BusinessMirror December 10, 2014 by BusinessMirror

BusinessMirror

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

U.N. Media Award 2008

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The coming of Your son

FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

ABS-CBN RECLAIMS TOP PRIME-TIME SPOT... »D3

BusinessMirror

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Tech gifts for the geek who already has everything B T W San Jose Mercury News

T’S the holiday shopping season, so it’s time to answer that all-important question: Do you know what to get the geeks in your life? These days, they have smartphones, big-screen TVs and laptops, and probably a tablet and a video game console or two. So what do you get your geeks if they have all that? Well, in my book, it’s time to focus on accessories—or on completely unrelated gadgets. Here are some hints on how to give your tech enthusiast a happy holiday this year. SPIFFING UP THE SMARTPHONE THERE aren’t many geeks that lack smartphones, and the real action this year with smartphones is in all the cool things you can connect to them. Smartphones can now control your lights, appliances and door locks. Belkin’s WeMo Insight Switch allows consumers to use their smartphone as a remote control inside or outside the house to turn lights and other powered devices on or off. Not only can you control Oort’s

SmartLED light bulb remotely, but you can change the color of its light on a whim, picking from among 16 million different choices. A whole new generation of robotic toys has hit the market that you can pilot with smartphones, using their touch screens and other sensors. Parrot’s Rolling Spider is a miniaturized version of its groundbreaking AR Drone that can take pictures, hover in place and roll along the floor. Sphero 2.0 is a robotic ball that can zip around the ground and be used to play games involving knocking over objects or navigating through obstacles. If your loved ones are into fitness, or you are trying to encourage them to be healthier, you could consider a fitness band. These devices—which typically look like rubber bracelets—track workouts, casual activity and sometimes sleep patterns, allowing users to monitor them on corresponding smartphone apps that also track calories and to set fitness goals. Among the most popular are Fitbit’s Flex and Jawbone’s Up. (Another great option would be the Sony SmartBand Talk SWR30, which also boasts of voice capability to make and answer calls when paired C  D

life

ayala land blockbuster BusinessMirror

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Another blockbuster from Ayala Land Premier

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

HE quality of suburban living goes several notches higher as Ayala Land Premier (ALP) introduces The Courtyards—the group’s latest suburban development in the Alabang-Cavite corridor. It is a 130-hectare project and a prime living space with relatively flat terrain with views of the Cavite lowlands as well as the Metro Manila skyline. Jose Juan Jugo, head of Ayala Land Premier, said, “The project is the company’s latest blockbuster project that contains Ayala’s signature quality brand just like in its previous projects. The Courtyards is a manifestation of how Ayala develops the perfect suburban setting for the urbanite who is looking for an abode that can be either a second home or home,” he said in a recent press briefing held in Makati City. The introduction of The Courtyards was warmly accepted by the market as it has sold over P3 billion five months after it was introduced in the market. Further, The Courtyards has boosted ALP’s status as the top developer in the areas since introducing Ayala Alabang in the early 1980s. Further, Jugo said The Court-

yards has been conceptualized to provide a family-oriented concept to the homes. “We have designed The Courtyards to be the ideal living space for ‘full nesters’—families with one or more children, or else couples that are planning to add more to their brood, as well as established families who wish to move into a more peaceful suburban setting,” said Jugo. Buyers can have a variety of options when they buy at The Courtyards. Each lot is part of a cluster of six to eight lots enclaved in courtyards, essentially a cul-desac which allows for one-way traffic and has an island of greenery in the middle, ensuring privacy and tranquillity for the residents. There are five types of lots: (1) Courtyard lots, which are lots fronting a courtyard, (2) Parklane lots,

located along the main road and fronting a greenway; (3) Courtyard Park lots, those fronting courtyards which are connected to greenways; (4) Courtyard Park Premier lots, which are adjacent to a greenway; and (5) Courtyard Park Estate lots, adjacent to the main amenity core.

Courtyard lots are priced from P25,090 to P27,190 per sq m; Parklane lots at P28,240 to P30,340. Courtyard Park lots range from P31,390 to P33,910 per sq m. Courtyard Park Premier lots are at P34,540 to P37,690 and Courtyard Park Estate lots at P40,480 per sq m.

Lots are classified according to whether they are fronting a courtyard, adjacent to a greenway, a linear park running parallel to the main road, or their proximity to the main amenity core. The main amenity core is located near the main gate and includes a community cen-

ter, playfield, swimming pool and a multipurpose court. The Courtyards is accessible through two main thoroughfares. From the west, Emilio Aguinaldo Highway leads to Daang Hari and Jose Abad Santos, and from the east, South Luzon Expressway (Slex)-Alabang exit leads to Daang Hari. Soon, by the second quarter of 2015, the Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway from Slex will be opened. This Slex exit shall connect Slex and Daang Hari, offering a more convenient route to The Courtyards. Even if it is in a suburban setting, The Courtyards is very accessible to various recreational establishments such as The District malls in Imus and Dasmariñas, and Alabang Town Center. Nearby churches include Our Lady of the Pillar Cathedral in Imus, Saint James the Great in Alabang, Saint Jerome Emiliani and Saint Susana Parish at Alabang Town Center, and Saint Joseph Parish Church in Las Piñas. Educational institutions are also a quick drive away such as De La Salle Dasmariñas, De La Salle Health Sciences Institute, De La Salle Santiago-Zobel School, PAREF Southridge School, PAREF Woodridge School and San Beda College. “ALP is committed to the vision that every family member is able to balance his or her lifestyle and flourish with the conveniences we offer at The Courtyards,” added Jugo. “By 2016, residents can move into their homes at The Courtyards. Moreover, ALP will continue to look for potential sites around the country for future development.”

Sun Valley Estates Antipolo opens new village center

The Promenade

Fairway View Village at Sun Valley

RUE to its commitment to homeowners, Sun Valley builds a new commercial square— The Promenade at Sun Valley—a convenient place for their everyday shopping needs and services. It’s all there and so close to home. Strategically situated, The Promenade is accessible to Sun Valley homeowners in nearby phases, and is right beside the Village Clubhouse at Phase 1, which has a swimming pool, picnic grounds and a function room. Now in place at The Promenade are a water station, coffee shop and a small grocery. Soon these will be complemented with a beauty parlor and spa. One can

also find the Sun Valley sales office and the administration office there. In the center of the structure is a function room, with a seating capacity of 300, ideal for conferences, parties, product launchings, exhibits and the like. A light and airy design frames The Promenade, blending well with the natural beauty of the land. Large glass windows let in the light, and the view of hills beyond the road. Beautiful landscaped gardens mark off the borders at back. Ample parking spaces line up at front. The Promenade is designed to become the center of activity for homeowners and guests, a convenient place to shop for their every-

day needs, lunch or simply taking in the view. Meet up with friends for breakfast and a delightful cup of coffee, celebrating a life milestone with a special event, bring over the kids for ice cream or picking up a box of snacks on the way home. The Promenade is within easy reach. The Promenade is the newest addition to the growing Sun Valley community, which is a development of well-planned residential villages, built on naturally rolling terrain, and enhanced by the theme of living close to nature. Some of the best amenities are found at Sun Valley, including an 18-hole golf course, a golf clubhouse, the sports

