BusinessMirror June 17, 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, 2014 No. 40 Vol. 10 No. 251 Wednesday, June Vol. 17,102015

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DE QUIROS SAYS OVERSEAS VENTURE TO HELP EXTEND PENSION FUND’S CURRENT 15YEAR ACTUARIAL LIFE

SSS reveals plan to invest $1B abroad

S

OCIAL Security System President and CEO Emilio S. de Quiros Jr. aims to optimize the actuarial life of the pension fund beyond the estimated 15-year stretch the organization enjoys at the moment by deploying more or less $1 billion of its investment portfolio overseas.

INSIDE

PINOY PRIDE HASHTAG Do not give up!

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EAR Lord, each day we strive at work , at home and in the community. There is a strong force that commands us, do not give up! We do understand all when our time will be up.

The life we have lived, the good we have done, the hardships we have experienced are all to be crowned and blessed by the all Holy One. Amen.

WORD AND LIFE, FR. VIC CERVANIA, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

FRANK’S FRAMED AND FOUND OBJECTS »D4

BusinessMirror

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

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Making sense of the Pinoy pride hashtag

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B V V

OISED to take to the malls to host a Pinoy salo-salo and a gamut of other ways to celebrate its now whopping 21 million users, Viber is up with a new gimmick— #JuanVibe, its latest campaign that shows how the chat app leader has become every inch part and parcel of our daily Pinoy lives.

“We at Viber are really excited about #JuanVibe as it’s all about how we treasure our relationships with family and friends in the most Filipino way,” Viber Philippines Country Manager Crystal Lee said. “Whether on mobile or via the Viber Desktop app, it’s a call for everyone to bond and celebrate the most important things that make us Pinoy.”

Last year’s colossal and colossally successful music festival #OneVibePH: One Nation. One Pride., held at the Mall of Asia concert grounds, brought out the

champagne for what was then an already phenomenal 18 million Filipino users. And now it is reinventing a hashtag personification of national pride with a deeper focus on Filipino values and culture through #JuanVibe.

“If you ask me how we earned [a 21 millionsubscriber success], I guess that, compared to competitors or other brands, Filipinos really feel that we are present in their happy lives. Twenty-one million is just the beginning for us,” Lee said.

“We created #JuanVibe because we want the whole world to know that we are a Viber country,” Viber PR and Creative Head Carlo Velasco added.

The nationwide hashtag purple flower power movement invites (read: all) Viber users to join the #JuanVibe social-media campaign by showing their purple skirt—este, Pinoy pride (as, through Viber, purple is no longer exclusively associated to gay pride)—by

posing this P21-million question to their Viber group: ““Anong mahalaga sa‘yo bilang Pilipino?”

Viber users should then post their chat screenshots on Twitter and tag @ViberPH with the sound bite hashtag #JuanVibe. Nobody knows what awaits participants if they’re really, really, lucky: perhaps a year’s supply of—chaaa-daang!—Razon’s purple halo-halo or a deadly take-home treat of lechon de leche. (Participants really ought to stay tuned for announcements in the #JuanVibe city invasion series.

Soon.) And talking about invasion (and because going to malls is very much identifiably a Pinoy thing), Viber will take to the malls to host a contemporary barrio fiesta that, Lee said, will hopefully take place on weekends from July to August. “We’ll be starting in Metro Manila.

We made sure that the malls that we chose are popular malls,” Velasco said. “Expect to see a lot of very Filipino things that we want to celebrate and highlight. You’ll see everything—from halo-halo and street food, to Filipino snacks. And all our setups will be very Filipino, be it a jeepney or an MRT station,” Lee said.

“We want more Filipinos to use it. Our way of doing this is showing them scenes where we imagine them using the app,” Lee added. “Whether tatambay kayo o nasa jeep kayo o nakapila sa MRT, we hope you use Viber. Why be alone when you can talk to family and friends on Viber?”

We do, Ms. Lee. I text and know a lot of friends who Viber out while jostling through a speeding MRT car. You know, it’s something very Pinoy we also can hashtag: #MRTViberdaMoves #para-paraan #buwisbuhay. ■

Twitter’s direction ‘extremely strong and beautiful,’ Jack Dorsey says

JACK DORSEY, Twitter cofounder and incoming interim CEO

TWITTER Inc. stock is rising as Wall Street welcomes the departure of its embattled chief executive.

On Friday morning, shares shot up more than 3 percent before falling back to $36.26, a 1-percent increase, following news that CEO Dick Costolo was stepping down.

Twitter shares had fallen more than 25 percent in the last three months as Costolo struggled to boost growth and profits and deal with management dysfunction.

Despite the shortcomings of the company’s strategy, the company’s incoming interim CEO, Jack Dorsey, said he would not be changing its direction, describing the “fundamentals” the company is building right now as “extremely strong and beautiful.”

When asked whether a potential takeover of the company was on the table, both Dorsey and Costolo told CNBC they believe they can “maximize value” best as an independent company, but they didn’t rule out a takeover entirely, saying they were going to fulfill their fiduciary duty to shareholders. Costolo declined to comment further on takeover speculation.

Some analysts said it may be too early to consider a potential takeover. Regardless of whether a takeover is on the table, analysts agree Twitter has a slew of problems it needs to quickly address. Growth has stagnated for the microblogging service and advertising never became as lucrative as investors wanted.

And there is also a user experience problem:

Outside of the media and entertainment worlds, the site continues to baffle many people who aren’t familiar with its 140-character limits, hashtags, lists and retweets.

Simply put, many still don’t understand what Twitter is for. Perhaps with that in mind, Twitter said on Thursday that it would remove the 140-character limit on private messages between two users, known as direct messages. Public posts, or tweets, would still carry the limit.

The San Francisco company will now look both internally and externally for a replacement for Costolo.

Costolo’s departure becomes effective on July 1. At that time, cofounder Dorsey will take the helm as interim CEO. LOS ANGELES TIMES

Lights! Camera! Action!

JUST in case you still have any doubts that we have become a global society that loves to preen, pucker and pout in front of the camera, consider this: some 40 million photos are posted on the photo-sharing platform Instagram daily. Yes, 40 million photos every single day.

Beyond still images, however, it appears we all like to channel our inner performer as well, uploading videos offering proof of such, and YouTube— arguably the most popular among the video-sharing platforms around—has millions of clips to show for it, ranging from footage of a group of post-adolescents doing serious vacation time in Boracay, to a young girl singing like it was nobody’s business but hers alone. (Yes, we’re talking about you, Charice.)

Which explains the rising popularity of highdefinition camcorders that not only are fully loaded with technology for quick-and-easy sharing but also come in sizes that are sometimes even smaller than that of a smartphone (still the most popular tool for, uhm, selfies of the moving and shaking variety).

Of course, when you talk about imaging, one of the names that quickly come to mind is Canon, the “Japanese multinational corporation specializing in the manufacture of imaging and optical products” (Wikipedia)—and one of these products is clearly aimed at consumers everywhere who are convinced that they are the next big thing in the international stage. Of course, it could also be that they simply want to record life moments for posterity beyond a still image. The all-new Canon Vixia mini makes it easy for anyone to be the star. Whatever your thing is—music, dance, sports, cooking, video blogging— the Vixia mini helps you capture it with maximum impact. Use its expansive fish-eye lens to make sure you and everything around you appear in the shot, or to spice up your video with a funky look other camcorders can’t offer.

Looking for a more conventional option? Just tap the touchscreen and crop-in. Either way, your videos and photos (yes, it does those, as well) come out looking great because the Vixia mini provides the Canon quality professional filmmakers and photographers have long depended on. And it’s got

THE all-new Canon Vixia mini makes it easy for anyone to be the star.

superb stereo sound to match. Plus, with a tiltable screen and adjustable stand, it’s a one-stop imaging solution that even shoots hands-free. Even better, the Vixia mini has built-in Wi-Fi, so you can share your creativity with the world.

The Vixia mini is equipped with a genuine Canon f/2.8 fish-eye lens to give your videos a look that conventional camcorders and cameras can’t match.

The ultra wide-angle lens shoots at approximately 16.8mm with a 160° angle of view for video, and approximately 15.4mm and 170° angle of view for still images (35mm equivalent), providing a panoramic outlook that allows the camcorder to capture scenes with you and everything around you. A centered 1,920x1,440 image is also available to record videos with a more classic look.

The Vixia mini features built-in Wi-Fi, so you can share your HD video with friends and family anytime, anywhere. Connect with compatible home networks, wireless hot spot and mobile devices with ease.

Using the free Canon Movie Uploader app on your iOS or Android device, it’s simple to upload your video to share with your eager audience as soon as possible. And in a world that has gone all selfie, what could be better than that, right?

LIFE

MVP LEBRON Sports

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Denver Nuggets hire Mike Malone as new head coach

BusinessMirror

| WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

B P G The Associated Press

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MVP LEBRON

LEBRON JAMES is averaging 36.5 points per game in the series and could be the first player since Los Angeles Lakers’ Jerry West in 1969 to win the finals Most Valuable Player coming from a losing team. AP

WIN OR LOSE, JAMES ISS THE BEST PLAYER LA LAYER OF THE NBA FINALS

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B J B USA Today

LEVELAND—It’s called Most Valuable Player (MVP), and if, at the end of this compelling championship series the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals MVP award is not given to LeBron James, then I demand a recount.

Sure, there’s another game to play—maybe two more games—before either the Golden State Warriors or Cleveland Cavaliers will be crowned the NBA’s new champion.

But through five games of this series, I’ve seen enough.

James deserves the MVP award. And it’s not even close.

Would this series still be on without James? Of course, not. It would have been over in a flash.

With him, the Cavaliers still have a fighting chance.

If James can lead Cleveland to another victory at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday night—perhaps by avoiding the Warriors’ small-ball preference and going big and slow— the refrain will be relentless.

In Game Seven, anything can happen.

Yet, no matter how you slice it, this series has marked the greatest of James’s memorable moments. He has taken his injury-battered squad and put it on his back and carried them to the brink of possibility. He’s pushed himself to the edge, to the point of physical exhaustion and then some, then rehabbed like crazy to come back and do it again in the next game.

He’s given us a series.

James, averaging 36.5 points per game in the series, put up another 40-point game, another triple-double on Sunday night that had the Oracle Arena faithful sweating until the final minutes.

One stat spoke a thousand words. James scored or assisted on 70 of the Cavs’ 91 points in Game Five.

If only he could have had a bit more help, if only J.R. Smith had stayed hot, or if Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova, Timofey Mosgov, somebody, could have risen to the occasion.

That’s been the defining plot of this series, especially with Kyrie Irving joining Kevin Love on the shelf.

James, though, has demonstrated that as long as the quintessential superstar is on the court—in the low post, the high post, the open floor, wherever—there’s a prayer.

Of course, there are purists out there who maintain that you can never, ever award the NBA Finals MVP trophy to a player on a losing team. Hogwash.

Sometimes, and that time might be right around the corner, there are exceptions.

Until now, only one player in NBA history has such a distinction, Jerry West, Mr. NBA Logo himself, who went down with the Lakers in a seven-game series in 1969 against the Celtics.

Compare James’s numbers from this series with what West achieved in 1969, and it further supports the notion of awarding the MVP to a player on a losing team. West averaged 37.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 7.4 assists.

