BusinessMirror August 21, 2015

BusinessMirror

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

U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business Saturday 201421, Vol.2015 10 No. 40 Friday, 18, August Vol. 10 No. 316

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MBC SAYS‘SLIPSHOD’ VERSION OF INCENTIVESRATIONALIZATION BILL WILL ERODE PHL’S COMPETITIVENESS

‘Don’t rush passage of RFI bill’

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HE Makati Business Club (MBC) is advising lawmakers not to rush the Rationalization of Fiscal Incentives (RFI) bill, as railroading the measure just to pass it in the present Congress—as committed by President Aquino in his last State of the Nation Address (Sona)—may lead to a slipshod version of the key fiscal-reform measure.

INSIDE

ARMIE HAMMER Watch over us

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EAR Lord, give us an assurance of Your presence in our mind, heart and soul. Let not our spirit grope in the dark. Let us rest with the thought that You watch over us day-in and day-out and with the hope that tomorrow we shall awake with You at our side. Please continue to watch over us. Amen!

DAILY PRAYERS 2015, VIRGIE SALAZAR AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

ON THE MENU: VEGETARIAN HUNAN-STYLE TOFU »D3

BusinessMirror

Friday, August 21, 2015

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ARMIE HAMMER

THE ‘SPY’ WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

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ESSE EISENBERG may have gotten the lion’s share of the spectacular triumph of The Social Network in 2010, but Armie Hammer’s astonishing turn as the Winklevoss twins was impossible to overlook.

The classically handsome actor—so handsome that GQ was moved to put out recently a story with the title “Armie Hammer Is So Handsome It Must Be a Joke” ( goo.gl/n0QrBK goo.gl/n0QrBK)—followed up that breakthrough with a turn in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar (2011) so exceptionally nuanced that he won Best Supporting Actor nominations, including one from the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Now, Hammer stars as the overly efficient Russian secret agent Illya Kuryaki in Warner Bros.’s slick action-thriller The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He stars opposite Henry Cavill ((Man of Steel), who plays Kuryaki’s rival in the CIA, Napoleon Solo. The two agents are ordered to put aside their

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photographer LORENZO AGIUS producers CAT (BURKLEY) FARBER | PORTFOLIO ONE INC.

stylist EILIDH GREIG groomer CHERI KEATING clothing BLUE AND BLACK STRIPED KNIT JUMPER BY DRIES VAN NOTE; JEANS BY J CREW

LIFE

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BANGKOK ATTACK The World BusinessMirror

B3-2 Friday, August 21, 2015

Bangkok attack turns Malaysian family’s vacation into tragedy

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TRUMP, BUSH DUEL AT TOWN HALL EVENTS

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ERRY, New Hampshire—2016 Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Jeb Bush faced off at dueling town hall events in New Hampshire, capping a day of campaigning in the early-voting state.

In Derry on Wednesday, Trump drew a capacity crowd to a highschool auditorium of almost 1,000, complete with overflow rooms. He started his criticism of Bush in a briefing with reporters and continued in the town hall.

Several national polls show Trump leading the crowded Republican presidential field—there are 17 of them—including Bush, a former Florida governor. Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are also in the top tier.

“I don’t see how he’s electable,” Trump told reporters ahead of the town hall, later describing Bush as a “low-energy person” who has trouble getting things done.

“Right down the road, we have Jeb,” Trump said early in the town hall, drawing boos from an audito-

rium packed with enthusiastic supporters. Trump mocked Bush for going “down like a rock” in early polls in the state and failing to excite his supporters.

“You know what’s happening to Jeb’s crowd?” he asked at one point.

“They’re sleeping.”

In nearby Merrimack, meanwhile, Bush, who had once been reluctant to go after his opponents, portrayed the billionaire businessman as a tax hike-promoting Democrat that voters would eventually tire of.

“I think what people are eventually going to vote for is a proven conservative leader that’s done it,” Bush said in a video of the event released by his campaign.

He went on to criticize Trump for his past contributions to Democrats, as well as his changing positions on issues, including taxes and his previous support for a single-payer health care system.

“He’s won over a lot of people.

People are very angry about how Washington’s not working. He’s tapped into that,” Bush said. “But

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when people look at his record, it is not a conservative record” Trump and Bush, who remains the favorite of establishment donors, have been clashing frequently over their stances on issues, including immigration, in recent weeks.

Bush’s wife was born in Mexico and he has said in the past that people entering the country illegally do so as an “act of love” for their families.

Trump, who is calling for the mass deportation of people who have entered the country illegally and the building of a giant wall on the border, has mocked such rhetoric.

Trump also defended the use of the term “anchor babies” on Wednesday and also bragged about the wall he plans to build along the Mexican border, saying it would look good as well as keep people out.

Bush, meanwhile, criticized Trump’s immigration platform, arguing that it’s “not a conservative plan” because it would cost tens of billions of dollars to carry out.AP

MBC Executive Director Peter Angelo Perfecto said that, while the business sector supports the initiative to streamline fiscal incentives to help plug revenue leakages, sacrificing the content of the law just to ensure its passage this Congress could lead to the erosion of the country’s competitiveness as an investment destination.

“Like what we said before, we do agree with rationalization. That’s important; I think we have to do that.

But we have to make sure it doesn’t

affect our competitiveness. If [the timeline is too tight], we might make the mistake and we might regret the final form of the law,” said Perfecto at the sidelines of an Integrity Initiative Forum on Thursday.

Congress is now facing a constricted schedule in passing the RFI bill, as the national budget deliberations are already under way.

There is also the pressure to pass the Bangsamoro basic law in the present Congress.

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ISRAEL TO U.N.: INVESTIGATE OFFICIAL FOR MISCONDUCT

U IN this August 16 photo provided by the Neoh family, a groupie taken by Lim Soo See (left) during a lunch with her family (from second from left) Neoh Ee Ling, 4-year-old Lee Jing Xuan, Lee Tze Siang, an unidentified Thai driver, Neoh Hock Guan, Neoh Jai Jun and Lim Saw Gek, in Hua Hin, Thailand, the day before the explosion at the Erawan Shrine at Rajprasong intersection in Bangkok. All family members pictured in the selfie were killed except for Neoh Ee Ling and Neoh Hock Guan. NEOH FAMILY VIA AP

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UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—This week’s deadly bombing in Bangkok left a Malaysian family struggling to come to grips with an attack that claimed at least four members who had been enjoying a Thai vacation.

Among the hardest-hit has been Tan Kim Kee, 71, who was devastated when told her family had been caught in the middle of Monday’s blast at a shrine popular with tourists, as well as Thais.

“She cannot accept the truth,” close family friend Visen Lim Gin Seong said on Wednesday. “She has been crying nonstop since yesterday and asking why heaven is so cruel to the family when they have been so good to people.”

Seven members of the family had traveled by train on Saturday from Butterworth on northern Malaysia’s Penang island to the Thai beach resort city of Hua Hin, and arrived in Bangkok on Monday, Lim said.

Neoh Ee Ling, 33, who is five months pregnant, was not wounded in the bombing, and her father, Neoh Hock Guan, 53, reportedly suffered minor injuries. But four other family members, including Ee Ling’s 4-yearold daughter, are confirmed dead, and a fifth is presumed to have died.

“All the family members are distraught,” Lim, a businessman, said in a phone interview from Penang. “It is also heartbreaking for friends and neighbors. They are good, friendly and generous people. Nobody expects this to happen.”

“Seven of them went on holiday, but only two came back,” Lim said.

The family had waited for Hock Guan’s youngest son, Neoh Jai Jun, 20, who studies in Taiwan, to return to Malaysia before heading to Thailand for a vacation, while his sisterin-law, Lim So See, 52, who lived in Singapore, joined the trip as well, Lim said.

Jai Jun was killed in the blast, and So See is presumed dead.

The other members of the family who died were Hock Guan’s 49-yearold wife, Lim Saw Gaik; son-in-law Lee Tze Siang, 35; and granddaughter Lee Jin Xuan, 4.

The Monday evening explosion at the open-air Erawan Shrine, located at one of Bangkok’s busiest intersec-

tions, left 20 people dead and more than 120 wounded.

Hock Guan was quoted by the Malay Mail as saying he was about to pray at the shrine on Monday evening when he dropped the candle he wanted to light.

“When I bent to pick it up, I heard the explosion,” he said. “The next thing I knew, none of my family members were in sight.”

“I can’t believe our holiday would end like this...this incident is a black mark in our lives,” he said.

Lim said Hock Guan—who runs a cake business and is known as “Kuih Guan” in his neighborhood—and his family are well known for their charity work, cooking food for a nearby old folks’ home and making frequent visits and donations to orphanages.

Kuih is the Malay word for cake.

But now the surviving family members are struggling to deal with the aftermath of the attack.

Ee Ling’s 6-year-old son, Lee Jian Hen, who stayed back with his grandmother in Penang, sensed something was amiss when he saw crying family members and photos of his father in the newspapers.

The boy’s grandfather, Lee Ting Hiang, 61, told local media that Jian Hen has become reserved and moody since the tragedy.

