BusinessMirror December 17,2014

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

Tuesday, November 18,17, 2014 10 10 No.No. 40 Wednesday, December 2014Vol.Vol. 69

nn

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

PHL FLOATS REGION-WIDE PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM SUPPORTED BY DIALOGUE PARTNERS

PAPAL VISIT 2015

Asean PPP platform looms T

By Cai U. Ordinario

he Philippine government is encouraging its counterparts in the Asean region to create a regional PPP Center based here, and explore the possibility of creating a fund to support public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the region.

28 DAYS INSIDE

BAD CELL-PHONE ETIQUETTE AT CONCERTS The Immaculate Concepcion

D

EAR Lord we just celebrated the feast of The Immaculate Conception. God freely chose Mary from all eternity to be the mother of his son. In order to carry out her mission, she herself was conceived immaculately.

This means that, thanks to the grace of God and in anticipation of the merits of Jesus Christ. Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception. If some people do not believe in this belief, let the power of her Son Jesus relive in each mother the true meaning of a real mother. Amen.

COMPENDIUM OF THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, FR. SAL PUTZU, SDB AND LOUIE M. LACSON Word&Life Publications • teacherlouie1965@yahoo.com

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

Life

INSTAGRAM SAYS IT HAS 300 MILLION USERS...

USERS »D2

BusinessMirror

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

D1

Bad cell-phone etiquette at concerts here to stay B O L. G Austin American-Statesman

W

HEN you think you may be the oldest person at a lengthy music concert, you have a lot of time to sit and think. And to peoplewatch. A few weeks ago, when I went to San Antonio to see Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull perform, I was suddenly sad about where technology has taken us. This was one of those gigantic Alamodome concerts, so large that there were DJ sets between the opening act (a baller named “J Balvin”) and the two headlining sets.

Of course, there were cell phones. Tens of thousands of them, in the hands of fans desperate to get a good still shot or to shoot some video to commemorate the performances. And why not? Many of our cell phones take better photos and video than point-and-shoot cameras did just a few years ago, and it’s a cheap, fast way to create a memento. Have you seen how much concert T-shirts cost?

The cell phone pics are instantly sharable, too. If you can get a decent wireless connection while surrounded by so many people, you can send your photos to the babysitter and to friends, post them on Facebook or Instagram, then regale your friends on Monday morning with a hand-held concert slideshow.

What’s not to like?

Let’s start with the obvious. Unless you have amazing seats and incredible photographic timing, your concert

photos and videos almost always look awful. They’re grainy and washed out; the stage lights at most concerts turn performers in your images into fuzzy mauve blobs.

That tiny LED flash on your phone? If you’re further than a few feet from the stage, it does absolutely nothing to improve your images and video.

And nobody cares about the photo you shot of an empty stage before the concert started unless you happen to be friends with lots of set designers. At this

Pitbull/Enrique Iglesias show, however, I saw even more egregious mobile-device behavior, stuff that went from distracting to annoying and disruptive. It included: ■ The long-range stage selfie: I witnessed so many fans with seats high up in the stands mosey down the aisle to take a group selfie with their friends, positioning the camera so that the very distant stage was in the background. Of course, with flash enabled in the dark, this means the subjects of the photo will be

washed out while the stage will appear as a distant blur.

No matter! These aisle-blockers, who got in the way of people trying to watch the show with their own eyes, were incessant.

■ The cell phone tower: This happens at almost any concert now. An amateur videographer holds their phone up above the crowd, two-handed, to record video of an entire song. And, maybe, it’s just a demographic reality in San Antonio, but it seemed like every phone I saw was one of those giant Galaxy Note devices or the new iPhone 6 Plus. Yet, my concert ticket said nothing about my seat having an obstructed view.

■ The tower of tablet: The only thing worse than having your view blocked by a human cell phone tower is someone doing the same thing with an iPad. Yes, people take iPad photos and video at concerts. No, they don’t seem to realize how silly they look.

■ The flashlight mode field of lights: Back in the day (ask your parents, kids), fans held up lighters during ballads at concerts. That’s long been replaced by the flashlight mode on cell phones. During the Iglesias set, cell-phone lights created a faux galaxy of stars in the crowd. It’s actually a very nice effect as long as you’re not the person surrounded by bright lights shining right next to your face.

I thought, perhaps, I might just have Old Man Crankiness setting in; instead of telling kids to get off my lawn, I’m evolving into the guy who yells at people to put their cell phones away at shows. But I know I’m C  D

Andre Paras tapped as new Globe Prepaid ambassador NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD Andre Alonzo Paras, or Andre Paras, proves that there’s more to his instant celebrity status, towering height and good looks.

Standing at 6 feet 3 inches, Andre Paras is a young man who wears many hats. Currently, he plays his game in the entertainment industry as he reinvents himself from being a star player of the San Beda Red Lions to becoming one of the country’s rising stars and a popular video jockey (VJ) of MTV Pinoy.

Andre first appeared on local TV when he starred in a Filipino teen rom-com based on a bestselling novel published on Wattpad. His love for acting also led him to be part of GMA’s hit afternoon soap The Half Sisters.

On the side, he is also a regular performer and host in the network’s Sunday noontime variety show Sunday All-Stars. Aside from basketball, acting and hosting, Andre also pursues his passion for music with his stint as an MTV Pinoy VJ. With this new career, he regularly updates himself with the latest songs, artists and music videos, making him an effective and relatable host, especially to his young audience.

With his irresistible charm and talent, Andre makes a conscious effort to constantly reinvent himself to prove that he is a man of his own.

He is quickly gaining popularity on social media, where he shares his latest projects, activities and interests, using his Twitter and Instagram accounts to connect with his fans and followers, inspiring today’s youth to achieve their dreams without being afraid to be heard and seen.

Leading telecommunications company Globe Telecom saw this potential on Andre, making him the perfect ambassador for its Globe Prepaid brand (www.globe.com.ph/prepaid), (www.globe.com.ph/prepaid the digital brand for the youth.

“We are happy to have Andre as the newest endorser of Globe Prepaid. He best represents the brand because he is a very flexible artist and he is not afraid of reinventing himself in pursuit of his many passions. Being a digital brand for the youth, Globe Prepaid is in constant pursuit to give our customers offers that suit their budget, lifestyle and needs, as well as free access to premium content they truly love,” Globe Senior Vice President for Consumer Mobile Marketing Issa Cabreira says.

life

d1

PHL PROPERTY SECTOR WILL CONTINUE TO GROW IN 2015 ANDRE PARAS

2

These were among the recommendations of local officials at the first Asean PPP Networking Forum currently happening in Manila.

The forum is being conducted in support of the Master Plan on Asean Connectivity, which seeks to address the region’s infrastructure constraints ahead of the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

“Our dialogue partners, the 10 of them—Australia, Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Canada, etc.— are becoming more and more interested in PPP, so much so that they keep on coming to us wanting to discuss how we can expand PPP projects. So you start from the Philippines and then you expand this on an Asean-wide basis, and it becomes a giant PPP destination. This is the Asean vision,” Ambassador Elizabeth P. Buensuceso, the country’s permanent representative to the Asean and a member of the Asean Connectivity Coordinating Committee, said in a news briefing on Tuesday.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Continued on A2

BusinessMirror

E1 | Wednesday, December 17, 2014 • Editor: Tet Andolong

OIL FALLS AS U.S. PLAYERS SEEN INCREASING OUTPUT

VILLAGE entrance

Philippine property sector will continue to grow in 2015

D

B R R R

projects have been sold, while 6 percent remain unsold. For the current year, he said 93 percent of the units were already sold out.

The high demand continues beyond 2014 as 81 percent and 83 percent have been sold for 2015 and 2016, respectively. These projects covered the mid-range to high-end condominium developments of major property developers.

The business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry was the biggest client for office space in 2014 accounting for more than 50 percent to 60 percent of the total take-up.

The information technology sector accounted for 11 percent take-up.

Shiela Lobien, head of leasing of JLL Philippines, said over 180,000 square meter in total were transacted for leasing in 2014 by the company. The biggest transaction was a 51,500-sq-m lease to a multinational BPO at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC). “The BGC is the most logical choice for a BPO because it is accessible to Makati and its new buildings are ready and equipped for such requirements,” she said.

“The BPO is minimally affected by economic and political situations and it will continue to buoy the office space industry as BPO companies continue to demand BPO-ready buildings in secure locations where there is an ample supply of talent at lower costs,” she said.

Lobien said the office space reached a historic high in 2014 as supply take-up and precommit-

RIVEN by the continued positive outlook on the economy leading to a stable investment, the Philippine property sector will enjoy another banner year in 2015.

Claro Cordero, head research and consulting of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), said the other growth drivers of the property sector are the projected expansion of the offshore and outsource industry to cope with the increasing demand for outsourcing services and the healthy inflow of remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), which will continue to perk up the demand for more housing units.

In his presentation during JLL’s recent news briefing in Makati City, Cordero said 2014 was a banner year for the residential sector as approximately 204,300 units were completed in Metro Manila during the year. As far as the supply of residential condominiums in Metro Manila is concerned, Cordero said there was increase in the supply of new units to 41,819 units from 21,540 units in 2013. The new supply is classified to mid-end market prices ranging from P980,000 to P1.5 million.

He said OFW remittances growing 6.1 percent year-on-year as of September 2014 will continue to drive the demand for the residential sector. “By the year-end of 2014, remittances will reach $24 billion,” Cordero said.

“OFW remittances are expected to grow at around 7 percent from 2014 to 2017,” he added.

Megaworld Corp. has the biggest market share for projects with 34,000 units, followed by SM with 28,600 units and DMCI with 21,700 units. In sales take-up across all horizontal and vertical projects, Ayala Land Inc. had the biggest value with P80 billion, followed by Megaworld with P70 billion. Vista Land emerged third with a total value of P39 billion.

Furthermore, Cordero said the sales of key residential project of major developers continues to be healthy as it registered an average of 73-percent take-up rate from 2015 to 2020. In 2013, 94 percent of the

ments reached 500,600 sq m as of end of November 2014. Pasig City had the highest take-up among the Metro Manila cities taking 25 percent of the pie, followed by Quezon City (24 percent) and BGC (22 percent).

The take-up is high as the total vacancy rate across Metro Manila business districts is only 4 percent.

“A single-digit vacancy rate is very good for the economy,” she shared.

Lobien said the affordable rental rate is also one of the factors why foreign investors start their operations in the country. For instance, she said the affordable rates in BGC continue to attract major locators particularly in the BPO sector. She said there was an increase of only 1 percent in office rental rates from P790 per sq m in the fourth quarter of last year to P800 in the same period of 2014.

“Even with the affordable rates prevailing at the BGC, there is no oversupply as vacancies are easily taken up. At the moment, there is equilibrium at the BGC,” she said.

The prime area of Makati Commercial Business District continues to be the most expensive office space posting a 14-percent increase with a rental average of P1,200 per sq m in December 2014 from a rate of P1,050 per sq m in the same period last year.

In terms of location, BGC emerged as the top choice for BPO operations with 35 percent. Quezon City came in second with 28 percent; and Makati City ranked third with 21 percent.