James is averaging 36.6 points, 12.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists.

If the Warriors, leading three games to two, close this out, there’s no doubt a solid case to be made for Stephen Curry, the regular-season MVP who put the finishing touch on Game Five–which, by the way, had people maintaining that he finally delivered an MVP performance in this series.

Another case can be made for the crafty Andre Iguodala, who came off the bench in Game Four to start for the first time all season, allowing for Coach Steve Kerr’s brilliant in-series adjustment to play with a “small-ball” lineup. Iguodala has been the Warriors’ most consistent player on both ends of the floor, and despite James’s big games, has made it much tougher on James with his tenacious defense.

But really, for all of the people who say you can’t have an MVP from a losing team, you have to also consider whether you’d give an MVP to a player who has given up 40-point nights.

Maybe Iguodala’s the exception. James is a better exception.

As the Warriors’ slogan indicates, James has been playing against an opponent that has strength in numbers.

James has had added strength because his team is so undermanned. MVP. Listen to what Warriors forward/center Draymond Green said, while anticipating another full dose of LeBron on Tuesday night.

“You’re not going to shut him down,” Green said. “If he gets 40, he gets 40. That’s why he’s LeBron James.

You can throw a triple-team at him, and he’ll still

probably get 40. As long as you make him work for those 40, you’ve got to be satisfied with what you do.”

That said, imagine James’s response to this debate about now.

This series is not over yet. Surely, as he expressed his confidence on Sunday night, when he reminded us that he is indeed the greatest player in the world and one who refuses to put a ceiling on what he can accomplish on the basketball court, James would also probably tell us that it’s premature to have the discussion about MVPs from losing teams.

But really, what more can he do?

“I don’t know,” he said after Sunday night’s game. “I mean, tonight, I gave up two offensive rebounds, one to [Leandro] Barbosa in the first half, one to Harrison Barnes, which allowed him to get an ‘and-one,’ with [Andre] Iguodola with the left-hand trick shot.

“I had a couple of turnovers, a couple of miscues defensively, and I’ve got to be better. Like I said, I don’t put a ceiling on what I’m capable of doing. I know I’m shouldering a lot of the burden, but it is what it is.”

No, James hasn’t been perfect. He’s taken a ton of shots. He’s been spotty with his free throws.

But that’s seeing his case as half-empty.

Listen to him. He is pushing himself to do even more.

Under these circumstances, win or lose, that embodies just what it means to be MVP.

CLIPPERS GET ET STEPHENSON

ENVER—The Denver Nuggets have hired Michael Malone as their new coach.

Malone got the job over Melvin Hunt, who served as interim coach after Brian Shaw was fired on March 3. The players lobbied for the Nuggets to make Hunt the full-time coach.

Malone was let go by Sacramento in December after going 39-67 in parts of two seasons with the Kings. The person that fired Malone was General Manager Pete D’Alessandro, who recently left Sacramento to take a position as the Nuggets’ senior vice president of business and team operations. D’Alessandro is expected to work in more of a support role under Josh Kroenke, the president of the Nuggets and the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche.

When Shaw arrived in town in June 2013, he brought with him a slow-it-down, deliberate pace that was supposedly going to get the Nuggets farther in the playoffs.

They didn’t even go to the postseason as the Nuggets missed the playoffs for a second straight season. This, after going 10 consecutive years, mostly under the direction of George Karl and his up-tempo system.

The front office preached a return to running. That’s why Mike D’Antoni was considered a top candidate for the position, along with Hunt, who steadied a team that had soured on Shaw.

Hunt’s players even lobbied for the team to hire him. But they’re receptive to Malone.

“Don’t know him as a coach. I can’t wait to talk to him,” forward Danilo Gallinari said in an -email to the Associated Press.

The Kings went 28-54 in Malone’s first season and missed the playoffs for an eighth straight year. They got off to a better start in 2014-2015 with the team winning nine of its first 14 games. Soon after, the team went into a tailspin after All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins was sidelined by viral meningitis. Malone was fired 24 games into the season.

Malone, however, earned the respect of Cousins and got the big man to buy into his system.

The Nuggets are hoping for a similar situation in the Mile High City, especially after Shaw lost the locker room. It got so toxic the players were overheard chanting “1-2-3...Six weeks,” which was interpreted by some as a countdown to the end of a dismal season and was uttered just before Shaw was fired.

At the end of the season, GM Tim Connelly talked about wanting the team’s next head coach to have more of a running philosophy, just like when Karl was in charge.

“We’re looking for a coach that understands how we’ve been successful in the past and how we’ll be successful in the future, with fast basketball and playing with pace,” Connelly said in April.

Malone does have experience with that type of system since he was an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors before Mark Jackson was replaced by Steve Kerr.

MICHAEL MALONE is heading to the Denver Nuggets after a forgettable stint with the Sacramento Kings. AP

both guard positions, as well as small forward. Hawes is a former starter who can play center and power forward while addressing the Hornets’ need for more shooting.

Stephenson is a relatively low-risk acquisition because he has only one more season guaranteed at $9 million; his contract also includes a team option for $9.4 million for the 2016-2017 season. Hawes has three years and about $17.2 million left on his contract.

Barnes, 35, who was the team’s starting small forward, is coming off one of his best National Basketball Association seasons but has logged 18,000 minutes and is closing in on the end of his career. Barnes’ $3.5-million salary is only partially guaranteed for next season.

Stephenson has been on the Clippers’s radar since before the trade deadline last season, when it became apparent that he was not working out with the Hornets.

The Clippers inquired with coaches who had previously worked with the moody player to assess whether he might be a better stylistic fit with a veteran-laden team led by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.

The trade reflects the Clippers’ need to improve their roster in the coming months by means other than solely free agency because they are largely constrained by the salary cap. Doc Rivers, the Clippers’ coach and president of basketball operations, has already identified re-signing center DeAndre Jordan as his top off-season priority.

The team also hopes to keep Austin Rivers and has interest in luring veteran free-agent forward Paul Pierce, who would need to decline a $5.5-million player option with the Washington Wizards. The Clippers could offer Pierce only $3.37 million per year for up to three years if Jordan re-signed with them.

B B B Los Angeles Times

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HE Clippers completed the first part of their roster revamp on Monday evening, acquiring shooting guard Lance Stephenson from the Charlotte Hornets in a swap of underachieving players that also included forward-center Spencer Hawes and veteran forward Matt Barnes.

The trade gives the Clippers the elite perimeter defender they have long sought but comes with some risk considering the 6-foot-5 Stephenson was a flop last season with the Hornets.

It also leaves the Clippers with a glut of shooting guards, meaning it could serve as a precursor to a trade involving Jamal Crawford since the team has already signaled strong interest in re-signing free agent guard Austin Rivers.

Stephenson, 24, could not recapture the form that made him a rising star while helping the Indiana Pacers reach the Eastern Conference finals in back-toback seasons, going from a starter to a bit player with the Hornets. He averaged 8.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 25.8 minutes per game last season while shooting 17.1 percent from three-point range— numbers that were down across the board from his final season with the Pacers.

Hawes, 27, was similarly disappointing in his only season with the Clippers. He was supposed to be a floorstretching big man but struggled to fit in and fell out of the rotation before the playoffs, averaging 5.8 points and 3.5 rebounds while making 31.3 percent of his threepointers, his lowest output since his rookie season.

Nevertheless, both Stephenson and Hawes retain considerable upside. Stephenson has shown potential as a prolific scorer who is strong defensively and can play

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SPORTS AFTER one season with Charlotte Hornets, Lance »Stephenson is now going to the Los Angeles Clippers. MCT

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Wednesday, June 17, 2015 E3

A CITY IN SYNC

FORTY percent of Arca South’s total area will be allotted to open space with walkways and dedicated bike lanes.

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B I Q

RCA SOUTH, a sprawling property launched by Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) in 2014, is on track to complete phase-one development by the end of this year, company officials announced recently.

“Land-development works—as part of phase one and which include road network, utilities installation and other infrastructure—are 70-percent completed,” ALI Project Development Manager Stephen John S. Comia said. Excavation and construction have also begun for Ayala Malls, Arca South Corporate Center and Seda Hotel Arca South, while commercial lots are fully sold across the estate and the different residential towers continue to sell.

Arca South has a 50-50 commercial and residential mix, and will feature offices, residences, a hotel and three retail formats—all with investment cost earmarked at P80 billion, or about 15 percent of ALI’s market capital.

Arca South will have three retail areas, but the first to rise would be the lifestyle mall. Ayala Malls will be a four-level structure, which will have an anchor supermarket, department store, four cinemas and about 350 stores. This is targeted for completion by the end of 2017.

Arca South Corporate Center is

also slated to open by the end of 2017, with the first two of nine towers.

They are built to the specifications of business-process outsourcing companies with 24/7 tenant operations.

Seda Hotel Arca South, meanwhile, is a 265-room hotel targeted to open by 2018. Qualimed, Arca South’s 250bed quaternary care hospital, will open by 2019.

“We really liked the property because when we saw it, we knew that we could transform Arca South into something great, similar to what we did in Makati City and Bonifacio Global City [BGC]. An P80-billion investment is not really a small amount. But for us, Arca South is not just another project…it is really the next big thing south of Manila,” Comia said.

Next big thing south of the Metro

ARCA RCA SOUTH is a 74-hectare project in Taguig City that sits where the Food Terminal Inc. complex used to be. It is almost the same size as the Makati Central Business District (CBD) and about three times the

size of the city center of BGC. Once finished, Arca South will complete what ALI calls the “triumvirate” of CBDs at the heart of Metro Manila.

Seen as one of the largest masterplanned, mixed-use development south of the Metro, the new business and lifestyle district is within a 7-kilometer radius of the Makati CBD and BGC, and about 4.7 km from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Its close proximity to these sites will be further improved by upcoming government transport projects, such as the Intermodal Transport System (ITS) and the Skyway C-5/C-6 road connector project.

The planned Skyway extension will connect to Arca South, with the project having its own exit along the Skyway based on current plans. This will make Arca South just one exit away from Makati City. The idea for the ITS, meanwhile, is that all provincial buses coming from the south would have to stop at a central bus station and all passengers would have to alight, get off to transfer to another mode of transportation to get to where they want to go. It is estimated that there are about 4,000 buses that come from the south daily, transporting about 200,000 commuters.

Once these projects are completed, Arca South will be the most accessible CBD from the south.

Business and lifestyle hub with a ‘different feel’

ARCA SOUTH is headed for rapid development, as combined residential sales reach 71 percent. All three Ayala residential brands are

AERIAL view of Arca South corporate center

present in this new southern central business district. Ayala Land Premier, Alveo Land and Avida Land together sold over 1,000 units just one year after the launch of their individual projects, while commercial land have appreciated by 39 percent in less than a year since these were launched in 2013.

Residential units are scheduled for turnover by the first quarter of 2018.

The vision for Arca South is to be a highly pedestrianized area with sidewalks and dedicated bicycle lanes; green spaces 50 meters wide and 40 percent of the total area dedicated to open space. Also, basement parking will be integrated in the district, which frees up the street level for pedestrians. Estate management for

this development will be powered by an integrated operation system that will be complete with a control center for traffic management, estate security and monitoring, smart streetlights and a transport management system with real-time updates on bus locations and departure and arrival schedules.