“He keeps on asking why his father’s photographs are all over the newspapers, but we have yet to tell him.... I don’t know how,” Ting Hiang said. “This is the hardest thing I have to do in my life—breaking the news of my son’s death to his son.” AP

NITED NATIONS—Israel’s ambassador is urging the UN’s internal watchdog to investigate the head of a UN agency for misconduct, accusing her of “modern day anti-Semitism.” Last year he tried unsuccessfully to get Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to suspend Rima Khalaf.

Ambassador Ron Prosor met Carmen Lapointe, the head of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), late last month and called for a disciplinary hearing against Khalaf, a Jordanian who heads the Beirut-based UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which promotes economic and social development in 17 Arab countries.

A letter from the ambassador to Lapointe obtained on Wednesday by the Associated Press (AP) said “Ms. Khalaf has abused her position in order to promote an anti-Israel agenda, in a flagrant violation of UN obligations and principles.”

Khalaf told AP in Beirut on Wednesday that she stands by her statements highlighting “Israel’s documented violations of international law against the Palestinian people” and rejecting “the concept of religious or ethnic purity of states.”

“I am surprised that rejecting discrimination, and reiterating the principles of

equality and justice in the UN Charter, can still be contested by anyone,” Khalaf said.

Prosor gave a series of examples including her support for the June 29 “illegal and provocative attempt” to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, a July 7 reference which he said equated “terrorism with a fight for ‘justice,’” and what he called “a hate-fueled report” on Arab integration in March 2014 “that once again promotes anti-Israel incitement by blaming Israel for shortcomings in the Arab world.”

“Ms. Khalaf’s outrageous criticism against the state of Israel and the discrediting of its government undermine the integrity of the United Nations and amount to serious misconduct, by UN standards,” Prosor said in the July 27 letter. “I call on you to initiate an urgent investigation into this matter.”

Lapointe said late on Wednesday, when asked whether her office would investigate, that “OIOS is not allowed by our mandate to discuss whether or not it has opened a case, or the status of a case that may have been opened.”

Last year Israel urged the secretarygeneral to suspend Khalaf for anti-Israeli statements but he refused.

In a speech in late February 2014 Khalaf

referred to “Israel’s adamancy that it is a Jewish State, which violates the rights of both the Muslim and Christian indigenous populations and revives the concept of state ethnic and religious purity, which caused egregious human suffering during the 20th century.”

Prosor strongly objected to her reference to Israel practicing religious and ethnic purity like the Nazis in World War II, and to “the appalling claim” in the March 2014 report that Hitler sought to facilitate the emigration of German Jews to Palestine when he was responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews.

Khalaf said she did not claim that Hitler sought to create a safe haven for the Jewish people in the Middle East.

“Nothing is comparable to the atrocities of the Nazis, especially the Holocaust,” Khalaf said. “Yet this should serve as a reminder for the world of the disastrous consequences of discriminating among people based on their religion or ethnic origin.”

Israel’s UN Mission said Prosor told Lapointe during their meeting that “Israel is already fighting against hate and incitement in enough arenas every day” and “will not remain silent” about Khalaf’s remarks. AP

60 PERCENT OF TOURISM ROADINFRA PLAN DONE

INDIGENOUS PROTESTERS CHASE OFF POLICE IN ECUADOR TOWN

S. KOREA LEADER TO ATTEND CHINA’S END OF WWII EVENT

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EOUL, South Korea—South Korean President Park Geun-hye will travel to China next month to attend a ceremony marking the anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II, her office said on Thursday.

China plans to hold a series of events to commemorate the anniversary, including a lavish military parade featuring aerial displays and its latest weapons.

Park’s office said in a statement she will attend a September 3 anniversary ceremony. But her aides said Park remains undecided on attending the military parade set for the same day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend the Chinese celebrations though many Western leaders won’t do so.

China assisted North Korea and fought against South Korea during the 1950-1953 Korean War, while Americanled UN troops fought alongside South Korea. China and South Korea now have booming trade ties.

China is North Korea’s last major ally and biggest aid benefactor. It’s not known if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will attend the Chinese ceremonies.

If he attends, it would be his first known travel outside the country since taking power upon the death of his dictator father Kim Jong Il in late 2011.

Earlier this year, there was speculation Kim would attend May’s Victory Day celebration in Russia. But Kim eventually didn’t go and sent his parliament head to the event that marked the 70th anni-

However, attendance is considered problematic for at least three reasons, offering sufficient cause for foreign leaders to maintain their distance.

Many nations, including those as far away as Great Britain, have recently criticized China’s aggressive military moves in the seas on its periphery, including building new, military significant islands in the South China Sea. There is also concern that the parade is being used to build international support for China in its ongoing rivalry with Japan.

Some also worry about the imagery of foreign leaders attending a military parade adjacent to Tiananmen Square, the heart of a student-led pro-democracy movement in 1989 that was

WORLD

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INDIAN women from the Amazon region of Ecuador take part in a protest march in Quito, Ecuador, on Wednesday. The march was called by labor unions and indigenous organizations to protests against policies of President Rafeal Correa. AP/DOLORES OCHOA

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UITO, Ecuador—Indigenous protesters wielding spears in southeastern Ecuador sent police and soldiers fleeing on Wednesday in a clash that Interior Minister

and soldiers in the Amazon town of Macas are upset with President Rafael Correa’s refusal to consult them on mining and oil drilling on their traditional lands.

since a diverse coalition of anti-Correa forces called a general strike on August 13. Key among their demands is that legislation be withdrawn that would allow Correa indefinite reelection.

LASTGASP PUSH Sports BusinessMirror

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TIM DUNCAN has made sacrifices, both financial and statistical, in pursuit of championships.

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| FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

NBA’S TOP TEAMMATE S

AN ANTONIO—Tim Duncan has given up millions in salary to give the San Antonio Spurs the cap space needed to re-sign teammates and add players, such as LaMarcus Aldridge.

And Duncan has deferred offensively to teammates like Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard despite averaging 19.5 points over his 18-year career.

He has made those sacrifices, both financial and statistical, in pursuit of championships, not individual awards. But the National Basketball Association (NBA) gave him one anyway.

Duncan’s peers awarded him the TwymanStokes Teammate of the Year award on Wednesday. In its third year, the award is voted upon by players from a candidate pool selected by past NBA stars.

“I know how to be the way I am because of people that came before me,” Duncan said. “The people I was able to be teammates with, be around, watch them operate, watch them work, watch them as teammates [and] watch them accept the role. All those things are big pieces in what I am today and who I am today. So a lot of credit goes to them, as well.”

Duncan received 72 first-place votes. Vince Carter of the Memphis Grizzlies finished second and Atlanta’s Elton Brand finished third.

Spurs center David Robinson accepted a lesser role with the team early in Duncan’s rookie season after San Antonio made the 6-foot-11 forward the No. 1 pick in the 1997 draft. The lessons the Hall

of Fame center imparted that season have resounded with the entire organization, Duncan in particular.

Duncan’s scoring and defense have helped the Spurs to five NBA championships. But it has been the 39-year-old’s willingness to accept contracts far below the maximum value he could earn that has helped San Antonio maintain a roster which has made 18 straight postseason appearances.

“Tim’s contributed to our success in so many ways for so long,” Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford said. “I know people continue to point it out, and it needs to be pointed out, the support and what he’s allowed us to do, but this is nothing new.”

Despite being arguably the team’s best overall player last season, Duncan is taking a $5 million pay cut this season so the team had the resources necessary to re-sign Leonard and Danny Green and bring in Aldridge, a prized free agent.

Those moves helped convince David West to walk away from a $12.6 million player option with the Indiana Pacers to sign a $1.5 million offer from the Spurs.

“I’m excited to get to know him because of that and other reasons,” Duncan said. “People talk very highly of him. A lot of guys who have been teammates over the years with him have a lot of great things to say about him. Obviously, talent wise, he’s a great addition. He’s a tough body. He’s a veteran player that knows how to play the game. All those things you add them the right way, it’s going to be an incredible plus for us.”

West’s addition along with and the return of Parker, Manu Ginobili, Leonard, Green and Boris Diaw have made the Spurs a strong contender to win their sixth championship. Duncan said he has worked out twice with Aldridge in the past week.

“Obviously we’ve added talent, and that’s wonderful,” Duncan said. “We’re going to have to work them in, have them figure out how to play with us and for us to play with them. It will be a process. Pop’s excited about it, I’m definitely excited about it, I know the guys coming in are excited. It’s great to be in a situation where we have a chance [to win an NBA title] again.” AP

LAST-GASP PUSH

In 10 previous events this year, Tiger Woods has missed the cut in four of them and withdrew from another. He’s had three rounds in the 80s, his best finish was a tie for 17th at the Masters and his best week came at The Greenbrier Classic, where he finished just six shots out of the lead.

TIGER WOODS gets a last chance

B J M The Associated Press

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REENSBORO, North Carolina—It’s now or never for many players at the Wyndham Championship— the last chance to qualify for golf’s postseason.

