerce and Philippine business groups already expressed support for the passage of the economic Cha-cha.

Belmonte recalled that, during the 15th Congress, he also filed the economic Cha-cha, but the initiative failed to hurdle both Houses.

“In the 15th Congress, [former Senate President] JPE [Juan Ponce Enrile] and I wrote a letter to President Aquino asking for his support to our proposal [amending the Constitution]...in other words, a great constitutionalist, like JPE, agreed entirely with me. But the President wrote a memo and he said ‘I’ll have it studied.’ But the 15th Congress ended, we did not receive his study,” Belmonte said.

“And, in the 16th Congress, I refiled it again and Senate President [Franklin M.] Drilon is also in favor of it...that’s why I continued it,” he said.

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.

On Wednesday the House of Representatives approved on second reading the proposed amendments to the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.

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

“We need three-fourths [vote of 290 members] to pass this. So we have to time that [the passage of Cha-cha on final reading] within the next week, or before our sine die adjournment,” he said.

The amendments to the Chacha will be approved through separate votings by both chambers, with a three-fourths vote required from them.

No need for presidential approval

Even without President Aquino’s support, Belmonte said the lower chamber would still approve the economic Cha-cha on final reading.

“Remember this is a joint resolution of the House and the Senate and it does not require the approval of the President. Now, if the Senate, as they have been telling me, if they succeed in doing the same thing, then it will be a historical thing... the first time that it has ever been done,” he said.

Belmonte, an ally of President Aquino, said members of the lower chamber is an independent body and can approve his RBH 1 freely.

The Palace has repeatedly rejected the proposal amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution, which was ratified during the term of President Aquino’s mother, late-President Corazon Aquino.

school-opening rush

Many parents are now rushing to buy stuff for their children one week before the classes start, including the mother shown in the photo fitting a pair of black shoes on her daughter at a street shop in Divisoria. ALYSA SALEN

In June 2014 Mr. Aquino announced his stand against Chacha until 2016, saying the Congress is wasting time on Cha-cha.

RBH 1 seeks to amend certain economic provisions by inserting the phrase “unless, otherwise, provided by law” in Articles 12, 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

“The amendment would serve as the key to open the door for Congress to craft a law, in consultation with all concerned sectors of society, which would maximize the influx of foreign direct investments [FDIs] into the country without prejudice to national patrimony,” Belmonte said.

Currently, under Article 12 of the Constitution, 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.

The House leader underscored the indispensable role of trade and investments to economic development, which jump-start and sustain economic growth, while providing jobs essential to poverty alleviation.

Fair competition

Meanwhile, Belmonte said another important measure that needs to be passed is the proposed Philippine Fair Competition Act. “So far, in all the bills that already hurdled this 16th Congress, I think the fair competition bill is still the most important. It has been pending since the Eighth Congress,” he said.

According to Belmonte “FDI that the country may get [from the passage of the measure] can be translated into buildings, machineries, office, industries, jobs

and taxes payments for utilities and all other benefits that can be enjoyed by common people.”

Belmonte is also the main author of the proposed Philippine Fair Competition Act. “All we need now is to reconcile the version of the Senate and our version, and I am very confident that we can do that,” he said.

Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Trade and Industry and Liberal Party Rep. Anthony del Rosario of Davao del Norte has also expressed confidence that the two houses can reconcile their different versions of the measure.

Del Rosario, member of the bicameral committee, said their bicameral meeting for the measure is set on Tuesday next week.

The proposed fair competition act aims to minimize, if not totally eradicate, unfair competition, monopolies and cartels.

UNDP, DENR undertake new P352-M biodiversity project

I

N the lead-up to the World Environment Day on June 5 and to mark the Month of the Oceans this May, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Department of Environment and Natural ResourcesBiodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB) has launched a new partnership to help strengthen the protection, conservation and management of marine key biodiversity areas in the Philippines.

The Marine Key Biodiversity Areas (MKBA) Project, with a P352-million ($8-million) funding from the Global Environment Facility, will be implemented in five sites, namely, the Verde Island

Passage, Lanuza Bay, Davao Gulf, Southern Palawan and Tanon Strait.

The Philippines ranks third in terms of marine biodiversity in the world, and hosts a total of 464 reef-building coral species, or nearly half of all known coral species. The Philippine waters are estimated to harbor an estimated 10,000 species, or approximately one-fifth of all known species.

The country’s marine waters are also widely regarded by marine biologists as the epicenter of marine biodiversity—having 123 key marine biodiversity areas.

“We all know, however, that these are at significant risk threatened by over exploitation and unsustainable practices,” UNDP Philippines

Country Director Titon Mitra said at the launch. “The argument for conservation is not just about preserving natural beauty and diversity— the country’s biodiverse species also have significant income generating potential.”