“Estate services will also provide residents, locators and visitors information about the development in real time; provide tools for reporting city problems, provide feedback and let them express estate concerns. These systems can be in the form of digital signages, mobile and phone and web apps, and emergency/panic buttons,” Comia said.

What sets Arca South apart from the two CBDs, however, is the height

of its buildings. “What’s unique about Arca compared to the Makati and BGC CBDs is that we’ll only have buildings of about 15 to 18 stories.

A low-rise, medium-density development but is still a CBD with all the elements—from institutions to amenities to the different contributors to our economy. It creates a different feel,” Comia enthused.

Arca South is aligning the development to the needs of the market, Comia said. He added that they call Arca South a “city in sync” because “all the requirements, all services you will need as a resident, as an office worker or even as a guest—we will all have it here on Arca South,” meaning to say “all the demands of contemporary lifestyle are synchronized in Arca South.”

Century Properties to complete ₧15-B projects

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HIS year is expected to be a banner year for listed realestate company Century Properties Group Inc., led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jose E.B. Antonio. The company will complete, in 2015, the most number of buildings in a single year since it began operations in 1986.

For the three-year period from 2012 through 2014, it completed six towers, namely, Gramercy, Knightsbridge and Centuria at its flagship development, Century City in the city of Makati, and Rio, Santorini and Saint Tropez at Azure Urban Resort Residences in Parañaque City. The projects, which have a total of over 5,000 units and total sales value of over P23 billion, are 99-percent sold.

In 2015 alone, Century Properties will complete another six buildings, namely, Milano in Century City, Niagara and Sutherland towers at Acqua Private Residences in Mandaluyong City, Positano and Miami at Azure, and Osmeña West at The Residences at Commonwealth in Quezon City. To date, the projects, which will

have a total of about 3,000 units and total sales value of over P15 billion, are 97-percent sold. In addition to the projects scheduled for delivery this year, the company will complete another 16 vertical developments in its various master-planned communities in Century City, Azure, Acqua and Commonwealth, which will have a total of about over 7,000 units in the upcoming years.

Specifically, upcoming completions are Maldives tower at Azure, and Dettifoss and Livingstone towers at Acqua in 2016; Trump Tower at Century City, Maui and Boracay towers at Azure and Quezon North and Roxas East in Commonwealth in 2017; Century Spire at Century City, the Bahamas tower at Azure, Iguazu tower at Acqua and Osmeña East in Commonwealth in 2018; and Commonwealth projects Roxas West, Quirino West, Quirino East and Quezon South in 2019.

The consistently high level of presales from its ongoing projects and, consequently, expected cash collections provide the company with

visibility over its future cash flows.

The company previously announced its diversification into allied real-estate segments, specifically horizontal housing for first-time homebuyers, as well as leisure and tourism development estates.

Century Properties expects to invest an additional P27 billion through 2020, allocating roughly P12 billion for horizontal economic housing projects to develop 20,000 homes; P10 billion for investment properties; and P5 billion for vertical developments, and leisure and tourism developments. This increases its capital-expenditure plan from its previous of P8.3 billion per year to P10 billion per year for the next five years.

“This last year was a period of consolidation and planning for the future, with the end in view of making Century Properties a more resilient and diversified company with the ability to maximize shareholder value,” said Kristina Garcia, Century Properties director for investor relations.

PROPERTY

THE Maldives (from left), Maui, Miami and Positano towers at Azure Urban Resort Residences in Parañaque City

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fund’s 1.9 million members.

Global interest rates were seen moving up toward year-end—quite possibly as early as September by some accounts—as the US Federal Reserve looks to temper the expansion of the world’s largest economy with an interest-rate increase.

De Quiros said the fund has started reviewing its investment policy to try to find how much of its portfolio may be deployed for the overseas markets.

Susie G. Bugante, vice president for public affairs and special events, said there is a limit as to how much C  A

BDO preparing to buy cheap stocks as Fed decision nears

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A CITY IN SYNC BusinessMirror

The former banker and current fund steward bared the plan on Tuesday at The Roundtable Forum hosted by the BM, where he said this will be the first time the pension system will deploy a portion of its investment portfolio outside the country.

“We are not prohibited by our charter to do just that,” de Quiros said. The proposal requires Malacañang’s approval, and has yet to be acted on by the fund’s own investment-deployment managers, but comes at a time when investing overseas has the potential to reward handsome benefits for the

HE Philippines’s largest money manager has increased cash holdings, expecting the nation’s benchmark stock index will extend its decline from a record before the US considers raising interest rates this year.

Frederico Rafael D. Ocampo, who helps manage $18 billion as chief investment officer at Manila-based BDO Unibank Inc., is betting he’ll be able to buy shares cheaper, as global equities drop, if the Federal Reserve (the Fed) signals it will raise rates this year. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which starts a twoday meeting on Tuesday, is predicted by economists to increase rates by the end of 2015.

“We have raised cash levels and

PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 45.2610

we are still holding on to our cash, anticipating a change in the FOMC’s tone could trigger a continued correction,” Ocampo said in an interview. “We are holding cash, because we expect there will be more attractive levels to pick up stocks.”

About 15 percent to 20 percent of holdings are now in cash, compared with the end of 2014, when it was fully invested, he said.

T he benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index has lost 8.3 percent since closing at a record 8,127.48 on April 10, as first-quarter economic growth weakened to a three-year low and fueled foreign capital withdrawals. The gauge has rebounded 1.8 percent since

SOCIAL Security System (SSS) President and CEO Emilio S. de Quiros Jr. (left) and BUSINESSMIRROR Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon share a light moment during the The Roundtable Forum held at the headquarters of the ALC Media Group in Makati City. NONIE REYES

SPECIAL REPORT

ASEAN SINGLE AVIATION MARKET

TALKING REGIONAL BUT ACTING NATIONAL B L S. M

T

Conclusion

HE creation of a single-aviation market within Southeast Asia will generate a huge growth potential for each Asean member-state (AMS), with the region relying heavily on travel and tourism as massive revenue generators.

This is backed up by the latest report of the World Travel and Tourism Council, which showed that the aviation markets of the AMS will continue their upward trend. And AirAsia Philippines Chairman Marianne M. Hontiveros agreed, citing a five-year period of exponential growth within the sector.

“Travel and tourism are huge industries and contributors to economic activity. The number of air travelers worldwide—including in Asean—has been growing, and is projected to grow from 3 billion in 2012 to 3.9 billion in 2017,” she said.

Hontiveros added: “Tourist numbers have been growing, too. Worldwide, there was a 266 million increase in tourist numbers in year 2010, compared to year 2000, or a 39-percent change; and tourists are estimated to have numbered 1.1 billion last year.”

In Asean the increase in the number of tourists in 2010 compared to 2000 was bigger, at 95 C  A

C  A

■ JAPAN 0.3668 ■ UK 70.3809 ■ HK 5.8381 ■ CHINA 7.2896 ■ SINGAPORE 33.6288 ■ AUSTRALIA 35.1269 ■ EU 51.0725 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.0696 Source: BSP (16 June 2015)

A2 Wednesday, June 17, 2015

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Asean Single Aviation Market: Talking regional but acting national Continued from A1

percent. In 2013, there were around 90.2 million tourists in the region.

Asean is expecting 96.32 million international tourist arrivals this year. It is expected to rise sharply to 163.22 million by 2025.

Travel and tourism’s direct contribution to the Asean’s gross domestic product (GDP) was at $117.9 billion, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. The figure, which represents 4.8 percent of Asean GDP, is expected to rise by 5 percent this year.

By 2025 the figure is expected to balloon to $209.4 billion.

“Indeed, travel and tourism are growing exponentially,” Hontiveros said. “Travel and tourism are huge revenue generators. They contribute greatly to the GDP of Asean and therefore, uplift the material quality of life of the people of Asean.”

Its total contribution—direct and indirect—to the region’s GDP was pegged at $291.8 billion in 2014, and is forecast to increase by 5.4 percent in 2015.

Budget carriers to dominate Asean market

Hontiveros said the growth will be fueled largely by Asean budget carriers such as AirAsia, Lion Air and homegrown Cebu Pacific.

“Low-cost carriers have been fueling the growth of aviation in Asean,” she said. “Lowcost carriers are proving to be so popular among travelers in the region.”

This means low-cost carriers will be dominating the overall aviation market in the Asean.

“The region has emerged over the past decade as one of the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets, capturing the attention of global suppliers. The rapid growth has primarily been driven by fast expansion of low-cost carriers—both independent groups and subsidiaries of full-service groups,” a

report of think tank Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation (Capa) showed.

As of end-2014, Southeast’s Asia overall budget carrier fleet stood at about 540 aircraft—including turboprops, narrowbodies and widebodies.

This represents growth of about 60 aircraft, or 12 percent, compared to the beginning of 2014.

“While still double digits, there was a significant slowdown compared to 2013, when the fleet grew by about 20 percent,” the Capa report read. “The slowdown in the growth rate over the last year can be viewed as a temporary hiccup. Market conditions were not favorable in 2014 and should improve in 2015.”

Hence, Hontiveros said, airlines in the region will be needing the full implementation of the Asean Single Aviation Market (Asam) to expand and reach its aspirations of serving more people.

“Asam would help meet the projected demand for 48,100 pilots and 50,300 aircraft technicians by 2032,” she said.

National University of Singapore Prof.

Alan Tan said once the Asam comes into play, Cebu Pacific will be the clear winner in the Asean air-transport liberalization.

“In other words, the more routes are opened up in Asean, the better for low-cost carriers such as Cebu Pacific.

The same goes for AirAsia Philippines.

Philippine Airlines (PAL), because of its higher cost structure, will struggle a bit, but its main concern should be the longer-haul routes,” Tan said.

Prepared, but still improving

Avelino Zapanta, an aviation expert, added that Asam will provide a larger market to address. Hontiveros called this market a “largely underserved market.”

“It means much bigger market for the air operators but it also means stiff com-

petition. Being open sky in nature, it will be a test where the best among them would make it,” Zapanta said.

Hence, Philippine carriers are gearing up to face this challenge of a more competitive market. In fact, they have been preparing their plans for quite a long time now, with legacy carrier PAL gearing up for the whole integration itself.

“We are ready for the Asean integration.

We have airplanes, we have qualified people,” Jaime J. Bautista, the flag carrier president, said in an interview.

He said aviation companies have five considerations if they want to compete aggressively. “You have to have the right assets, aircraft, people, systems and the support of the government,” Bautista said.

Dominant budget carrier Cebu Pacific is, likewise, ready to compete in an even larger market. “Our objective has always been to be globally competitive as an airline. We operate the youngest fleets in the whole world. Our people are very well trained and dedicated. The brand is quite strong. We are already the largest Philippine carrier to the Asean. So I would say we’re quite prepared,” Cebu Pacific President Lance Y. Gokongwei said.

The low-cost carrier has been the Filipinos’ airline of choice for quite some time now. It also operates Cebgo, formerly known as Tigerair Philippines.

“Integration will have more commonality of processes and have a much larger market to address. Of course, it also introduces more challenges in terms of more competition. But overall it should be very positive to the country and the customers,” Gokongwei added.

Just recently, Cebu Pacific ordered 16 turboprop planes from European aircraft maker ATR. The contract is pegged at P30.41 billion.

