BusinessMirror June 4, 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 Saturday 18, June 2014 4, Vol.2015 10 No. 40 Thursday, Vol. 10 No. 238

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PROPOSED CATASTROPHE POOL TO PROVIDE PRIVATE PROPERTIES MANDATORY INSURANCE COVERAGE IN DISASTER CASES

IC endorses EO on insurance ‘cat-pool’

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INSIDE

HE Insurance Commission (IC) has endorsed a proposal for a mandatory national catastrophe-insurance pool that will protect Filipinos against natural disasters and other causes of property losses, as part of the President’s “legacy” when he leaves office in 2016.

CAMSUR PRINTS Try God

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F we need a refuge, try God. If we need a true answer, try God. If we need a healer, try God. If we need a break through, try God. If we need a real friend, try God. If we need peace and joy, try God. There is nothing He can’t do. Amen.

GOD FRUITS.COM AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

REELING: INCREDIBLE, BUT THESE ‘BARBER’S TALES’ ARE TRUE »D2

BusinessMirror

JA TADENA

Thursday, June 4, 2015

D1

RAYMUND ISAAC

The wonders of CamSur go to print

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B V V

KNOW of a photographer who’d rather get marooned on some temptation island with a really basic toy camera than get stuck with Kendall Jenner in the studio for the rest of his life. Me? I want to take Kendall to that magical island and just canoodle there, al fresco, forever and ever amen. In other words, is he out of his frigging mind?

But I have come to understand that he’s not a lonely lunatic after all, especially after he revealed that the magical place in question was the collectively known Caramoan Islands, the tip of the iceberg that is the nowgetting-all-the-more-famous Camarines Sur in Bicol.

I had been to Caramoan as a tot and I remember pulling at my father’s shorts and telling him that I’d go back and marry Caramoan when I grow up.

Fifteen-odd years later, I chanced upon poignant photographs at the pedestal in Bonifacio Global City by lensmen Raymund Isaac and Erik Liongoren of the

JUN DE LEON

maiden and I fell in love a second time.

The set of photographs was part of 24/7/7 24/7/7, a seven-part photo exhibit and coffee-table book featuring Camarines Sur that was a brainchild of acclaimed photographer Jun de Leon and Camarines Sur Gov. Miguel “Migz” Villafuerte, dropping seven photographers in seven different locations to compose their visual poetry on the province’s postcard landscape, seascape and peoplescape in 24 hours.

“The idea was to showcase Camarines Sur’s people and places through a photography initiative that hasn’t been done,” Villafuerte said. “Luckily, we had Jun de Leon, who had an interesting concept and friends who were willing to take it on.”

The roster of seven acclaimed photographers included—besides Isaac, Liongoren and de Leon himself—Wig Tysmans, JA Tadeña, Jake Verzosa and Sara Black, all framing Camarines Sur onto a kind of a now-they-move-now-they-don’t photography, like the view you have from your airplane window of the

boats in the sea momentarily stalling into a picturesque standstill when you ascend 17,000 feet in the air.

The photographers were alien to the concept, which, de Leon said, was inspired by the television series 24. “It made use of narration techniques via real-time footage and split screens to show simultaneous events.”

Through the eyes of Isaac and Liongoren, the ever bucolic and lonely Caramoan took an amorphous form in the nostalgic images in Sabitang Laya, Langkipaw, Matalhod, Mantalistis and then some nook and cranny populated by the island dwellers.

Meanwhile, bringing the poetic feel of Lake Buhi to the fore, Tysmans (“Lesson From Life in Lake Buhi”) captured Lake Buhi, the fisherfolk and a barangay beauty queen the way a poet might in his meandering verses.

Black’s (“Call of the Wild”) Mount Isarog trek and a dip in the Asupre Sulfur Spring yielded wallpapermaterial mugshots of nature and rolling mountains.

Meanwhile, Verzosa (“Of Basketball Courts, a Motorbike and One Majestic Mountain”) explored through the same mountain on a motorbike, painting pictures of the barangays of Mount Isarog which, despite its reclusive mountain, are not bereft of basketball courts.

Like a romantic bard or a merchant in Venice, cinematographer-slash-photographer Tadeña (“Treasures From the River”) waxed poetic over the Bicol River, obviously feeling a close affinity with it. On the other hand, de Leon’s photography and wakeboarding mettle came together in the Camarines Sur Watersports Complex (CWC), producing pictures that captured the frisson in CWC at different times of the day.

“It’s really just about pursuing our passion and, in the process, helping promote Philippine tourism,” de leon said, milling about and letting themselves go wherever all this beauty in the world might take them. The whole point of travel, after all, is to be lost in the way.

ERIK LIONGOREN

Fun adventure, food trip at Sky Ranch THERE was a time when a trip to Tagaytay City meant having a picnic by the ridge as you soak up on the wonderful view of Taal Volcano while having lunch. It was a chance to take advantage of daylong cool weather, and some horseback-riding at a nearby park.

At the end of the day, pasalubong shopping included not only buko pie and tarts, but also fresh vegetables and garden plants

from the roadside stalls that line the highway on the way home.

Nowadays, a trip to Tagaytay means a trip to Sky Ranch, the 5-hectare amusement park managed by SM Prime Holdings Inc. Beside historic Taal Vista Hotel, this theme park in the sky has become one of the popular attractions families and groups must experience when they hie off to this leisure destination south of Metro Manila.

Since it opened in late 2013, Sky Ranch has become a popular destination not only for travelers from Manila, but also from the nearby provinces of Cavite, Batangas and Laguna. The park is quite popular among schools that visit Tagaytay City on field trips, as well as families driving from nearby provinces on an excursion.

To date, Sky Ranch boasts a number of attractions. The 63-meter tall Sky Eye is the park’s main landmark, towering over other park rides. Riding one of the gondolas of this mammoth Ferris wheel provides guests with

magnificent views of Tagaytay Ridge and Taal Volcano. Other must-ride park attractions include Sky Viking, an open gondola that swings riders up to a 90-degree angle for an action-packed ride; the Zipline that hurls you across a 300-meter drop by the ridge; the double-decker Carousel; and the Riding Loop horseback riding track.

While most of the park rides are geared toward children, six more attractions that are intended for adults are expected to be made available by the end of 2015.

One attraction, the Log Cruiser, a logthemed roller coaster, is set to be operational

by September. Apart from its attractions, Sky Ranch is fast-becoming a popular foodie destination with its wide selection of dining options, from fast-food and casual dining restaurants to family-style outlets.

Whatever the craving, there is a restaurant to satisfy your appetite. Sky Ranch is beside Taal Vista Hotel, Kilometer 60, Aguinaldo Highway, Tagaytay City.

LIFE

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‘BARBER’S TALES’ D2

Show BusinessMirror

Thursday, June 4, 2015

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Incredible, but these ‘Barber’s Tales’ are true ECONOMY of means and gesture is the discipline of Eugene Domingo as the barber who makes the final cut. She is terrific in her restraint in Barber’s Tales.

REELING

TITO GENOVA VALIENTE

titovaliente@yahoo.com

“After all, I believe that legends and myths are largely made of ‘truth,’ and, indeed, present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode; and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must always reappear.”

—J.R.R. T

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VILLAGE locked deep in a valley is going to be visited by the dictator. In that place, its lone barber has died in his sleep. Despondent, his wife takes over and becomes the prominent barber in town. Somewhere, a woman is lovely and depressed.

Somewhere, a wife is battered and made pregnant by her cruel husband.

Tales abound in Jun Lana’s Barber’s Tales. You can tell the tales and retell them, put them in any position and yet the world makes sense. The reason for this is that these stories deserve their validity not through histories but through a composition that shades the border between fantasy and political commentary.

In Barber’s Tales, the small tales are true but somewhere in these tales are other tales, unyielding to our common notion of what is factual and what is fictive. In the town, the location of which always comes with the reminder of its isolation, the barber shop is where all people converge. Jose is the barber but he is no raconteur. The tales come from other people and the events these people find themselves part of.

Jose is stern with his wife, who serves him like he is the true master of the house. Jose is the master barber to this wife who apprentices also in her husband’s craft.

Jose, however, is also the master in this marriage where the wife is servile and scared. There is no love in the husband’s voice when he asks something from the wife.

The house reeks of tension. We fear for the safety of this

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Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS IS DA DAY: Bar Refaeli,

30; Russell Brand, 40; Angelina Jolie, 40; Noah Wyle, 44.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: DA You may have to rethink DAY:

your financial strategy and the motives behind your long-range plans. Getting involved with the wrong people or taking part in a joint venture for reasons that are not sound are best avoided.