“If biodiversity management becomes effective, it produces revenue, which, in turn, provides the financing for biodiversity management and then provides further impetus for enabling policies and practices for marine biodiversity. It can also provide for sustainable livelihoods for the coastal poor—encouraging them to conserve biodiversity,” Mitra added.

“Moreover, if the condition of the biodiversity of coastal

ecosystems are improved and enhanced, their contribution to resilience building of coastal communities to the effects of anthropogenic and natural pressures like climate change is better and their ability to provide ecological goods is increased.”

The five-year MKBA Project will assist in accelerating establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Marine Protected Area Networks (MPANs) to include more key marine biodiversity areas. The project will also help improve management effectiveness and financial sustainability of MPAs and MPANs and establish an enabling policy framework for marine biodiversity conservation.

The launch, held at the

Oakwood Premier Joy-Nostalg Center in Ortigas, Pasig City, was also attended by DENRBMB Executive Director Vincent Hilomen and DENR – BMB Director Theresa Mundita Lim. Also present were project partners, including National Fisheries Research and Development Institute of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Conservation International-Philippines, World Wildlife FundPhilippines, RARE Philippines, Haribon Foundation, FishBase Information and Research Group Inc., University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute, and the local government units in the involved sites.

Yard utilization at Manila ports down to 61%

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

he chief of the state-run port body claimed on Wednesday that Manila’s port logjam, which affected the whole country negatively last year, has now been solved.

Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) General Manager Juan C. Sta. Ana said the fruits of the joint efforts of the government and the private sector in eradicating the port congestion in the capital’s sea terminals are now evident. Yard utilization, he said, is at 61 percent as of Wednesday, half of the 121-percent utilization posted exactly a year ago.

“Currently, our ports have obviously improved, even compared to its precongestion level in February of last year,” he said. “By the end of this week, the yard-utilization level shall further decline.”

He admitted, however, that the country still lacks the needed road infrastructure to further spur economic growth and ease traffic in Manila.

“Regarding roads, access of trucks to and from the ports has, likewise, been reduced significantly, although not perfectly free flowing as all of us hoped,” Sta. Ana said.

He also appealed to stakeholders for them to continue their efforts in keeping the utilization level of the ports at about 70 percent, or the optimal range.

“After we have all worked together and discussed how to resolve and decongest our ports from exactly six months ago, I appeal to all of you to continue working together to reach stable market prices of goods and allow modest profit margins for the rest of the businesses,” the port chief said.

He added: “This is an opportune time to follow through on the actions and measures undertaken by different groups, organizations and departments or bureaus and to discuss interest with stakeholders who are members of different chambers, confederations, associations, servicing and benefitting from our ports.”

WTO launches dedicated web site for trade-facilitation agreement

T

he World Trade Organization (WTO) has launched a web site aimed at helping developing and least-developed countries (LDCs) access information about the tradefacilitation agreement facility (TFAF).

The TFAF is a previously launched program of the WTO for LDCs and developing economies to help them comply with commitments on the

Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) on a staggered pace.

Under the TFAF, the WTO will require members to implement the agreement according to their capacity. LDCs and developing countries are allowed to submit commitments on three levels: Category A, B and C. For LDCs, Category A commitments are those that can already be met one

year after the agreement comes into force. Commitments in the Category B are those that can be implemented after an agreed-upon transitional period after the entry into force of the agreement.

Category C commitments are those that can be met after assistance and support for capacity-building—and on a date to be determined in future—after the agreement comes into force.

The Philippines, Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal said, is looking to ratify the TFA by the deadline in July, after undergoing domestic processes. In view of this, the Philippines has submitted over 30 of the 40 commitments found in the TFA for Category A, signaling the country’s readiness to ease crossborder trade. Catherine N. Pillas

Economy BusinessMirror

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Friday, May 29, 2015 A5

Hunger persists in PHL despite significant progress in improving food production

13.7 million Filipinos likely to become undernourished–FAO

S

By Cai U. Ordinario

ome 13.7 million Filipinos will likely become undernourished by 2016, according to a report released by the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The FAO said undernourished Filipinos account for 13.5 percent of the country’s population. This, however, means that the country was only able to reduce 17.9 percent of the undernourished population since 1990.

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), signed in 2000, used baseline data from 1990 to measure a country’s performance in attaining the goals.

“For the country to achieve

social equity and sustainable development, hunger must be completely eradicated,” FAO Representative in the Philippines, José Luis Fernandez said.

The UN unit also said around 19 percent of Filipinos live on only $1.25 a day. This has contributed to the nutrition problem in the country.