“We have been operating ATR aircraft since 2008, and they have enabled us to bring safe, reliable and affordable air transport to

smaller cities and islands throughout the Philippines. This order is an affirmation of our commitment to extend the convenience of affordable air travel to even more communities.

We are very pleased to be the launch customer of this new configuration of the ATR 72-600, as this will allow us to offer our customers more seats at even lower fares.” Gokongwei explained.

AirAsia Philippines, on the other hand, banked on its parent’s route network and capacity to brave the single aviation market.

Together with parent AirAsia, the lowcost carrier currently controlled by businessman Alfredo M. Yao launched the Asean Pass and the Asean Pass+ in February.

Holders of the AirAsia Asean Pass and the AirAsia Asean Pass+ can enjoy flights at a fixed rate to over 148 routes across all 10 Asean countries. Acting like a single currency, it diminishes the hassle of different foreign-exchange rates as flights are valued according to credits, allowing guests to be creative in planning their ideal trip through Asean.

The products are specifically designed to further liberalize and encourage travel among the Asean community.

“There are a lot of tourism destinations across the Asean that are well known. But in the Philippines, there’s a lot more to discover. This opens the Philippines to have more tourist arrivals,” AirAsia Philippines President and CEO Joy D. Cañeba said.

Too bad

The Philippines, being so dependent on tourism, will certainly stand to benefit from the greater inflow of foreign tourists to savor its beaches and other attractions.

However, harnessing the full-growth potential of an integrated Southeast Asian aviation market might prove to be belated in the case of the Philippines due to the constraints in policy and infrastructure.

Currently, the ratification of Protocols 5 and 6 of the Multilateral Agreement on Air Services are still with President Aquino. It was seemingly left to gather dust, as it has been years since the documents were signed by the air-services regulator.

Protocol 5 refers to unlimited Third and Fourth Freedom Traffic Rights between Asean capital cities, while Protocol 6 pertains to unlimited Fifth Freedom Traffic Rights between Asean capital cities.

Fifth Freedom of the Air refers to an airline’s right to carry traffic between two foreign countries on a flight that originates and terminates in one’s own country.

“Beyond Fifth Freedom Traffic Rights, there needs to be a change of policy. It means that Congress or the Senate needs to approve this change in policy because it is quite radical,” Civil Aeronautics Board Director Porvenir P. Porciuncula said.

The Sixth to Ninth Freedoms generally refer to cabotage, which is still a touchy issue for Philippine legislators.

What the regulator is doing now is to push the implementation of a region-wide Air Passenger Bill of Rights to protect consumers from problems arising from airtravel related issues.

“We have no common air-passenger rights. We are pushing for the creation of such. Right now, we just want to make sure that we have a very strong Air Passenger Bill of Rights before we propose ours as blueprint,” Porciuncula added.

But even if these problems with policy development have been addressed before the actual integration, the Philippines still stands to lose due to its inadequate infrastructure. “We are not going to reap the full benefits from what can be operated or utilized by our airlines,” Porciuncula said. “Even if we increase our flights but the infrastructure is inadequate, then we cannot really grow that much.”

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VISTA RESIDENCES’

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 A3

The Currency: Architectural Masterpiece at Ortigas CBD where living takes on incredible value

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B L G

ISTA Land presents the Vista Residences’ “Prime Series”—a listing of the most skillfully engineered and exquisitely designed towers often serving as both residential homes and business headquarters—that pepper the country’s central business districts.

AT The Currency, every room, every space is designed with creative, ingenious and practical space planning

metropolis conveniently bordered by the city’s key avenues: Julia Vargas, F. Ortigas Jr., and Garnet.

The Currency Comes With a Key Advantage for Investors

REALIZING that a huge number of those who purchase their condominiums do so for investment purposes, VRI designed a selection of leasing options created to strengthen its customers’ investment opportunities. The Vista Residences Leasing Group is tasked to enhance property values and the marketability of the company’s developments, both for its end users and investors, so as to turn their purchases into working investments, while also taking the burden of directly leasing out their properties off their customers’ backs.

The Leasing Group offers a selection of four leasing services designed as proactive solutions for unit owners. Vista Residences is the only real estate company in the country that offers this broad a selection of leasing options. In the roster are: Asset Management Service, Leasing Services Only, Serviced Suites, and the Condormitels specifically created for the “University Series” condominiums.

Asset Management Service (AMS) offers basic housekeeping and is ideal for fully furnished units with tenants looking for short-term rentals of not more than a year. Leasing Services Only (LSO) involves the usual leasing or rental of, preferably, bare units to tenants for long-term rentals.

Serviced Suites involve choice units that are operated by the Leasing Group as “serviced apartments” with full hotel services, including staff with concierge functions. A unique concept, the Condormitels are built into condominiums located close to educational institutions belonging to what VRI has dubbed its “University Series.” Here, the group offers a number of units operated as dormitory-hotels.

Vista Residences: Thoughtful and Sustainable Design

BUYERS only have a few months to wait before actually moving in as The Currency is scheduled for turn-over by end of the year

Created by top architectural firms and built with leading edge technology, these vertical villages are outfitted with facilities and amenities installed to take the residents’ lives a notch beyond expectations, and take their lifestyles soaring.

Topping the list of Vista Residences’ Prime Series is The Currency which is poised to become one of the finest places to live right in the heart of one of the country’s most frenetic business districts – the Ortigas Business Center.

Rising to 32 majestic storeys, the tower has become the most dazzling landmark in a city of landmarks.

The Currency is a soaring hub of residential units and business flats that seamlessly blend enterprise with sanctuary. The vertical village comes with multiple unique enclaves for momentary escape and relaxation. A ground level commercial plaza houses retail and commercial shops and restaurants. At the 10th floor are a swimming pool, a fitness gym, and al fresco dining amidst greenery.

A lavish lobby welcomes the urbanite home or to work, and, with separate lobbies for residents and office workers, The Currency guarantees privacy to all its tenants.

Beyond all that, five levels of parking, 24/7 security, and intelligent building systems convey the intense planning and thoughtful designing that went into the creation of The Currency.

The Currency was designed

by Arch Haus Asia Consultants Inc., one of the most renowned outfits in the country with expertise in

creating sky-high marvels resistant to earthquakes and the gale-force winds of the typhoons that visit the country every year. VRI in itself is also known for its brilliant building designs and use of sustainable building materials and equipment.

All these have been thoughtfully woven into The Currency’s DNA. Perhaps even more appealing is the fact that the building will be turned over by the end of the year.

Buyers only have a few months to wait before actually moving in.

Vista Residences, the condominium arm of the country’s premier property development company Vista Land, raises the bar for building design in the Ortigas CBD through The Currency.

In the decade or so that the group has been in existence, it has managed to raise condominium living in the Philippines to a level found in the top cities of the world, often combining commercial and business tenants with their residences allowing their individual towers to be virtually selfcontained. This focus on convenience has also guaranteed that the company has sourced and found some of the best locations in the city, discovering real estate very close to transport hubs and key centers of our CBD’s, while being entirely safe and beautifully environed.

To date, the group has built, or is in the process of building over 22 towers all over the country. One of these stunning condominiums, The Currency, is glass and steel marvel which towers over the mini

AT Vista Residences, every unit is a place where dreams will be dreamt and lived, and lives created and evolved.

Whatever the cost, whatever the neighborhood, every room, every space is designed with creative, ingenious and practical space planning. It is something Vista Residences and its mother company, Vista Land, is known for. Whether the property is themed, elegant or sensibly practical; wherever possible, the rooms are designed with space to breathe, the designs are stylish and the amenities first-rate.

Function, design and the building of dwellings that families can truly call a “home” is central to the Vista Residences philosophy. Thus, in their condominiums, there are fewer units per floor than in most condos today.

Vista Residences’ architects and engineers design buildings that make full use of natural light and air circulation—to take advantage of the wonderful sun and wind our tropical islands offer, and lessen the toll on the environment and the resources of the surrounding community.

Vista Residences carries with it Vista Land’s four decades of experience in building homes, developing properties and creating master planned communities— integrating into every project an unparalleled expertise in space planning, and flair for finding accessible and attractive locations. In addition, the company is committed to assuming a chief role in the condominium sector, creating greater awareness of their capabilities, as well as enhancing efficiencies in their resource distribution.

To know more about The Currency or the Vista Residences Prime Series, call (+63) 02 650-0753 or mobile number: (+63) 999 887 1705; or visit www.vistaresidences. com.ph.; follow vistaresidencesofficial on Facebook and vistarescondo on Instagram.

THE Currency is an architectural masterpiece that has elevated and enlivened the Ortigas skyline

AVAILABLE for residents pleasure are a swimming pool, a fitness gym, and al fresco dining amidst greenery

Economy

A4 Wednesday, June 17, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

briefs s.c. asks sandiganbayan to justify continued detention of gma THE Supreme Court (SC) ordered the antigraft court Sandiganbayan on Tuesday to justify its decision denying former President and now Pampanga Second District Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s plea to post bail in connection with the plunder case filed against her for alleged misuse of P366 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from 2008 to 2010.

SC Spokesman Theodore Te said the magistrates, during their regular en banc session, agreed to give the Sandiganbayan 10 days to comment on Arroyo’s petition seeking the nullification of its resolutions issued on October 1, 2014, and February 18 junking her motion to post bail.

In her petition filed before the Court through lawyer Jose Flaminiano, the former Chief Executive noted that the Court itself ruled that detainees are entitled to bail “if their continuous confinement during the pendency of their case would be injurious to their health or endanger their life.”

Flaminiano said Mrs. Arroyo is currently detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center because she is suffering from cervical spondylosis, a degenerative disease of the bones and cartilage of the neck. Joel R. San Juan

asian captains of industry to meet duterte

The Asian chief executive officers (CEOs) will come face to face with Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte in a special luncheon event precisely to apprise themselves of the person whom they referred to as the greatest city mayor in the history of the Philippines.

The Asian Chief Executive Forum will be held on June 25 at the Makati Diamond Residences, a new five-star complex in the heart of Makati City on Legaspi Street, just across Greenbelt shopping malls.

In a statement issued to its members, the Asian CEOs gave a quite accurate assessment of what Davao City was. “Before Rodrigo Duterte, Davao City was called the ‘Murder Capital’ of the Philippines, one of the poorest regions in the country. Today, Davao City is rated as one of the most peaceful cities in Asia and among the top 10 most livable in the world,” the statement said.

The CEOs, who are referred to as the captains of the industries, also keep track of Duterte’s political career. They said that the mayor had always been elected into office by a landslide since 1988.

chopper deal accusations ‘disturbing’

Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III said on Tuesday he wants defense officials to answer the “serious and potentially damaging allegations” by whistle-blower Rhodora Alvarez in connection with the purchase of 21 refurbished UH1H “Huey” helicopters.

Alvarez had earlier accused defense officials of “tailor-fitting” the terms of reference for the said purchase to help Rice Aircraft Services Inc. (RASI) bag the contract for the supply of the helicopters.

Guingona said the accusations contained in an affidavit submitted

by Alvarez are “disturbing.” He expressed hope that the Department of National Defense (DND) will be able to answer them.

He cited, in particular, the allegations based on e-mail exchanges Alvarez said she made with DND officials.

