BusinessMirror October 13, 2015

VW RECALLS DIESEL VEHICLES IN CHINA

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OLKSWAGEN VW is recalling 1,950 diesel vehicles in China to correct the engine software that the automaker has admitted cheats on emissions tests.

The recall applies to 1,946 Tiguan sportutility vehicles (SUV) and four Passat B6 sedans, all of them imported, the company said on Monday. It said technical solutions are being developed and have yet to be submitted to Chinese authorities for approval.

VW’s business in China, the largest auto market by number of vehicles sold, has suffered little impact from the global emissions scandal due to the lack of popularity of diesel cars among Chinese drivers. But foreign companies are closely watched by Chinese authorities, and state media publicize suggestions of misconduct.

IN this September 30 photo, a 2013 Volkswagen (VW) Passat with a diesel engine is evaluated at the California Air Resources Board emissions test lab in El Monte, California. Three years after Volkswagen opened a pollution-testing center in Oxnard, California, VW admitted that it manipulated emissions results in 482,000 US diesel vehicles to make them appear to run cleaner, raising questions around Volkswagen’s only test center in North America. AP

Europe’s biggest automaker has acknowledged it installed software dubbed “defeat devices,” on diesel vehicles. They switch on pollution controls when cars undergo emissions tests, but switch off during driving to improve performance.

“Volkswagen would like to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers,” the company said in a statement. “We would like to assure that we will do everything humanly possible to win back trust and take care of any concerns.”

Diesel is widely used in trucks in the world’s second-largest economy, but powered just 0.3 percent of autos sold last year in China, or a few thousand units.

Volkswagen is, along with General Motors Co., one of the most popular vehicle brands

in China, but is struggling with an unexpectedly sharp downturn in the market and fastchanging consumer tastes.

Auto sales in China declined in August for a third straight month, contracting by 3.4 percent from a year earlier.

VW blamed weakness in China for a 16-percent decline in its second-quarter global profit.

First-half sales in China were off 0.5 percent.

The president of VW China, Jochem Heizmann, told reporters in April that the company lagged overall market growth because it lacked products in the budget SUV segment, where sales are surging.

In 2013 VW recalled 384,000 vehicles in China to fix gearboxes after state television publicized complaints about them. AP

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

U.N. MEDIA AWARD 2008

A broader look at today’s business Thursday 2014 Vol. No. 40 Vol. 11 No. 5 Tuesday,18, October 13,102015

www.businessmirror.com.ph

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

EXPORTERS SAY REVIVING THE PSI SCHEME WILL FURTHER HURT THEIR COMPETITIVENESS

Pre-shipment inspection bucked T B C N. P

HE Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) on Monday warned against any move to insert the pre-shipment inspection (PSI) scheme into the proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA), saying that the move will further reduce the competitiveness of traders who are still bearing the hefty costs of trucking and shipping fees, on top of the downturn in export receipts.

INSIDE

RELIVING BAGUIO D

But You said...

EAR Lord, we can’t go on, but You said, I will carry you. We are too tired, but You said, I will give you rest. It is impossible to do, but You said, all things are possible. We are starving, but You said, I am the bread of life. We are thirsty, but You said, I am the living water. We are going to die, but You said, I will raise you up.

We say it daily, live Jesus in our hearts forever, and You said, go on till I have you in My Kingdom.

Amen.

ANGELINA GUTIERREZ VAN D, FM INSPIRATIONS AND LOUIE M. LACSON

Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

THE old interiors of Casa Vallejo is reminiscent of the glory days of Baguio. This staircase leads to the dining hall and is made up of restored wood.

Life

BOX OFFICE: ‘MARTIAN’ HOLDS ONTO ITS SPACE AT THE TOP’ »D2

BusinessMirror

CAFÉ by the Ruins is a quaint restaurant that was already doing business before World War II. It is now famous for its ruins that provide soul and ambiance. NIKKI BONCAN-BUENSALIDO

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

INSIDE the café, I felt like I was enveloped in its rich historical past as the reinforced ruins surrounded us. The concrete ruins are juxtaposed against woodwork and local artisanal artwork. NIKKI BONCAN-BUENSALIDO

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IMAGINE waking up to this view and having breakfast in an open terrace with the cool air washing your face and the warm sunlight caressing you. This is the old charm of Baguio, as experienced in The Manor. Each room opens up to a balcony and a view of a sprawling lush garden. NIKKI BONCAN-BUENSALIDO

Reliving Baguio balcony. I was able to catch a quick nap and read a book on the balcony while watching the soft rain fall and the fog creep in. I almost didn’t want to leave my spot. This is another thing I truly enjoyed during the short stay— cool, fresh air and Baguio’s relaxing ambiance amid the woods and pine trees.

That evening, we prepared for our talk and to our surprise, the venue was also one of Baguio’s historical landmarks—the Casa Vallejo Hotel, which dates back all the way to 1909 and claims to be the oldest hotel in Baguio and might as well be a heritage site. The hotel’s main building materials are galvanized iron, wood and sawali, and it was used by the Americans to house construction workers who helped build what is now Baguio City. It was then converted by Salvador Vallejo, a Spanish soldier, to a dormitory and then a hotel after that in 1923 when Baguio was being transformed into a vacation spot.

I must admit that, at first, it felt a bit creepy given the weather and the dark of night, and I learned that the place also housed prisoners during World War I. That said, it has the traditional Baguio charm, with the white exterior walls and the green roof, typically of Baguio character and construction. Up and running for about 80 years now, the building has been renovated and fixed, but it still carries the same services and configuration as the dormitories once did. On March 25, 2014 the National Historical Commission of the Philippines approved for a historical marker to be installed at the front doors of Casa Vallejo.

This is the charm of Baguio—the cool air, the charming restored buildings, the pine trees, the woods and the fireplaces. This is the Baguio I remember. I’m glad that there are still places that consciously carry the ambiance of Baguio amid all the urbanization the city has been going through.

This trip was limited and I’m sure that there is a lot more to be a said about the city and its aspirations toward modernity. I can only hope that more architects, engineers and developers become consciously aware of the charm of Baguio, and make an effort to preserve its subculture. May they be able to figure out how Baguio can march toward even more progress while remaining charming and quaint for many, many more years to come. ■

URBAN MONOLOGUES 2.0 NIKKI BONCAN-BUENSALIDO

design@buensalidoarchitects.com www.buensalidoarchitects.com

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BOUT midway through my pregnancy, I was able to secure permission from my doctor to accompany my husband up to Baguio. Initially, he was planning to be in and out of Baguio within a day but I was advised against it, so we stayed overnight instead.

Twenty-four hours in Baguio is not enough, I must say, but the trip was nevertheless a good break since it took us away from the city—and never mind that Baguio itself has become a highly urbanized city.

It was still a welcome break. The last time I was in these northern parts was about eight years ago to celebrate my lolo’s 80th birthday, so as soon as we entered the winding roads of Marcos Highway, I was wide-eyed and suffused with wonder and delight. It felt like it was my first time to be back.

Baguio now feels so much different from how I remember it. The city is now full of buildings and the view of the structures along the ridge makes you wonder why such property developments and construction methodologies were allowed by the local government. There were structures almost as far as the eye can see. That said, as soon as we rolled down the car windows, it hit me that I was in Baguio. The cool air filled our lungs and the soft drizzle created the fog that Baguio is known for.

My husband and I were invited to give a talk to the United Architects of the Philippines-Baguio that evening so, before heading over, we stopped by Café by the Ruins for lunch. The café is a quaint restaurant that was already doing business before World War II, and now famous for the ruins that provide soul and

THIS is how Baguio’s mountainside looks now—busy, packed, a hodgepodge of different materials. Would it have a different character if all the colors of the roof and the walls of the structures were well curated? I wonder how the mountainside will look like with that. NIKKI BONCAN-BUENSALIDO

ambiance. Home to local and Asian fare, Café by the Ruins’s food is made with love and soul. I felt at home with the smell of the bread from the bakery and the huge portions of organic salad that we ordered. We also tried the bagnet bagnet, something I seldom eat, but this deserved a try and, needless to say, I enjoyed it. The plate was served with red rice that came from the mountains and I paired the meal with ginataang langka and pako vegetables. I was in heaven. My husband also ordered the onion bread with a special cream cheese dressing to pair with his coffee after the meal. We left satisfied because not only was our meal a welcoming sensation, but the café was also a place that was filled with character, local creativity and art, three things that I hold dearly.

Next on the itinerary was to check-in at The Manor Hotel which was booked by our good friend,

Arch. Sheila Tan, who is a Baguio resident and whom I’d like to thank for inviting us over. The Manor has always been a choice of hotel for me. Located inside the grounds of Camp John Hay, an old military American base camp, The Manor Hotel is what I remember about Baguio. The drive up to the hotel led us to roads lined with towering pine trees and uphills. The hotel is warm and cozy and fashioned largely out of wood, and a fire in the fireplace was up and running. Our welcome drink was a warm cup of malunggay and calamansi tea which was truly refreshing after our sumptuous lunch. What caught my attention were the rooms, which were very comfortable and spacious.

Our room had no air-conditioning, which I was secretly happy about because I wanted to enjoy the weather of Baguio. There was a ceiling fan which helped the cool air circulate, and the room came with a cozy

Ways to extend outdoor entertaining into fall B C H Tribune News Service EVEN though the nights are shorter and the air is cooler, it doesn’t mean you can’t continue to enjoy the outdoors. Many people’s favorite season is fall. One of the best ways to continue to enjoy your outdoor environment is to think of a way to incorporate an outdoor experience such as a fire pit, outdoor lounge or other entertaining environment such as an outdoor kitchen.

■ Fire pits. Fire pits come in all shapes and sizes (as well as price points). One way

to test the waters to see if you will enjoy a fire pit is to purchase one that is portable.

If you grow tired of it or wish to move it to different areas and locations within your property, it is easy to move this way.

On the other hand, a built-in fire pit can be a wonderful addition to any outdoor environment. When it comes to materials for your fire pit, the best choice is stone.

If you are looking for ways to have the fire pit blend into its surroundings, try choosing stone that is natural to your environment. If you have a large property, perhaps stones that are scattered across your land would be the best route.

■ Outdoor lounges or living rooms. If you’ve ever visited such party destinations as Ibiza or Mykonos, then you are familiar with the lure of outdoor living spaces.

For decades, these outdoor lounges—fit with sofas, cocktail tables and even beds— have been a mainstay for celebrity homes and the international party circuit. These days, outdoor lounges can also be a way for the everyday homeowner to enjoy their deck, patio or porch (and in some instances year-round).

■ Where to start. Before you purchase furniture pieces for your outdoor lounge or

LIFE

living room, begin by creating a floor plan and actual layout.

This will help you ensure that all of your furniture fits and you are not ordering too much furniture.

■ How to buy. When you are heading out to make your purchases, think function first: how you wish to use the environment, how many people you need to seat or entertain, as well as how long you wish to have the furniture last.

■ Outdoor kitchens. While some may consider an outdoor kitchen to be a luxury, others consider it to be a useful and appealing addition to outdoor cooking

and entertaining. Outdoor kitchens can be big or small, built in or portable. If you are looking for an attractive, prebuilt kitchen, a kitchen island with built-in components such as grills, refrigerators and sinks may be the perfect choice. On the other end of the spectrum, appliances and components can be purchased individually and retrofitted into custom-built components or a fullcustom kitchen.

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■ Cathy Hobbs, based in New York City, is an Emmy Award-winning television host and a nationally known interior design.

Visit her web site at www.cathyhobbs.com.

OBAMA: CLINTON MADE MISTAKE

The World

“Kung ipatupad ’yan, businesses will shoulder the costs. Maganda sana kung gobyerno ang sasagot niyan, but hindi e. Madadagdagan na lang ’yung mga binabayaran. May trucking and shipping fees na nga, dadagdagan pa.

Magiging uncompetitive lang tayo [If that is implemented, businesses will shoulder the cost. Ideally the government should shoulder it; but

W

ASHINGTON—Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server to conduct government business when she served as secretary of state was a mistake but didn’t endanger national security, President Barack Obama said dur during an interview aired on Sunday CBS’s 60 Minutes.

private computers, the president said he didn’t get the impression there was an intent to “hide something or to squirrel away information.” He also said he was not initially aware of her use of the private e-mail server.

There are still questions being raised about the security of that system. Obama also discussed his views on Syria during the interview. The administration said on Friday it is abandoning a failed Pentagon effort to build a new ground force of moderate rebels and overhauling its approach to instead partner with established rebel groups.

IN this October 8 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s (CHCI) 38th Anniversary awards gala in Washington. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server to conduct government business when she served as secretary of state was a mistake, but didn’t endanger national security, said President during an interview that aired on October 11, on CBS’s 60 Minutes. AP/SUSAN WALSH, FILE

The change also reflects growing concern in Obama’s administration that Russia’s intervention has complicated the Syrian battlefield and given new life to President Bashar al-Assad.

Obama said he was “skeptical from the get-go” about the notion of creating an army of moderate forces within Syria. “My goal has been to try to test the proposition, can we be able to train and equip a moderate opposition that’s willing to fight ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]? And what we’ve learned is that as long as Assad remains

in power, it is very difficult to get those folks to focus their attention on ISIL,” Obama said.

Obama added that part of the strategy behind the administration’s efforts was to “try different things.” He said that “in a situation that is as volatile and with as many players as there are inside of Syria, there aren’t any silver bullets.”

