Businessmirror1010

BusinessMirror

three-time rotary club of manila journalism awardee 2006, 2010, 2012

U.N. Media Award 2008

www.businessmirror.com.ph

A broader look at today’s business n

Friday, October 10, 2014 Vol. 10 No. 2

P25.00 nationwide | 7 sections 32 pages | 7 days a week

GOVT, MRTH-II NEED TO AUGMENT RAIL RESERVES IMMEDIATELY TO ADDRESS SAFETY CONCERNS

Temporary shutdown of MRT likely

INSIDE

life is a fish bowl

Life

Never cry

D

ear Lord, please be there when someone we love so much disappears.

When a very special person seems not interested in us anymore. When others hurt us and we can’t understand why. When the person we treasure greatly broke off our relationship. When we simply hear that there is no more chemistry between us. When the words come unexpectedly expressed: “I do not love you anymore.” May we never cry, and just smile and say: Thank you for giving me a chance to find someone better than you. amen! yetta cruz and Louie M. Lacson Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

PoP! PoP! Parsley

BusinessMirror

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

T

>> d3

Friday, October 10, 2014

D1

Ben aFFLecK

Life is a fish bowl

A

cTor, director, screenwriter and twotime oscar winner Ben Affleck was preparing for his next directorial project when the opportunity to work with David Fincher on a film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s global bestseller Gone Girl arose. Admitting it was “a dream come true”, Affleck postponed his production to take the role of Nick Dunne, a former journalist who becomes the prime suspect when his wife Amy (played by rosamund Pike) goes missing.

Gone Girl the novel has already topped bestseller lists around the world, becoming a publishing phenomenon. The book, which explores marriage and the media against the backdrop of a troubled economy, was written by former Entertainment Weekly writer Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the screenplay for the film.

Affleck is currently in Detroit filming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but he took time out of his busy schedule to discuss working on Gone Girl and having to live life in a fish bowl.

When did you first become aware of Gone Girl?

The book was a hot property in hollywood.

everyone was reading it. As you know, hollywood is the kind of place where there’s one thing and everyone is talking about it, until there’s the next thing. And this was that. When I heard about it, I read it and really liked it. I thought, “God, this would be hard to make into a movie.” Then I put it down and I didn’t think about it really until I got a call, saying, “David Fincher wants to meet you about Gone Girl.” I was actually going to direct another movie, but the chance to work with David Fincher was a dream come true. So I put off my other movie I was directing and Warner Bros. was very accommodating. I got the chance to do this, which was an amazing thing for somebody to walk in and hand you a dream on a platter. It was a thrill.

What were your first thoughts both on the character of Nick and the story in general?

I kNeW that it was going to be a deceptively hard part to play because of the way that audiences’ perspective on the character had to be delicately calibrated, the idea being that you can change what you think about this guy as the story goes along. Neither David nor I wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t realistic, or wasn’t dramatic. So we had to fine-tune little things. Those are the things that, in some ways, are hardest to do because they’ve got to all be kind of convincing—“oh, maybe he did it…,” “Maybe he didn’t do it…—that sort of thing. And if you don’t have that question in the audience’s mind, the movie isn’t going to work, as well.

What specifically did you and David discuss?

For example, he said, “Look, there can’t be any vanity in this performance. This is a guy who gets kicked around and who we see the pale underbelly of.” I like that idea. I’ve recently become turned off by the vanity I can see in movies because it just doesn’t feel realistic. So, I said, “okay, I’ll go for it. Let’s do it.” Maybe with another director I wouldn’t, but with David, I would have done the phone book. And so we set off trying to make a character that felt real, that you could identify with in terms of his marriage and his relationship…and who you could also then believe maybe killed his wife.

BEN AFFLECK PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN RUSSO

So was one of the challenges playing someone who knows he’s being watched? It’s like you playing a person playing a role.

YeS, I think what’s really important to this is the theme of role-playing. It was really powerful and resonant to me in this movie. The way that the media casts you in certain roles: “okay, you’re gonna be the adoring husband” or “You’re gonna be the murdering husband” or “You’re gonna be the scandalous backstabber” or whatever it is, we turn people into easily digestible archetypes within the media. And, of course, there’s also the role-playing that goes on in relationships. You know, you expect something from someone, they expect something from you in a spousal relationship—the dutiful wife, the obedient husband—and anytime you behave in ways that don’t sync up to those expectations, it causes problems. And, when Nick doesn’t behave the way that a grieving husband is supposed to behave, it really inflames people who are watching through the media. I thought that was really interesting.

You’re someone who has experience of media scrutiny.

YeS, I’ve definitely experienced that in my own life, both in terms of being characterized in ways that were totally unrecognizable to me and also during periods in my life where I decided, “I don’t care what’s going to happen, I’m just going to be who I really am and let the chips fall where they may.” Seeing the negative response I got from that was so powerful and I thought to myself, “Why do you care

about this so much? Why is this engendering so much hostility?”

There are also quite a lot of media outlets, particularly online, where perhaps traffic is more important than truth. cerTAIN media outlets seem to have no care at all for the truth, but their material is then picked up uncritically by more “responsible” media outlets and then, because of the Internet age, it’s just easier to cut and paste and “hurry up and get it up” than it is to stop and sit down and say, “Wait a minute, this doesn’t sound right. Let’s do research. Let’s give this a more thoughtful look….”

If you look at the comments sections on many of those stories, it sometimes seems like the Internet is just populated by a lot of angry people.

IT is crazy. recently I was looking up something on my iPhone. I was on a Google page or a You Tube page and these guys got into a full-on war about Android versus iPhone. And it just degenerated into ‘F%@k you, I’ll stab you in the heart, you c#$ksucker!’

I mean, how much can a person hate a phone?

Has the world just got angrier?

And is that something Gone Girl explores?

I ThINk part of it is self-selecting because the people who tend to be angriest tend to be likeliest to write the comments. You perceive it as a general sample of the

» D4

life

D1

nsa tech spying hurts economy The World BusinessMirror

B3-2 Friday, October 10, 2014

NSA tech spying hurts economy, US senator says “We’re going to end up breaking the Internet,” warned Schmidt during a public forum on Wednesday convened by US Sen. Ron Wyden, Democrat-Oregon, who has been an outspoken critic of electronic data-gathering by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Schmidt and executives from Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other firms say revelations of extensive NSA surveillance are prompting governments in Europe and elsewhere to consider laws requiring that their citizens’ online data be stored within their national borders.

Rules like that would drive up costs and create technical obstacles to the way the Internet currently operates, making it “profoundly difficult in terms of our ability to deliver services,” said Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch.

Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, said some European customers are worried their data will be more vulnerable to US government snooping, although he declined to give specific examples.

“The reality is this is a real problem for American tech companies,” said Smith. “If trust falls, then the prospects for business are hurt.”

Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and chairman of the Finance Committee,

convened the roundtable in the Palo Alto High School gym, where he played basketball as a student in the 1960s.

He said he will take the executives’ message back to Washington, where bills to curb surveillance have stalled. Prospects for passing a reform bill this fall are shrinking, Wyden told the Associated Press.

“I’m going to my best to use this.

What I’m going to do is say there’s a clear and present danger to the Internet economy,” Wyden said.

Wyden contends that the government’s “digital dragnet” of phone calls, e-mails and online communications doesn’t make the country safer, and only hurts the US economy.

“When the actions of a foreign government threaten red-whiteand-blue jobs, Washington gets up at arms. But, even today, almost no one in Washington is talking about how overly broad surveillance is hurting the US economy,” he said in opening remarks.

Microsoft’s Smith acknowledged that concerns over recent terrorist incidents in the Middle East might have undercut some public support for surveillance reform.

However, he contends that “laws that the rest of the world doesn’t respect will ultimately undermine

IN this April 22, 2013, photo, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel and executive vice president, Legal and Corporate Affairs, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform. Sen. Ron Wyden, Democrat-Oregon, on Wednesday convened a roundtable to discuss the economic fallout from the surveillance programs revealed last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. AP/JACQUELYN MARTIN

the fundamental ability of our own legal processes, law enforcement agencies and even the intelligence community itself.”

When former NSA contractor Edward Snowden made details of NSA surveillance tactics public, tech executives and industry experts warned that consumers and business customers would fear that US technology companies can’t protect sensitive data from government prying.

Some analysts estimated last year that US tech companies could lose tens of billions of dollars in sales, particularly after European firms began marketing themselves as being more secure than US competitors—or less vulnerable to legal demands from the US government.

Most of the impact has been anecdotal, however. A few companies, including Cisco Systems Inc. and Qualcomm Inc., have said they be-

lieve they lost some deals in China and other emerging markets because of concerns about US spying.

Germany did cancel a contract with Verizon this summer, citing a fear that it may provide customer phone records to the NSA. Some tech start-ups and telecommunications companies in France and Switzerland have claimed an increase in sales to customers who are wary of US providers.

It’s difficult to quantify the losses because “companies don’t always know about the deals that they weren’t invited to be a part of,” said Daniel Castro, a senior analyst at the nonprofit Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in Washington, D.C. Castro estimated last year that losses to U.S. tech companies could amount to $35 billion by 2016. He said this week his estimate is still valid. AP

Day of legal confusion U.S. OFFICIAL DOWNPLAYS leaves gay couples in limbo CUBA’S INVITATION TO SUMMIT

L

AS VEGAS—Confusion and uncertainty over gay marriage spread on Wednesday as couples in Las Vegas wondered whether they’d be allowed to wed, and partners in Idaho dealt with disappointment after a US Supreme Court ruling blocked them moments before they would have picked up marriage licenses.

Officials and judges in a handful of other states weighed in, meanwhile, in the latest flurry of legal wrangling over an issue that has sparked a series of rulings this week that have left couples in limbo.

“I think I have whiplash,” said Mary Baranovich who was a plaintiff in the Nevada case with Beverly Sevcik, her partner of 43 years.

In the city that bills itself as the marriage capital of the world, wedding chapels and city officials prepared for a wave of gay couples after a morning of back and forth rulings that stemmed from the Supreme Court decision on Monday that effectively made gay marriage legal in about 30 states.

The ruling did not, however, decide the matter for the rest of the nation, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles much of the Western US, issued a decision on Tuesday that appeared to overturn gay marriage bans in cases from Nevada and Idaho, clearing the way for same-sex unions in those states.

Hopeful couples crowded courthouses in Idaho, and Las Vegas chapels had photographers get ready to capture two brides in white dresses while ordained Elvis impersonators practiced their lines.

But before couples were able to make their unions official, Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a ruling that seemed to block gay marriage in both states with a temporary delay.

The news was delivered at 8:01 a.m. to a small crowd of gay couples and their supporters gathered in a Boise courthouse when Ada County Clerk Chris

Rich handed the Supreme Court memo to a lawyer and said, “We’re not issuing same-sex marriage licenses today.”

The announcement left the room in stunned silence, except for a small child asking over and over, “Why?” “We were past the metal detectors, we were just a few feet away from the clerk,” said Amber Beierle. “And then our attorney was handed a one-page document. Apparently, it was Justice Kennedy telling us, No.” It initially appeared that the ruling would apply to Nevada as well, but hours later a new memo from the Supreme Court clarified the decision, saying it applied only to Idaho because officials there challenged the 9th Circuit’s decision but those in Nevada did not.

The clarification prompted gay couples to begin trickling in to the city’s Marriage License Bureau on Wednesday.

In other states, officials and judges made a patchwork of decisions.

A judge in northeast Kansas, a state affected by the Supreme Court ruling Monday that kicked off the latest flurry of activity on the issue, ordered a county to issue same-sex marriage licenses and said the ruling was meant to clear up confusion. The attorney general in South Carolina asked the state Supreme Court to stop a judge from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. A federal judge in North Carolina has lifted temporary delays in two cases challenging the state’s same-sex marriage ban.

And the governor of Wyoming, Matt Mead, said the state would continue to defend its law defining marriage as only between one man and one woman.

Nevada, meanwhile, remained in abeyance, as a group fighting to uphold the state’s gay marriage ban filed a request for Kennedy to reinstate the temporary block. Clark County Clerk Diana Alba, who oversees Las Vegas, said at a late afternoon news conference that she would not issue any gay marriage licenses for the time being. AP

P

ANAMA CITY—A senior State Department official said on Wednesday that the US is prepared to welcome Cuba for the first time to a region-wide summit but wants heads of state to focus attention on the communist government’s human-rights record.

At the urging of Latin American leaders, host country Panama plans to invite Cuban President Raul Castro to the Summit of the Americas in April.

Cuba was excluded from six previous summits because Washington said it didn’t meet the region’s standards for democracy and US lawmakers, led by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, are urging Panama to reconsider its invitation this time around.

The deputy assistant secretary of state for Latin America, John Feeley, played down the significance of Cuba’s likely participation. Speaking to journalists in Spanish during a stop in Panama on Wednesday, Feeley said that “it’s not so important the guests at the table but the meal that’s served.”

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa boycotted the last summit in Cartagena, Colombia, over Cuba’s exclusion and several of his

news@businessmirror.com.ph

S

P

ALO ALTO, California—Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and other Silicon Valley executives say controversial government spying programs are undercutting the Internet economy and want Congress to step up stalled reform.

leftist allies have threatened to sit out the next gathering of 34 regional heads of state if Cuba isn’t invited to attend.