Among these is the purported e-mail to Alvarez allegedly sent by Technical Working Group Chairman Brig. Gen. Conrado Parra where he supposedly discussed issues on delivery and payment schemes.

In the purported e-mail, Parra allegedly said, “I don’t think they will allow that, but still, this can be discussed in the negotiations.”

Recto Mercene

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Industry group reinforces fight against smuggling, illicit trade

T

he Federation of Philippine Industries Inc. (FPI) reinforces its fight against smuggling, and expanded its movement to combat illicit trade to support businesses in the local market.

FPI launched in Makati City on Tuesday its multisectoral movement Fight IT (illicit trade) to curb unfair trade and secure national revenues and legitimate players in the domestic market.

“Illicit trade is a serious economic problem that robs the government of billions of pesos in revenues, harms consumers and undercuts legitimate local manufacturers,” FPI Chairman Jesus Arranza said at a media briefing.

The industry group mentioned that the government had a revenue loss of P231.1 billion in 2013 alone due to smuggling.

What is worse, Arranza noted, is that illicit trade becomes a detrimental factor in job creation and

future investments in the country.

As local players lose their competitiveness in the market with the proliferation of smuggled goods and illicit trade, there will be no additional investments or firms closed, and workers lose their jobs.

The Fight IT movement is also supported by sectors, of which common issues are smuggling and illicit trade in their industries, including rice, sugar, corn, palm oil, tobacco, steel, cement and ceramic tiles.

For giant tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp.

(PMFTC), the global tobacco industry estimates that 1 in 10 cigarettes smoked worldwide is from illicit trade.

“A container of illicit cigarettes costs approximately $100,000 to

$150,000 to produce. If sold in Western Europe, that same container can fetch up to $2 million.…

The profits are massive,” PMFTC Communication Manager Dave Gomez said.

“The same is true here in the Philippines. With excise taxes going up by as much as 341 percent in 2013 and prices of cigarettes almost doubling since, market conditions make it conducive for cheap counterfeit cigarettes to prosper,” he added.

For the local Ceramic Tile Manufacturers Association, its secretarygeneral, Francisco Saavedra, mentioned that the share of locally produced ceramic tiles in the Philippines now declined to 27 percent, from 70 percent in 2005, due to cheap illegally imported tiles present in the market.

The industry association now only has three big players from four companies then.

For the part of steel industry, Steel Angles, Shapes and Sections Manufacturers Association of the Philippines Inc. Executive Director Ramon Khu noted that some 50,000 direct and indirect employment and future investments of steel manufacturers will be af-

fected if smuggling illicit trade will still push in the Philippine market.

Thus, the Fight IT movement urges both public and private sectors, as well as academe, to curb illicit trade in the country.

With its strengthened fight against illicit trade, Fight IT action plans include: Strengthening collaboration with government agencies and other business organizations; Providing regular updates to the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue on key smuggling issues; Providing recommendations to enforcement agencies; Providing recommendation to bills pending in Congress, specifically the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act; Antismuggling summit to have a dialogue with government and industries; Training of law-enforcement agencies to spot fake goods; Commissioning research on smuggling; Setting up of an informer’s reward program; and Awareness campaign. PNA

NGCP, SPC seek ERC approval of five-year ancillary services procurement agreement

By Lenie Lectura

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HE National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) and SPC Power Corp. are jointly seeking the regulators’ approval of their five-year ancillary services procurement agreement (ASPA).

Under their May 26 ASPA, NGCP will procure a specific capacity of ancillary service capacity from SPC’s Cebu Diesel Power Plant (CDPP) in Naga City, Cebu, which was certified by the system operator as “providing dispatchable reserve [DR] and reactive powersupport reserve [RPSR], collectively called as ancillary services [AS].”

“NGCP invited and negotiated with all prospective generation companies capable of providing ancillary services, one of which is SPC. Upon conducting several tests on CDPP, NGCP determined that its units are capable of providing DR and RPSR,” they said in their eight-page application.

NGCP is required to secure its requirements from power firms “to keep the grid stable,” said its spokesman, Cynthia Alabanza. When the grid is stable, electricity supply won’t be interrupted.

Ancillary services referred to “services that are necessary to support the transmission of capacity and energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation of the transmission system in accordance with good utility practice and the Grid Code.”

Faces

A photo collage of happy smiling faces, posted on a temporary fence at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, greets pedestrians and motorists. The collage was actually posted on the fence to conceal the ongoing construction of a building. Nonie Reyes

Ancillary services are needed to ensure reliability in the operation of the transmission system and, consequently, in the reliability of the electricity supply in the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao grids.

Ancillary services also stabilize electricity supply and prevent system-wide blackout, and regulate

the volume of electricity delivered to end-users. In emergency cases, when a power plant breaks down, for instance, ancillary-service providers resort to a backup plant readily available.

“As the demand for power in the Visayas increases, the requirements of the system to ensure stability, reli-

ability and security, likewise, increase.

Ensuring the integrity of the system is essential to protect the interest of the public and, particularly, key to small- and large-scale businesses.

The absence of system reliability and stability will certainly discourage investments and growth,” NGCP and SPC said in their application.

SC stops construction of Torre de Manila

By Joel R. San Juan

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HE Supreme Court (SC) issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Tuesday enjoining the DMCI Project Developers Inc. from continuing with the construction and development of the controversial Torre de Manila condominium project.

Eight magistrates—Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Arturo Brion, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Lucas Bersamin, Martin Villarama, Jose Catral Mendoza, Estela PerlasBernabe and Francis Jardeleza—voted to grant the TRO, even without the conduct of oral arguments on the petition filed by the Knights of Rizal (KR).

In reaction to the Court order, the DMCI said: We have yet to receive a copy of the Supreme Court order. Until then we cannot give any comment.

Those who voted against the issuance of a TRO before oral arguments were Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo, Jose Perez and Bienvenido Reyes.

Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Marvic Leonen were on leave.

The Court also set the case for oral argument on June 30, and directed the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to explain its cease-and-desist order (CDO) issued on January 5 against DMCI. The CDO was issued through its chairman, Felipe de Leon Jr., while the Court has yet to rule on the petition filed by the KR. The commission stands as an intervener-respondent in the case before the High Tribunal.

In issuing the CDO, de Leon said the construction of the 46-story building by DMCI violates Republic Act 10066, protecting the physical integrity of heritage sites, as well as the constitutional provision on the preservation of cultural landmarks.

The KR, in its petition, asked the Court to stop the construction of Torre de Manila, as it blocks the iconic sight line of the popular monument of national hero Jose Rizal at the Luneta Park.

It claimed that by defacing the visual corridors of the monument, DMCI violated several laws mandating the protection and preservation of the Rizal Monument.

These laws include RA 4846, or the Cultural Properties Preservation and Protection Act; RA 7356, or the law creating the National Commission on Culture and the Arts; and RA 10066, or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, or an Act Providing for the Protection and Conservation of the National Cultural Heritage.

Petitioners also argued that the project could be considered as an act of nuisance, as defined under the Civil Code of the Philippines.

They also argued that the project also violated the zoning ordinance of the City of Manila.

Wang clears BI officials, lawmakers on bribery allegations

A

lleged Chinese crime lord Wang Bo on Tuesday denied before the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability reports that he bribed lawmakers for the swift passage of the Basic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR) in the lower chamber.

Wang, who arrived in handcuffs in the panel hearing, also denied that he raised money for the campaign funds of the Liberal Party (LP) of President Aquino.

He also rejected the reports that the he bribed Bureau of Immigration (BI) deputy commissioners Abdullah Mangotara and Gilberto Repizo for his release.

“No, I did not,” Wang said, answering the question of Alliance of Volunteer Teachers Representative Eulogio Magsaysay, if he bribed lawmakers for the passage of the BBL. During the second committee hearing, BI Commissioner Siegfred B. Mison, Mangotara and Repizo also repeatedly denied that they received money from Wang for the latter’s release.

Earlier, a newspaper report said that Wang provided a P100-million bribe money to BI commissioners to sign the foreigner’s release papers and gave $10 million to lawmakers to secure the swift passage of the BLBAR. The report also said the administration used funds from Wang to get campaign funds for the LP. Wang was arrested on February 10 for using a canceled passport in coming to the country. On March 5 immigration officials decided to deport Wang to China to face criminal charges.

But Mangotara and Repizo allegedly stopped the deportation of Wang after it was ordered by Mison.

In the same hearing, Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima also said she already issued an order holding Wang’s release in abeyance pending his separate estafa case.

An estafa case filed by lawyer Bryan Bantilan, in behalf of Jose Chua against Wang, is considered by de Lima as a tactic to delay Wang’s deportation.

The case was allegedly due to a reported

P3 million given by Chua to Wang to purchase a property in Bacoor, Cavite, but the sale did not push through and that the latter failed to return the money.

According to de Lima, records show that the initial estafa case filed only consisted of an explanation that Wang did not return a P3-million loan to Chua, but was later on revised to an explanation of the botched purchase of the property.

De Lima said Chua’s party might have realized that the failure to pay a loan is not a ground for filing estafa.

De Lima also claimed that the case was “bogus,” as Chua did not appear in the hearings and Bantilan, who filed the case against Wang, is the same lawyer who represented him in the proceedings following his arrest.

In a department order filed on June 10, de Lima instructed the National Bureau of Investigation team to look at the immigration case of Wang.

Also, de Lima dismissed the BBL payola issue as a “completely preposterous claim.” Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz with Reicelene Joy Ignacio and Pia Quinto

PCSO’s donation to Avsegroup

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Vice Chairman and General Manager lawyer Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II (center) receives a plaque of appreciation from Police Chief Supt. Pablo Francisco E. Balagtas, director of the Aviation Security Group (Avsegroup), in appreciation of his invaluable support and benevolence by donating one ambulance to the Avsegroup and guest of honor and speaker during Monday’s flag-raising ceremony and distinguished visitors program in line with National Police’s P.A.T.R.O.L plan 2030 at their headquarters in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Complex, Pasay City. At right is Police Supt. Danilo Estapon. JOSEPH MUEGO

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 A5

US BPO firm invests $7M for seat expansion in Batangas facility

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By Roderick L. Abad

USINESS-Process outsourcing (BPO) provider Alorica announced on Tuesday its continuous expansion in the country by putting up 1,000 more seats at its facility in Lipa City, Batangas, thus bringing its overall seats to at least 8,500.

Alorica COO Art DiBari told the BusinessMirror at the sidelines of the company’s media briefing in Makati City that they are investing around $7 million for this initiative to further strengthen their presence in the Philippines, which is a key area in their overall business strategy and internal engagement.

Out of the five locations they currently have nationwide, he said, they decided to increase the number of seats at their sites in Lipa City, given its accessibility to Manila.

“From a travel perspective, it’s not very far for our clients to get to,” he noted. “[Also], there’s not a lot of other BPOs in the area, so we have access to a lot of really talented people there.”

The increase in seating capacity of their South Luzon-based facility, he added, would translate to a total of 1,800 seats and up to 1,300 employees.

“I think we have 750 [employees] now in Lipa, and [we will add] about 1,000 we have yet to start with,” the top executive said. “We still have like a little bit of an opportunity to use the seats more than once, so we might have an additional 200 or 300 [job] opportunities after that.”

With 48,000 talents and 32,000 seats worldwide,

Alorica is a global leading provider of customer management-outsourcing solutions spanning the entire customer lifecycle.