While the Pentagon is abandoning its effort to train rebels, a Central Intelligence Agency program that since 2013 has trained some 10,000 rebels to fight Assad’s forces is ongoing. AP

ATHMANDU, Nepal— Nepa l ’s pa rl i a ment elected Communist party leader Khadga Prasad Oli the new prime minister on Sunday, thrusting him into the center of daunting challenges, from ethnic protests over the new constitution that has also upset vital neighbor India to rebuilding from April’s devastating earthquake. Oli received 338 votes from the 597-member c h a mber, Pa rl i a ment Speaker Subash Nemwang announced. Oli defeated his predecessor Sushil Koirala, who received 249 votes.

Oli, 63, is generally popular in Nepal and has a reputation for being an outspoken leader who is not afraid to criticize. Some describe him with the phrase, “Oli ko goli,” which means, “When Oli speaks he fires” (a bullet).

He had previously served as deputy prime minister and as a minister in previous governments. He suffers from a kidney illness and has had to make trips abroad for treatment to India and Thailand.

The leader of the Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist Leninist received the support of many smaller parties, including their rival United Communist Party of Nepal Maoist.

Oli and Koirala are leaders of the top two political parties and were coalition partners in the last government. Koirala became prime minister in 2014, but the constitution that was adopted last month required him to step down.

It was still undecided which other parties would join in Oli’s new government.

He comes to power at delicate time, with ethnic Madhesis and other groups in the south protesting against the new constitution in riots that have left 45 people dead. India, which has close ties to the Madhesis, is also unhappy with the constitution.

The country is facing a severe fuel shortage, thanks to an unofficial blockade by India and Madhesis blocking a key border checkpoint. Fuel and cargo trucks have been stopped at the border since late last month, after the constitution was approved September 20. The constitution divides Nepal into seven new states,

SPECIAL REPORT

with some borders slicing through the Madhesis’ ancestral homeland in the southern plains along the border with India. The Madhesis, along with several other small ethnic groups, want the states to be larger and to be given more autonomy over local matters.

Talks last week between the government and protesters made little progress.

Indian officials deny there is a blockade and say drivers are afraid to enter Nepal, but Nepali authorities say there is no trouble at many other border crossings.

Soon after the election, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Oli on the te le phone, cong rat u l ated him and invited him to visit India, according to a tweet from Modi’s office.

The conversation between the two men is the biggest positive development in recent days between the two South Asian nations. Modi has not talked to Nepali leaders in recent weeks mainly due to his travels to United States and other countries.

A statement issued by the Indian embassy in Nepal said Modi expressed the hope and expectation that Oli will support all sectors of society so that there is peace and stability in the country.

“We are confident that the gover nment of Nepa l w i l l add ress t he rem a i ning political issues confronting the country in a spirit of dialogue and reconciliation,” the statement said, an apparent reference to the tension with the Madhesi. Madhesi lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna, who participated in the voting for the prime minister in parliament, said they would continue their protests until their demands are met.

Oli a lso must lead the country as it rebuilds from the devastating earthquake that damaged hundreds of t hou sa nd s of homes a nd killed thousands were killed.

The disaster also damaged the tourism industry, which relies on Westerners to trek the mountain trails and climb the soaring peaks.

Oli’s party, known to be a center leftist group, has traditionally followed an economic policy that combines capitalist and socialist principles. AP

TELSTRA IN PHL: A THREAT TO TELCO GIANTS?

Aerosmith front man asks Trump campaign to stop using ‘Dream On’

VIENNA Mayor Michael Haeupl of the Social Democrats, Social Democratic Party of Austria (center), gestures after the first results were released at Vienna’s town hall, Austria, on October 11. AP/HANS PUNZ

Socialists hold off right-wing party to win Vienna vote

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I EN NA —T he Soc i a l i st party held on to Vienna city hall in a municipal election on Sunday, fighting off a challenge from a right-wing populist party campaigning on Austrian concerns over mass migration. But the win was coupled with a loss in support. With all votes except absentee ballots counted, the Socialists received 39.44 percent of the ballot, down nearly 5 percentage points. The Freedom Party had 32.26 percent, up more than 6 percentage points from the last election five years ago.

The result leaves the Socialists in position to continue governing the Austrian capital in coalition. Still, they give the Freedom Party its best ever result in Vienna. They also reflect voter anxiety about the thousands of migrants entering

in the Mideast and elsewhere.

The preliminary results showed the Green party with 11.14 percent. That would leave them in position to remain as the Socialist coalition partners. Losing significant backing was the centrist People’s Party at 8.7 percent, more than 5 percentage points below their 2010 showing.

Also clearing the 5-percent hurdle needed to gain seats in the Vienna legislature were the liberal NEOS, according to the preliminary results. Contesting their first Vienna election, they won 5.95 percent of the vote.

With another five-year term for his Socialists a certainty, Vienna Mayor Michael Haeupl said he “could live well” with the results.

Alluding to the Freedom Party’s anti-immigrant message, he said he remains convinced that people

be helped, adding “that’s what I have stood for in my whole political life.” Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache also said he was satisfied.

“You cannot dismiss” the party’s best-ever showing, he told reporters. Polls ahead of the vote had shown the Socialists in front with more than a third of the vote, but with the Freedom Party close behind and concerns about the uncontrolled daily influx of thousands of migrants fleeing violent world regions the top concern of the electorate. While 67.6 percent of the electorate voted five years ago, the estimated turnout for Sunday’s vote stood at 74 percent, including still to be counted absentee ballots.

Analysts said Strache’s portrayal of the election as a “revolution” and a “duel” with Haeupl, as well as his party’s anti-migrant mes-

a larger-than-projected margin.

Even as many traditional Socialist voters turned to the Freedom Party to further erode traditional blue-collar Socialist support, many people who normally don’t vote Socialist—or don’t vote at all—did so this time to prevent a Freedom Party triumph.

The Freedom Party already has made huge gains in several provincial elections this year, at the expense of the Socialists and the centrist People’s Party, but it hasn’t won outright. Those establishment parties have governed on all levels in Austria with few exceptions since the end of World War II. Runoff mayoral elections also were held Sunday in 44 communities in Upper Austria province. But “Red Vienna” was a special prize. The city has been governed by the Socialists

IN this November 14, 2014, file photo, Steven Tyler arrives at the Hollywood Film Awards at the Palladium, in Los Angeles. Aerosmith front man Tyler is asking Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to stop using the power ballad “Dream On” at campaign events. JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP

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OS ANGELES—Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler is asking Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to stop using the power ballad “Dream On” at campaign events.

Attorneys for Tyler sent a second cease-and-desist letter to Trump’s campaign committee on Saturday.

The letter says that Trump does “not have our client’s permission to use ‘Dream On’” or any of Ty-

SPECIAL MOMENT

the false impression that he is connected with or endorses Mr. Trump’s presidential bid.” Tyler, who is a registered Republican, attended the Grand Old Party contenders’ first debate in August.

Attorney Dina LaPolt said in a statement that the letter is not a “political” or “personal issue with Mr. Trump,” but it’s one of permission and copyright. Representatives for Trump did not immediately re-

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Sports BusinessMirror

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| TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

SPECIAL MOMENT The kid, Bill Haas, came through, never missing a shot until a birdie putt was conceded on the last hole for a 2-up victory to capture the Presidents Cup. B D F The Associated Press

NCHEON, South Korea—Jay Haas took a deep breath, trying to calm nerves he had only ever felt on the golf course while playing. His US team was one point away from winning the Presidents Cup, and the final match added another layer of emotion.

American victory depended on Bill Haas, who was much more than a captain’s pick.

He was the captain’s son.

And the kid came through, never missing a shot until a birdie putt was conceded on the last hole for a 2-up victory to capture the Presidents Cup. “I was much more emotional, I think, than if it would have been anyone else on the team,” Jay Haas said. “But no less proud.”

The father refused to look at the moment as any measure of vindication, but the coincidence was too great to ignore. For it was 20 years ago when American hopes of claiming the Ryder Cup came down to Jay Haas on the final three holes at Oak Hill.

Phil Mickelson, a Ryder Cup rookie, was handily winning the anchor match. That meant Haas had to halve his match with Philip Walton, and while he was 3 down with three to play, he holed a bunker shot on the 16th and won the 17th with a birdie. If he won the final hole, the Americans would keep the cup.

“It wasn’t pretty down the stretch there,” Haas said.

He popped up his 3-wood, punched back into the fairway, hit a wedge shot that spun off to the collar of the green and missed his par putt. Walton lagged his par putt near the hole, and the European celebration was on.

Those memories came back on Sunday at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea for a different cup that meant just as much for different reasons.

“I thought, ‘That’s 20 years ago.’ And Bill was there watching me play,” Haas said. “I’ve told the story many times that I wish I would have just gotten up on the 18th hole and swung as hard as I could, like I was in a driving contest, and maybe hit a better shot. He’s heard me say that.”

Bill Haas never looked cooler under so much pressure.

He knew on the 13th hole that the Presidents Cup would come down to his match, and he was clinging to a 1-up lead. The overall score was tied at 14 1/2 points. His was the last match on the course. The kid didn’t swing as

hard as he could, but he didn’t miss.

Haas hit a 3-iron into the bone-chilling wind and onto the 16th green for a two-putt par, and Bae Sangmoon had to make a 10-foot par putt to halve the hole.

Haas followed with a 6-iron on the green at the par-3 17th, and halved the hole with pars that assured no worse than a tie for him. After a perfect drive on the par5 18th hole that features water down the right side and a bunker to the left, Haas narrowly missed the green and went into a bunker, a safe place to be.

He never had to make the birdie putt when Bae stubbed a chip, then chipped again and conceded the match.

“That was the hardest position I’ve felt on the golf course in my career,” he said.

He was gutted for Bae, who faced the pressure of a home crowd in Korea and showed it when he fell to the ground and covered his face after the chip. It wasn’t long before Haas was getting choked up when asked about being picked by his father, inserted into the final match and delivering the winning point.

The son remembers Oak Hill, too.

He was 13 and growing up in North Carolina, where he played some golf but really loved basketball. It was that afternoon at the Ryder Cup that changed everything.

“The day I thought I wanted to play golf like he did was at that Ryder Cup,” Haas said. “I remember hearing the cheers. He holed out a bunker shot on 16, birdied 17 to go to 18, and if halved the match, the match behind him would have won it. His match ended it.”

What stuck with the boy was the opportunity, not the outcome.

“I just remember the emotion and how cool it was that my dad was doing that,” he said. “It didn’t work out the way he wanted, but I don’t ever remember, ‘Oh, my dad didn’t do it on 18.’ It was more how cool it was that day that he was involved in that.

“And to happen in a similar way for me...that was the most pressure I ever felt in a team event.”

That goes for his father, too, who walked away as a winner after watching his son thrive in a situation the captain knew all too well.

“For him to do that down the stretch is not vindication or anything like that, but just how things work out. And 20 years went by in a blink,” Jay Haas said.

He paused briefly and smiled.

“Glad it worked out,” he said.

LOOKING BETTER AND BETTER L

OS ANGELES—Kobe Bryant scored 21 points and Roy Hibbert had 16 rebounds, leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 126-83 exhibition rout of Israel’s Maccabi Haifa on Sunday night.

Bryant, about to begin his 20th National Basketball Associaton season more than nine months after undergoing right-shoulder surgery, played 19 minutes and made six-of-10 shots while going four-for-six from three-point range.

the capability of being able to step out there, as well,” Coach Byron Scott said.

‘He looks better and better. His timing looks great, his movement looks great, and he just looks so much more fluid right now. He says he feels great, so right now we’ll keep staying the course.”

Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell, the second overall pick in the draft and one of seven rookies on the preseason roster, had 11 assists and five points in 18

“I’m looking for the team to get better,” Bryant said.

“We’ve got plenty of work to do, obviously. The team is so young, and we have a lot of learning to do.”

The Lakers, playing their first preseason game at Staples Center following back-to-back losses to Utah in Hawaii and another against Toronto at Ontario, California, opened with a 17-2 run, while Maccabi Haifa missed nine of its first 10 shots.

“The preseason is just like summer league—I don’t

B L S. M

Second of three parts

US team captain Jay Haas (left) and his son Bill address a press conference after they defeated the International team, 15-1/2 to 14-½, to retain the Presidents Cup at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon on Sunday. AP

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S “P-,” A

BusinessMirror

B2-2 Tuesday, October 13, 2015

elects Communist party Obama: Clinton made mistake, Nepal leader Oli new prime minister didn’t harm national security K

Obama said public officials have to be more sensitive about how they handle information and personal data. Yet, he also said the criticism of Clinton, who is leading the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, has been “ginned up” because of politics.

“I think she’d be the first to ack nowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly,” Obama said.

Obama downplayed the threat to national security, and when it was pointed out that his administration has prosecuted people for having classified material on their

it doesn’t. This is an added expense to the trucking and shipping fees.

This makes us uncompetitive],” said Philexport President Sergio OrtizLuis Jr. in a phone interview.

He did not readily give an estimate on the additional costs that exporters would have to bear if the PSI is revived.

SPORTS KOBE BRYANT passes the ball as Maccabi Haifa’s Rene Rougeau looks on during their preseason game on Sunday in Los Angeles. AP

put all your stuff in at both ends of the floor. If you win, that’s great. If you don’t, you hope you can learn from it.”

The Lakers converted 15 Maccabi Haifa turnovers into 30 points. The visitors scored 23 points off 22 Lakers turnovers.