The Washington-based Organization of American States, which organizes the summits, suspended Cuba shortly after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Feeley’s remarks were the strongest yet by a US official since Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela took office in July and reversed his conservative predecessor’s objection to Cuba’s attendance at the summit.

Last month he sent his vice president and foreign minister to Washington and Havana to discuss the matter.

Feeley said that if Castro does participate it would be important that he learn from the experience of other countries in the region where democracy has prospered.

President Barack Obama is expected to attend the summit and Castro’s presence could set the stage for an uncomfortable encounter between leaders from the two former Cold War enemies, but Feeley said what is more “uncomfortable is the basic lack of human rights in Cuba” that the US won’t shy from denouncing. AP

tell us where the structure is, in precise detail.”

Homing in on such small structures has long been limited by properties of visible light. Several methods have bypassed this diffraction limit of optical microscopes, most notably by using Xrays or electrons. But specimens either had to be in a crystal form or be killed, sliced up and placed in a vacuum.

The super-resolved fluorescent microscopy pioneered by the new laureates offers alternatives that allow researchers to watch nanoscaled biological processes unfold.

“It’s really new science for a Nobel Prize,” said Tom Barton, president of the American Chemical Society.

Hell developed his laserbased method of controlling fluorescence in 2000, while Betzig used single molecule microscopy for the first time in 2006, according to the academy. Moerner’s breakthrough spanned the late 1980s to recent years.

Moerner said he learned of his award when his wife called as he was stepping out of the shower.

And when he finished crediting a long list of predecessors, he paid due to science’s longtime muse, surprise.

In the late 1990s, while at the University of California, San Diego, Moerner was surprised to see the jellyfish protein jumping around the frequency spectrum. “It’s those kinds of surprises that lead to some of the things that are truly important for what was recognized by the Nobel committee,” he said.

Moerner began his work at IBM’s research facility in Silicon Valley, with the aim of improving optical storage, and extended it at UC San Diego and Stanford.

Betzig, a physicist and engineer, took a less direct path. He left a research job at Bell Laboratories to help his father automate a machine shop in Michigan, according to the Howard Hughes institute, where he has worked since 2006. But he would frequently return to the knotty problem of the limits of microscopy, sometimes while drifting in a boat on Michigan’s Hi-Land Lake, with nothing more than “a laptop and a couple of really good ideas,” he told the institute.

Hell has worked at the Max Planck Institute since 1997. He said he had been drawn to science since he was in high school.

Continued on A2

Los Angeles Times/MCTt

SVEN LIDIN (left), Staffan Nordmark (center) and Mans Ehrenberg at the Royal Academy of Sciences on Wednesday announce the Nobel Chemistry laureates 2014. Americans Eric Betzig and William Moerner, and German scientist Stefan Hell won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy.” AP/BERTIL ERICSON

Missing Vietnamese oil tanker released by pirates

H

ANOI, Vietnam—A Vietnamese oil tanker missing for a week has been released by pirates who stormed the ship and siphoned off some of its cargo of gas oil, a crew member said on Thursday.

The deputy captain of the Sunrise 689, Pham Van Hoang, said a group of more than 10 men, who he thought were Indonesians, armed with guns and knives in two speed-

boats boarded the tanker shortly after it left Singapore for Vietnam on October 2.

He said the pirates destroyed the communication and navigation systems, and put all 18 Vietnamese crew members into a room. The pirates then siphoned off some of the gas oil into their vessels.

“They put knives on our throats and threatened to kill us if we resist,” Hoang said by cell phone

from the tanker. One crew member broke his leg when he fell trying to flee from the pirates.

Hoang said the crew was freed early on Thursday and the tanker is about 150 kilometers off Vietnam’s southern tip.

He said the crew had to stop a fi shing boat to fi nd out its location. The Vietnam coast guard was dispatching a vessel to escort the tanker to shore, he added.

The tanker, which was transporting more than 5,000 tons of gas oil from Singapore, should have arrived at a port in the central province of Quang Tri on Wednesday.

The Sunrise was the 12th such piracy case since April in Southeast Asia, where tankers have been hijacked, and then released after the cargoes are stolen, according to the International Maritime Bureau. AP

world

b3-2

dirty laundry C1

LEE WESTWOOD: It’s very difficult to pinpoint in a team environment whose fault it specifically is. It’s a combination of a lot of different things. AP

HORSE POISONING ALARMS VENEZUELA RACING INDUSTRY

C

ARACAS, Venezuela—It sounds like a page-turning novel: Venezuelan authorities say a gambling ring poisons one of the country’s most popular race horses ahead of a key derby, nearly killing the animal and shining a light on an underworld where millions of dollars in bets are made under the table.

But the attack on four-year-old Rio Negro as he prepared for the Army Day derby was real, and just the latest grim milestone in a wave of lawlessness and violence that has made Venezuela one of the world’s deadliest places.

The horse is still struggling to regain his strength after almost dying. There have been other cases of using poison to “sleep” a race horse in Venezuela, including three in the last year. But the attention thrust on Rio Negro’s dramatic plight by the media and top-level government officials has underscored the growing brazenness of well-organized betting rings that many say threatens to destroy a sport nearly as popular here as baseball.

Rio Negro had been heavily favored to win the derby until criminals injected him with a nearfatal overdose of cortisone sometime in June—police aren’t exactly sure when.

His caretakers say he nearly collapsed and began urinating frequently during a training session four days before the June 22 race. He lost almost a fifth of his weight, his black-colored skin broke out in welts and he was diagnosed with temporary diabetes.

“It was painful to watch,” said Julio Lobo, one of his veterinarians.

Rio Negro is now kept in a dark, cold stable that looks more like a prison with iron bars and proliferation of security cameras to ward off intruders.

Authorities have arrested nine people, among them former police officers and a horse owner linked to betting rings. But it’s unknown if the investigation, an outcry from top government officials and beefed-up security at La Rinconada track in Caracas can control the rings that some racing officials call “mafias.”

Gambling on horse races is legal in Venezuela, but the socialist government tightly controls betting at the country’s four racetracks and 1,200 off-track betting houses.

Illegal gambling is driven by the government’s limit of 1,000 bolivars on bets, or about $10 at the black market rate. Last year the industry in Venezuela handled about $120 million in legal bets, according to the Paris-based International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

But Jaime Casas and others who follow the local horse-racing industry say the real money is in illegal betting, especially now as Venezuelans try to boost the value of their bolivars in the face of 60-percent inflation and a plunge in the currency’s value on the black market. The illegal operations known as “offices” can frequently be seen operating in plain view from inside the state-sanctioned gambling halls by so-called bankers who receive bets in person and by phone.

Venezuela’s state-run National Institute of Hippodromes declined to comment on the illicit operations.

Casas, who runs the Hipicomputo 2000 web site that tracks race results, estimated that illicit betting rings move between 50 and 60 times the legal market for gambling. The state-run horse-racing agency says that on any given Sunday the government’s take from wagers at La Rinconada can surpass $3 million.

Casas said violence has also increasingly encroached on the sport through the kidnapping of and threats against jockeys.

“Illegal betting has existed in every part of the world for a long time,” he said. “But here it was allowed to flourish with so much freedom and impunity.” AP

MAYBE Tom Watson got a few things wrong. Maybe the US team just didn’t quite play well enough in general. AP

DIRTY LAUNDRY Various reports have quoted unidentified sources in the US team room as saying that Tom Watson was a heavy-handed captain who was dismissive of the team gift, spoke negatively to his players and didn’t communicate with them.

That led to Watson writing an “open letter” over the weekend to say he regrets it if his message to the team came out the wrong way and that he takes full responsibility for any mistakes.

By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press

N

APA, California—Lee Westwood was disappointed to see stories from the American team room at the Ryder Cup complaining about Tom Watson as the captain, saying on Wednesday those matters should be kept private and “nothing good can come of all this.”

Westwood has played in nine Ryder Cups, winning for the seventh time when Europe beat the Americans at Gleneagles two weeks ago.

In recent days, various reports have quoted unidentified sources in the US team room as saying that Watson was a heavy-handed captain who was dismissive of the team gift, spoke negatively to his players and didn’t communicate with them.

That led to Watson writing an “open letter” over the weekend to say he regrets it if his message to the team came out the wrong way and that he takes full responsibility for any mistakes.

“From my point of view, I think it’s a little bit disappointing to see the dirty laundry being out in public, first and foremost,” Westwood said at the Frys.com Open. “It’s very difficult to pinpoint in a team environment whose fault it specifically is. It’s a combination of a lot of different things. Yeah, maybe Tom got a few things wrong. Maybe the US team

just didn’t quite play well enough in general. If the other team plays well, you’re going to lose.

“I’m just pleased that I don’t have to sort it all out because I don’t like to see people with great reputations... being brought down by something that shouldn’t really happen in public,” he said. “It should all be done behind closed doors and sorted out there, and the analysis should start there, and not be done in the press.”

Westwood knows that feeling.

He was benched for the first time in 2008 when Europe, with six-time major champion Nick Faldo as its captain, lost for the only time in the last 15 years. The European players defended Faldo at the closing news conference and closed ranks in the months that followed.

“I think there were a lot of people disappointed in 2008, but we tried to come together and basically not say anything in public,” Westwood said.

“Whenever you lose, you’re going to be disappointed and you’re going to think things could have been done better. It’s just a case of managing it and handling it and improving it for the next time professionally.”

Phil Mickelson spoke on the final day at Gleneagles of how the Americans have strayed from a winning formula it had in 2008, praising endlessly the work of captain Paul Azinger at Valhalla even as Watson sat six seats away

Ayala Land’s ‘ultra luxury’ projects already 70% sold

A

BusinessMirror

A HORSE eats hay at his stable in La Rinconada racetrack in Caracas, Venezuela. After the poisoning of Rio Negro, a four-year-old horse favored to win the Army Day derby, authorities have arrested nine people in the case. AP

By Vg Cabuag

Sports

| Friday, OCtOber 10, 2014 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph sports@businessmirror.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

he operations of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 could be folded down in a matter of months if the operator and the owner of the train system would fail to augment the rail reserves within a semester.

A document from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) showing an inventory of spare parts for the ailing line revealed that the current number of spare tracks for the MRT 3 has diminished to 2.5 pieces from 29 pieces in 2013.

This simply means that the transport agency, which oversees the maintenance of the line along with the current upkeep provider, has exhausted all the spare rail pieces that are needed to ensure the safety and the integrity of the line.

NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY GOES TO 2 AMERICANS, 1 GERMAN CIENCE advances tool by tool, and on Wednesday it paused to recognize three practitioners who handed it the means to see the smallest secrets of a living cell.

The Nobel Prize in chemistry went to two Americans and a German who pushed beyond the physical limits of light to find another way to illuminate the choreography of molecules that make organisms work or go awry.

William Moerner, 61, of Stanford University and Eric Betzig, 54, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, were recognized for an imaging method that relies on turning fluorescent molecules on and off, opening a window into biological processes on a nanoscale, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which grants the prizes.

Stefan Hell, 51, director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany, was credited with developing a similar imaging technique that controls this fluorescence with lasers.

“Their groundbreaking work has brought optical microscopy into the nanodimension,” the academy said.

The award was considered a swift acknowledgment of work that lies at the crossroads of chemistry, physics and biology.

It also marked the second time in six years that the academy acknowledged biochemical research involving fluorescent molecules, which have helped illuminate how genes build proteins, how the human immunodeficiency virus infects cells, and how abnormal proteins accumulate in the brain, leading to diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.

Those advances relied in part on a protein isolated from a species of jellyfish that has floated around the deep oceans for about 160 million years.

The academy awarded a Nobel six years ago to three scientists who discovered and developed green fluorescent protein, which has led to widespread use of molecular tags.

“We use these individual molecules as tiny light sources now, on structures inside cells,” Moerner said by telephone from Recife, Brazil. “They’re like little beacons, or flashlights. And we use the light from those molecules to

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

and listened to him. In a tense news conference, Watson’s rebuttal was that he had a different philosophy.

Matt Kuchar said he was unaware of the post-Ryder Cup stories because he hasn’t turned on his TV or read the Internet since he returned from Scotland. Kuchar said he didn’t think Mickelson was taking a shot at Watson, rather answering a question about what worked for the Americans in 2008.

“Whatever was aired out, I’m sure it was blown out of proportion,” Kuchar said.

The PGA of America plans to wait until early next year to appoint its next captain and is contemplating a task force to figure out how to develope a winning culture. As much as the Americans will remember that closing press conference, Westwood said the Europeans won’t forget it, either.

“It can’t do anything but building confidence for the European team going into the next one, that it’s been handled so publicly this time,” he said. “The fact that the fallout from the Ryder Cup on the US side is being handled publicly and there’s stuff being thrown backward and forward and stuff like that, we will remember that going into the next Ryder Cup. I guess we’ll see how easy it is to get the US team rattled by putting a bit of pressure on them.

“I don’t think anything good can come out of all this.”

Sports

C1

yala Land Premier on Thursday said it already sold about 70 percent of its P22-billion “ultra luxury” developments in the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) and Makati Central Business District.

Jose Juan Jugo, Ayala Land Inc. vice president and group head for the Ayala Land Premier, said the company sold about 70 percent each for its projects East Gallery Place Global City in BGC and Two Roxas Triangle in Makati City.