However, the FAO said, the Philippines has made significant progress in improving food production

by earmarking P86.1 billion, or $1.9 billion, for the Agricultural Development Program in 2015.

The funding is being used to boost rice production and improve irrigation and drainage areas in the top 33 rice-producing provinces.

The program also strengthens credit ser vices, increases research and development, and funds the construction of farmto-market roads.

Further, around P6.02 billion, or $133 million, has been budgeted for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, a 28-percent increase, mainly for the construction of 252 fish landings.

Notwithstanding, according to the regional report, challenges still remain in addressing malnutrition caused by short-term inadequacy of food intake, with 33.6 percent of children under five stunted.

“The FAO remains strongly com-

mitted to support the Philippine government in its fight against hunger and malnutrition and in making economic growth inclusive and beneficial to the vulnerable segments of the population, particularly in the farming communities,” Fernandez said.

The report said the Asia Pacific, as a whole, has achieved the MDG hunger target (MDG-1c) of halving the proportion of undernourished people in 2015. However, there are still 490 million people in the region, or two-thirds of the world’s population, who suffer from chronic hunger.

While the report confirmed that the Asia and Pacific region has made some great strides in food security, achieving the largest reduction in the absolute number of undernourished people (236 million) and almost all countries now having adequate food supplies to meet people’s average dietary

needs, the region is sadly still home to almost 62 percent of the world’s undernourished.

Besides the calorie consumption deficit, the problem of undernutrition is also manifested in high rates of stunting in children below five years of age, while various micronutrient deficiencies prevail among people of all ages.

At the same time, the number of people who are overweight or obese is rapidly increasing in the region, especially in Southwest Pacific Island countries and middle-income countries of Asia. The report concluded that slow progress of many countries in the region was due to the rise of inequality and slow growth in agriculture, which continues to employ the poorest people and affords lower wages than industries or services.

Employment and livelihood security is also undermined by threats of natural disasters. More

often than not, those with limited resources and vulnerable livelihoods bear the brunt of natural disasters brought by changing climate conditions.

The MDGs are a set of eight goals, 22 quantitative targets and more than 60 specific indicators meant to serve as a focus for international and national development policy.

The goals are eight specific, measurable and time-bound goals anchored on eradicating poverty by 2015. These goals are to end extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; and reduce child mortality.

Other goals are to improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development.

A6 Friday, May 29, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Prepaid comes to the Philippines, finally

T

HE fact that it has taken government regulators so long to get near approving prepaid electricity distribution in the Philippines probably speaks volumes about how far we are behind the times.

By the same token, the fact that it is only in the last two years or so that the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) wanted to make this service available to its customers may say something about local business, too.

We are all familiar with prepaid services because of our cell phones. Prepaid cell phones brought that service to millions who could not afford or qualify for a postpaid subscription. More important, prepaid phones gave an alternative to consumers that did not want any sort of flat-rate-usage plan. It also gave parents the ability to limit phone-usage consumption for their children.

Prepaid electricity is common around the world. The United Kingdom has had prepaid for decades, the first being a box where coins were deposited to turn the electricity on. One every few months, someone would come and empty the coin box. From the United States to Jamaica and beyond to South Africa, prepaid electricity has been available for a long time.

Meralco is still waiting for the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to approve installation of a batch of 40,000 prepaid meters. Meralco has already applied for approval on 100,000 more. The company has budgeted tens of millions of pesos for the rollout.

Consumers need this additional choice. Proponents of prepaid say the consumption is lower because customers are more aware of their usage. Further, budgeting becomes easier, because you know exactly how much you are spending each time you need to reload your electricity account.

Meralco gains by reducing costs by a substantial amount, depending on the number of prepaid users. No more billing and no more expenses related to disconnection and reconnection. However, new meters must be purchased and there are other major infrastructure costs to implement the system.

There is, however, a potential downside for consumers. As with prepaidphone service, the charges are usually higher for prepaid electricity. This may be some of the concern that the ERC has discussed. In many locations in the US, prepaid electricity costs as much as 20 percent more than postpaid. The same is true in Jamaica, although for small users (under 100 kilowatt-hour), the rates are the same.

Nonetheless, this is a positive step to bring more choices to consumers and should be supported by the regulators. The government should encourage innovation in the delivery of goods and service. If the plan of Meralco to replace many postpaid users with this scheme fails, then it should be because the consumers reject prepaid, not because the government hinders this plan.

Notice me!

James Jimenez

I

spox

T’S not really surprising that a good number of advertisements have been coming out lately, extolling the qualities and character of those with aspirations for high office. After all, we’re only five months away from the period for the filing of certificates of candidacy and, well, the early bird gets the early worm, doesn’t it?