“Offensively, we moved the ball pretty well and got 30 assists, which is pretty good,” Scott said. “But we also had 22 turnovers, so we’ve got to do a much better job of taking care of the ball against pressure. I thought a lot of

scored 16 points to lead seven Charlotte players in double digits as the Hornets topped the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-94, on Sunday in the first of two preseason games between the teams in China.

The Clippers were without point guard Chris Paul, who fractured his left index finger in practice on Saturday.

Kemba Walker added 13 points and Brian Roberts and Jeremy Lamb each had 12 for Charlotte, which improved its preseason record to 3-0 with owner Michael Jordan

C1

HE entry of Telstra Corp. Ltd. into the Philippines will prove to be a game changer in the country’s telecommunications landscape, as it will usher in reforms in the duopolistic market that has been receiving complaints of bad service from its stakeholders.

From being a market that capitalizes on calls and texts, the telecommunications sector is now making money out of the Internet.

Data, according to experts, is now the new gold, and traditional services are now a thing of the past.

This, however, led to the spike in complaints on the “dismal Internet services” in the Philippines, with the country being pronounced as the nation with the second-slowest Internet speed in Asia.

According to studies conducted by Ookla, an Internet metrics provider, the Philippines has the second-slowest average download speed among 22 countries in Asia with an average speed of 3.64 Mbps.

It ranked 176th out of 202 nations around the world. It is eight times slower than the global average broadband download speed of 23.3 Mbps.

C  A

‘BAYANIHAN’ United Laboratories Inc. (Unilab) External Affairs Director Claire de Leon-Papa and BUSINESSMIRROR Publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon marvel at the Bayanihan mural, done by National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco, displayed at the Unilab’s Bayanihan Center on Pioneer Street.

The Bayanihan Center will be the venue of the Third BUSINESSMIRROR Envoys & Expats Night, which will coincide with the Third BUSINESSMIRROR Dangal Awards for Elderly Care, on October 27. The Dangal Awards for Elderly Care is a BUSINESSMIRROR advocacy to promote the welfare of the country’s senior citizens, in partnership with the United Bayanihan Foundation. The Envoys & Expats Night, on the other hand, is an annual gathering hosted by the BUSINESSMIRROR for the diplomatic community and foreign businessmen. MAX DE LEON

US concerns pull down FDI L ONGTERM foreign investor commitments in the Philippines fell by about a third in the January-to-July period, goaded for the most part by the eventuality that interest rates in the US, still one of the country’s largest trade partners, should soon adjust higher.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday reported that foreign direct investments (FDI) flowed inward over the nine-month period to $2.5 billion.

This was 35.2 percent lower than net inflows totaling $3.8 billion in the same period last year.

This developed no matter the rise in the volume of investments in July alone to $458 million. The same was 1.6 percent higher than FDI of $458 million registered in July last year.

Governments around the world welcome the participation of FDI, as these are invested with an eye for the long haul in so-called brickand-mortar entreprises. Portfolio investments, also known as “hot” or speculative money, are volatile by nature and tend to exit at the merest hint of trouble or promise of greater rewards elsewhere.

While the BSP did not cite par-

ticular reasons as to why foreign investors shied away from investing in the Philippines, several economists reported of lower investment spending across emerging markets, partly as a result of the unsteady growth prospect of economies such as China, among others.

In terms of FDI component, net equity capital placements increased marginally by 1 percent to $805 million, from $797 million. This was not enough, however, to offset the “large” declines in investments in debt instruments at 51.6 percent C  A

‘Climate-proof’ energy infra new goal of Apec B L L

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EBU—Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) energy ministers on Monday vowed to “climate-proof” the energy infrastructures of vulnerable membercountries that fall victim every now

PESO EXCHANGE RATES ■ US 45.9260

and then to natural and humaninduced disasters.

The group issued the commitment as it begins to make short-, mediumand long-term plans to deal with a global phenomenon that has the potential to wreak wide economic havoc on member-economies.

“Recognizing this global concern on climate change, we, in international fora such as Apec, believe that now is the more opportune time to heighten discussions and information sharing, learning from each other’s experiences and best practices and come up with a collective

action toward an energy-resilient Apec community,” Energy Undersecretary Loreta Ayson said in her welcome remarks during Monday’s Apec-Special Energy Working Group (EWG) Meeting.

T he Apec energ y ministers C  A

■ JAPAN 0.3820 ■ UK 70.3265 ■ HK 5.9259 ■ CHINA 7.2378 ■ SINGAPORE 32.9384 ■ AUSTRALIA 33.6553 ■ EU 52.1949 ■ SAUDI ARABIA 12.2482 Source: BSP (12

October 2015)

A2 Tuesday, October 13, 2015

BMReports BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Telstra in Phl: A threat to telco giants?

Continued from A1

In a separate report, Cloud services provider Akamai Technologies said that, while the Philippines might have improved its connection by a percentage point, its overall ranking in Asia still remains at No. 13 out of 15, or the third-worst connection in the region.

Filipinos, according to the first-quarter report of Akamai, enjoyed an average download speed of 2.8 Mbps during the period under review. Trailing behind are India and Indonesia with 2.3 Mpbs and 2.2 Mbps average speeds, respectively.

“We now see a shift in the telecommunications industry from traditional voice and text services to data. We have seen a significant increase in the number of complaints on the broadband services of our telcos as opposed to the traditional ones.

Even our telcos’network-development strategies are now toward the development of the Internet,” National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Director Edgardo V. Cabarios said.

The foray of Telstra into the Philippines will definitely make an impact on the market as a whole, he said, adding that the regulator expects services to be better and prices becoming more competitive as competition intensifies.

“The more players you have, the better for the consumers,” he said. “Competition drives players into innovation and, thus, better services.”

Large arsenal

For Mary Grace Mirandilla-Santos, an independent researcher on information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunications policies, the partnership between San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Telstra will prompt the incumbents to offer better services, given that the new entrant’s arsenal is quite enormous.

“We can expect the level of competition to improve as a result of a Telstra-SMC partnership. Telstra owns Pacnet, which operates the only telco-neutral submarine cable that lands on Philippine shores,” she said.

“If Telstra will bring in connectivity from Australia, there will be lower traffic in our local network. This is a threat to the vendors,” International Data Corp. Philippines analyst Alon Anthony D. Rejano said.

Telstra recently acquired undersea cable company Pacnet Ltd., the operator of a 28,000-mile submarine network in the Asia-Pacific region.

The food-to-infrastructure firm, on the other hand, has been acquiring small telcos and have Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc., Bell Telecommunications Philippines Inc., Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc. and Express Telecommunications Inc. under its wings.

“This means they have the backhaul infrastructure and middle-mile network to deliver services to the last mile,” Santos, who is also a fellow at ICT policy and regulation think tank Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economies (Lirne) Asia, said.

With this, International Data Corp. (IDC) Philippines analyst Alon Anthony D. Rejano said the soon-to-be new telecommunications provider will prove to be a threat to Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Globe Telecom Inc. “If Telstra will bring in connectivity from Australia, there will be lower traffic in our local network. This is a threat to the vendors,” he said.

Increase penetration

Democracy.PH Founder Pierre Tito Galla added that Telstra will also help increase the Internetpenetration rate in the country, noting that hopes are high that the new entrant would develop a network that is on a par with global standards.

“A new player in the ICT space will lead to more competition that we hope will result in

better services, more reasonable costs, and greater penetration and access,” he said.

“We also hope that this heralds the possibility of faster, more reliable, and cheaper Internet and network services to the public.” According to the World Bank, Internet penetration in the Philippines is currently at 37 percent.

Galla added: “We also hope that the government will take measures to encourage the participation of more players; not just players for the local last mile for consumers, but also for the Philippine middle mile and the international backhaul to improve services for everyone.”

Democracy.PH is a group that pushes for the development of the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom.

‘We are preparing’

Fitch Ratings noted that, while intensified competition will not come in a snap, companies like PLDT and Globe will have to device cushioning mechanisms to lessen the impact of the new entrant on their market shares.

“Telstra Corp. Ltd.’s impending entry with San Miguel Corp. will intensify competition over the longer term,”Fitch Ratings Primary analyst Janice Chong said.

Local analysts, for their part, said providing better services at a minimum cost will require telecommunications companies to invest more into new technologies and programs.

Juanis G. Barredo, chief technical analyst of

TAIL-END OF A COLD FRONT AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON (OCTOBER 12, 5:00 PM)

online brokerage COL Financial Group Inc., said he expects the capital requirements of both PLDT and Globe to remain elevated with the entry of Telstra into the Philippines.

“Their capital requirements are already rising,” he said in brief.

Intense competition in the digital space has forced the dominant telecommunications provider to revise its capital requirements this year to P43 billion. Globe, for its part, is spending roughly P38.9 billion for its capital in 2015.

Alexander Adrian O. Tiu, senior equity analyst at AB Capital Securities Inc., agreed, adding that the two companies must also intensify their marketing efforts to continue flourishing in the telecommunications market.

“They need stronger marketing. The advantage of both PLDT and Globe versus Telstra, however, is that they are more established with their current subscribers,” he said.

Globe President Ernest L. Cu said his company is ready to compete in a more intense telecommunications battlefield, vowing to continue pouring more money into its networkmodernization program.

“With or without a third player in the industry, Globe Telecom will continue to focus on its strategy of providing superior customer experience and being the purveyor of the Filipino digital lifestyle,” he said. “To execute well, we will continue to invest on our network so we can upgrade our services, and have the capacity to serve the growing needs of our customers especially in data.

This strategy has obviously worked for Globe, currently the leader in mobile in the Philippines.”

For his part, Manuel V. Pangilinan, the chairman of the dominant telco in the country, said his company will have to wait and see for Telstra’s next move, and start forming strategies from there on. “We just have to deal with it when they come,” he said.

His spokesman, noted, however, that the company will continue investing in technologies that will enhance the company’s market position and

improve customer experience.

“In any event, we are doing what needs to be done to enhance our competitiveness in whatever scenario actually emerges. We are investing heavily in our network infrastructure, strengthening its resiliency, broadening its reach, and bolstering its data capabilities to meet the needs of a fast-growing digital economy. We are building upon what is already the country’s most extensive and powerful network infrastructure,” PLDT Spokesman Ramon R. Isberto said.

Don’t celebrate just yet

Consumers in social media are rejoicing with the announcement of Telstra’s entry into the market. Responding to the BusinessMirror’s analysis (See PLDT, Globe ready to battle with Telstra, September 9, 2015), they expressed high hopes that the industry will soon be ushered into a better era.

But consumer group Txt Power Inc. President and Founder Tonyo Cruz said consumers must not celebrate just yet.

“The prospective new entrant enters the same deregulated and liberalized market. The laws and regulations favor it as much as they favor PLDT-Smart and Globe,” he said. “Endusers, big and small, should, thus, manage their expectations.”

He explained that there are no built-in protections for end-users under this regime, hence, consumers are “left at the mercy of business decisions of company owners.”

“The involvement of Telstra is not surprising.

PLDT-Smart has NTT as foreign partner, while Globe is with Singtel. Sun Cellular used to have Telia Sonera as partner. These foreign partners are usually limited to safe cash or credit investments—which reap dividends,” he said.

Cruz added: “So far, the Philippines has been deprived of world-class quality of service, infrastructure, peering and interconnection. There are no indications yet that Telstra would veer far away from the norm.” To be continued

news@businessmirror.com.ph

The Nation BusinessMirror

Several congressmen file COCs as group names ‘viable bets’

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EVERAL lawmakers on Monday filed their certificates of candidacy (COC) for reelection and for other positions as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) opened the filing of COC for May 9 elections.

Lakas-Kampi CMD Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga led the congressmen who are seeking releelection.

Party-list Rep. Neri J. Colmenares of Bayan Muna filed his COC at the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila, saying he was running to become the people’s “fighter” in the Senate.

Colmenares said that, if elected, he will push for measures addressing rising prices of basic commodities and increasing employees pay and pension.

Kabaka Rep. Amado Bagatsing of Manila filed his COC at Comelec’s Manila office. Bagatsing will run for Manila mayor position with Ali Atienza as his vice mayor.

Other, lawmakers who filed their COCs seeking for reelection are Lakas Rep. Karlo Nograles of Davao City; Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza of Buhay; National Unity Party Rep. Gavini Pancho of Bulacan; Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Mercedes Alvarez of Negros Occidental; Liberal Party (LP) Rep. Salvio Fortuno of Camarines Sur; LP Rep. Carlo Lopez of Manila; and Anakpawis party-list group.

Also, eyeing for congressional seats are Rudy Aspilan (Baguio City); Jack Enrile (Cagayan); Jose Quiwa III (Third District of Pampanga); Albay Gov. Joey Salceda (Second District of Albay); Juan Arenasa (Cebu City); Luis Campos (Makati City); Lorna Bandigan (Davao Occidental); and CANCER party-list group.

Other viable candidates

THE Pilipino Movement for Transformational Leadership (PMTL), an influential group of Catholic and Christian faithbased organizations, meanwhile, identified several personalities in the government and other social spheres as “the most viable candidates” in the upcoming national and local elections.

R e c e nt me e t i n g s a mon g PM T L convenors a nd ea rly results of the organization’s

GabayKristo scorecard have revealed a list of names that have garnered high scores.