The remaining 30 percent of the projects can be sold in three months to one year, Jugo said in a briefing with reporters.

The company is expecting sales of P10 billion from the East Gallery and about P12 billion from Two Roxas Triangle. Both projects are targeting the higher end of the market, including foreign buyers from the region.

See “Ayala,” A8

PESO exchange rates n US 44.7670

UK INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Winston Co (left), president of Emperador Distillers Inc., delivers his keynote speech as British Ambassador Asif Ahmad looks on at the GREAT Investment forum, which was organized by the British embassy to present the major investment opportunities in the UK in sectors like financial services, banking, food and drinks, retail, education, health care and infrastructure. ROY DOMINGO

Campi: Record number U.S. BUDGET DEFICIT DOWN TO $486 BILLION of cars sold in September

T

he United States government’s budget deficit has fallen to $486 billion, the smallest pool of red ink of President Barack Obama’s six-year span in office, a new report said on Wednesday.

The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) latest estimate shows better results than earlier projections by both CBO and the White House budget office.

It comes as Congress has mostly paused in its wrangling over the deficit in the

run-up to the midterm elections next month.

Obama inherited a trillion-dollar-plus deficit after the 2008 financial crisis, but that red-ink figure has improved in recent years as the economy has recovered.

Last year’s deficit registered at $680 billion.

The government registered deficits exceeding $1 trillion during Obama’s first term, but the recovering economy has boosted revenues while RepublicanSee “U.S. budget,” A8

By Catherine N. Pillas

V

EHICLE sales surged by 41.7 percent in September, reaching a monthly record high of 20,924 units and a year-todate figure of 168,727 units, on the back of aggressive introduction of new models.

According to a joint report of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA), 14,764 units were sold in September 2013, reflecting a growth in the ninth month of this year of 41.7 percent.

Performance of both passenger

cars and commercial vehicles drove the growth, said a joint statement of Campi and TMA. The passenger-car segment’s sales reached 8,477 units and a significant growth of 65.1 percent year-on-year.

The commercial-vehicle segment reported 12,447 units sold, up by 29.3 percent, or 2,819 units, versus in September 2013.

“The exceptionally strong sales we have achieved for the past months, especially the unprecedented growth this September, prove that the automotive industry is continuously growing and aiming for better results. With this, we are going to keep See “Campi,” A2

n japan 0.4140 n UK 72.4151 n HK 5.7716 n CHINA 7.2922 n singapore 35.1887 n australia 39.1662 n EU 57.0242 n SAUDI arabia 11.9353 Source: BSP (9 October 2014)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Friday, October 10, 2014

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Temporary shutdown of MRT likely PHL spends less on tourism than other Continued from a1

The lack of rail reserves effectively puts the line in peril. Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said his agency will have to “agree to temporarily stop the operations of the MRT to ensure passenger safety, if warranted.”

“We can always afford to shut down MRT 3 operations, if the issue there is safety,” he said.

“If it is found to be unsafe already, if there are no more rails, then the operations should be folded down,” MRT Spokesman Hernando T. Cabrera told the BusinessMirror via phone.

The most congested railway line in the Philippines earlier this week halted its operations for more than an hour due to a defective track.

MRT Holdings Inc. II (MRTH-II), the majority shareholder of MRTC, echoed the government’s sentiments, stressing that passenger safety should always be the priority.

“If the issue is safety and this is what it takes, then we’ll agree to the halting of the operations of the line” MRTH-II Spokesman David S. Narvasa replied, when sought for comment.

The most congested line over three elevated train systems in Metro Manila has been facing criticism for issues on safety and integrity, with experts saying the MRT “may collapse anytime” as it has been operating with “obsolete” technologies paired with overcapacity.

But work is underway for the dilapidated tracks of the line, said MRT Officer in Charge Renato M. San Jose. He explained that the rails used by the MRT 3 have the same specifications as those of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2.

“The DOTC has already asked the LRT Authority to lend the MRT spare rails. They have already sent the reserve rails to us,” MRT Officer in Charge Renato M. San Jose said in a phone interview.

Cabrera confirmed this, pointing out that “based on statistical data, what was lent is sufficient to repair the damaged rails.”

San Jose and Cabrera said MRT borrowed 15 pieces of rail, with lengths ranging from 12 linear meters to 18 linear meters apiece.

“So what was lent would be able to sustain them for about five to six months,” Cabrera, who also sits as the spokesman of the Light Rail Transit Authority, said. He added that the government is also exercising its emergency powers to procure 800 pieces of rail.

“We have started the process of buying rails. We hope to award the contract next month, and with the production and shipment to take about five months, I am pretty confident that we could procure the needed requirement by six months’ time,” Cabrera, whose expertise was tapped to procure the tracks, said.

San Jose said the blame should be placed upon the current maintenance provider of the line, APT Global Inc. “They are liable for this, as stated in the contract: the maintenance provider must provide rail reserves,”he said.“There are some remedial procedures to this, including the withholding of their acceptance, or we could call on their performance or guarantee bonds.”

“Immediately, what we can do is to penalize them for that, there are penalty provisions in the contract,” San Jose said.

Cabrera, however, noted that the contract of APT Global has expired on September 5.

“There is no contract to talk of. The contract has already lapsed,”he said, explaining that the firm is currently maintaining the line by virtue of an extension for the delayed procurement of a new upkeep provider.

The transportation agency is currently auctioning off a maintenance-provider contract for the most congested railway line in

the Philippines with a three-year concession period instead of just a year, as this would be more optimal given the difficulty in procuring spare parts for the railway system.

The government is spending roughly P2.2 billion for the three-year upkeep deal.

Deadline for the submission of bids is scheduled on October 13.

Cabrera admitted that the operator of the line—the government—and the owner of the assets, or MRTC, are at fault for the dwindling number of reserve rails.

“The government and the private owner both contributed to this. The current buyout issue prevented both parties to procure rail parts,” he said.

The transportation agency is currently pursuing a P54-billion takeover of the line’s corporate owner, a move that MRTH-II is blocking due to lack of communication with the party, led by the Sobrepeña family.

The buyout of the train system’s private concessionaire will put to a close the ongoing arbitration case in Singapore between the government and the concessionaire.

This will also terminate the concession agreement, and end the government’s obligation to pay billions of pesos in equity rental payments to MRTC. Once the buyout is completed in 2016, the transport agency may then bid out an operations and maintenance contract for the line, thereby tapping private sector efficiency and customer service orientation for operational needs, while retaining regulatory functions for passenger protection with government.

Since 2004, the train system has been operating at overcapacity. Currently, the line serves nearly 550,000 passengers per day.

It even reached, at one point this year, the 650,000-daily passenger mark. It has a rated capacity of 350,000 daily passengers.

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

TODAY’S WEATHER

OCTOBER 10, 2014 | FRIDAY

Typhoon is a cyclone category with winds of up to 181 kph while, Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is the result of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere tradewind convergence; widespread cloudiness, occasional thunderstorms, precipitation and moderate to strong surface winds are associated weather conditions.

TYPHOON “OMPONG” (VONGFONG) WAS LOCATED AT 866 KM EAST OF CALAYAN, CAGAYAN OR 825 KM EAST OF ITBAYAT, BATANES.

METRO MANILA 23 – 31°C

Campi. . . continued from a1

an eye on the remaining months of this year and expect to deliver increased sales,” Campi President Rommel Gutierrez said in a statement.

Year-to-date sales in 2014 reached 169,727 units, or a growth of 29.2 percent.

Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. remains the market leader with a 45.2- percent share, an increase of 42.8 percent year-on-year and selling an impressive 9,572 units in September.

OCT 11

SATURDAY

OCT 12 SUNDAY

OCT 13

MONDAY

TAGAYTAY CITY 20 – 28°C

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

METRO CEBU 24 – 30°C CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 24 – 31°C ZAMBOANGA CITY 24 – 30°C

OCT 12

23 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

TACLOBAN

23 – 30°C

24 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

24 – 32°C

24 – 32°C

24 – 31°C

25 – 32°C

24 – 33°C

24 – 32°C

24 – 30°C

25 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

24 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

BAGUIO

16 – 22°C

17 – 22°C

17 – 23°C

METRO DAVAO

SBMA/ CLARK

24 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

24 – 31°C

ZAMBOANGA

21 – 28°C

21 – 29°C

PUERTO PRINCESA

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

23 – 29°C

23 – 29°C

SUNRISE

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

5:46 AM

5:39 PM

7:14 AM

7:13 PM

LOW TIDE

HIGH TIDE

21 – 28°C

24 – 29°C

FULL MOON HALF MOON

MANILA BAY

OCT 08

6:51 PM

25 – 30°C

24 – 30°C

24 – 30°C

23 – 30°C

23 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

OCT 16

3:12 PM

CELEBES SEA

5:33 AM

0.25 METER

10:49 AM

1.15 METER

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers and/or thunderstorms Cloudy skies with rainshowers and/or thunderstorms

Weekday hourly updates: 6:00 AM on Balitaan, 7:00 AM & 8:00 AM on Good Morning Boss!, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM on News@1, 3:00 PM, 4:30 PM, and 6:00 PM on News@6

www.panahon.tv

SABAH

MONDAY

23 – 30°C

Watch PANAHON.TV everyday at 5:00 AM on PTV (Channel 4).

METRO DAVAO 25 – 32°C

OCT 13

SUNDAY

TUGUEGARAO

LEGAZPI

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 24 – 30°C

OCT 11

SATURDAY

24 – 31°C

TAGAYTAY

TACLOBAN CITY 24 – 30°C

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

24 – 30°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 30°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 30°C

Taking the second spot is Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. with a 21.9- percent share and selling 4,155 units in September.

Ford Motor Co. Philippines takes third spot with an 8.6-percent share, selling 2,010 units in the ninth month of the year.

Isuzu Philippines Corp. lands at the fourth position with a 5.7-percent share and with September sales at 1,213 units.

23 – 30°C

MEANWHILE, ITCZ AFFECTING VISAYAS AND MINDANAO. (AS OF OCTOBER 9, 5:00 PM)

BAGUIO CITY 16 – 23°C

The advantage of the Philippines over its counterpart Asean members “is our archipelagic island.”

“Malaysia and Singapore have huge numbers to show on visitor arrivals mainly because of their being a crossroad to many other Asian nations,” he said.

Enerio said cross-border travel has its advantage “because tourists tend to stay shorter in one place.”

“Visitors to the Philippines have to take the plane, or even swim the seas to reach us. This makes them decide to stay longer with us, leaving behind their dollars in the many destinations we have to offer,” he said.

On the average now, tourists tend to stay as long as one month in the country, he added. For Filipino travellers,“especially those with family members who live or work overseas, they tend to travel more outside of their hometowns, wanting to taste the delicacies of the places they visit.”

The DOT is launching its new program Visit Philippines 2015 and has requested Malacañang to officially declare it in the bid of the DOT to access more fund and support to various activities, including a countrywide road show.

The DOT has also made labels and branding of each destination, such as Davao City, which it launched on Wednesday with the phrase “Relax.

Explore. Repeat.” Manuel T. Cayon

METRO CEBU

TUGUEGARAO CITY 23 – 31°C

SBMA/CLARK 24 – 31°C

D

AVAO CITY—The Philippines allocates a lower budget to tourism compared to the better economies in the 10-member Asean, but its skill in getting a better return per unit of spending allows it to tide over the stiff competition in the travel market.

The Philippines allots an average of $25 million for tourism, which is only about 4.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The amount is dwarfed by that of Malaysia, with its mammoth budget for tourism reaching between $150 million and $170 million.

Despite the low allocation, the country’s tourism sector was still able to wrench 34 percent, in return of investment last year, said Domingo Enerio III, COO of the Tourism Promotion Board of the Department of Tourism (DOT).

In absolute numbers, the Philippines has fared well in its tourism spending compared with the stronger economies of Asean, such as Thailand and Singapore.

He admitted, though, the higher budgeted tourism sector had allowed countries to establish better infrastructure and accessible destinations compared to the Philippines, which must act quicker to get a slice of the still-growing travel market as the Asean enters into a single-market economy next year.

METRO MANILA

LAOAG

LAOAG CITY 25 – 30°C

Asean states, but earns better in ROI

@PanahonTV

The Nation BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Groups slam govt plan to dispose of Canadian toxic garbage in phl

By Marvyn N. Benaning | Correspondent

E

NVIRONMENTAL groups, lawmakers and non-governmental organizations have castigated the Aquino administration for trying to dispose of the toxic trash sent here from Canada, saying Manila is not Ottawa’s sanitary landfill.

Incensed by the failure of Malacañang to even raise a whimper about the illegal shipment of Canadian trash, the critics also found that the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) are keen on disposing of the miasmic toxic waste here.

This is really extreme puppetry on the part of the Aquino administration, which probably wants to be known as the basurero of the entire planet, they protested.

The shipment, they maintained at a news briefing in Quezon City on Thursday, violates international law and should be condemned by any Filipino with a sense of pride and a better sense of smell.

“I will not tolerate this matter.

As a legislator, I filed a resolution calling for congressional inquiry on the unlawful entry of 50 container vans filled with garbage. Clearly, this dumping of waste in our country is a reflection of our dignity as a nation,” said Party-list Rep. Leah Paquiz of Ang Nars said.