Work independently and put greater emphasis on your strengths. Discipline and hard work will be your tickets to success, not riding someone else’s coattails. Your numbers are 7, 13, 17, 20, 27, 35, 44.

woman in her own home.

When Jose dies, we are left to contend with Marilou, a widow who seems to have nowhere to go, until she decides to be the next barber in town. She tries first with the good priest who is satisfied with her style. The other men would not trust a woman with their hair. One day, she is asked to see the mayor who learns about her skills gained from her husband. The mayor is happy with the haircut and soon there are customers in the old barber shop. Interesting that the mayor, all chauvinism and power, will trust a woman to cut his hair. In Barber’s Tales, as in the so-called kuwentong barbero, the term for the gossip shared, as well as ribald jokes, the tales are caught in between the real and the unreal. The stories in barber shops are usually an all-male assault at society and the women who weaken all communities with their femaleness.

The narrative of the film saves it from being merely fabular or metaphorical. The film does not dwell on the metaphor of communities fooled by their leaders who hide from them the truth of an ugly government. There are characters who are well aware of the fairy tales spun by a vicious king and an insane queen in the palace.

These characters like the young student Edmund, who quits his studies to join the revolution in the mountains.

He is able to gather more men and they talk about truth in the barber shop, the place where lies and life’s exaggerations are constructed.

Then one day, Edmund disappears . Then one day, a beloved person in the villlage is killed.

The character of Marilou is not at the center of the tales, for there are so many tales. But her barber shop and her conversion from an almost dumb woman to a popular barber are, in themselves, containing the true elements of a barber’s tale. Contentious and charming, the story of Marilou is a wonder to read. As played by Eugene Domingo, the character is almost catatonic in her coping with the loss of a man, the same loss of which produces her presence. But there is a terrifying strength in those resigned postures, in that nonconfrontational stance. We know that this woman will either break down or break out of the village, and break out she does—but not in the grand, sweeping Greek manner but in the firm and ordinary stroke of a barber’s knife.

Marilou’s journey from someone who does not believe in the revolution and fighting for social upheaval is one of the staunchest elements of the film’s screenplay.

It is a slow, gradual awakening and deaths are the source of life in this woman’s rebirth into a new ideology.

Marilou asks Edmund to remain a good son to her

friend, for that is all that she knows. The home, after the school, is the best place for sons, declares this woman timid as a woman for a long time. But the village has a silence that will not last long. As the killings of people continue, Marilou provides refuge for the “rebels.”

Marilou meets up with the mayor’s wife who confides to her all her pains.

Up there on the cliff, Marilou witnesses the full descent of a woman into hell, a turning point for the barber to tell her own barber’s tales.

As the only barber—perhaps the only female barber in the area—vanishes, varied stories are told about her whereabouts. Rashomonesque only up to a point, the disappearance of the barber is soon explained in a tour-de-force scene at the end where religion, society, violence, and politics are almost textbook titles of what a small community has become. A procession is held and the military is on alert to look for a long-haired woman.

But the woman are also on full alert to save other women. They all change their hair! The barber, his tale and his craft, becomes a sumptuous polysemic symbol of what women can do when they band together and refuse to be seen in the graven images made after men.

Barber’s Tales is a woman’s film only insofar as the wise moves made by the women in this film. This brings us to the actresses who play the lead characters in the film. Shamaine Buencamino is Tess, the aunt who placed all her trust and future in her nephew. Acerbic and territorial, Buencamino bristles with an indignation that is soon realized into knowledge. Once more, Gladys Reyes is proving herself to be the next promising indie actress, if we may have that category. Nearly stealing the scene from Allen Dizon in Magkakabaung Magkakabaung, Reyes here is all at once intense and simple as a battered wife.

Economy of means and gesture is the discipline of Domingo as the barber who makes the final cut. She is terrific in her restraint. The theatricality in those pauses and glances is justified by the air emitted by the scenes in sepia and nostalgia: Marilou is memory and Memorare, a prayer and a political move, in the body, hands and eyes of Domingo.

The film is directed by Jun Robles Lana. The screenplay is attributed to Lana, Peter Ong Lim, Elmer Gatchalian and Benedict Mique. The carnivalesque and claustrophobia of the film are through the keen cinematography by Carlo Mendoza and the astute production design by Chito Sumera. The film is released through APT Entertainment. n

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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Keep your costs down. Use your intelligence to get the most for your money. A change in a relationship will turn out to be good for you. Keep your emotions under control and bide your time when dealing with family disputes. HH

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e

h

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LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Your generosity will be repaid. Offer your services where you feel they will help the most. You will make a lasting impression on someone who can help you get ahead. Strive for perfection and you will outshine any competition you encounter. HHH

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Refuse to let a work-related matter cause emotional stress. Consider what you can do to improve your situation. Taking care of problems in a professional manner will help you outshine whomever is causing you grief. HH

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Check out new entertainment options.

Spend time with friends or make family plans. A day trip will lead to information that will spark your imagination. Romance will bring you closer to someone you think is pretty special. HHHHH GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Homeimprovement projects or moving to larger quarters will allow you greater freedom to take on creative pastimes. Use your charm to convince someone to lend a hand.

Call in a favor that will help to enhance what you have to offer. HHH

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Emotional blackmail will lead to uncertainty. Don’t hide your feelings if someone is unfair. Accept inevitable changes and keep moving forward. In the end, you will end up benefiting if you play by the rules and continue to be productive. HHH

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Close deals and finish what you start. A decision you make will not bode well with everyone. Network and you will find compatible partners who share your ideas and beliefs. Take responsibility for your actions and do your own thing. HHHHH

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You’ll have to think on your feet. Refuse to let someone’s emotions stifle a plan you have had in the works for some time. The information someone offers will be false. Keep things in perspective, ask questions and protect your assets. HHH

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Money matters will lead to arguments due to poor information or false advertising. Focus on personal projects and you will feel good about your accomplishments at the end of the day.

Prioritize what’s important to you. HHHH

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Speak up, share your thoughts and be a part of the planning that goes on regarding your job and your personal life. What you contribute will give you an edge that will help you excel personally and professionally. HHH

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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Take a look at what someone has to offer you. A chance to change your direction or improve your position is apparent.

Don’t dismiss making a move to a new location.

A partnership will offer adventure and plenty of experience. HHH

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Get serious about what you want to do next. Investigate what will help you follow through with your plans. Set time aside for personal pampering or get together with someone special. HHHH

BIRTHDAY DAY BABY: You are imaginative and playful. You are a dreamer and a doer.

DA

‘movie extras’ BY AGNES BROWN The Universal Crossword/Edited by Timothy E. Parker

ACROSS 1 “A man’s house ___ castle” 6 ___’clock (midmorning) 10 Pampering places 14 Worst possible turnout 15 African antelope 16 Travel by foot 17 1998 film about a ball for teachers?

20 Be humiliated 21 James or Marilyn 22 IRA type 23 Top-of-the-line 24 Bette Midler film about a thorny person?

31 Paddled a canoe 32 Golden Triangle country 33 Deep Space Nine shape-shifter 34 Walk of Fame figure 35 Fresh from the shower 37 Boo-boo 38 Suffix for “acrobat” 39 Hermes’ mother 40 Hotel offering 41 Tom Cruise flick about a bed?

45 Gen. Robert ___ 46 Homemade knife 47 Thing-in-___ 50 Like some bathing suits 54 Hitchcock thriller about a balcony seat?

56 Make airtight 57 Italian pronoun 58 Like Erik the Red 59 Diarist Frank 60 Coup d’___ 61 Slip cover?

DOWN 1 Like JFK and LAX 2 Manhattan neighborhood 3 Some gardening tools 4 One who derives by reasoning 5 Type of restaurant 6 “Good comeback!”

7 Colleague of Agatha and Dashiell 8 Big Apple paper’s inits.

9 Pretty ugly, for one 10 Foster’s river of song

11 12 13 18 19 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 35 36 37 39 40 42 43 44 47 48 49

Wife number VI for Henry VIII Sax type Kind of terrier Rum Tum Tugger’s musical Mallards’ domains Honor student’s grades?

“I’ll have ___ this one out” Contrive, as a scheme Wipe clean Flash of light “God’s honest truth” Corrects text Boxing-ring features Happy-go-lucky Citrus fruit CBS reality show First name in lip-synching?

Grad student’s payment Decrepit Comparable to a pin?

He and she “___ Wonderful Life” In those days Penn of movies

50 Olympus Mountains peak 51 Ireland, affectionately 52 “Pool” intro 53 Mother sheep 55 Summer time, but not in Arizona

SHOW Solution to yesterday’s puzzle:

D2

NOFAIL KALE

HEAL H&FITNESS HEALT HEALTH&FITNESS

Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc said the draft executive order (EO) of the so-called catpool, or catastrophe pool, is already under consideration by Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima for his endorsement to President Aquino.