From a strictly legal—some would say technical—point of view, there really is nothing wrong with these advertisements. It’s a free country, after all, and any person with money to burn ought to be able to spend his hundreds of thousands on whatever vanity project he feels like taking on. That’s called free speech. Regardless of the obviousness of motives, as long as it isn’t hate speech and isn’t using up public funds, that freedom should be respected— even if it rankles.

Thankfully, there is a proposed legislation threatening to sweep away the technicalities by cutting through the legal fiction that makes premature campaigning neither premature, nor even an act of campaigning. But, as with all legislation, this will take a while. In the meantime, however, this is the reality we are stuck with: We know that these advertisements are premature campaigning—whether or not they contain the words “vote for me”—but

there’s really nothing the Commission on Elections can do.

Fortunately, this isn’t to say that everyone is powerless in the face of these aberrations.

Premature campaigning can be considered economic activity. As long as potential candidates feel that they will profit from these acts, they will keep doing it. For as long as there have been elections in the Philippines, premature campaigning has always been good for candidates. The sooner the candidate gets his face and name out there, the more he becomes embedded in the public’s memory; and the greater his recall value, the higher his chances of winning. If a candidate feels—whether rightly or wrongly—that he has won by this route once, he is almost 100-percent certain to do it again the next time he runs for office.

Clearly, if the activity ceases to be profitable—if the candidate loses, despite his premature campaign—there

is a better-than-average chance of the activity ceasing. This is where the voting public gets to flex its muscles. By rejecting candidates who shamelessly promote themselves well in advance of the official campaign period, the electorate can send the message that they won’t stand for this kind of wanton rule-breaking. Or, at least, that’s how it would work in theory.

In reality, however, the outrage needed to create this sort of backlash just doesn’t seem to be widespread enough.

For the most part, the people who are most vocal about their disgust at premature-campaigning practices can be found on social media. And these people are not even necessarily all voters.

The vast majority of the electorate— the people who vote for premature campaigners and are primarily responsible for creating the belief that premature exposure works—are either not active online or are not moved by click-based movements and campaigns.

Lacking any solid scientific basis but relying on my personal experience talking to voters everywhere, I would say that the number of outraged people online is fewer than the people who support the candidates, who campaign prematurely—the faithful who will say that they are against such practices but accept them as a necessary part of a successful campaign. In other words, the people will still vote for their candidates, regardless of the rule-breaking.

Sadly, even these two blocs of voters combined are greatly outnumbered

by the third bloc—the people who simply don’t care: the undecided, the unengaged, the apathetic. And that’s why the “don’t vote for premature campaigners” hasn’t actually worked as well as might be hoped.

Still, it is a tack we cannot give up on. We must keep on telling everyone who cares to listen that they should not condone these premature campaigning practices, in the hope that, one day, a critical mass will be reached and the strategy finally works.

On the upside, it seems that the freedom to run roughshod over campaigning rules might actually be contributing to that effort. As politicians grow ever more emboldened by the lack of dire consequences, their early offerings also become more flamboyant and more ubiquitous. Where we once only saw posters and streamers, we now see full-blown broadcast advertisements; where politicians once exerted at least some effort to have their premature campaigning fly under the radar, they now proudly wave their propaganda banners for all and sundry to see.

“Notice me! Notice me!”

With any sort of luck, things will get so ridiculous that even the indifferent might start taking notice and themselves become outraged. When that time comes, we can only hope that these politicians learn to regret their premature self-promoting ways.

James Arthur B. Jimenez is director of the Commission on Elections Education and Information Department.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, May 29, 2015

A7

Targeting a living wage Fernando T. Aldaba

EAGLE WATCH

T

HE labor market is a unique one, as the main product being sold, i.e. labor services, cannot be delinked from the one selling it—the human person. This is the reason the market price for the good, the wage is important as this will affect a person’s well-being and overall development. And, when the wage is too low and insufficient to cover the survival costs of a human, the government intervenes in the market by imposing minimum wage laws. The minimum wage has been the subject of numerous debates among economists and policy-makers on whether it has actually benefitted the workers that are typically targeted.

Anti-minimum wage advocates warn that whenever market wages are defied, unemployment may worsen, especially for the unskilled ones. Imposition of minimum wages would render small and medium enterprises to be uncompetitive and may result to closures and shutdowns. In addition, relatively high minimum wages would result to costpush inflation, as producers pass the cost increases to consumers. The end result would be rigidities in the labor market, which would eventually affect the performance of the goods market, especially in the global economy.

Pro-minimum wage supporters, like trade unions, argue that wages are important determinants of labor productivity. When wages are too meager, the health and nutrition of workers suffer and, thus, their ability to produce goods in an efficient manner. In addition, since workers comprise the majority of consumers in the market, very low wages also imply very weak demand for goods and services in the market economy.