Earlier this year, BOC seized 50 container vans containing various waste materials and hazardous waste imported from Canada and consigned to Chronic Plastics Inc. The shipment was declared as “assorted scrap plastic materials for recycling.”

Last month 16 container vans were sent to Subic to ease the congestion at the Port of Manila.

“The unauthorized movement of the illegal shipments to Subic is proof that plans are afoot to have the waste shipments processed and disposed of in the country. The letter from the DENR reinforces and confirms this duplicitous intent on the part of our government authorities. We find it outrageous that the primary government agency mandated to protect the environment is the main instigator of the proposal to have these illegal waste shipments disposed in our shores. Why should Filipino taxpayers bear the burden associated with this illegal shipment?” asked Von Hernandez, president of EcoWaste Coalition and executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

“This government proposal sends a signal to unscrupulous and illegal waste traders to ship their unwanted junk to the Philippines. There can be no compromise here, this garbage shipment must be sent back to Canada, its country of origin. The Philippine government must do everything it can to prevent these incidents from happening ever again in the future, and it can start doing that by ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment.”

PAQUIZ: “Pick up your garbage Canada, and show us the decency that we so rightfully deserve as a nation. My motherland is not a garbage bin of Canada.”

Hernandez added.

The protesters stressed that allowing toxic waste shipments to be disposed in Philippine territory will set a wrong precedent and encourage other countries to ship to us their toxic waste.

Hernandez, Paquiz and their supporters expressed fears that the Philippines is now being primed to become the world’s toxic waste dumping capital under the guise that “green jobs” will be generated by the recycling business.

“Illegal toxic-waste trade is an international crime. It is no different from dealing in illegal drugs, endangered species, and other forms of trade that the international community has deemed noxious,” explained Richard Gutierrez, executive director of BAN Toxics.

“Why our government is even contemplating on accepting the illegal waste when we have international law behind us is exasperating,” Gutierrez added.

The importation violates a number of local laws such as the DENR Administrative Order 28 (Interim Guidelines for the Importation of Recyclable Materials Containing Hazardous Substances) and Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, he added.

It also violates the Basel Convention, which prohibits illegal toxic waste trade and mandates such trade to be considered a criminal act. The convention also requires the exporting country, in this case Canada, to take back the illegally seized shipment and to pay the costs for the return.

“Pick up your garbage Canada, and show us the decency that we so rightfully deserve as a nation. My motherland is not a garbage bin of Canada,” Paquiz said.

In an effort to gain public attention on the issue, the coalition filed an online petition on change.org that drew 23,600 signatories, more than half of whom were Canadians.

The group is encouraging more people to sign the online petition to appeal and urge the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines to facilitate the pick up the garbage and take it back to Ottawa.

Joining Ang Nars, BAN Toxics, Greenpeace Southeast Asia and Ecowaste Coalition are the Mother Earth Foundation, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Green Convergence and a host of other organizations.

Aquino told: Focus on economy, not politics

S

en. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Thursday said the Aquino administration should focus on poverty alleviation programs and not on term extension and Charter change.

Ejercito, chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, made the statement in reaction to the results of the latest Pulse Asia survey.

“Economic ills and poverty are the country’s real sources of problems. Instead of being preoccupied with politics such as Charter change and President Aquino’s term extension, the government should give its attention to poverty alleviation programs and efforts on improving the living conditions of our people,” Ejercito said.

Ejercito added that the results of the Pulse Asia survey “conveyed the public’s clear message to President Aquino and his administration.”

“The results of the Pulse Asia survey

reflected the sentiments of President Aquino’s bosses—to control inflation, increase wages, generate new jobs, reduce corruption, quickly resolve the crime and ease the impoverished lives of the people. “It also indicated how our people perceived the government’s gloating of ‘economic development and inclusive growth’ and if it has truly provided comfort in their lives,” the senator said.

He added that the Pulse Asia survey revealed that the public is against the term extension of President Aquino and constitutional amendments.

“Not until we create a businessfriendly climate for foreign and local investors to come in will miracles happen to our economy. Our government also really needs to generate jobs and invest heavily on public infrastructure such as railways, ports, and airports to strengthen our economy,” Ejercito said.

Recto Mercene

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Friday, October 10, 2014 A3

Ombudsman creates panel to hear charges vs Purisima

O

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

MBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio-Morales on Thursday ordered the creation of a special panel to conduct preliminary investigation and administrative adjudication of the two separate complaints filed against officials of the National Police, led by Director General Alan Purisima, for entering into an allegedly anomalous courierservice contract with a company offering messengerial service in 2011.

Morales said that complaint f i le d b y the FactFinding Investigation Bureau of the Office of the Deput y Ompurisima budsman for the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices (FFIB-Moleo) charges Purisima with gross negligence-gross neglect of duty.

She said charges of Grave Misconduct and Serious Dishonesty were hurled against Director Gil Meneses, former chief of the Civil

Security Group (CSG), along with former officials of the Firearms Explosive Office (FEO), namely Chief Supt. Raul Petrasanta, Chief Supt.

Napoleon Estilles, Sr. Supt. Allan Parreno, Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto, Sr. Supt. Melchor Reyes, Supt.

Lenbell Fabia, Chief Insp. Sonia Calixto, Chief Insp. Nelson Bautista, Chief Insp. Ricardo Zapata and Sr. Insp. Ford Tuazon.

In addition, the Ombudsman said that Meneses, Petrasanta, Parreno, Acierto, Reyes, Fabia, Calixto, Bautista, Tuazon, Zapata, Estilles and Werfast Documentary Agency (Werfast) representatives Mario Juan, Salud Bautista, Enrique Valerio, Ireno Bacolod, Lorna Perena, Juliana Pasia and Marilyn Chua face a separate criminal charge of violation

of Section 3(e) of the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The fact-finding investigation of the case stemmed from an anonymous complaint alleging that Purisima and other National Police officials siphoned funds from the mandatory delivery fees paid by gun owners in securing their gun licenses, by entering into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Werfast for courier services in the delivery of firearms license cards.

The MOA dated May 25, 2011 was a result of “Oplan Katok” aimed at creating a more effective system of monitoring legitimate gun owners, the Ombudsman said.

The agency said documents indicate that the CSG, through Meneses, approved the accreditation of Werefast before the company had undergone any accreditation from the Firearms and Explosives Office Accreditation Committee.

Despite this, on February 12, 2013, Purisima approved the memorandum issued by Meneses recommending the implementation of the delivery of approved firearms license cards to the accredited courier service provider. It was only on April 1, 2013 that the FEO through Petrasanta, Parreno, Acierto, Reyes, Fabia, Calixto, Bautista, Tuazon and Zapata issued a resolution accrediting Werfast.

Fact-finding investigation also disclosed that Werfast was incorporated after the execution of the MOA, with a capitalization of only P65,000 and despite having failed to meet the requirements for accreditation such as the submission of a clearance from the National Police Directorate for Intelligence.

Records from the Bureau of In-

ternal Revenue also revealed that Werfast did not pay any taxes from 2011 to 2013.

Records of the Department of Science and Technology’s Postal Regulation Committee show that Werfast is not accredited to engage in courier services in the country. Moreover, there were no records to show that Werfast established an online facility for applications for renewal of firearms license.

The complaint added that owing to lack of track record and logistical capability, Werfast engaged the services of LBC, wherein Werfast “collected P190 for deliveries within Metro Manila and P290 [for those] outside of Metro Manila,” when “other courier services providers charge only P90.00 within Metro Manila.”

Based on FEO records, 90,455 firearms license cards were issued for delivery from March 2013 to March 2014.

Meanwhile, the five-lawyer special panel shall also hear the related complaint-affidavit separately filed by private citizen Glenn Gerard Ricafranca against Purisima, Estilles and Werfast officials for Plunder, violation of Section 3(e) and (j) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and violation of the Government Procurement Reform Act. Ricafranca also administratively charges Purisima and Estilles with Grave Abuse of Authority and violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. The FFIB-Moleo complaint also asked for the preventive suspension of the police officials pending administrative proceedings, which matter shall be resolved by the special panel.

DOH enhances eye care in govt hospitals

T

HE Department of Health (DOH) on Friday reaffirmed its commitment to enhance the capacity of government hospitals in treating eye problems by modernizing health facilities with the latest equipment.

Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona made the assurance following the inauguration of the the Eye Center of the Quirino Memorial Medical Center as the DOH has joined again the global community in observing World Sight Day, a yearly day of awareness to focus global attention on blindness, visual impairment and rehabilitation of the visually impaired.

“As part of our mandate and commitment to ensure that every Filipino receives affordable and quality health care, we are inaugurating the Eye Center of the Quirino Memorial Medical Center,” Ona said.

QMMC is a DOH tertiary referral hospital that will provide comprehensive eye-care services as part of the integrated service delivery network of government health facilities serving Quezon City, Marikina, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) and nearby areas.

The DOH said that, in the Philippines, at least 303,136 are bilaterally blind, based on the 2014 National Statistics Office population estimate.

Of this number, 59.0 percent is due to cataract, 14.0 percent due to uncorrected refractive errors, 11 percent due to glaucoma and 11 percent is due to retinopathy and maculopathy.

World Sight Day is observed in many countries around the world and serves as a platform in promoting the Global Action Plan on the Prevention of Avoidable Blindness and Visual Impairment 2014-2019 and Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, the global effort to eliminate avoidable blindness launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.

This year’s theme, “Universal Eye Health,” with the global call to action “No More Avoidable Blindness,” underscores the challenge to sustain efforts in eliminating avoidable and preventable blindness from, for example, cataract, diabetic retinopathy and uncorrected refractive errors.

This year’s observance of World Sight Day is meaningful as the country marks the progress made in the implementation of the new WHO Global Action Plan on the prevention of avoidable blindness and visual impairment 2014 to 2019. The plan underscores the commitment of governments to collect better evidence on the magnitude and prevalence of blindness, train more eye care professionals, provide comprehensive eye care services and integrate them into existing health provision/ systems, and identify and eliminate social and economic obstacles, particularly for the poor and the marginalized.

Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Economy

A4 Friday, October 10, 2014 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

briefs bill places indigents, orphaned, pwds under philhealth coverage A measure mandating the government to include all indigent, abandoned, orphaned and persons with disabilities (PWDs) under Philippine Health Insurance Corp.

(PhilHealth) coverage has been filed at the House of Representatives.

House Bill 5012, filed by Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Angelina Tan of Quezon, seeks to help the underprivileged and neglected sector.

The bill defines indigent as a person who has no visible means of income or whose income is insufficient for the subsistence of his family.

An orphan is described in the bill as a person who has been deprived of medical help after the death of his or her parents or guardians.

Likewise, the bill also covers the PWDs who were abandoned or have no known family willing and capable to take care of them.

In filing the bill, Tan said the state should protect and promote the right to health of disabled persons by adopting an integrated and comprehensive approach to their development, which shall make essential health service to them at affordable cost.

“The bill will enable all persons with disability to feel more secure because of the medical and health services they will get when need arises,” she said.

Tan said Republic Act 7277, or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, provides for the rehabilitation, selfdevelopment and self-reliance of disabled persons and their integration to the mainstream of society.

Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

albay transforms mayon challenges into gains for evacuees Effective disaster-risk reduction management has eased the pains of the impending Mayon eruption threats and enabled Albay to achieve significant gains, particularly for the welfare of some 55,000 residents that the provincial government has evacuated nearly a month ago from the volcano’s danger zones.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said results of the recent 24th assessment meetings of Team Albay’s cluster groups have shown indicators that health, education and security have actually improved than when the evacuees were in the danger zones.

All 83 schools affected by the emergency have resumed classes within 10 days, a record in Philippine disaster history, and with 90-percent attendance, higher than the schools outside the camps.

Peace and order was also better, with not a single crime committed since evacuation D-Day on September 15, based on reports compiled by the Philippine National Police (PNP) Albay Provincial Office from seven local government units hosting 45 evacuation centers.

In health, Salceda said the outcomes in Albay’s evacuation episodes invariably show that evacuees have lower morbidity than when they were in the danger zones. Both morbidity and mortality (nondisaster-related) rates among the evacuees were even lower than the general population outside the camps.

Currently, he said, morbidity is controlled at 1.1 percent, which is far better than the comparable rate outside or even the country’s entire population. Mortality, which averages 0.8 percent should have resulted in 36 deaths per month, but instead there were only four reported cases from natural or nondisaster causes.

The evacuees numbering more than 12,000 families are now tucked safely in 45 evacuation centers managed by Team Albay, the veteran and multiawarded composite group of civilian health and social workers, and police and military officers who saw action in at least 11 major calamities around the country in the past four years. PNA

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Meralco customers to pay extra 7.5 centavos per kWh for ILP

C

By Lenie Lectura

ustomers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) may have to pay an additional 7.5 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in monthly generation charge so the utility firm can compensate Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants for the power-generation capacity that they are willing to deload.

Meralco needs to compensate its ILP participants for the expenses, particularly fuel, they will incur when they operate their own generator sets instead of sourcing power from the grid.

The utility firm estimates a P200million payment for every 300 megawatts (MW) of accumulated committed interruptible load (CIL) capacity from the ILP participants. Meralco, in turn, would have to pass this on to its customers.

“It’s a 7.5 centavos/kWh rate impact on the gen charge per 300 MW deloaded for five hours a day on all weekdays for one month. Thus, if only 200 MW is deloaded, then the rate impact would be around 5 centavos/kWh,” said Meralco Head for

Utility Economics Lawrence Fernandez on Thursday.