That group includes Tiger Woods.

The biggest name in the sport is playing the final event of the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour’s regular season for the first time, in an effort to get his game back on track and make a last-gasp push for the playoffs.

“I’ve started to build. I just need to get more consistent with everything, and start stringing together not just holes, not just rounds, but tournaments,”Woods said on Wednesday. “That’s why this tournament’s important to me. Hopefully I can win it, get into the playoffs and play a bunch of golf.”

Woods, who missed the cut at the PGA Championship last week, beat last Friday’s deadline to enter the Wyndham but didn’t finalize his commitment until Monday.

He said he had “a blast” playing a pro-am round on Wednesday with National Basketball Association All-Star Chris Paul—a native of nearby Winston-Salem who starred at Wake Forest.

And now he wants to stick around for a while.

In 10 previous events this year, Woods has missed the cut in four of them and withdrew from another.

He’s had three rounds in the 80s, his best finish was a tie for 17th at the Masters and his best week came at The Greenbrier Classic, where he finished just six shots out of the lead.

He’s eager to test his game on the Donald Ross-designed course at Sedgefield Country Club that puts a premium on strong iron play and features fast, undulating Bermuda grass greens that Woods is trying to quickly figure out.

During a soggy pro-am, though, the course played a bit differently with more, well, woods.

“It’s going to be a lot of irons off the tee, but it wasn’t the

case because it’s so wet,” Woods said. “Balls are plugging. Lot of mud balls out there.”

The Wyndham has relished its spot as the last chance for the tour’s bubble players to force their way into the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin next week at The Barclays in New Jersey.

Woods—who’s at No. 187 on the points list—is pretty far from the bubble. Only the top 125 players will make it to The Barclays, which means he probably needs a victory in his first visit here.

Recent history seems to be against him: Last year, only one player outside the top 125—Sang-Moon Bae—earned enough points here to move into the playoffs. A 14th-place tie helped him jump from No. 126 to No. 120. The year before, nobody did it.

“If I don’t win this event,” Woods said, “I’ll have my offseason early.”

Luke Donald is 124th, followed by Charl Schwartzel, Scott Langley, Seung-Yul Noh, S.J. Park and last year’s winner, Camilo Villegas. The top 125 in the standings also will earn 2015-2016 tour cards.

“There’s so much to play for,” said Webb Simpson, the 2011 winner who’s safely at No. 49 on the points list. “It’s definitely on guys’ minds, I think.”

This would rank as one of the best fields in the 76-year history of the tournament even if Woods hadn’t made his last-minute decision to play Sedgefield.

Adam Scott, meanwhile, joined Woods as two of the six former world No. 1 ranked players in the field.

Until Woods’s late entry, Scott was arguably the biggest attraction for the event.

He also was in a pro-am foursome that was immediately behind the one with Woods and Paul, and with so much of the gallery following them, Scott could go through his round in relative anonymity.

“There’s no doubt about things created by Tiger,” Scott said. “It happens everywhere he goes. You can tell how passionate the local people and everyone involved in the tournament here are about this tournament, and it means such a great deal to them to have Tiger Woods in the field. I think it’s fantastic.

“We’re in for a great week, no matter what,” he added.

SPORTS

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OUGHLY 60 percent of the P60-billion tourism roadinfrastructure master plan of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) has been completed, a Cabinet official said on Thursday.

In absolute terms, the government has paved about 1,549 kilometers of tourism freeways over the last five years, Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson said.

“The investment amount released over the period of five years from financial year 2011 to 2015 was utilized to finance 463

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 46.3060

projects involving construction, upgrading, rehabilitation and improvement of roads and bridges, including slope-protection works with a total length of 2,502 km, ” he explained.

Financed by the DOT-DPWH Convergence Program and the DPWH’s road-infrastructure program, the master plan is more than half way through with 110 projects completed, 316 ongoing and 37 under the procurement stage.

Among the major tourism road projects completed and ongoing include the 6-km, twolane tunnel Ternate-Nasugbu Road connecting the coastal C  A

WHERE’S THE INFRA UPGRADE? Ramil Santos parks his metal-wheeled cart with benches fashioned from scrap wood as he waits for passengers along the railway in Manila. Manila and other cities are choked with construction sites for office and apartment towers, but spending on roads, railways and other unglamorous but essential infrastructure collapsed after the 1997 financial crisis and has yet to recover. AP

Intl commercial air traffic up 27% in Q1

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NTERNATIONAL commercial air traffic soared by 28 percent during the first quarter of the year, but the growth posted by local carriers were outpaced by their foreign counterparts.

Data obtained from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed that airlines with operations to and from Manila flew a combined 5.34 million international passengers during the first three months of the year, a 28-percent rise from 4.19 million passengers the year prior.

Domestic carriers flew 2.54 million of the total passenger count, roughly 12 percent higher than the 2.27 million in 2014.

L egac y c a r r ier Ph i l ippi ne Airlines sliced half of the international traffic for local carriers at 1.463 million. Cebu Pacific trailed behind with 837,942, followed by

AirAsia Zest with 174,246. These figures are higher when compared to the air-traffic performance in the first quarter of 2014. Foreign carriers, however, grew by a faster 47 percent, to 2.8 million passengers from 1.91 million passengers.

Officials of the air-services regulator were sought for further details, but they were not available as of press time. Domestic and international air travel are expected to get a boost this year after the regulator decided to scrap the fuel surcharge from airline fares due to the declining prices of jet fuel in the international market.

A fuel surcharge is a temporary relief granted to airlines to help them recover losses incurred from higher jet-fuel prices. It ranges from P500 to as high as P15,000, depending on the destination.

Fuel prices have been dropping as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to maintain current production levels despite a glut in the market with an estimated oversupply of 1.5 million to 2 million barrels daily.

Following a period of relative stability of above $100 per barrel, oil prices have plunged since mid-2014, falling by more than $40 per barrel to five-year lows.

Fuel accounts for as much as 60 percent of an airline’s operating cost per passenger, and is the secondhighest expense next to labor.

Data from the International Air Transport Association showed that jet-fuel cost was at $63.5 per barrel as of July 31, down by 14 percent from the preceding month and 47.7 percent less than the year-ago price.

Lorenz S. Marasigan

n JAPAN 0.3739 n UK 72.6124 n HK 5.9727 n CHINA 7.2404 n SINGAPORE 33.0073 n AUSTRALIA 33.9512 n EU 51.5201 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.3456 Source: BSP (20 August 2015)

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News

BusinessMirror

Friday, August 21, 2015

Pervasive political dynasty worsened poverty in PHL T

By Cai U. Ordinario

he history of political dynasties has nothing to show for their continued existence, the system having failed to reduce poverty and may even be said to have worsened poverty conditions in the country, according to a study released by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS).

In a policy note, authors led by PIDS senior research fellow Jose Ramon Albert and the Asian Institute of Management Rizalino S. Navarro Policy Center for Competitiveness (AIM-RSN-PCC) Executive Director Ronald Mendoza said prevalent and unending poverty was the reason there remains the need to regulate political dynasties.

“Dynasties are pervasive in the 10 poorest provinces that are afflicted by low levels of human development, bad governance, violence and poor business climates,” the authors said.

60 percent of tourism road-infra plan done

“Either poverty results in the creation of political dynasties or political dynasties exacerbate bad governance failing to reduce, if not actually worsen, poverty conditions,” they added.

Citing data from the AIM policy center, the authors said the 10 poorest provinces had poverty incidence as low as 43.49 percent to a high of 67.31 percent, but had incidence of dynasties as low as 51.43 percent to a high of 59.47 percent.

In 2012 the poorest province was identified as Lanao del Sur having Continued from A1

towns of Ternate, Cavite and Nasugbu, Batangas; the 5.6-km access road to Puerto Princesa City Underground River also leading to mangrove forest, white-sand beach, Sabang zipline and Ugong rock mountain in Palawan; 44.6-km Taytay-El Nido Road, Palawan; 11-km Ambangeg Junction National Road to Mount Pulag,

poverty incidence of 67.31 percent, and 59.47-percent incidence of dynasties in political leadership.

The second poorest province was Eastern Samar with a poverty incidence of 55.43 percent, and a 54.17percent incidence of having political dynasties in power.

The least poor of the 10 poorest provinces were Northern Samar and Western Samar, which had a poverty incidence of 43.5 percent, and 43.49 percent, and a 52.61-percent and 51.43-percent incidence of having political dynasties in power, respectively.

Apart from a direct link to poverty incidence, political dynasties also tend to weaken checks and balances in the government and the political system. The authors, likewise, said political dynasties “perpetuate personality-based politics” that focus on a candidate’s name rather than his or her credentials.

“Greater access by the people not only to growth processes but also to political processes by passing a legislation that regulates political

known for its magnificent view of sunrise and sunset, in Benguet; 24-km access roads to Donsol, Sorsogon, famous for whale shark viewing, locally known as Butanding; 41-km Panglao Island Circumferential Road leading to location of Bohol’s beach resorts and dive spots; and the 31-km Island Garden City of Samal Circumferential Road, which provides

dynasties will further strengthen our democracy and promote inclusiveness,” the authors said.