The group said that the list of potential leaders includes former Interior Secretary Rafael Alunan III; LP Rep. Roman Romulo of Pasig; former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito; Fr. Ben Beltran; Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras; Cardinal Luis Tagle; humanrights advocate Amina RasulBernardo; former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson; former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral; and University of the Philippines President Alfredo E. Pascual.

Lead convenor and PMTL official Spokesman Alex Lacson, in a statement, said “We are looking for transformational leaders whose heart and mind is focused on ser v ing and guiding the Filipino people to a better future. We need candidates with good, unblemished records, are not tied or limited by any political party, and definitely do not bear the marks of a ‘trapo’ [traditional politician].”

Lacson aired the call as the PMTL started to collate and analyze the initial responses to the GabayKristo, a guide containing 20 criteria for leadership.

The guide covers four major areas: Karakter at Karangalan, Kakayanan at Abilidad, Katapatansa Diyos at sa Kapwa, Katotohanan sa Pamumuno at Pamunuan (Character and Integrity, Knowledge and Ability, Faithfulness to God and Fellowmen, Truthfulness in Leadership).

As the initial results of the GabayKristo take shape, the PMTL is confident that a few more names will appear, Lacson said.

He added that the next step involves encouraging the identified personalities to seriously act on the urgent need for true servant leaders as none of the names that came up has expressed their intentions to run in 2016.

The PMTL currently holds a membership of more than 30 faith-based organizations from both the Catholic and Evangelical-Protestant denominations while individual membership is counted at over 10 million.

Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz, Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, October 13, 2015 A3

Binay heads list of initial presidential candidates

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By Joel R. San Juan

WENTY-two individuals, led

by Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, have filed their certificates of candidacy (COC) for president in the coming May 2016 elections at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

On the other hand, Sen. Gregorio B. Honasan II, who launched several failed coup attempts during the term of the late President Corazon C. Aquino, led other aspirants for vice president during Monday’s first day of filing of COCs. Aside from Binay who is running under his political party United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), those who filed their COCs for president as of presstime were former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Chief Augusto Syjuco Jr. and former Chairman Camilo Sabio of the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

Both Syjuco and Sabio are running as independent.

Other presidential wannabes who filed their COCs were lawyer Elly Pamatong, Ephraim Defino (Mindanao Federal Party), David Alimorong (retired Army general),

engineer Ralph Masloff, Adolfo Inductivo (retired Army commander) and Danilo Lihaylihay.

Others joining the presidential race are Freddie Llamas, Fernando Fortes, Sel Hope Kang, Ferdinand Pijao, Ramon Concepcion, Erica Nagapatan, Gerald Arcega alias Sultan Mohammad Issa, Leonardo Bula, Alejandro Ignacio, Arsenio Dimaya and Art Reyes.

Reyes told reporters that he would push for the annexation of the country by the US as its 51st state.

Binay was accompanied by wife Elenita and children, Sen. Nancy Binay, UNA Rep. Abigail Binay of Makati City and suspended Makati City Mayor Binay, when he filed his COC. “Sa tulong ng Poong Maykapal, sa suporta ng taumbayan, at sa pagkakaisa nating lahat, sisimulan natin ang pagtahak ng landas tungo sa tunay na pagbabago na mag-aangat at magpapaginhawa ng buhay ng bawat

Pilipino,” said Binay in a statement.

The Vice President said that if he were elected president, he would push propoor programs, which he said has been overlooked by previous administrations.

Pamatong promised to defend the country’s disputed territories with China if elected president.

Syjuco, on the other hand, said he is running to represent the “angry Filipino,” who are already tired of the continuous corruption and lies by the present administration.

Sabio, meanwhile, noted that he is the only person with disability to gun for the presidency.

Masloff, described himself as a Filipino with Russian blood while Llamas said he is a tricycle driver.

Lihaylihay, on the other hand, said he is running to push for a change in the country’s current political, social and economic system, which he described as unjust, oppressive and undemocratic.

Rizalito David of Kapatiran party also filed a COC for president together with his running mate Albet Alba.

Esmeraldo B. Reyes was the 22nd individual to file a COC for president on the first day of filing.

Aside from Honasan, a certain Myrna Mamon also filed a COC for the Vice President position.

Those who have filed their COCs for the senatorial post were former Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson and Party-list Rep.

Malacañang extends sympathy to Joker Arroyo’s family…one week late

By Butch Fernandez

A

FTER one week, Malacañang finally issued on Monday a statement of condolence on the passing on October 5 of feisty former Sen. Joker P. Arroyo, who served both parents of President Aquino.

The belated expression of sympathy, however, was a personal one issued by Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda and not by the President.

“The passing of Joker Arroyo closes a life and career spent in the midst of burning issues of public interest for half a century,” Lacierda said.

“As a lawyer and legislator he was outspoken. As a citizen he was one of those who fought the dictatorship

and served in the effort to restore our democracy: This is the Joker Arroyo the country will remember.

We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and loved ones in their time of grief.”

Bearing the title “Statement of Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on the passing of former Senator Joker Arroyo,” it was seen as a personal note from Lacierda and not from his principal.

It is public knowledge that President Aquino had serious differences the past few years with Arroyo, the lead lawyer of the President’s father, Sen. Ninoy S. Aquino Jr., before a martial law-era Military Commission, and later as Executive Secretary of his mother, President Corazon C. Aquino, when she was catapulted to

the presidency by the February 1986 People Power Revolt.

Knowledgeable Palace sources had listed at least three issues over which Arroyo had tangled with President Aquino.

One source confided that the President Aquino could not seem to forget that Arroyo, who died from heart ailment last week, had once described his administration as being run like “a student council.”

Arroyo followed this up with another biting comment telling reporters that President Aquino’s partymates in the Liberal Party could all fit in one “Volkswagen.”

But another source described the Nueva Camarines bill creating a new district in the southern Luzon province, which Arroyo spon-

Silahis owners as SC to void sale of the hotel

By Joel R. San Juan

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NEW LYING-IN WARD Former Mayor and city First Lady Imelda T. Aguilar (above photo,

second from left) formally opens the Ward 3 wing of the Las Piñas Lying-In Center with six more beds in addition to the two other maternity wards. The event is part of the 15th anniversary celebration of the city lying-in facility that offers totally free maternal and child-delivery services to city residents that include first dose of BCG and hepatitis-B vaccines to newborn babies and the required newborn screening for a minimal fee. Aguilar was assisted by City Health Officer Ferdinand Eusebio (left) and Julio Javier, Lying-In Center head.

Neri J. Colmenares of Bayan Muna.

Lacson filed his COC as an independent despite the announcement of the administration’s Liberal Party including him on its slate.

Other senatorial aspirants who have filed their COCs are Daniel Magtira, who claimed presidential sister, Kris Aquino, is his “wife”; Angel Redoble; Ricy Bacolod; Victorino Inte; Elmer Santarin; Rafael Lagindao; Jose Kwe; Armando Cortez; Ramon Osano; John Odonnell Petalcorin; Robert Marin; and Eduardo de la Peña.

More presidential, vice presidential and senatorial aspirants are expected to troop to the Comelec to beat the deadline for the filing of their COCs on Friday.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the Comelec would entertain all those who will be filing their COCs as part of its ministerial duty.

After the last day of the filing of the COC, which is on Friday, Bautista said the Comelec would review all the qualifications of the candidates in order to disqualify the so-called nuisance candidates. He said the Comelec would come up with the official list of candidates for the 18,069 positions

by December 10.

He said the almost two months will be enough for the Comelec to exercise due diligence in disqualifying those to be considered as nuisance candidates.

HE owners of Silahis International Hotel Inc. (Sihi) have filed a second motion for reconsideration with the Supreme Court (SC) seeking to declare null and void the auction and sale of its property Grand Boulevard Hotel (formerly Silahis Hotel), with adjacent parking lot on Roxas Boulevard, Manila.

In a 40-page petition, Sihi, through its lawyer Peter Paul Danao, specifically asked the Court to nullify the decision of Judge Lyliha Abella-Aquino of Branch 24 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Manila dated August 13, 2012, and October 25, 2012, order and writ of execution dated November 8, 2012, insofar as they ordered the transfer of title, ownership and possession of the said property in favor of Pacific Wide Realty Inc. (PWRI) for lack of jurisdiction over Sihi.

The petitioner also sought the reversal of the Court of Appeals (CA) resolutions dated February 3, 2014 and December 2, 2014 which remanded back to the lower court on the ground of forum shopping its petition seeking the reversal of the 2012 resolutions issued by the RTC in Manila.

The CA cited a separate pending petition filed by Sihi assailing the auction of its property with PWRI and the Manila City government as respondents.

It was at this point that Sihi filed a petition for review on certiorari with SC, arguing that a judge in the lower court cannot reverse the finding of another.

The SC, however, denied the petition and

Sihi’s motion for reconsiderations in a resolutiion issued on March 9, 2015.

Sihi second motion for reconsideration, “for the higher interest of justice to prevent the finality of the Court of Appeals’s legally erroneous and patently unjust decision,” and this time praying that SC take the case en banc.

“Petitioners, on bended knees, hereby invoke this Honorable Court’s disquisition in the case to relax the rules so this Honorable Court can review the merits of the petition which raised novel legal and constitutional issues that would greatly impact on the exclusive and original jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals to annul judgments on a RTC judge...,” the petitioner said.

“To allow the finality of the Court of Appeals’s legally erroneous resolutions would amount to a violation of petitioner’s constitutional right to due process. As registered owner and possessor of the subject hotel properties, petitioners cannot be unduly deprived of their title and possession over the subject hotel properties in a case which they were not parties to,” the Sihi added.

Sihi said it is not enjoined to file a second motion for reconsideration although, as a general rule, a second motion is prohibited.

It noted that the SC may admit of exceptions “when the assailed decision is not only legally erroneous but is, likewise, patently unjust and potentially capable of causing unwarranted and irremediable injury or damage to the parties.”

It added there are similar other instances when the SC revisited a case after the case had already been decided with finality.

sored at the behest of Rep. Louie Villafuerte, as the “original sin” that triggered the fallout.

The bill filed by Arroyo in the Senate was said to still lack some requirements, but he lobbied hard for the local governments committee, chaired by then-Sen. Aquino who was hesitant to report out the bill despite the prodding of Villafuerte as the congressman was locked in a feud with relatives occupying elective posts in his bailiwick and wanted to create his own province.

In a text message, Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr., however, sought to play down the delayed issuance by the Palace of the stament of sympathy following Arroyo’s death on October 5.

DMCI asks SC to lift Torre TRO

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N the final memorandum filed with the Supreme Court (SC), the developer of Torre de Manila asked the Tribunal to dismiss the petition of Knights of Rizal and to immediately lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued on June 16, 2015.

It said the government heritage agencies have no jurisdiction over Torre de Manila since it was built on private property outside of the Rizal Park or any heritage zone, and that the Rizal Monument was declared a national cultural treasure one year after the developer obtained all government permits and started construction.

The company also tagged as “hoax” without any basis in law, fact or science the new position taken by Solicitor General Florin Hilbay of the “physics” of the Rizal Monument such that the obelisk, statue and the sky must be treated as an integrated whole.

Earlier, the Solicitor General made a complete turnaround and went against the position of his clients, the National Museum, National Historical Commission of the Philippines, and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, allegedly upon the “influence” of two personalities.

The memorandum said that it is DMCI, its workers and its buyers that are hurting from the injunction, and not the Knights of Rizal which admitted that it went straight to the SC because the lower courts are “slow” in issuing injunctions and that its petition was not based on any law on sightlines but because of its “moral duty” to protect photographs of the Rizal Monument.

DMCI, however, said the monument and the park were surrounded by tall buildings and even provided a picture of the former Meralco Tegen power plant and its two smoke stacks rising behind the monument.

It added that, in the absence of any constitutional or legal provision protecting or conserving sightlines, the Torre de Manila remains to be a legitimate expression of DMCI’s right to property.

The developer said it obtained all the permits and the approval of the local government to build 49 storys and broke no law, but is being penalized for it. Joel R. San Juan

Economy

A4 Tuesday, October 13, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Two foreign companies keen on building Isabela coal plant

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wo foreign firms have expressed their interest in building a coal-fired power plant in Isabela, according to a Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp.

(PNOC-EC) top official.

”We have received unsolicited proposals, [but we] cannot disclose [anything yet] due to [the] confidentiality agreement. There are two foreign companies, but they also have local partners,” PNOC-EC President and CEO Pedro A. Aquino Jr. told reporters.

He noted that the parties plan on processing the coal to synthetic gas which will be used as the feed for power plants.

PNOC-EC holds Coal Operating Contract No. 141, which is estimated to have enough resources for a 100-megawatt power plant.

The site, which has a project area of 3,000 hectares, is in Benito Soliven, Isabela.

Aquino explained the submitted proposals are still under evaluation and will likely result in a Swiss challenge-bidding process. He added it

avoids other firms to match the first offers submitted.

Aquino said the awarding for the bidding will likely be next year, but may likely be postponed due to the election ban. However, he stressed that the state-owned corporation might seek an exemption from the ban. Aquino further said the interested party will enhance the calorific value of coal, then pack it and transport it to other sites.

But he also stressed the complicated part is the gasification process.

According to PNOC-EC, the power plant will use the lignite coal reserves in the coal concession of PNOC-EC. The firm also said its joint venture partner will be involved in developing the mine and power plant, including the power-plant operations and marketing the power output. PNA Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman Roberto V. Garcia announces the Global Free Zones of the Year 2015 award received by the Subic Bay Freeport from the UK-based fDi magazine in a briefing on Monday.