Meralco has signed up a total of 143 MW of CIL capacity from various ILP participants. The utility firm continues to approach customers to invite additional participants. The growing number of CIL capacity would help the government address the power shortage anticipated in the summer months of next year.

With the ILP, power supply from the grid that will not be consumed by participating customers will be available for use by other customers within the franchise area. Through this, the aggregate demand for power from the system will be reduced to a more manageable level, helping ensure the availability of supply dur-

ing the season.

ILP remains the viable solution to help solve the power-supply deficiency anticipated in the summer months of next year after the Senate, during a technical working group (TWG) meeting on Thursday, told Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla that Congress is not keen on authorizing President Aquino the special powers he seeks.

During the meeting, Senate Committee on Energy Chairman Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said it was the sentiment of most lawmakers that the government should distance itself from the power-generating sector, adding this is best left to the private sector to handle.

The President, if granted special powers, can invoke Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira).

Epira prohibits the government from putting up power plants.

However, Section 71 of the said law states that the President, upon determination of an imminent shortage of supply of electricity, may ask for Congress for authority, through a joint resolution, to establish additional generating capacity under such terms and conditions.

When sought for comment, Petilla said his office will continue to work on the ILP by soliciting more participants. The Department of Energy (DOE) has so far gathered a firm commitment for a total of

101 MW of ILP. An additional 171 MW may be added until February, he said.

“We will continue what we are doing with or without special powers.

We are actually working on ILP and IPPs [independent power producers] that do not have contracts. We are working on all of these,” he said.

The agency was originally looking for 700 MW in additional powergenerating capacity, of which 100 MW is meant to cover the decreased supply. Taking into account a “mild El Niño” scenario, the additional projected capacity requirement for Luzon will be adjusted to 800 MW and as much as 1,200 MW in “extreme El Niño” case.

However, since the 150-MW Calaca coal-fired power plant expansion project will fail to meet its commercial launch in March next year, the anticipated shortage will increase to 900 MW. According to Petilla, the 150-MW Calaca power plant is the biggest power plant, in terms of capacity, which is supposed to come online by summer of 2015.

The DOE will also compensate the ILP participants that will sign up with the agency. The government will reimburse them of their fuel expenses and extend reasonable recovery. Other terms and conditions for the optimal operation and pricing of the ILP are being studied.

Foodsphere lauds CA verdict on ‘Pista’ ham case Study shows P21B untapped value of unused items in PHL

By Roderick L. Abad

F F

oOdspshere Inc. welcomes the Court of Appeals (CA) decision absolving the company of trademark infringement in the use of “Pista” brand for its ham, stemming from a case filed by Purefoods in 2010.

In its recent decision, the CA said: “We thus affirm the ruling of the Director General of IPOPHIL [Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines] on the absence of trademark infringement in this case.”

“If at all, respondent Foodsphere Inc. is merely exercising, in good faith, its right to use its duly registered trademark Pista in the lawful pursuit of its business,” the CA said.

“The decision is not only a victory for Foodsphere, but also for the Filipino consumers who look forward to buying Pista ham during the holidays,” Foodsphere said in a news statement. Purefoods, the company that dominates the country’s ham industry, filed a case in 2010 with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) against Foodsphere for alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition, claiming that the Pista trademark was confusingly similar to the “Purefoods Fiesta Ham” trademark.

The IPO director general, however, issued a decision in September 2013, stating that Pista does not infringe Purefoods Fiesta Ham trademark.

Meanwhile, the CA also recently affirmed the IPO ruling that the Pista Christmas Ham packaging amounted to unfair competition.

Foodsphere said while the CA decision on unfair competition case was not yet final and executory, it was already outdated because it was confined to the old and phased-out packaging materials of Pista.

“The CA decision finding the existence of unfair competition is not yet final and executory,” Foodsphere said. “However, it is already moot and academic, as we have adopted new packaging materials for our Pista ham, which has emerged as one of the best, most distinctive and recognizable ham products in the country.”

Foodsphere said it is ready to continuously provide the Filipino consumers with high-quality and affordable Pista ham and supply the market with wider options, as the holiday season nears.

At the same time, the company said it is ready to defend its right to serve the market with the best products against any unfair competition and legal maneuverings.

“The recent Court of Appeals decision affirming Foodsphere’s right to use the Pista trademark is a victory for the Filipino consumers, who are given a wider option when it comes to highquality and affordable ham products,” Foodsphere said.

ILIPINOS were reminded by a local buy-and-sell online provider that a “hidden wealth” that they may not have known are kept within the confines of their homes.

OLX Philippines announced on Thursday the results of its new study showing an estimated P21 billion worth of previously used items still in “spic and span” shape that are just left to gather dust in Filipino households to date.

“This is actually a part of our ways to educate the market that there’s actually an untapped wealth in our households,” said RJ David, managing director of OLX Philippines.

“If only Filipinos can see the value of those items that are just cluttering their house, we will be able to convert those items to a value of P21 billion.”

Conducted by marketing research firm TNS, OLX commissioned the survey that asked respondents from 500 urban households of their unused items and their experience in buying and selling secondhand items online.

The study revealed that all the respondents have items that are not in use but still functional, including electronics, clothes and fashion accessories, vehicles and automotive merchandise, home appliances and collectibles.

Of the total untapped value of P21 billion of secondhand items that can be sold online, almost half actually came from electronics at around 48.74 percent, or P10.36 billion.

Old but functional computer laptops and accessories accounted for P3.8 billion; mobile phones, P3.5 billion; audio and video appliances, P1.96 billion; cameras, video cameras and accessories, P1 billion; and video-game consoles, P109.3 million.

Then, almost a fifth, or 21.24 percent came from automotive items valued at P4.5 billion, including motorcycles (P2.6 billion), as well as cars and accessories (P1.9 billion). Fashion items partook a share of 14.29 percent with an aggregate value of P3.04 billion coming from clothing (P1.5 billion), jewelry and watches (P708.95 million), shoes (P552.4 million) and bags (P286.87 million).

Home appliances partook 9.24 percent at P1.96 billion, with kitchen appliances (P1.08 billion), household items (P846.8 million), furniture (P32.16 million) and household accessories (P4.88 million). Last, collectibles, such as babies and children products (P363.7 million), bicycles (P335.7 million), sporting goods (P260.2 million), books and magazines (P153.9 million), musical instruments (P139.9 million), CD/VCD/DVD (P65.8 million), luggage (P54.9 million) and artworks (P4.5 million)—all totaled to P1.38 billion or 6.48 percent.

“As of now, when we look at the total value of the secondhand items being sold as of this moment at OLX, it’s around P9 billion. That’s the total value already there. So we believe we still have P21 billion that we can actually tap so that they can sell their items through OLX Philippines,” the managing director stressed.

The survey, which is part of OLX’s “Yesss, Yaman!” campaign, likewise, showed that many Filipinos are interested in selling their unused stuff over the Internet.

“Those interviewed during the study don’t necessarily mean they are already in OLX. So these are people who are potentially going to be selling those items in OLX. And they shared also their willingness in engaging our selling online, specifically on a buy-and-sell platform,” said Arianne David, head of operations of OLX. Among the participants surveyed, around 41 percent said they are comfortable trading their “preloved items,” while 56 percent of those who plan of selling unused items said they are open to do so online.

“So selling secondhand items is a smart way for Filipinos to upgrade their lives. Sellers can earn extra cash from stuff they don’t need while buyers get a fair deal,” she said.

With the results of the study that showed a staggering value of secondhand goods, OLX also introduced the Yaman Checklist, together with the Yaman Calculator, seen on its web site to assist Filipinos identify which of their preloved items are in good condition, list them down, and see the total possible earnings that they could get from selling them.

“This is our way to encourage Filipinos to start looking at the values available at their households,” RJ David said.

CAB: Manila, Ethiopia sign air-service pact

ARCILLA: “Airservices regulators from both sides concluded their twoday negotiations for commercial flight entitlements on October 8 in Manila, Civil Aeronautics Board.”

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

T

he Philippines and Ethiopia on late Wednesday struck an air-services agreement (ASA) that allows the mutual exchange of air traffic rights between the two nations.

Air-services regulators from both sides concluded their twoday negotiations for commercial flight entitlements on October 8 in Manila, Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Executive Director Carmelo L. Arcilla said.

“This is landmark event because there was no ASA between the two countries prior to this.

The agreement allows for seven f lights per week bet ween Manila and Ethiopia and unlimited f lights between Ethiopia, and other airports in the Philippines, except Manila,” he said in a text message.

The agreement also allows intermediate stops in Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, India and the Middle East.

Arcilla said the negotiations were initiated by Ethiopia, in response to its flag carrier's aggressive expansion in Asia.

Ethiopian Airlines now operates to Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul.

“Although the current traff ic b et we e n t he Ph i l ip pi nes and Ethiopia is small, the ASA can open up new connectivities bet ween the Phi lippines and A f r ica, inc lud ing the Midd le East, given Ethiopia's location in North East Africa and its being an aviation hub in that region, that serves as a transit point for passengers from other African countries and the Middle East,” the regulator said.

He added: “The agreement therefore offers opportunities for the enhancement of our air connectivity and the development of our aviation network, especially that Africa is an emerging market and growth area.”

Next week the Philippine air panel will meet with its Cantonese counterparts to modernize their air-services agreement.

The country’s air-services regulator is pursuing the meeting with Hong Kong on October 14 and 15, as demand for flights to the Chinese territory is high.

Aside from initializing air operations across countries, the agency also aims to improve the situation of passenger traffic by increasing seat entitlements.

As part of its drive to expand air traffic rights, the regulator would pursue air-services negotiations other countries within the next few months.

T he cou nt r y ’s a ir-ser v ices regulator has so far conducted negotiations with eight nations, including Ethiopia, yielding additional flights that would facilitate richer trade and tourism. It bagged additional entitlements from South Africa, Macau, Canada, Myanmar, New Zealand, Singapore and France.

The government aims to generate $4.6 billion in tourism revenues by the end of the Aquino administration. It also aims to attract 6 million tourists and create 3 million jobs by 2016.

This would allow the sector to contribute 6.35 percent to gross domestic product.

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Economy BusinessMirror

AgriLink holds 21st expo, primes PHL for intense Asean competition

By Marvyn N. Benaning Correspondent

T

his year’s AgriLink comes at a time when the Philippines is at a crossroads as the entire Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) prime up for economic integration next year.

Mounted by the Foundation for Resource Linkage and Development (FTLD) every October, the exposition brings hundreds of Philippine trade organizations, government agencies and foreign exhibitors together to showcase their products and exchange notes.

Since its inception in 1994, AgriLink is now the country’s largest annual international agribusiness event with companies from France, China, South Korea, US, Germany, Thailand, the Netherlands and other Asian countries participating.

This year, AgriLink will run from October 9 to 11 at the World Trade Center (WTC) in Pasay City and thousands of entrepreneurs and professionals in animal breeding, machinery and equipment, animal health and nutrition, aquaculture, grains, organic farming, horticulture, among others, expected to participate.

AgriLink for this year has the theme “Agribusiness Clusters: Key to Competitiveness with Asean.”

Organizers said the theme is appropriate since the Philippine farming and fisheries are now trying to improve on their production inputs and systems, postharvest, value adding food processing and retailing, all of which must be upgraded if the country wants to take advantage of the Asean economic integration in 2015.

Covered by the entire chain are the common service facilities, such as communal irrigators, tractors pools, post-harvest facilities for rice, corn and vegetables, feed mills, abattoirs, dressing plants, cutting floors, cold storage and others.

“These service facilities speed up the entire food production, reduce post-harvest losses and stabilize the marketing process, which enables the entire farmto-fork chain to run more efficiently,” AgriLink said.

Post-harvest facilities, for instance, assure the efficient, consistent and safe delivery of crops from the farm to the dining table.

Common service facilities, which provide economics of scale, are critical to the operations of predominantly small farms and agribusinesses that are sorely lagging in mechanization and value adding.

For 2014, AgriLink will be divided into the exhibition component and hosted activities like focused crop sector meetings with the Department of Agricutlure (DA), seminars and workshops, particularly on fisheries, since the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) plays a key role in this year’s exposition.

Annually, more than 30 agribusiness associations and institutions participate as co-organizers of Agrilink.

FoodLink 2014, now on its 15th year, will showcase food products, processing and packaging industries in which leading international equipment suppliers showcase their knowledge and technology for consideration by the local food industry. Products on exhibition include packaging equipment, processing technologies, refrigeration equipment and various foodstuff, many of which are in demand by the food-processing industry.

Since 2000 FoodLink has provided a broad platform for international food and equipment suppliers to promote their products and services and to penetrate the lucrative Philippine food industry. AquaLink 2014, now on its 10th year, is also annual exhibition for fisheries sector. The first Aqualink was the name given to the National Fisheries Convention and Exhibition in 2004.

It focused on DA-BFAR's four priority products milkfish, tilapia, shrimps and seaweeds.

Since then, Aqualink has continuously updated the industry on new products and technologies.

For this year, organizers said they chose George Canapi, President of the Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers and Distribution Association, Inc. and chairman of the National Agricultural and Fishery Council’s Agriculture and Fisheries Mechanization Committee as the overall chairman of the event.

Friday, October 10, 2014 A5

To address projected electricity shortage in summer of 2015

House set to grant emergency power to Aquino on October 29

T

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

hechairmanoftheHouseCommittee on Energy on Thursday said that the lower chamber will pass the joint resolution, which will grant President Aquino emergency power to solve the looming power shortage in the summer of next year, on October 29.

Liberal Party Rep. Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro, also the co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Power Commission, however, admitted that the lower chamber is still undecided on how best to solve the 800-megawatt (MW) supply deficit.

Umali said they are still considering other options such as the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), purchase of generators sets at P9 billion and rental of generating sets at P6 billion.

“The energy committee will submit the report to the plenary on October 27 and it is expected to be approved on October 29 in the third reading before the Congress All Saints’ Day

break,” he said.

The Congress will take a two-week break from November 1 to 16.

The lawmaker said there are already 449 MW committed to ILP that can be utilized in summer next year, when power supply is seen to be at its lowest.

Umali said that of the 449 MW, 204 MW will come from Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and the 245 MW will be sourced from the Retail Electricity Suppliers Association (RESA), an umbrella organization of electricity retailers.

The Department of Energy has warned that the supply deficit for

Luzon could reach up to 800 MW next year due to the onset of a mild El Niño.

Based on established protocols, ILP is implemented during a red-alert status (minimal power reserve) upon the notice of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and the distributing utilities informing ILP participants to deload from the grid.

The ILP is a voluntary program where businesses, such as malls and factories that have their own generators, can be disconnected from the power grid in times of short supply and can sell any excess power they generate to distributors.

Last month President Aquino had formally asked Congress to grant him an emergency power that will allow him to contract additional power capacity to avert the looming power crisis in summer next year.

The President cited Section 71 of t he Electr ic Power Industr y Refor m Act, which states that, “Upon determination by the President of the Philippines of an imminent shortage of the supply of electricity, Congress may authorize, through a joint resolution, the establishment of additional generating capacity.”

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Friday, October 10, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial

Do not say it a third time

T

HERE’S an old joke that goes: “If a man calls you a horse, ignore his comment. If a second man calls you a horse, think about what he said. If a third man calls you a horse, go buy a saddle.”

We were reminded of this joke after a Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board official suggested a way to solve traffic on Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare, Epifanio de los Santos Avenue: Ban up to 80 percent of all private vehicles during peak hours.

Then the Department of Transportation and Communications casually said that, if the continuing maintenance problems of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 system cannot be resolved, then, perhaps, it should be shut down, as it was recently, for one day.

Would it be right for us to worry that the looming power shortage might be averted with the government simply shutting down all electricity-generating facilities or increasing candle production? There is overcrowding at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), and new runways aren’t going to be available in the foreseeable future. Would the Naia go the way of the old Nayong Pilipino? Would it be better if its operations were moved to Pampanga province?

In the world outside the government, problems are meant to be solved, not dismissed or attacked with short-term measures. Successful people in every field, from business to the arts, are compelled to plan ahead, gather resources and implement measures based on feasibility, practicality and cost-effectiveness.

Problems can take a long time to grow, and most bad situations must be addressed before they actually become “problems”.

Metro Manila’s poor traffic infrastructure did not happen overnight. Our international airport has been in chaos for years. The flooding problem in the metropolis goes back decades. Yet, it is only when a bad situation becomes unbearable that governments begin to get serious about it.

Gov. Joey Salceda of Albay province is a prime example of how problem-solving for the public good should be done. He has been working to achieve a “zero casualty” rate during natural disasters since he took office in 2007. Now his efforts are yielding impressive results, first with the recent typhoon and now with the preparations for a possible Mount Mayon eruption.

We doubt if the governor has ever thought the volcano problem could be quickly solved with buying a gigantic wine cork or by digitally erasing Mayon from postcards featuring Legazpi City, the provincial capital.

Long-term planning and a serious commitment to achieve positive results, combined with progressive actions, will yield the desired outcome. That is the only solution to our problems.

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Publisher Associate Editors

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Jun B. Vallecera Armin A. Amio

News Editor City & Assignments Editor Special Projects Editor

Dionisio L. Pelayo Vittorio V. Vitug Max V. de Leon

Online Editor

Ruben M. Cruz Jr.

Research Bureau Head Creative Director Chief Photographer Editorial Consultant Chairman of the Board & Ombudsman President VP-Finance VP-Corporate Affairs VP Advertising Sales Advertising Sales Manager Circulation Manager

Dennis D. Estopace Eduardo A. Davad Nonilon G. Reyes

Judge Pedro T. Santiago (Ret.) Benjamin V. Ramos Adebelo D. Gasmin Frederick M. Alegre Marvin Nisperos Estigoy Aldwin Maralit Tolosa Rolando M. Manangan

Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 2nd Floor, Dominga Building (Annex), 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

Tel. Nos. (Editorial) 817-9467; 813-0725. Fax line: 813-7025.

(Advertising Sales) 893-2019; 817-1351, 817-2807.

(Circulation) 893-1662; 814-0134 to 36. E-mail: news@businessmirror.com.ph.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

REGIONAL OFFICES

n DYQC - 106dot7 HOME RADIO CEBU STATION MANAGER: JULIUS A. MANAHAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homecebu@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Ground Floor, Fortune Life Building, Jones Avenue, Cebu City CONTACT NOs.: (032) 253-2973/ 234-4252/ 416-1067/ 0922-811-3994 n DWQT - 89dot3 HOME RADIO DAGUPAN STATION MANAGER: RAMIR C. DE GUZMAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeradiodagupan@ yahoo.com ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Orchids Hotel Building, Rizal Street, Dagupan City

James Jimenez

spox

R

ECENTLY, we have seen an escalation of efforts to discredit the automated election system (AES) the the Commission on Elections (Comelec) used in the 2010 and 2013 elections.

What most of the public aren’t told, however, is that the allegations being bandied about had actually been brought up before the Supreme Court and that it ruled, in no uncertain terms, that the fears were unfounded.

Some ask: “How do we know the ballots are counted correctly if we don’t see them being counted at all?” This argument is disingenuous.

Accuracy in counting is determined not by watching ballots being counted, but by checking if the votes received by any candidate, as recorded in the election returns, match the number of votes he or she received, as gleaned from each individual ballot. This is as true with a manual count as it is with an automated one. The only difference between the two, in fact, is in how trustworthy the matching process can be. And that trustworthiness ultimately hinges on how well the ballots can be preserved.

In both manual and automated systems, the ballots left in the box are vulnerable to tampering. Under the manual system, therefore, most election-rigging strategies called for the doctoring of the election returns to show “fixed” results.

The ballots are then destroyed. With the ballots gone, the tampered election returns remain the only record of how the people voted.

In the AES, on the other hand—and this is often left unmentioned—the counting machines snap a picture of both sides of the ballot as it is being fed into the machine. The machine actually preserves the appearance of the ballot mere moments after it leaves the

Inclusive infrastructure

Romeo M. del Castillo

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror

n DXQR - 93dot5 HOME RADIO CAGAYAN DE ORO STATION MANAGER: JENNIFER B. YTING E-MAIL ADDRESS: homecdo@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Archbishop Hayes corner Velez Street, Cagayan de Oro City CONTACT NOs.: (088) 227-2104/ 857-9350/ 0922-811-3997

Accuracy

CONTACT NOs.: (075) 522-8209/ 515-4663/ 0922-811-4001 n DXQM – 98dot7 HOME RADIO DAVAO STATION MANAGER: RYAN C. RODRIGUEZ E-MAIL ADDRESS: home98dot7@gmail.com ADDRESS: 4D 3rd Floor, ATU Plaza, Duterte Street, Davao City CONTACT NOs.: (082) 222-2337/ 221-7537/ 0922-811-3996 n DXQS - 98dot3 HOME RADIO GENERAL SANTOS STATION MANAGER: AILYM C. MATANGUIHAN E-MAIL ADDRESS: homegensan@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Ground Floor, Dimalanta Building, Pioneer Avenue, General Santos City CONTACT NOs.: (083) 301-2769/ 553-6137/ 0922-811-3998 n DYQN - 89dot5 HOME RADIO ILOILO STATION MANAGER: MARIPAZ U. SONG E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeiloilo@yahoo.com ADDRESS: 3rd Floor, Eternal Plans Building,

Ortiz Street, Iloilo City CONTACT NOs.: (033) 337-2698/ 508-8102/ 0922-811-3995 n DWQA - 92dot3 HOME RADIO LEGAZPI STATION MANAGER: CLETO PIO D. ABOGADO E-MAIL ADDRESS: homeradiolegazpi@ yahoo.com ADDRESS: 4th Floor, Fortune Building, Rizal St., Brgy. Pigcale, Legazpi City CONTACT NOs.: (052) 480-4858/ 820-6880/ 0922-811-3992 n DWQJ - 95dot1 HOME RADIO NAGA STATION MANAGER: JUSTO MANUEL P. VILLANTE JR. EMAIL ADDRESS: homenaga@yahoo.com ADDRESS: Eternal Garden Compound, Balatas Road, Naga City CONTACT NOs.: (054) 473-3818/ 811-2951/ 0922-811-3993

Printed by BROWN MADONNA Press, Inc.–San Valley Drive KM-15, South Superhighway, Parañaque, Metro Manila

Karima Palafox

Women Stepping UP “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.”—Fred Kent, Project for Public Spaces

T

HE 21st century is seeking to realign the economic role of women in a rapidly changing world. Infrastructure not only creates economic growth through job opportunities, but also transforms the lives of people (either positively or negatively).

Empowering women means enabling them to make strategic life choices, which they were once denied. As more women are given access to education and economic power, they have become an important indicator on whether a city is doing well or not in terms of economic wealth and performance.

The rising number of women joining the workforce is a great indicator for the Philippines, but they are now inclined to use public transportation more than ever. Given the hourlong traffic jams caused by road-infrastructure projects in Metro Manila, we are held back a couple of hours every day as we commute to and from work. Add this all up and it equates to hundreds of hours lost that could’ve been spent on quality time with families and on much-needed sleep.

More often than not, infrastructure projects around the world fail to recognize the importance and effect of gender-targeted and gender-sensitive infrastructure in the long run and only focus on approving projects that would increase the total length of roads constructed. In my experience as an urban

and environmental planner, strong implementation forged by a solid publicprivate partnership, stakeholder engagement, policy support, understanding and embracing new technologies, and strategic planning are the other crucial factors needed in order for an infrastructure project to succeed.

Just as important is the quality of the projects themselves. In the Urban Land Institute’s Infrastructure 2014: Shaping a Competitive City report, the top driver of real-estate investment in a city is high-impact and high-quality infrastructure projects. Consumer demand came in second and the availability of a skilled workforce came in third. What’s interesting in the report is the respondents’ (public servants, real-estate developers and investors,

voter’s hand. This image is then stored in a powerfully encrypted storage device, thus, preserving a pristine record of the voter’s intent at the moment he or she cast his or her vote.

Should the ballots ever be tampered with, post-election, this clean record can then be referred to, to determine what the voter actually recorded on his or her ballot at the time of election. With this point of comparison, the accuracy of the election returns can then be reliably gauged.

This has been the case with nearly all the recount cases brought before the Comelec under the AES. In the very few instances where a seeming discrepancy was found between the reported election results and a physical review of the ballots, however, the encrypted ballot images were not used at all. Whoever conducted the recount relied solely on an examination of the physical ballots.

Here’s why relying exclusively on a manual recount is bound to show “discrepancies.”

With the AES, overvotes are voided, i.e., if you vote for more candidates than you’re allowed to, such as voting for two candidates for mayor, the votes for that position are not counted at all.

So all a person has to do to manufacture an anomaly is to create an overvote by shading in one more oval than is allowed. A variance is then created

between the ballot and the machinegenerated election retur ns. T he machine saw a vote and counted it; the manual recounter sees an overvote and doesn’t count it.

The reverse is true. The AES adheres to the rule that only shaded ovals will be counted as votes. In a manual recount of ballots originally read by the AES, people have tended to count as votes even those marks—crosses, dots, checkmarks—that the machine would never consider as valid.

So it all boils down to what the machine saw when the ballot was first fed into it. And that’s where the encrypted images become key. At the point the images were snapped, the ballot is considered as being in the most trustworthy state it will ever be, as there has been no opportunity at all for anyone else to modify it without the voter’s knowledge and, presumably, consent.

If those images clash with the actual ballots, then you can reliably say that tampering has occurred. And, if the encrypted images tally with the reported result, then the accuracy of the count has been established.

And for two elections now, that’s what we’ve been seeing. So why keep trying to tear this system down?

and city leaders) belief that improved public-transport services (especially bus and rail) is a high infrastructure priority. Also high on the list are improved pedestrian infrastructure, more parks and open spaces, and improved bicycle infrastructure and services.

We have to check our national budget and expenses. How much of total spending in transport is for improving services for the preferred modes of transport (rail, bus, cycling and walking)? Compare that with the number of commuters in the Philippines. The National Statistical Coordination Board and lawyer Antonio “Tony” Oposa Jr. of the Share the Road movement estimate private car ownership to be only 1 percent to 2 percent.

for Ecobridges Ads was opened in the City of Manila at no cost to the city government or to taxpayers. Bridges like it help promote the safety, convenience and comfort of all pedestrians. Facilities include 24-hour security guards, security cameras, energy-efficient lights and landscaping. They are to be situated in streets with fast-moving vehicles and in streets that pose a high risk for flooding. They were designed with people in mind, people of different ages, gender and mobility requirements.

In a 15-year study conducted by the World Bank on Gender Infrastructure, results show that gender-sensitive infrastructure projects help women overcome some of their own barriers, reduce time constraints, connect them to new economic opportunities, and invest in strengthening their collective action and linkages to wider networks. However, to design and deliver infrastructure services effectively, governments, planners and service providers need to know their real clients. Men and women are more likely to use services that match their needs and preferences. We need to create a strategic, implementable and inclusive plan to address the sad state of our transport infrastructure.

Indicator species

IN many cities around the world, women are being used as an “indicator species” to determine whether a city has well-planned, well-designed sustainable spaces. For example, according to a Scientific American article, women are considered an indicator species for bike-friendly cities. “Studies across disciplines as disparate as criminology and child­rearing have shown that women are more averse to risk than men. In the cycling arena, that risk aversion translates into increased demand for safe bike infrastructure as a prerequisite for riding. Women also do most of the child care and household shopping, which means these bike routes need to be organized around practical urban destinations to make a difference,” the article states.

Gender-sensitive pedestrian infrastructure is one of our standards when planning compact developments and cities. Last month the first pedestrian bridge that Palafox Associates designed

James Jimenez is the spokesman of the Commission on Elections.

Karima Palafox is the managing partner of Palafox Associates and director of the Palafox Architecture Group and a founding trustee of Business and Professional Women (BPW) Makati. She is a registered urban planner in the Philippines and the United Kingdom.

This article reflects her opinion and is not the official stand of BPW. Women Stepping Up is a rotating column of members of BPW Makati that comes out twice a month.

For more information on BPW Makati, visit www.womensteppingup.org.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Friday, October 10, 2014

Labor standards, income A word in, edgewise, for the Binays inequality and Asean Butch del Castillo economic integration OMERTA

Dr. Leonardo A. Lanzona Jr.

EAGLE WATCH

O

NE of the key events affecting the Philippines today is the formation of the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. The goal of the AEC is regional economic integration, which envisages the following key characteristics: 1) a single market and production base; 2) a highly competitive economic region; 3) a region of equitable economic development; and 4) a region fully integrated into the global economy.

The impact of the AEC on the labor market is twofold: The first is through the change in economic structure that results from the unification of markets with the partner-countries; the second, from the expected demand for the harmonization of social standards with these countries. One particular issue is the establishment of professional qualifications that all countries are expected to enforce.

The promotion of best practices in labor policy, the formalization of contracts and migration restrictions are also enshrined as being among the standards. Although the other Asean members currently do not expect the Philippines to match every high labor standard, and while many agreements still need to be finalized, we are expected to conform to these international labor norms, despite their associated costs.

Nevertheless, various areas of cooperation can benefit the country and the labor market in several ways. For one, there will be trade intensification for certain goods, and, for another, there will be a freer flow of certain types of workers, especially professionals, across the different member-countries. It will be important to weigh the costs and benefits of these new arrangements, as these can favor only a few sectors of the economy.

In any case, even without the AEC, labor standards should be improved for two reasons. First, certain non-Asean members that intend to forge a free-trade agreement with us would often insist on integrating labor-market standards with their trade partners. As the country, as a whole, stands to benefit also from such arrangements, it is important to maintain country standards at international levels. Second, the workers whose rights are often ignored are also the poor and disadvantaged. As a result, even though they may be able to find work, it would be difficult for them to reach a higher income status.

One particular case of labor standards being ignored is seen in decent work hours. Data from official sources show that roughly 25 percent of the employed had recorded excessive work hours, equivalent to more than 48 hours per week. The following points are important: first, the women tend to put in more hours at work than the men; second, services have a greater proportion of excessive work hours, and this is found mostly in retail trade and other types of low-productivity work; third, the self-employed are more inclined to spend additional hours than other worker classes. These types of activities requiring excessive work hours can have a negative impact not only on the time allocated for their household activities, but also on their health.

While there is no issue about the need to meet the core labor standards, the main area of contention is the process by which these are going to be met. In an 1995 article linking labor standards, trade and labor-market conditions, Mita Aggarwal of the US International Trade Commission proposed that a distinction must be drawn between standards related to labor processes and structures, and standards related to labor out-

If the question of labor standards could hinder regional integration, it may be in the collective interests of countries to cooperate in setting these standards. With sufficient encouragement and increased financial support, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations can provide a multilateral forum that would serve to strengthen its role and authority in pursuing improved labor standards within the region. comes. This distinction would apply some definition of what constitutes a “minimum” standard to the determination of basic worker rights in terms of labor processes. Presumably, the point of differentiating labor processes from the outcomes is to make allowance for differences and changes over time in the level of economic development and related factors. What remains ambiguous, however, is the difficulty of deciding whether the identification and guarantee of labor processes lead to the improvement of labor outcomes or not.

One solution is to implement tax and subsidy measures to increase human capital and enhance training in the country. In effect, labor standards, instead of reflecting market adjustments, become the means for income distribution. Changing income distribution through policy is equivalent to a change in labor standards. With better standards, large firms and higher-income classes will have to give up part of their profits and resources to improve workers’ welfare. There is nothing peculiar to labor standards in this, and a nondistortionary lump-sum income (or wealth) redistribution policy is the first best policy to move income distribution (and the equilibrium labor standards) in the right direction. If the first-best policy is not feasible, then other policies (like commodity or factor taxes or subsidies, for example) could, in principle, be used to achieve better income distribution and labor standards, albeit at the cost of lower production.

Which taxes and what levels would be used to achieve the desired change in labor standards while minimizing production losses will vary across economies. If the question of labor standards could hinder regional integration, it may be in the collective interests of countries to cooperate in setting these standards. With sufficient encouragement and increased financial support, the Asean can provide a multilateral forum that would serve to strengthen its role and authority in pursuing improved labor standards within the region.

For us, the challenge is to reinforce the institutional reforms that the AEC is designed to achieve, that is to ensure that everyone benefits from the economic integration.

Leonardo A. Lanzona Jr., PhD, is the director of the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development of the Ateneo de Manila University and a senior fellow of Eagle Watch, the school’s macroeconomic research and forecasting unit.

I

F the critics and political enemies of Vice President and former Makati City Mayor Jejomar C. Binay and his family have incontrovertible evidence—or the “smoking gun,” so to speak—to support their ill-gotten-wealth charge against the leading presidential candidate for 2016, the public has only these questions to ask:

What’s preventing them from filing the corresponding charges with the Office of the Ombudsman? And why do they, instead, insist on ventilating such charges that consist mostly of innuendoes and fallacious conclusions through the ongoing hearings of a newly created “subcommittee” of the Senate Blue-Ribbon Committee?

My guess is—and, mind you, this is pure guesswork on my part—that they really don’t have the goods on Binay. Sure, the yarn unraveled by former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado—with all its deliciously nasty details—about the 350-hectare estate and mansions in Rosario municipality, Batangas province, sounds both plausible and sensational.

What I’m saying is that the ultimate test would be this: If the same tale were told in a court of law, will Mercado’s allegations not wilt under the glare of judicial examination? In short, is there enough evidence?

So far, a skeptical public is patiently waiting for the down-on-his-luck and popular gambler-politician to produce the kind of hard evidence that would stand up in court.

I can only guess that the people who would benefit most from the demolition of Binay’s public image—with all the resources at their command as the ruling political coalition—must have already employed the best lawyers that money can buy to help make the sensational charges stick.

I’m sure Mercado’s use of a helicopter for taking fly-by aerial photos is only a minuscule item in the kind of elaborate logistical support and perks he must be getting as their star witness in the subcommittee hearings. As the cynics would probably say, “Kado, and the three witch-hunting senators, know that there are no free lunches in New York, especially in Makati.”

His closest friends are saying that Mercado never had it so good since he was ditched by the Binays as their heir apparent to the mayorship of Makati.

Perhaps, it was his reputation as a bigtime sabungero that was his undoing, but nobody except Mercado himself can say for sure what really went wrong with an otherwise beautiful political partnership and friendship.

Hard to sustain

BUT whenever you talk of illegally acquired property, no evidence could be stronger than the paper trail or documented history of its ownership. To claim that the Binays are the de facto owners of such multibillion-peso properties, but have hidden such a fact by employing dummies, is definitely quite hard to sustain.

From the very start of the subcommittee hearings, which were purportedly being held in aid of legislation, the public must have been appalled by the way Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III mercilessly subjected incumbent Makati Mayor

Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. to an Inquisition-style interrogation.

After being so shabbily treated during the hearing, can we blame Junjun for vowing never again to allow himself to be savaged in that manner by these three senators, who didn’t act like the well-bred lawmakers that they have made themselves out to be?

Haven’t these fanatic supporters of the Aquino administration realized that, by acting the way they did, they only succeeded in inflicting damage on themselves? Already, their approval ratings are down.

During that hearing I expected Pimentel (who struck me years ago as a level-headed and decent fellow when he was still fighting for his Senate seat) to, at least, soften or tone down the third-degree treatment. But they all carried on like—forgive me—a famished flock of condors feasting on a carcass.

Television viewers can’t help but remember how starkly different these same senators treated Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima when they put him on the witness stand. The three gung-ho senators, amazingly, had so little to say or ask when Purisima took the stand.

The few questions they did ask were leading ones, obviously aimed at helping Purisima—a fair-haired boy of P-Noy—out of his predicament.

All told, these three seemed more eager to lawyer for Purisima than anything else. Poor Junjun Binay.

In this connection, I must say I admired the way Senators Grace Poe and Sergio Osmeña III framed their questions to ferret out inconsistencies in Purisima’s position. In a manner befitting their position as senators of the realm, Poe and Osmeña accorded Purisima the utmost courtesy and never once antagonized him.

But we digress.

Aerial photos

JOEY SALGADO, the Vice President’s spokesman, said the Binay camp learned about Mercado’s fly-by sortie to take aerial photos of the JCB pig-

A day in the court of a nation Tito Genova Valiente

annotations

F

REE television has afforded me a ringside view of some kind of a trial. The lawyers will not call it a trial. The senators behind the event say they’re doing it in aid of legislation. The idea is that a body or committee will invite people and, without indicting them at all, ask them questions. These people are being invited to shed light on something that is bothering the nation.

On one day, the irritant was the country’s highest-ranking policeman, Philippine National Police Director General Alan L. Purisima. The family name invites hermeneutics the purest of them all. Well, I can understand this quandary. These are not our names, which should tell us that we do not have a connection with the crests and escutcheons that exist somewhere in the Iberian peninsula. Unless you have Spanish blood that shows on your fair skin and aquiline nose, your name is the result of a random colonial ex-

ercise. A Spanish governor general, in a moment of inspiration, decided that we should drop our indigenous names. He was kind enough to provide a list from which names were either assigned to towns or imposed on families.

Irony of ironies! Quizzing the general was a senator named Grace.

More amusing elements would not go unnoticed. The senator was addressed every now and then as “Madam Chair”. Go figure the absurdity of it all when we decide to go formal.

Language, not the law, provided the ambient sound at the court.

Indeed, it is not so much how good you are with the law; it is how good you are with language. A stammer here and a stutter there compromise the position of the investigator. In the case of Sen. Grace Poe, she was cool, collected and confident. She was very good, both in English and Filipino. She was also not a bully.

Back to the court.

Is it true that you are building a house somewhere in Nueva Ecija?

This was a question posed by some reporters to Purisima; he answered in the negative. He was not building anything. He was being truthful.

The truth is, he has built it already.

Is this touché, or are we just a bit touched in the head?

Donations were revisited during the investigation. Purisima admitted that he did not put malice behind the donation, or something to that effect.

Days after the inquiry, newspapers showed photos of what some wags described as the Purisima house on the prairie. See how language plays out? The purest of the houses.

Photos of the house raised the biggest question of them all: Is this a mansion or not? As with all qualitative questions raised in this republic, it was not clearly settled.

This is the problem with our language: We are so used to exaggerations that, when the superlative gets in the way, we become superfluous.

Is there no way to settle the definition of a mansion? It looks like we do not have a clear definition of what constitutes a mansion and what makes a nipa hut.

This brings us to another inquiry, wherein a Senate committee was continuing to hear the question of overspending in Makati City.

The irritant this time was the chief architect who confessed that he did not know much about the

A7

gery and flower farm on the same day it was done. He said, “We would not be surprised if footage and photos of the property would be distributed to the media—and submitted to the blue-ribbon subcommittee.

Salgado said the joint statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, or SALN, of the Vice President and his doctor-wife Elenita, including the corresponding taxes paid by the couple—were all self-explanatory that needed no elaboration.

Binay even issued a statement that he was perfectly willing to undergo a lifestyle check. His camp says Binay put up the piggery business in 1994 as sole proprietor under the name of JCB Farms. It was duly registered with the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Rosario.

The farm was set up on a 9hectare property that he had leased.

Improvements on the business were duly reported in its annual audited financial statements and in duly filed tax declarations in Batangas.

Binay’s camp added that the leased property includes a flower farm, which became the source of blooms for the flower-shop business owned

by Elenita.

From 1994 to 2010, JCB farms earned a total of P44.4 million, for which it paid P15.8 million in taxes.