While both sides have valid arguments for and against the minimum wage, a consensus remains to be seen.

Now comes the concept of a living wage.

A proposed bill by Senator Legarda defines the living wage as “the amount of family income needed to provide for the family’s food and non-food expenditures with sufficient allowance for savings/ investments for social security, so as to enable the family to live and maintain a decent standard of human existence beyond mere subsistence level, taking into account all of the family’s physiological, social and other needs.” In other words, the living wage is an ideal target for workers to enjoy a standard of living fit for human beings.

How does the living wage differ from the minimum wage? The minimum wage is mandated by law and, usually, is the subject of formal or informal negotiations among key stakeholders in a political economy process. For example, in the Philippines, the minimum wage in a region is set by a tripartite regional body composed of government, trade union and employer representatives. These key stakeholders try to determine a minimum wage based on the current cost of living, competitiveness of firms, inflation trends, the trajectory of the regional, national and global economies and other relevant economic indicators. However, the final minimum wage rate is actually determined by the current balance of power among the key players, although evidence and expert advice sometimes also sway the final decision on wage

levels. The living wage meanwhile is a human development standard or a wage goal for decent living that should be achieved by every worker. It is also based on the actual needs of a human person. Thus, more often than not, the living wage exceeds the minimum wage.

While the living wage is usually seen from a moral and human-rights perspective, there is also an economic rationale for the living wage. Workers must be treated as “human capital”. And, just like with physical capital, you also need investments for human capital. Thus, it is important for government to provide basic-quality education for its citizens so that they will be equipped with skills that are marketable in the labor market.

Note that, in a developing country context, government support for education through the public school system may not always be enough. Thus, educational expenditures are still important components of the living wage.

Health and nutrition are the other essential elements for human capital.

Healthier workers are definitely more productive. In countries with significant malnourishment, raising workers’ caloric intake raises productivity. Concrete examples include that of South Korea and Great Britain. Over 1962-95, caloric consumption increased by 44 percent in S. Korea, and economic expansion during that time was remarkable. Nobel prize winner and economic historian Robert Fogel, in his research, showed that 30 percent of Great Britain’s growth from 1790-1980 was due to improved nutrition.

Thus, targeting a living wage has been the advocacy of local governments in different areas and regions in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand and of global trade unions in sectors like the garments industry. The International Labor Organization has also commissioned studies to refine methodologies in the estimation of the living wage.

Some companies have also become interested in the concept because they saw this as fully aligned with their promotion of corporate social responsibility. Given the Philippine government’s thrust of inclusive growth, maybe it is time for various stakeholders to revisit the Filipino living wage as a real target for our workers in the production and services sectors.

Fernando T. Aldaba is Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professor of Economics, Ateneo de Manila University, and a Senior Fellow of Eagle Watch, the university’s macroeconomic and forecasting unit.

The anthropology of the elderly

BLOOMBERG VIEW

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cornerstone of President Park Geun Hye’s drive to make South Korea more innovative is reining in the familyowned conglomerates, or chaebol, that have towered over the national economy. Unfortunately, the biggest one seems not to have gotten the memo.

Samsung heir apparent Lee Jae Yong is tightening his family’s control over an empire that generates the equivalent of 25 percent of Korean gross domestic product. With family patriarch Lee Kun Hee still recuperating from the heart attack he suffered a year ago, the younger Lee has been making acquisitions, meeting with leaders from China’s Xi Jinping

to Apple’s Tim Cook, and replacing his dad as “chairman” of two charitable foundations (the first time he’s taken the title within the Samsung universe). The latest turn of the vise was a $9.4-billion purchase of the construction subsidiary Samsung C&T by Cheil Industries, the family’s de facto holding company, which counts Lee as the largest shareholder.

memories and do a kind of content analysis. I am being social-scientific.

The late bilingual expert Dr. Emy Pascasio asked me where I got the term “social-scientific.” That does not exist, she blared. I soon found out it was from a “social-scientific” paper. I am now counting the number of times my mother talks about something in the past. I am not merely being qualitative, I remember another mentor, the late Dr. Willy Arce who taught me how to describe but also not to shirk from counting. Willy also told me I need not go to far-out places because I could study my own village and kin. I remember Emy and Willy because, you see, we are like the Inuits and other tribes: When they fish in winter, a most difficult feat, they seek the strength of their ancestors. This research is like fishing in the dead of winter.

It is too early to form conclusions from my cursory research. The only conclusion I can make now is that ancient prayers can calm down old mothers. I have tentative generalization about how a warm embrace, especially those that come unexpected from an impatient son, works better than any anti-depressant.