According to the authors, while there are two versions of an antidynasty bill lodged in both houses of Congress, these do not guarantee their complete removal and not likely to provide a level field for the political contestants.

However, passing the legislation is considered indespensable to reforming the political process. The proposed legislation should encourage and extend the opportunity for other families and individuals to become the nation’s leaders.

“Belonging to a political family is certainly not evil by itself. Various eminent families, such as the Tañada family in the Philippines and the Kennedy family in the United States, have made important contributions to society. The question is whether the status quo in the political landscape provides equal opportunities to all families to contribute to society,” the authors said.

access to Pearl Farm Beach Resort and Samal Botanical Garden in Samal Island, Davao del Norte.

In Northern Luzon, DPWH Region 1 recently completed the improvement of the 4-km Ilocos Norte-Abra Junction Road, which serves as gateway to ecotourism spots of the mountainous municipality of Nueva Era, Ilocos Norte.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

‘Don’t rush passage of RFI bill’ Continued from A1

On the replacement package of perks currently being proposed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Finance (DOF), Perfecto said the MBC has yet to release a position.

Despite repeated claims of the two departments that they already have a consolidated position, the proposed bill is still stuck at the committee level in both chambers of Congress. Initially, the two agencies agreed to just move ahead with the RFI’s twin measure, the Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act. However, with the President calling for renewed action on the RFI bill in his last Sona, the DTI and DOF are again tackling the incentives-rationalization measure.

Already, the renewability of fiscal perks being enjoyed by registered companies has emerged as another “sticking point” in the discussions on the RFI bill.

Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo wants the corporate income-tax (CIT) privilege reduced to no more than 15 years, renewable to another 15 years, subject to the approval of the board of the various investment-promotion agencies (IPAs).

Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, however, wants the 15-year period scrapped altogether. For the DTI, as long as the company can justify continued enjoyment of incentives, renewing the privilege by another 15 years should be okay.

In an earlier B usiness M irror report, an initial consolidated draft on the incentives bill was endorsed by the two agencies for exporters, regardless of whether they are registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).

In the draft, Peza-registered export enterprises have two available packages. The first package includes a four-year incometax holiday (ITH), or a reduction from the current six to eight years. The four-year ITH is nonrenewable and nonextendable.

After the ITH’s expiry, companies may be granted either a 5-percent tax on gross income earned (GIE), but they still need to pay valueadded tax (VAT) and real-property tax (RPT) for 11 years; or pay 15-percent reduced CIT in lieu of local and national taxes, and still pay VAT and RPT for 11 years.

In the second package, Peza-registered firms—in the absence of an ITH—will pay 5-percent tax on GIE in lieu of local and national taxes except VAT and RPT for 15 years, or 15-percent reduced CIT in lieu of local and national taxes, VAT and RPT for 15 years.

For non-Peza-registered exporters in ecozones and free ports, they either get a 5-percent tax on GIE in lieu of local and national taxes, except VAT and RPT, for a period of 15 years, or pay 15-percent reduced CIT for 15 years.

For exporters outside ecozones and free ports, there are two packages, as well.

In the first package, Peza may allow them to enjoy a four-year ITH, plus a reduced CIT of 15 percent for 11 years.

In the second package, without an ITH, enterprises may enjoy a 15-percent reduced CIT for 15 years, a VAT refund plus duty-free importation of capital equipment and VAT and duty refund on imported raw materials, supplies and semifinished products.

For BOI-registered enterprises, the proposed package is 15-percent reduced CIT for 15 years.

Another point of debate, according to Leaño, is the prospective implementation of the new incentive schemes.

Leaño said the DTI’s stand is to allow the registered enterprises to continue enjoying their existing incentive privileges even after the RFI bill has become a law. For the DOF, however, the new scheme should be followed immediately once the law becomes effective.

“We will still discuss that.”

The House of Representatives convened a hearing on the RFI just last week. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Romero “Miro” S. Quimbo, assures passage of the bill in the lower house

by December.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Malacañang plays down envoy’s criticism over House absenteeism

By Butch Fernandez

M

ALACAÑANG on Thursday played down critical comments aired by the British ambassador who was reported to have said he found “unacceptable” the slow pace of House deliberations on the proposed Bangsamoro basic law (BBL) owing to lack of quorum.

Asked if British Ambassador Asif Ahmad’s action criticizing Filipino lawmakers was, in turn, acceptable to the Aquino administration, Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. indicated that the Palace does not see it as meddling in the host country’s legislative process.

“He [Ahmad] may have been expressing a personal observation on a matter of significance to his country on account of their robust support for the peace process,” Coloma said.

Ahmad told reporters earlier “it is noticeable that many members of Congress are not showing up, which, in my view, is unacceptable.”

The envoy expressed disappointment over reports noting the failure of the House leadership to muster a quorum during its regular session to speed up approval of the BBL, which proposes to replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a new entity, as part of a recent peace

agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

To drive home his point, Ahmad cited in comparison the British parliamentary procedures as against the House of Representative’s BBL deliberations.

He noted that “in the United Kingdom, either you agree or oppose something,” noting that “it is your duty as an elected official to debate and vote.”

Ahmad added: “But to hide under a stone is not doing the job that you are elected to do,” apparently referring to absentee members of the House of Representatives.

President Aquino has been pressing the Congress to pass the BBL that he believes will solve the separatist insurgency being waged by the MILF. However, both houses of Congress decided to change the draft bill submitted by Malacañang.

Resistance to the bill strengthened early this year in the wake of the Mamasapano Massacre that saw the killing of 44 National Police Special Action Force troopers

by MILF gunmen.

The commandos were withdrawing after killing a wanted terrorist bomber when they were ambushed by MILF fighters and other gunmen who joined the fray.

The incident prompted separate investigations in both houses of Congress.

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Friday, August 21, 2015 A3

Drilon to Umali: Watch your manners

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By Recto Mercene

ENATE President Franklin M. Drilon on Thursday told Liberal Party (LP) Rep. Reynaldo Umali to watch his manners and stop interfering in the internal affairs of the Senate.

Drilon’s statement came after Umali proposed a major overhaul of the Senate committee chairmanships once Sens. Grace Poe and Francis Escudero choose to run for a higher office in 2016.

Drilon, the LP’s vice chairman, said his partymate Umali’s statements “constitute a serious breach in the long-standing tradition of interparliamentary courtesy.”

Umali is the treasurer of the LP. Drilon said that Umali, as a fellow legislator, “would do well to stop meddling on the internal matters of the Senate.”

“I strongly urge my partymate Umali to observe interparliamentary courtesy and mind his own business. I am sure that my partymate knows better than to act like a blabbermouth,” Drilon said.

“We must refrain from making statements which do not help the already toxic political environment,” he added.

Drilon said he strongly opposed Umali’s assertion that prospective candidates in the 2016 presidential elections Poe and Escudero should be stripped off of their respective chairmanships of Senate committees.

“Our legislative work in the Senate is immune from partisanship, and I will see to it that it stays that way,” Drilon stressed.

“His [Umalis’s] suggestion is simply absurd, given that we still have to finish a lot of our Legislative priorities in the 16th Congress. We have a close and healthy working relationship in the Senate as evident from a number of measures the chamber has continuously passed,” Drilon said.

The Senate chief said that with less than a year left, he still expects the senators and their respective committees to continue working on pending reform measures of national importance that the Senate has promised the public.

The Senate leader said that regardless of their political plans, he is confident that Poe and Escudero will continue to effectively man their posts, given the crucial functions these committees to public interest. Poe chairs three Senate committees—Public Information and Mass Media; Public Order and Dangerous Drugs; and the Joint Panel on the Human Security Act, while Escudero, is at the helm of three Senate Committees—Environment and Natural Resources, and Joint Committees on the Clean Water Act and Chainsaw Act.

DMCI sides with NHC in Torre de Manila case

P

By Joel R. San Juan

ROPERTY developer DMCI Homes on Thursday sided with the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHC) in its feud with the solicitor general in connection with its controversial Torre de Manila condominium project.

In a statement, DMCI Homes Spokesman Florence Loreto said that NHC, chaired by Maria Serena Diokno, “acted responsibily and on the basis of the law” when it cleared DMCI of any liability from constructing the 46-story

residential building that has been dubbed “Rizal Monument photo bomber.”

The NCH has declared that the project site is outside the boundaries of the Rizal Park, thus, it cannot possibly obstruct the front view of the Rizal Monument.

Loreto also noted that it was Solicitor General Florin Hilbay who first flip-flopped on the issue involving Torre de Manila. “Like everyone else, we are eager to hear the explanation behind OSG’s [Office of Solicitor General] sudden reversal, possibly in the next hearing,” Loreto said.

“The people behind NHCP may have dif-

ferent opinions on Torre, but we believe they have only acted responsibly and on the basis of law,” she added.