From customer acquisition and sales to customer care and support, as well as logistics and fulfillment, it offers a seamless customer experience across all service channels.

Vertical-wise, the BPO firm serves large industries, such as telecommunications, entertainment, financial services and health care, among others.

Across Asia, the Irvine, California-headquartered company is located only in the Philippines, with around 10,000 seats.

“We actually see a nice affinity between our Philippines and Latin-America operations as far as nearshore or offshore [is concerned]. They all have a good affinity to the US. And the workers, particularly the Philippines, have a lot of good English speakers and the work force is very engaged and talented,” he said.

Apart from Batangas, the other three facilities of Alorica are in Metro Manila and another one in Cebu, thus making its local operation the “second biggest” in terms of size, next only to the US.

Malaya thermal-plant repair now past 90-day deadline–PSALM

By Lenie Lectura

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HE delay in the completion of overhaul works on the 300-megawatt (MW) unit of the Malaya thermal power plant was stretched for more than 100 days to date, way too long from the 90-day target completion of the facility’s repair since a formal notice was issued.

“Malaya rehab is delayed,” said Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) Officer in Charge and Vice President for Finance Lourdes Alzona.

Under the terms of reference, overhaul work must have been completed on March 3, or 90 days from issuance of the Notice to Proceed to STX Marine of South Korea, which won the contract with an P80.63-million bid offer. The formal notice was issued to the contractor in December last year.

STX Marine is also the current operation and maintenance (O&M) contractor for the facility.

The delay dragged on because major parts of the facility sustained extensive damage and STX Marine had to send parts to South Korea for repair. At first, the completion of rehab was moved to April, then in May. “It is delayed but may be completed this month, as per monitoring of our Asset Management Group,” said Alzona in a text message on Tuesday.

The Malaya power facility is consisted of a 300MW unit with a once-through-type boiler, and a 350-MW unit fitted with a conventional boiler. It was rehabilitated in 1995 by Korea Electric Power Corp. under a 15-year rehabilitate-operate-managemaintain agreement.

The government was earlier hoping that the rehabilitation of the Malaya Unit 1 could be finished before summer to make it available during summer, when lack of power supply was anticipated to happen.

The second unit is currently in operation.

Once Malaya 1 is rehabilitated, the entire Malaya facility can run at its full capacity of 650 MW. The government was relying on the Malaya power plant, as this is designated by the Department of Energy as a must-run unit whenever the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines needs it for dispatch, depending on the Luzon grid’s power situation.

The plant’s previous contractor, Salcon Power Corp. (SPC), was the one that suggested that an overhaul must be done to address “the cause of excessive vibration.”

The overhaul covers the replacement of air-preheater intermediate and cold-end heating elements; major inspection of automatic voltage regulator; prevention maintenance of distributed control system; and overhauling of circulating water pump, among others.

Meanwhile, Alzona said the contract for the O&M of entire Malaya facility will be auctioned off in September.

STX Marine replaced SPC, after it won last year the bidding for a full-year O&M contract. “Malaya O&M will be up for bidding again, as the current contract is up to September 25 only,” Alzona said.

STX is engaged in the design, construction, supervision and repair of system or equipment related to energy. The company is also a provider of maritime solutions, and among its services are ship management, marine transportation and brokerage, and ship design, construction, leasing and repair.

Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna had earlier questioned the decision of PSALM to award the overhaul contract to STX, which is the same contactor managing the power facility. “The activities under the overhaul will be biased, since there is no check and balance between managing and overhauling.”

“We have a few multinationals that we serve, but most of our businesses [are] in the US market,” he said, while citing that their domestic presence account for 20 percent and 30 percent of their global reve-

nues and employment, respectively.

Pressed on their future expansion, DiBari bared that they have no plans yet in the pipeline.

“But we are sort of driven by the demand of our clients and an-

ticipating their needs. We do have available seats in our Alphaland and Cebu facilities. So we do have the ability to expand whether for new clients or existing clients,” he said.

A6 Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

Pushing for expanded trade with European bloc

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T a time when just about everybody in this administration is “Noynoying,” the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is busy pursuing its second round of talks with the European Free Trade Association (Efta) on the sectors that will be included in the proposed free-trade agreement (FTA) between the two sides. The DTI is on the right path. We want to push it even further, to renew our historic trade and other economic ties with our Iberian friends, including Spain, Mexico and Cuba.

On Efta, the reports quote Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. as saying that the talks will center on the specific products and services of interest to the Philippines and the four member- countries of the European trading bloc.

According to Cristobal, the Efta produces high-technology products, including products by its technologically advanced pharmaceutical industries. It is also keen on the observance of intellectual-property rights. As for us, we have active creative industries, including voice and nonvoice services, and information-technology (IT) solutions. We have potential for creative services, such as editing, sound mixing, dubbing, animation and computer graphics. We can also provide services in banking, shipbuilding, precision engineering, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

Areas of cooperation in shipbuilding, iron and steel, auto and auto parts, aerospace, in addition to IT issues, business-process management, and pharmaceuticals, will all have tremendous beneficial impacts on local Industries.

In addition to exchanges in commodities and services, the Philippines is targeting the countries as sources of substantial investments. Efta may be a physically small market but its investment capability is enormous. It has large multinational corporations that we can attract in manufacturing and services.

Efta consists of four countries—Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein—that count among the world’s richest. Liechtenstein has the second-highest per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) globally, at $89,400; while Switzerland, which ranks 11th highest globally, has a per-capita GDP of $54,800. (The Philippines has $2,750.)

Philippine officials expect this FTA to be completed by 2016.

On our historically based relations with our Iberian friends, Spain, which was our first colonial administrator, has always shown a sympathetic inclination toward us. Not just in trade but on strategic issues, as well, the Spanish ambassador recently invited the Philippines to send researchers to Spain to examine documents in Spanish museums, on the extent of the Philippine territory dating back 300 to 400 years ago, to strengthen our claims on currently disputed rocks and shoals in the West Philippine Sea. Earlier, we also referred to the potential development impact of trade with Mexico on the Philippine economy. We also pointed to the wisdom of resuming our economic and political ties with Cuba.

Our best wishes to the DTI. May its efforts to promote the development of our economy through cooperation with other countries meet with resounding success.

Efta PHL

Option to sell program for individual SSS members Susie G. Bugante

All About Social Security

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ARLY this year, the Social Security System (SSS) announced a way for members to settle their outstanding stock investment and/or privatization fund loans by exercising their option to sell their stocks at prevailing market value and then paying their loans from the proceeds of the sale.

The option to sell program is targeted to individual SSS members who are delinquent in the payment of their loans under the Stock Investment Loan Program (SILP) or the Privatization Fund Loan Program (PFLP). To avail himself or herself of the option to sell program, the memberborrower should accomplish the

application form for the option to sell shares of stocks and submit it with the following documents: notarized Special Power of Attorney authorizing the SSS to sell the shares of stocks (the certificates of which are held in the SSS’s custody); broker signature card; customer account information form; SSS identification card or two valid

IDs, one of which has a photo and signature of the cardholder; and statement of account issued by the SSS SILP section at the head office.

The shares of stocks will be sold by the SSS based on the current market price quoted by an accredited stock broker. After the required charges (broker’s fees, sales tax, value-added tax, etc.) are deducted from the proceeds of the sale, the net amount shall be applied to the outstanding balance of the SILP or PFLP. Upon posting of the payment and closing of the SILP/PFLP account, the remaining amount from the proceeds of the sale shall be applied to other delinquent member loans.

Any amount in excess of all the loan payments shall be refunded to the member-borrower.

If the net proceeds of the sale are not sufficient to cover the outstanding balance for the SILP/PFLP,

Corporate Japan thinks it’s 1985 William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

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HE Japanese government’s newfound embrace of international corporate governance standards has the potential to be an epochal moment for the country’s economy.

Shareholders are now being encouraged to challenge Japanese CEOs, and companies across the country find themselves under pressure to diversify their boards and increase accountability.

There’s just one problem: Japan’s biggest companies are greeting these reforms with a halfhearted shrug.

When it comes to corporate governance, Takata, Toshiba, Sharp and Toyota are still acting as if it’s 1985.

Deadly air-bag maker Takata is as opaque as ever in its dealings with the public. Toshiba is avoiding any admissions about its growing accounting scandal. Sharp is refusing to exit money-losing businesses, angling for government aid instead. Toyota is hawking new shares that can’t be sold for five years, the better to resist the demands of shareholders. And you can now include Honda, Japan Tobacco and even the operator of the Nikkei stock exchange on the list of recalcitrant Japanese corporations.

Honda has been in need of new leadership since Takanobu Ito resigned as CEO in February in the wake of an international safety scandal that claimed the lives of as many as seven people (thanks to Takata’s faulty air bags). Yet Honda revealed on Monday that its new leader will

be a 33-year company veteran, upholding a 41-year custom of leaders hand-picking their successors from within the company—the same insular practice that drove Japan’s tech giants into the ground in prior decades.

Japan’s Ministry of Finance is failing to uphold Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s vision of a transformed corporate landscape. This week the ministry announced it is scrapping its previously announced plans to sell its holdings in Japan Tobacco, Asia’s biggest listed cigarette maker, to fund the restoration of earthquakeravaged communities and halt radiation leaks at Fukushima. Even as Abe talks of making corporate Japan more transparent, his own government has still been making massive economic decisions behind closed doors.

And then there’s Japan Exchange.

For years, Japan’s law enforcement and corporate establishment tolerated companies leaking earnings guidance to the media, which enabled insiders to reap enormous profits in

Japan’s Ministry of Finance is failing to uphold Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s vision of a transformed corporate landscape. This week the ministry announced it is scrapping its previously announced plans to sell its holdings in Japan Tobacco, Asia’s biggest listed cigarette maker, to fund the restoration of earthquake-ravaged communities and halt radiation leaks at Fukushima. Even as Abe talks of making corporate Japan more transparent, his own government has still been making massive economic decisions behind closed doors. trading—a practice that, if it happened on Wall Street, would quickly earn the attention of the FBI. Yet, two weeks into Japan’s supposedly epochal corporate governance push, Japan Exchange CEO Atsushi Saito has made it clear he sees no reason to change. “Personally I don’t think it’s unfair,” Saito somehow told reporters this week with a straight face.

All three examples show how Abe’s new initiatives are no match for Japan’s traditional “iron triangle”— the clubby nexus of elected officials, bureaucrats and CEOs that has long dominated Japan’s economy and resisted any prime minister who dared challenge them.

That’s not to say change isn’t afoot.

Aside from nudging corporate boards to add more outsiders and women, Abe’s new regulations have forced companies to disclose their policies on cross-shareholdings and the exercise

the remaining loan balance may be paid by the member-borrower at any SSS branch with teller facilities or at any SSS-accredited payment centers. The memberborrower should coordinate with the SILP section for the proper application of the payment.

The remaining loan balance will continue to be charged interests and penalties until it is fully paid. It is advisable, therefore, for memberborrowers to settle their loan delinquencies the soonest possible time.

For more information about the SSS and its programs, call our 24-hour call center at (632) 920-6446 to 55, Monday to Friday, or send an e-mail to member_relations@sss.gov.ph.

Susie G. Bugante is the vice president for public affairs and special events of the Social Security System.