DTI, Germany back devt of SME Subic wins Global Free Zones of the Year 2015 award mobile app for cheaper power

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he Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the German government, through its international cooperation company, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), are supporting the development of a mobile application that will enable local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to lower their electric bills by as much as 40 percent per month and to evade power outages.

The application, called OneWatt, will work round-the-clock to pick out the most cost-efficient energy source at various times of the day and to find alternative power sources during outages.

The energy-efficiency app was the grand-prize winner in the contest held recently by the DTI and GIZ for a mobile app that would best help local SMEs become more competitive and environment-friendly.

It was developed by a team of Filipino information-technology professionals from the the University of the Philippines Diliman and De La Salle University, led by Kristine Quirante.

The competition drew participants from Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. The youngest was 15 and the oldest, 73. They consisted of students, professionals and start-up companies.

The other winning apps were for natural-resource management, waste recycling, green packaging and disaster management.

The GIZ’s Promotion of Green Economic Development project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, will support the full development and commercialization of the app among SMEs all over the country through DTI. The DTI is cooperating with the German government to replicate Germany’s success in achieving economic growth while protecting its environment. The competition was also supported by the Peace and Equity Foundation, which is sponsoring one other winning app; the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; IdeaSpace; GoNegosyo; the Development Bank of the Philippines; Raket. ph; Impacthub.ph; and Katalyst.ph. PNA

By Henry Empeño Correspondent

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UBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Freeport emerged as overall winner for Asia in the Global Free Zones of the Year 2015 awards given out by fDi Magazine, a publication of The Financial Times of London.

According to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Roberto Garcia, Subic bested other free port zones from a field of 76 entries to win two major awards this year: overall winner in Asia, and overall winner in the subregion of South and Southeast Asia.

The Subic free port also received bespoke awards or commendations for infrastructure developments and reinvestment in the competition that sought to acknowledge the most promising free zones across the world.

Garcia said the awards underscore the free port’s attractiveness and potential as an investment site and validates the strategies

that the Subic agency has undertaken to spur the zone toward further growth.

“This is a great honor for the SBMA since this is the first time for a Philippine free port to win these major awards,” Garcia said in a media briefing on Monday.

“Emerging as overall winner in Asia, as well as in South and Southeast Asia, is a significant indicator of Subic Freeport’s level of competitiveness among other zones in the region,” Garcia said.

“These awards also mean that we’re on the right track and doing the right thing, and exerting our best effort as a team,” he added.

The awards are based on surveys conducted by fDi Magazine, an 11-year-old bi-monthly publication which provides up-todate review of global investment activity to corporate and crossborder investment professionals across the world.

The surveys asked free zones, government entities, and investment-promotion bodies to de-

tail their zone’s attractiveness, facilities and incentives offered to investors.

Garcia said the survey included questions on growth performance measures for 2013 and 2014; existence of multinational companies in the zone; recent expansion by tenants in the zone; initiatives to increase tenant numbers; infrastructure developments or facilities upgrades in the last 12 months; and major development plans to facilitate future expansion.

He said it was a good thing that the SBMA had effected increases across all sectors, thereby putting up an image of outstanding overall performance in the free port.

The SBMA official pointed out that the financial turnaround that his adminsitration has undertaken in the last three years augured well for the Subic agency in the competition, as judges took into consideration a free port’s performance in terms of revenue growth, investment level and employment

Housing Fair offers more than 200 SSS briefs properties on sale at easy payment terms hundreds of young fernandinos

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he Social Security System (SSS) has over 200 acquired properties, such as houses and residential lots, available for sale at flexible terms at the Housing Fair scheduled from October 16 to 18 at the SM Megatrade Hall 1, on the fifth floor of SM Megamall Building B in Mandaluyong City.

May Catherine Ciriaco, SSS senior vice president and officer in charge of the Lending and Asset Management Division, said the SSS will accept minimum down payments of as little as 5 percent for SSS properties valued at P500,000 and below, and a minimum of 10 percent for SSS assets worth more.

“The housing fair helps make the dream of purchasing one’s own home within reach for Filipino employees, self-employed workers and OFWs [overseas Filipino workers.] Among our properties for sale are huge lots with an average size of 120 square meters, which make these more attractive to prospective buyers,” she said.

Under the Housing Fair, the SSS

will allow a maximum payment term of 15 years as long as the property would be fully paid before the buyer turns 65. Buyers can use cash or manager’s check for the down payment and full payment, while those paying by installment must issue postdated checks.

“The SSS will also offer low interest rates of 6 percent for properties with a balance after down payment of P500,000 or below, and 9 percent if the said balance exceeds P500,000.

Buyers paying in full also get a 10-percent discount,” Ciriaco said, adding that the buyers must be Filipino citizens aged 18 to 65.

SSS properties for sale are in the National Capital Region, Baguio, Tarlac, San Pablo, Naga, Cebu, Bacolod, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.

It is the 10th time that the SSS will join the annual Housing Fair, which is organized by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

Since 2006, the SSS has sold over 2,100 acquired properties

with a total selling price of P1.2 billion through the Housing Fair as of August 2015.

This year’s fair, which carries the theme “Disenteng Pabahay, Maunlad na Buhay,” will feature the properties of various government agencies and private developers.

“Apart from helping the government in reducing the national housing backlog, the regular SSS participation in the Housing Fair also helps accelerate the sale of our foreclosed housing units by offering them to the public at market cost and affordable terms,” Ciriaco said.

Interested buyers must present two valid IDs and proof of income, such as certificates of employment, pay slips, latest income tax returns, financial statements for self-employed individuals, and job contracts for overseas Filipino workers. OFWs must also provide a Special Power of Attorney if purchasing an SSS housing property through a designated representative. PNA

benefit from s.p.e.s.

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—A total of 238 young students here will be given employment through the city’s Special Program for Employment of Students (SPES).

SPES is the city’s annual program that gives students the chance to work and earn a minimum wage for 20 days and, at the same time, immerse them in their respective fields of study.

This is in line with San Fernando City Mayor Edwin D. Santiago’s agenda on employment and education.

Under the program, 60 percent of the salary will be shouldered by the city government, while 40 percent will be given by the Department of Labor and Employment.

Santiago said the SPES is a good training ground for the students in becoming better Fernandinos.

“At an early age, they will be able to understand how to serve other people, hone their talents and skills and learn how to be an instrument of service,” the mayor said.

“It is much better for the young generation to be engaged in work for they learn how to be responsible citizens and service providers for their fellow Fernandinos,” he added. PNA

d.o.l.e., dti in region 12 converge to assist gensan msmes

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Region 12 has linked up with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-12 to assist the compliance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) here to the general labor standards.

generation, among others.

Garcia added that the presence of major multinational firms here like Hanjin and Philip Morris has established Subic as a major foreign investment site.

The annual fDi Free Zones of the Year Awards is regarded as an indication of the capabilities of key cities and regions for attracting future inward investment.

Last year the award for Large Tenants in the Asia category went out to Sri City in India, which was home to 30 tenants in 2013, such as US-based West Pharma and Thailand-based Rockworth, while Daegu Gyeongbuk in South Korea won in the SME Asia category after experiencing a 23 percent annual increase in tenant numbers in 2013.

Clark Freeport, meanwhile, received a bespoke award that year for reducing red tape and shifting from a “regulatory” to a “business enhancement” mind-set.

Garcia said it was the first time for Subic to join the competition.

Ofelia Domingo, DOLE Region 12 director, said on Monday that they have launched a series of labor-education seminars to help improve the operations of MSMEs and, at the same time, promote the welfare of their workers.

“This is part of our convergence efforts to maximize employment facilitation and the promotion of inclusive growth through the development and empowerment of our MSMEs,” she said.

She said an initial 100 business owners, managers and human resource managers had signed up for the continuing labor-education seminars, which is assisted by the DTI and Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council’s Negosyo Center here.

The seminars covered modules on productivity, general labor standards and other related topics, she said.

“These are focused on improving human resource capability and catalyze business start-up and operational sustainability,” Domingo said.

phl to seek regular membership in unesco-backed cultural body KORONADAL CITY—The country will seek full membership to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco)-backed International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts (CIOFF) during its world congress this week in Arequipa, Peru.

Koronadal City Mayor Peter Miguel, who represents the Philippines in the CIOFF, said on Monday that he will formally present the country’s bid to become a regular member from the current associate status at the group’s general assembly. The mayor left for Peru on Monday morning to attend the weeklong 45th CIOFF World Congress and General Assembly, which is set until October 18.

“We’re very positive with our bid and I hope the general assembly will accept us as a full-fledged member,” he said. PNA

Economy BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

‘VP Binay, Junjun, 22 others face raps for Makati carpark anomalies’

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

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he Office of the Ombudsman on Monday said that it has found probable cause for the filing of multiple charges against Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” S. Binay Jr. and 22 others in connection with the “anomalous” bidding and construction of the Makati carpark building project undertaken from 2007 to 2013.

Ombudsman Conchita CarpioMorales, in a news statement, said that the Vice President and his son, Mayor Junjun, allegedly violated Section 3(e) of Republic Act (RA) 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), malversation of public funds and falsification of public documents.

“The finding of probable cause comes after more than one year of investigation. The fact-finding investigation began in September 2014, while the preliminary investigation began in March 2015,” she said.

Morales said VP Binay faces four counts of violation of Section 3 (e) of RA 3019, six counts of falsification of public documents and one count of malversation for his involvement in phases 1 and 2 of the carpark project.

“In two separate resolutions on six docketed cases, flagrant anomalies were found to have been committed

by Binay Sr. et. al., in the design and construction of the building consisting of six phases,” she said.

According to the Ombudsman, documents show that VP Binay and Mayor Junjun, approved the bids and awards committee (BAC) resolutions, notices of awards, contracts and payments using unnumbered/undated disbursement vouchers and obligation requests.

Morales also junked VP Binay’s contention that the office has no jurisdiction to investigate impeachable officials. She explained that “being an impeachable officer does not insulate him from investigation.”

She added that VP Binay is being investigated for criminal acts committed while he was a city mayor and not as vice president.

“At all events, impeachable officers, like Binay, Sr., are within the investigatory power or jurisdiction of this office,” the resolution stated.

However, Morales said the information will be filed after the expiration of his tenure as an impeachable officer, consistent with the principle that during incumbency an impeachable officer cannot be the subject of a criminal offense filed with the court, which carries the penalty of removal from office.

Mayor Binay

Meanwhile, Morales said Mayor Junjun faces four counts of violation of Section 3(e) of RA 3019, six counts of falsification of public documents and one count of malversation for his involvement in phases 2 to 6 of the project.

She also ordered the filing of

criminal information against Binay’s co-respondents, namely, Marjorie de Veyra, Pio Kenneth Dasal, Lorenza Amores, Virginia Hernandez, Line de la Peña, Mario Badillo, Leonila Querijero, Raydes Pestaño, Nelia Barlis, Cecilio Lim III, Arnel Cadangan, Emerito Magat, Connie Consulta, Ulysses Orienza, Giovanni Condes, Manolito Uyaco, Norman Flores, Gerardo San Gabriel, Eleno Mendoza Jr. and Rodel Nayve. Also included in the indictment are Orlando Mateo from Mana Architecture and Interior Design Co. (Mana) and Efren Canlas of Hilmarc’s Construction Co. (Hilmarc’s).

“The services of Mana were engaged without the benefit of public bidding. The documents established badges of fraud committed by Binay Sr. et.al., in manipulating the procurement to ensure the award of the contract to Mana; processing and approving a series of four payments totaling to P11.97 million despite the incomplete submission of deliverables, such as design plans, working drawings and technical specifications,” the Ombudsman said.

Procurement violations were also committed, including the absence of publication of invitations to bid as provided in RA 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act, the Ombudsman added.

“A certified true copy of the publication obtained from the National Library showed that no advertisement for the invitations to bid was made as attested to by the publisher,” she said, adding, “There was undue haste in the award as it took the BAC only 11 days to complete the procurement process for the multimillion-peso infrastructure project.”

The Ombudsman explained that “the purported negotiation and evaluation of bid proposals on November 22, 2007, was conducted with extraordinary speed” as “for one hour only, the BAC completed the entire negotiation proceedings where bid proposals of seven architectural firms that allegedly participated in this multi-million project were opened and evaluated.”

Even the Commission on Audit Fraud Audit Office’s Initial Evaluation Report noted that “the negotiated procurement adopted by the BAC was improper.”

The construction projects were awarded to Hilmarc’s despite the lack of the required publication of the invitations to bid, with Hilmarc’s as the lone bidder in four phases of the project.

The Ombudsman explained that there was collusion among city officials and Hilmarc’s, to manipulate the outcome of the five “public biddings” for the purpose of ensuring that Hilmarc’s would be awarded the contracts.

On October 9 the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal from the service and perpetual disqualification of Mayor Binay and 17 others for grave misconduct and serious dishonesty in the parallel administrative case.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015 A5

Land conversion, pollution threaten Metro Manila, Calabarzon food security–Acosta

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By Cai U. Ordinario

he continuous conversion of farmlands to subdivisions in areas like Bulacan and Rizal, as well as the deterioration of Laguna de Bay’s water quality, threatens the food security of Metro Manila and Calabarzon.

In a briefing on Monday, Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) General Manager Neric O. Acosta told the media that data from the Philippine Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (Phil-Waves) showed land conversion increased the population of those living along the lakeshore.