“We have reached that point when the issue is legacy matters. I think the cat-pool is a major achievement the President can bequeath to the Filipino people, because we really need one. I’m confident that the President will study it and push it the same

HEDepartment of Budget and Management (DBM) vowed to accelerate disbursement of funds and implementation of projects in the coming months to make sure the promised improved government spending will be felt in the second semester of the year and prevent another slowdown in the local economy’s growth.

At the sidelines of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap)-ING Bank Economic Forum on Wednesday in Makati City, Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad admitted that the government’s problematic spend-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 44.6570

THE BASIC NEEDS: FOOD, CLOTHING AND...

way that he’s pushing for the BBL [Bangsamoro basic law],” Dooc said.

The cat-pool will make mandatory the insurance cover for private dwellings and of small- and mediumsized enterprises to protect against loss of property brought about by natural disasters and other catastrophic events.

Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (Pira) Chairman Michael Rellosa said the cat-pool is required to be mandatory because of C  A

Government spending to be felt in H2–Abad

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SPECIAL REPORT

B D C

ABAD: “I think many of the infra projects will accelerate in the second to the third to the last quarter.”

ing scheme has been hampering the growth of the country, and promised better spending in the quarters ahead.

A NEWLY constructed “model” housing unit welcomes prospective buyers at a subdivision development in Antipolo City.

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B J M N.  C  C N. P Conclusion

O address the country’s housing problem— with the backlog estimated at 5.5 million units, and is seen to swell to 12.5 million units by 2030—the Senate, the House of Representatives and private-sector stakeholders recently launched a national housing summit.

The chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development, Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez of the Third District of Negros Occidental, said the summit aims to tackle different housing issues, such as affordable rental, the housing backlog and informal settlers.

“It would be six to eight months of continuous deliberations and discussions, with each meeting to be conducted by the joint congressional committee of the Senate and the House. We will discuss possible solutions for No. 1, addressing the issue of backlog; and, No. 2, addressing the issue of affordable and

ED DAVAD

decent housing,” the lawmaker said.

“The summit will work on real-life cases or prototypes within the National Capital Region to ensure that the proposed measures and programs are viable enough to be applied on a national scale,” he said.

He added that collaboration between the public and private sectors in addressing the issues of housing is a big help to solve the shelter problem. This, he said, is because the backlog can also be remedied by targeting how many houses can be built in a year, which should be considered the minimum goal.

“Our challenges to solve backlogs are that, first, to have a national planning program that would be for a long-term basis; and, second, once and for all, solve the problem or arrest the increasing figure of housing problems,” Benitez said.

He also urged the government to create a program that seeks to implement a long-term housing-rental scheme for homeless Filipinos, another necessary ingredient of the efforts to address the country’s housing backlog.

C  A

S “S,” A

n JAPAN 0.3599 n UK 68.5262 n HK 5.7579 n CHINA 7.2046 n SINGAPORE 33.1161 n AUSTRALIA 34.5696 n EU 49.7881 n SAUDI ARABIA 11.9079 Source: BSP (3 June 2015)

A2 Thursday, June 4, 2015

BMReports BusinessMirror

The basic needs: Food, clothing and... continued from a1

“We in the House Committee on Housing and our counterpart in the Senate are pushing for a solution to address the perennial problem in the housing industry, which is the backlog, because of the lack of affordable housing. A Filipino cannot afford a housing unit because it’s too prohibitive,” he said.

The legislator added that affordable housing provides a more cost-effective solution to address homelessness in the Philippines.

“We should find a way to make the industry move forward. The only way to make it is through government intervention or, on a massive scale, that creates a public rental scheme,” Benitez said.

According to Benitez, there are many available government lots that can be used for affordable-housing projects for every homeless Filipino.

“The concept of this long-term public rental is after 30 years of renting [at only P200 to P500 a month in a government land and facility], a homeless Filipino, who at the given time already has better job and financially stable, can now afford to buy his own house,” he said.

“Affordable housing is the most important part of a country’s housing system. Lack of affordable housing can make it hard to achieve other household needs, such as health, education and employment.”

The summit will also give focus to programs that will address the plight of the informal settlers in urban centers.

Sen. Joseph Victor G. Ejercito, chairman of the Senate Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement, said the summit also seeks to produce a national housing plan that will respond to the country’s housing backlog.

To accomplish this plan, Ejercito urged the

delegates from academe, civic organizations, private stakeholders and financial institutions to unite with the government and lend their technical expertise to also tackle the issue of growing informal-settler communities and to strengthen the government’s existing housing programs.

Ejercito also cited the participation of the World Bank, which lends technical guidance in coming up with a holistic National Housing Strategy and Policy Paper, which is the aimed output of the summit.

“Policy reforms to be discussed in the summit shall cover land conversion, financing schemes, particularly for in-city housing projects, government involvement in socialized housing, disaster mitigation and urban development,” he said.

The National Housing Summit, to be held in several cities throughout the year, shall be led and partnered by the Joint Committees on Housing and Urban Development of the Philippine Congress, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, the National Economic and Development Authority and the World Bank.

Benitez and Ejercito also share the view that the creation of the Department of Housing, Planning and Urban Development should be made as one of the key topics in the summit.

Currently, there are three pending bills in the lower chamber that seek to create the Department of Housing, Planning and Urban Development.

Recently, the House Committee on Appropriations has approved the funding provision of a substitute measure creating the Department of Housing, Planning and Urban Development. The bill seeks to ensure affordable and decent housing for underprivileged and homeless Filipinos.

The measure tasks the new department to be the sole and main planning and policy-

making, regulatory, program-coordination and performance-monitoring entity for all housing and urban-development concerns, primarily focusing on the access to and affordability of the basic human needs.

Camarines Sur Rep. Felix William B. Fuentebella, one of the authors of the bill, said the government should establish a primary national government entity responsible for the management of housing and urban development.

“The creation of such department will strongly support and move forward our goal of strengthening the core capacity required to improve sector governance and address sector issues and challenges stemming from rapid urbanization, uncontrolled urban growth, increasing urban poverty and deteriorating urban environment,” he said.

The Philippine Development Plan said several legislative measures will help the government in addressing several problems besetting the country’s housing system.

The bill creating the Department of Housing, Planning and Urban Development is listed in the Philippine Development Plan, along with the Balanced Housing Requirement for Condominium Projects bill, a measure establishing Local Housing Boards, the proposed National Land Use Act (Nalua) and the Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Finance Act (Cisfa) II. The Balanced Housing Requirement for Condominium Projects, which already passed the lower chamber and is pending in the Senate, seeks to require developers of proposed condominium projects to develop socialized- housing projects (costing at least 20 percent of the projects) as compliance to the 20-percent balanced housing requirement for subdivisions, per Section 18 of the Urban Development and Housing Act, or Republic Act (RA) 7279.

The proposed local housing boards in every city and municipality, meanwhile, will serve as the focal unit in the delivery of housing services, local shelter planning and disposition of underutilized assets of shelter agencies and the national government.

The proposal was approved on final reading at the lower house, but is still pending in the Senate.

Both chambers, meanwhile, are still studying the proposed Nalua and Cisfa II. The Nalua seeks to establish a national land-use framework that will define the indicative priorities for land utilization and allocation. The Nalua shall integrate efforts, monitor developments related to land-use, and evolve policies, regulations and directions of land use planning processes.

It also mandates the formulation of national planning and zoning guidelines and standards to guide local government units in the formulation and enactment of their zoning ordinances.

The Cisfa II seeks to enact the continuation of the first Cisfa, or RA 7835, to increase budget appropriation for the socialized housing program of the government and significantly increase the provision of housing and tenure security to poor informal settlers and help the country in attaining the Millennium Development Goals.

Noel M. Cariño, vice president of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Association, said they will push another proposal that seek to streamline all the funds for home financing offered by the government in one fund, to be called the Centralized Homebuyer Financing Program (CHFP), during the summit.

The CHFP will amount to P220 billion, consisting of housing-related funds allocated to different government agencies through various laws.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Spending. . .

Continued from A1

“If you look at the figures there is actually a progression, there is actually an improvement; and I think those will be felt in the latter part of the second quarter and certainty in the next semester,” Abad told reporters.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported last month that the country’s economic expansion has slowed to 5.2 percent in the first quarter of the year—the slowest growth in about four years. The government’s inability to disburse funds was widely blamed for the disappointing growth.

As such, Abad said the DBM will hasten government spending to “catch up” with the pace of the potential growth of the Philippines through greater disbursements, faster speed of project implementation and institutional interventions.