In a July 29 letter to Hilbay, Diokno castigated the OSG for abandoning its previous position that there was no legal basis to stop the construction of the condominium project.

Diokno lamented that the OSG informed the NHC about its new position only on July 29, the deadline given by Supreme Court (SC) for the former to submit its comment on the petition filed by the Knights of Rizal seeking to enjoin project as it blocks the iconic sight line of the monument.

“You assured me that the NHCP is ‘cleared of any responsibility because you will explain, if asked, that the NHCP board members are not constitutionalists. But the draft of your statement primarily cites Section 25 of the Heritage Law [Republic Act 10066], not the Constitution, as your legal basis,” Diokno said in the letter addressed to Hilbay.

The OSG, in its position paper submitted to the SC, now argues that the NHCP and other cultural agencies have the authority to stop the construction as it violates constitutional provisions on the preservation of cultural artifacts.

Economy

A4 Friday, August 21, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

MM offices leasing at almost full capacity

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By Roderick L. Abad

he office sector continues to enjoy high take-up rate within and outside of Metro Manila on the back of competitive lease rates.

Proper t y consu ltant CBRE reported on Thursday that the aggregate occupancy rate in the metropolis remained hight at 97.1 percent in the second quarter of the year.

According to CBRE Philippines Chairman, Founder and CEO Rick Santos, most of the inventory of new office spaces were occupied by business-process outsourcing (BPO) companies. “[The] Philippines continue to enjoy steady influx of BPO companies setting up headquarters in the country,” he said.

Total net absorption in Metro Manila central business districts (CBDs) amounted to more than 40,935 square meters (sq m) during the period.

Office spaces in Fort Bonifacio were largely absorbed at 29,767 sq m, or equivalent to 97-percent occupancy.

Makati CBD, on the other hand, partook a share of 12,413 sq m, or 96-percent occupied.

The financial district of Alabang had a 95-percent occupancy rate.

Quezon City had an occupancy rate of 99 percent and Ortigas, 98 percent.

Alternative areas, like Cebu, also saw an improved occupancy rate at 91.62 percent during the period in review.

The biggest take-up noted was

in Clark, where office spaces are almost fully occupied by traditional and BPO firms at 98.37 percent on the back of weighted average lease fee of P456.74 per sq m—the lowest rate among its peers.

Rental-growth rate of offices in Cebu decreased by 0.05 percent due to the low lease rate of newly opened Skyrise Beta.

Metro Manila rental rates, on the other hand, grew by 0.81 percent from April to June 2015, with charges of the above-cited CBDs ranging from above P600 per sq m to over P1,100 per sq m. “ The Philippines continues to have the lowest office-rental rates among the Asian countries, making it a prime destination for offshoring activities,” Santos said.

The Philippines, he said, has better take-up rates compared to India, Hong Kong and Indonesia.

While foreign companies entering the country are seen to accelerate strata-titled office demand, not to mention the growing needs of local firms, the top executive is bullish that the industry is ready for this.

In fact, he said in Metro Manila alone, a total of 682,836 sq m is expected to be added to the office supply in 2015, with Fort Bonifacio taking the lead in terms

Rick Santos (left), chairman, founder and managing partner of CBRE Philippines, and Morgan Mcgilvray, director of CBRE Philippines’s Corporate Agency & Brokerage department, present the results of its new study on the office, retail, residential and industrial developments in the country. NONIE REYES

of upcoming inventory.

Overall office supply in Cebu is projected to rise to more than 90,000 sq m, especially in fringe areas once

8 Newton Boulevard Towers is completed later this year.

With the completion of the SM Clark expansion come 2016,

Subic work force to breach 100,000-mark by year-end

By Henry Empeño | Correspondent

S

UBIC BAY FREEPORT—Subic’s job-generation outlook continues to brighten in the second half of 2015, with the free port work force expected to breach the 100,000-mark by the end of the year.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Roberto V. Garcia said on Thursday that as more investments pour into the tourism and manufacturing sectors here, the total number of employees hired by various companies here has reached 99,463 as of the first semester.

Korean shipbuilding giant Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction-Philippines alone has almost 30,000 workers, Garcia pointed out.

Garcia added that things are definitely looking up in the employment sector “with the current investment and employment generation outlook, as well as the need to allocate some area for the planned Philippine military bases inside Subic.”

“In fact, the SBMA is looking around for more suitable spaces for new investors since most of the available land in the free port has already been taken,” he said.

According to SBMA records, the service industry in the Subic Bay Freeport hires the most number of workers at a total of 45,661, or 45.91 percent of the total number of employees here.

The manufacturing industry comes in next at 14.79 percent. Most of the workers in this sector are employed by firms at the two industrial parks here—the Japaneseowned Subic Techno Park and the Taiwanese-controlled Subic Bay Gateway Park.

Garcia also said with new economic developments in the Asia-Pacific region, more Japanese companies are now looking into the possibility of investing in Subic Bay Freeport.

Meanwhile, the recent construction boom in the hotel and restaurant industry here has, likewise, swelled the number of workers, contributing 2.81 percent to the total work force.

Garcia said growth has been noted even in the category for domestic helpers and caretakers, as retirees, aside from tourists, move into the Subic Freeport for its tranquil atmosphere and access to health and wellness facilities.

The local employment scene is nowhere more vibrant than in Hanjin, now the single-biggest employer in Subic with workers making up 36 percent of the total work force.

The company expects to breach the 30,000-employees mark this year, Garcia added.

According to Hanjin President Jeong Sup Shim, the company would require more skilled workers to complete new orders such as the three ultra-large container ships (ULCS) for the French shipping conglomerate CMA CGM. Shim added that aside from CMA CGM, the company has bagged contracts for six 11,000-TEU vessels with leading shipping companies across Europe and Asia.

Workers queue to apply with Subic investor-companies during the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority’s 24th anniversary jobs fair in this file photo.

Shim also said that because of the growing business at Hanjin’s Subic shipyard, the Philippines is currently ranked by the authoritative and Europe-based Clarksons Research as the fourthlargest shipbuilding nation in the world in terms of order book by builder country.

He added that, at the same time, Clarksons has reported that Hanjin Subic shipyard is the 10th largest shipyard in the world in terms of order booked, and now contributes 1.7 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT), which is equivalent to 74 percent of the Philippines’s CGT for new vessels.

a total of 144,120 sq m will be the new total office supply by next year.

“As the outsourcing and offshor-

ing sector gains strength in the country, we see more occupiers and developers prioritizing flight to quality,” Santos stressed.

ParaÑaque now called ‘The Bay City’

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ar añaque will now be appropriately called “The Bay City” with the ethos “Where Life Never Stops,” after numerous world-class hotels, resorts and leisure destinations in the Entertainment City fronting Manila Bay. The new label, Mayor Edwin Olivarez said, will transform Parañaque into a sleek, sophisticated and tourist-friendly city complete with the conveniences of ultramodern living.

“We are confident that our new nick name—the Bay City— will make Parañaque not only the country’s top tourist and entertainment destination, but also one of the best in the whole Asia-Pacific region as well,” he said.

Parañaque’s economic surge is mostly due to the huge developments in the Pagcor Entertainment City, a mixeduse complex along Manila Bay that features world-class casinos, hotels, shopping and leisure destinations, theaters and marinas, among others.

The entire Entertainment City is within Parañaque’s boundaries and the developments there are attracting more investors who are eager to take advantage of increasing tourist traffic both, domestic and international.

Last year Parañaque was adjudged the country’s most competitive city in terms of economic dynamism by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC).

This month the NCC declared the city as one of the top 3 most economically dynamic urbanized cities in the Philippines after it performed well in terms of economic dynamism, government efficiency and available infrastructure.

“The Bay City,” he said, originated from their sincere desire to seek and create an identity “that will be uniquely ours while also retaining the color, character and true values of a true Parañaqueño.”

Olivarez said the city’s new “trade mark” is also justified since the city is nestled between the majestic Manila Bay and the equally impressive Laguna de Bay, the country’s port destination during the early years of Spanish occupation.

Parañaque also plays host to the country’s premier airport, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

He noted that there has been a substantial increase in the number of business registrations last year that totaled to some 2,325, while renewal was at 17,122, for a total of 19,447 business establishments operating in the city.

During the first quarter of the year, massive developments happened after giant locators numbering to about 200 started pouring money into the over $10-billion Entertainment City project.

The first to open at the Entertainment City is Solaire Resorts and Casino of Bloomberry Resorts Co. It is envisioned as the ultimate leisure and gaming destination in the country.

Inaugurated this year is the 6.2-hectare City of Dreams Manila Resort that has six hotel towers, as well as entertainment amenities. The world-class hotelresort was developed by Melco Crown Philippines and the Sy Group’s Premium Leisure Corp.

Olivarez said giant property developer Ayala Land Inc. will also build a huge shopping-mall complex, a business-process outsourcing center and a hotel within a 9-hectare property adjacent to Pagcor Entertainment City.

The property is right across the new City of Dreams Manila, a casino and hotel complex also owned by the SM group in partnership with the Melco Crown group of Macau.