“If it’s business as usual, the same number of aqua structures, more or less the same kind of water pollution, and then give or take another million or so people in the whole Calabarzon [Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon] and lake basin every year, the numbers are going to be quite dismal," Acosta said.

Acosta added that land conversion caused the rapid decline of the water quality of the lake and endangered the fish that could be harvested from the Laguna de Bay. Based on the Phil-Waves findings, land conversion has more than

doubled at a rate of 116 percent between 2003 and 2010. These converted land could have been used for agriculture or watershed purposes.

The extent of land conversion, Acosta said, has already reached at least the lower level of the Sierra Madre mountains, Luzon’s primary defense against violent typhoons coming from the Pacific Ocean.

“We are making the assumption that over 100 percent din ang nawala that is related to food security, whether its a provisioning ecosystem service of irrigation or actual rice or whichever production of particular crops,” Acosta said.

With the increase in land conversion, data showed that 81 percent of the pollution—measured in Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)— in the Laguna Lake was due to domestic waste.

Data showed that the rest of the pollution came from indus-

trial (9 percent); agricultural (5 percent); solid waste (3 percent); and forest (2 percent).

With the deterioration of the water quality, Acosta said, the Laguna Lake has also seen the increase of the knife fish population, which is a major threat to the bangus population in Laguna Lake.

“Knife fish is a terribly invasive fish specie. Before it gets to 1 kilo, it already has eaten up 7 kilos of fingerlings of bangus,” Acosta added. “That’s the opportunity cost for food security.”

Acosta said, however, that the LLDA could not prevent land conversion, particularly those sanctioned by local government units (LGUs).

He said that this is because the LLDA is only a quasi-judicial body and that LGUs in the country are considered autonomous based on Republic Act (RA) 7160, or the 1991 Local Government Code.

The LLDA general manager said that having a Land Use Act could help address the issue on land conversion.

However, the piece of legislation has not been passed into law, even after 20 years.

“As the findings suggest, we need to improve the management of the environment and natural resources in these pilot areas (Laguna Lake and Southern Palawan). As these areas are microcosms of the state of the country’s ecosystems, this improvement is critical for growth to be

inclusive and sustainable,” said National Economic and Development Authority Deputy Director General Emmanuel F. Esguerra.

The development of the Laguna Lake ecosystem accounts was based on the data collected and analyzed primarily by the LLDA with the assistance of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and other government agencies. The LLDA is responsible for the water and land management of the Laguna Lake Basin.

Meanwhile, for the Southern Palawan ecosystem accounts, development was spearheaded by national and local technical working groups that consist of the DENR and the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD).

PCSD was created under RA 7611, known as “Strategic Environment Plan [SEP] for Palawan Act,” to implement and enforce the laws to ensure sustainable development in Palawan in accordance with the SEP law.

Waves is a World Bank-supported global partnership that aims to account for the natural capital and services provided by ecosystems to know the full value of these resources for better planning.

The Philippines has been selected as one of the eight core implementing countries where the Waves Global Partnership Program has been launched.

Construction boom An overhead crane raises steel bars and other construction

materials for another high-rise building under construction near Seaside Boulevard and Diokno Boulevard in Pasay City on Sunday. PNA

PPP Center opens bidding for P84-M Baggao, Cagayan water-supply project GenSan hosts regional conference on product standards

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he Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center disclosed that the municipa lit y of Bag gao, Cagayan, has opened the bidding for the P84 million-worth Baggao Water Supply Project.

The project aims to provide potable piped water supply service for 24 barangays with a population of 21,160 in Baggao, Cagayan.

The project also involves bulk water source development, transmission, and distribution to individual household level connections.

“At present, Baggao does not have a Level 3 water service and majority of the population get their water through individual shallow wells. Level 3 water service refers to the pipeline distribution system where customers get water directly through individually metered connections,” the PPP Center said.

The project will be awarded through a Design-Build- Operate-and-Transfer contractual arrangement following a competitive two-stage public bidding process.

Once awarded, the winning bidder will finance, design and construct the water supply facilities, including bulk water source, storage facilities, and transmission and distribution lines.

The private firm will also operate and maintain the facilities over a 25-year concession period.

Interested parties have until November 9 to submit their letters of intent and prequalification requirements. Prior to this, an Investors Forum and Project Site Visit are set to be conducted this October 19 in Baggao, Cagayan.

In April 2015 Baggao’s Municipal Development Council, through Resolution 4, approved the project to be undertaken

using the PPP mode of procurement.

Based on the latest data from the PPP Center, around 12 PPP projects worth P284.98 billion are now under implementation.

This includes the 10 projects worth P189.02 billion that have been awarded to private firms and two other projects worth P95.96 billion that are also for implementation.

The main pipeline, or the list of projects that have not been awarded, includes 40 projects worth P811.71 billion.

This includes 14 projects worth P518.28 billion that are under procurement and 12 projects worth at least P67.45 billion with ongoing studies and procurement of consultants for preinvestment studies.

The list also includes two projects worth P24.79 billion that are for roll-out or for bidding. Cai U. Ordinario

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ENERAL SANTOS CITY—Iron, steel and construction industry stakeholders in Region 12 will gather here this week to discuss various consumer policies and vital trends affecting construction quality and safety.

Lawyer Raul Josefino Miguel, president of the General Santos City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (GSCCCII); said around 400 industry players are expected to join the two-day regional conference, which is dubbed Industry Product Standards Conformance Conference and Trade Exhibit (IPSC Confex).

He said the event, which is slated from October 14 to 16 at the SM City mall here, is among the highlights of the city’s observance of the National Consumers Month.

GSCCCII and the Philippine Association of Black Iron and Galvanized Iron (Bigi) Pipes and Tubes Manufacturers, Inc. serve as copresenters of the conference, which is supported by the Department of Trade and Industry in Region 12.

In a news statement, the chamber said the

expected participants are iron and steel industry, and construction industry owners; managers of mining and steel companies; iron and steel manufacturers, fabricators, importers and exporters; construction firm owners; hardware store owners; construction materials suppliers, importers, and contractors; officials and representatives of government agencies in Region 12; and representatives from local government units.

Organizers said they have also invited representatives from academic institutions and engineering students.

The group said the IPSC Confex mainly aims to educate the public on product standards and the ill effects of nonconformance through usage of uncertified and substandard materials.

It will push for a reduction in the usage and patronage of substandard products and increase in proactive movements against manufacturing and smuggling of substandard materials. PNA

A6 Tuesday, October 13, 2015 • Editor: Angel R. Calso

Opinion BusinessMirror

editorial

The invisible hand

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T is hard to pin down a description of a man who has shaped critical thinking in areas as diverse as social morality, economics and politics. Adam Smith was Scottish and lived more than 200 years ago. He wrote two books—The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)—that shaped modern economics and the politics of economics.

Smith wrote about what he called the “invisible hand” that helps move the world in which we live. He writes of a selfish and greedy landlord that views the world through his wealth without any genuine regard for the people around him—most specifically his workers.

Although the landlord desires to consume all the fruits of his wealth because he cannot realistically eat all that his lands produce, he is forced by the invisible hand to distribute to others the necessities of life through wages, charity and other means almost in the same proportion, as Smith writes, “which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants.”

Therefore, the greedy and selfish landlord “without intending it, without knowing it, advance[s] the interest of the society.”

Of course, like all other ideas that seem to make sense but are puzzling in application, the invisible hand concept has been used to support everything, from total free markets and trade to protectionism and total government economic control.

On one hand, the business owner that is only interested in his or her own financial gains by building a business, helps create other people’s wealth as they benefit from the business. Society, as a whole, benefits through, perhaps, the taxes the business pays to fund government programs and even the products that the business creates that may increase everyone else’s standard of living. Smith writes: “He [the business owner] intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.”

This brings us to the idea that a major problem with the Philippine economy is that economic growth has not been inclusive that certain sectors in the social-economic structure have not benefited.

Can we rely on the invisible hand to make sure everyone gets an increasing share of the pie as it is increasing in size, or is there something that the government in particular, and society, in general, can do to make life better for everyone?

Politicians speak in general terms and when they do get specific, rarely do we hear something like, “If we do this, then in 10 years, this will be the result.”

For this coming election we must force the politicians to go beyond normal candidate rhetoric and show us their reasonable and realistically achievable economic goals. It is time to stop relying on the invisible hand.

2016: The new president faces a new landscape Manny B. Villar

THE Entrepreneur First of a series

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eeks before the filing of certificates of candidacy from October 12 to 16, three names were already on the public list of leading candidates for president in the 2016 elections.

I am, more frequently, being asked whether the new president would have less or bigger problems. I answered that the new president will have bigger problems because the Philippines is in a very different situation now than in 2010.

We always talk about the economy and poverty, which remain the country’s biggest problems, but these are not the only challenges that the new president must face.

I have listed five major areas that will present themselves to the new administration in 2016: 1. The China problem. What must the new president do in the West Philippine Sea, where China continues its reclamation activities?

2. The proposed Bangsamoro basic law. I don’t think the BBL bill, as originally crafted by the incumbent administration, will pass. If it does, it is likely that it will be rejected by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

3. The communist insurgency, which has persisted for decades, will still be a problem.

4. The drug problem. Numerous reports indicate that it has deteriorated.

5. The peace and order situation.

There is a growing perception among people that it has, and continues to deteriorate.

Compared to these five issues, the economic problem may be the easiest challenge to the new president.

This is not to say, however, that the economy can be set aside as a lower priority, because it is directly linked to the more serious problem—poverty —that affects at least a fourth of the country’s 101 million population.

In the light of changes in the global economy and their impact on the Philippines, which I discussed in the previous series, let me begin this discussion on the economy.

On the economic side, the waters were very calm in 2010 when the presidency changed hands. In fact, GDP growth in the first half was very strong.

Based on data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), GDP grew by 7.8 percent in the first

quarter of 2010 and 7.9 percent in the second quarter. According to the NSCB, GDP growth in the first half of 2010 was the highest semestral growth since the 9.3 percent posted in the second semester of 1988.

The NSCB said the agriculture sector was hit by El Niño at that time, but this was offset by improved confidence among domestic investors, election spending, the global economic recovery, increased capital expenditure of the government and a low base.

GDP slowed down to 6.5 percent in the third quarter, but recovered to 7.1 percent in the fourth quarter, resulting in a full-year growth of 7.3 percent (compared with 1.1 percent in 2009), the highest annual GDP growth in the post-Marcos era.

Economic conditions are very different now. In 2010 the global economy was already recovering from the US-led financial crisis of 2008, so demand for Philippine exports was rising.

In 2010 the United States was lagging behind other countries that were emerging from recession, with growth at below 3 percent, unemployment above 9 percent and a federal deficit of $1.3 trillion, just below the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion.

On the other hand, China’s economy was defying expectations. Its GDP grew by 10.3 percent, allowing the country to dislodge Japan as the world’s secondlargest economy.

Today the global economy is sailing on very rough waters, with the shift in the US-China situation. With weak demand from China, commodity prices have slumped. Oil prices, for instance, have plunged from $120 a barrel in 2014 to $40 in 2015, and Goldman Sachs is saying $20 a barrel is not a remote

The Philippines’s 1 percent John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

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nvestors participating in the Philippine stock market are surprised by this fact. The stockbrokers and Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. cannot seem to figure it out. The government talks about it from time to time, but actually try to ignore the numbers. Philippine companies seem totally unconcerned.

Depending on what data you look at, only about 1 percent of the Philippine population invests in the local stock market. That may not seem important, but for a country of our population and economic size, we have one of the lowest, if not the lowest, stock-market investment rates on the planet.

Investing in the stock market has several financial and wealth-building advantages.

Stock-market share prices over time usually keep up with, if not ahead of, the inflation rate. Venezuelan stock-market investors are the only ones that have really been able to weather the inflation storm in that country. It is not always true, but it is true often enough to be able to consider the stock market as sort of an inflation hedge.

The value of shares also can usually track the growth of the economy. Here, again, it is not a

one-for-one comparison, but good enough to again consider putting some money in the market. A stock market offers a diverse group of companies that represents the economy. If the economy is such that real property—and therefore the shares of property developers—is not doing well, there are many other industry sector choices. If an economy has problems with its exports and is only growing because of domestic spending, perhaps, the retail-service companies will see higher profits and, therefore, higher stock prices.

An investment in shares is always liquid even if conditions warrant selling out at a loss. At least you do not need to go out and find a buyer when you need to turn your investment into cash. Long-term investors in a growing country like the Philippines may not only benefit from

higher share prices, but also from the dividends that companies pay as their profits grow larger.

So, once again, as I have said several times in the past, return to the discussion of why Filipinos seem to be adverse to investing in the stock market even after years of promotion by the stockbrokers, the stock exchange and the banks.

In the age of the Internet, knowledge about the stock market and how it functions does not seem to hold up anymore. Anyone who has the capital for a stock investment certainly has the access to all the information they need to begin investing. Stockbrokers will practically come out to your house to explain stock investing like someone trying to sell life insurance.

We talk about the fact that people are worried about being cheated by stock manipulation.

We talk about the “Old Boys’ Club” mentality of the exchange. Everyone has a story about someone’s brother-in-law that lost a fortune in the stock market. But after some reflection, I do not think any of those are the real issues that keep the stock market to the “1 percent.”