Send comments about this column to susiebugante.bmirror@gmail.com.

of shareholder voting rights. And it’s a sign of progress that Japan Exchange recently declared it is “ashamed” at Toshiba’s accounting scandal.

But that admonishment also underscores how much more needs to be done. Japan Exchange has no excuse for keeping Toshiba on the list of JPX-Nikkei Index 400, its list of role-model companies. Japanese regulators should be pouncing, too, demanding to see Toshiba’s books requiring management do more to investigate the scandal than name a hand-picked “third-party committee,” the oldest of corporate Japan’s obfuscating gimmicks.

The same stringent approach should apply to any other corporate icon ignoring the Japanese government’s reform efforts. We’ll soon know whether Honda is among them.

When the company announced the appointment of its new CEO, Takahiro Hachigo, it had many industry observers Googling “Hachigo” and hoping for the best. To impress investors, he must, at the very least, sever the automaker’s more than 50-year relationship with Takata.

But, in a corporate culture that has tended to prize relationships more than return on investment, will he have the fortitude to do so?

The first step will be to acknowledge the urgency of the problem.

If Hachigo and his fellow Japanese CEOs can’t make real progress when it comes to corporate accountability, it’s hard to see how Japan can sustain its 35-percent stock-market rally over the past 12 months. As Japan has learned all too painfully before, bubbles don’t last forever.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

A PHL strategy on financial inclusion: More on means vs reversing mind-sets?

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano and Dr. Alvin P. Ang

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In essence, the NSFI envisions this for Philippine financial inclusion: “A state wherein there is effective access to a wide range of financial products and services by all.”

The NSFI formalizes the policy showcase of the Philippines as one of the more accommodating countries for financial inclusion. The conduciveness of a nation’s environment for financial inclusion is the country’s turf: first in Asia and third worldwide according to a 2014 survey of The Economic Intelligence Unit. Admittedly, however, the archipelagic nature of the Philippines offers physical challenges in financial inclusion. Of some 1,300-plus municipalities nationwide, about 36 percent of these geographic units do not have a banking office leading to roughly 15 percent of the population unbanked.

Citing recent World Bank data covering the years 2010 to 2014— the economy’s sunshine period, the Philippines’s five-year gross domestic savings rate is 15.6 percent, lower than rates of neighboring Southeast Asian countries. Not even recent years of macroeconomic growth for the country, a situation the Philippines long dreamed of having, have pushed people to improve their savings habit.

Data on the Philippines from the WB Global Financial Inclusion Index (Findex) further pushes the concern. The Findex is a worldwide survey of over-150,000 people asking questions related to financial inclusion—from saving to borrowing to opening accounts. Done twice (in the years 2011 and 2014), some 1,000 Filipinos were surveyed in the two survey rounds of the Findex.

A source of good news is that the number of adults aged 15 years old and above with accounts at formal financial institutions increased to 31.3 percent in 2014, from 26.6 percent three years before. There was an increase in account-bearing Filipinos, who are living in rural areas: From 19.5 percent to 27.5 percent.

But above-15-year-old Filipinos, who saved at a formal financial institution, if to cite the Findex surveys, increased negligibly: From 14.7 percent in 2011 to 14.8 percent in 2014.

This is baffling since Filipinos, who “saved any money,” be it kept on their own or placed in financial institutions, rose to 67.3 percent in 2014 from 45.5 percent in 2011, says the Findex survey data.

Ricart

PRELIMINARY survey findings of a research project in the Philippines using a tool called the Remittance Investment Climate Analysis in Rural Hometowns (Ricart) applied in the municipality Guiguinto, Bulacan, affirm national-level observations. Guiguinto, found in Bulacan province and is an hour’s ride from Manila, is still outside of the ambit of cities, even if the town’s first-class income status makes it look like a city already. But not even the presence of some four commercial banks, two rural banks, a thrift or savings bank and some five cooperatives pushed as much people to save.

In the Ricart survey (n=227 respondents, broken down into 118 migrant families, 36 overseas migrants and 73 nonmigrant families), the number of people bitten by the savings bug had not even reach half. Some 41.3 percent of migrant families, 44.4 percent of migrant remitters and 26 percent of nonmigrant families in Guiguinto have savings accounts in

formal financial institutions.

So, when asked why, some residents, especially migrant families, cite usual reasons: incomes “not enough” for daily needs, accumulating and cyclical debts (the latter covering borrowing money to pay-off a current debt), among others. The Ricart survey showed people “know” about financial management and “do not need any help” in relation to handling money. However, practices fail to show such is happening. Most of the surveyed respondents do not list down expenses though they know the money that comes in. Unspent money from previous paycheck, most respondents answered, are spent for daily needs. And when the household is drained of cash, it’s time to borrow for many respondents.

Ricart had been applied in previous years in three other municipalities across the Philippines. To include the current round in Guiguinto that had been supported by the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) of the University of California-Irvine, the story is the same: local and overseas-based income earners and remittance-possessing households claim to “know” finance but the practices contradict what they’re supposed to do given what they “know.”

Yes, municipal-level results of previous and current Ricart surveys are not generalizable nationally (previous Ricart studies were done in Magarao, Camarines Sur; Maribojoc, Bohol; and Pandi, Bulacan). Still, these attempts give a good snapshot at the environment for savings and investment, at least by rural folks. If Ricart will be done in other places, the answer to the money handling question may remain to be the same: people “know,” but practices do not show what should be done.

Financial education and consumer protection is a second pillar of the NSFI. The mechanics of advocating financial education are things stakeholders know already, like budgeting sheets or answering risk profile questionnaires, or even giving out an alkansya (piggy bank).

But, with the delivery of these approaches to improving people’s financial management skills comes with its own tone. That tone may have to ring well in the mindset of Filipinos.

One may know budgeting but, if the Filipino mindset is still on spending, will behavioral change happen?

Financial inclusion is a behavioral economics issue and, more important, a cultural challenge. Communicating clear messages that strike a chord at the Filipino’s money mindset may have to be the next step to improving the state of Filipinos’ access and usage of money and financial services.

Assistant professor Jeremaiah Opiniano is executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI, http:// almanac.ofwphilanthropy.org) and teaches at the journalism program of the University of Santo Tomas. Dr. Alvin Ang is full professor of economics at the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) where he also heads an economic forecasting unit called Eagle Watch. This commentary is related to the research project “Overseas Remittances, Hometown Development and Financial Inclusion” of IMDI, funded by the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion of the University of California-Irvine.

A7

Who decides when it’s safe for our kids to be on their own?

By Dan K. Thomasson Tribune News Service

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NE of the more pressing concerns these days is what constitutes parental neglect of minor children—just how much freedom is unsafe when, as we are reminded almost daily, it appears that predators lurk almost everywhere.

Institute for Migration and Development Issues

N July 1 the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will launch a National Strategy on Financial Inclusion (NSFI). The forthcoming policy framework, to be collectively signed by 13 national government agencies, represents the Philippines’s effort at bolstering the “Creation of A Savings Habit” (Cash) and letting as many Filipinos—especially the poor—to be captured by the formal financial system. (The BSP recently conducted consultations to stakeholders in the country’s three major island groupings.)

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

For those of us who grew up when (at least in the summer) we were outside on our own, from dawn to dusk, often without shoes or shirts, pausing only for a hurried lunch, it is difficult to understand a world in which it is necessary to have such things as Amber Alerts and sex offender lists; where mothers even in suburbia feel the necessity to walk their primary youngsters to a school bus a mere block away. A recent case in Maryland has elevated to a national level the issue of “free range” children—those whose parents have given their youngsters the latitude of walking to and from recreation sites, as well as school without supervision.

In this case parents were charged with neglect twice by police and state child-protective services (CPS), although there was no sign of poor treatment otherwise. The parents have argued they merely were trying to give their children

a sense of freedom. The parents of the children were cleared on appeal in a first case and are awaiting a decision on the second.

On Friday the state’s protective services posted a report “clarifying” its views on children walking alone.

It issued a new policy directive that the CPS should not be involved unless the children have been harmed or face a substantial risk.

The Washington Post quoted a spokeman for the Maryland’s Department of Human Services as saying “we are not getting into the business of opining on parenting practices, or child-rearing philosophies.” While the mother of the children said the clarification was a step in the right direction, it doesn’t go far enough. “It still doesn’t give reassurance to parents that their desire to give their children freedom will be respected,” she was quoted by the Post. It seems to me there is a fine line separating overprotection and

common sense here.

What may seem like oppressiveness to children may actually be parental due diligence. In some instances, walking alone may pose the substantial risk the state sets as a standard for its interference. But how does one determine when that is? Should the state wait until there is a missing child before acting? All the hours of warnings about strangers and alleged lost puppy dogs and offers of rides and false claims of being a friend of their parents may not be enough to protect the child from the unthinkable. How many times have children come to harm from even a neighbor, who was friendly and whose approaches seem innocent enough?

The state should not be faulted, nor embarrassed, about being concerned over the welfare of a 6-yearold girl walking home alone with her 10-year-old brother.

And I’m not certain a policy saying otherwise is a good idea. Whether that should result in charges against the parents with no other evidence of neglect is another matter. Would a stern warning of what might happen be enough?

No one wants to raise children in a Skinner Box. But the parents should not treat the dangers cav-

alierly, leaving it to chance that nothing will go wrong. At the puppy age, children have the wanderlust of Beagles.

A little prudence in giving them room to grow is beneficial but that space should be granted with care.

There are too many lost children on too many milk cartons to ignore that fact.

As a young cop reporter, I vividly recall a missing child from the car of an otherwise “responsible” parent, who was away in a convenience store for only three minutes.

Fortunately, the culprit who took the youngster was caught within an hour because of an alert passerby.

At what age should one be extended the privilege of walking alone?

Who knows?

But I’m fairly certain that age 6 isn’t it nor for that matter is age 10.

Obviously, safety rests in minimizing one’s risks through good judgment at every age. Unfortunately, children don’t often possess that judgment.

In a perfect world the Maryland couple’s philosophy of child rearing would be appropriate. But it is not a perfect world and in this instance they just might have gotten lucky that it was the police who picked up the children.

We must talk about physician-assisted suicide

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By John M. Crisp | Tribune News Service

RITTANY Maynard, 29, died on November 1. To be more accurate, she killed herself.

Earlier that year, she was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor, and was given six months to live.

Because this disease would destroy her life long before her natural death, she left California—where physician-assisted suicide is illegal—and moved to Portland, Oregon, one of five states that allow some version of assistance in dying to patients who face an imminent death. She didn’t want to die, but, when it was clear that her situation was hopeless, she wanted to take control over the circumstances of her death. She celebrated her husband’s birthday on October 26, then, on November 1, she ingested a lethal, but legal, prescription and died quietly at a time and place of her own choosing.

Brittany Maynard wanted to leave a lasting legacy. Before she died, she issued an appeal to California legislators to legalize physician-assisted suicide, and, in the last weeks of her life, she discussed the issue with Gov. Jerry Brown. Last week the California Senate responded by approving a bill—the End of Life Option Act— that represents a tentative first step toward that goal. The complexities of this issue are embodied in questions and stories: Why do we expect loved ones to endure lingering, miserable deaths

while we assure that our pets and serial killers die as free from pain as possible? How do we assure that aid in dying isn’t misused by the temporarily depressed? How do we protect the elderly from manipulative, impatient heirs? Are we violating some divine mandate about the integrity of life by avoiding the suffering that often accompanies death?