I am not anymore irritated with Mama saying over and over those stories. I am using her remembrances to study how the elderly cope with short-term memory and the loss of friends and places. I listen for variants and compose the structure of her mind’s recollections.

managed in a way that puts them at odds with shareholders. What traders want from Samsung is a steadily rising stock price. But Lee Kun Hee’s kids have shown they mostly have their own interests in mind: They have been maneuvering for a bigger take of profits to help them pay the tax bill when they inherit their father’s assets, which is expected to amount to roughly $6 billion. If shareholders were wise, they would explicitly demand that the next leader of Samsung not be a Lee family scion.

But, in the absence of shareholder pressure, Park needs to make good on her pledges to take Korea’s corporate behemoths down a peg. The economic system her father, former South Korean dictator Park Chunghee, created is now at the same watershed Japan reached in the 1990s and China is approaching—the moment a nation that rode an investmentand-exports model out of poverty

must plot a new course.

Park won the 2012 election promising “economic democratization” as a replacement for her father’s empowerment of a handful of national champions. Those companies’ scale and political connections, she argued, were hobbling the small-tomidsize sector that had the potential to produce a domestic Google or Alibaba. The outsized importance of the chaebol also distorts the countries’ labor markets, because the widespread desire among Koreans to work for a safe household name has starved startups of talent.

Hence Park’s desire to build a “creative economy.” In October 2012, during her campaign, Park said “small and medium-sized enterprises, independent shop owners, the self-employed must all support the ecosystem and nurture it to growth.

Nobody should fall behind because of an unfair structure.” Unfortunately,

since winning the presidency, Park has mostly stayed silent as the chaebol deepened that unfair structure.

It’s not too late for Park to live up to her earlier rhetoric. She can start by taxing the roughly $2 trillion of cash sitting on company balance sheets if the families running them refuse to share it with workers or invest in new businesses. Next, she should significantly increase fines for conglomerates that violate fairtrade laws and untangle the corporate cross-shareholding plans that reduce competition in the economy.

Also, she should devise new antitrust measures to disrupt the country’s vast web of corporate affiliates, which families have used to cement their control over companies.

Park obviously knows what needs to be done, but it’s not clear what she’s waiting for. As the ongoing intrigue at Samsung demonstrates, there’s not a moment to waste.

Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

M

Y mother turned 89 last March. In the morning of April 7, she had a bad fall.

She fractured her left arm and hurt her left eye. The arm was cast and an eye doctor advised for an enucleation—the removal of an eye—after two days. The doctor decided there would be no medical intervention as regards my mother’s eye.

She was released after three days.

We secured a young woman to be always beside her. We call this young woman her caregiver, which is an exaggeration because all she does is to look at my mother when she wakes up and moves around the room. Even then, it helps that someone is physically around her.

There are days when people at home start to leave and I see my mother becoming frantic. “Who will be with me?”

At night, things get worse. She hears knocking at the door. She confides how during nights when her legs bother her, she feels someone touching her. She would ask her caregiver to wake me up to tell me she has difficulty sleeping. This was before we brought her to a doctor, who specializes in the afflictions of the elderly. I am not always the ideal son. Sometimes, we go into a long discussion about her medicine. My mother reads the literature in the

Samsung’s ruling family tightens its grip William Pesek

box of each medicine and she creates the most difficult and irritating questions out of the medical terms she could understand.

One time, in one of her anxiety attacks, I thought of embracing her. Soon, she was calm and almost asleep on my shoulder. The next evenings, with the phantom knocking on the windows getting stronger, I asked my mother to pray all the prayers that she had memorized.

I recited with her my favorite, Hail Holy Queen. I love the supplications in this prayer: To Thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. And after this our exile. For someone who declares himself always as not prayerful, I found the prayers working better for my mother. She calms down and not only that, she gets to sleep soon.

My mother is physically well now. Last month, we went to her orthopaedic doctor, who removed

the cast around the upper part of her left arm. When we reached home, she was very quiet. At night, I woke up with her standing above me angry and puzzled that her arm was covered with that heavy cast. I told her that had been there for a month already.

She asks me each day when the cast will be fully removed. I tell her May 8. After a few minutes, she will ask the same questions again. I am not a good son and these repeated queries make me really impatient.

But I persist and answer her to the best of my calmness.

An aunt from the distant island of Ticao visited us this week. She had sweet candies made from sweet potato, dried squid and assorted stories about kin and friends. This aunt also had death notices with her gossip. My mom found out from this cousin that the last of her two living friends had passed away. My mother did not cry. She merely smiled and started reminiscing her days with this friend and the other friends of her youth.