Part of these institutional interventions is the recently issued Administrative Order (AO) 46 from the Office of the President. AO 46 seeks to improve spending efficiency and expedite the implementation of priority programs and projects under the 2015 budget.

“The AO 46 was issued in March and implemented in April so it really hasn’t had time to take effect. But the President called a meeting to further look into this so we have to be able to take a more decisive action on this concern,” Abad said. Aside from the Palace’s initiatives, Abad also bared that a new permanent delivery unit or system is also in the works to better handle the budget disbursements in the country.

“The National Economic and Development Authority and the DBM will co-chair the national delivery unit, and every department at the level of undersecretary will have to establish a full-time delivery unit and all it will do is to make sure that disbursements are accelerated,” Abad said.

“We will provide them with permanent staffing so they can rely on fulltime people to monitor the disbursements of every agency and look into bottlenecks and deal with the bottlenecks and then report to the DBM, as well as to the National Economic and Development Authority any problem that’s beyond their departments to deal with, so this way, we have full-time people to deal with this problem and there’s a system of reporting it,” he added. He also said the upcoming election ban on spending will likely pressure other government agencies to speed up their project implementation before the prohibition takes effect.

“I think many of the infra projects will accelerate in the second to the third to the last quarter. Of course, the rush to get this going before the election ban takes place will also be a factor in pushing for a greater pace in the implementation of the projects,” Abad said.

Institutional weaknesses

In terms of addressing the root cause of the underspending problem of the government, Abad said the institutional weaknesses—which have been pinpointed as the reasons behind the sluggish movement of funds in the government system—are temporary, although they may take a while to be resolved.

Economy

A4 Thursday, June 4, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

P500-M Mindanao road projects to be completed by 2017–Jica

By Cai U. Ordinario

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he Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) on Wednesday said that it will complete the P500-million-worth road construction and rehabilitation projects in Mindanao by 2017.

The three road projects, with river-crossing structures, will be in Bumbaran, Lanao del Sur; Alamada, North Cotabato; and Datu Paglas, Maguindanao.

The projects will be implemented by the the Department of Agriculture, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the Bangsamoro Development Agency.

“Years of conflict have deprived many poor people in Mindanao access to basic services, like hospitals and schools, and opportunities to sell their products to nearby urban centers. We believe that by expanding our past cooperation in Mindanao in terms of new infrastructure, more poor people will realize the dividends of peace in their lives,” Jica Philippines Chief Representative Noriaki Niwa said.

The three road projects are part of its peace-building priorities in Mindanao, and help the region’s poor access to basic services, and economic opportunities.

T he sites were ident i f ied through the survey held under Jica’s Study for Socio-Economic Reconstr uction and Development of Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao in 2007 to 2009.

The study noted that the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

(ARMM) accounts for 75 percent of conflict-affected areas in Mindanao.

This has caused the region to fall behind the rest of the country.

The conflicts in the area had either stalled or prevented the construction of infrastructures, such as farm- to-market roads, postharvest and warehouse facilities, among others, needed for investments to pour into the region.

As a result, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimated that the ARMM accounted for 1.85 million poor Filipinos, or 7.8 percent, of the total 23.75 million poor Filipinos in 2012.

PSA data also showed that poverty incidence in the ARMM increased to 48.7 percent in 2012, from 39.9 percent in 2009 and 40.5 percent in 2006.

“The ARMM consistently figured in the bottom [poorest] set of regions with the highest poverty incidence among families between 40 percent and 49 percent in 2006, 2009 and 2012,” the PSA said.

To help the government address this, Jica has been supporting Mindanao’s peace and development with 707 community development and 32 infrastructure subprojects with the ARMM. In 2006 under the Japan-Bangsamoro Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development), Jica has implemented some 30 development projects.

From 2003 to 2013, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Jica extended about P7.5 billion of development assistance to Mindanao.

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Cheaper oil prices slowed retail prices in Metro Manila to 1.8%

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etail prices in Metro Manila slowed to 1.8 percent in April 2015, according to the General Retail Price Index (GRPI) report released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday.

PSA data showed that the GRPI in Metro Manila was at 2 percent in March 2015 and at 2.3 percent in April 2014. The slowdown in retail prices was caused by cheaper oil prices.

“Annual declines were still noted in the indices of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, and machinery and transport equipment at -18.6 percent and -1.2 percent, respectively,” the PSA said.

Data also showed that the heavily weighted food index slowed to 5.7 percent; beverages and tobacco, 4.2 percent; and chemicals, including animal and vegetable oils and fats index, 1.7 percent.

The PSA also said that manufactured goods, classified chiefly by materials index, also slowed to 2.2 percent and miscellaneous manufactured articles index to 1.4 percent.

However, a faster annual increase was registered in crude materials, inedible except fuels index at 1.1 percent.

On a monthly basis, the GRPI in the National Capital Region inched up by 0.1 percent in April 2015 from its previous month’s level. Retail food prices in Metro Manila were also higher compared to March 2015.

“The 0.2-percent uptick in the food index was attributed to price add-ons in beef, uncanned meat, selected fish species, banana, pineapple, fruit vegetables, sugar and cooking oil,” the PSA said.

The beverages and tobacco index also went up by 0.1 percent, as prices of selected liquor and wines, including beer and Coca-Cola drink, were on the uptrend.

The crude materials inedible except fuels rose 0.4 percent due

briefs u.s. turns over $1.38-m proceeds of garcia’s forfeited assets

Palace says ‘sorry’ for MRT 3 mess

By Butch Fernandez

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alacañang apologized on Wednesday to thousands of irate commuters daily inconvenienced taking a trouble-plagued Metro Rail Transit (MRT) hobbled by overloaded passenger coaches with malfunctioning air-conditioning systems.

“We do extend our apologies,” Deputy Spokesman Abigail Valte told Palace reporters on Wednesday. “We do hear these complaints also not just from you guys but from social media. She confirmed that Palace officials also received reports about MRT commuters’ woes from text messages.

“And we keep saying it, but we do apologize for these inconveniences; and we do appeal for continued patience until such time that we have new coaches that can service more people,” Valte added.

The Palace official conveyed the public apology following reports that only nine trains with running aircon systems were operating, while the MRT’s service provider was said to have suggested that MRT limit the number of passengers per coach to avert recurrent breakdowns.

Valte said Malacañang is relying on the Department of Transportation and Communications

VALTE: “So, we will leave it to them to start discussions, perhaps, on this proposal to regulate.

It is not very clear on how they intend to do that at this point.”

(DOTC) to quickly address the problems bugging the MRT to avoid daily inconvenience to Metro commuters.

“We will leave it to the DOTC to talk to the operator about, in any case, their proposal to regulate [the number of passengers].

At this point, it is not very clear on how you pick passengers that way,” she said.

Valte added: “But our policy has always been.... If you notice that day to day, the number of coaches that is servicing the commuters does vary, and that is because, on a daily basis, it has to be determined if [it’s] safe, if they will carry all the passengers from point A to point B; and we would like really to maintain the safety.”

“So, we will leave it to them to start discussions, perhaps, on this proposal to regulate. It is not very clear on how they intend to do that at this point,” the deputy spokesman said.

Kick that smoking habit

Dr. Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance of the Philippines, cites the ill effects of smoking to human health at the launch of the Philippine No Smoking Month at the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) in Quezon City. Along with the Philippine College of Physicians, and the Philippine College of Chest Physicians the LCP urged on Tuesday for stronger participation of hospitals in the country in the government campaign to reduce or prevent tobaccorelated deaths. Nonoy Lacza

More PPP projects before Aquino Palace-term expiry

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resident Aquino indicated on Tuesday that the government is set to roll out more big-ticket public-private partnership (PPP) projects before his term ends next June 2016.

Speaking before a gathering hosted by the Filipino community in Tokyo, Japan, Mr. Aquino affirmed his administration remains “aggressive in pursuing major PPP projects for the benefit of the country.“ He recalled that since December 2011 until May, the administration had already awarded and signed contracts for at least nine PPP projects, hinting he expects one more PPP project included to that list within this month.

“Inaasahang madaragdagan pa ito ng isa ngayong buwan,” he said.

But the President omitted giving further details on the next PPP projects being lined up for bidding by the government, reporting only that 15 PPP projects are now in the pipeline and are already in the process of procurement and rollout.

He computed that once the government rolls out the 15 projects already in the pipeline, which include nine already approved PPP projects, the total would add up to 24 projects under his administration.