And, then, there are the stories: Last week, Annabelle Gurwitch described in the New York Times her efforts to help a friend find a peaceful exit from life, rather than suffer

a miserable death from pancreatic cancer. She and four of the patient’s closest friends assembled at her bedside, toasted her, said their goodbyes, then gave her a huge overdose—illegally; this was in California—from the patient’s collection of prescription drugs. But Annabelle and her friends were amateurs, and, in this gruesome tale, their friend suffered much longer than she would have had had her death occurred under the supervision of a physician.

Another story: In 2012 Barbara Wise suffered triple cerebral aneurysms and was bedridden in a Cleveland hospital. Her husband of 45 years, John, smuggled a pistol into the hospital and fired a single shot into her head. She died the next day.

Even though John Wise and his wife had both agreed that neither wanted to live in a bedridden, disabled state, prosecutors charged the 66-year-old Wise with aggravated murder. In December 2013, he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Then there’s George Sanders, 86, whose wife begged him to kill her after she could no longer stand the pain and debilitation of multiple sclerosis. Or Jean and Cecil Brush.

After a marriage of six decades, they were still deeply in love. But, as Cecil became increasingly debilitated

by Alzheimer’s, blindness, hallucinations, incontinence and other maladies, in a lucid moment, the two of them agreed to a suicide pact.

The first attempt was botched and Jean survived the second, so it was botched, as well. Stories like these are abundant, and, as Baby Boomers age and modern medicine increases our capacity to prolong life, they’re likely to become more common. In themselves, they don’t make the case for physician-assisted suicide as much as they testify to the desperation experienced by families whose loved ones are beyond hope of anything more than a prolonged miserable death. But, perhaps, they will also provoke us to begin a conversation about the quality of life as opposed to its length.

We’re a nation that believes in personal freedom. But the ultimate freedom is exercising some control over when and how we die. That privilege could eliminate a great deal of unnecessary suffering and, perhaps, even alleviate some of our inherent fear of death.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Wednesday, June 17, 2015

ASIA-PACIFIC WEALTH OVERTAKES EUROPE’S P

rivate financial wealth in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) overtook Europe’s last year, as China minted a million new millionaires, according to a study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Next in Asia’s rearview mirror: the US. Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) is projected to have $57 trillion in private financial wealth in 2016, surpassing North America’s $56 trillion.

A strong “old world versus new world” dynamic is driving the wealth shift, the BCG study found. Asia Pacific (ex Japan) recorded the fastest growth in wealth in 2014, with an expansion of 29 percent.

Here’s a statistic that won’t please Thomas Piketty—millionaire households held 41 percent of global private wealth last year, up from 40 percent a year earlier. They’re projected to hold 46 percent of global private wealth in 2019.

The US still had the most number

of millionaire households in 2014 (7 million) followed by China (4 million), and Japan (1 million). When it comes to the density of millionaires, Switzerland came out top with 135 out of every 1,000 households having private wealth greater than $1 million. Bahrain (123), Qatar (116), Singapore (107), Kuwait (99), and Hong Kong (94), rounded out that list, showing when it comes to wealth, smaller is better.

For Europe’s private bankers, the report has a warning: “Switzerland will need to reinvent itself to resist the threat from fast-developing Asian booking centers as preferred locations for offshore wealth,’’ it said.

Hong Kong and Singapore accounted for 16 percent of global offshore assets in 2014 and are expected to grow in prominence.

A caveat—Chinese and Indian investments in local equities drove much of the wealth gain for Asia last year. And, as they say, what goes up.... Bloomberg News

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Stronger peso to erase gains from remittances hike in H2

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By Bianca Cuaresma

emittances growth is expected to pick up its pace by the midlle of the year, although its gains in terms of spending power will be diminished by the appreciation of the local currency, an international bank’s research group said.

JPMorgan Chase Bank economists said the ability of remittances to prop up the economy through higher consumption may be at risk

due to the relative strength of the peso against the US dollar.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Monday that

remittances grew 5.4 percent in the first four months of the year —from $7.409 billion from January-toApril 2014 to $7.807 billion in the same four-month period this year.

This is slower compared to the 6.1-percent growth in end-April 2014.

In a commentary following the data release, JPMorgan said the softness in growth is seasonal and it expects remittances to rebound in the coming months.

“A slow start to the year, hoping for the usual season turn in late second quarter. Following the usually slow start to the year, remittances usually recover in late second quarter and firm up into the end of the year,” JPMorgan said.

It added concerns over the soft remittance data earlier was due to the translation effects that had been a factor in slowing remittance inflows

in US dollar terms, particularly since overseas workers are likely compensated in the currencies of their places of employment and not necessarily in US dollar.

The bank also warned that the purchasing ability of remittances, which gives it its relative importance to the growth of the local economy, might wane down.

“Given the relative strength of the peso, this foreign exchange-translation effect may in turn erode purchasing power of remittances in the Philippines, though this is not yet evident in the data,” JPMorgan said.

The bank also said aside from remittances and the impact on consumption, the recent drop in the export receipts raises concerns—if the slowing persists —that this could spill over into softer fixed investment into plant and equipment.

Singapore: US credibility on the line over trade pact S

taunch ally Singapore said on Monday that US credibility in Asia is on the line amid uncertainty over its participation in a 12-nation free-trade pact.

Singapore’s Foreign Minister K Shanmugam said the US faces a “stark choice” on whether it wants to have continuing leverage in a region where it has long been the guarantor of peace and prosperity.

Shanmugam was speaking at a Washington think tank as Congress wrangles over legislation crucial to US involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Legislation to enhance President Barack Obama’s authority to negotiate such trade deals was dealt a stunning setback on Friday, mainly by members of his own party. Obama and his legislative allies were scrambling for ways to revive that effort, although Democrats and Republicans alike said all options face serious hurdles.

“If you don’t do this deal, what are your levers of power? How integrated are you into the Asian economies?” Shanmugam told the Center for Strategic and International Studies, ahead of meetings with senior administration officials on Tuesday. “The choice is a very stark one. Do you want to be part of the region or you want to be out of the region?”

City-state Singapore, which is Southeast Asia’s

most advanced economy, is one of the 12 nations in the TPP. The free-trade pact, which would also set standards on labor, environment and intellectual property, is a key plank of Obama’s effort to reengage with Asia after years of intense focus on the Middle East.

Other participants are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and Vietnam.

While there’s heavy support among Republicans in Congress for the trade pact, Democrats are strongly opposed because they fear it would send US jobs overseas. To derail the trade agenda on Friday, scores of Democrats voted against a program they’ve embraced for years to provide federal aid to workers displaced by international trade.

Obama has described TPP as an opportunity to “write the rules” for regional trade, rather than let rising power China, which is not part of the pact, do so.

Shanmugam was blunt in his assessment of how failure on TPP would impact America’s standing in the region, and whether it is able to complete trade deals at a time when many are being completed by Asian nations.

“The president wants it, everybody knows this is important and you can’t get it through,”he said.“How credible are you going to be?” AP

Ma. Luisa Sebastian (from left), assistant vice president of the Social Security System (SSS); SSS Vice President (VP) for Public Affairs and Special Events Susie G. Bugante; BusinessMirror Editor in Chief Jun Vallecera; SSS President and CEO Emilio de Quiros Jr.; BusinessMirror Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon; BusinessMirror VP for Corporate Affairs Ricky Alegre; and BusinessMirror VP for Advertising Sales Marvin Estigoy pose for a photo opportunity following The Roundtable forum of the ALC Media Group in Makati City. NONIE REYES

SSS reveals plan to invest $1B abroad Continued from A1

of the fund’s portfolio may be deployed outside of the country.

Given an estimated investment portfolio totaling more or less P430 billion, give or take a few billion, the SSS could deploy roughly P45 billion, or $1 billion, for such a program.

De Quiros said the fund has never ventured beyond the country’s territorial limits when deploying the resources at its disposal, which are typically invested only in domestically issued equity securities and peso-denominated government bonds and notes.

He said the fund typically dispenses membership benefits, totaling more or less P49 billion every year, but generates contributions no larger than P45 billion.

“You do the math. At some point one has to raise member contribution or risk the depletion of our reserves,” de Quiros said of

that part of the fund used to finance membership claims, such as pension and funeral expenses, among others.

Pension benefits were raised 5 percent just last year, he quickly added.

The SSS generated 7 percent more revenues in the first four months this year to P54.35 billion from year ago of only P50.77 billion.

This resulted from member contributions totaling P42.69 billion, plus investment and other income of another P11.66 billion.

The fund spent an aggregate P39.14 billion in those four months, or 9.8 percent more than last year, and resulted from benefit payments totaling P36.57 billion plus operating expenses of P2.58 billion, which was 6.6 percent more than the yearago expenses.

As a result, the SSS posted net revenues of P15.21 billion for the period this year, basically unchanged from year-ago net revenues

of P15.14 billion.

De Quiros said the SSS did quite well in managing the resources of the pension fund over six years from 2009 up to 2014, when its so-called return-on-investment (ROI), essentially a measure of its profitability, averaged 9.8 percent over such benchmarks as the one-year Treasury bill rate and the 10-year Treasury bond rate.

The fund posted ROI averaging 9.7 percent in 2009, 10.8 percent in 2010, 10.5 percent in 2011, the same rate in 2012, then 8.8 percent in 2013 and 8.3 percent just last year.

The SSS executive also said management had been prudent in keeping fund operating expenses as percent of gross revenues low, averaging 68 percent in 2010 when his team took over and still lower to only 52 percent just last year. De Quiros said SSS management in 2005 operated close to the expense cap allowed by its charter at 91 percent of gross revenues that year. Jun B. Vallecera

BDO preparing to buy cheap stocks as Fed decision nears Continued from A1

touching a five-month low last week.

2013 replay

Ocampo said Philippine stocks could repeat what happened two years ago, when then-Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in May 2013 the US was considering cutting bond purchases. From a peak that month, the benchmark gauge tumbled 20 percent, paring the year’s gain to 1.3 percent. The measure advanced 23 percent last year.

While the Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged in this month’s meeting, improving economic reports since its

last session have pushed the probability for a September increase to 53 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“Once the Fed changes its tone and signals that it’s ready to raise rates, we will see a global correction,” Ocampo said. “After the uncertainties are gone and investors get their bearings, share prices will go up again.”

The Philippine stock index could fall to between 7,200 and 6,800, making valuations more attractive, he said. It closed at 7,456.16 on Monday.

The benchmark index is valued at 18.3 times projected 12- month earnings, the most expensive in Southeast Asia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The MSCI Emerging-

Markets Index is valued at 11.8 times.

Foreign funds have sold a net $582.6 million of the nation’s stocks so far this quarter, double the combined $292.7 million withdrawals from Indonesia and Thailand since April 1, based on data compiled

by Bloomberg.

Investors should favor high-dividend plays and growth stocks, including retailers, property developers, utilities and power companies, Ocampo said.

“The growth drivers for the Philippine economy are still there,” Ocampo said. “We can all live with an increase in interest rates.

It’s not as if interest rates will rise from 1 percent to 7 percent.” Bloomberg News