In 2010, after winning the vice presidency, Binay divested for a profit. “Had the Vice President’s political enemies bothered to check the records in Batangas, they could have saved a lot of time and money,” Salgado said.

But the question hangs: Does Mercado and the witch-hunters in the Senate have the goods on Binay?

Apparently not. Businessman Antonio Chiu has come forward that he was Binay’s dummy or front, as far as the farm was concerned. He said he would face the inquisitorial subcommittee to clarify certain misconceptions about the farm.

So, where’s the smoking gun?

E-mail: omerta_bcd@yahoo.com.

project of the firm, of which he is a chief. All throughout, the irritation was expected to come from Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. The senator proved to be the most patient of legislators on this side of the political universe.

Cayetano kept asking the architect if the proposed plan he submitted was also the same one followed by the Makati government. The architect kept declaring that he really did not know. I can imagine a teacher asking the student about a paper submitted and if the student knew something about it. If the student says no, then he is marked failed, as simple as that. But life is not as simple when legislators and a bit of legalese are involved.

And so, the questioning continued: Do you know the cost of the plan you submitted? The answer: I do not know. Believe me, that was the answer. An architect nowadays can submit a plan and tell the public that he does not know the cost?

That was my impression.

This went on and on, and the patience of Job on another level was reflected by Cayetano. The camera kept focusing on the young architect. In fairness—and this time, it is not fair—to the young architect, he seemed at a loss in denying any further knowledge about the plan he submitted, and whether it was pursued, altered or not followed at all.

All this time, plates of food were being passed around, but no one was eating. Our legislators were passing up the opportunity to eat.

Something was eating them and it had nothing to do with food.

After all, man does not live by bread alone. This is a statement that does not make sense, because a day in the court of this nation of ours does not make sense at all.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Friday, October 10, 2014

Easing of inflation in Sept to boost H2 growth

F

By David Cagahastian

inance Undersecretary Gil Beltran on Thursday said the slower inflation rate of 4.4 percent in September will allow the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to avoid another round of tightening of monetary policy, and will allow higher growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) for the second half.

“ T he economy successfully reversed inflationary expectations through a decisive reduction in food inflation in September. This favorable development will enable the BSP to avoid further tightening of monetary policy and will enable the attainment of a higher GDP growth rate in the second semester,” Beltran said.

The BSP had already hiked key interest rates by 50 basis points earlier this year and has raised the reserve requirements of banks to limit liquidity and temper inflation.

Inflation figures in September eased to 4.4 percent, from 4.9 per-

cent registered in July and August.

Of the 11 commodity groups from which the overall inflation is measured, six had a higher inflation level, while only three had a lower inflation level from figures registered the previous month.

However, the increases in most of the commodity groups were offset by the deceleration in the average increases in the prices of three heavier-weighted groups of food and nonalcoholic beverages, household utilities and transport, which had inflation rates of 7.4 percent, 2.2 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Beltran said the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) should make the delivery of products to the markets more efficient, while the government should come up with a long-term solution to port congestion.

“The DA and DTI should continue streamlining the delivery of products to the markets and should act more decisively if there are factors that constrain the process.

Meanwhile, the government should implement longer-term solutions to the port and transport congestion,” he said.

NPLs rose to 2.11% of banks’ portfolio

T

he banks’ asset holdings continued to expand in July but so did the incidence of soured or nonperforming loans (NPLs) aggregating P95.19 billion, or 2.11 percent of portfolio, and marginally higher than soured loans equal to 2.10 percent the previous June.

But viewed from a year earlier, the NPLs for the period represent a significant improvement from soured loans averag ing 2.68 percent, when the aggregate assets of Philippine banks stood at P3.762 trillion.

In July this year, the banks’ aggregate asset holdings already total P4.513 trillion.

In nominal terms, the banks’ soured-loans por tfolio stood marginally higher to P95.19 billion in July, from P94.80 billion in June, sharply lower than the year-ago soured-loans portfolio totaling P100.81 billion.

“Despite the observed uptrend in gross NPLs, the NPL ratio of universal and commercial banks remained stable,” the central bank said.

The NPL ratio of big banks in the country, computed with the NPL as a percentage of the total loan portfolio of the lenders, hit 2.11 percent of the P4.51 trillion in July.

“The ratio is practically the same as the 2.1 percent last June,” the central bank said.

A lower NPL ratio is favorable as this enable lenders to maintain a given loan quality that frees them from having to make large provisions for probable losses, which are bad news for shareholders.

“The BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] continues to assess the loan quality of universal and commercial banks under its supervisory goal of promoting continued adherence to high credit standards. Achievement of this goal is crucial to the BSP’s broader objective of fostering financial stability,” the central bank said.

The central bank also said the banks remain shielded from large asset write-downs as ample reserves for precisely that purpose have been set aside.

In particular, the industry’s loanloss reserves total P133.74 billion, equal to 140 percent of NPLs. “This indicates the industry’s conservative stance in setting buffers against credit risks,” the BSP said.

“NPL levels also remained low across economic sectors. This was seen in financial intermediation; real estate, renting and business activities; manufacturing; wholesale and retail trade; and electricity, gas and water supply; which together accounted for 71 percent of the industry’s total loan portfolio during the period,” the central bank said.

Bianca Cuaresma

www.businessmirror.com.ph

briefs

LOCAL SHARE PRICES GAIN, PSEi BACK TO 7,200 LEVEL Share prices gained on Thursday, with the main index returning to the 7,200-point level, as the Philippine market tracked the overnight increase in Wall Street after the United States Federal Reserve assured markets that it will not hasten the hike in its rates.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 16.21 points to close at 7,201.89 points, while most of the subindices were higher.

“Locals welcome subdued inflation results for September, reducing the need for the local central bank to tighten policies,”said Jason Escartin, investment analyst at F. Yap Securities Inc. Other subindices were mostly up, led by the All Shares index that gained 9.49 to 4,265.22 points. The Industrial index rose 19.53 to 11,551.33; the Holding Firms index was up 14.32 to 6,344.38; and the Mining and Oil index dropped 60.03 to 16,655.32.

Total volume of trade reached 9.71 billion shares worth P7.71 billion.

Gainers led losers 97 to 84, and 37 shares were unchanged. Foreign investors were net sellers at P501.55 million.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. was the day’s most traded and gained P16 to P3,044. Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. was down P0.05 to P86; Ayala Corp. dropped P1 to P710; Ayala Land Inc. rose P0.15 to P33.45; Manila Electric Co. was up P6.80; and Megaworld Corp. climbed P0.13 to P4.88. VG Cabuag

MGB: ORE-EXPORT BAN DIFFICULT TO IMPLEMENT

ANVIL AWARDS Organizers and partners of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines’s (PRSP) 50th Anvil Awards, including (from left) Cathy Salceda-Ileto, program moderator and PRSP board member; Cherie Mijares-Co, moderator; Lou de Guzman, director and auditor of PRSP; Charlie Agatep, honorary chairman of Anvil Awards Committee; Verniza Lopez, sales manager of Marriott Hotel Manila (MHM) ; Joy Florentino, director for convention sales of MHM; Harold Geronimo, head of PR and communications of Megaworld; Bruce Winton, general manager of MHM; Martin Paz, Resorts World Manila (RWM) vice president and chief integrated marketing officer; Owen Cammayo, assistant vice president and director for communications of RWM; Ferdie de Leon, director of events and booking center, MHM; Ramon Osorio, president of PRSP; Edwin Galvez, chairman of the 2014 Anvil Awards; Juris Soliman, consultant of SM Investment; and Mandy Navasero, board member of PRSP; lead the ceremonial partnership toast during the media launch at MHM. ROY DOMINGO

Global growth prospects still uneven–BSP

By Bianca Cuaresma

D

espit e i mprovements seen in advanced economies, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said globalgrowth prospects remain uneven, causing mixed effects on the country’s demand conditions.

In the central bank’s compilation of the latest minutes of the Monetary Board’s latest meeting on September 11, the seven-man policy-deciding

board looked into the external developments affecting the country’s own economic dynamics, and noted that the prospects of growth worldwide continues to be uneven.

The Monetary Board noted that the prospects for advanced economies remain generally favorable.

“The outlook for advanced economies is generally upbeat, mainly as output growth in the United States strengthens further while the recovery in the euro area remains

Ayala. . . continued from a1

“East Gallery Place is also a residence that builds on the Ayala Land Premier legacy of delivering products that build value over time.

We create residences of the highest quality and design that are valued today and in the generations to come,” Jugo said.

A total of 407 units are being sold in the development, with units ranging from 76 square meters to 648 sq m. It has a 1,400sq-m, five-bedroom penthouse units from the 48th to 50th floors that have their own lap pools and were sold for P200 million.

The company did not disclose the buyer of the unit.

On the average, the company is selling the units in East Gallery at P200,000 per sq m.

Classic units on the North Wing of the development are one-bedroom to four-bedroom units offering finishes such as European-grade kitchens, homogenous tiles, maximized natural light, and ventilation and wood flooring from sustainable sources.

The South Wing, on the other hand, only has two units per floor. Meanwhile, the Sky-

moderate,” the central bank said.

The central bank said in the same statement that the strength of the services and industry sectors on the production side and the net exports on the expenditure side reflect the improvement in the external trade in line with the gradual recovery of the global economy, including that of the advanced economies.

However, the central bank also noted that economic activity in Japan has been “fragile” due to

suites are three-bedroom and limited fourbedroom residences at about 200 sq m in size. Elevators open exclusively in the foyers of each residence. Jugo said the units will be turned over by 2019, but the groundbreaking was already done.

The Two Roxas Triangle, meanwhile, offers 182 units and will be turned over in the first quarter of 2019, Jugo said.

“Similar to One Roxas Triangle, Two Roxas Triangle has only three-bedroom and fourbedroom units starting from 302 sq m. The biggest cuts are the 550-sq-m penthouse units with four bedrooms, a living area, dining area, a walk-in closet, gourmet kitchen and bathrooms,” Jugo said.

The first tower, One Roxas Triangle, was launched in October 1996 with units priced at P28 million to P39 million.

The Roxas Triangle Towers is a development

by Roxas Land Corp.,a joint venture that is 50percent owned by Ayala Land, 40 percent by Hong Kong Land and 10 percent by the Bank of the Philippine Islands.

the imposition of higher sales taxes in April, dampening their domestic demand.

The Monetary Board also said the pace of growth in emerging markets, particularly in China and India, have been subdued, although indicating modest improvements.

The International Monetary Fund earlier downgraded the growth forecasts both for 2014 and 2015 to 3.3 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

US budget. . . continued from a1

imposed curbs on agency operating budgets have combined to shrink the deficit. The Treasury Department and the White House budget office will issue an official report on the budget in the next week or so, but their findings are likely to mirror CBO’s data, which is based on the daily cash flow that the Treasury reports.

The good news may be temporary. CBO and budget hawks warn that the retirement of the Baby Boom generation will balloon deficits in coming years, unless Washington can bridge its divides and curb the growth of expensive programs like Medicare. The deficit hit a record $1.4 trillion in 2009 but fell to $680 billion last year.

While the numbers are large, economists agree that the truest measure of the deficit is to compare it to the size of the economy. By that measure, the 2014 deficit was less than 3 percent of gross domestic product, which economists say is sustainable. But CBO and other budget officials warn that long-term projections are unsustainable as more and more people claim Social Security and Medicare benefits. The growth in healthcare spending, however, is down and long-term estimates have proven unreliable. Obama and his Republican rivals combined to curb agency budgets in 2011 and the president won a tax increase on upper-rate taxpayers last year, but any future action on the government’s budget woes will likely have to wait until after this year’s midterm elections or beyond. AP

Proposed measures banning the export of metallic ores will be difficult to implement without the necessary support system in place, Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Director Leo Jasareno said.

If passed into law, the measures filed in August by Sen. Bam Aquino in the Senate and a similar bill filed by Second District Rep. John Amante of Agusan del Norte in the House of Representatives, would require domestic processing of all minerals before being shipped out of the country.

Jasareno said support systems such as power and electricity are needed for mining companies to put up downstream processing plants to be able to produce gold or silver bullion, silver cathode and nickel.

Processing plants like smelters, used to process nickel laterites, require more power. The Philippines is currently experiencing power-supply shortage, particularly in Mindanao.

“Without those support system, it may be difficult to implement such policy,” Jasareno said. Jonathan Mayuga

P-NOY CO-CHAIRS BALI FORUM TODAY

President Aquino flew to Indonesia on Wednesday night to co-chair Friday’s Seventh Bali Democracy Forum, an annual gathering of world leaders and top government officials from 51 countries initiated in 2008 by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Executive Secretar y Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. said the government allotted P7.1 million for the Aquino-led Philippine delegation’s attendance at the forum that includes Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario, Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo, Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras, Presidential Management Staff Chief Julia Andrea R. Abad, Palace Spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Protocol Chief Celia Anna Feria, among others.

Ochoa said Mr. Aquino, as cochairman of the conference, is also scheduled to talk about the Philippine experience in achieving democracy leading to the implementation of the democratic processes in the country.

He added that President Aquino, “as the son of democracy“ icons—the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and former President Corazon Aquino—can truly be an inspiration to other heads of states and governments and the rest of the participants” at the Bali forum.

Butch Fernandez