The day after that visit, my mother could not sleep. She started talking about the island. As I write this, she is talking about her dear friend who passed away, she was beautiful and she was married to the priest in the town. She repeats the story. She inserts between older memories the more recent ones. She talks of the only friend living. There are just two of us, she tells us.

I am not a good son but I am a good researcher. I listen to my mother’s

Samsung will claim that the Cheil-Samsung C&T maneuver was designed to simplify the company’s organizational chart, and, thus, make its dealings more transparent.

But the company’s restructuring has been designed mostly to enrich the Lee family, not advance Park’s economic agenda. Lee has shown that the families who dominate Korea’s largest companies, and view them as their birthright, can’t be trusted to reform themselves. There’s little doubt that chaebol need to play a smaller role in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy. From the outside, Korea might seem to be on a roll, with 2.4-percent growth, a 3.7 percent jobless rate and a healthy export sector (Samsung’s Galaxy phone is now outselling Apple’s iPhone). But the chaebols’ success isn’t trickling down to Korean households. Salaries have been stagnant and economic confidence is low.

The chaebol are also increasingly

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Friday, May 29, 2015

Razon-led ICTSI acquires Maritima for $54.5 million

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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AZON-LED International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has acquired a Mexican port concessionaire for $54.5 million to expand its offshore business portfolio and to gain from the robust growth of the Latin American economy.

In a filing to the stock exchange, the listed Filipino firm said it acquired Maritima de Tuxpan, SA de CV—the company with a concession to construct and operate a maritime container terminal in the Port of Tuxpan in Mexico—from Grupo TMM, S.A.B. and Inmobi-liaria TMM, SA de C.V. The transaction involved the purchase of 100-percent capital stock in Maritima de Tuxpan for $369.02 per share.Maritima de Tuxpan is the owner of the real estate where the maritime container terminal will be constructed.

“The rationale for the transaction is to continue to expand the business and diversify geographically, and to support, participate in, and benefit from, the positive economic development in Mexico,” the filing read.

T he project is ex pected to increase ICTSI’s consolidated

throughput and revenue, and positively contribute to the financial performance of the company, the disclosure read further.

The listed port operator booked a 3-percent rise in its bottom line to $54 million in the first quarter of 2015, driven by continued margin improvement of its offshore subsidiaries.

Revenues rose by 19 percent to $296.1 million, as throughput grew by 13 percent to 1.98 million twentyfoot equivalent units, while consolidated cash operating expenses rose by 11 percent to $119.7 million.

The company has hiked this year’s capital requirements by almost double to bankroll the completion of its offshore terminals and for the capacity expansion of its flagship port in Manila. The $530-million capital expenditures will be used mainly to finish the construction works in Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It will also be used to start the development of the new terminals in Iraq and Australia, as well as the expansion of its ports in the Philippines.

ICTSI is the largest port operator in the Philippines, which has operations in more than 20 countries across the Asia Pacific, the Americas, and Europe, Middle East and Africa.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PHL to use bilateral FTAs as passes for US-led TPP

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By Catherine N. Pillas

he Philippines has set its sights on forging bilateral free-trade agreements (FTAs) with countries currently included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

This is to increase the country’s chances of being invited to the TPP shoud it decide to enter the broader, more demanding emerging trade grouping in the future, Trade Undersecretary for Industry Development and Trade Policy Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said.

He said the Philippines already conducted bilateral talks with Mexico, Canada, Peru and Chile—all TPP members—at the recently concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting in Boracay. “ We are open to expanding our network of preferential FTA to strengthen our trade and export potential.

We are open to explore these other bilateral agreements,” said Cristobal during a media brief-

CRISTOBAL: “We are open to expanding our network of preferential FTA [free-trade agreement] to strengthen our trade and export potential. We are open to explore these other bilateral agreements.”

ing at the Board of Investments on Wednesday.

T he cou nt r y i s e ye i n g to strengthen agreements on foreign- investment protection with Canada and Mexico, as well.

Cristobal said by leveraging on its Apec membership and engaging in bilateral FTAs with the TPP members, the Philippines will have a better chance of being included in the US-led trade grouping.

“Eventually, if we do enter TPP, it already helps if we have bilateral engagements; so it’s part of our diligent preparation. We already know what they want and what we require,” Cristobal added.

The move to engage in bilateral FTAs can also be seen as a logical step for the Philippines if it does not meet the high standards of the TPP when it opens its membership to other countries.

TPP countries have mentioned time

and again the ambitious nature of the 12-country trade bloc.

They say as a modern trade agreement, it is expected to include “behind-the-border” trade issues such as intellectual-property right protection.

“Regardless of regional [agreements], we are going to pursue the bilaterals,” he said.