“Apat na ulit po itong mga proyektong natapos kung kinumpara sa pinagsamang tatlong administrasyong nauna sa akin,” President Aquino said, noting that only six PPP projects were approved during the terms of former Presidents Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Butch Fernandez

DOE launches RE permit monitoring web site called EVOSS

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By Lenie Lectura

O cut bureaucratic obstacles, the Department of Energy (DOE) launched on Wednesday the Energy Vehicle One Shared System (EVOSS), a Web-based monitoring of renewable-energy (RE) applications.

Originally patterned after the One-Stop Facilitation and Monitoring Center Web Portal for Mindanao RE projects spearheaded by the Mindanao Development Authority together with the DOE and other concerned agencies, the EVOSS aims to facilitate and streamline the process of RE applications side-by-side the increase in the efficiency of all concerned agencies while fostering a strong private-public sector partnerships built on good governance, transparency and accountability.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla said EVOSS is the most transparent way to track the status of RE applications.

“We want to make our lives and the lives of our partners easier. With the introduction of the EVOSS, we are helping ourselves make better our efforts

to higher prices of sand during the month.

Price increments in selected wires and wiring devices effected a 0.1-percent growth in the machinery and equipment index.

“Price roll backs in liquefied petroleum gas, diesel fuel and gasoline pushed down the index of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials by -0.3 percent,” the PSA added.

The GRPI is a statistical measure of the changes in the prices at which retailers dispose of their goods to consumers or end-users relative to a base year.

It is an indicator used to monitor the economic situation of the retail trade sector. It is also used as a deflator of the National Accounts, especially on the retail-trade sector, and serves as a basis for forecasting business in the retail trade. Cai U. Ordinario

while accelerating the development of our industry,” Petilla said.

The EVOSS can track the number of days an application has been pending with a certain government agency. It tells the status of an application and states how long before an approval is secured, among others.

“There is transparency of each document where it is.

The basic component is transparency,” Petilla added.

A series of workshops and forums were organized to empower all stakeholders to be part of the effort.

Realizing the aspirations of the country to strike a balance and to be at par with its regional neighbors, the EVOSS is a milestone in the realization of these objectives.

Likewise, Petilla noted that this is not only an achievement of the department but of the whole sector whom the agency consulted throughout its formulation and adoption.

The EVOSS is a joint undertaking of the DOE with the United States Agency for International DevelopmentBuilding Low Emission Alternatives to Develop Economic Resilience and Sustainability Project.

Holding on together

Sen. Cynthia Villar (first row, third from left) joins students of Las Piñas and Parañaque in singing ”If We Hold on Together” on Saturday during the Nature Exposure Program at the Las PinasParañaque Critical Habitat and Eco-Tourism Area. PNA

The Office of the Ombudsman on Wednesday said the government has received from the United States government the second tranche of the proceeds of the forfeited assets of former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia.

During the turnover ceremony, US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, who led the delegation of US Treasury officials, handed in the check in the amount of $1.38 million to the Philippine government, represented by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.

According to the US official, the $1.3-million check represents the net proceeds resulting from the sale of real property in Manhattan, New York (a condominium unit at The Trump Tower on Park Avenue) and the funds from two accounts maintained in Citibank, New York, which assets were traced by investigators of the US Department of Homeland Security to be part of the laundered properties of Garcia.

“Battling public corruption is a challenge that all countries face, including the United States. Meeting that challenge is vitally important to ensure public confidence in the honesty and integrity of public servants,” Goldberg said. Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz, Recto Mercene

british smes keen on exploring opportunities in phl

THE British Chamber of Commerce (BCC), the largest business network in the United Kingdom, wants British small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to explore trade and investment opportunities in the Philippines.

BCC Director General John Longworth told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday that the business group aims to strengthen the presence of British SMEs in the Philippine market.

Longworth is visiting Manila to boost economic relation between the UK and the Philippines through building linkages among British and Filipino firms.

He noted that the Philippines offers huge opportunities for British companies, particularly to SMEs with its large consumer base, fast-growing economy and competitive work force. PNA

airport taxi drivers bat for duterte

Some 800 airport transport drivers said on Wednesday that they will support Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who is pushing for Federalism, if he decides to throw his hat in the 2016 presidential derby.

The drivers are part of the 6,000-strong members of the Airport Transport Concessionaires Association Inc. (Atchai).

Atchai Chairman Romy Sayaman said Duterte’s intention is to get the masses’ support in implementing change in the country.

“He consistently declines to run for president.

Federalism, ’yun lang ang tanging gusto nya. Ayaw niyang tumakbo,” Sayaman said.

The transport workers and their families, who had a chance to meet Duterte, expressed optimism that the feisty mayor would change his mind and run for the country’s highest post next year. They believe that Duterte would be a good leader once elected to higher office. Recto Mercene

A6 Thursday, June 4, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Trading in egos at South China Sea

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ven as the Philippines busies itself with precampaign mudslinging over Twitter and Facebook, the naval might of the United States and Japan arrive in formation at the South China Sea for a show of naval force.

Of late, in defense of China’s reclamation of 2,000 acres of disputed sea and reef for militarization purposes (that’s equivalent to about 1,500 football fields), Russia reportedly joins in the fray.

Just on Tuesday, US missile cruiser Shiloh docked at Subic Bay, once considered America’s biggest military base in the region.

The tensions alone are forcing Southeast Asian nations to rethink their defense spending, with Navy and Coast Guard units getting the bulk of the budget.

It is estimated by IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly that $52 billion will be spent by the 10-nation Southeast Asian region on defense by 2020, with a projected $42 billion this year.

The tension over South China Sea is projected to increase spending to about $58 billion over the next five years, with naval purchases getting priority status.

Why the earmarked spending all of a sudden, even as most experts predicted less of a shooting war?

It’s all about a question of trade.

Roughly $5.3 million in shipborne trade passes through the South China Sea annually. The exact amount reaches $6.39 trillion, based on varying estimates. That’s more than enough reason for a full-scale war, if and when things don’t go well with China and the Philippines.

But the thing is, the tensions are already forcing some companies to spend more just to avoid being caught in the cross fire over South China Sea. One doesn’t need a full-scale shooting war between China and the United States to know how such “cold wars” affect maritime activity in the area.

Caught in the middle of all this is the lowly fisherman. Reef destruction by China due to reclamation efforts is estimated to incur losses worth $100 million annually.

This virtual trading in egos must soon stop if we were to save the coral reefs, home to varying species of fish and other rich resources.

The innkeeper and the money John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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traveler walks into a small hotel in a small town, places a $100 bill on the counter, and asks the innkeeper to view a room that he might stay in for the night. The traveler goes upstairs to look at the room.

The innkeeper picks up the money and immediately goes to the town carpenter to pay his debt for repairs to the hotel.

The carpenter takes the money to the local grocer to pay his bill for food and supplies. The grocer, in turn, goes to pay off his debt to a traveling salesman from whom he bought goods for his store. The salesman goes to the innkeeper and pays his bill for the room he has been staying in while visiting the town. The innkeeper places the $100 bill back on the counter.

The traveler comes back from viewing the room, picks up his money, tells the innkeeper he will look for another hotel, and walks out the front door.

That story illustrates some of the basics of economics.

Notice first how borrowing and lending creates money and economic activity in an economic system, but without an actual increase in

the money supply. There was not a central bank and its printing press needed to create the $400 of transactions among the innkeeper, carpenter, grocer and salesman.

While we are so often told about the “evils” of debt, without borrowing and lending, an economy could only grow as fast as production. The innkeeper would have to wait for a customer before having the carpenter make repairs. That would also slow down economic activity for both the grocer and the salesman.

Instead, lending allowed all these economic participants to produce and create wealth before the traveler walked into the hotel. Of course, if the hotel never had any future guests, the debt would be a problem for the town’s economy. Yet, even if the hotel defaulted on its debt, the carpenter could seize the hotel’s assets in payment for what he was owed and then pay his bills.

That is why governments should

not be allowed by law to borrow money, because a government does not make enough income to pay its debt but must feed off the wealth creation of the people through taxes. If a government defaults, there are not any assets to take in lieu of the payment.

The negative side of debt from this story is that all the debt was paid off without any increase in economic activity or production, except from the original debt and subsequent transactions. Had the visitor stayed the night at the hotel, then the town’s economic output would have increased. The innkeeper only “borrowed” from the traveler, and then was fortunate enough to immediately repay his loan.

That is what is happening in the global economy now. “Poor” countries have been borrowing from “rich” nations to pay off past debts to those same rich countries without any increase in total economic activity or wealth. Interestingly, countries like the Philippines that are increasing their economic activity are neither borrowers nor lenders and effectively are not part of the system anymore.

Another concept this story shows is the velocity of money (vm), the number of times a “piece” of money is used for transactions that create economic activity. In this case, the amount of money in the town’s economy was $100, but there were $400 worth of transactions with a vm of 4.