Ayala group has secured a 45-year lease for the 9.2-hectare property from the Wenceslao group, owner of the Asean Business Park complex, for the project.

Economy BusinessMirror

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GDP growth in Q2 below 6%, DBS Bank economist says

By Bianca Cuaresma

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he local economy likely grew to a more accelerated pace in the second quarter of the year, but not enough to reach the 6-percent territory during the period, an international bank said.

Singapore-based DBS Bank economist Gundy Cahyadi said the Philippine economy may have likely grown by 5.7 percent in April to June this year.

In this scenario, the growth of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) will have accelerated its pace from the disappointing 5.2-percent growth in the first quarter.

T he f i r st qu a r te r pr i nt — which was largely dragged by weak public spending and slugg i s h e x p or t g ro w t h — d i s ap pointed market expectations.

“For the most part, the only disappointing number that we have seen in the second quarter is pretty much export growth,” Cahyadi said.

“We had always expected export

growth to moderate quite markedly, compared to the previous two years, but the pace of moderation seen in first half of 2015 is slightly faster than our earlier forecast,” he added.

Public spending remains crucial to the country’s growth, the economist also said. “…It will be interesting to see how fiscal spending has fared in the second quarter of 2015. As discussed previously, we think that fiscal spending is the key to GDP growth hitting 6 percent this year,” the economist said, adding that their GDP growth forecast for the whole year is at 6 percent.

This is a whole percentage point short of the government’s annual target of 7 percent to 8 percent.

The Philippine Statistics Authority will be releasing the second quarter numbers at the end of this month.

The DBS also forecasted growth to hit 6.2 percent in 2016. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas earlier said t hat g row t h li kely increased “slightly” in the second quarter.

Friday, August 21, 2015 A5

Two-year passport validity extension urged for OFWs

Bill seeking to curb speed-related accidents approved on 2nd reading

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

T

he House of Representatives has approved on second reading a measure requiring the mandatory installation of speed limiter in public utility and certain types of vehicles.

House Bill 5911, or the “Speed Limiters Act,” seeks to address the problem of speeding, which causes a significant number of fatal traffic accidents.

Under the measure, no public utility vehicles (PUVs), shuttle services, covered vehicles, such as closed vans, haulers, cargo trailers and tanker trucks can be registered with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) or be given franchise by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) without the standard speed limiter installed and set in the vehicle.

The bill penalizes a driver, operator or owner of vehicles with nonfunctioning, tampered or without the speed limiter with a fine of P50,000.

In addition to the fine, first time offending driver shall have his driver’s license suspended for one month, while a second offense shall be meted with a three-month suspension of a driver’s license.

For subsequent offenses, the driver’s license shall be revoked, the bill said.

The measure also provides that the franchise of the offending owner or operator of the vehicle shall be suspended for three months for the first offense, six months for the second offense, and subsequent suspension of operation for one year.

It added that any person guilty of tampering the speed limiter shall suffer a penalty of imprisonment of not more than three years and a fine of P30,000.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), in coordination with the LTO, LTFRB, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Science and Technology, and in consultation with privatestakeholders, shall formulate and promulgate the necessary implementing rules and regulations of the proposed Act. According to House Committee on Transportation Chairman and Liberal Party Rep. Cesar V. Sarmiento of Catanduanes, “the installation of a speed limiter in public utility vehicles and multi-wheeler cargo trucks will force every driver to drive under a calibrated and calculated speed. With this, speed-related accidents will diminish.”

This file photo shows overseas Filipino workers (OFWs ) leaving the country. The remittances sent by these OFWs are vital to the economic strength of the Philippines.

Stephanie Tumampos

A

By Recto Mercene

utomatically extend the passport validity of vacationing overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to a maximum of two years.

Job recruiters made this request on Thursday to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) despite the agency’s earlier announcement that it intends to extend passport validity by one to two years.

The two-year lead for vacationing workers is crucial since OFWs usually spend a two-week absence from

work. It was argued that the regular processing time of 15 days for visa renewal would possibly make them lose their jobs.

According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), there were more than 2 million rehires or vacationing OFWs in 2013 who renewed their work-

ing contract. There could be more in 2014, since each year there is an increase of around 5 percent to 7 percent rehires.

In the face of this number, there is strong possibility that granting only 30 percent of 1 million OFWs whose passports are expiring within six months will affect some 300,000 workers who needed to renew their passports.

Vacationing workers have to return to their job sites before the expiration of their re-entry permits.

Failing to do so will result in the automatic loss of good-paying jobs.

Given these realities, recuiters made the plea for the automatic grant of two-year passport validity exten-

sion by the DFA. The POEA said there have been many instances where OFWs lost their opportunities to be rehired because their passports were not renewed on time.

To assure speedy process, it was suggested that the DFA would require vacationing workers to show their renewed contracts and Overses Employment Certificates as proofs that they are legitimate migrant workers.

Recruitment officials reiterated their request to shorten the processing time for OFWs with accredited job orders to seven to 10 working days.

This way, affected workers can be processed by the POEA within the brief time that visas are still valid.

ERC needs stakeholders’ wisdom on MSP issue

By Lenie Lectura

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RAINBOW-COLORED A girl checks out the colored chicks for sale in Blumentritt, Manila. The rainbow-colored chicks are sold as pets for P5 each. Vendors say they use “harmless” food coloring to make the chicks more attractive to children. KEVIN DE LA CRUZ

HE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is soliciting comments from industry stakeholders on a draft resolution that seeks to authorize distribution utilities (DUs) to provide meter services to FiT (feed-in-tariff)-Eligible renewableenergy plants.

In a notice issued on Wednesday, the ERC asked all interested parties to submit their comments on or before September 2.

The draft resolution was crafted following a letter from the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) sent to ERC in September last year.

Meralco proposed that it should be considered as the sole provider of metering service for all types of customers in its franchise area, and as such, a certificate of authority (CA) is no longer

necessary in order to register with the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) as a wholesale Metering Service Provider (MSP).

The ERC, in a reply to Meralco’s letter, said it will authorize DUs “to act as the MSPs for embedded FiT-Eligible plants located within their respective franchise areas without need of securing a separate CA. “The draft resolution is meant to make the ERC reply to Meralco a general rule that will apply to all DUs,” Meralco head for Utility Economics Larry Fernandez said in a text message when sought for comment.

The Meralco official further explained that there was an ambiguity before on who should act as MSP for embedded generation companies (gencos).

Before, by default, if the embedded gencos will register with WESM

(Wholesale Electricity Spot Market), PEMC will refer them to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

“We asked a few months ago to clarify this, to which they replied that the DU will be the default MSP, so PEMC should refer embedded gencos to the concerned DU and not automatically to NGCP,” said Fernandez, who added that the draft resolution “clarifies an ambiguity for PEMC.” Further in the draft resolution, the ERC said that NGCP shall be the default MSP for areas where the DUs are incapable of putting up the needed metering facilities, subject to express waiver made by the concerned DUs. In case of any dispute whether the concerned DU is incapable of acting as WMSP, the issue shall be elevated to the ERC by any aggrieved party resolution.

Make sure state scholars benefit from ₧32.75-B budget–Recto

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enate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto wants the budget for student scholarships segregated from activities such as “office excursions masquerading as training.”

He made the suggestion after examining the 2016 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing, which indicated that government “training and scholarship expenses” will jump from this year’s P27.12

billion to the proposed P32.75 billion for next year.

“Dapat siguraduhin din natin na ang training na ’yan ay hindi political organizing na maaring mangyari kung ang isang opisina ay binabalak na gamitin sa eleksyon [We must make sure that these trainings are not political organizing that could happen if one office is being planned for election],” Recto said.

“If it will go to stipends of scholars, then

it’s perfectly good. In fact, it should even be increased because scholars need a raise, too.

But we should also be on the lookout for beach outings which are labeled as seminars,” he said.

According to Recto, every division in every bureau in every department in the bureaucracy has a training budget.

“Most are good and are vital in upgrading the skills of personnel. But what can’t be denied is that some are unnecessary seminars,

which do not transfer skills or impart knowledge,” Recto said.

The challenge, he said, is to separate the educational from “those which are simply ‘gimmicks.’”

“If the training venue is in an affordable place by a beach resort, then it is okay to get a tan for as long as it comes with new knowledge. You can absorb the sunlight with new skills,” he said.

Recto explained that many offices resort to organizing poorly thought-out seminars as a way of curbing underspending.

Under the P32.75-billion training and scholarship budget for 2016, some P7.73 billion will be in scholarship grants to 284,474 students under various programs run by the Department of Science and Technology, Commission on Higher Education, and state colleges and universities, among others.

Also earmarked is P2.2 billion for the technicalvocational training of 231,895 Technical Education and Skills Development Authority grantees.

Among the agencies that will get a substantial increase in training and scholarship funds are the Commission on Elections, from P65.6 million this year to P1.36 billion next year; and the Department of Foreign Affairs, from P56 million this year to P717.1 million next year. Recto Mercene

A6 Friday, August 21, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Why the Philippines has bad Internet services

F

rustrated about the poor connection and speed of your Internet service? Blame the government.

The Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship held a hearing this past Tuesday. The committee was presented with a study showing that Internet in the Philippines is slow and expensive, compared to other countries.

Weren’t the results of that study already obvious without wasting taxpayer’s money, not counting the precious time of committee members?

But perhaps hearing from Mary Grace Santos, a research fellow of the LIRNEasia which conducted the study, was useful. Santos’s foremost reason why the Philippines has been lagging behind our neighbors is the lack of government support for Internet infrastructure.

Nevertheless, the first results of the hearing has nothing to do with the government’s response or intention to improve Internet service, but to have the National Telecommunications Commission begin testing Internet speeds. Unfortunately for Internet subscribers, the redefined broadband services minimum speed is now set at 256 kilobits per second (kbps), the standard rate of an Internet connection in the 1990s.

Let’s look at our neighbors: South Korea currently has an average Internet connection speed of 24.6 Mbps, or about 10 times faster than in the Philippines. Singapore’s average Internet speed is 12.2 Mbps.

It comes as no surprise to know that both the governments in South Korea and Singapore have been supporting their respective Internet infrastructure for decades. Singapore started in 1987 with its interactive information service, which included photographic images known as Teleview. Since then, the government has been spending millions of dollars every year to upgrade the infrastructure needed by private companies to deliver top-of-the-line services.

In 1995 South Korea initiated the Korean Information Infrastructure project— a 10-year program that started with the laying of Internet infrastructure connecting government buildings. In 1998 they rolled out their nationwide broadband.

Santos also cited the fact that there is no real competition in the telecommunications industry in the Philippines. This is much unlike South Korea where, after deploying their public-sector network, they ensured that barriers to entry were low for new Internet service providers. While it is true that the South Korean market is dominated by a few major carriers, there are so many smaller companies competing that the big ones are always trying to improve services to keep their market share.

Politicians usually make great headlines when they criticize and complain about the private sector’s poor delivery of service to Filipino Internet users. This is ironic, considering that the government has done very little to support this highly regulated industry. While we can argue that local Internet providers have not worked together in setting up local Internet Exchange Points for better service, as service providers in other countries have done, it is equally sad to point out that the government just stood by and watched.

In 2000 Indonesia was working to connect its 17,001 islands through the establishment of a government-supported Indonesian Internet Exchange. The government issued 41 permits to various Indonesian companies to provide Internet services.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines in 2000, the Municipal Telephone Project Office of the Department of Transportation and Communications was fast-tracking its P53-billion landline “Telepono sa Barangay” program. Seems like government has yet to learn how to choose its priorities.

Download the calendar James Jimenez

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spox

hen people talk about voter education, they’re mostly referring to things like criteria for choosing candidates, or what to look out for in campaigns, or how to vote using the optical mark readers (OMRs) recently procured by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). All of that is right, of course, but it only grazes the surface of voter education.

Voter education means, among other things, inculcating in the regular citizen—who might or might not be a voter—a comprehensive understanding of how the different working parts of an electoral exercise fit together.

The purpose of this knowledge sharing is not to create election experts, of course, but simply to make comprehension of how the electoral system works an integral part of every adult citizen’s knowledge base.

A fundamental part of that knowledge base is the electoral calendar. In its generic sense, the term electoral calendar refers to the schedule of various pre-election activities that need to take place before elections are held. These activities are spread out over a period of several months and, without exception, each of them trigger very specific consequences. Just as an example, the start of the election period will automatically invalidate all permits to carry, making the

transport of firearms and other deadlly weapons illegal, unless with Comelec consent. Gun owners will understand.

In other words, the milestones that are included in the electoral calendar affect nearly everyone in the country, even if their connection to the electoral process is not immediately apparent. This is why knowledge and understanding of the electoral calendar is a fundamental part of voter education.

Which brings me to the electoral calendar of the Philippines: the Calendar of Activities for the 2016 National and Local Elections have recently been promulgated by the Comelec and can be downloaded at http://electionsphl.com/ electioncalendar.

Just to emphasize how important it is for everyone to be well-informed about this calendar, let me run through a few of its more salient dates.

Take the holding of political conventions by political parties to select

and nominate official candidates for all elective positions, for instance. This activity is allowed only during the period of September 12 to 30, 2015. This is followed later by the filing of Certificates of Candidacy for all elective positions, from October 12 to 16.

Up to now, you can look at the various moves being undertaken by political parties and candidates-to-be, as a kind of testing of the political waters.

But when they start holding conventions and all that, that’s when things get real. For candidates and political parties, this will most likely signal the start of massive fund-raising. For voters, this period will hopefully make you think very seriously about whether you’re going to vote for people who have actually declared their candidacy but continue to flout campaign rules—and, let’s face it, the most basic rules of decency and fair play—just because they can.

Incidentally, remember that the words “Vote for Me,” or “For (insert title here)” don’t have to appear on the promotional materials for them to be considered campaign propaganda.

The calendar is also very important to people who haven’t even registered yet, particularly those who will be voting overseas. Local voters already know—or ought to—that the deadline for voter registration is on October 31. Filipinos who will be voting overseas, or who used to vote overseas, have two additional dates to consider: First, they have to know that October 12, 2015 is the last day for filing applications for transfer of registration records

from the overseas to the local registry.

This means that if Juan, a person currently living or working overseas, knows that he will be back in the Philippines by May 6, 2016, he has until October 12 to file an application for transfer with the embassy or consulate exercising jursidiction over him.

On the other hand, if the overseas Filipino is just transferring from the jurisidiction of one embassy or consulate to another, or simply moving from one residence to another within the same country or within the jurisdiction of the same embassy or consulate, then he has until October 31 to do just that. So, if Juanita is transferring from Hong Kong to Berlin; or if Pepe is moving from, for example, Daly City to Mission, then they both have until the end of October to get their registrations sorted out.

And, second, overseas voters have to note that on December 1, the commission will announce the specific mode of voting that will apply in a particular country where overseas Filipino voting will be conducted. Hong Kong and Singapore, for the last two elections, have had personal voting using the automated election system. In some countries, mail voting is used. On the first day of December this year, the Comelec will announce what’s what.

There’s much more information contained in the Calendar of Activities than I have space for here. So, if you’re interested in being a well-informed voter—as well you should be—then I strongly recommend downloading and reading it now.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, August 21, 2015 A7

The impact of economic integration on labor migration in Asean Fernando T. Aldaba

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EAGLE WATCH

he Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has embarked on a deeper regional economic integration through the Asean Economic Community (AEC), which aims to launch a free flow of goods and services and the free movement of skilled professionals and capital throughout the region by the end of this year. The AEC is typically defined as (a) a single market and production base, (b) a highly competitive economic region, (c) a region of equitable economic development, and (d) a region fully integrated into the global economy (from the AEC Blueprint 2008).

Even before this process of regional integration, a development divide and a variety of geographical, cultural and historical factors have already pushed labor migration across member countries in Asean.

While the region itself has been on fast growth in the last several years, income per-capita range is still relatively wide among the member economies. In 2012 Singapore had a gross domestic product per capita of $54,578.2 as against Myanmar’s $814. Poverty rates remain high even in the original member-countries like the Philippines and Indonesia.

Three countries—Cambodia, Indonesia and Lao PDR—still have poverty rates over 40 percent. Destitution has been one of the major impetus for the migration of unskilled workers in the region. Intra-Asean migration rates have been on the rise in recent years. Currently, the share of intra-Asean migration to total migration to the entire world is 32.39 percent (outward) and 38.73 percent (inward), respectively. Malaysia’s outward migration to Asean destinations, mostly to Singapore, is at 80.72 percent while Myanmar’s 62.39 percent is mostly to Thailand, and Indonesia’s 60.64 percent is mostly to Malaysia. With deepening regional integration, we should expect increased labor mobility and migration.

Migrant workers from Asean have increased to an estimated 14 million in 2014, equivalent to around 6 percent of the global total. These migrant workers sent almost $50 billion in remittances for the whole region, around 10 percent of the total worldwide. Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore are the major host countries; the Philippines, Indonesia and CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) are the sending countries. This is clearly seen in the net migration rates of the Asean members where Singapore’s rate was high at 30.87 percent from 2005 to 2010. The Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia receive large amounts of remittances from their workers abroad. Labor flows in the region is further described mostly as a relatively low-wage and unskilled work force for domestic services, construction, agriculture, fishing and forestry.

The current Asean migration counts a large portion coming from illegal recruitment facilitated through informal networks and brokers. The legal movements occur through bilateral agreements between sending and host countries, or are made through officially registered private agencies in the sending country with partner firms in the receiving country. Researchers from the Scalabrini Migration Center have identified three migration subsystems in the region—the Greater Mekong Sub-region, Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines—East Asia Growth Area and “Maritime Southeast Asia.”