Aside from TPP member-countries, South Africa and Turkey also expressed interest in starting FTA talks with the Philippines, he added.

These bilateral talks were only initiated during the Apec meetings and, as such, are all still in the exploratory stage. Cristobal, however, said the interest of the Philippines for these bilateral pacts is strong.

The Department of Trade and Industry continues to express interest in the TPP even if the negotiations are now closed to new members.

BLACKBERRY TO RECOVER PHILIPPINE MARKET SHARE

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo

Special to the BusinessMirror

B

LACKBERY Ltd., the company that revolutionized smartphone for professionals and enterprises, is bent on reviving its market share in the Philippines.

In an interview with Nicholas Mastroianni, BlackBerry regional head of channels and distribution for Asia Pacific, he said the company has tied up with the leading carriers in the country—Smart Communication and Globe Telecom—to offer its phones under postpaid plans.

He added that the company will also be selling open-line phones through its exclusive distributor MemoXpress, a leading cell-phone retailer that has a wide network of stores nationwide.

These partnerships and distribution channels will“hopefully see our

BSP. . .

business double than last year’s,” or about 40 percent, across devices, enterprise solutions and special services.

He said the company’s business in the Philippines grew by 20 percent to 30 percent in the first quarter of 2015 over last year’s, although he declined to reveal total sales of devices and services.

“We’re doing a multipronged approach in the Philippines both by carrier, open distribution and Web. Web seems to have the best reach in the market, so we are actively going on things like we’re advertising on the social platforms, you’re seeing us on e-trading sites and working with bloggers and tech people. Our biggest challenge is to show the OS [operating system] works, it has an ecosystem, it has progressed. We have our partnership with MemoXpress, where we trained the frontliners

staffed, educated and trained on the selling points of the OS and the device.”

BlackBerry prides itself as being the most secure mobile device in the market, such that heads of state, like US President Barack Obama, continue to use it, as well as the military and transport services.

But slick marketing and innovative designs by other smartphone makers, like Apple and Samsung, have slowly chipped at BlackBerry’s market leadership worldwide.

Mastroianni also dismisses death knells for BlackBerry, probably Canada’s flagship brand and best export. Recent news reports have it that the company would be sold to Microsoft. The company has also laid off an unspecified number of employees across the devices, software and phone apps departments.

See “BlackBerry,” A2

Continued from A1

in their respective jurisdictions.

The series of monetary easing across more than 20 economies worldwide helped feed the notion the BSP will follow suit and reduce the rate at which it borrows from or lends to the various lenders.

But BSP officials and private economists have maintained the country’s economic expansion remained strong and does not need additional stimulus from the BSP. The 5.2-percent performance in the first quarter was the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2011, and blamed on the government’s feeble spending

Meralco. . .

and weak exports. But Tetangco said the economy should bounce back in the succeeding months: “There are developments on the ground, however, that should boost economic performance going forward.”

He particularly said that on the production side, government initiatives to mitigate the El Niño weather disturbance could push agricultural output past its first-quarter performance of just 1.6 percent.

“The higher inflows of foreign direct investment associated with the liberalized entry of foreign banks and their indigenous corpo-

rate investors should boost industry, particularly manufacturing and construction,” Tetangco said.

He also said sustained growth in remittances should remain supportive of domestic consumption on the demand side.

The BSP governor also remained optimistic that public spending will pick up in the next three quarters, translating to higher economic growth down the line.

“The BSP will continue to promote an enabling environment of stable prices and strong banking system,” Tetangco said.

Continued from A1

of customers. Sales sort of moderated but we want to be ready. Meralco has been actively promoting energysaving measures since the government announced it was anticipating a supply shortage in Luzon this summer,” he said.

“Number three, we want to ensure that our facilities are hardened to be able to cope with the new normal in terms of typhoons.

We are now seeing a potential of 285 kilometer-per-hour of strong winds,” Reyes said. This means that Meralco posts are bet-

ter equipped to withstand strong tropical storms.

“Number four, ensuring that our facilities are upgraded in terms of safety and resiliency for the benefit of customers and the public,” the Meralco official added.

The larger capex should also support the power distributor’s prepaid retail service.

Meralco has so far received 20,000 applications for its prepaid retail electric service (PRES). The service will be initially available in some parts of Manila, Cainta, Que-

zon City, San Juan, Caloocan, Pasig and Cavite.

Meralco is authorized to install up to 40,000 prepaid meters this year for its PRES. It has a pending application to install an additional 100,000 meters in 2016.

“And then a few things like prepaid retail electricity service, which has been very exciting for the customers because it enables them to have real-time information on consumption and manage their own electricity spending,” Reyes said.