Europe and Greece: The damage is done Clive Crook

BLOOMBERG view

W

ith both sides said to be drawing up final proposals, and a definitive debt crunch thought to be imminent, the months of brinkmanship over Greece may at last be drawing to a close. But who knows, really? You might think making this shambles any worse would challenge even these principals. I don’t know. I think they’re up to it.

Whatever happens, take a moment to reflect on the damage already done during the stalemate— damage that will persist even if the brink isn’t crossed, and a deal is done to avoid a Greek default plus exit from the euro system.

First, Greece’s economic situation, which was bad to begin with, has deteriorated further. Savers have been withdrawing deposits from Greek banks. Investors have hammered the stock market. Under these conditions, few businesses choose to invest or expand. Despite cheap oil and a weaker euro, the Greek economy has fallen back into recession.

Second, as a result, the country’s bad fiscal situation is now worse.

Whatever fiscal targets are eventually agreed to—assuming that happens—will be harder to meet.

A deal sufficient, four months ago, to stabilize Greece’s public finances and restore growth might no longer work. Greece already has two failed bailout programs to its name.

The stalemate makes the failure of the next program, if there is one, more likely.

Third, the world has learned that exit from the euro system is not just thinkable but has actually been advocated, as a kind of disciplinary measure, by officials in Germany and other countries. It’s widely understood that if Greece leaves the euro system or is forced

out, attention will turn, sooner or later, to the question of who’s next.

Every serious economic setback will raise that question. Less widely understood is that much of this damage to the euro zone’s foundations has already been done, and is irreversible. Once you think the unthinkable—debate the pros and cons, start to plan for it—there’s no going back.

In his celebrated (if belated) intervention in 2012, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he would do whatever it took to keep the euro system intact; Europe’s economy rallied. Whatever happens this week or next regarding Greece, Europe’s leaders have reneged on that promise: They might do whatever it takes, but they’ll need to think about it first. Europe’s economic crisis was an opportunity to show financial markets that the euro is to Greece as the dollar is to, say, West Virginia (no disrespect to that fine state). Whatever happens next, we now know different.

The kind of deal that could end the stalemate isn’t hard to envisage, and never was. The vital components are less demanding fiscal targets than the impossibly severe restraints of the current bailout program; policy commitments that would plausibly

No school of economic thought likes this concept of velocity of money because, from time to time, it disproves their theories.

During optimistic times, people spend and the vm goes up. In 1997 the US’s vm was 2.2. Now, it is near a historic low of 1.6, showing that people are scared and hoarding cash rather than spending. The Philippines’s vm has been either slowly increasing or steady since 2009, as the economy continued to grow.

Velocity of money, in addition to reflecting economic activity, also mirrors general liquidity in the system. This is important not only for the stock market but for all other cash placements, like real estate, and for business expansion. For example, in all businesses, profits are important but cash flow is critical.

If a country is not experiencing a favorable vm, it is difficult, if not impossible, to experience sustainable economic growth.

Credit and money supply must expand. But without also showing a stable or increasing vm, you get an economic situation like the US, Europe and Japan are having. Be glad you’re Filipino.

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

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

meet those achievable goals; and further debt restructuring to make the first component compatible with the second.

Working out the details of such a plan was bound to take time. But Greece and its creditors haven’t even been having that conversation. The back-and-forth has centered on the standing of the current failed bailout program, and whether Greece will be held bound to it or not. And that ridiculous quarrel has been conducted under constant threat of financial breakdown.

Commitment to the shape (if not the details) of a sensible deal, with a financial breathing space while it was negotiated, could have been achieved in February. The necessary conditions were, on both sides, a willingness to compromise; on the Greek side, a far less confrontational style; and on the European side, an effort to help Greece’s leaders sell an unpopular deal to their voters. Instead, the Greeks came on as though the rules had all changed and they would dictate terms, while Europe demanded overt capitulation.

It has been, altogether, an amazing failure of leadership. And when it comes to Europe and failures of leadership, one isn’t easily amazed.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Only preponderance of evidence required in a claim for refund Fulvio D. Dawilan

Tax law for business

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ecause of current rules in the withholding-tax system, where almost all revenues are subject to withholding taxes at source, it is not unusual for taxpayers to incur excess income-tax payments.

The creditable withholding-tax system operates as an advance tax payment of the recipient of the income.

The payor of the income is required to deduct at source a portion of the income payment, which is supposed to equal or approximate the income tax due from the payee of the income, so that at the end of the year the taxpayer is not burdened by the full impact of the tax and will pay only the balance. But that is not always the case. The sum of these taxes withheld, plus any quarterly payments, made more often, exceed the annualized income taxes due. When this happens, there is an excess income-tax payment, and taxpayers are often faced with the dilemma on the disposition of these excess income-tax payments.

The law gives the taxpayer the option to simply carry over the excess tax payment to be applied against income taxes due in the future. There is no prescription for the utilization of excess income-tax payment. It can be repeatedly carried over in the subsequent income-tax returns (ITRs), until such time that the taxpayer has income taxes due against which the excess tax can be applied. The problem with this option is that if the taxpayer is in the same tax position in the future, the carried-over excess tax payment will never be recovered. It is a useless asset sitting in the taxpayer’s book.

Thus, instead of a carryover, taxpayers can opt to recover the excess income-tax payment through an application for refund or issuance of tax credit certificate. This entails some costs and obligation, though, on the part of the taxpayer. And the more important consideration is the responsibility placed upon the taxpayer to prove his claim. Based on an old doctrine holding that tax refunds are in the nature of tax exemptions, which should be strictly construed against taxpayers, the Court had placed upon the taxpayer the burden to prove his entitlement to the claim. Failure on the part of the taxpayer to discharge that responsibility often results in the denial of the claim.

There are, in fact, a number of refund claims that were denied for failure of the taxpayer to present some documents that the Court believes to be necessary in proving the claim. For instance, in a claim for refund of unused creditable withholding taxes, it is settled that for it to prosper, the taxpayer must show that the unused taxes were not carried over to the succeeding period.

To prove the non-carryover, the Tax Court had considered as an important requirement for taxpayers to present in evidence the quarterly and the annual ITRs of the succeeding year. Nonpresentation of said returns means that the taxpayer is not able to prove the non-carryover, resulting in the denial of the claim. In other words, a taxpayer fails to discharge his burden of proving that no carryover was made when he does not present his tax returns of the succeeding year.

In a recent decision of the Supreme Court, though, in GR 206526, January 28, 2015, the Court ruled that the submission of the quarterly ITRs of the succeeding year is not indispensable to a taxpayer’s refund claim if he is able to prove through other means the fact that he did not carry over the subject of the claim. According to the Court, providing that no carryover has been made does not absolutely require the presentation of the subsequent year’s quarterly ITRs. Any document, other than the quarterly ITRs, would suffice.

In this case, the annual ITR of the following year showing that no carryover was made is sufficient.

It is well to note, as the Court emphasized, that claims for refund are civil in nature. As such, while the claimant has the burden of proving his entitlement, only preponderance of evidence is needed in order to recover excess credits. The Supreme Court had also emphasized in earlier decisions that claims for refund, representing excess creditable withholding taxes, necessitates only the preponderance of evidence. This must be so in the case of excess creditable withholding taxes, where the claim is not based on exemption and neither based on the fault of the taxpayer but on excess advance tax payments resulting from withholding of tax at source.

The author is a senior partner of DuBaladad and Associates Law Offices (BDB Law), a member- firm of World Tax Services (WTS) Alliance.

The article is for general information only and is not intended, nor should be construed, as a substitute for tax, legal or financial advice on any specific matter. Applicability of this article to any actual or particular tax or legal issue should be supported therefore by a professional study or advice. If you have any comments or questions concerning the article, you may e-mail the author at fulvio.dawilan@bdblaw. com.ph or call 403-2001, local 310.

The pilgrims’ bread Msgr. Sabino A. Vengco Jr.

Alálaong Bagá

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e is the Lord’s servant, the son of His handmaid, and He desires to thank the Lord by offering sacrifice to Him (Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18). Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples, offering His body and blood for the covenant (Mark 14:12-16, 22-26).

I will lift up the cup of salvation Psalm 116 is a song of praise to God sung on the pilgrimage feasts like the Passover and also each month at the new moon. It was the first psalm sung after the meal and so probably the hymn sung by Jesus and His disciples before leaving the upper room for the Mount of Olives. The psalmist feels indebted to God for all the good the Lord has done for him. He resolves to perform some act of devotion and gratitude. Before the assembly, he will call upon the name of the Lord and “lift up the cup of salvation” (verse 13, the only place where this expression occurs), a libation or a festive drink of the wine expressing the joy God’s goodness has given—a cup of joy for having been delivered from death.