The Clubhouse

plaza and soccer field and four community clubhouses. Water sports at the man-made lagoon include kayaking, fishing, canoeing and the water roller. Trekking through the Bamboo Trail, over the Kawayan Falls near Hole 3 of the golf course, around a mountain, to emerge at the Upper Ranch residential site on the other side of Sun Valley is also an option. Accessible via Marcos Highway, Sun Valley Estates is located only 10 minutes from Masinag Market and SM City Masinag. Exclusive schools, hospitals and places of worship are found in nearby surroundings as well as in Antipolo City proper.

property

getting old BusinessMirror

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

GETTING OLD

By Doug Ferguson

AS Tiger Woods rebuild, a younger generation shines. AP

The Associated Press

INDEMERE, Florida—Tiger Woods appears to be on the road to recovery again, only it’s no longer a question of how soon before he reaches full speed. There are a lot more cars on the road now. Faster ones, too. Woods acknowledged as much before the Hero World Challenge began when he jokingly said, “Father Time remains undefeated.” He still has plenty of power when he’s healthy and swings freely. But there’s a long list of players who hit it farther. “We all eventually are losing some of the things we are able to do when we were younger,” Woods said. “But there’s other ways to go around a golf course.... You can win at a very late age because you don’t have to physically dominate anybody. You don’t have to physically beat anybody. You just have to beat the golf course.” That’s a recipe for winning, but not for being the best in the sport. That label belongs to 25-year-old Rory McIlroy, an undisputed title at the moment. The most consistent threat in the majors this year was 25-year-old Rickie Fowler, who played in the final group twice and finished in the top 5 in all of them. The latest arrival is 21-year-old Jordan Spieth, who showed off his potential not because of the fields he beat (strength or size) but because of the stamps in his passport. In three weeks in three corners of the world, Spieth finished one shot out of a playoff in Japan, won by six shots in the Australian Open against a field that included McIlroy and Adam Scott, and then overwhelmed an 18-man field of top-50 players in Florida with a 10-shot victory. One of the more telling comments after he won at Isleworth was how Spieth defined his target. “In order to take it to the next level and try and win majors, I’ve got to look to Rory,” Spieth said. “He’s the youngest guy, the one with the most success. He’s No. 1 in the world and setting the bar. He’s the one we’re all chasing.” Woods is now part of the chase. He did not say where he would start in 2015, but here’s a sobering thought: If Woods does not play better than he did at Isleworth, there’s a mathematical chance he’ll fall out of the top 50 by March and not be eligible for the first World Golf Championship at Doral. This isn’t the first time Woods has returned from an injury-induced layoff. But it’s the first time he is coming back from injury and retooling his swing under a new coach. This could take time, and that’s something Woods doesn’t have at this stage in his career. He turns 39 at the end of the month. Can he get back to where he was? Probably not. Can he get back to No. 1 in the world? Certainly. The last time he was in this position, it took five victories for Woods to climb back to No. 1, along with a minislump by McIlroy. Both are capable of doing that again. Woods is so popular as a golfer, and he demands so much attention, that it’s easy to fall into a trap of measuring his progress without considering the rest of the field. When he opened with a 77 at Isleworth, it was easy to blame that on rust because he had not faced any competition since the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Championship. Except that Steve Stricker had not played since the PGA and he opened with a 67. Woods made progress in the second round. He was attacking. He was making birdies. He was 4 under through 16 holes, which ordinarily would seem like a good score. Except that the guy playing alongside him, Patrick Reed, was 9 under through 16 holes. The competition has never been deeper—and as it relates to Woods, younger. He is responsible for that. Most of these rising stars, if not all, grew up watching Woods destroy his competition. They learned by watching him. It was different for an older generation of players who only saw Woods when he arrived on the PGA Tour, and then didn’t know what hit them. “He was the best anyone had seen,” Reed said. “He was so much better than anyone else at the time. With me growing up and watching that, I tried to copy his mental strength and go from there.” And how does one copy mental strength? “Be stubborn,” Reed said. “Focus on what you’re doing and not anyone around you. You could see it just by looking at him in the eyes. If looks could kill, he would literally kill you. It’s not because he’s not a good guy. He was just so focused and determined to play well. And he obviously gets it. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

By Catherine N. Pillas & Lenie Lectura

he Philippines’s largest business organization, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), is backing the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) call for at least a 3-percent rollback in the prices of basic goods and services as a result of the big drop in global oil costs. The only major hurdle, according to the group, is the high power cost, a problem that is about to ease after the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced that its consumers are going to see a P0.19-per-kilowatthour (kWh) drop in their electricity bills this month, or equivalent to roughly P38 for those with an average monthly consumption of 200 kWh. “I agree with [Trade] Secretary [Gregory L. Domingo], there should be a reduction in the prices of goods and services. But the effect is not im-

CABANGON CHUA: CPAs CRUCIAL IN GLOBALIZED SETTING

mediate. The transportation component is there, but the power [cost] is not going down so it would not be immediate,” Alfredo M. Yao, president of the PCCI, said in a phone interview with the BusinessMirror on Tuesday afternoon. The PCCI president said the truckers should be the first to heed the call of the trade office for cost reduction, as several petroleum companies have already implemented several rounds of price cuts,

Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua (third from left) receives a plaque of appreciation for being the inspirational speaker at the oathtaking of successful examinees for Certified Public Accountant Licensure Examination at the Plenary Hall of the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. Awarding the plaque are (from left) Board of Accountancy members Aurelio Aurellado and Gerard Sanvictores, and Board of Accountancy Chairman Joel L. Tan-Torres.

Continued on A2

Belmonte wants House to probe Mighty Corp., ‘sin’ tax loopholes

Sports W

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

PCCI backs DTI call for price cut

tech gifts D

Tuesday, November 18,10, 2014 Vol.Vol. 10 No. 40 Wednesday, December 2014 10 No. 62

MERALCO’S P0.19-PER-KWH RATE REDUCTION PRESENTS ANOTHER REASON TO LOWER PRICES

INSIDE

EAR God, You prepared for the coming of Your son over the centuries. You awakened in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming and You prepared for it specifically through the Old Testament, culminating with John the Baptist who was the last and greatest of the prophets. We relive this long period of expectancy in the annual liturgical celebration of the season of Advent. May we be all prepared for the coming of Your son. Amen.

A broader look at today’s business

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

LEBRON JAMES (left), Kylie Irving and several others are making a statement. AP

James, Kyrie, Nets

‘can’t breathe’ N

EW YORK—LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and several Brooklyn players are wearing “I Can’t Breathe” shirts as they warm up for Monday’s game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Nets. Kevin Garnett and Deron Williams were among four Nets wearing the shirts in support of the family of Eric Garner, who died on July 17, after a police officer placed him in a chokehold when he was being arrested for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes. Chicago star Derrick Rose wore one before a game on Saturday, and James said on Sunday he wanted one. He got it from Nets guard Jarrett Jack, who provided them to players on both teams. A few National Football League players had the saying written on different items of gear and shirts during pregame warm-ups before games on Sunday, including Saint Louis Rams guard Davin Joseph, Detroit Lions running back Reggie Bush and Cleveland Browns cornerback Johnson Bademosi. “Obviously, as a society, we have to do better, we have to have empathy better for one another no matter what race you are, but it’s more a shout-out to the family more than anything,” James said before Cleveland’s 110-88 victory. Irving had already gone to the court in his shirt as James spoke. James said at the time it was a “possibility” he would do the same, and he was wearing the shirt when he unzipped his yellow-and-gray jacket in Cleveland’s layup line. The statement from the players came before a game that was to be attended by Britain’s Prince William and his wife, Kate, as well as National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver. “I respect Derrick Rose and all of our players for voicing their personal views on important issues, but my preference would be for players to abide by our on-court attire rules,” Silver said. Players are required to wear attire of Adidas, the league’s official apparel provider. A recording of Garner’s arrest showed him gasping, “I can’t breathe” during the fatal encounter, and thousands have protested a grand jury decision not to indict the officer since the announcement on Wednesday. Over 200 protesters gathered outside the Barclays Center on Monday night, chanting “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and “I can’t breathe.” Irving said his thoughts were with Garner’s family. “What happened is a tragedy, I feel terrible about it, but my emotions are just more or less condolences for the family,” Irving said. AP

sports

ouse Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Tuesday said he would demand an oversight investigation into the reported leaks in the implementation of the “sin” tax law. Belmonte, in a news conference, said the Congressional Oversight

PESO exchange rates n US 44.5100

Body on Republic Act (RA) 10351, or “An Act Restructuring the Excise Tax on Alcohol and Tobacco Products,” also known as sin-tax law, should look into complaints against Mighty Corp., a local cigarette company, which, according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), is liable for nonpayment of taxes.

ALYSA SALEN

By David Cagahastian

mbassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, chairman of the ALC Group of Companies, on Tuesday led the oathtaking of some 3,000 new certified public accountants (CPAs) in ceremonies held at the Philippine

International Convention Center in Pasay City. Cabangon Chua, a CPA himself, urged the new CPAs, who passed the licensure examinations in October, to make things happen and realize their dreams, focusing on the time-tested values of hard work and fortitude, which,

he said, are the only ones that can ensure success. “Sa mundong ito, walang maipapalit sa sipag at tiyaga. Hindi talino; pangkaraniwan lang ang matalinong nabibigo. Hindi kakayahan; halos kasabihan na na mayroong mga may pambihirang Continued on A2

Continued on A2

n japan 0.3685 n UK 69.6492 n HK 5.7426 n CHINA 7.2108 n singapore 33.7401 n australia 36.9777 n EU 54.8007 n SAUDI arabia 11.8611 Source: BSP (9 December 2014)

News BusinessMirror

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

news@businessmirror.com.ph

PCCI backs DTI call for price cut Continued from A1

including the P2.50-per-liter decrease effective last Sunday. “Transportation cost is a big part, agreed, but the truckers are still not cutting their prices; they should also follow,” Yao added. On Sunday Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell, PTT Philippines, Seaoil, Chevron Philippines, Phoenix Petroleum and Total Philippines reduced the price of gasoline by P2.50 a liter and P2.25 a liter for diesel and kerosene. This is the biggest fuel-price cut for the year. With this, Domingo said manufacturers and retailers should implement price reductions of at least 3 percent, as fuel costs have already gone down by about 30 percent. The downtrend in local fuel prices mirror movements in the global oil market, which has been beset by weakened demand and lower prices since the decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries not to cut production levels in

November, as well as the glut in supply in the US. The global benchmark Brent crude oil dropped to a four-year low in October, settling to about $85.56 per barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, fell by 14 percent to settle to $ 65.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the two weeks leading to December 5. Yao said although the prevailing high electricity cost hinders the reduction of prices of goods and services, he is confident that competition will eventually kick in and a lower price setting would gradually set in. But Meralco said it is lowering its rates after generation charge, the largest component of the bill, fell by P0.17 per kWh to P4.94 per kWh, the lowest level for the year. “At P4.94 per kWh, this month’s generation charge marks the first time since October 2013 that the said charge went below P5 per kWh,” Meralco said on Tuesday. The reduction in the generation

charge was mainly driven by lower charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which registered a reduction of P1.70 per kWh due to the normal operations of the power plants during the November supply month. The supply situation in Luzon improved, especially after Sual’s Unit 1 (647 megawatt) came back online after a monthlong maintenance shutdown in October. In addition, WESM charges decreased due to the completion in October of adjustments from prior months, which include additional Must-Run Unit compensation for Malaya and the secondary cap additional compensation for the supply months of May and June 2014. These account for around P0.09 of the P0.17-per-kWh decrease in generation charge this month. The lower WESM charges offset the slight P0.10-per-kWh and P0.03per kWh increases in the average rates of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and power plants covered by Power Supply Agreements

(PSAs), respectively. In terms of share to Meralco’s total power requirements for the November supply month, WESM, IPPs, and PSAs accounted for 4 percent, 43 percent and 53 percent, respectively. Contributing also to the overall downward adjustment in the bills to households is the P0.014 decrease in taxes and P0.023 cumulative decrease in the system-loss charge and subsidies. Transmission charge, on the other hand, increased by P0.017 per kWh due to the higher ancillary service charges. Meralco reiterated that it does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges. Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers such as the plants selling to Meralco through the WESM and under the PSAs, as well as the IPPs. Payment for the transmission charge, meanwhile, goes to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines. Of the total bill, only the distribution, supply and metering charges accrue to Meralco.