I have been in the stock market since I was a teenager and have continued to be there for the last 50 years. Now you might think that with all the literally dozens of financial literacy gurus out there talking about stock-market investing, we would have seen a larger proportion of the Philippine population investing in the stock market.

But the numbers, percentage-wise, are almost the same today as 20 years ago.

I learned about the stock market because

possibility because of oversupply.

The Philippine peso was hailed as the best-performing currency in Southeast Asia in 2012, when its value rose to more than 6.5 percent against the US dollar. It ended 2012 at 41.05 against the dollar.

At that time, analysts were predicting the exchange rate to appreciate further to P39 to $1 in 2013. This year the exchange rate has breached the P47-to-$1 mark and people are predicting it could reach P48 to $1, if the Bangko Sentral ng Pilpinas (BSP) does not intervene.

The BSP is hoping the average exchange rate for the whole year will stay within P43-P46 to $1.

Growth in the first half of 2015 fell short of expectations at 5.3 percent.

The government’s target of 7-percent to 8-percent growth for the whole year has gone further from reality.

Meanwhile, poverty still affects 25.8 percent of Filipino families (as of the first semester of 2014), a slight improvement from 24.6 percent in the same period in 2013. Unemployment rate was at 6.5 percent in July 2015, a slight improvement from 6.7 percent in the same month last year, but underemployment increased to 21 percent from 18.3 percent during the same period.

This is the situation on the economy today. I hope it will improve in the remaining months and up to the second half of 2016, when the new president takes the helm.

Next week I will elaborate on the non-economic issues that the new president will face.

To be continued

For comments, e-mail mbv.secretariat@gmail.com or visit www.mannyvillar.com.ph.

my father was an investor and his father was, too. It would seem that the people attending all the seminars about stock-market investing are not only new to the idea themselves, but the vast majority come from families that are not stock-market investors also.

I do know some middle-aged investors that strongly encourage, if not force, their twentysomething children to learn about the market.

But most of the middle-aged ones come from families that were not investors either. Certainly in 10 years or more, as the ones that are now attending investment seminars have children that become adults, those children will be more prone to invest. But it seems that those in the forty-plus age group that have the money are not in the market. Their parents were probably not investors because when their parents were in their 40s, we really did not have a genuine stock market here in the Philippines. The middleagers did not learn stock investing when they were in their 20s.

I think I will have a stock-market investing seminar, called “Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks.” And if you were born after 1975, sorry you can’t come.

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

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Has malware jumped over China’s Great Firewall?

Adam Minter

BLOOMBERG VIEW

F

or years now, China’s elaborate efforts to censor and control the Internet—collectively known as the Great Firewall—have restricted what the world’s biggest population of Netizens can see and how fast they can download. Until now, that hasn’t been much of a problem for anyone besides locals and companies, such as Facebook and Google, hoping to sell to them.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

A7

‘No player is more important than the team’ Edgardo J. Angara

T

he inaugural kick-off for the grassroots clinics of Real Madrid, the premiere football club in the world, took place last Monday at the McKinley Hills Stadium of Megaworld in Taguig City.

Present were Rosa Roncal, international manager for social projects of Real Madrid; Kevin Tan, Alliance Global Group executive director; Kendrick Tan, Emperador Distilleries executive director; Mariano Araneta, president of Philippine Football Federation; Cesar Abalon, school sports division director OIC of Department of Education; Sen. Sonny M. Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Games,

Amusement and Sports, and myself.

Real Madrid agreed to train Filipino football coaches and students according to an accord I entered into with Real Madrid. Under the agreement, Real Madrid’s coaches will do the inaugural clinics for 36 local coaches and 360 public-school students from the National Capital Region (NCR), and 12 local coaches and 120 public-school students of Aurora in Region 3. Subsequently, a “rolling”

football clinic will be held nationwide in each of the country’s 16 regions.

Such a grassroots-development program is unique in our country, where similar clinics are sometimes conducted as club-to-club, not clubto-nation, arrangements. It will surely contribute to the long-term spread and popularity of soccer as a sport Filipino youth can excel in.

While the Philippine Professional Football League is slated to launch in 2017 a national football league, such as Spain’s La Liga or the UK English Premier League, our program will generate even more interest in football across our basketball- and boxing-loving countrymen—which could one day develop a Filipino international football star.

And few of us know we had one such star, Paulino Alcantara of Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo City. He was the holder of the highest number of goals scored—until several weeks ago, when Lionel Messi broke the

former’s record.

There are few international clubs that could best introduce this “beautiful game” to the Philippines, other than Real Madrid, which International Football Federation dubbed the “football club of the 20th century.” Not only will our young booters be trained by the best in the world, they will also be exposed to the philosophy and values that underpinned the club’s global success.

At the inaugural kick-off last Monday, Real Madrid’s Rosa Roncal told the kids present: “[N]o player is more important than the club. No player is better than the team itself. You must remember you will be part of the team, play with teammates, learn how to respect and be respected, learn the importance of fairplay.” Those are the values the Filipino youth need to be taught and learn early, I believe.

E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.

Double-barreled attack on crime and corruption Ernesto M. Hilario

In recent weeks, however, Chinese-origin attacks on Apple’s iOS and App Store have raised a discomfiting prospect: The closed-off Internet ecosystem China has created may be breeding malware that could affect the rest of us.

This is a different issue than Chinese hacking, which targets companies and governments for their technology and secrets. The most recent attack emerged on October 4, when researchers at Palo Alto Networks revealed that a piece of malware they named YiSpecter was infecting iOS users, primarily in China and Taiwan. Its creators had embedded the bad code in a porn video player that allows users to share videos privately using the cloud—a popular device in China, where censors tend to crack down on publicly available porn sites.

An even more serious case came to light in mid-September, when investigators discovered that thousands of Chinese-authored apps in Apple’s App Store had been infected with malware, including WeChat, the world’s second-most popular socialmedia platform, and Didi Chuxing, China’s most popular ride-sharing app. It was the first successful major attack on Apple’s store.

Here, too, the Great Firewall had created the perfect environment for the infection to spread.

Government filters slow download speeds so dramatically that it can take hours—days, even—for Chinese developers to download Apple’s authorized toolkit for creating apps and other content for Apple devices.

Fed up and impatient, many coders instead chose to use what they thought were Apple software-development tools available on Chinese web sites, only to discover later that they’d been infected. The malware then injected malicious code into, otherwise, innocent apps sold in the App Store.

The recent attacks are new only insofar as they’ve targeted Apple products, which had previously been celebrated for their security. Android’s problems in China go back further.

Its developer, Google, isn’t licensed to offer its Play Store in China, so a thriving industry of third-party

app stores has blossomed. Their security measures, unsurprisingly, are relatively weak. Between 2012 and 2013, AV-Comparatives, a security software testing organization, found 7,175 infected apps in 20 major third-party app stores, most of which were Chinese.

Foreign companies operating on the mainland have long complained that the Great Firewall has hampered their ability to do business.

In February the European Chamber of Commerce in China issued a survey of 106 of its members, 86 percent of whom said that the inability to access web sites had a “negative effect” on their businesses. The US Chamber of Commerce has reported similar complaints.

Now, though, the danger is that bad software and apps created in China will spread outward, undermining the credibility of once-secure services, such as Apple’s App Store.

China stands to lose as much as anyone: Even the prospect of infection could reduce the global appeal of Chinese-designed apps. Virushuo, the online handle for an influential Chinese software and security blogger, has compared the danger to that posed by tainted food. “A good restaurant may not necessarily intend to poison its customers, but they also have a difficult time guaranteeing a reliable supplier of ingredients,” he blogged in late September.

(The post is now censored in China but available outside the country.)

China’s huge population of Internet users offers software developers the advantage of a large-scale test audience before going global.

WeChat, perhaps, the world’s most innovative and (recently) its most copied social-networking service, is just one example. But if China wants to fulfill its ambitions of moving up the technological ladder, producing tools and apps with wider appeal, the regime faces a choice. It could remove a few bricks from the Great Firewall in order to create a healthier environment for developers to work. Or it can suffer increasing isolation, as the rest of the world shies away from Web-based products that carry the “made in China” label.

It’s the economy, Putin

R

ussian President Vladimir Putin’s renascent cold war with the West is partly meant to obscure his country’s economic slump.

It’s a reckless strategy—not least because it’s making the slump worse. The consequences for Putin and for global security could be dire.

Sending troops into Ukraine in the spring of 2014 was a major change in Putin’s political calculus. Instead of promising Russians prosperity in return for accepting his unchallenged

authority, he’d appeal to nationalist fervor. The shift drew attention away from his economic mismanagement, rampant cronyism and failure to reduce the country’s dependence on exports of oil and gas. Supported by with-us-or-against-us propaganda, it also provided cover for harsher persecution of his critics.

Now, the repercussions are becoming apparent. Without the support of high oil prices and hampered by Western sanctions, Russia is headed into a recession deeper than the US experienced in 2009.

ABOUT TOWN

W

eeks ago, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte declared that he was not going to run for president. But strong clamor from his avid supporters to take a stab at higher office could make him change his mind.

Luzon. When he was running for the Senate in 2013, Cayetano made the rounds of the provinces and managed to win the support of transport groups, market vendors and farmers’ organizations and cooperatives with his economic program anchored on Presyo, Trabaho, Kita.

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. had earlier been reported as having talked to Duterte to sound him out on the idea of a team-up. But it appears that Marcos is weighed down by heavy political baggage arising from his father’s declaration of martial law in 1972 and alleged human-rights violations during the period of strongman rule until 1986, and now wants to go alone as an independent vicepresidential candidate.

To make a long story short, with a strong leadership represented by the Duterte-Cayetano tandem, we may have a unique opportunity to finally break free from crime and corruption, the double-headed hydra that keeps the nation from achieving sustained economic advance and social progress in the years ahead.

If Duterte does make a 180-degree turn this week, it would be a fourcornered fight for the presidency, with Duterte joining Vice President Jejomar C. Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance, Sen. Grace Poe of Partido Pilipinas and former Interior Secretary Manuel A. Roxas of the Liberal Party (LP) in the fray.

Duterte’s emergence as a viable candidate for the highest elective post and strong showing in popularity surveys indicates a sea change in contemporary Philippine politics.

Previous contenders for the presidency had come from national positions, mainly the office of the vice president, Senate, or the House of Representatives. Duterte’s strong suit—and, perhaps, the main reason he has gained stature as presidential timber—is his strong stance against crime, as he has made Davao City as one of the safest places in the world.

His track record in fighting crime appears to have made the citizenry in other parts of the country, particularly in Metro Manila—the seat of the government and the country’s financial and business hub—to sit up and take notice, so that now he is seen as the most likely candidate who could turn things around and make the entire country one of the safest in the world. But why do we need to stamp out criminality? The simple answer is that we need peace and order so we can proceed with economic development that would lift millions of Filipinos from grinding poverty.

Corruption, however, prevents the government from harnessing all resources to enhance economic growth and win the war against poverty. If roughly a fourth of the annual national budget ends up in the pockets of the corrupt, as estimated by the World Bank, then we should give equal weight to curbing corruption as much as to fighting crime.

That’s the very reason not a few

people are now seriously pushing a Duterte-Cayetano team-up in 2016.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano has also emerged as a viable contender for higher political office because of his unrelenting campaign against corruption and staunch advocacy of economic issues, as exemplified in his “Presyo, Trabaho, Kita” campaign slogan in 2010. The promise of lower prices, decent jobs and adequate income will certainly resonate with ordinary Filipinos, especially those living from day-to-day.

A Duterte-Cayetano tandem will be a veritable double-barreled attack on crime and corruption that the citizenry demands at this time.

While they have their individual strengths, it’s the synergy that they bring to the political landscape that could make them prevail in the polling precincts next year.

Duterte’s “take-no-prisoners” stance against crime complements Cayetano’s equally unyielding stand against corruption.

The Davao mayor’s long experience in running the city on a day-today basis is in sync with Cayateno’s high-profile exposure as an anticorruption champion in the Senate in the last three years.

In terms of demographics, the tandem is likely to win the support of a broad section of the population.

Duterte’s tough image and homespun wisdom might appeal more to older citizens, but Cayetano’s youthful dynamism will no doubt draw in the younger voters fed up with traditional politicians and empty rhetoric.

In terms of geography, the teamup is also ideal as Duterte could corner Mindanao and the Visayas votes and help Cayetano win votes there.

Cayetano, who hails from Taguig City and also has roots in Bulacan and Pangasinan, could rely on mass support from vote-rich areas in

Resigned Energy Secretary and now LP senatorial candidate Carlos Jericho L. Petilla leaves office with bad news for electricity consumers: they are likely to pay higher rates next year if the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) policy embodied in Department Circular (DC) 201506-0008, which he signed just days before he officially quit his job as Cabinet secretary.

Petilla’s “midnight order,” which took effect on June 30, requires distribution utilities (DUs) and electric cooperatives (EC) to source their power requirements only through a competitive bidding called the CSP, which would prohibit them from getting their electricity through individual or bilateral negotiations with generation companies (Gencos) through standard contracts, known as Power Supply Agreements (PSAs).

The Petilla order mandates the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to jointly formulate with the Department of Energy (DOE) the implementing guidelines. Apart from this, it directs the DUs and ECs to hire third-party consultants or auctioneers to conduct the CSP tenders for them.

Though the official unemployment rate remains low, other indicators suggest that hidden joblessness—including people going to work and not getting paid—is on the rise. Wage arrears were up 29 percent in September from a year earlier, according to the Federal Statistics Service. Next year’s budget will be a problem. Starved of revenue, the government faces tough choices as it seeks to balance the interests of pensioners, state workers and the military.