The death and the fate of the righteous (hasidim) is a concern of the Lord; He watches over their lives.

God intervenes ultimately because as good people also suffer there is deliverance. The psalmist, seeing him-

self as one of the God-fearing, characterizes his relationship with God by calling himself as “your servant” and “the son of Your handmaid”—a slave born into a household with no emancipation but from the Lord who kindly released him from his bonds of servitude. He has been liberated as “servant of God.” And gratefully in the presence of all the people he will offer the “sacrifice of thanksgiving,” mirroring the lifting up of the “cup of salvation,” and proclaim God’s holy name and fulfill his vows. Properly, this psalm has been recommended by the Church to be prayed as preparation for Mass.

The new and everlasting covenant

Mark’s gospel clearly intends to identify theologically Jesus’ last meal with His disciples before His passion with the Passover meal. He told His disciples on the first day of the feast of the Unleavened Bread where they were to prepare for Him to eat the Passover. And they were

Thursday, June 4, 2015

ordered to tell the owner of the house that the teacher is asking for the guest room “where I may eat the Passover with my disciples.” So, “they prepared the Passover.” Of primary importance for the evangelist was the identification of the Lord’s Supper with the Passover.

That memorable meal centered on Jesus making it altogether a different feast of His own reinterpretation. He told His followers to eat the bread, which is now His “body” (soma), that is receiving His person, and to drink the cup of wine as his “blood of the covenant that will be shed for many.”

The cup with which Jesus identified was part of the Passover meal after the main course, and His interpretation of it in terms of the suffering servant (Isaiah 53:11-12) gives the meaning and purpose of His coming passion: The establishment of the new covenantal bond with God ratified through His expiatory death.

The sacrifice of the new covenant

The foundation of the new covenant is no other than the sacrifice of Jesus with His own body and blood.

The original feast of the Passover was the celebration of God’s gracious deeds for His people in passing over their blood-smeared homes and sparing them, and allowing them to pass over from slavery in Egypt to freedom (Exodus 12:1-30).

All these have now reached another level of fulfillment in Jesus Christ who proclaimed His own Passover from death to life and as the Paschal Lamb gave his body and blood,

Is China repeating Korea’s mistakes?

William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

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any observers assume that China is on a path to become the next Japan—a major economy mired in a multiyear deflationary funk that deflates its global clout. And it’s certainly true that the way that Beijing has been downplaying its debt problems is eerily reminiscent of Tokyo’s public-relations strategy from the 1990s.

But take a closer look at China’s situation, and you’ll realize a better analogy is South Korea. China’s expanding effort to pile debt risks on individual investors is straight out of Seoul’s playbook.

South Korea’s economy crashed in 1997 under the weight of debts compiled by the country’s familyowned conglomerates. The government’s strategy for dealing with the fallout consisted of shifting the debt burden to consumers. With a blizzard of tax incentives and savvy PR, Korea shrouded the idea of amassing household debt to boost growth in patriotic terms.

That push still haunts Korea. Today the country’s household debt as a ratio of gross domestic product is 81 percent. That far exceeds the ratios

in the US, Germany and, at least for the moment, China. As a result, Korea has been particularly susceptible to downturns in the global economy, which is why the country is now veering toward deflation.

Is China repeating Korea’s mistakes? Granted, the specific of Beijing’s economic strategy vary greatly and China’s $9.2-trillion economy is seven times bigger than Korea’s. But the Chinese government’s efforts to prod households to buy stocks and assume greater financial risks are highly reminiscent of Korean policy.

Beijing has been encouraging everyone in the country, from the richest princelings to the poorest of peasants, to buy stocks. And China’s markets have been booming as a re-

sult: Over the past 12 months, the Shanghai exchange is up 141 percent, and the Shenzhen exchange is up 188 percent. Margin trading, which has fueled these rallies, seems to have jumped another 45 percent in May, to a total of $484 billion.

Chinese companies have been the greatest beneficiaries of these stock rallies. The higher equities are driven up, the easier it is for companies and banks to issue shares and improve their debt situation. Companies have raised $42 billion from share sales in 2015, on pace for the busiest year ever.

But who will suffer when stocks inevitably swoon? Beijing is making a risky bet, by assuming Chinese savers will be capable of dealing with the burden of a stock market downturn. This strategy is morally questionable—it’s another instance of Chinese savers being set up to take the fall for government policy, as they were during the hyperinflation of the 1940s, and in modern times, when they faced strict limits on deposit rates.

Moreover, it would be far easier for Beijing to bail out a handful banks and dispose of bad loans that are concentrated at a few dozen companies, than deal with debts that are distributed to households across the country. Increasingly, there are signs that a reckoning will soon be in the

Corporate tax dodging cheats Africa out of $6 billion, Oxfam says

By Sean Buchanan Inter Press Service

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ONDON—G7-based companies and investors cheated Africa out of an estimated $6 billion in a year through just one form of tax dodging, according to a new Oxfam report “Money talks: Africa at the G7,” released June 2.

This is equivalent to three times the amount needed to plug the health-care funding gap in the Ebolaaffected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and at-risk Guinea Bissau.

According to an Oxfam briefing paper release in April this year, an estimated $1.7 billion is required to close the health-care funding gap to improve dangerously inadequate health systems in these countries.

This figure is based on raising spending to the recommendation of the

World Health Organization that $86 per capita is required to achieve the minimum package of essential services.

The new Oxfam report comes as G7 leaders prepare to meet their African counterparts at the annual summit in Bavaria, Germany, on June 8 and 9. African leaders from Ethiopia (Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn); Liberia (President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf); Nigeria (President Muhammadu Buhari); and Senegal (President Macky Sall) are scheduled to join an outreach session on June 8.

Oxfam is calling for the leaders of the G7 countries—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States—to include action for ambitious tax reform in discussions about how the group can support economic growth and sustainable development on the continent.

In the UK Oxfam is part of a coalition that has been calling on the recently elected new British government to show leadership by introducing a tax-dodging bill, which would make it harder for UK companies to avoid paying tax in the countries in which they operate—practices which currently cost some of the world’s poorest countries billions each year.

The coalition, which includes ActionAid and Christian Aid in addition to Oxfam, is currently running a tax-dodging bill campaign.

According to Oxfam, a well-crafted tax-dodging bill would also make it harder for big companies to avoid paying tax in the UK, and could bring in at least £3.6 billion ($5.4 billion) a year to the UK Treasury, the equivalent of £600 ($910) for every household living below the poverty line.

“Multinational companies, many with headquarters in the UK and

other G7 countries, are cheating African countries out of billions of dollars in vital tax revenues that could help vulnerable people get decent health care and send their children to school,” said Nick Brye, Oxfam head of UK campaigns.

“To fund the fight against poverty and to tackle worsening extreme inequality, we need action to ensure big companies pay their fair share, here and in the world’s poorest nations.”

Oxfam also notes that existing international efforts to tackle corporate tax dodging, such as the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) process, led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) for the G20 group of the world’s major economies, will leave gaping tax loopholes.

It warns that these loopholes can continue to be exploited by multina-

tional companies across the developing world and that many African nations have been shut out of discussions on BEPS reform and will not benefit from them as a result.

Oxfam is also calling for British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne to attend July’s Financing for Development Conference in Ethiopia, which will play host to heads of states and finance ministers from around the world.

The talks, which will focus on how the international community will fund development over the next two decades, are an opportunity for governments to work together to start shaping a more democratic and fairer global tax system.

In 2010, the last year for which data are available, Oxfam says that companies and investors based in G7 countries avoided paying tax on $20 billion of income through a practice

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His total self, to His disciples to be taken under the appearances of bread and wine. And as the old covenant was ratified through the blood of the sacrifice, the new covenant’s ratification is through Jesus’ sacrifice. His sacrifice forges the new bond that makes God’s saving love available to “many,” to all.

The second excerpt in the gospel reading (verses 22-26) is not a playby-play description of the Passover meal but the institution of the Eucharist. The Eucharistic tradition of the community of Mark in the 60s shows that the Eucharist was celebrated near the end of the meal. The discernible set pattern of the liturgical action: taking the bread/cup, blessing/thanking, breaking bread, and distribution, establishes intended similarity with the multiplication of the bread sequences in Mark 6:41 and 8:6-7. The evangelist obviously wanted a liturgical and Eucharistic understanding to surface.

Alálaong bagá, as our mediator Jesus spreads for us a paschal table where we eat the bread of life and share the new and everlasting covenant. Breaking bread now as pilgrims and in constant thanksgiving in our Eucharist, we await with Jesus the messianic banquet of the future when the reign of God is brought to fulfillment.