ALABANG WEST TO BE THE

SOUTH’S GAMECHANGER

RODEO Drive

N

EW Beverly Hills-themed township is set to beef up Southern Manila’s vibrant growth and progress The South that people know will no longer be the same as Alabang West, the 62-hectare ownship of Global Estate Resorts Inc. (Geri), subsidiary of the country’s prime real-estate giant, Megaworld, is developing in Southern Metro Manila. Alabang West will be the game-changer in the South, as it brings a plusher and more modern lifestyle, creating a new perception of the rising business and residential district.

“For the longest time, the South has been quiet,” said Rachelle Peñaflorida, vice president for sales and marketing, Megaworld GlobalEstate Inc. “Alabang West will bring back the attention to the South, and help develop the booming commercial and business district there.” Alabang West is another township development that offers residents the best of a commercial and business lifestyle. It will be along Daang Hari in Las Piñas City.

Aside from its commercial area, Alabang West will also offer an exclusive village among the elite for which it has allotted 788 available lots that range from 250 square meter to 800 sq m each. Alabang

West will integrate a Beverly Hillsthemed lifestyle into its commercial, retail and residential developments. Residents will enjoy posh amenities that include a firstclass clubhouse, complimenting the offerings of the township’s world-class Rodeo Drive shopping strip—all in one neighborhood.

Alabang West is Megaworld’s 15th township in its portfolio which includes the 18-hectare Eastwood City in Quezon City, which is the country’s first cyberpark; 25-hectare Newport City in Pasay City, home of Resorts World Manila; 34.5-hectare McKinley West, 50-hectareMcKinley Hill, 15.4-hectare Uptown Bonifacio and 5-hectare Forbes Town Center in Fort Bonifacio; 28.8-hectare The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu; the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park in Iloilo, 12.3-hectare Woodside City in Pasig City; and 11-hectare Davao Park District in Davao; as well as the 350-hectare Suntrust Ecotown, under its wholly owned subsidiary Suntrust Properties Inc. and Geri’s 561-hectare Southwoods City in the boundaries of Cavite and Laguna; 150-hectare Boracay Newcoast in Boracay Island; and the 1,300-hectare Twin Lakes in Tagaytay. www.megaworldcorp.com.

PROPERTY

E1

Century sets 2015 opening for Centuria Medical Makati

CENTURIA

B

ULLISH on the prospects of medical tourism and the outpatient health-care industry in the Philippines, premium property developer Century Properties Group Inc. said it has started unit turnovers this December at Centuria Medical Makati—its 28-story outpatient medicalinformation technology facility at Century City in Kalayaan Avenue, Makati City—in time for its 2015 opening.

The $70-million medical facility has close to 700 medical suites for physicians of different outpatient medical

practices. Inclusive in the 700 units are over 7,000 square meters that Century will retain for its own leasing portfolio.

Hi-Precision Diagnostics will operate Centuria’s diagnostic laboratory. Other facilities and services that will complement the practice of doctors within the building include an Executive Health Screening Program, a Radiology Center, a hospital-grade Day Surgery Center and Recovery Suites.

Century Properties said that the building is expected to open in 2015 after the tenants complete their unit fit outs.

The building is designed with warm and welcoming interiors, and a grand lobby that will welcome both local patients and medical tourists.

IT capabilities will support the medical practice of doctors and enhance the patient experience, from electronic medical records and picture archiving communications systems, paperless documentation to an organized patient queuing.

“Centuria is a new-age medical arts building that goes beyond providing clinic spaces to doctors. It provides

the support medical facilities and IT tools so that doctors can focus on delivering quality care to their patients,” said Century Properties Chairman Jose E.B. Antonio, who personally saw through the Centuria project to maximize the country’s opportunities for medical tourism.

“The growth opportunities for health care and medical tourism are tremendous. We are here to seize this opportunity and put Centuria in the spotlight as the newest platform that will take these sunrise industries to the next level in the Philippines,” he added.

Situated in front of the Century City Mall, Centuria Medical Makati has the supreme advantage of location.

It completes the integrated development of Century City, which comprises premium residential towers, offices and the mall. The building is also close to hotels, major banking institutions, and the Makati Central Business District.

To further facilitate ease of visit, ample parking space, valet and travel booking services will be provided. A medical concierge will attend to local and foreign patients.

want economic growth? lessen inequality The World BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Wednesday, December 17, 2014 B3-3

Want economic growth? Lessen inequality

P

B A.D. M| Inter Press Service

ARIS, France—For years, many policy-makers, including economists, have clung to the belief that if states do nothing to boost income equality, market forces will cause wealth to trickle down to the poorest citizens and contribute to overall growth.

That theory is now being increasingly debunked as experts affirm that the broadening gap in income is creating far-ranging problems for many societies.

In a new report published on December 9, researchers at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) argue that “reducing income inequality would boost economic growth.”

Their research shows that countries where income inequality is decreasing actually “grow faster than those with rising inequality,” and the analysts would like to see governments take stronger action to reduce inequity.

“The single biggest impact on growth is the widening gap between the lower middle class and poor households compared with the rest of society,” says the report titled “Trends in Income Inequality and its Impact on Economic Growth,” and “Education is the Key: A lack of investment in education by the poor is the main factor behind inequality hurting growth.”

According to Michael Förster, a senior analyst in the OECD’s Social Policy division, one reason “the poor and lower middle classes are being left behind in unequal societies” is

that they do not have the resources to spend on their own or their children’s education, compared with wealthier citizens.

He said that governments needed to revise strategies that are based on outdated economic theories.

“The common assumption used to be that the more you did to enhance equality, the more you would hinder growth,” he argued. “So the idea was that if you take too much from the top earners, through taxes, you would have less growth. We haven’t found evidence for that.

What we have found is that increasing inequality is bad for growth.”

For example, rising inequality is estimated “to have knocked more than 10 percentage points off growth in Mexico and New Zealand over the past two decades up to the Great Recession,” the OECD said.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States, the “cumulative growth rate would have been 6 percentage points to 9 percentage points higher had income disparities not widened.”

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said that this “compelling evidence” proves that addressing high and growing inequality is “critical to promote strong and sustained

INEQUALITY out in the open. A.D. MCKENZIE/IPS

growth” and needs to be at the center of global policy discussions.

“Countries that promote equal opportunity for all from an early age are those that will grow and prosper,” he added.

However, some scholars maintain that the consequences of inequality are hard to prove.

American economist Jared Bernstein and others have pointed out that it is difficult to establish a firm connection between the inequities in education and economic growth.

These analysts acknowledge that wealthier parents do spend more overall on educational tools and “goods,” and that children from rich families often study at elite institutions in contrast to children from poor backgrounds who may attend lower-quality

schools, but they have disagreed on the social or economic effects.

With the “new evidence”, OECD researchers say that the main means through which inequality affects growth is by “undermining education opportunities for children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds, lowering social mobility and hampering skills development.”

“People whose parents have low levels of education see their educational outcomes deteriorate as income inequality rises. By contrast, there is little or no effect on people with middle or high levels of parental educational background,” the OECD said in a statement.

According to researchers, anti-poverty programs will not be enough to create greater equality

of opportunities in the long term.

Essential measures will include “cash transfers and increasing access to public services, such as high-quality education, training and health care,” the OECD said.

Förster stressed that the inequality study focused on income and not wealth. But recent discussions have centered on both, particularly in France since the election of Socialist President François Hollande in May 2012.

Soon after his election, Hollande announced plans for a 75-percent tax on all income over €1 million, and a watered-down version of the plan was approved

by French courts a year ago, even as many wealthy families fled to Belgium and elsewhere.

Climate change creates new geography of food B F O

Inter Press Service/Tierramérica

L

IMA, Peru—The magnitude of the climate changes brought about by global warming and the alterations in rainfall patterns are modifying the geography of food production in the tropics, warned participants at the climate summit in the Peruvian capital.

That was the main concern among experts in food security taking part in the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP20) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held from December 1 to 12 in Lima. They are worried about rising food-prices if tropical countries fail to take prompt action to adapt.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) estimates that climate change will trigger food price hikes of up to 30 percent.

The countryside is the first sector directly affected by climate change, said Andy Jarvis, a researcher at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, or CIAT, who specializes in low-carbon farming in the CGIAR Research Programme for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.

“Climate and agriculture go hand in hand and it’s the climate that defines whether a crop will do well or poorly.

The geography of where crops grow is going to change, and the impacts can be extremely negative if nothing is done,” Jarvis told Tierramérica during the Global Landscapes Forum, the biggest parallel event to the COP20.

Crops like coffee, cacao and beans are especially vulnerable to drastic temperatures and scarce rainfall and can suffer huge losses as a result of changing climate patterns.

One example: In the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Peru, where the greatest biodiversity of potatoes can be found, higher temperatures and spreading crop diseases and pests are forcing indigenous farmers to grow potatoes at higher and higher altitudes. Potato farmers in the area could see a 15-percent to 30-percent reduction in rainfall by 2030, according to ClimateWire.

REGINA ILLAMARCA and Natividad Pilco, two farmers preserving potato biodiversity in Huama, a community in the department of Cusco, in the Peruvian Andes, and whose crops are being altered by global warming. MILAGROS SALAZAR/IPS

Another illustration: In Central American countries like Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras, a fungus called coffee rust is decimating crops.

The outbreak has already caused $1 billion in losses in Central America in the last two years, and 53 percent of coffee plantations in the area are at risk, according to the International Coffee Organisation (ICO).

Latin America produces 13 percent of the world’s cacao and there is an international effort to preserve diversity of the crop in the Americas from witches’ broom disease, which can also be aggravated by extreme climate conditions.

At the same time, switching to cacao can be a strategy for coffee farmers when temperatures are not favorable to coffee production, according to the CGIAR consortium of international agricultural research centers.

“At the COP, the idea discussed is to keep global warming below 2°C, as the most optimistic goal,” Jarvis told Tierramérica. “But that practically implies the total displacement of the coffee-growing zone. Two degrees will be too hot. The current trends indicate that prices are going to soar. As production drops and supply shrinks, prices go up. The impact

would also lead to a rise in poverty.”

In Nicaragua, where coffee is a pillar of the economy, a 2-degree increase in temperatures would lead to the loss of 80 percent of the current coffeegrowing area, he said.

According to a CIAT study, “By 2050 coffee-growing areas will move approximately 300 meters up the altitudinal gradient and push farmers at lower altitudes out of coffee production, increase pressure on forests and natural resources in higher altitudes and jeopardize the actors along the coffee-supply chain.”

As the climate heats up, crops that now grow at a maximum altitude of 1,600 meters will climb even higher, which would affect the subsistence of half a million small farmers and agricultural workers, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Assistant Director General for Forestry Eduardo Rojas said at COP20 that climate change is already endangering the food security, incomes and livelihoods of the most vulnerable families.

“Resilient agriculture is more environmental because it doesn’t use nitrogenous fertilizers. But no matter

how much we do, there are systemic limits. We could reach a limit as to how much agriculture can adapt,” he told Tierramérica.