Until recently, there seems to be no empirical estimates on the migration that will be facilitated by the process toward the AEC. However, given the trend toward liberalization of both goods and services, there will be an increase in total

Migrant workers from Asean have increased to an estimated 14 million in 2014, equivalent to around 6 percent of the global total. These migrant workers sent almost $50 billion in remittances for the whole region, around 10 percent of the total worldwide. Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore are the major host countries. The Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are the sending countries. migration of skilled workers mainly through services liberalization, i.e., Asean Framework Agreement on Services, where Mode 4 specifies the movement of natural persons in the whole of Asean, with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand as primary destinations. However, it is taking some time for the Mutual Recognition Arrangements for eight professions to be fully implemented. There will also be a faster increase in the total migration of unskilled workers in Asean in the short and medium run (in the three Asean migration subsystems) because of the following reasons: With improvements in connectivity, access to labor market information is increased and transport costs are reduced; Increased incomes in sending countries due to trade liberalization complemented by remittances from already existing networks (of relatives and friends) reduce migration costs; Increasing wage differentials in receiving countries will continue to be an important pull factor despite similar increasing wages in the sending countries; workers in the losing sectors will be “pushed” to migrate; Travel facilitation due to no-visa requirements via tourism liberalization; However, specific country migration effects (either on skilled or unskilled) may depend on a variety of factors like the level and state of education of the labor force, structure of the economy (formal and informal sectors), and the number of winning and losing sectors due to liberalization.

In conclusion, with heightened economic integration in Asean, labor migration will also increase, both skilled and unskilled. But what the member countries must manage well is the influx of irregular workers into their territories. Maybe it is high time to implement an Asean Framework Instrument on the Protection and Promotion of Migrant Workers’ Rights.

Aldaba is a dean and professor of Economics, School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University. Mostly based on a chapter entitled “Migration Governance in Asean” written by the author in the book, Global and Asian Perspectives on International Migration edited by Graziano Battistella, published by Springer and the International Labor Organization, 2014.

August and august Tito Genova Valiente

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annotations

ugust is the eight month in our calendar. My grandmother must have been a closet fan of the French Structuralists, you know those thinkers who were so obsessed with the binary structure of the human brain and the binaries they produce. For my Lola Miling, August is one hell of an anomalous month. It is neither here nor there, between and betwixt (cf, Victor Turner). Of course, she did not know Turner.

In fact, Turner should have known her.

For my dear lola when she was still alive, children and adults should be extra cautious during the month of August because the month was a poisonous month. When one got sick in August, the affliction lasted longer.

When one was wounded in August, the healing took longer.

August marks the transition to months that ends in “ber,” September, October, November and the greatest “ber” month of them all— December. Of course, you know already what these “ber” months stand for. One starts the countdown to Christmas in September. We are aware, though, that there are people who are fond of what seasons can implicitly allow them to do. These people are those who start their countdowns in July.

August could be significant for some of the political families in the country. For the Aquino clan, in particular, Cory died on August

1, 2009. Her persona got a boost when her husband perished on August 21, 1983. Launching the group ATOM, or August 21 Movement, Butz Aquino, the prime mover of that movement who also served as senator, died on August 17 this year.

President Manuel L. Quezon died in New York on August 1, 1944. The presidency of President Sergio Osmeña began on the same day.

The invention of the A-bomb has made the month of August a potential candidate for the most horrible month in history. On August 6 the US dropped a bomb over Hiroshima and, on October 9 another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki both had significant populations of Christians in Japan.

I was very young when I worked at the A-bomb Peace Center in Hiroshima under the then Genevabased International Christian Youth

Exchange Program. In those few months, I managed to visit the ABomb war memorial and museum many times. In the museum, some of the artifacts were awesome in the real sense of the word. An “o-bento” or lunch box was on display. The shadow of a horse was captured on the wall by the massive flash of light the explosion created.

Each Friday, there was a meeting in the A-Bomb Peace Center of “hibakusha,” the special terms given to those who were victims of the bombing. Even as of the late 1970s, the effect of the bomb still manifested itself on the second and the third generations.

I would visit Nagasaki years and years after. In Hiroshima people thought the city would never be alive again because of the toxin the bomb had spread. In the 1970s, Hiroshima had clean rivers. Nagasaki, for all the numerous clustering of churches, gave me this impression of a city that appeared to grieve forever. Its parks are dotted with memorial signs and statues, some are in the form of goddesses and female figures that looked like they were cradling tragedies in their womb.

A Japanese once told me the nonChristians in Nagasaki were blaming the Christians for the bombing of the city. There are no documents attesting to what the Japanese had told me.

What I remember seeing when I was in Nagasaki for the beatification of Fr. Peter Kibe and the 187 martyrs in 2008 was the overwhelming support of the local government and the communities. Before we left Tokyo,

Ninoy and our impossible dream Ariel Nepomuceno

DECISION TIME

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hirty-two years have passed since the killing on August 21, 1983, of a man who pursued his impossible dream, and such heroic act still continue to challenge and hound our problematic democracy.

Ninoy Aquino, a journalist, provincial leader, senator, martial law detainee, opposition leader, and currently one of the most inspiring martyr heroes that the Philippines was fortunate to have, shall never fail to constantly remind our nation’s short memory of what we are capable of doing as a nation.

Elusive dream

The political principles and agenda of Ninoy were fundamentally clear.

They were not complicated by the trappings of a top heavy ideological framework. In his memorable speeches while on exile in the US, he posed basic questions on what he thought was wrong with Philippine society. While he made constant references to his belief in Christian socialism, Ninoy simply asked the basics—why bullets and not ballots?

While the majority wins in a democracy, why not respect minority rights? Should capitalism be improved so as to allow everyone the opportunity to create and enjoy the benefits of the country’s wealth?

He exposed the evils of monopolies and cronyism in the Philippines with a government acting like an economic and political patron to a few rich clans. Even then, the beloved senator emphasized that a small country with a very limited resources like the Philippines must efficiently manage its economy. The essence of a democracy, in his view, was to create an environment of equal opportunity for everyone.

He discouraged political confrontation or aggression. Ninoy firmly believed in the ideals of peace, the value of continuously engaging, educating and enlightening even his

fiercest opponents, Marcos included.

He did not want war for the Philippines. He even went to the extent of encouraging Marcos to voluntarily give up political power, conduct a free and honest election, recognize the right of other political parties, and respect the mandate of the people in a democratic exercise. But all these efforts and ideals were in vain, amid the brutalities of the dictatorship.

People Power

After Ninoy was assassinated, the country was galvanized by the common pain inflicted by long years of abuse and deprivation. The middle class, the masses, religious groups, business community, student activists, politicians, and a significant faction of the military finally fought as one and toppled Marcos. The iconic Cory Aquino was installed as president of a popular government after the snap elections failed. The world applauded the new democratic weapon called People Power.

We basked in the new sense of hope and freedom that the Edsa I revolution unleashed.

Dream still possible

But 32 years after Ninoy’s death, are we finally free, progressive and democratically stronger?

We are still confronted by the same dilemma of economic poverty,

my brother-in-law, Sadahito Tanaka, had secured for my sister who is his wife a purple ID. That Christian badge allowed us to get free rides everywhere in the city. It was eerie and, at the same time, inspiring to be singled out as Christian in a place that executed thousands for their Christian faith in 1600s.

That was a cold November when I was there. The night before the beatification, there was an announcement all over the city that the next morning would be rainy. Umbrellas were not to be allowed as they would block the vision of those coming to the stadium. Raincoats were made available instead. The next day, not one umbrella was in the stadium.

After the Vatican representative declared the beatification of the martyrs, a huge canvas with the images of the martyrs was slowly unfurled.

There was no time to applaud because the moment I looked up to see, doves were released. Then the bells of Nagasaki started to peal.

In 1948 Nagai Takashi wrote a book entitled “The Bells of Nagasaki.”

In that book, the author wrote about the bells of Urakami Cathedral: “These are the bells that did not ring for weeks or months after the disaster. May there never be a time when they do not ring! May they ring out this message of peace until the morning of the day on which the world ends.”

I remember closing my eyes that cold November in Nagasaki and praying that no August month, or any month, will ever stop bells from ringing again.

weak democratic system and institutions, communist rebellion, Muslim separatism, corruption in the government and worsening criminality.

Even the significant efforts, achievements, and advocacies of the current administration of Ninoy’s only son are dwarfed by the huge problems of our country.

The commemoration of the martyrdom of our modern day hero, Ninoy Aquino, must revive our collective goal of improving our lives.

People power must be reengineered as a daily sustained revolution where we individually work for the ideals and aspirations that Edsa I defined.

We must concretely see that we strive very hard as one nation in our daily activities. Organizations, corporations, clubs, civic groups must all be consistently involved.

The achievement of our country’s ultimate economic and political success is only possible when each of our citizenry will contribute in terms of discipline, integrity in our dealings, choosing the best leaders during electoral contests, and molding ourselves into the best possible roles that we can be for the country.

As Ninoy once uttered: “I will never be able to forgive myself if I will have to live with the knowledge that I could have done something and I did not do anything.”