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

offing. On May 28 alone, Shanghai lost $550 billion in market value— a reminder stocks can’t surge 10 percent a week forever, not even in China. Why would the government want to risk the possibility hundreds of millions of aggrieved day traders heading onto the streets with protest banners?

Korea isn’t a perfect comparison for China’s present situation. Its household debt bubble was arguably an unintended consequence of a larger economic strategy; China’s, by contrast, seems more purely cynical. But in some ways, Korea can now be a role model for Beijing. Seoul quickly acknowledged the severity of its troubles in 1997, and it started letting some dodgy companies fail, increasing corporate transparency and liberalizing its economy. China should emulate that strategy now.

Unfortunately, Beijing’s ongoing attempt to swap one debt trap for another speaks to a worrisome lack of political will. Rather than forcing inefficient companies to trim excesses, Xi is letting them escape the consequences of their actions.

One year ago, Xi claimed “market forces” would play a “decisive” during his tenure. For the sake of normal Chinese savers, he should stick by those words and reverse his present policies.

called trade mispricing—where a company artificially sets the prices for goods or services sold among its subsidiaries to avoid taxation.

With corporate tax rates in Africa averaging 28 percent, this equates to nearly $6 billion in lost revenues.

In addition, developing countries as a whole lose around $100 billion a year through tax-avoidance schemes involving tax havens, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

“Reforming global corporate tax rules so that African governments can claim the money owed to them is vital to tackle extreme poverty and inequality and boost economic growth, Brye said. “That’s why Oxfam has been calling for a UK taxdodging bill that would ensure UK companies do their bit to help poor families at home and in developing countries.”

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A8 Thursday, June 4, 2015

BSP seen keeping key rates steady until Q4

By Bianca Cuaresma

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he Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is seen keeping its rates steady until the fourth quarter of the year, when it is expected to tackle the spur of inflationary pressures due to price movements and the base effect from last year.

“We believe the BSP will hold rates steady as a dreadful base is ahead in the fourth quarter of 2015,” said Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) economist Trinh Nguyen in a research note.

The HSBC economist is referring to the decline in inflation in the last quarter of 2014 to 2.7 percent due to the sharp reduction in oil prices.

Aside from the so-called dreaded base, oil prices are also beginning to rise again, threatening the government’s 2-percent to 4-percent inflation target for the year.

Some economists also fear a spike in the prices of agricultural products, as the El Niño phenomenon is expected to take its toll on the country’s farm production, particularly rice.

The BSP has kept all its policy rates since October last year.

Current monetary-policy settings are

Nguyen: “We believe the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] will hold rates steady as a dreadful base is ahead in the fourth quarter of 2015.”

at 4 percent for the overnight borrowing, or the reverse-repurchase facility, and 6 percent for the overnight lending or repurchase facility.

The BSP will be having its next monetary-policy meeting on June 25. This will be the fourth monetary-policy meeting of the BSP for the year.

The Philippine Statistics Authority, meanwhile, is expected to release the May inflation data on Friday.

Nguyen’s forecast on the Philippines’s inflation is at 1.9 percent.

“We expect food-price pressure to be subdued,” Nguyen said. “HSBC’s forecast is within the BSP’s May forecast range of 1.7 percent to 2.4 percent.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Revitalized steel sector to see robust demand

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By Cai U. Ordinario

he robust growth of the industry sector, as well as the disaster-related reconstruction and rehabilitation works, will increase the demand for steel products in the country, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Neda Director General for Programming Rolando G. Tungpalan said the growth of industries, such as shipbuilding, will contribute to the increase in demand for iron and steel products.

“With an improved and revitalized iron and steel sector, we are confident that we will be at par with neighboring countries and

be able to keep up with the rising demands of our fast-growing economy,” Tungpalan said.

“The ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation of disasteraffected areas and retrofitting works for disaster-resilient infrastructure are also expected to increase the demand for iron and steel in the coming years,”

he added.

Tungpalan also said that with the Philippine economy continuing its high-growth path and the Asean integration taking place by the end of 2015, the government expects a surge in developments within and outside Metro Manila.

The Neda official said these are in addition to key infrastructure projects that are already on stream and in the pipeline.

He also emphasized that infrastructure development is a crucial determinant of the growth and competitiveness of the country. Tungpalan said it facilitates connectivity and mobility, strengthens resilience among people and communities, and reduces poverty through quality employment.

“Iron and steel are a major catalyst for national development. The growth of local iron and steel production will support

and further stimulate future infrastructure development initiatives,” Tungpalan said.

In the first quarter of 2015, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that while government construction spending declined 24.6 percent, private construction investments were on the rise.

Data showed that private construction posted a growth of 14.2 percent from a construction of 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

As a production sector, the construction industry posted a growth of only 4.5 percent in the first quarter of 2015, on the back of slower publicconstruction spending.

The slower growth of construction was higher than the 1 percent posted in the first quarter of 2014, but slower than the 17.9-percent growth it posted in the fourth quarter.

Japan, PHL huddle amid concerns over sea claims

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he Philippine president is on his sixth visit to Japan in less than five years, signaling his country’s deepening ties with Tokyo amid increasing concerns by both sides about China’s assertiveness in regional seas.

In a speech in Tokyo on Wednesday, President Aquino criticized what he called China’s “unlawful territorial claim,” and praised Tokyo for demonstrating solidarity with the Philippines in advocating the problem. Mr. Aquino has been accorded rare state guest status, and also was invited to speak later Wednesday to the upper house of parliament.

During his four-day visit, President Aquino will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe focusing on defense and security ties. The two leaders are expected to sign a deal, confirming Japan’s provision of 10 patrol vessels to the Philippine Coast Guard to bolster its patrolling capability around Manilaclaimed South China Sea islands.

Since both countries are US allies and

share concerns over China’s maritime activity, the Philippines is extremely important to Japan, said Kenko Sone, spokesman at Japan’s Prime Minister’s Office.

Foreign Ministry officials said on Monday that Abe and Mr. Aquino were also expected to expand their defense cooperation in other areas, including the transfer of Japanese military equipment and technology to the Philippines, possibly related to maritime reconnaissance. Tokyo eased its self-imposed ban on military exports last year.

Under Abe’s push to expand Japan’s international defense role, Japan has been expanding its defense cooperation with a number of countries to complement its cornerstone alliance with the US. Manila has protested over China’s stepped-up reclamation work on Philippine-claimed islands and maneuvers against Filipino air patrols and fishermen.

During an international defense conference last week in Singapore, US officials said China’s expanding reclamation work could be for a military use. AP

IC endorses EO on insurance ‘cat-pool’. . .

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the big risks such an undertaking would bring upon those companies who will join as insurers.

“We need the bulk, because we need the amount to sustain it. We need the premiums to be able to pay the claims,” Rellosa said.

He explained that the risks would probably be spread among the various insurers who will join the cat-pool, depending on their capitalization and appetite for risk.

“Perhaps, the risks will be based on the amount of subscription that a particular insurer will have in the cat-pool. So the risks that they will take will depend on their capitalization and their appetite for risks. Then the rest will be undertaken by reinsurers abroad,” Rellosa said.

The proposed catastrophe pool has the support of the World Bank and its private-sector arm, the International Finance Corp.

Pira explained that making property insurance more accessible to everybody should be a key activity of the government in anticipation of a big earthquake seen happening along the Marikina Valley fault line, as warned by government scientists.

Pira noted that in the reconstruction efforts after Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan), which hit the Philippines in late 2013, the total

estimated economic loss was at P571 billion, while insurance payouts were only at P66 billion because many of the victims did not have property insurance.

To make property insurance more accessible, Pira is also lobbying in Congress for the lowering of taxes imposed on the nonlife-insurance industry, which is taxed at 24.5 percent to 26.5 percent, currently the highest in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Nonlife-insurance companies are slapped with a 12-percent value-added tax (VAT) on top of a 12.5-percent documentary stamp tax (DST), while fire-insurance policies are levied an additional 2-percent fire service tax. On top of these, local governments also impose 0.15 percent to 0.17 percent in municipal tax for property insurance covers.

Singapore only imposes a tax of 7 percent on nonlife-insurance policies, while Thailand imposes only 11.3 percent.

Dooc also supported the call for lower taxes and has pushed for the passage of the bill in Congress to help prepare the nonlife-insurance industry for more stringent competition when the economic integration within the Asean starts in 2016.

“It is truly unfair and unjust for our nonlife-insurance industry to continuously shoulder these onerous taxes, the highest anywhere in the world, at 24.5 percent to 26.5 percent,” the IC chief said.