CABANGON CHUA: CPAs CRUCIAL IN GLOBALIZED SETTING Continued from A1

kakayahan na hindi napapakinabangan. Hindi sapat ang pinag-aralan; maraming may mataas na pinag-aralan ang naging pabaya,” he said in his keynote speech at the oathtaking. Cabangon Chua said the accounting profession remains to be among the most important professions in the world today, and that the new CPAs have the opportunity to do the country a great service amid a globalized world, wherein capital can more freely enter developing countries such as the Philippines. He also encouraged them to

establish their own businesses, to start small and then venture into bigger things. He gave five pieces of advice to the new CPAs: to not wait for things to happen but to make them happen; that the best fertilizer of any business undertaking is the footprints of the owner; to use time wisely; to take care of their employees and subordinates; and to work hard and pray every day. Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) Chairman Dr. Florentino S. Doble said CPAs would have a big role to play in making the Philippines attractive to foreign capital that could be

brought about by the coming Asean economic integration by preparing accurate and complete financial statements that will shape the business decisions of investors looking for opportunities in the Philippines. Board of Accountancy Chairman Joel Tan-Torres said according to the last survey conducted from among the passers in the July 2014 CPA board exams, around 66 percent of the passers were already employed as of the time they answered the survey, with 70 percent of them saying they were hired within one month from getting their CPA license.

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST DECEMBER 10, 2014 | WEDNESDAY

TODAY’S WEATHER Tropical Depression is a cyclone category with winds of 63 kph.

TROPICAL DEPRESSION “RUBY” (HAGUPIT) WAS LOCATED AT 215 KPH WEST NORTHWEST OF CALAPAN CITY, ORIENTAL MINDORO.

DEC 11

THURSDAY

DEC 12 FRIDAY

Belmonte wants House to probe Mighty Corp., ‘sin’ tax loopholes “I have to ask the oversight committee to give me a report,” Belmonte told reporters. Earlier, the BIR said the agency is already investigating the alleged tax evasion committed Mighty. “It’s really a BIR affair but we have not been hearing about this,” Belmonte said, adding, “somebody has been questioning about sin tax which should really be looked into.” In House Resolution 1591, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City and Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr. of Abante Mindanao are calling for a congressional inquiry into the alleged failure of the government to allocate a big part of the revenue collection from RA 10351 to finance its universal health-care program. The lawmakers asked the lower chamber to conduct an inquiry into the matter and invite the officials of the Department of Finance, BIR and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to shed light on the issue. It added the law mandates the DBM, the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to submit to the Oversight Committee of Congress a detailed report on the expenditure of the amount earmarked for the Universal Health Care Program. Party-list Rep. Leah Paquiz of Ang Nars said Congress should determine the loopholes in RA 10351, which according to her, has not been able to raise enough funds to finance the health program of

DEC 13

SATURDAY

TAGAYTAY CITY 19 – 25°C

METRO MANILA 23 – 27°C

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

METRO CEBU 23 – 30°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY 24 – 33 °C

METRO DAVAO 24 – 34°C

25 – 32°C

25 – 31°C

21 –27°C

21 – 27°C

TACLOBAN

24 – 30°C

25– 31°C

22 – 29°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

23 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

METRO DAVAO

24 – 34°C

25 – 34°C

24 – 34°C

25 – 34°C

LAOAG

PUERTO PRINCESA

ILOILO/ BACOLOD CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 22 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

22 – 28°C

LEGAZPI

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 25 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

TUGUEGARAO

TAGAYTAY

TACLOBAN CITY 24 – 30°C

SATURDAY

24 – 30°C

24 – 29°C

14 – 23°C

23 – 29°C

19 – 26°C

23 – 28°C

13 – 22°C

23 – 30°C

20 – 27°C

14 – 23°C

24 – 30°C

25 – 30°C

ZAMBOANGA SUNRISE

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

6:10 AM

5:27 PM

8:48 PM

8:57 AM

21 – 27°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 30°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 29°C

FRIDAY

23 – 29°C

SBMA/ CLARK

SBMA/CLARK 22 – 28°C

DEC 12

23 – 28°C

TUGUEGARAO CITY 21 – 26°C BAGUIO CITY 14 – 23°C

24 – 30°C

FULL MOON HALF MOON

DEC 06 25 – 31°C

25 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

CELEBES SEA

LOW TIDEMANILA HIGH TIDE SOUTH HARBOR

DEC 14

7:41 AM

-0.19 METER 8:51 PM 8:27 PM Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers

24 – 30°C

25 – 30°C

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

Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms. Light rains

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

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SABAH

DEC 13

DEC 11

THURSDAY

METRO CEBU

BAGUIO

LAOAG CITY 25 – 29°C

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

METRO MANILA

STRENGTH: 45 KPH DIRECTION: SOUTHWEST AT 13 KPH (AS OF DECEMBER 9, 5:00 PM)

the Aquino administration. “Foot dragging, tax evasion, not collecting the right taxes will surely hamper health programs and services,” said Paquiz, who is a member of the House Committee on Health. Aiming to pump revenues into its universal health care and other programs that directly benefit the public, the Aquino administration signed RA 10351 in December 2012. It took effect in January 2013. By raising the sin-tax rates, the government, by its calculation, expects to collect at least half a trillion pesos from 2013 to 2017, with the bulk of the collection coming from the tobacco industry. Under the sin-tax reform law, tax rates on alcoholic beverages and tobacco have been raised to boost state revenues and reduce the incidence of smoking. The increase will be implemented annually for most products until 2017, after which the tax rate will be indexed to inflation to avoid eroding government revenues. The DOH said the law has proven to be effective in reducing tobacco consumption, saying during the first year of implementation, there was a significant decrease in smoking prevalence among adults 20 years and above, from 31 percent in 2008 to 25.4 percent in 2013. More important, the agency said a significant decrease in smoking prevalence was also seen among children 10 to 19 old years, from 9.1 percent in 2008 to 6.8 percent in 2013, despite no significant increase in tobacco advocacy activities.

Continued from A1

@PanahonTV

11:59 PM

1.01 METER

BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, December 10, 2014 A3

IPC EXPANDS DATA CENTER OPERATIONS IN NEW PARAÑAQUE FACILITY

PC (IP Converge Data Services Inc.), a frontrunner in the Philippines’ cloud services and data center operations space, officially opens its third and largest internet data center facility in southern Metro Manila. Standing on a one-hectare property, IPC Data Center—Parañaque adheres to global industry standards of providing a telco-grade, carrierneutral international data center. Among the international standards for data center environments that IPC observes are ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers), as well as being certified for ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems and ISO 27001:2005

Information Security Management Systems. IPC is the only data center operator that is telco-agnostic, giving it the flexibility to work with all telcos in the country. According to IPC President Rene Huergas, “This brand new facility enhances our data center capacity and operations dramatically, and is testament to the growing demand for co-location services across various industries in the country and in the region. By implementing the

IPC Data Center - Parañaque goes live after the ceremonial ribbon cutting signals its formal opening. Leading the ceremony at the lobby of the new facility were, from left: ePLDT Group Chief Operations Officer Ms. Nerissa Ramos, PLDT Executive Vice President and ePLDT Group President and CEO Mr. Ernesto Alberto, Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez, Mrs. Laura Elorde, PLDT President and CEO Mr. Napoleon Nazareno, Mrs. Joy Tambunting, and IPC President Mr. Rene Huergas.

necessary expansion to address this demand, we are able to support the increasing IT requirements of local

and global enterprises, while further strengthening our foothold as a leading provider of world-class data

center services.” IPC’s Parañaque facility boasts of having redundant site infrastructure

capacity components, dual active power supplies, multiple independent distribution paths serving the IT equipment, and concurrently maintainable site infrastructure. When it comes to security, the facility is protected by 7 layers of security, as compared to the usual 4 to 5 layers of security offered by other local data centers. This is also supported by a 24x7 stationary and roving security, as well as a CCTV Monitoring System with cameras that cover every aisle and nook of the entire facility. IPC Data Center - Parañaque is the first facility in the country built expressly to be a true data center, not as a space repurposed or converted from existing structures. Designed to house up to 800 racks, it is seen to boost the company’s capacity to provide data center and co-location services to enterprises. According to Huergas, “the facility is capable of scaling up its operations, depending on market demand.” Aside from the Parañaque facility, IPC operates two additional data centers in the country.

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial

Endorsing the trade dept’s export-development plan

N a story buried in the inside pages of newspapers and ignored by the broadcast media, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was reported to have prepared a so-called Plan of Export Development for the country for the next two years. We congratulate the DTI for coming up with a plan that is necessary and timely under prevailing international conditions; and for bucking the conventional wisdom that, in a global recession, developing countries have no choice but to accept suffering from a current-account deficit while that recession lasts. There are reasons exports are critical to the development of economies. In the natural scheme of things, exports are intensive in the resource that is abundant—and, hence, inexpensive—in the exporting country. And exports are not obtrusive, since they sell—and compete—in foreign markets, not domestic ones. In the Philippines our abundant resource is labor. Hence, exports generate employment opportunities for our people. Exports represent all gains for and no losses to the country. Stabilization is easier in an open economy than in a closed one. Although our exports have grown about fivefold since 1986, they are extremely small relative to those of our Southeast Asian neighbors. In 2013 our exports totaled $54 billion, translating to $543 per capita. Compare this figure with that of Singapore, which is $76,448; Brunei Darussalam, $28,190; Malaysia, $7,662; Thailand, $3,351; Vietnam, $1,479; Indonesia, $734; and Cambodia, $611. Believe it or not, our export per capita is superior only to that of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic ($390) and Myanmar ($185). The DTI plan calls for an annual growth rate of approximately 10 percent for 2015 and 2016. That’s just fine. But we suggest that the period covered be increased by eight years to last up to 2024, inclusive, and the annual growth rate be raised to 15 percent in those additional years. In this 10-year plan period, our total exports should reach $200 billion. For this figure to be attained, this will, of course, involve a lot of hard work by the private sector and the government—creating new products and improving existing ones; opening up new markets and deepening existing outlets; forging partnerships with foreign businesses; and daring to become internationally competitive. But we must pay the price. Given the current extent of our backwardness, even if our leading neighbors slow down in their export development, we are not likely to catch up with them in that department, certainly not in the next 25 years—that is the cold mathematics of it, whatever the politicians and their spin masters say. Let’s just hope that our economy, led by the export sector, grows in a sustained way in the next decade. Again, congratulations to the DTI for fulfilling its responsibility to the Filipino people.

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Overcoming the storms of life through social security Susie G. Bugante

All About Social Security

ECTION 2 of Republic Act 8282, or the Social Security Act of 1997, declares that “it is the policy of the State to establish, develop, promote and perfect a sound and viable tax-exempt social-security system [that’s] suitable to the needs of the people throughout the Philippines [and that] shall promote social justice and provide meaningful protection to members and their families against the hazards of disability, sickness, maternity, old age, death and other contingencies resulting in [the] loss of income or financial burden. Toward this end, the State shall endeavor to extend socialsecurity protection to workers and their beneficiaries.”

True to its mandate, the Social Security System (SSS) has implemented a social-insurance program that aims to protect private-sector workers against economic distress brought about by life’s contingencies. For example, when natural disasters like Typhoon Ruby (international code name Hagupit) strike, the SSS responds through its Calamity Assistance package, which includes an early renewal of its salary-loan program, advance payment of pensions, and the house-repair or improvement loan. Even more basic than this package, the SSS provides these benefits:

Short-term benefits

n THE sickness benefit is a daily cash allowance paid for the number of days that a member is unable to work because of sickness or injury. To qualify, a member should be unable to work because of sickness or injury, and is confined either in a hospital

Adam Minter

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

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

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Long-term benefits

n THE disability benefit is a cash

benefit granted, either as a monthly pension or a lump-sum amount, to a member who becomes permanently disabled, either partially or totally. To qualify for a disability pension, the member must have paid at least 36 monthly contributions prior to the semester of disability; if with less than 36 monthly contributions, he or she is granted a lump-sum amount. If a member is granted a monthly disability pension, he or she is also entitled to a P500 monthly supplemental allowance for his or her caregiver. n The retirement benefit is a cash benefit granted, either as a monthly pension or a lump-sum amount, to a member who can no longer work because of old age. To qualify for a retirement pension, the member must have paid at least 120 monthly contributions prior to the semester of retirement; otherwise, he or she is granted a lump-sum amount. The member should be at least 60 years old (optional retirement), separated

The politics of corruption in China

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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

or at home for at least four days; has paid at least three months of contributions within the 12-month period immediately before the semester of sickness; has used up all company sick leaves with pay for the current year and has duly notified his or her employer; and must notify the SSS directly by filing a sickness-benefit application if he or she is separated from employment, a voluntary or self-employed member. The amount of the member’s daily sickness-benefit allowance is equivalent to 90 percent of his or her average dailysalary credit. The sickness benefit is granted up to a maximum of 120 days in one calendar year. n The maternity benefit is a daily cash allowance granted to a female member who is unable to work because of childbirth or miscarriage. A member is qualified if she has paid at least three months of contributions within the 12-month period immediately before the semester of

her childbirth or miscarriage and, if employed, has given notification of her pregnancy through her employer; otherwise, she must directly notify the SSS if she is separated from employment, a voluntary or self-employed member. The amount of the daily maternity-benefit allowance is equivalent to 100 percent of her average daily salary credit, multiplied by 60 days (in case of normal delivery or a miscarriage) or 78 days (if case of caesarean-section delivery). The maternity benefit is granted up to the first four deliveries or miscarriages only.

BLOOMBERG VIEW

HINA’S state media chose a strange time to announce the indictment of former security czar Zhou Yongkang: just after midnight in Beijing last Friday night. Zhou is the most senior Chinese official ever to face corruption charges, and given how keen the government has been to trumpet the other trophies taken during President Xi Jinping’s ongoing antigraft crackdown, one might have expected more fanfare. In 2013 former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, a lesser figure, was indicted on a Thursday, and his case was hyped both online and in the state media for days afterward. By contrast, state organs continued to downplay news of Zhou’s downfall well into Monday. The contrast to Bo’s treatment can partly be explained by their relative standing. Despite the spectacular nature of Bo’s crimes—including the cover-up of a murder committed by his wife—he was the Communist Party secretary of China’s largest municipality. Zhou was the ninthranking member of the ruling Politburo,

where he had oversight over intelligence services, law enforcement and the courts. Bo’s crimes were embarrassing to China’s rulers. Zhou’s—which allegedly include bribery, leaking of state secrets and general abuses of power—threaten to undermine the party’s very legitimacy. “There is one question that troubles

me,” tweeted a Beijing lawyer on Monday morning, using China’s Sina Weibo system. “If Zhou Yongkang is so bad, aren’t the courts and judicial officers who were under his control even worse?” Complicating the situation even further is Zhou’s personal background. In China’s political system he was a commoner—a fisherman’s son who achieved extraordinary clout without the benefit of elite connections. No doubt Zhou had to employ ruthless measures—some of which are sure to be exposed at his trial—to claw his way to the top. That stands in sharp contrast to Bo, a so-called princeling who achieved power, in large part, on the basis of family connections. The length of Zhou’s rap sheet is itself a testimony to how differently the party treats insiders and outsiders—an uncomfortable fact, given its supposedly meritocratic ideals. In the end, though, what the cases of Zhou and Bo share is, perhaps, more important than what they don’t. Both men clearly seem to be political, not just criminal, targets. As with Bo, Zhou’s indictment was preceded by a methodical and

from employment or has ceased to be self-employed; or the member is 65 years old (mandatory retirement), whether employed or not. n The death benefit is a cash benefit granted, either as a monthly pension or a lump-sum amount, to the beneficiaries of a deceased member. A member’s beneficiary is qualified to receive the benefit if that member has paid at least one month of contribution before the semester of death; the benefit is paid in monthly pension to the member’s primary beneficiaries (legitimate spouse, until he or she remarries; and dependent legitimate, legitimated or legally adopted, and illegitimate children) if the member has paid at least 36 monthly contributions prior to the semester of death; otherwise, a lump-sum amount is granted. If there are no primary beneficiaries, the member’s secondary beneficiaries (dependent parents) shall be given a lump-sum amount; if none, the member’s legal heirs or designated beneficiary. A funeral grant of P20,000 is given to whoever defrays the cost of the deceased member’s burial. These are the basic benefits provided by the SSS in times of contingencies that result in financial difficulties. For more information, call the SSS 24-hour call center at (632) 920-6446 to 55, Monday to Friday, or send an e-mail to member_relations@sss. gov.ph. Susie G. Bugante is the vice president for public affairs and special events of the SSS. Send comments about this column to susiebugante.bmirror@ gmail.com.

ruthless investigation of his family and circle, many of whom are now in detention and either charged or awaiting indictment on corruption charges of their own. Uprooting those networks has helped Xi consolidate an almost unprecedented degree of power in just his first two years in office. It’s less clear that it has fundamentally reshaped the landscape for corruption in China—a point underscored by almost daily announcements of another official taken into custody for graft. On Sunday state media relished describing the arrest of a village official who had somehow managed to acquire 132 properties in Shanghai, China’s second-most expensive property market. Rather than promoting political and judicial reforms that would institutionalize the battle against graft, Xi has chosen to control the campaign centrally and—on occasion, as with Zhou—to handpick the targets. That’s bad news for anyone who gets in his way. It’s worse news for China, which could benefit greatly from a corruption crackdown that truly did treat all its targets the same.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Addressing climate change An abridged history of life insurance requires real solutions, not blind faith in markets Atty. Dennis B. Funa

Though the first life-insurance table is attributed to Edmund Halley, a Londoner who wrote the book Natural and Political Observations Made Upon the Bills of Mortality in 1662, the formal use of mathematics and statistics in insurance came about only in the 1750s. In the life plan first designed by Amicable, policyholders would make annual payments based on the number of shares possessed (maximum of three) and age, regardless of health status. At the end of the year, a portion of the annual payments collected, then called “amicable contributions”, was distributed to the heirs of the deceased members. A standing rule of Amicable was to not accept anyone older than 45 years old. Since a certain James Dodson, a mathematician, was older than 45, his application with Amicable was rejected. This led Dodson to establish his own society that would collect premiums based upon the risks assumed, using a statistical mortality table developed by Halley. He described such arrangement as “equitable”. Long after Dodson’s death in 1757, his legacy was fortified with the government’s grant

of a charter to The Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1762. Also known as the Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorships, Equitable came to be distinguished as the world’s oldest mutual insurer. Edward Rowe Mores, its first CEO, would have the honor of carrying the title “actuary”, the first time the term was used. Due to competition from Equitable, Amicable revised its premium-setting criteria to include health and occupation as factors. In 1866 Amicable was sold to the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society. In the United States the first lifeinsurance company was organized in 1759 by the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia for its ministers and their dependents. It called this insurance company the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers. The feat was followed by the Episcopalians a decade later. By the 1830s, almost all life insurers in the US were mutual ones, with only one life insurer categorized as a stock corporation. The first chartered (created by law)

life-insurance company in the US was the New England Mutual Life Insurance Co., which was formed in 1835. Founded by Judge Willard Philips, it was chartered by the state legislature of Massachusetts and was required a guaranty fund of $100,000. One of the policyholders of New England was Daniel Webster, a leading senator at the time. New England’s story holds an important place in the history of life insurance. One of its employees, Elizur Wright, was recognized for his innovations, which had a significant impact on life insurance. He created the “Wright’s Tables”, which estimated the premiums and reserves needed for the sound valuation of a life-insurance policy. Wright was also credited for the formulation of life insurance’s nonforfeiture feature, particularly the cash-surrender value. Prior to his innovations, a policyholder who is unable to continue payment of his or her premiums is forced to sell his or her policy for an amount lower than its intended value, or even not get anything from it. With the cash-value feature, a policyholder who has diligently paid his or her premiums after a certain number of years, but then decides to discontinue his or her coverage, is guaranteed to receive a cash-surrender amount. Aptly, Wright was described by Robert Ingersoll this way: “When we received our morals from merchants and made merchandise of our morals, Elizur Wright held principle above profit, and preserved his manhood at the peril of his life.” In the Philippines the Lloyd’s of London appointed the Strachman, Murray & Co. Inc. as its representative in the country during the

tory plotted by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott over the last 14 months has left the country less prepared for that difficult future than when he took office. Australian voters have soured on Abbott—his coalition lost power in southeastern Victoria state’s election last week, leading to chatter that he might not survive a full term in office—because of what they see as broken promises. A needlessly austere budget slashed education, health and welfare spending. The government appears to be coddling mining billionaires and backtracking on its environmental pledges. It even cut funding for national icon Australia Broadcasting Corp. My worry has more to do with Abbott’s economic priorities, which ignore how rapidly the world is changing around the Lucky Country. Although Abbott has talked about diversifying the economy away from its dependence on China, his policies have effectively done the opposite. Where the previous government moved to tax outsized mining profits

to fund investment in education and infrastructure, Abbott has changed incentives so that commodities and mining companies become a bigger share of the economy and have an even bigger voice in politics. Scrapping plans for a carbon tax, and resisting any serious limit on emissions, has made the economy more vulnerable to international shocks and made Australia a punchline at this week’s global climate talks in Lima, Peru. Instead of undertaking painful and costly restructuring, Abbott has prodded the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to loosen monetary policy more and more. Whether all that easy money is pushing Australia toward a subprime-loan crisis has now become a matter of serious debate. Over the last year, anytime a journalist asked Abbott or Treasurer Joe Hockey about frothy real-estate prices, they were dismissed as nervous nellies. When I probed Hockey myself in September in Sydney, he derided such

views as “rather lazy analysis”. Yet, in an interim report in July, David Murray, the former head of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, called the surge in housing debt since 1997 and banks’ exposure to mortgages a significant risk. Since that time, Murray’s panel said, “household leverage has almost doubled”, and “higher household indebtedness and the greater proportion of mortgages on bank balance sheets mean that an extreme event in the housing market would have significant implications for financial stability and economic growth.” On Sunday, in the final report to emerge from his yearlong inquiry, Murray urged specific reforms, including cuts in much-loved housing-tax breaks. The report called for “unquestionably strong” capital levels, which could force the four biggest banks to keep another $25 billion on hand for a rainy day. There’s still time for Abbott to turn things around, of course. But that would

INSURANCE FORUM

Kristen Lyons

Inter press service

orwegians know something of life in a climate-change world. Migratory birds arrive earlier in spring, trees come into leaf before previously expected, and palsa mires (wetlands) are being lost as permafrost thaws. Norwegians are currently waiting while geologists try to predict if, and when, Mount Mannen might collapse, destroying homes in its path, after torrential rain in the region. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this will be just the beginning for Norway—and the rest of the world—unless urgent and immediate action is taken to substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. While reducing our dependence on the dirty fossil-fuel industries is widely lauded as representing the fastest and most effective strategy to reduce our global emissions, much of the world’s attention—including that of many governments and industry—has been captured by the promise of carbon-trade markets. There are hopes that pricing and selling carbon just might be the magic bullet to solve the crisis, while, at the same time, generating lucrative returns for investors. Carbon markets are being established on the assumption that if the “right” price is placed on carbon, private companies and their financial backers will be driven to invest in so-called green projects that capture and store carbon, thereby reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in the world’s atmosphere. Carbon markets are championed by those who believe that carbon emissions taking place in one part of the world can be offset by their capture or sequestration in another. Plantation forestry is a key sector in the carbon market, with many projects established in some of the poorest parts of the world, based on the assumption that they will confer benefits to the environment and the local people. But does all the hype about carbon markets really stack up? Research on the Norwegian company Green Resources—engaged in plantation forestry and carbon offset on the African continent— raises many questions about who benefits from the carbon-market projects. In-depth research over two years in Uganda, where Green Resources has license to over 11,000

hectares of land, demonstrates how local communities are the losers of such projects. A recent report, “The Darker Side of Green: Plantation Forestry and Carbon Violence in Uganda,” published by the Oakland Institute, contributes to the critical conversation about the role of carbon markets in addressing climate change. The report identifies profound adverse livelihood impacts associated with Green Resources’s activities, including loss of land and heightened food insecurity, as well as destruction of sites of cultural significance. It also demonstrates the failure of Green Resources to engage in meaningful community engagement with affected villages, so as to deliver positive community development outcomes. Yet, this Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation type project (referring to any project that involves forestry carbon credits), and the audit mechanisms to which it must comply, fail to detect and/ or challenge the impacts of Green Resources’s activities. Nor do they detect the extent to which environmental problems— including land clearing for animal grazing and crop cultivation—may simply be relocated from inside license areas to other, often ecologically sensitive landscapes. Important too, carbon-market audits fail to consider the carbon capture enabled by local agro-ecological and organic farming systems, on which most subsistence and peasant farmers rely. We are faced with a number of options in reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions, something we all know is urgently needed. Despite the promise by many that the magic of climate markets will solve the current climate crisis, the findings presented in the report discard this fairy dust, shining a light on the structural violence and inequities on which carbon markets are built. Expecting some of the poorest of the poor to carry the social and ecological burdens of monoculture plantation forestry projects for carbon offset is both socially unjust, and ecologically just does not add up.

Australia is adrift William Pesek

BLOOMBERG VIEW

S economists debate whether Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe can end his country’s long funk, I can’t help but wonder if another wealthy, seemingly world-beating economy isn’t headed for its own lost decade: Australia. This mere suggestion will strike many as hyperbolic. The economy Down Under has avoided recession for more than two decades. The government enjoys a fiscal position that inspires envy in Washington and Tokyo. There remain vast resource deposits underground, while new infrastructure is coming online to extract and ship that treasure to China and elsewhere.

Australia’s good fortune, however, looks to be waning. Slowing growth in China, driven, in part, by the government’s efforts to rebalance the economy, has devastated commodity prices: Iron ore, Australia’s biggest export, now fetches half of the $140 per ton it did last December; coal prices have tumbled, as well. These are long-term, not cyclical, trends. And, unfortunately, the trajec-

HE first life-insurance company in the world was the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office. It was established in London, England, on July 25, 1706, by an act of Parliament, with the support of the Rev. William Talbot, then-bishop of Oxford, and Sir Thomas Allen, a financier. It initially had 2,000 members.

Spanish colonial era. Officially, the first life-insurance company in the country was the Sun Life Assurance of Canada (Sun Life), which set up shop in 1898. During World War II, Sun Life ran “underground” operations and, after the war, paid out the equivalent of $1.2 million in death claims, $850,000 in mutual-endowment settlements and $125,000 in cash-surrender value. By November 1946 Sun Life-Philippines was the mother company’s leading foreign branch, placing third overall in the whole organization. The first purely domestic life-insurance company in the country was Insular Life Assurance Co. Ltd., which was established in 1910. To date it has maintained its stature as the largest, purely Filipino-owned life-insurance company. On the other hand, the first domestic nonlife-insurance company was the Yek Tong Lin (YTL) Fire and Marine Insurance Co., which was established in 1906. It was founded by Guillermo A. Cu Unjieng (1867 to 1953). YTL will be later known as the Philippines First Insurance Co. Inc. It is interesting to note that, though the development of life insurance has been gradual, it has, nonetheless, been constant. Today life insurance continues to evolve, widening its reach, not only to the moneyed who are capable to invest in sizable premiums, but also the working-class members of our society. Without a doubt, for all the value it gives, what we know for sure is that life insurance is here to stay. Atty. Dennis B. Funa is the Insurance Commission’s deputy commissioner for legal services. Send comments to dennisfuna@yahoo.com.

require, on the one hand, tightening up the spigot of money that’s fueling housing froth—essentially, relying less on the RBA to support growth. On the other hand, the government needs to rethink urgently its austerity policies. Big investments in human capital—via education and training—as well as infrastructure, are the only way to raise productivity and promote job growth in the long run. Along with reimposing the carbon tax, the government should capture and redistribute more of the spoils of Australia’s resources; replace the high income-tax burden on households with a goods-and-services tax; and encourage a new wave of entrepreneurship by supporting small companies. Free-trade agreements with China and Japan are welcome. But the solution to Australia’s challenges remain smart, forward-looking, and yes, costly, policy initiatives. Otherwise, its citizens could be in for their own decade of unnecessary pain.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Ruby adds urgency at UN talks as rift opens on pollution curbs

yphoon Ruby (international code name Hagupit), which forced at least 900,000 people to evacuate their homes in the Philippines, highlighted the stakes for envoys at United Nations (UN) climate talks as a rift opened over how to fight global warming. The storm was the third of its kind to strike the island-nation in as many years during the annual round of UN talks aimed at limiting greenhousegas emissions. Last year’s Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) killed 6,300 people. Developing countries fear storms like Ruby will become more intense as the planet warms, and that rising sea levels compound the danger. That’s adding to tensions at the UN talks in Lima this year, where poorer countries are being asked to join in costly emissions limits for the first time, even as they argue industrialized nations are delaying action. Envoys are developing building blocks for a deal that will be weighed next December in Paris, including the form the pledges will take for the deal.

“The images of Hagupit should reverberate throughout the halls of the Lima climate conference,” said Shubert Ciencia of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement and a member of Oxfam’s team at the UN gathering in Lima, Peru. “Nobody should have to live under the threat of destruction year after year.” Industrial nations, led by the US, the European Union (EU) and Japan want contributions from countries represented at Lima to focus on pollution. China and India led developing nations seeking more details from their richer counterparts on how they’d meet a pledge to provide $100 billion a year in climate-related aid by 2020. The pledges on aid and emissions are at the heart of the deal that would curb fossil-fuel pollution in all nations

for the first time. While the debate at Lima is technical, it’s turned highly political because of the nature of the information each country will have to put forward. “We’ll see the major tensions playing out,” Liz Gallagher, senior adviser to the policy analyst E3G, said in an interview. “Finance will be the sticking point because it crosses some large red lines of what the US and the EU can do.” After a week of discussions in Peru’s capital, envoys from some 190 nations are ready to hand over discussion about how to reach a deal to senior ministers arriving on Tuesday. At least five heads of state and UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon will join the meeting in Lima from Wednesday. Leaders set to attend include Presidents Ollanta Humala of Peru, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Juan Manuel Santos Calderon of Colombia and Baron Divavesi Waqa of Nauru. Scientists say the warmer temperatures that the world already is seeing will wreak devastation by generating more frequent droughts and more violent storms. The debate in Lima is about what information to require from countries that submit pledges under the Paris deal, which are known in the UN jargon

as “Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions” (INDCs). The US, Europe and Japan want INDCs to focus on how and when each nation will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions—mitigation in the UN lexicon. Developing countries, led by India and China, think those goals are too narrow. They want specifics included on how the richer nations will pay the aid that they’ve promised to help the poorer nations fight global warming. They say the fight against global warming won’t be credible if focused on emissions alone. “It’s clear that the Paris agreement is not an agreement centered or exclusively dealing with mitigation,” Raphael Azeredo, a negotiator representing Brazil, said in an interview. “We cannot fathom thinking about mitigation without thinking about adaptation and, of course, means of implementation.” Richer countries are concerned the UN may adopt too many targets. “We are quite hesitant about that approach, because we do think it will distract from the focus on getting mitigation targets as good as they can be and as well fleshed out as they can be,” Todd Stern, the lead US State Department envoy on climate, said in Washington before traveling to Lima. Bloomberg News

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BSP now less concerned with inflation, to keep key policy rates–DBS By Bianca Cuaresma

he Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will likely keep its policy rates unchanged when the Monetary Board meets on Thursday for the last time this year while ensuring credit growth remains consistent with the country’s long-haul growth program, a regional banking giant said. In a commentary, the DBS Bank said the BSP will likely be concerned more with credit growth in the country than with the path of inflation in the coming months. “Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is likely to keep its key policy rate unchanged this week. GDP [gross domestic product] growth disappointed in the third quarter of 2014 on slower fiscal spending, and the most recent budget data suggests that fiscal spending has not picked up as yet in October. Meanwhile, CPI [consumer price index] inflation slowed to a one-year low of 3.7 percent in November on lower crude oil prices,” the DBS Bank said. “The central bank may still look to tweak the rates on the special deposit account [SDA] to keep a check on liquidity growth in the financial system,” it added. The central bank has kept the monetary levers unchanged to allow the policy adjustments made in July and September work their way in the economy and as moderating inflation effectively gave the monetary authorities policy space to maneuver. The last time the central bank hiked the SDA interest rates was on September 11, with a 25-basis-point hike to 2.5 percent. This was the second SDA interest-rate hike this year. The DBS Bank said the BSP has kept a good eye trained on liquidity growth best betrayed by bank-lending data. The BSP is wary of excessive liquidity growth given that loan growth remains high, at around 20 percent, despite policy tightening earlier this year. The DBS Bank expects the central bank to end the year with the borrowing rate at 4 percent and the ending rate at 6 percent. “Any policy-rate adjustment, however, is unlikely to be seen in the near term. The sharp moderation in GDP growth has taken almost everyone by surprise. Steady rates are on the cards for now,” the bank said.