Rojas called for an integral focus on landscapes in the context of climate change, to confront the challenge of ensuring adequate nutrition for the 805 million chronically malnourished people around the world. However, agricultural production will at the same time have to rise 60 percent to meet demand.

The executive director of the USbased Earth Innovation Institute, Daniel Nepstad, noted that the largest proportion of land available for food production is in the tropics.

“The growth in demand for food, especially, in the emerging economies is going to outpace the rise in production. The countries in the world with the greatest potential are in Latin America,” said Nepstad, who added that the innovations to mitigate the impact of climate change on food are happening mainly outside the scope of the UNFCCC. The director general of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Peter Holmgren, said agroforestry is an approach that reconciles agriculture, forest conservation and food production without generating greenhouse-gas emissions.

“The main reason forests are disappearing in this region is agriculture, it is the expansion of commercial agriculture,” he told Tierramérica.

“We have a lot of research going on that seeks more resilient and more producing varieties of different crops and livestock. We call it climate-smart agriculture. There is a lot of political commitment to reduce deforestation and direct the investments in agriculture in different ways. However it seems that agriculture is still outside the negotiations in the COP itself.”

As well as agroforestry techniques, agricultural weather report services with forecasts of up to four to six months are ways to contribute to adaptation to changing-climate patterns.

CIAT’s Jarvis argued for the need for the diversification of crops and the increase in support with policies to support agriculture.

Economists of different political colors have argued about whether the increased taxation is good for the economy, and the debate has grown more heated with last year’s publication of Capital in the Twenty-First Century by renowned French economist Thomas Piketty.

A lecturer in Paris and internationally, Piketty advocates a global tax on wealth. He has carried out studies showing that income inequality has grown in many countries, alongside 30 years of declining tax levels.

The gap is particularly marked in the US, but even in “egalitarian” France, the top 1 percent earned an average of €30,000 monthly in 2010, compared with €1,500 per adult of the poorest 50 percent.

According to the OECD, a similar situation exists in many of its 34 member-countries, which include European nations and others, such as Mexico, Chile and the US. “Today, the richest 10 percent of the population in the OECD area earn 9.5 times the income of the poorest 10 percent; in the 1980s, this ratio stood at 7:1 and has been rising continuously ever since.”

Bucking the trend, income inequality has been falling in Chile and Mexico, but the incomes of the richest are still more than 25 times those of the poorest in these two countries.

The OECD’s Latin American Economic Outlook 2015, produced with regional partners and also launched on December 9, focuses on the role of education and skills, and experts said more needed to be done to “raise educational standards and address persistent and substantial socioeconomic inequalities.”

Förster told Inter Press Service that the organization hoped governments would consider the findings as a basis to change policy, “otherwise we won’t get out of the current situation.”

E.U. MAY SCRAP ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS AMID FOCUS ON GROWTH B I W Bloomberg

M

AJOR pieces of environmental legislation are among scores of draft laws the new European Commission is considering scrapping as part of a pared down agenda for next year.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the former Luxembourg prime minister who became president of the European Union executive last month, was set to release his legislative to-do list on Tuesday in Strasbourg, France.

His agenda may include withdrawing a proposal intended to cut air pollution, another that would limit landfill waste across the EU, and other initiatives drafted before Juncker’s team took office on November 1, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News.

The Juncker commission, which came in after a surge in populist, anti-EU sentiment in May’s Europe-wide elections, has vowed to cut what it considers unnecessary laws as part of an attempt to focus on stimulating economic growth and employment.

“There is a need to clear the decks,” the commission said in the draft version of its 2015 work program. “Proposals are of no use if they are simply sitting dormant on a negotiating table.”

The commission may withdraw or modify 80 pieces of legislation, many of which it says are obsolete or ones on which the EU national governments and the 28-nation bloc’s parliament have failed to agree upon, according to the plans.

As well as the environmental legislation, the proposals that could be canceled range from laws to regulate the prices of medicinal products to increasing competition in ground-handling services at airports.

ducing emissions of pollutants including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides before 2020 and 2030 deadlines.

According to the provisional 2015 work program, the legislation could be redrafted as part of a broader set of climate measures.

A law to boost the so-called circular economy, which would cut packaging and landfill waste, including introducing a 70-percent target by 2030 for the recycling of municipal waste across the bloc, is also in line for withdrawal.

“Europe needs to be ambitious, including on environmental and social standards, but it would be pointless if we were wasting our time and energy on proposals that have no chance of being adopted,” Commission Spokesman Natasha Bertaud told reporters in Brussels on December 12. “We are considering to propose to withdraw a number of proposals which do not match the commission’s political priorities or which are out of date.”

world Nitrogen oxides

THE air-pollution law that the previous commission team proposed in 2013 is aimed at re-

Juncker’s list

TOP of Juncker’s list of priorities is a €315-billion investment plan, which the commission will combine with additional measures to remove barriers to project funding.

With the EU lowering its growth forecasts for the bloc, unemployment at 11.5 percent and the European Central Bank considering more stimulus as inflation matches a five-year low, the commission says all proposed laws should be consistent with its objective of renewing the flagging economy.

The commission also has plans to modernize copyright rules, boost cybersecurity and come up with “a new approach to legal migration.”

The EU commissioners would take a final decision on the work program for 2015 during a meeting in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

O

il extended losses from a five-year low amid speculation that United States producers may further increase output as they battle the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) for market share.

Futures dropped as much as 1.2 percent in New York, after closing at the lowest level since May 2009 on Monday. US crude drillers are benefiting as costs fall almost as quickly as prices, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Brent in London, the benchmark grade for more than half the world’s oil, may decline to $50 a barrel in 2015, a Bloomberg survey of analysts showed and as a preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index in China slid to a seven-month low in December.

Oil has slumped almost 45 percent this year, as the Opec sought to defend market share amid a US shale boom that’s exacerbating a global glut.

The group, responsible for about 40 percent of the world’s supply, will refrain from curbing output even if crude drops to $40 a barrel, according to the United Arab Emirates.

“It seems like the market is no longer able to

b3-3

PESO exchange rates n US 44.6320

Continued on A2

mini santa claus A storekeeper arranges Santa Claus figurines, with prices starting from P150, at a store in Dapitan, Manila. The store owner said sales are still going briskly as Christmas Day approaches. ALYSA SALEN

Pope Francis ‘vulnerable’ in popemobiles P ope Francis will use two popemobiles with no bulletproof capabilities when he visits the country in January, making himself “vulnerable, open and accessible” to the people.

Fr. David Concepcion, head of the transportation committee for the papal visit, said Pope Francis prefers an open vehicle, for it symbolizes his being vulnerable, open and accessible to the people, just like the Church.

“This is a sign of his sympathy and [his desire to] reach out to the people. This is also what Pope Francis wants to remind the people what kind of Church [we have]—vulnerable,” he told reporters in a news briefing.

Second, the popemobile is “open”, as Pope Francis wants to hear the crowd on the streets.

Last, Concepcion added: “Accessible—so that he can stop and alight from the vehicle whenever he wants.”

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal

Tagle said the popemobile’s design would be a surprise. Palo Archdiocese Vicar General Msgr.

Bernie Pantin said the pope will hold a Mass at the Tacloban Airport grounds. He is expected to arrive around 9:30 a.m. at the Tacloban Airport.

After the Mass, Pope Francis will go to the Archbishop’s Residence in Palo for a lunch with 30 survivors of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) and the 7.2-magnitude quake in Bohol last year.

Of the 30 survivors, 15 are from Leyte; five from Borongan in Eastern Samar; five from Calbayog in Samar; and five from Tagbilaran in Bohol. The pope will also have a 30-minute siesta, according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines web site, after which he will bless the Pope Francis Center for the Poor in Palo and meet 50 persons with disabilities, orphans and elderly.

The Pope Francis Center, which was briefly used as an evacuation center for people affect-

ed by Typhoon Ruby (international code name Hagupit), will have an orphanage, a home for the aged and a dispensary.

It will be run and maintained by the Kkottoongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, a Korean religious congregation “committed to witnessing God to the world and saving souls by practicing Jesus’ love.”

Pantin said the Korean religious will take care of the orphans, the elderly, the sick and the dying. About 50 persons may be accommodated per facility, he said.

The pope will go to the Palo Cathedral after his lunch and encounter with the poor, then meet with the priests, religious and laity who survived Yolanda. He will lead Vespers and give a short message. After that, Pope Francis will then go out of the sacristy and go to the Palo Cathedral mass grave for his private prayers, before heading for the Tacloban Airport and return to Manila. CM Ciriaco

n japan 0.3788 n UK 69.7866 n HK 5.7571 n CHINA 7.2090 n singapore 34.0131 n australia 36.7039 n EU 55.5044 n SAUDI arabia 11.8930 Source: BSP (16 December 2014)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

OIL FALLS AS U.S. PLAYERS SEEN INCREASING OUTPUT Continued from A1

respond to the issue of oversupply,” Hong Sung Ki, a commodities analyst at Samsung Futures Inc. in Seoul, said by phone.“On the demand side, the global economy continues to slow while it takes time for US shale production to pull back on the supply side.”

West Texas Intermediate for January delivery fell as much as 66 cents to $55.25 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $55.74 at 10:48 a.m. Singapore time. It lost $1.90 to $55.91 on Monday.

The volume of all futures traded was about 10 percent below the 100day average. Prices have decreased 43 percent this year.

US shale

Brent for January settlement, which expires on Tuesday, was 6 cents lower at $61 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The more-active February contract was down 12 cents at $61.09. The European

benchmark crude traded at a premium of $5.22 to WTI, compared with $5.15 on Monday.

Opec’s decision at a November 27 meeting to maintain its output quota of 30 million barrels a day prompted speculation that it’s willing to let crude slide to a level that would slow US production.

The 12-member group, led by Saudi Arabia, pumped 30.56 million a day in November, exceeding its target for a sixth straight month, according to a separate Bloomberg survey of companies, producers and analysts.

report on Monday.

Production expanded to 9.12 million barrels a day through December 5, data from the Energy Information Administration shows. That’s the highest rate in weekly records that started in January 1983.

Brent is poised to trade below half the level six months ago, according to the median estimate of 17 analysts surveyed on Monday. Prices need to drop further before producers will begin dealing with the global glut, said five out of six respondents who gave a reason.

In China the preliminary PMI from HSBC Holdings Plc. and Markit Economics was at 49.5, missing the median estimate of 49.8 in another Bloomberg survey and below last month’s 50.0. Readings of less than 50 indicate contraction.

The Asian nation is the world’s largest oil consumer after the US and will account for about 11 percent of global demand next year, predicted the International Energy Agency in Paris.

Hydraulic fracturing The US oil boom has been driven by a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which has unlocked supplies from shale formations including the Eagle Ford in Texas and the Bakken in North Dakota.

While producers last week idled the most rigs in two years, that was almost entirely for vertical machines, not the horizontal drillers used for shale output, Goldman said in a

Pope. . . continued from a8

in various stages of development and the total amount does not include projects that do not have cost estimates as of December 15. The PPP Center said 12 projects worth $6.36 billion are undergoing procurement, and 12 other projects, which do not have costs yet, are being developed.

Around 11 projects, which also do not have cost estimates to date, are undergoing project studies. Data showed that consultants are being procured for eight projects. Four other projects worth $13.48 billion are seeking government approval.

Two projects worth $1.54 billion have been approved for rollout and two projects worth $596.69 million are unsolicited.

To date, the PPP Center has already awarded eight projects worth $2.83 billion. Two projects worth $2.13 billion are currently under implementation.

Bloomberg News

Asean PPP platform looms Continued from A1

Balisacan said the Philippines has been at the forefront of crafting projects that feature cooperation between public and private institutions.

He said the crafting and passage of the build-operate-transfer law in 1990 was a first for the Philippines and in Asia.

Given the long years of experience of the country in undertaking PPPs, creating a regional institution in the country that would take stock of best practices would be a great help to all Asean member-economies, especially in light of the AEC. “One of the things that we also offer the Asean is our interest in expanding knowledge and the generation of that knowledge regarding PPP. The Philippines can be an ideal place for setting up an institution catering to the Asean for capacity building, training, research on PPP,” Balisacan said.

Apart from a regional institution, PPP Center Executive Director Co-

China. . . continued from a8

interest rates last month. Measures for output, new orders, employment and input and output prices all declined, the report showed. “ They are moving to more of a services-based consumption model and that’s a slower growth model than the hyper growth of manufacturing that led exports and investment,” Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University and former non-executive chairman for Morgan Stanley in Asia, said in an interview with Angie Lau on Tuesday on Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong.

China’s interest-rate swap erased a gain after the PMI report. The one-year swap is unchanged at 3.37 percent in Shanghai, after earlier climbing as high as 3.41 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 percent at 9:57 a.m. local time.

“The data highlights intensifying downward pressure on the manufacturing sector,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, an economist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. “The situation calls for action from policy-makers to ensure that soft landing continues and that

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

TODAY’S WEATHER

news@businessmirror.com.ph

DECEMBER 17, 2014 | WEDNESDAY

Low Pressure Area (LPA) develops when warm and moist air rises from the Earth’s surface.

Tail-end of a cold front is the extended part of the boundary, which happens when the cold air and warm air meet. This may bring rainfall and cloudiness over affected areas. It is felt at the northern hemisphere winter season.

LOW PRESSURE AREA WAS ESTIMATED AT 150 KM EAST OF ZAMBOANGA CITY.

Northeast Monsoon locally known as “Amihan”.

It affects the eastern portions of the country.

It is cold and dry; characterized by widespread cloudiness with rains and showers.

DEC 18

THURSDAY

sette Canilao said setting up a fund, similar to the country’s Project Development and Monitoring Fund (PDMF), could help Asean countries design PPP projects.

Canilao said the creation of the revolving PDMF, which is used to finance prefeasibility studies for PPPs that result in economically viable projects, has been a critical factor in the success of PPPs in the country, and, possibly for Asean member-countries.

Buensuceso said creating a fund similar to the PDMF is an “interesting” undertaking, but a very viable one. She said while she cannot guarantee that such a measure will be passed, it would be to the interest of Asean member-countries to explore the possibility of creating this fund.

“This is one of the things we want to discuss. Do we want something like this? Is it a desirable thing? It’s a very interesting suggestion but very viable. If we have an Asean group that aims to really

Slowing growth

Foreign direct investment surged 22.2 percent in November from a year earlier, a report from the Ministry of Commerce showed on Tuesday. For the Januarythrough-November period, investment climbed 0.7 percent from a year earlier.

China’s economy slowed in November as factory shutdowns exacerbated weaker demand. Bloomberg’s gross domestic product tracker came in at 6.78 percent year-on-year in November, down from

FRIDAY

DEC 20

SATURDAY

22 –27°C

23 – 29°C

TACLOBAN

24 – 29°C

24 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

22 – 30°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

24 – 32°C

25 – 32°C

25 – 33°C

METRO DAVAO

25 – 33°C

25 – 34°C

25 – 34°C

25 – 34°C

25 – 35°C

25 – 34°C

LAOAG

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

LEGAZPI

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 24 – 31°C

METRO CEBU 25 – 31°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY 24 – 34 °C

PUERTO PRINCESA

ILOILO/ BACOLOD CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 24 – 31°C METRO DAVAO 25 – 33°C

24 – 32°C

21 – 27°C

TAGAYTAY

TACLOBAN CITY 24 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

TUGUEGARAO

21 – 29°C

22 – 29°C

15 – 23°C

23 – 29°C

20 – 27°C

16 – 23°C

24 – 30°C

21 – 27°C

16 – 25°C

24 – 29°C

24 – 29°C

23 –30°C

ZAMBOANGA SUNRISE

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

6:14 AM

5:30 PM

1:37 PM

1:33 AM

21 – 27°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 30°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 30°C

24 – 29°C

HALF MOON NEW MOON

DEC 14 24 – 30°C

23 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

DEC 22

24 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

CELEBES SEA

11:09 AM

0.18 METER 9:36 PM 8:51 PM Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms.

23 – 29°C

LOW TIDEMANILA HIGH TIDE SOUTH HARBOR

Light rains

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

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

DEC 20

SATURDAY

23 – 30°C

SBMA/ CLARK

TAGAYTAY CITY 20 – 27°C

METRO MANILA 23 – 29°C

24 – 30°C

FRIDAY

24 – 29°C

TUGUEGARAO CITY 21 – 25°C

SBMA/CLARK 23 – 30°C

DEC 19

23 – 29°C

BAGUIO

BAGUIO CITY 15 – 24°C

DEC 18

THURSDAY

METRO CEBU

(AS OF DECEMBER 16, 5:00 PM)

LAOAG CITY 21 –29°C

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

METRO MANILA

TAIL-END OF A COLD FRONT AFFECTING NORTHERN AND CENTRAL LUZON. NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING EXTREME NORTHERN LUZON.

6.91 percent in October and a fourth month below 7 percent, according to a preliminary reading.

Factory production rose 7.2 percent from a year earlier, retail sales gained 11.7 percent, and investment in fixed assets expanded 15.8 percent in January through November from a year earlier, official data showed last week. The government ordered some factories to close in Beijing and surrounding provinces during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in early November to curb pollution. AP/Bloomberg News

the slowdown does not become too deep.”

DEC 19

promote an Asean PPP agenda, then it should have a mechanism, a fund to drive it,” Buensuceso said.

The country’s PDMF is a revolving pool of funds made available to enhance the PPP investment environment and develop a robust pipeline of viable and bankable PPP projects.

The PDMF is currently at $75.7 million. This consists of $18 million from the Australian government through the Asian Development Bank (ADB); $51.5 million from the national government; and $6.2 million worth of reimbursements.

The prefeasibility studies of 38 PPP projects in the pipeline are being financed through the PDMF. The studies are being done by a panel of 22 international consulting firms.

Asean’s infrastructure needs cost around $160 billion a year from 2010 to 2020. This is part of the $750-billion annual requirement of the entire Asian region during the period, according to the ADB.

@PanahonTV

5:23 PM

0.36 METER

The Nation BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Four military informants get P12.1 million

T

HE military handed over on Tuesday a total of P12.1 million to four persons, who provided information that led to the arrest of a leader of the New People’s Army and four members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).

Lt. Gen John Bonafos, Armed Forces vice chief of staff and Brig. Gen. Arnold Quiapo, chief of the Intelligence Service, Armed Forces led officials in giving the cash reward to the informants.

The captured rebel leader was identified as Loida Magpatoc, who carried a reward of P5.6 million on her head.

The military said Magpatoc’s group was responsible for the attacks of government installations in South and North Cotabato from 2008 up to 2010. As such, she was included on the wanted list for several cases, including robbery and double homicide.

Also known as “Gwen” and “Bebyang,” Magpatoc was captured by a joint team of policemen and soldiers in Davao del Sur on July 28, 2013.

On the other hand, three ASG members, who were arrested due to the information provided by three of the four tipsters, were identified as Basal Talb Sali and Abu Husni, who carried a total reward of P5.3 million for their arrest, and Muktar Ladjaperma and Jailanl Basirul, who have a total of P600,000 reward for their arrest.

Sali was captured during law-enforcement operations conducted by joint army and police elements in Payatas, Quezon City, on July 25, 2012.

Ladjaperma was arrested during law enforcement operations conducted by joint elements of the Army, Task Force Zamboanga and the Philippine National Police at the Zamboanga City International Airport on June 3, 2013. Rene Acosta

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Wednesday, December 17, 2014 A3

SolGen insists: No need to send Edca to Senate

T

By Joel R. San Juan

HE solicitor general has insisted that the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) between the Philippines and the United States is a valid executive agreement that does not need concurrence of the Senate.

In its 42-page memorandum submitted to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Florin Hilbay stressed that a referral to the Senate of the agreement can be construed as nullification of the agreement for non-

compliance of Article 18, Section 25 of the Constitution.

He added that a referral to the Senate would diminish the President’s powers and result in an international embarrassment for the

President, adversely affecting the country’s standing in the international community.

It can be recalled that a courtmandated referral to the Senate was floated by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen during oral arguments on the petitions seeking to declare as unconstitutional the agreement.

The solicitor general concluded that referral to the Senate is “plain and simple delay.”

“Even after the Edca passes the Senate, petitioners are bound to demand the nullification of the agreement once again, bringing the process back to square one,” the chief government counsel said.

Furthermore, Hilbay questioned the legal standing of the petitioners to file the petition.

HILBAY: “Even after the Edca passes the Senate, petitioners are bound to demand the nullification of the agreement once again, bringing the process back to square one.”

He said as a general rule, only the Senate as an institution may sue against any alleged impairment of its institutional prerogatives.

The Senate’s silence and nonparticipation in the petitions, according to Hilbay is an affirmation of the President’s characterization of the Edca as an executive agreement.

“To date, the Senate has not issued a resolution expressing its objection to the Edca, much less authorized any of its members to file a suit on its behalf,” he pointed out.

Hilbay also defended the President’s decision to enter into the Edca, saying that it is within the President’s powers as Chief Executive and Commander in Chief to prepare against threats to national security.

“In choosing to enter into the Edca, the President has made the decision to formalize pre-existing licenses into a framework agreement that clarifies the rights and obligations of the parties. Such decision is in response to the implementation gaps that the government seeks to address through the Edca,” the memorandum said.

Opposition legislator defends Aquino administration on Pinoy’s beheading

By Recto Mercene

A

N opposition congressman on Tuesday took the cudgels up for the Aquino administration amid accusations that it did nothing to save overseas worker Carlito Lana from being beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Press Agency reported that Lana was executed last week for shooting his Saudi employer and then running over the victim with his own car.

Gatchalian: “Apparently, the victim’s family refused to accept any blood money, which is the reason Saudi authorities pushed through with the execution of Lana.”

Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela City said Philippine authorities in Saudi Arabia tried to convince the family of the slain Saudi national for a settlement so that the death sentence of the accused can be commuted.

“Apparently, the victim’s family refused to accept any blood money, which is the reason Saudi authorities pushed through with the execution of Lana,” Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian surmised that the Saudi

victim’s family refused to make a settlement with Lana because of the manner of the victim’s death.

Gatchalian recalled that it was different with the case of Sarah Balabagan since it was established by the Shari’ah court that she killed her employer to defend herself from his sexual advances.

The sons of the deceased also agreed for a settlement of blood money, which saved Balabagan from execution.

Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. insisted that the

government did everything to saveLana. “We ensured he will be accorded his legal rights. Our embassy in Saudi got the services of Al Quwaizani Law Office to represent him in all the legal processes.”

Coloma added that the government also facilitated the travel of Lana’s mother to Saudi Arabia, noting that Lana’s mother was able to visit twice. He said financial help has also been extended to Lana’s family. Lana was survived by his three children.

Economy

A4 Wednesday, December 17, 2014 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

briefs bcda pushes for stronger trade, tourism ties between manila and jakarta

THE Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is encouraging stronger trade and tourism ties between the Philippines and Indonesia.

Manila and Jakarta’s trade and business relations have flourished over the years, Arnel Paciano Casanova, president and CEO of the BCDA, said in a recent investment forum in Jakarta.

The Philippines, he added, can further tap into the Indonesian market to move export value on a par with the level of Philippine importations from Indonesia. The Philippines and Indonesia can also further look into improving industrial and business linkages, Casanova said.

The BCDA chief noted, in particular, the opportunities that lie in agricultural products, franchising and infrastructure development.

Tourism remains an untapped source of country-to-country exchanges, as well, said Casanova; as it is estimated that only a little more than 45,000 Indonesians visited the Philippines in 2013, while there were more than 129,000 Filipinos who visited Indonesia on the same year For Indonesia’s part, Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board Deputy Director for Investment Promotion Nuru Ichiwan, in the same forum, said investment opportunities for the Philippines in Indonesia are in the areas of geothermal power generation and electricity distribution.

Global food player PT Mayora Indah Tbk Representative Ir. Maspiyono attested to the growth of the firm in the Philippines, citing the country as among its top-3 priority markets and floated the idea of possibly doing manufacturing here.

“Mayora plans to grow 10 times in three years with Asean, China and India as our top-3 priorities.

In Asean the Philippines is our No. 1 priority outside of Indonesia.

We have plans to manufacture in the Philippines but we are still studying the market well on what products would be more suitable.

For instance, the biscuit market in the Philippines is even bigger than coffee, so we are making further evaluation on the best products that may be considered for production,” he said. Catherine N. Pillas

nvap to govt: upgrade local health-care system

THE New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) on Tuesday urged the government to focus on preventive care by adopting a new tack in the country’s healthcare system.

“Hospitals and health centers are being overwhelmed with sick people.

This simply signifies that more people get sick likely because of the lack of health promotion from the authorities,” NVAP President Emer Rojas said, as he stressed the need for the government to focus more on preventing illnesses, aside from ensuring the people will get the treatment when they get sick. Health promotion may be a sustainable solution.

“If there would be more programs for healthy lifestyles and disease prevention through health promotion from the government, certainly, lesser people will get sick and lesser people will need medical care,” he added.

Rojas, a staunch antismoking advocate, cited the adoption of the graphic health warning (GHW) in cigarette packs as the best example of “preventive care” through awareness of the harm of tobacco use.

“GHWs make more people aware of the illnesses related to cigarette smoking, the more cigarette smokers will attempt to quit, and lesser youth would start smoking,” Rojas added.

Republic Act 10643, or the GHW law, mandates tobacco manufacturers to place picture-based warnings on cigarette packs. The health department released in October the required templates of the 12 GHWs to be used. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Mindanao on tight energy-supply watch

D

By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—Mindanao is on a tight energy watch going toward the holidays, as the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) announced a disturbing round of supply curtailment since December 9 due to a reported receding water level at the Lake Lanao in Central Mindanao.

The Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) said NGCP has announced dwindling supply of power going at 200 megawatts (MW) by Monday, with the DLPC franchise getting a slash of 40 MW from its regular supply of 355 MW from the Mindanao grid.

“It began with a curtailment of

only 9 MW last December 9. Now it’s 40 MW,” said Arturo Milan, executive vice president and COO of DLPC. Rodger S. Velasco, company vice president for engineering, said the tipping point for the company to beg in rotationa l brownouts was at 250-MW short-

age on a grid-wide basis.

“By then, all our standby plants and additional supply from other sources would not be adequate to prevent forced blackouts,” he said.

DLPC said NGCP’s text advisory on load curtailment “is due to the reduced capacities of the National Power Corp.[Napocor]-Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.’s Pulangi 4, and Agus 2 and 4 hydroelectric plants.”

T he 20 0 -M W shor t age on Monday was already expected to send a large portion of Mindanao into rotational brownouts due to lack of backup power sources in their localities.

The curtailment came at a time when Mindanao was supposed to usher in a year of surplus power by the middle of the year, when the Aboitiz-owned 300-MW coalfired power plant in western Davao City would begin to operate by the middle of the year, and the Alsonsowned 200-MW coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani, would

also begin operation by the third quarter.

Milan said the DLPC franchise would receive an additional 50 MW from the Aboitiz coal plant.

NGCP said it could not provide timely report on the decreasing water level at the lake, whose water that drains at the Agus River power up the six hydroelectric power plants along the river. These plants, along with the lone power plant in Maramag, Bukidnon, along the Pulangui River, supply 53 percent of the total electricity requirement of the Mindanao grid.

A Monday update of the Napocor web site said the Lanao Lake water level was 701.06 meters above sea level (masl), a slight dip, though, from its normal high level of 701.1 masl. The critical level is pegged at 699.15 masl.

The Pulangui power plant was taking water from the Pulangui River that receded to 282.44 masl, nearing the critical level of 282 masl.

Naia 1 rehabilitation 40% complete–Abaya

By Recto Mercene

N

otwithstanding unforeseen delays, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) will make sure that the P1.6-billion budget for the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 (Naia 1) would transform the terminal into a better facility.

“Definitely, it [would be a] marked significant improvement…,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya said shortly after conducting an ocular inspection on the 32-yearold passenger terminal. He said the repairs costing P1.6 billion is 40-percent complete.

“For me, it is nice, and I think for anybody else it’s much better,” Abaya said, adding that the Naia 1 needs more interiordesign improvements.

The Naia 1 rehabilitation project began on January 20 and was originally scheduled for completion in January, but some technical problems had caused delays.

Naia 1 Manager Dante Basanta confirmed that some technical problems encountered during rehabilitation had caused the delays.

“Unlike a new building where everything else is written down on a blueprint or plan, an improvement project is different and repairmen would encounter new problems along the way, which are not in the rehab plan,” Basanta said.

On the other hand, Abaya said that rehabilitation takes more time and that delays are expected.

Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio A. Abaya inspects the progress of the ongoing P1.6-billion rehabilitation project of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1. Despite delays, Abaya expressed optimism that the rehabilitation, which is 40-percent complete as of Tuesday, would be finished by May next year. Recto Mercene

“It is such a big facility. You can never pin down the final date of completion, especially on a rehabilitation project like this,” he said.

Abaya noted that the Naia 1 was structurally equipped with “buckling resistance braces, a metal diagonally erected across the building’s posts so it could withstand natural disaster such as earthquake.

He added that the date of

completion, which was earlier announced on March 15, will be moved back on May next year.

When asked about the latest online survey listing Naia 1 as the fourth worst airport, he quickly branded the survey as inaccurate.

Abaya pointed out that the Naia 1 can only accommodate 13 million passengers annually, but the online survey stated that the old terminal was accommodating 32 million passengers a year.

What was unacceptable, he said, was the survey that described the airport personnel as rude and undisciplined.

“For the first time you are seeing somebody describing Filipinos as being rude, disrespectful and discourteous.

Would you accept that we are rude as a people? Anyone, even media will not accept that Filipinos are discourteous,” Abaya said.

Galoc oil field targets 20,000 barrels output per day by 2017

N

ido Petroleum, with its major shareholder Bangchak Petroleum, is targeting to boost the Galoc oil field’s production to 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2017, Managing Director Phil Byrne said.

“As you know, Bangchak, a Thai refining company, took a major shareholding in us recently; our stated aim now is to build over 20,000 bpd by the end of three years,” Byrne said in a podcast on Tuesday.

He stressed this is the company’s first strategy on Service Contract (SC) 14C, adding it has not wasted time in moving toward the increased production.

Byrne added that its recent $108million offer for 33 percent of Otto Energy’s participating interest in the Galoc block is a logical move for the company, citing its very detailed insight and seven-year experience in SC 14C. If Otto Energy shareholders approve the sale on its annual general meeting in January 2015, Nido Petroleum will hold 55.8 percent of the participating stake in the Galoc field, making it the service-contract operator. It currently holds a 22.8-percent participating interest in the block.

In another disclosure from the Australian Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Otto Energy maintained that the sale of its participating interest in the Galoc block is still dependent on its shareholders.

The remaining participating interest in the Galoc block is held by Philodrill Corp. at 7.21 percent; Galoc Production Co. No. 2 Pte. Ltd. at 26.84 percent, Oriental Petroleum & Minerals Corp. and Linapacan Oil Gas & Power Corp. at 7.79 percent; and Forum Energy Philippines Corp. at 2.28 percent.

Byrne said the interest acquisition will raise Nido’s production by 4,000 bpd. For the third quarter of 2014, Galoc field’s production averaged 7,780 bpd.

The company maintained it is looking at the acquisition as a longterm investment, despite oil’s international price fallout, according to Byrne.

Byrne added that Nido sees the oil-price drop as another opportunity, stressing it can conduct further development on the field due to the consequent dive of ancillary services and other equipment.

Nido recently announced the signing of a sale and purchase agreement with Otto Energy Ltd. for its 33-percent stake in the Galoc Oil Field at $108 million, topping the SPA signed with Risco Energy Investments worth $101.4 million.

The $108-million transaction will be paid through Nido’s current cash capital and a debt facility from Bangchak Petroleum Public Company Limited of Thailand. It owns 81.41 percent of Nido Petroleum. PNA

Palace expects Aquino to sign P2.6-trillion 2015 budget bill before New Year

By Butch Fernandez

M

alacañang awaits official transmittal “within a few days” of the Congress-approved final version of the P2.6-trillion 2015 budget bill that President Aquino expects to sign into law before the year ends.

Communications Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. confirmed that following the practice set under the Aquino administration since 2011, the Palace schedules signing ceremonies for the official enactment of a new budget law before the expiration of the current fiscal year.

But Coloma admitted that the Office of the President is still awaiting official submission of

the 2015 budget bill that the two chambers of Congress ratified early this week.

“Aantabayanan natin ’yung pormal na pagsumite ng kopya ng inaprubahan at niratipikang budget,” Coloma told reporters, even as he indicated the Palace may have to wait a few more days as the money measure is still being subjected to a final review by lawmakers.

He added: “Maaari sigurong maghintay tayo ng ilang araw dahil voluminous ito [dahil] ilang volumes din ito. Sa aking pagkawari ay rerebyuhin [review] muna para tiyakin na lahat ’nung mga datos doon ay tama.”

Once the annual appropriations bill is submitted to the President, he said the Palace

will set the date for the formal signing rites in Malacañang that they expect would be held before January 1, 2015.

“Kapag naisumite na sa tanggapan ng Pangulo ay maaari ng ihanda ’yung paglagda dito. At batay doon sa naging karanasan natin hinggil sa 2011, 2012, 2013 at 2014 budget, ito ay idinaos bago matapos ang taon at dahil dito, naisagawa ’yung pormal na implementasyon ng General Appropriations Act simula sa unang taon ng budget year,” he said.

Coloma said this was why the Palace remains hopeful the entire process could be completed sooner to ensure the 2015 budget law takes effect on the first day of the new year.

“Inaasahan natin na maisasagawa din muli ito para sa 2015 national budget para simula sa Enero 1, 2015, ay magiging ganap na epektibo na ang ating pambansang budget.

Riddled with “pork,” lump sums

Meanwhile, Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna maintains that while the definition of “savings” by the bicameral panel is better than the Malacañang definition, the 2015 budget and the P22.4supplemental budget it approved are is still riddled with pork barrel and lump sums.

“Up till now the supplemental budget is a huge lump sum with no details, they have

not itemized projects like the various Priority Development Assistance Fund projects in the Department of Public Works and Highways budget, the P2.8-billion transformational plan of the Department of the Interior and Local Government or the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s P1.9 billion for the targeting system updating for poverty reduction,” Colmenares said.

“As regards the 2015 budget, we have been stressing the danger of the redefinition of savings because it transforms the budget into pork. We are glad that the bicameral committee’s definition of savings junked that of Malacañang’s,” he added.

Economy BusinessMirror

Wednesday, December 17, 2014 A5

ADB OKs $300-million education loan for PHL

T

By Cai U. Ordinario

he Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $300-million loan to the Philippines to support education reforms.

The loan will help finance the $4.41 million worth Senior High School Support Program. The part of the project cost, $4.11 million, which will not be financed by the ADB loan, will be funded by the national government as counterpart funding.

“ADB’s assistance will target improvements at the senior high-school level including curriculum development, new school infrastructure and a voucher program to help students with tuition costs,” ADB Southeast Asia Department Principal Education Specialist Norman LaRocque said.

The program will support selected elements of those reforms, including the development of new senior high-school curricula for mathematics, science, and technical and vocational training programs. It will be implemented between 2015 and 2019.

Assistance will also be given to build classrooms, to engage and train up to 84,000 teachers, and to develop and introduce a voucher system to help cover tuition for an estimated 800,000 senior high-school students each year.

The main beneficiaries of ADB’s assistance will be about 5.9 million students who are expected to enter senior high school from June 2016 to April 2019 during the early implementation phase of the new system.

The Philippines’s secondary school system faces access and quality challenges that hinder its ability to translate the country’s recent strong economic growth into better labor market outcomes for youth and reduced poverty.

The government of the Philippines in school year 2011 and 2012 began imple-

menting its new K to 12 reform plan, which introduced kindergarten and extended the period of basic schooling from 10 to 12 years.

A key part of that reform is the addition of two years of senior high school, which will take effect from school year 2016 and 2017.

“These major changes are designed to improve educational outcomes and better prepare students for both work and further education and training, as part of the government’s broader push for more inclusive growth,” LaRocque said.

The ADB loan to the Philippines is the fourth results-based lending program approved by ADB, and the first in Southeast Asia and the Philippines.

Results-based lending links disbursements directly to the achievement of program results. The loan complements other ADB support being provided to improve employment outcomes for youth in the Philippines.

In 2013 the ADB responded to the government’s call for emergency relief and reconstruction support when a major disaster hit central Philippines.

ADB approved $500 million for Emergency Assistance for Relief and Recovery from Supertyphoon Yolanda to support the government’s additional public spending needs under its recovery program.

The response also includes an emergency grant of $3 million under the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund, and a $20-million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction for emergency assistance and early recovery work.

ERC imposes seven-day P9/kWh cap at WESM

T

By Lenie Lectura

HE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is putting in place a P9-perkilowatt-hour (kWh) permanent limit over a seven-day period at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to protect consumers from unreasonable price increases in the spot market.

A resolution formalizing this so-called permanent mitigating measure will be signed within the week. The ERC, according to Executive Director Saturnino Juan, is looking at implementing this within the first or second week of January 2015 after publication next week.

“The commission just arrived at the figures and it’s just a matter of signing the resolution before we implement it. This is going to be implemented permanently until we decide to lift it,” Juan said.

ERC officials discussed the new threshold before a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

“The threshold is going to be at P9 during peak period over seven-days,” ERC Commissioner Josefina Patricia Asirit said.

A P6.245-per-kWh secondary price cap will immediately take effect once the P9per-kWh threshold has been breached.

Aside from the secondary price cap, the ERC had also put in place a primary bid cap of P62 per kWh. This was later reduced to P32-per-kWh in December of 2013 due to the unreasonable higher market prices during the Malampaya shutdown in November and December of last year. The P32-per-kWh primary cap remains in effect.

The secondary price cap used to be implemented once an average price of P8.186 per-kWh is hit over a 72-hour period until the implementation of which lapsed on December 8.

The ERC has decided to amend this,

putting in place the same secondary price cap but will only kick in when the P9-per- kWh threshold has been breached during a three-hour peak period over seven days.

“To arrive at the P9 threshold, we simulated the different price for the off-peak and peak periods. We assumed that in a day, there’s a peak that will last for three hours and assumed further that during this period the marginal plants will be the peaking plants and they will recover their costs at the maximum of P32 per kWh,” Juan said.

The price cap, Juan said, is the highest electricity price offered by a seller at the WESM. Trading happens as soon as suppliers submit bids to the market operator. These bids are then ranked from cheapest to the most expensive. The highest priced offer that is accepted becomes the spot market’s price for the hour.

Power suppliers said the price cap is disadvantageous and are asking the ERC to reconsider this.

“Maybe what the ERC can do is to lower the primary cap to P18 or P22 instead of P32 rather than put a secondary cap to reflect the true price at WESM,” said Ernesto Pantango, chairman of Management Association of the Philippines Committee on Energy.

Power suppliers had said the secondary price cap should be applicable only to the base-load and mid-merit plants but not for peaking plants, which generally run when there is high demand.

Peaking plants operate only during the times of peak demand, while baseload plants operate at maximum output.

Base-load plants usually run on coal and fuel oil, while peaking plants include hydro and gas turbine which can be fueled with natural gas or diesel.

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Editor: Alvin I. Dacanay

editorial

Newspapers: Alive and well in the Philippines

W

HEN you are in the newspaper business, and you read headlines like “Is traditional media actually dying, and does it matter?”, you start thinking that you are behind the times.

In the United States newspaper-advertising revenues peaked in 2000, and have declined every year since. This decline is not small: From an annual billing of $65 billion, it dropped to $20 billion in 2013.

Some are predicting that broadcast, rather than on-demand, television will be gone by 2030. Radio-advertising revenues are falling slightly. Book sales are plunging. The music industry is losing its traditional business to cheaper, but legal, digital downloads.

The rationale for this situation and for these predictions is that people do not want to spend the time and effort to open a newspaper or wait for their favorite TV program to come on that can be eliminated by the Internet.

But we all know that the information highway has been fueled, in large part, by social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. News organizations may have turned to the Internet, but their greatest advantage comes from breaking news in real time. In-depth reporting is still the same, whether the medium is traditional or digital.

BusinessMirror reporter Cai U. Ordinario wrote recently that Philippine traditional media are not only alive, but also thriving: “Over the past year, radio and television consumption increased to 62 percent and 95 percent, respectively. Television viewership was initially pegged at 93 percent, while radio-listening was at 53 percent in the same period in 2013.” Newspaper readership has also been stable for years.

For his part, Stuart Jamieson, Nielsen Philippines managing director, reported that a Nielsen’s Consumer and Media View study had said, “People are using traditional media in union with the new media.”

The Internet is great for many things, but we all know that too much on the “Net” is chatter, often biased and sometimes just plain wrong.

A newspaper or a licensed TV station puts its credibility on the line with every story or opinion it features. Traditional media cannot hide or simply press the “Delete” button. It must come back every day to win the public’s trust. A reporter or commentator must answer to an editor, who then must answer to the publisher.

It is good to know that Filipinos are still committed to traditional media. Behind every story in the newspaper is a team, from the reporters to the editors and publishers, who put their names and reputation on every word you read.

BusinessMirror A broader look at today’s business Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Founder Publisher Editor in Chief

T. Anthony C. Cabangon Jun B. Vallecera

Associate Editor News Editor City & Assignments Editor Special Projects Editor

Jennifer A. Ng Dionisio L. Pelayo Vittorio V. Vitug Max V. de Leon

Online Editor

Ruben M. Cruz Jr.

Research Bureau Head Creative Director Chief Photographer 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

The importance of sickness notification Susie G. Bugante

All About Social Security

T

HE Christmas season is upon us. Everywhere we go, there are crowds of people rushing to do their Christmas shopping.

Traffic in Metro Manila is almost at a standstill during rush hour, as people hurry across town for a reunion with family and friends, or simply to party. Now that the nine-day misa de gallo (early-morning Mass) has begun, many who observe this tradition have shorter sleeping hours and have to brave the chilly morning temperature that usually goes with the season. It’s no wonder, then, that Christmastime is one of the busiest times for most hospitals and medical facilities in the country.

According to medical experts, it is usually during this period that there is a considerable increase in stressrelated confinements or deaths.

Stress, lack of sleep, excessive eating and drinking often take their toll on most people’s health. And let’s not forget the effects of lighting fireworks during New Year’s Eve that victimize adults and children alike.

Given all these, it is timely to remind Social Security System (SSS) members to observe the sicknessnotification rule in order to make

www.businessmirror.com.ph

regional offices 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 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

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

ployer shall be reimbursed only for each day of sickness or confinement starting from the 10th calendar day immediately preceding the date of notification to the SSS. If the employee has given the required notification to the employer, but the employer fails to notify the SSS within the prescribed period, which results in the reduction or denial of the claim, the employer has no right to recover the daily sickness allowance advanced to the employee.

Filing the sickness notification might be the last thing in people’s minds when they are sick, but it is important to do so. It should be an automatic thing to do when informing one’s employer of his or her absence from work due to sickness or injury.

Have a blessed, joyful and healthy Christmas season, everyone!

For more information about the SSS sickness benefit, call the SSS 24hour call center at (632) 920-6446 to 55, Monday to Friday, or visit the SSS website at www.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.

China’s lost generation finds itself in Ukraine Adam Minter

BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd floor of Dominga Building III 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.

the most of their sickness benefit.

The SSS sickness benefit is a daily cash allowance paid for a number of days that a member is unable to work because of sickness or injury.

To qualify for this benefit, a member must have been sick for at least four days, either in or out of the hospital; have at least three monthly contributions within the 12-month period immediately before the semester of sickness or injury; have used up all company sick leaves with pay; and have notified the employer

of his or her sickness or injury by filling out the sickness-benefit notification form, or the SSS if he or she is an unemployed, voluntary or self-employed member.

A member should notify the employer within five calendar days from the start of sickness or injury. The employer, in turn, must notify the SSS within five calendar days after receiving the notification from the employee-member. If the member was confined in a hospital, he or she has one year from the start of the confinement within which to notify his or her employer. If the sickness or injury was work-related, sickness notification should be done within 10 days from the start of confinement.

The employer, in turn, has 10 calendar days to notify the SSS of the member’s work-related sickness or injury.

What happens if either the employee or the employer fails to notify the SSS during the prescribed period?

In the case of the employee, voluntary or self-employed members, the confinement or sickness period to be considered shall not be earlier than the fifth day immediately preceding the date of notification.

If the employer notifies the SSS beyond five calendar days after the notification was received, the em-

T

BLOOMBERG VIEW

HE latest viral story in China is the rags-to-riches tale of a young man named Mei Aicai. A working-class high-school graduate who scored abysmally on China’s college entrance exam, Mei now owns his own business; claims the title to threequarters of an acre of land; lives in a split-level house; and is married to an 18-year-old who—the Chinese Internet universally agrees—looks like a model. One more thing: Mei achieved all his good fortune after leaving China for Ukraine.

For the Chinese public, the moral of Mei’s story is clear: For anyone who lacks family connections, elite academic credentials and a big bank account, it’s now easier to achieve upward mobility in Kiev than Shanghai.

It’s not hard to imagine what would have happened to Mei, with his modest background and limited education, had he remained in China.

Faced with a slowing economy, high housing prices, widening income inequality and a tough job market for college graduates, millions of young Chinese now feel stuck on the lowermiddle rungs of their country’s ladder of success.

This widespread feeling has co-

alesced into an identity known as diaosi. The term is commonly translated into English as “loser”—although its most literal translation would be a vulgar reference to the male anatomy—and was originally used to describe young, underemployed and Internet-obsessed males. But over the past five years, it has escaped its derogatory connotations, transforming into a more pliable identity that’s available to anyone who wants to distance himself from China’s money- and status-obsessed culture.

For some people in China, such distancing is a voluntary pastime.

But for Mei’s many peers, it’s not a choice at all. For them, the diaosi

identity is an expression of their straitened economic circumstances.

When the Market and Media Research Center at Peking University, China’s top academic institution, recently released a nationwide online survey of China’s working class, it was no coincidence that it bore the title “The 2013 Diaosi Living Conditions Report.” Sixty-two percent of the 213,795 working-class people who responded to the survey were identified as losers.

The men ranged in age from 21 to 25; women, from 26 to 30 (though the diaosi identity is more commonly attached to males). They have an average monthly income of $471 (by comparison, Beijing’s average monthly income in 2013 was $936).

They generally can’t afford to own their own homes, partly because 71 percent give money to their parents on a monthly basis (averaging $173, or roughly one-third of their monthly income).

The consequences are rough, especially for men, who are widely expected to own their own homes before marriage. Perhaps, the least surprising finding of the survey is that half of all self-identified diaosi are single, and 72 percent say they are unhappy with their lives.

Enter Mei. His Ukrainian success story first appeared on Chinese news

portals on December 8, and it was almost immediately characterized online as a “diaosi counterattack”. Mei was praised for avoiding the diaosi fate by taking up residence in a place where his natural talents weren’t suppressed by China’s academic culture (and its obsession with testing), and an expectation that he had proper connections (and the taint of corruption so often associated with them).

In an interview with one news outlet, Mei also suggested that China suffered by comparison with Ukraine not just economically, but culturally. Mei emphasized that Ukrainian women, unlike their Chinese counterparts, marry for love, rather than money. That sexist comment has been echoed for days in online comments by young male diaosi frustrated by China’s materialistic dating culture.

The diaosi aren’t politically organized, and they don’t represent a coherent social movement. But they are representative of the diminished expectations that many young Chinese have as China enters a prolonged period of slower growth and rigid income inequality. If the Chinese government truly hopes to reform its economy, it’ll need to find a way to make sure that the diaosi don’t continue to feel like losers in a game rigged against them.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

The sad future of our planet

Insurers and skyscrapers Dennis B. Funa

Roberto Savio

INSURANCE FORUM

Inter press service

R

OME—It is now official: The current intergovernmental system is not able to act in the interest of humankind.

The United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru—which ended on Sunday, two days after it was scheduled to close—was the last step before the next Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015, when a global agreement must be reached.

In Lima 196 countries with several thousand delegates negotiated for two weeks to find a common position on which to convene in Paris in a year’s time. Lima was preceded by a historic meeting between United States President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in which the world’s two main polluters agreed on a course of action to reduce pollution.

Well, Lima has produced a draft climate pact, adopted by everybody, simply because it carries no obligation. It is a kind of global gentlemen’s agreement, where it is supposed that the world is inhabited only by gentlemen, including energy corporations.

This is an act of colossal irresponsibility, where, for the sake of an agreement, not one solution has been found.

The “big idea” is to leave to every country the task of deciding its own cuts in pollution according to its own criteria.

And everybody is aware that this is most certainly a disaster for the planet.

“It is a breakthrough, because it g ives meaning to the idea that every country will make cuts,” said Yvo de Boer, the Dutch diplomat who is the former executive secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change. ”But the great hopes for the process are also gone.”

To make things clear, all delegates knew that, without some binding treaty to reduce emissions, there is no way that this would happen. But they accepted what it is possible, even if it does not solve the problem. It is like a hospital that has the key surgeon announcing that the good news is that the patient will remain paralyzed.

The agreement is based on the idea that every country will publicly commit itself to adopting its own plan for reducing emissions, based on criteria established by national governments on the basis of their domestic politics, not on what scientists have been indicating as absolutely necessary.

This, of course, is the kind of treat that no country in the world objects to.

The real value of the treaty is not the issue. The issue is that the intergovernmental system is able to declare unity and common engagement. The interests of humankind are not part of the equation. Humankind is supposed to be parceled among 196 countries, and so is the planet.

Act of irresponsibility

THIS act of irresponsibility is clear when you look at all the countries producing energy, like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Ecuador, Nigeria and Qatar, whose governments are interested in using oil exports to keep themselves in the saddle.

And take a look at what the world’s third-largest polluter—India—is doing in the spirit of the Lima treaty. Under the motto “We like clean India, but give us jobs”, the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is moving with remarkable speed to eliminate any regulatory burden for industry, mining, power projects, the armed forces and so on.

According to the high-level committee assigned to rewrite India’s environmental-law system, the country’s regulatory system ”served only the purpose of a venal administration.” So, what did

it suggest? It presented a new paradigm: ”The concept of utmost good faith”, under which business owners themselves will monitor the pollution generated by their projects, and they will monitor their own compliance!

The newly appointed Indian National Board for Wildlife, which is responsible for the country’s protected areas, cleared 140 pending projects in just two days; small coal mines have onetime permission to expand without any hearing; and there is no longer any need for the approval of tribal villages for forest projects.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar boasted: ”We have decided to decentralize decision-making. Ninety percent of the files won’t come to me anymore.” And he said he was not phasing out important environmental protections, just “those [that], in the name of caring for nature, were stopping progress.” He also plans to devolve power to state regulators, which environmental expert say is akin to relinquishing any national integrated policy.

Oil-price decrease

IT is, of course, totally coincidental that the Lima conference took place in the middle of the greatest decrease in oil prices in five years. The price of a barrel of oil is now hovering about the $60 mark, down from over $100 two years ago. This price level has basically been decided by Saudi Arabia, which did not agree to cut production to increase the cost of a barrel.

The most espoused explanation was that the low cost would undercut schist gas exploitation, which is making the US energy self-sufficient again—and a possible gas exporter in the future. But this will equally undercut renewable energies, like wind or solar power, which have higher costs and will be abandoned when cheap oil is available.

Again, coincidentally, this is creating very serious problems for countries like Russia and Venezuela (US irritants) and Iran (a direct enemy), which are now having serious economic and political problems. And again, coincidentally, this is making use of fossil energy more tempting at a moment in which the world was finally accepting that there is a climate-change problem.

Next March countries will have to present their national plans, and it will, then, become clear that governments are lacking on the very simple task of arresting climate change, and this will lead us to irreversible damage by our climate’s final deadline, which was identified as 2020.

Thus, the exercise of irresponsibility in Lima will also become an exercise in futility.

Is there any doubt that if the people, and not governments, were responsible for saving the planet, their answer would have been swifter and more efficient?

Young people, all over the world, have very different priorities from corporations and industry, but they also have much less political clout.

T

HE history of the evolution of insurance companies and the early construction of skyscrapers are somehow intertwined.

In fact, American industrialist Henry Ford, in contemplating the high-rise buildings of New York City, once remarked: “This has only been made possible by the insurers. They are the ones who really built this city. With no insurance, there would be no skyscrapers. No investor would finance buildings that one cigarette butt could burn to the ground.”

However, more than making it possible to build high-rise buildings in New York, insurance companies have also left their indelible mark in the history of skyscrapers by the buildings they have constructed for themselves.

The Equitable Life Assurance Building, on 120 Broadway, New York, was completed on May 1, 1870.

Considered as the “world’s first skyscraper”, the building served as the headquarters of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Other than its towering height—130 feet (40 meters)—the structure is also noted for being the first tall building to install a passenger elevator. The building was designed by architects Arthur Gilman and Edward Kendall, while the elevators were made by Elisha Otis Co. On January 9, 1912, however, the building was destroyed by fire. The Equitable Building was then built on the same site in 1915.

The Home Insurance Building in Chicago would later seize the title of “the world’s highest skyscraper”.

Built in 1884 using the design of architect William Le Baron Jenney, the 10-story building stood at 138 feet (42 meters). An additional two stories were added to the structure in 1890.

Based on current US standards, the

building would now be considered a relatively small one, but back then, it was one of the tallest and finest man-made creations that graced the Chicago skyline.

In addition to its astounding height, the building was also groundbreaking because it pioneered the use of structural steel in a metal-frame design. While an earlier building—the Ditherington Flax Mill—had used structural steel as frames, it was only five stories high. The Home Insurance Building was eventually demolished to make way for new development. Today the Bank of America building, built in 1931, stands on the site.

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Tower was built on Madison Avenue, New York, in 1909. At 50 stories and 700 feet (210 meters) high, it was the world’s tallest building at the time. It was built intentionally to impress the public with its beautiful architectural design and to celebrate the successes of Metropolitan Life, which had a staff of 2,800. Inaugurated with much fanfare, the building was even featured in the leading science magazine Scientific American, which described it as having “extensive Early Renaissance-styled detailing, with the more modern additions of huge clock faces, electric flash-

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

lights for nighttime illumination and an observation deck at the top.”

In 1909 it had “the latest ideas in ventilation, air-conditioning, sound deadening, artificial lighting, intercommunicating pneumatic tubes, telephones, call bells, unit operating clock systems, [and] special elevator and escalator installations.”

Insurance companies seemed to have spared no expense in constructing their buildings. Even the American Insurance Union Tower, built in 1927, cost as much as $8 million, which is equivalent to $1.2 billion in 2010.

Buildings in the Philippines

IN the Philippines the 48-story PhilamlifeTower,onPaseodeRoxasin Makati City, is currently the seventhtallest building in the city and the 14th tallest in the Philippines. It was built by Philam Properties Corp., a subsidiary of the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife), and was designed by the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Llp., in collaboration with W.V. Coscolluela & Associates. The general contractor was EEI Corp.

Philamlife Tower is renowned for being an “intelligent” building, or an automated building with centralized control of vital facilities, including ventilation and air-conditioning. It features impressive large columnfree floor plates and a unitized curtainwall of glass, aluminum panel and granite, as well as horizontal sunscreens, vertical fins, light bullnoses, crown lighting and balcony trellises.

At the lobby, one can wonder at the mirror stainless-steel shopfronts, capped with functional sculpted canopies in hairline finish. There is also provision for 24-hour air-conditioning and 16 high-speed elevators. There are eight corner offices on every floor, and the tower also boasts of a helipad.

As if these features are not impressive enough, the building also

A

houses the so-called Tower Club, an exclusive private business club that caters only to the cream of the crop of the corporate world.

The Insular Life Assurance Co. built its corporate office on Ayala Avenue in Makati in 1962, known as the Insular Life Building. Back then, it was the first building in the country to exceed the 30-meter height limit.

It was designed by renowned architect Cesar H. Concio Sr., the fatherin-law of ABS-CBN Corp. President and CEO Charo Santos-Concio. Insular Life, however, has transferred its headquarters to the Insular Life Corporate Center in Filinvest, Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

Sun Life Philippines built its Sun Life Centre at Bonifacio Global City and inaugurated it in 2011. It is certified to be a “green” building under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, system, a building-rating system that was adopted by the US Green Building Council. It features a double-glazed, low-emissivity glass that allows daylight to come in while blocking outside noise and heat, helping reduce harmful emissions and minimize the use of cooling devices. The building’s “green roof” is also an impressive piece of technology that allows the harvesting of rain water for nonpotable usage. More than these, it also addresses the “sick-building syndrome” by allowing the passage of natural air in its ventilation system.

For over a century, the race to build the highest and the most impressive skyscraper has become a fierce competition within the insurance industry, locally and internationally. Hence, at this rate, it should come as no surprise if, one day, the Insurance Commission joins this aggressive race to reach the skies.

Dennis B. Funa is the Insurance Commission’s deputy commissioner for legal services. Send comments to dennisfuna@yahoo.com.

Roberto Savio is the founder and president emeritus of the Inter Press Service news agency and the publisher of Other News.

Japanese nationalists try to revise history on ‘comfort women’

MONG the many horrors of World War II was the Japanese military’s peculiar system of sexual slavery, in which women were kidnapped or otherwise conscripted to provide sex for Japanese troops as they invaded their way around Asia and the Pacific. Now, some rightwing nationalists in Japan are trying to persuade the world that it never happened.

This is nonsense. The historical record is clear about the “comfort

A7

women,” as are the memories of the women themselves who were forced into a system of sexual slavery. But the truth is apparently not an obstacle for Japan’s nationalists, who are in the midst of a campaign to obliterate memory of Japan’s atrocities and its war-mongering role in Asia in the 1930s and early 1940s. Bizarrely, the campaign has even led former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone to disavow part of his 1978 memoir in which he wrote that, as an army lieutenant, he

created “comfort stations”—the euphemism for military brothels— to entertain his troops. More recent, he said that he set up recreation centers where his men could play board games.

Now the nonsense has reached new levels of absurdity. Nationalist revisionists have attacked The Asahi newspaper and one of its former reporters who was among the first to bring the sexual slavery to light. Seizing on fabrications from a single source in a series of stories

more than 20 years ago, the critics are arguing that Asahi alone was responsible for leading the world to believe a falsehood about Japan’s wartime behavior—an analysis that ignores the volumes of testimonies from the women themselves. Revisionists have also asked Radhika Coomaraswamy, the author of a 1996 United Nations Commission on Human Rights report to retroactively change her findings. She has refused. Here in California, a similar impulse sparked an outcry

and a lawsuit seeking removal of a Glendale statue memorializing the comfort women; the plaintiffs are appealing a district-court ruling preserving the statue.

These grotesque efforts at whitewashing history mirror Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to reconfigure Japan’s past, including removing from textbooks references to the forced suicides of Okinawans ahead of the Allied surge that wrested control of the island from the Japanese.

Ultimately, Abe is trying to move

Japan beyond its wartime legacy, including reinterpreting its pacifist postwar constitution to allow for a stronger military and to position Japan as a competitor with China as a Pacific power.

Setting aside speculation about Abe’s ultimate goals, these acts of historical dishonesty are cynical efforts to obscure unpleasant realities. National leaders owe it to their people, and to the world, not to play games with history.

Los Angeles Times/TNS

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Project approvals to wait until after Pope visit in Jan

By Cai U. Ordinario

T

he Aquino administration will no longer be approving big-ticket projects this year, as it has moved the next National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board meeting to midJanuary next year, or after the visit of Pope Francis.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Neda Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday that the holiday break and preparation for the pope’s visit will make it difficult to conduct a Neda Board meeting in the remainder of the year.

The board is the highest policymaking body of the Neda and is tasked with the approval of major government projects. It is chaired by the President.

“We hope to have one after the pope’s visit next year. Hopefully, within the first half of next month, we could have [a Neda Board meeting],” Balisacan said.

However, Balisacan and PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao told reporters that a meeting of the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC)-Cabinet Committee (Cabcom) is scheduled on Friday.

Canilao said the projects to be discussed in the ICC-Cabcom include

eight PPP projects, including the revised project details for the P19.23billion Motor-Vehicle Inspection System and changes in the P35.4billion Cavite-Laguna Expressway.

The PPP Center official said the list also includes the bid parameters for the North Luzon Expressway-South Luzon Expressway connector.

The ICC-Cabcom will also discuss new projects, such as the P177.22-billion North-South Commuter Railway and the P374.5-billion Makati-PasayTaguig Mass Transit System Loop Project, which is the country’s first subway project.

Other projects to be discussed include the P400-million Tanauan City Public Market and the P1.16-billion Civil Registry System-IT project.

The ICC-Cabcom will also revisit the first phase of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway project due to a variation in its contract.

These projects will form part of the PPP pipeline of projects next year.

Canilao said this includes the Ninoy Aquino International Airport redevelopment project and the extension of the Light Rail Transit Line 1.

“We [will] continue to develop projects for the various implementing agencies,” Canilao added.

Currently, the PPP pipeline includes 51 projects worth at least $21.97 billion. These projects are See “Pope,” A2

www.businessmirror.com.ph

PPA seeks port users’ help in avoiding another logjam

S

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

TATE-RUN Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is asking importers and cargo owners to withdraw their cargoes from the ports in Manila due to the threat of clogging the terminals as shipments surge.

PPA General Manager Juan C. Sta. Ana said the 10-day holiday, from December 24 to 28 and from December 30 to January 4, will “definitely” clog the ports, with incoming import cargoes expected to bring yard utilization back to near-congestion level.

He explained that the private sector will play a key role in sustaining the decongestion effort of the government. Otherwise, all measures implemented will be flushed down the drain due to the holidays.

“Our port operators will be op-

erating 24/7, except on New Year’s Day, as vessels continue to come in even during this holiday season,” Sta. Ana said.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC), he said, is, likewise, crafting operational measures to guarantee it can clear cargoes even during the holidays.

“I am urging all our importers, brokers, truckers, freight forwarders, cargo owners and other right holders to withdraw their cargoes early, or double their volume withdrawals as a preemptive measure against a

potential congestion brought about by the holidays,” Sta. Ana stressed. “We have brought down yard utilization to a more manageable level and if cargo owners and brokers fail to takeout their cargoes, our yards can easily fill up and we will be right back to congestion level.”

The situation at the two ports of Manila has improved over the weekend, with only a single percent of cargo volume needed to be cleared to breach the 80-percent optimal utilization level.

As of December 12, the combined yard utilization of the Ports of Manila—composed of the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and the Manila South Harbor (MSH)—is pegged at 81 percent or roughly 66,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a percent short of the 65,200-TEU optimal utilization level. Individually, MICT has a yard utilization of 84 percent, or approximately 42,400 TEUs, while MSH has a utilization of 77 percent, or roughly 23,800 TEUs. Likewise, the number of vessels at queue was reduced to a combined total of 16 vessels, excluding those currently at berth from a high of 30

vessels a couple of weeks ago. As of December 12, MICT has six vessels at berth with 12 vessels at queue, while MSH has four vessels at berth and four vessels at queue.

Toward the end of November, yard-utilization level even breached the target level, after it went down to 78 percent, but the subsequent weekend brought back the level to above 80 percent.

The port body and the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion continue to negotiate with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Metro Manila Council to allow trucks to ply the Roxas Boulevard area beyond December 22. Starting on Wednesday, the MMDA will, again, allow trucks to ply Roxas Boulevard from midnight to 5 a.m., but only until December 22.

Two weeks ago, the MMDA imposed a total truck ban on Roxas Boulevard to give way to the holidays and the papal visit set for next month.

As a result, combined container gate outs from the two Manila ports declined by at least 10 percent from an average of 7,000 TEUs from Monday to Friday to an average of 6,200 TEUs.

‘KULAY AT ANYO NG AWITING PILIPINO’ Continuing an annual tradition that began in 1922, the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City, held its lantern parade on Monday, with the theme “Pasundayag Diliman: Pag-uugat at Pagyabong” (Pasundayag is Cebuano for celebration.) In photo is one of the Filipino folk song-inspired lanterns from the UP College of Fine Arts. CAI U. ORDINARIO

ANOTHER SIGN OF SLOWING CHINA ECONOMY SURFACES C

hinese manufacturing contracted in December for the first time in seven months in another sign the slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy is quickening, according to a survey of factories released on Tuesday.

HSBC’s preliminary purchasing managers’ index fell to a seven-month low of 49.5 from 50 in November, based on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 indicate expansion. It was the first time the index dipped below 50 since May, when it was 49.4.

It’s the latest in a string of weak data on China’s economy, which is struggling to meet its full-year growth target amid weak global demand. China’s economy expanded at a five-year low of 7.3 percent last quarter, below the official full-year target of 7.5 percent.

The report boosts expectations that policy-makers will add stimulus in order to prevent the economy from stalling.

China’s communist leaders, who have expressed confidence they can manage the slowdown, cut interest rates unexpectedly in November in a sign that they were worried that growth was falling too sharply.

“The manufacturing slowdown continues in December and points to a weak ending for 2014,” HSBC chief China economist Qu Hongbin said. “The rising disinflationary pressures, which fundamentally reflect weak demand, warrant further monetary easing in the coming months.”

Other recent official data for November showed that growth in industrial production slowed to 7.2 percent, while imports contracted unexpectedly.

The report’s final version is due on January 2. The reading shows that China’s downturn deepened in December, even after efforts by the central bank to ease monetary conditions, including with a cut to benchmark See “China,” A2