If the downturn proves temporary,

Putin is well-placed to ride it out. His approval rating exceeds 80 percent. Increasingly, though, the evidence suggests that he has done longer-term damage.

His grip on the economy may be strangling the dynamism and entrepreneurship that Russia needs to recover.

Consider the response of food and automobile producers to last year’s devaluation of the ruble and ban on Western imports. Those businesses should have boomed, stealing market share from foreign competitors—as they did

after the ruble crash of 1998. This time is different. Output of food, beverages and tobacco was up only 0.4 percent in August from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Auto production was down 28 percent. Investment is down, too. In the second quarter, it fell 8.4 percent from a year earlier, the sharpest drop since 2009. That makes it hard to see where a strong recovery might come from. Economists expect growth to remain anemic through 2017.

Russians’ resilience is hard to

‘Midnight order’ could mean higher electricity rates

Hence, the DOE and ERC will now determine the wholesale supply or energy requirements of each and every DU and EC, and the respective volumes that each firm needs to bid out via the CSP beyond their supply needs that, for now, are still covered by their existing PSAs. Industry stakeholders, however, are up in arms against the Petilla order as they believe it actually goes against Electric Power Industry Reform Act, as the CSP is neither transparent nor a mechanism to stabilize or reduce electricity prices for the benefit of consumers.

CitizenWatch, an independent network of citizen-rights activists, believes the implementation of DC 2015-06-0008 would further burden “already overburdened consumers with additional power costs,” and will “never work in an environment where there are just a few Gencos.”

The same sentiment has been articulated by the party-list group Agham, which urges “total and unequivocal rejection of this flawed and anticonsumer circular” it said was issued without the benefit of prior public consultations and “has no legal leg to stand on.”

Industry players, for their part, assert that the CSP can work only if considered as a voluntary option in a mixed system that also includes bilateral negotiations and Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) purchases. “Our view is it doesn’t promote the best interest of consumers,” Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) President Oscar Reyes has said. “It’s a nice concept, an attractive concept, but do it on a voluntary basis.” The most appropriate model for Meralco, he said, would be “a mix of bilateral, voluntary CSP and the WESM.” What’s interesting for industry watchers is that among those backing CSP is the United States Agency for International Development, apart from American Gencos, like AES Corp. and GNPower Ltd. Co., both of which are already operating power facilities in Mindanao and Zambales, respectively. One other reason the CSP is deemed objectionable is that it is legally and administratively infirm as it encroaches on ERC’s jurisdiction and undermines its independence and mandated autonomy from the DOE as the industry’s regulatory agency.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.

exaggerate, especially when patriotism is invoked. At some point, though, a failing economy will implicate the country’s leadership. That’s dangerous, because the means for an orderly change aren’t in place. What comes after Putin isn’t clear—and it might not be better, for Russia or for the West.

For everybody’s sake, the Kremlin needs to change course, get sanctions lifted and act on economic reform.

Otherwise, Russia and its neighbors had better brace themselves. Bloomberg View

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, October 13, 2015

‘PHL’s ‘Baa2’ credit rating shielded from headwinds’

M

By Bianca Cuaresma

oody’s Investors Service allayed fears of contagion affecting the Philippines as neighbors in the region report slowing growth, saying the $285-billion economy has thus far proved resilient.

Moody’s, however, warned the country’s growth potential is being hampered by fiscal bottlenecks and weak spending that could harm the country’s local output, measured as the gross domestic product (GDP).

In a paper Moody’s released on Monday, the ratings firm said the

country’s ‘Baa2’ rating is shielded from the negative effects of the volatility affecting the country’s neighbors and other emerging markets elsewhere.

As a result, Moody’s reaffirmed its “stable” outlook on the Philippines to indicate that its credit stature should not be unduly

influenced by all these events happening over the near term.

“The Philippines’s ‘Baa2’ government bond rating reflects the economy’s resilience to the current headwinds buffering neighboring countries and emerging markets as a whole,” Moody’s said.

“At the same time, the risks to external liquidity and funding conditions for the government arising from the prospective tightening by the US Federal Reserve are manageable,” it added.

The country was seen able to maintain resilience due to strong domestic demand that acts as a cushion against weaker exports.

Moody’s also said that, while political noise has increased ahead of the elections next year, this should not reverse the institutional re for m s adopte d a nd ot her

successes thus far achieved.

“Reform momentum has largely been sustained, leading to improved assessments of competitiveness and governance,” it said.

Despite the positive remarks on the country’s strength, the international credit watcher forecast growth averaging 5.7 percent “in line with similar adjustments for several other countries in the region.”

This developed as issues surrounding the disbursement of public funds for infrastructure buildup and other programs continue to be unresolved.

“Bottlenecks in fiscal expenditure have continued to weigh on growth and could threaten the government’s capacity to meet its goal of increasing infrastructure spending to at least 5 percent of GDP by 2016,” Moody’s said.

Dell to buy US concerns pull down FDI. . .

EMC Corp. for $67B and reinvestment of earnings at 12.7 percent. Equity capital placements amounting to $1 billion came mostly from the United States,

Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Germany.

These investments were channeled mainly to manufacturing, fi-

Continued from A1

nancial and insurance, real estate, electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply and mining and quarrying activities. Bianca Cuaresma

OPEC EXPECTING CRUDE DEMAND, SUPPLY TO BALANCE BY NEXT YEAR

O

il demand will grow and supply from nonmembers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is due to contract, Opec SecretaryGeneral Abdalla Salem El-Badri said, hoping to see a more balanced market in 2016.

The oil industry’s “best days are yet to come,” as demand will grow to 110 million barrels a day by 2040, El-Badri said at a conference in Kuwait City on Sunday. The gap in crude-oil supply and demand is due to close in the third quarter of 2016, Mohammad Ghazi Al-Mutairi, chief executive officer of state-run Kuwait National Petroleum Co., said at the same event.

“At Opec, we are hopeful that the industry will see a more balanced oil market in 2016,” El-Badri said. “We have recently seen a contraction in production from some non-Opec producers and an uptick in demand growth.”

Brent crude, a global pricing benchmark, slipped 7.5 percent this year and tumbled 40 percent in the last 12 months. The contract added 0.7 percent to $53.02 a barrel on the

D

ell Inc. agreed to buy EMC Corp. for about $67 billion in the largest technology acquisition ever, creating a corporate-computing giant that will use a wider product lineup to woo customers as demand slows and competition stiffens.

Dell plans to pay $24.05 a share in cash plus tracking stock in EMC’s prize holding, VMware Inc., valued at about $9 for each EMC share, the companies said in a statement on Monday. The price of $33.15 a share is 28 percent above EMC’s closing level on October 7, just before reports surfaced that a deal was in the works. While the agreement has a provision that lets EMC talk to other potential bidders, the company doesn’t expect any, a person familiar with the matter said. EMC rose 2.5 percent on Friday to close at $27.86 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Dell will be run by Michael Dell, the CEO of the company he founded. The deal is expected to close in May to October of next year.

The deal would combine EMC’s dominance in devices that store data with Dell’s No. 2 position in servers, the powerful machines that help companies handle big computing challenges. Dell, which was taken private for about $25 billion in 2013, can expand its product lineup to vie with perennial rivals including Hewlett-Packard Co. and upstarts, such as Nutanix Inc.

Tucci succession

For EMC, the agreement addresses pressure from activist investors who have been agitating for growth and resolves long-standing questions over succession for CEO Joe Tucci. He has agreed to stay at the company through the close of the deal and may stay beyond that, said the person, who didn’t want to be named because the details haven’t been disclosed. Michael Dell reached out to Tucci about a year ago, and the companies’ boards started working on the agreement in the spring, the person said.

EMC, which has been publicly traded since 1986, had been looking at strategic options for boosting its share price. Activist investor Elliott Management Corp. had pushed for EMC to sell itself or spin off software maker VMware, of which the storage company is the majority owner.

EMC is facing weaker demand for its older, pricey storage models. While the company has been focusing on newer products, such as flash, arrays that speed up data retrieval, where it’s growing more rapidly, that hasn’t been enough to lift sales growth. Bloomberg News

www.businessmirror.com.ph

London- based ICE Futures Europe exchange at 12:09 p.m. Singapore time. The Opec, led by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab producers, have kept the group’s production target unchanged to maintain market share, amid growing output from non-Opec producers. Opec and non-Opec officials are to meet at an expert level in Vienna later this month to discuss the market.

Opec’s decision to keep its output target at 30 million barrels a day is the “ideal solution” to rebalance the market and support prices, Kuwait Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair said at the conference.

The market remains oversupplied and stocks are above their five-year average, El-Badri said.

World crude output is at 75 million barrels a day and other liquids add about 18 million barrels a day to global supply, he said.

It will take time for oil supply and demand to rebalance, BP Plc. Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said at the conference. Global demand for energy will grow by a third over the next two decades, he said.

Bloomberg News

Pre-shipment. . .

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GREE IN PHL Ugong Trade and Holdings Inc. officials (from left) Anthony Antrada, general manager; Juan Carlos Pineda, president; and Jesus Pineda Jr., chairman, join Gree Electric Appliance Inc. officials Cheng Shaolin and Peng Hong-Gree in leading the Gree Air Conditioner 10th anniversary celebration on Sunday. ROY DOMINGO

‘Climate-proof’ energy infra new goal of Apec. . .

discussed various best practices on climate-proofing energy infrastructures, avenues for promoting cutting-edge energy-efficient technologies, community-based clean energies to help alleviate poverty and, most important, facilitate energy trade and investment in the Apec community.

They are expected to come up with what will be called “the Cebu Declaration” embodying and focusing on plans and strategies “ Towards an Energy Resilient Apec Community.”

The EWG, chaired by Dr. Phyllis Yoshida, will be tasked by the energy ministers to develop and implement action plans to carry out the agreements to be finalized in the declaration and may cover the following areas: Resiliency of Energy Infrastructures; Energy Investments; Low Carbon Development/Clean Energy technologies; Energy-water

Nexus; Ecotourism Sites Regional Standards on Energy Products and Services; Inventory and Mapping of Energy Resources; Human Resources Development; and Gender Fair Approaches in Energy.

The action plans will include the implementation of doubling renewable-energy capacities by 2030 from 2010 levels, and reducing energy intensity by 45 percent by 2035 from 2005 levels.

The Apec economies include Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. Mongolia will also attend the EMM12 as an observer.

Separately, at a news conference held in the afternoon, Yoshida

cited a plan to put up micro grids or small-scale grids that can disconnect from the central grid and operate autonomously, strengthen grid resilience and help mitigate grid disturbances.

“So when power in one area goes out, power can be sent to micro grid, which, in turn, can send electricity to, say, a hospital. If there are disasters, those micro grids can come online very quickly. So, that’s one example that we are looking at,” the EWG chairman said.

The Department of Energy, for its part, said it proposed to the Apec energy ministers “several proposals that has something to do with vulnerability assessment of energy infrastructure.” This may include a set of standards for power plants in the Philippines aimed at further strengthening the facilities “so these can withstand extreme conditions brought about by di-

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sasters,” the DOE official said.

In addition to this, the DOE proposed to the EWG the crafting of a “hazard map” that will identify vulnerable areas.

“In the document that we worked on today, we just finalized a draft but is still to be reviewed by the ministers tomorrow and hopefully adopt and approve this declaration,” Ayson, referring to the agency’s proposals, said.

Yoshida, meanwhile, urged businessmen in the energy sector to continue with their investments. The Apec, she pointed out, merely promotes trade and investment in the energy sector. “We can’t put investments. So, we encourage the CEOs to work on the PPP [public-private partnership] projects.”

The Apec is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the region.

The Philexport chief raised the issue after exporters were informed that groups are attempting to insert the provision on the PSI scheme during the legislative deliberations on the proposed CMTA. Regulations such as the PSI—labelled as another business red tape— will only aggravate the plight of traders who are currently experiencing a slowdown in exports brought about by softening of demand from China, the world’s second-biggest economy, he said. “Bagsak pa exports natin (Our exports are still down); it’s not a good time for additonal costs,” the Philexport head said. He noted that the x-ray inspection scheme should be sufficient.

However, if the Bureau of Customs is really bent on imposing the PSI, Ortiz-Luis said the implementation should be on a voluntary basis.

The PSI scheme entails the inspection of a country’s imports at the point of origin, doing away with any inspections at the destination. It is usually carried out by contracted private organizations for governments. Currently, the PSI only covers bulk and break-bulk cargoes, not containerized cargos.

The proposal of the customs bureau last year was to expand the scheme to include all bulk, bulkbreak, containerized and noncontainerized cargoes arriving and entering the country’s ports. These cargoes need to undergo the so-called loadport survey at the port of origin.

“Make it optional and let the service speak for itself. If it would really speed up the process, then well and good. But right now, it shoud be the soft approach, which is voluntary,” Ortiz-Luis said.

The move to revive the PSI was first raised last year by former Customs Commissioner John Sevilla in his bid to curb misdeclarations, specifically undervaluation of imported goods.

The proposal, however, was quickly shelved after a swift backlash from local and foreign businessmen, who were also harshly affected then by the congestion at Manila’s ports.

The House version of the CMTA, House Bill 5525, is currently pending second reading, while its Senate counterpart bill is still at the committee level at the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee.