BusinessMirror January 19, 2015

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Tuesday, 18,2015 2014Vol.Vol.1010No.No.10240 Monday,November January 19,

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CALAX, 6 OTHER PROJECTS UP FOR APPROVAL AS CABINET RETURNS TO WORK THIS WEEK

Neda Board set to OK ₧627-B PPPs

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By Lorenz S. Marasigan

EVEN key infrastructure projects, with a total price tag of P627.31 billion, are expected to be approved

by President Aquino this week at the meeting of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board.

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao said the controversial Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) deal is one of the seven projects tabled for the Neda Board’s approval on Thursday.

“We can publish the invitation to bid for Calax next month. The bidsubmission date will be four months from the publication of the invitation,” she said in an interview.

President Aquino last November

decided to void the outcome of the deal’s original bidding, in which Team Orion of Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. emerged as the top bidder, with a premium bid of P11.33 billion.

The President’s decision came after four months of reviewing the petition of then-disqualified party San Miguel Corp., which urged Malacañang to declare its allegedly P20.1-billion bid as compliant.

Continued on A2

‘GLOBAL WOES TO DELAY FED’S RATE ADJUSTMENT’

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LOBAL weakness poses the main threat to the outlook for an otherwise robust US economy, a top Federal Reserve (the Fed) official said on Sunday, highlighting a headwind that investors bet may delay Fed rate increases until late this year.

“Weakness abroad is trimming some from my forecast” for US growth, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams told reporters, after a speech at the regional Fed bank. “The big negative on the US economy and financial markets is abroad.”

He spoke on a day of economic data that continued to send mixed signals for policy: Consumer confidence rose to an 11-year high, while a measure of inflation dropped by the most in six years. Stocks climbed,

snapping a five-day slide in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as energy shares rallied with the price of oil.

Fed officials are closely watching expectations for future inflation, which have declined in recent weeks. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told a Chicago event on Sunday that a central bank“must protect its credibility with respect to its inflation goal.”

Williams, a voting member of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year whose views often are close to those of Chairman Janet Yellen, said he’s in no hurry to raise the central bank’s key interest rate, which has been held near zero since late 2008.

“There’s no need to rush to raising rates,” he told reporters. “At the Continued on A12

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 44.8320

FILIPINO Catholics take photos, using their phones and tablets, of Pope Francis aboard the popemobile as his motorcade passes by the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Friday. Tens of thousands of people waited for hours in hopes of catching a glimpse of the Roman Catholic Church leader. The sight of the pontiff’s vehicle sent crowds cheering wildly, and cell-phone and tablet cameras snapping. More photos on A6 and A7. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ

Filipinos’ adoration for Pope Francis ‘super-overwhelming’–Malacañang LACIERDA said the Palace was “well pleased” with the efforts of the government and Church leaders involved in ensuring an almost glitch-free hosting of various events lined up for the pontiff.

By Butch Fernandez & Cai Ordinario

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ALACAÑANG officials admitted over the weekend that they were “superoverwhelmed” by the outpouring of adoration accorded by millions of Filipinos to the charismatic Pope Francis.

Malacañang Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Palace was “well pleased” with the efforts of the government and Church leaders involved in ensuring an almost glitch-

free hosting of various events lined up for the pontiff.

The Palace, however, expressed deep regret for the single casualty— volunteer church worker Kristal May Pasadas, who died from head injuries after she was accidentally hit by a steel scaffolding felled by strong winds at the Palo Archdiocese in Tacloban, where the pope held Mass on Saturday.

But Lacierda reserved the highest praise for all the Filipino devotees who cooperated with the government and Church organizers tasked

to coordinate proceedings at the always jam-packed papal events.

“The response of the people has been ‘super’-overwhelming, as indicated by the presence of the people on the road and in the events themselves,” Lacierda said in a text message to Palace reporters. “The Filipino people have truly shown to Pope Francis how much he is loved.”

On the eve of his departure from the Philippines, the pontiff met with local youth groups at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and celebrated Continued on A12

n JAPAN 0.3804 n UK 68.0101 n HK 5.7827 n CHINA 7.2330 n SINGAPORE 33.6324 n AUSTRALIA 36.5826 n EU 52.8031 n SAUDI ARABIA 11.9453 Source: BSP (14 January 2015)

A2

News BusinessMirror

Monday, January 19, 2015

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Neda Board set Filipinos’ adoration for Pope Francis to OK P627-B PPPs ‘super-overwhelming’–Malacañang Continued from A1

Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc., a unit of the food-to-infrastructure firm, was debarred from the initial tender, after failing the evaluation of its technical proposal.

The fresh auction, slated for February, will carry a floor price of P20 billion in premium.

Also up for approval is the request of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway’s (TPLEx) proponent for additional subsidy.

“The proponent sought for a variation order, or an additional subsidy of P1.9 billion, which will be used for the third phase of expansion of the TPLEx to four lanes,” Canilao explained in a phone interview with the BusinessMirror.

When approved, Private Infra Development Corp. will receive the amount to jumpstart the expansion of the 88.85-kilometer thoroughfare, which traverses the provinces of Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union and Nueva Ecija.

Completing the list of projects up for Neda Board approval are the P18-billion Connector Road; the P177.22-billion NorthSouth Commuter Rail; the P374.5billion Mass Transit System Loop; the P19.33-billion Motor Vehicle Inspector System; and the P1.16billion Civil Registry System Information Technology Phase 2.

The government has awarded eight key infrastructure contracts since the flagship infrastructure program was launched in late-2010, involving:

■ The P1.96-billion Daang HariSouth Luzon Expressway project bagged by Ayala Corp. in 2011; ■ The P16.42-billion Phase 1 of the PPP School Infrastructure Program (PSIP), which went in 2012 to the consortium formed by Megawide Construction Corp. and Citicore Holdings Investment Inc., as well as the BF Corp.-Riverbanks Development Corp. consortium; ■ The P15.68-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway, given to San Miguel Corp. unit Vertex Tollways Development Inc. in 2013; ■ The P3.86-billion PSIP Phase 2 contract, partially awarded in 2013 to Megawide and the BSP & Co. Inc.-Vicente T. Lao Construction consortium; ■ The P5.69-billion Modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center project that went to the MegawideWorld Citi Inc.consortium also in 2013.

■ the P1.72-billion Automatic Fare-Collection System contract awarded to the AF Consortium of Ayala and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) in 2014; ■ The P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu International Airport New Passenger Terminal project bagged in 2014 by Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructures Ltd.; and ■ The P64.9-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite Extension deal, awarded in 2014 to Light Rail Manila Consortium of Ayala and MPIC. The government aims to sign at least 15 contracts by the time President Aquino steps down from office in 2016.

Continued from A12

a different eye. Women are able to pose questions that we men are not able to understand,” the pope said.

“When the next pope comes [to Manila], please [include] more girls, women, among the number.”

Prior to the pope’s meeting with the youth, he also met with religious leaders representing various religious sects at the UST’s Arc of the Centuries, including BusinessMirror’s Chairman Emeritus Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua.

BusinessMirror is the sister company of GenCars Philippines which donated the customized Isuzu DMax LS popemobile that the pontiff used extensively in Manila during his visit. The meeting with the youth was the pope’s third event in Manila. As the Royal, Catholic and Pontifical University, UST is often included in the itinerary of papal visits since the 1970s.

In the afternoon, a record 6 million Filipinos trooped to Quirino Grandstand in Manila where he marked the feast day of Santo Niño and celebrated Mass.

In his homily, Francis prayed for Filipinos “to work together, protecting one another, beginning with your families and communities, in building a world of justice, integrity and peace.”

He also asked the Santo Niño to continue to bless the Philippines and to sustain Christians as witnesses and missionaries of the Gospel, in Asia and in the whole world.

The Holy Father also reminded people that the Santo Niño symbolizes that we are all children of God and that we should help one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

He commended the Filipinos for showing that they are indeed God’s children in the aftermath of Supertyphoon Yolanda last year when they joined hands to help rebuild the lives of those who lost their loved ones and were displaced by the typhoon.

“This is who we are. This is our identity. We saw a beautiful expression of this when Filipinos rallied around our brothers and sisters affected by the typhoon,” he said.

Francis noted that God created the world as “a beautiful garden” and tasked His children to care for it.

However, he said, man has “disfigured” God’s garden through sin, which also “destroyed the unity and beauty of our human family, creating social structures which perpetuate poverty, ignorance and corruption.”

“The devil is the father of lies.

Often he hides his snares behind the appearance of sophistication, the allure of being “modern”, “like everyone else”. He distracts us with the promise of ephemeral pleasures, superficial pastimes,” the Holy Father said.

“And so we squander our Godgiven gifts by tinkering with gadgets; we squander our money on gambling and drink; we turn in on ourselves.

We forget to remain focused on the things that really matter. We forget

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST JANUARY 19, 2015 | MONDAY

TODAY’S WEATHER

Tropical Storm is a cyclone category with winds of 64 - 118 kph.

METRO MANILA

20 – 31°C

19 – 31°C

TUGUEGARAO

19 – 28°C

19 – 28°C

LAOAG

BAGUIO TUGUEGARAO CITY 20 – 27°C

SBMA/ CLARK

BAGUIO CITY 14 – 21°C SBMA/CLARK 21 – 29°C METRO MANILA 21 – 29°C

JAN 20 JAN 21 JAN 22 TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

TAGAYTAY CITY 18 – 28°C

TAGAYTAY

PHILIPPINE AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (PAR)

LEGAZPI

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY 24 – 31°C

METRO CEBU 24 – 31°C

and Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

JAN 20 JAN 21 JAN 22 TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

19 – 31°C

METRO CEBU

25 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

25 – 31°C

18 – 29°C

TACLOBAN

23 – 30°C

24 – 31°C

23 – 31°C

21 – 30°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO

20 – 30°C

13 – 21°C

21 – 30°C

18 – 29°C

20 – 28°C

23 – 32°C

23 – 32°C

23 – 32°C

METRO DAVAO

12 – 22°C

25 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

22 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

23 – 33°C

18 – 29°C

12 – 21°C

22 – 32°C

TACLOBAN CITY 24 – 30°C

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY 23 – 31°C

ZAMBOANGA CITY 23 – 32°C

PUERTO PRINCESA

ILOILO/ BACOLOD

23 – 30°C

23 – 31°C

ZAMBOANGA

SUNSET

MOONSET

MOONRISE

6:25 AM

5:48 PM

4:34 PM

4:47 AM

24 – 29°C

HALF MOON NEW MOON

24 – 32°C

JAN 20

9:14 PM

Cloudy skies with rain showers and/or thunderstorms.

25 – 31°C

25 – 31°C

24 – 32°C

Partly cloudy to at times cloudy with rainshowers

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 CELEBES SEA

4:46 AM

-0.21 METER

8:54 PM

1.16 METER

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and/or thunderstorms

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

METRO DAVAO 24 – 32°C

LOW TIDEMANILA HIGH TIDE SOUTH HARBOR

JAN 13

24 – 31°C

24 – 33°C

SUNRISE

5:46 PM

24 – 31°C

24 – 31°C

19 – 29°C

LEGAZPI CITY 24 – 29°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 30°C

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST

legas delivered his words of gratitude.

Tagle, for his part, said the pope’s five-day visit has strengthened the faith of the Filipinos.

He thanked the pope on behalf of “ the street children, the orphans, the widows, the homeless, the informal settlers, the laborers, the farmers, the fisher folk, the sick, the abandoned elderly, the families of missing persons, the victims of discrimination, violence, abuse, exploitation, human trafficking, the Filipino migrant workers and their families, the survivors of natural calamities and armed conflicts, the non-Christian Catholics, the followers of nonChristian religions, the promoters of peace, especially in Mindanao and creation that groans.”

“We promise to pray for you. But we want to assure you that Jesus prays for you. Jesus himself declared to Peter, “I have prayed for you that you own faith may not fail,” Tagle said.

“Your holiness, you are blessed.

Jesus prays for you. We your beloved Filipinos unite ourselves with Jesus in praying for you to God the Father,” he added.

The pontiff will leave for Rome on Monday morning. Government officials and church leaders are expected to lead the Farewell Ceremonies for Francis at the Villamor Air Base. The pontiff will leave for Rome on Monday morning. Government officials and church leaders are expected to lead the Farewell Ceremonies for Francis at the Villamor Air Base. With Joel San Juan

TROPICAL STORM “AMANG” WAS ESTIMATED AT 45 KM NORTHWEST CATARMAN, NORTHERN SAMAR. (AS OF JANUARY 18, 5:00 AM)

LAOAG CITY 21 – 29°C

to remain, at heart, children of God,” he added. As if trying to make up for his visit in Tacloban on Saturday that was cut short due to bad weather, Francis took time to greet and bless the crowd that was gathered in front of the grandstand.

The pope seemed mesmerized by the crowd as he waved and looked at the people who gathered along the stretch of Taft Avenue, Quirino Avenue, Roxas Boulevard, Kalaw up to Independence Road. He also stopped in the middle of the crowd to kiss a child, as he would always do in his past meetings and gatherings.

Before the end of the Mass, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines President Most Reverend Socrates Villegas and Manila Archbishop Luis Tagle expressed their gratitude to the pope.

Villegas, in his message, said the pope served as “sunshine” and brought smiles for the Filipino people since he arrived in the country.

“Holy Father you are our sunshine. For many days since you came last Thursday it has been always sunrise of smiles for us Filipinos. We are not feeling the rain.

You have brought us joy, you have brought us hope you have brought us warm, you have brought us Jesus,” Villegas said.

Villegas said Filipinos will no longer have to be afraid of typhoons as he taught Filipinos “to cast all our fears.” He also promised the Holy Father that the Philippines will serve as light of Jesus in Asia and the world.

The pope was teary eyed, while Vil-

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Rains wiht Gusty Winds

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Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Monday, January 19, 2015 A3

Mud-mired plane strands passengers to Tacloban

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By Recto Mercene

UNDREDS of passengers en route to Tacloban remain stranded in Manila as airport authorities still can’t pull out an airplane still mired in mud at the runway’s edge of Tacloban airport.

The airport in Tacloban City is operating at restricted capacity, after the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) issued a notice to airmen (Notam) on Saturday evening.

The Caap issued the Notam after a twin-engine Bombardier GL50

business jet, owned by San Miguel Corp. and carrying 15 government officials, skidded out of the runway on Saturday afternoon.

The incident happened less than an hour after Pope Francis left the airport in a Philippine Airlines (PAL) plane.

Persons familiar with airport operations said the lack of lifting jacks and associated equipment hamper efforts to tow the 25,000 pound aircraft out of its predicament.

The persons, who were unauthorized to speak to the media, said there are plans to airlift the lifting bags and other towing equipment from Manila or Cebu to the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport.

Of the runway’s length of 2,138 meters (7,014 feet), the Caap said only 1,500-meter length is usable.

The Notam limited the use of the runway to turbo-prop planes, such as the Bombardier Dash 8 and ATR 72-500, which has a seating capacity of 72 passengers and can land on the 1,500-meter runway.

The airport’s Runway 18 threshold was displaced by 638 meters,

the Notam said, after an accident on Saturday that saw the Bombardier executive aircraft swerved and rolled 50 meters from the grassy portion at the end of the runway, closing the airport for operations.

Runway 18 is restricted for takeoff, while the opposite side, runway 36, is allowed for landing and takeoff, the Notam said.

Rodante Joya, Caap deputy director general for operations, said the registered owner of the Bombardier aircraft with tail RPO-C 9363 is Challenger Aero Corp.

The airplane was carrying several Cabinet secretaries led by Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr., when the airplane swerved out of the runway, which, some passengers said was due to a busted tire.

Some also attributed the accident

to “strong crosswind” that forced it to swerve and roll off the runway.

The Caap had yet to issue an official statement as to the cause of the accident, saying it had already sent members of the Aircraft Accident Investigators to Tacloban to determine the cause of the mishap.

Palace Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the plane was carrying Ochoa, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma B. Jr., Undersecretary Emmanuel Bautista, Undersecretary Felizardo Serapio Jr., eight other staff members and three crew members.

Joya said these people were in Leyte “to ensure that the activities of Pope Francis in Tacloban and Palo would go as planned.”

“All 15 passengers and crew members are safe and suffered no injuries.

The families of those onboard have

Brownouts hit Quezon, Sorsogon provinces

Tropical Storm Amang lands in CamSur, storm signals up in 24 areas, yellow rainfall alert issued

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ROPICAL Storm Amang (international code name Mekkhala) made landfall over Camarines Sur on Sunday morning, as it slightly weakened.

The state weather agency Pagasa said Metro Manila and 23 other areas were under storm signals as of 11 a.m.

Pagasa said Amang was estimated at 100 kilometer (km) west-northwest of Virac, Catanduanes, or at the vicinity of Camarines Sur as of 10 a.m.

Amang packed maximum sustained winds of 75 km per hour [kph] near the center, and gustiness of up to 90 kph and is forecast to move northwest at 15 kph.

By Monday morning it is expected to be 90 km north-northeast of Casiguran, Aurora. By Tuesday morning it is projected to be 225 km east-southeast of Basco, Batanes.

On Wednesday morning, it is expected to be 475 km northeast of Itbayat, Batanes.

The Pagasa said Amang may have rainfall of 7.5 to 20 mm per hour [heavy to intense] within its 350-km diameter Under Storm Signal 2 are Catanduanes, Albay, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Quezon including Polillo Island and Aurora.

Under Storm Signal 1 are 18 areas,

including Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Batangas, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Nueva Vizcaya. Included, too, are Ifugao, Quirino, Isabela, Sorsogon, Masbate (and Burias Island including Ticao Island), Marinduque, Northern Samar, the northern part of Eastern Samar and the northern part of Samar.

The Pagasa reminded residents in low-lying and mountainous areas under storm signals to be alert against possible flash floods and landslides.

It added that ocean waves may reach up to 6.5 meters within Amang’s 350km diameter.

Fishermen and those with small seacraft are advised not to venture out over the seaboards of Luzon, the Visayas and the eastern seaboard of Mindanao, it said.

The Pagasa also issued shortly afternoon on Sunday a yellow rainfall alert warning of possible flooding due to Amang.

The Pagasa’s 12:30 p.m. yellow advisory on January 18 covered Quezon and Aurora, saying flooding is possible in low-lying areas there.

It also said light to moderate rains are affecting Metro Manila, Cavite, Batangas, Rizal and Bulacan. PNA

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PORT HOLD

A light shines on steel containers stacked at the Manila South Harbor (MSH) on the third day of the visit of Pope Francis that ultimately shut down commerce and business in the Philippines’s capital. The Philippine Ports Authority said the MSH would be closed until January 19. Kevin de la Cruz

House body to review the 48-year-old Magna Carta for teachers

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LAWMAKER has asked Congress to determine if Republic Act (RA) 4670, or the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, is still adequate to meet the present concerns of public-school teachers in the country.

In House Resolution 1665, Rep. Angelina Tan (Fourth District, Quezon) urged the House Committee on Basic Education and Cul-

ture to determine the relevance of the provisions of the 48-year-old law on teaching hours, cost-ofliving-allowance, special hardship allowance, medical examination and treatment, compensation for injuries, and salary increase upon retirement of teachers.

“The main features of the law are not being followed and implemented, since it was enacted into law 48 years

also been assured that their loved ones are safe,” Joya added.

Meanwhile, PAL and Cebu Pacific canceled Sunday’s flights to and from Tacloban airport as it remains closed as of press time.

Cebu Pacific said it had arranged additional flights to reaccommodate affected passengers but gave no other information on these additional flights. Passengers can also opt for free rebooking within 30 days from the original departure date; or avail of a full refund or travel fund.

Meanwhile, PAL said it was preparing replacement flights for Sunday’s canceled flights.

Passengers were assured that stranded passengers in Manila will be re-accommodated on the succeeding replacement flights using turboprop Q300 and Q400 aircraft.

ago,” Tan said.

According to Tan, the law provides that the teachers should only render more than six hours of teaching duties, although they may be required to exceed eight hours of duty, provided they will get a 25-percent adjustment on their basic monthly pay.

Tan said the law also stipulates that teachers, who are exposed to hardships, like the difficulty of com-

muting to their work places, should be granted 25-percent increase in their basic salary.

The law, likewise, provides free medical examination for all publicschool teachers, while those in the rural areas may seek medical examination in urban areas and will be provided travel expenses.

“Teachers, who have fulfilled the age and service requirements,

shall be given one-range salary increase upon retirement, which shall be the basis of the computation of the lump sum of the retirement pay and the monthly benefits,” Tan said.

“There is an urgent need to look into violations of the law, so as to determine the legislative measures that should be undertaken to address the problems,” Tan said. PNA

HE Quezon and Sorsogon provinces are experiencing brownouts on Sunday due to damage caused by Tropical Storm Amang on power facilities, said the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

Based on the NGCP’s 1 p.m. update, parts of Quezon province and the entire Sorsogon province were disconnected from the main power grid.

Outage occurred at 9:34 a.m. at Quezon, Atimonan; while Maguilayan, Tagkawayan, Guinyangan, Alabat, Perez, Calauag and Hondagua had brownouts at 9:37 a.m.

Some parts of Sorsogon province still have power interruptions after some areas had been restored with power at 8:59 a.m.

Bicol and Camarines Sur also had outages on Sunday morning, but power was immediately restored.

For the Visayas, the provinces of Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Samar and Leyte still have no power as of 1 p.m., after their disconnections on Friday and Sunday.

The NGCP noted the loss of power may have been caused by affected transmission facilities from either electric cooperatives or distribution utilities.

There are also cases both parties have had its power lines downed by typhoons.

NGCP said preparations and precautions have been set to lessen the impact of Amang to its operations and facilities.

“These include ensuring the availability of hardware materials and supplies necessary for the repair of damages to facilities, as well as the positioning of line crews in strategic areas, to facilitate immediate restoration work,” the NGCP said. PNA

Economy

A4 Monday, January 19, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Metro vendors during papal visit: Small profits, big faith

cai ordinario

W

cai ordinario

By Cai U. Ordinario

hile big businesses were closed for the holidays, small enterprises were on a brisk pace. During the recent papal visit, vendors learned that, indeed, the streets of Manila were paved with gold.

In the three days that Pope Francis stayed in Manila, various ambulant vendors took their wares to the streets and cashed in on Filipinos’ love and devotion for the pontiff.

There were various kinds of religious items, T-shirts, bracelets, necklaces, rings, posters, calendars, bags, handkerchiefs, pins, fans and other knick-knacks adorned with the image of the beloved pope were sold on the streets.

Some vendors, who did not use images of the pope on their merchandise, sold necessities, such as abanico fans, mats and hats that can protect the faithful from the elements during the long hours they would spend waiting to get a glimpse of Francis.

Even if some of these items sold for as low as P15 to as high as P180, vendors didn’t seem to mind the small margins. It was a decent living and, at the end of the day, they will still earn a profit, even if it was a modest one.

“Meron naman pong benta pero pumunta pa din ako baka makita ko ulit si pope. Nagpunta din po kasi ako sa Villamor nung dumating siya.

Sulit na din po,” vendor Myrna Mirate said.

Food vendors also felt the same way, even if they faced the giants of industry head on.

Vendors selling traditional Filipino merienda (snacks) like balut and pugo, fishballs, peanuts, corn and even kakanin (Filipino rice cake) shared the streets with major fastfood chains offering hot ready-to-go meals in kiosks.

But a crowd gathered in cramped and barricaded areas along roads for hours will get hungry and the small vendors knew that if they’re in the right place and at the right time, they know they will make a killing.

Even kuliglig and pedicab drivers did well during the papal visit. Some charge between P30 to P50 per person just to bring them to the nearest point of key activity areas.

World Bank Country Economist Karl Kendrick Chua said there is no doubt that the retail business— whether informal or formal—earn big bucks on holidays.

Chua said the more holidays there are, the higher the chance of retailers to increase their sales.

The anticipation of the extraordinary rise in their profits is enough motivation for retailers to peddle their wares.

“We are a consumption-driven economy. The more holidays, the better for some sectors. In general, the holiday season expands the retail sector,” Chua said.

But, while vendors are considered “winners” when it comes to these holidays, Chua said their temporary livelihood is the outcome of the failure of the government to educate them better and the economy to give them sufficient opportunities to work and grow their business.

Former Philippine Economic Society President Alvin Ang said informal work is indicative of the government’s lack of policies that encourage vendors to join the formal sector.

Ang and Chua agreed that the high cost of doing business is among the main reasons vendors do not want to join the formal sector.

Ang added that this is compounded by the high taxes and slow bureaucratic process that discourage the informal sector to take the next step to become a formal business.

“Informal work, in general, is bad in the sense that they underestimate the true value of the economy. Besides, they expose the workers unnecessarily from unprotected risks and rights,” Ang said.

University of Asia and the Pacific economist Victor Abola said the informal sector contributes roughly 20 percent to 30 percent to the economy, following similar estimates in other developing economies.

Abola said generally, with the size of the informal economy, it is bound to have a positive impact on Philippine economic growth.

He said religious holidays, like the pope’s visit, boost spending and often have positive effects on investment sentiment.

However, Abola said even if they help boost domestic spending, their contribution to the economy is not “optimized” and the government should still institute measures to support them.

Garments, hard goods sectors see 2015 exports rising by 15%

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ocal garments and hard goods manufacturers expect export earnings to increase by 10 percent to 15 percent this year after the grant of the European Union’s (EU) Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus status to the Philippines, the Philippine Exporters Confederation reported.

Robert Young, president of the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (Fobap), said the group’s basic merchandises —footwear, garments and handicrafts—will be exported to the EU bloc at duty free.

“This means more business, more exports, more production and more labor generation for the Philippines,” Philexport quoted Young as saying.

Young said the country’s improving global competitiveness ranking will be another key factor to expanding export earnings this year.

“This will be noticed by the foreign buyers, it is one factor in attracting businesses in the Philippines. The Fobap is looking forward to more buyers coming into the country to look for merchandise for export to their own countries,” he noted.

Further, Young said the Philippines’s hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit this year will be an added mileage to the sectors’ exports.

“Buyers again will get excited and those who are not yet buying from the Philippines will get interested to learn about more

of the Philippine products,” he said.

Young identified Germany and France as the biggest buyers of Philippine handicrafts and other hard goods, and the United Kingdom of children dresses.

“They are more attracted to handcrafted skills of the Filipinos rather than the other countries.

The artistry in the Philippines is actually global in standards already.... So definitely, we will be more competitive than the other guys in the Asean region as we apply more handicraft jobs in the products,” he added.

Young expects the establishment of the Asean Economic Community this year to ramp up regional competition in terms of costs.

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“As long as the informal workers are working for lawful aims, then they are positive for the Philippine economy. But this does not mean to say that being informal optimizes their contribution to the economy,” Abola said.

Ang and Abola said the government must give informal workers access to basic social protection such as the benefits extended by the Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Health Insurance Cop. and Pag-ibig.

Ang said in addition, the government must also improve the business-registration process and bring down the cost of doing business so the informal sector can afford it.

Abola, on the other hand, said the government must also establish a special low and simple tax regime for them. This is to encourage them to graduate from informality to formality.

He said there was a proposal to include a 10-percent tax for informal workers in the 1997 Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, but it was not adopted.

The World Bank, in its Philippine Development Report released in September 2013, estimated that informal workers comprise about 75 percent of the country’s total employment.

The Washington-based lender also estimated that by 2016, around 12.4 million Filipinos

would still be unemployed, underemployed, or would have to work or create work for themselves in the informal sector.

Informal workers are operationally defined to include all self-employed workers, unpaid family workers and wage workers with no written contract, social insurance, or protection from dismissal using the 2008 Informal Sector Survey.

The informal sector is defined to include wholesale and retail trade, and transportation, communication and storage. Skills required in these subsectors are predominantly low, with the possible exception of professionals working in these sectors.

More UAE investors coming to PHL

By Catherine N. Pillas

M

ore investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are looking at the Philippine market amid the favorable economic conditions being enjoyed by the country, Philippine Ambassador to UAE Grace Relucio-Princesa said.

Following the substantial plans of Al Ahli Holding Group to invest in the country for a tourism-related project in partnership with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, Princesa said more potential investments are seen from other UAE investors, particularly in the airport and energy sectors.

“There are still those in the pipeline; those that are really aggressive in the negotiations,” Princesa said.

The ambassador said given the

expertise of UAE in renewable energy, with the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency located in the Middle Eastern country, it’s not surprising that the interest is high for them to share their technology.

Princesa declined to expound on the possible investor for the airport, but said there are existing players in airport development in the UAE. The interest, Princesa said, is due to the country’s steady economic climb for the past years.

Princesa said part of the government’s thrust is to diversify the exports to UAE, as she wants more trade in goods, not people.

“There are 600,000 to 800,000 Filipinos in UAE, second only to Saudi. That number will go up because we’re skilled and industrious;

but I have a project to assist and aid them to come back to the Philippines.

The goods that we can focus on in exporting [to UAE] can be pili nut and banana. We are the top exporter of those products,” Princesa added.

The official said that for 2015, part of her campaign will be to promote the good Filipino “F” words to the UAE: Fun (tourism), fiber (especially in fashion), furniture, fine arts and finance (investment).

Bilateral trade with the UAE stands at $2 billion in favor of the Arab country, Princesa said.

The UAE and the Philippines are linked by a number of bilateral agreements and memoranda, one of which is an agreement to avoid double taxation on income signed by the two countries in 2003. The agreement was implemented a year later.

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Guidelines on WESM T reserve market out

Monday, January 19, 2015 A5

BIR eases accreditation burden of importers

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By Lenie Lectura

he Department of Energy (DOE) has recently issued a circular approving the guidelines in the scheduling and dispatch of reserve-power capacities at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

“The central scheduling and dispatch of energy and contracted reserves would provide the DOE better monitoring of all available generation capacity in both energy and reserve, and provide more preparations to the participants for the eventual commercial operation of the WESM reserve market,” Department Circular 2014-12-0022 stated.

The WESM reserve market basically provides backup power that could be tapped by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP). As such, there is a need for the DOE to craft a protocol that “provides for the mechanism to centrally schedule all energy and reserve capacities” at the spot market.

Central scheduling refers to the activities taken prior to commercial launch date of the WESM reserve market for the purpose of central dispatch of energy and reserve categories traded in the WESM. It intends to reflect the entire capacities in the WESM, including reserve capacities contracted by NGCP, so these can be centrally scheduled for either energy or reserve.

The DOE said the protocol shall apply to the market operator, which is the Philippine Electricity Market

Corp. (PEMC); the system operator, which is the NGCP; and all WESM members for a limited period, and shall immediately cease upon new commercial launch date of the WESM reserve market.

“PEMC, NGCP and all affected trading participants shall ensure compliance with this circular and the protocol for the better achievement of this policy. PEMC shall continuously submit an assessment report to the DOE on its implementation of this protocol and the development of the WESM reserve market,” the circular stated.

Among others, the protocol includes submission of generation and reserve offers, scheduling of reserve dispatch and reserve requirements. All trading participants, for instance, shall submit their generation and reserve offers, consistent with the WESM timetable for the week-ahead and day-ahead market projections to provide a more accurate determination of reserve requirements.

The reserve market was supposed to start in March last year but was put off, pending regulatory approval for the pricing and cost-recovery mechanism of the reserve market.

German textile-machinery sector shows great interest in Asean

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ermany’s textile-machinery industry is interested in tapping the huge Asean market, besides focusing on China and India, said Elgar Straub, managing director of German Machinery Manufacturers’ Association.

He said the German textile industry had in the past concentrated a great deal on China and India, because of the sheer size of these two markets.

“But, we are also interested in Asean markets, which are attractive because of the huge business potential inherent in the region,” Straub told news agency Bernama.

Germany’s sewing and garment technology exports worldwide in 2013 amounted to €466.26 million and was the third-largest supplier of sewing and garment technology, trailing behind China with €1.679 billion and Japan at €537 million.

The biggest markets for German sewing and garment technology worldwide in 2013 were the US, India, Turkey, Italy, France, China,Russia, Poland and Hong Kong.

Messe Frankfurt, which organizes the Heimtextil Show, the world’s largest home-textile show in Frankfurt, also made a strong pitch for the forthcoming Techtextil fair in Frankfurt from May 4 to 7, 2015.

Messe Frankfurt’s Michael Jaenecke, the brand management director for technical textiles and textile processing, claimed that there had been very strong demand for space from exhibitors.

Parallel to the Techtextil, Messe Frankfurt is also organizing the twin sister fair called Texprocess, a dedicated show for textile and

flexible materials processing.

Jaenecke maintained that, while the Techtextil had existed for many years, the Texprocess event, which was launched in 2011, had grown exponentially and that the fair organizer was holding the two shows for four days instead of the regular three-day run, as in the past.

Messe Frankfurt Vice President for Textiles and Textile Technology Olaf Schmidt told Bernama that 95 percent of the exhibition space was already sold out, although there were still four months to go before the start of the show.

Techtextil is expected to attract a good turnout of exhibitors from Asia, including Asean.

Indeed, a number of Asian countries are planning to set up national pavilions at the Techtextil Fair to provide a common roof to exhibitors and buyers interested in sealing up deals at the event.

The ongoing Heimtextil show has attracted a large turnout of Asian exhibitors, led by China with 513 exhibitors, followed by India (390), Pakistan (219), Turkey (159),Taiwan (60), Hong Kong (31) and Bangladesh (20).

For the first time in many years, Malaysia had a single debutant with the participation of a Selangorbased Fennex Sdn Bhd, which was doing good business at the show with a steady stream of buyers visiting its stand.

Also conspicuous by their presence were the three exhibitors from Iran who participate in very few, if any, German trade fairs.

Both China and India had far larger presence than any other exhibiting nation, even surpassing the 342 exhibitors from the host nation Germany. PNA

he Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) disclosed that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has already trimmed the documentary requirements of importers and customs brokers who have transactions at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in order to expedite the provision of their Importer’s Clearance Certificate (ICC) and Broker’s Clearance Certificate (BCC).

According to the Philexport, BIR Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) 1-2015, signed last December 19 and effective immediately, amends requirements of RMO 10-2014, which provides the policies, guidelines and procedures for accrediting importers and customs brokers with the BIR.

For applicants, the BIR no longer requires a certified copy of the Certificate of Registration (COR) issued by the BIR, and the certified true copy of Securities and Exchange Commissioner Registration and Articles of Incorporation.

Except for these two documents, importers and customs brokers per RMO 10-2014 still need to present the following documents attached to the application form: certification from revenue district officer/head of office having jurisdiction over the applicant’s registered address; certification of no pending criminal charges from the Regional Legal Division; certification of no delinquent account from the Regional Collection Division; certification

of no listed tax liability with the Accounts Receivable Monitoring Division (ARMD); and certifications from the chief, Audit Information, Tax Exemption and Incentives Division and chief, Miscellaneous Operations Monitoring Division.

The BIR noted that applicants submitting to ARMD any certification different from the one issued by the concerned offices will be automatically denied.

For importers and customs brokers granted with provisional ICCs and BCCs, the BIR requires submission of six certifications from different BIR offices at least one month prior to the expiration of the sixmonth validity period of the provisional authority.

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Business

A6 Monday, January 19, 2015

POPE REMINDS FILIPINOS ON FEAST DAY OF

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ALYSA SALEN

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RAIN NO MATCH FOR THE CATHOLIC FAITHUL

Despite the rain brought about by Tropical Storm Amang, millions of Filipinos trooped to the streets to attend two events on the last leg of Pope Francis’s apostolic journey. In the morning, the pontiff met with young Filipinos and urged them to turn away from vice and serve God and their fellowmen. The pope also asked the Filipino youth “to think, to feel and to do.” In the afternoon, some 6 million Filipinos trooped to the Quirino Grandstand in Manila where the pontiff marked the feast day of Sto. Niño and celebrated Mass. Francis said the Sto. Niño reminds people that everyone is a child of God and that this identity must be protected. During the pontiff ’s visit in the country, the customized Isuzu D-Max popemobile donated by Gencars Philippines (sister company of the BUSINESSMIRROR) proved to be his favorite. The Isuzu D-Max popemobile was extensively used by Francis to go around Metro Manila.

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sMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph | Monday, January 19, 2015 A7

F STO. NIÑO: WE ARE ALL GOD’S CHILDREN

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TheElderly

Monday, January 19, 2015 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

Sick, elderly inmates included in list for executive clemency

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By Perfecto T. Raymundo | Philippines News Agency

USTICE Secretary Leila M. de Lima submitted on January 14 the list of names of convicts she has recommended for the grant of executive clemency to President Aquino.

De Lima said her “self-imposed deadline” for submission to the Office of the President was on January 7.

She imposed the same “deadline” on the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) management and the technical staff of the Department of Justice.

De Lima said she could not say how many were recommended for executive clemency and “in fact, even if ma-review ko na at mai-

submit ko na sa OP, I don’t think I have the authority to disclose kung ilan ang ire-recommend kasi it really depends on the President how many of those recommendees would really be granted executive clemency or what form of executive clemency may be granted to them, either conditional pardon with parole or commutation of sentence.”

De Lima said when it comes to old age, “mga 70 plus 80 plus meron pa

ngang 90 plus kung commutation ang ibibigay at ilan pang years ang matitira practically no meaning, wala rin.”

However, de Lima said there are actually conditions on commutation of sentence and conditional pardon on the part of the Board of Pardon and Parole “but when it comes to the President, the President has plenary, absolute power of executive clemency.”

De Lima said the elderly and terminally ill inmates will be prioritized in the recommendation for executive clemency.

Despite his illness, convicted road-rage killer Rolito Go will not get a presidential pardon.

BuCor Director Franklin Jesus Bucayu said that Go’s name was not included in the list of candidates qualified for an executive clemency.

“Although he is seriously ill, he was not considered for executive

clemency because there was an opposition from the family of the victim,” Bucayu said.

Go is suffering from stage 4 colon cancer.

“Nakakaawa na din naman siya talaga. Pabalik-balik sa hospital nakatubo na at dun na dumudumi,” Bucayu said.

President Aquino will grant executive clemency to elderly and terminally ill inmates as a gift to Pope Francis. Francis was on a state and pontifical visit to the Philippines from January 15 to 19.

Bucayu said they have not included high-profile inmates in the list.

“Kung may high-profile kasi baka i-oppose lang at madamay pa ’yung ibang qualified,” he said.

Go was convicted of murder in 1993 and was sentenced to a jail term of 40 years for the death of 25-yearold De La Salle University student Eldon Maguan in 1991. PNA

Bicol seniors include planting trees among regular activities this year

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EGAZPI CITY—Jim Andes, the chief of this city’s Office of the Senior Citizens’ Affairs (Osca), has included tree planting in the regular activities of his flock this year.

“Inspired by the government’s National Greening Program [NGP], tree planting has been taken by many Bicolanos—young and old —as a habit. We, the elderly of the city, are joining the fad, not only because it is a rewarding experience being a perfect way of giving back what we have extracted from Mother Earth, but also a great step toward improving and protecting the environment,” he said.

NGP is a nationwide regreening campaign launched by President Aquino through his Executive Order (EO) 26 issued in February 2011 as one of the flagship environmental programs of his administration that targets to plant and grow 1.5 billion tree seedlings in 1.5 million hectares of land all over the country until 2016.

Owing to the program, Bicolanos have indeed developed a great passion for planting trees and seeing them grow.

On its first year alone, the program in the region was able to draw the participation of about 22,000 volunteers from both the government and private sectors in coming up with 4 million new trees starting with the world record-breaking mass tree-planting affair organized by the provincial government of Camarines Sur on February 23, 2011.

The event, initiated by El Verde and with President Aquino himself in attendance, set an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records when it fixed 64,096 tree seedlings on the province’s desolated grounds in just one hour.

El Verde was a greening project of Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte which drew about 10,000 volunteers from the private sector—professionals, students and rural residents—into that celebrated outing.

More initiatives followed, among them the 11-11-11 projects initiated in Catanduanes by Rep. Cesar Sarmiento of the province’s lone congressional district which planted 118,883 trees and in the Second District of Sorsogon by its congressman, Deogracias Ramos, which accounted for 113,500 new trees.

Both projects done in a daylong simultaneous planting sessions made memorable by the once-percentury numerical date 11-11-11 (November 11, 2011) drew supports from many sectors in the two

keeping warm Indigenous elderly women in the Cordilleras try to keep warm as the drop in temperature continues. The Philippine weather bureau reports that temperature in the Baguio City Botanical Garden has gone to as low as 10.6°C. MAU VICTA

provinces from LGUs and barangay officials, village residents, teachers, students, government agencies to non-governmental organizations.

NGP’s second year in Bicol added seven million, bringing to 11 million the new trees put in place all over the region in two years— largely through voluntary public participation.

The passion has since then moved on, growing another 4 million new trees in 2013 and last year’s estimated output which, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office here is still counting, could be around 5 million.

Hence, the demand for planting materials in Bicol has grown enormous—a challenge that DENR, the main player in the implementation of the program, has tasked itself of responding by way of putting in place more nurseries. The latest nursery is a “mechanized” one in Lupi, Camarines Sur, that targets to produce around 26 million seedlings this year.

This new plant propagation facility sits in a 2.1-hectare property in Barangay Sooc, Lupi, whose output, Environment Regional Executive Director Gilbert Gonzalez on Saturday said, would be enough to supply the greening target of Bicol, as well as of the

Southern Tagalog region for 2015.

The mechanized nursery fasttracks seedling production to augment the tree-planting and seedling growing activities of the DENR and, given its capacity of at least 200 seedlings per hour, it can come up with 16.8 million for Bicol and 5.6 million for the other region, he said.

Forestry experts push mechanized nursery as an unconventional way of speeding up seedling production and generating highquality saplings through the use of a series of equipment for bagging, seeding, hardening and other related activities.

This is different from the conventional manner of growing seedlings, considering the magnitude of seedlings to be generated in a year to address the growing demand, according to Engr. Raymond Sipin, head of nursery project management unit.

The Lupi facility, Gonzalez said, is one of the 20 mechanized nurseries that the DENR Central Office began establishing in selected regions last year to produce at least 1 million tree seedlings a day and achieve the agency’s target of planting 300 million all over the country this year.

Mangrove propagules are included in the production target so that the NGP could cover more beach forests this year to enhance the country’s natural defense against

storm surge, Gonzalez said.

And since the program is a government’s blueprint for poverty reduction, food security, biodiversity conservation, environmental stability and climate mitigation and adaptation, the DENR gives premium importance on transparency and accountability in the implementation of NGP activities.

“We are using modern technologies as a system to monitor and evaluate accomplishments in the field with minimal margin of human error and ideally open to public scrutiny,” Gonzales said.

He was referring to the office’s actual ground survey of NGP planting sites in the region using Global Positioning System (GPS)-equipped receiver with Geographic Information System (GIS) software alongside the identification of appropriate species considering sites’ physical characteristics.

The outputs of this survey are GIS-based maps of NGP sites in shape file format which describe points, polylines and polygons with attributes that serve as database for geotagging, another technology used in the NGP which makes it possible to monitor greening activities even in remote areas.

Geotagging is in aid of ground validation of accomplishments in the field, Gonzales said. PNA

news@businessmirror.com.ph

Proposed bill seeks retirement benefit for elected barangay officials

By Sammy F. Martin

Philippines News Agency

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HOUSE member is seeking the grant of retirement benefits to elected barangay officials based on the number of years they have rendered service.

Rep. Henry S. Oaminal of Misamis Occidental said while Republic Act (RA) 7160, otherwise known as the “Local Government Code of 1991,” devolved gargantuan powers and functions to local government units (LGUs), including barangays, the law has not provided retirement benefits to barangay officials after rendering years of service.

“It is supposed to be expected that having awesome responsibilities come benefits and privileges to barangay officials who are explicitly mandated to perform basic services to the people. It is quite unfortunate, however, that this landmark legislation does not provide retirement benefit to them after rendering years of service,” Oaminal said in his explanatory note.

The vice chairman of the House Committee on Mindanao Affairs, said Congress has been generous and considerate to senior citizens for all the services they have rendered in whatever

capacity during their prime.

“It will, therefore, be reasonable enough if we grant retirement benefits to our barangay officials at a time when they will no longer receive honorarium from the government,”he said.

House Bill 5026, now pending at the Committee on Local Government chaired by Rep. Pedro B. Acharon Jr. of South Cotabato seeks the amendment of Section 393 (b) of RA 7160 pertaining to benefits of barangay officials.

The proposed amendment provides that elective barangay officials be entitled to a lump-sum retirement benefit on the basis of the number of years of service to the barangay, as follows: First term, equivalent to one-month honorarium for every year of service; second consecutive term, equivalent to one-and-a-half month for every year of service; and third consecutive term, equivalent to two months for every year of service.

The bill further provides that the amount needed to implement the retirement benefits shall be charged against the Internal Revenue Allotment shares of LGUs to which the barangay belongs in the following manner: 30 percent from the barangay; 50 percent from the municipality or city; and 20 percent from the province. PNA

US high-school students teach computer skills to seniors

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HE Active Life recreational center was buzzing with excitement the morning of January 14, especially inside the media room.

All 14 computer stations were filled with people—some looked a little out of place in the senior-citizens facility, but were right at home in front of the screens. It’s because these LaGrange High School (LHS) students are pretty savvy when it comes to navigating the Internet.

They shared those skills with their new-found friends, a group of seniors who came to learn computer skills.

“We set up a Facebook account and found her grandson in Boston so she could keep in touch with him,” said LHS senior Abbey Arrington about the elderly woman she was helping. “We played games on the computer and I showed her how to use Snapchat on her phone...she enjoyed it and she kept laughing and saying, ‘That’s so cool!’”

“They really wanted to keep up with their families,” LHS senior Morgan Skinner said. Skinner helped one elderly resident take her first “selfie” on her phone and then send it to her family. The five students, all members of the LHS student council, plus their advisor Melanie Reams, also helped folks set up email accounts, print documents and surf the Web. One elderly woman had never

been on the Internet before, so the teens taught her how to use Google to search different topics.

“By the end of the year, you’ll know everything and anything about the Internet,” LHS senior Jonathan Pelham told her. “I’ll be back to show you!”

“We just wanted them to get comfortable using a mouse and the computer,” Reams said. “It was like one-on-one training...this was our assessment to see what is needed. Do we need more people? What are the seniors’ interests? We’ll take the information back to Dr. [Penny] Johnson [LHS principal] and share the results.”

The students gave up their lunch period in order to volunteer at the center, but they didn’t seem to mind.

“I feel good helping out,” Arrington said. “It brings a smile to my face to see the joy on their faces as they’re learning new stuff that’s totally normal to us.” The session was so popular that the students and Active Life Executive Director Dan Wooten are hoping to make it a monthly event.

“We’re always looking for ways to empower our adults,” Wooten said.

“Our older adults thrive on one-on-one instruction. Because sometimes they have issues with their hearing, now there’s someone right there to see what they need.” Tribune Content Agency Llc

PLANTING coffee IN ZAMBALES An elderly farmer plants coffee in his farm in

Batiawan, Subic, Zambales. Leo Villacarlos

The Regions BusinessMirror

news@businessmirror.com.ph

1.8M devotees turn up for Santo Niño solemn procession in Cebu province

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EBU CITY—Some 1.8 million Señor Santo Niño devotees joined the solemn procession of the image of the Holy Child on Saturday afternoon, despite a brewing storm.

Sr. Supt. Conrad Capa, deputy regional director for operations and officer in charge of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said the procession went on smoothly, peacefully and orderly.

Firecrackers were banned along the procession route.

A gun ban was also implemented in Cebu for the Sinulog festivities, from January 12 to 19.

But t hree people were arrested, including an American citizen, for interrupting the religious gathering and offending religious feelings, in violations of Articles 132 and 133 of the Revised Penal Code.

Michael Bradley, 46, of Florida, US, and his wife Elcel Bradley, 28, from Palawan with Rebecca Muñoz, 29 were arrested for trying to disturb the devotees at the procession route by using a megaphone.

Chief Insp. Wildemar Tiu, Fuente Police chief, said the American tried to resist arrest by invoking his freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

Except for this minor incident, the police reported no other untoward incident along the procession route.

The procession was also finished earlier this year, compared to last year.

Chief Insp. Enrique Belciña of the CCPO said the head of procession reached the Basilica at 3:20 p.m., while the carroza carrying the image of the Holy Child entered the pilgrim center at 6 p.m., in time for the Pontifical Mass celebrated by Archbishop of Sorsogon, Msgr. Arturo Bastes. In his homily, Bastes urged the faithful to continue practicing the values of the Holy Child.

Bastes said it is significant for the Philippines to celebrate the feast of the Holy Child, since it is the cradle of Christianity in Asia. PNA

Political prisoners warn of govt reprisal after hunger strike during pope’s visit

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By Manuel T. Cayon |Mindanao Bureau Chief

AVAO CITY—The humanrights group Karapatan said the country’s political prisoners are bracing for a possible government reprisal for holding a nationwide hunger strike during the weekend visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines.

Karapatan did not state how the gover nment would likely move against political prisoners, but it expected some actions to

take place after the pope’s visit ends on Monday, for holding a hunger strike in different jails across the country and sending

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an appeal to the pope to look into their plight.

Karapatan said it was definite that it would hold the government “accountable for the reprisal of political prisoners on hunger strike.”

“Nagpapakabanal na mga aso ang mga opisyal ng gobyerno habang nandito si Pope Francis. Hindi nito maitatago ang tunay na kalagayan sa ating bansa [Government officials are already feigning holiness while the pope is here. It would not be able to hide, however, the real state of the nation],” said Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of Karapatan.

Karapatan said there are 491 political prisoners in different jails in the country, incarcerated on various criminal charges

leveled against them.

Karapatan welcomed and fully appreciated the speech of Francis as an expression of his solidarity with the real and concrete issues of the poor and oppressed in the Philippine society.

Last week going into the pope’s visit on Thursday, some hunger strikers unfurled banners and placards with slogans “Pope Francis, we are on sympathy fast [for you].”

Accusing the Aquino administration of muffling their voices, Karapatan said the political prisoners rights were waived in the duration of the pope’s visit.

“While Pope Francis is visiting the country, the voices of the oppressed are being suppressed further by government authorities,”

Palabay said, citing jail authorities in Camp Bagong Diwa allegedly refusing them access to medical attention, visit by their relatives “and to peacefully and symbolically express their call to release all political prisoners in the Philippines.”

Palabay said political prisoners “are treated like criminals because of their political beliefs—beliefs that are similar to Francis’s exhortations on the faithful to break the bonds of injustice and oppression which give rise to glaring, and, indeed, scandalous, social inequalities.”

“His call on Philippine government officials to ensure social justice and respect human dignity is a clear commentary on the state of injustice and oppression in the country,” Palabay said.

10 killed in Albay landslide

By Rene Acosta

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Benguet trading post Traders in the La Trinidad vegetable-trading post sort highland vegetables before delivery to the low-land market. MAU VICTA

DOH lauds Catanduanes move to care for 300 mental patients

A R AGA , A lbay—A f ter counting some 300 island residents suffering from mental-health disorders, the provincial government of Catanduanes is firming up the establishment of psychiatric care units, a move that earned the applause of the regional health office based here.

“Great move,” Department of Health (DOH) Regional Director Gloria Balboa said over the weekend, referring to a report from Catanduanes Provincial Health Office (PHO) chief Dr. Hazel Palmes.

In her report to Balboa, Palmes said the provincial government under Gov. Araceli Wong has decided to set up acute psychiatric units in four towns that are strategically distributed within the province.

These facilities will cater to the need for proper care of the about 300 residents of the province who are suffering from different forms of mental disorder.

The Mental Health Gap Action Programme (MHGAP) of the World Health Organization (WHO) listed bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, depression, dementia, developmental disorders—including autism and intellectual disabilities—as among the most common mental-health problems They are generally characterized by a combination of abnormal thoughts, perceptions, emotions, behavior and relationships with others.

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The provincial government-run public hospitals—Caramoran Municipal Hospital; Juan M. Alberto Memorial District Hospital in Bato town; Gigmoto District Hospital in the municipality of Gigmoto; and Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Caramoan—will house these proposed new facilities, according to Palmes’s report.

Given the number, Balboa said, the need to address the problem of mental-health care in the province is, indeed, a necessity and the Bicol Regional Center for Health and Development is supportive of this move.

The idea was hatched during the recent training on the Early Recognition and Management of Common Mental Health Disorders conducted by a team from the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) to orient local health practitioners on the proper way of diagnosing and attending to mental health cases, the PHO chief said.

After the training, which lasted for five days, the team, headed by NCMH executive director Dr. Bernardo Vicente inspected the hospitals recommended to house the psychiatric units to assess its facilities and suggested means as to how they could comply with the requirements.

The training was part of a continuing program under the WHO-MHGAP aimed at scaling up services for mental, neurological and substance use disorders

involving indigent patients in developing countries.

Apart from conducting trainings, the program through the NCMH also deploys psychiatrists or mental-health workers in areas needing their services.

Under the proposed psychiatric unit project, Palmes said the Catanduanes provincial government, through the PHO, will organize community-based mental-health teams which shall hold lectures to provide information to the public on how to manage mental-health problems at home.

Each team, composed of locally trained doctors and other medical personnel, will continuously conduct regular visits to monitor patients and provide them maintenance medicines.

This will enable the teams to solve the problem of accommodating patients in the hospital without compromising their mental-health needs.

Acute cases will be confined at the designated hospital, Palmes said.

Cases beyond the capability of the locally trained mental health-care workers, she said, will be referred to specialists outside the province or to the Don Susano Rodriguez Memorial Mental Hospital in Pili, Camarines Sur—the lone mental health-care facility in the region being run by the government-owned Bicol Medical Center based in Naga City. PNA

Compostela Valley repairs 107 kilometers of rural roads

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AVAO CITY—The Compostela Valley provincial government repaired a combined length of 107.65 kilometers of several barangay roads last year, many of these linking farm roads to barangay and town market centers.

The repair of many farm roads was undertaken in the 11 municipalities by the Provincial Engineers Office.

The provincial govenment spent P77 million.

The longest road was repaired in the municipality of Maco, with three road sections totalling 33.94 km. The three sections cost P12 million.

Three road sections in Laak Municipality

were also repaired; they had a combined length of 30 kilometers.

Two road sections in Montevista were repaired for a combined length of 10.076 km.

The two road sections in Mabini have a combined length of 5.44 km; that in Mawab has 9.28 km of road; while Compostela town has nine kilometers.

The repair was also done on 6.61 km of farm roads in Barangay Prosperidad in the municipality of Monkayo. This farm road section included the repair of the 30-meter RCDG Bridge and a canal lining 164 meters long. The Barangay Prosperidad project cost P28 million. Manuel T. Cayon

Watermelons on the road Fresh watermelons, locally called pakwan, are seen on stalls lining the highway of Alaminos, Pangasinan. Each sphere costs between P30 and P40 each which the vendors say they also harvest in their backyard. MAU VICTA

T least 10 people were believed to have been killed after a landslide hit a barangay in the province of Albay, due to the rains spawned by Tropical Storm Amang, initial reports reaching the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said.

Officials of Albay ordered the evacuation of hundreds of families living in low-lying and floodprone areas in the province, as Albay was put under public storm Signal No. 1 along with the adjoining provinces of Camarines Sur and Catanduanes.

Based on the reports that reached the NDRRMC, the landslide struck the barangay of Inang Maharang in the town of Manito, Albay, early on Sunday, burying in debris at least two houses and killing at least 10 people.

The NDRRMC was quoting the reports of Cedric Daep, head of the Albay Pubic Safety and Emergency Management Office, which said the number of fatalities could even possibly increase, as town officials feared the landslide could have buried as many as 10 houses.

Daep was relaying the reports of Cesar Daep, mayor of Manito and his cousin, who said at least 100 residents of the barangay were also needing evacuation.

The landslide isolated Inang Maharang as debris buried the road leading to the barangay, but soldiers and other rescue personnel were already clearing the road in an attempt to reach the affected barangay. Daep said the Air Force sent two helicopters to assist in the evacuation.

Daep said the province was also continuing to evacuate at least 100,000 people living in low-lying areas in the province, especially against the threat of lahar flow from Mount Mayon.

Weather forecasters said Amang slightly weakened after it slammed into the Bicol region on Sunday, which, by midnoon, was already in Catanduanes and was moving toward Camarines Sur. The storm is expected to be in Aurora today and in Batanes on Tuesday on its way out of the country by Wednesday or Thursday.

Aside from Albay, Catanduanes and Camarines Sur, the provinces of Camarines Norte and Quezon were also under public storm Signal No. 2, while Metro Manila and Southern and Central Luzon were under storm signal number one on Sunday.

Opinion BusinessMirror

A10 Monday, January 19, 2015

editorial

The business community must act

N

OW, it is time to get back to business but hopefully it will not be business as usual. The visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines has been a profound event for the nation. Only the most hardened cynic could not have been moved by his homily given at Tacloban airport to the residents of that typhoon affected area.

We have come to expect that individuals in positions of influence usually try to increase that influence by what they say. Pope Francis showed us the opposite when he said: “So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you.” Yet those words offered more comfort and meaning than all the platitudes offered by all the political leaders in the Philippines.

Rarely has a person in his position spoken with such clarity, simplistically and certainty about important issues as this pontiff has.

The approaching storm that forced Pope Francis to curtail some activities and return rather quickly to Manila may have been unplanned but may have also been prophetic. Even as he graced our shores, momentous events were taking place outside our own little world. The decision of the Swiss National Bank to return the Swiss franc to free market forces upended the global financial system.

The global financial and economic storms are becoming more frequent and more damaging.

The homily Pope Francis spoke during the Mass at the Manila Cathedral was delivered to members of the clergy but perhaps should have also been given to members of our business community. He said, “The Gospel calls individual Christians to live lives of honesty, integrity and concern for the common good. But it also calls Christian communities to create “circles of integrity.”

Too often the populist view is that the government is in control and ultimately will determine the future of a nation and its people. The fact is that it is the business community from the smallest to the largest that holds this country in its hands.

We speak of government corruption and ignore ‘corporate corruption’ from the smallest sari-sari store that has never paid any taxes to the largest that may bribe regulators for favors. We allow laws to be passed to penalize ‘business’ to protect ‘workers’ that in fact keep companies from hiring. It is not government that will end poverty but a legitimate and functioning partnership between government and business that will reach that goal.

If the papal visit is going to create a renewal of spirit and commitment to a better future, the business community is going to have step up and proactively act to change what Pope Francis called “A society which has grown comfortable with social exclusion, polarization and scandalous inequality.”

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Pope Francis’s message: Care for the poor Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II

L

AST Friday, senior government officials and members of the diplomatic corps gathered at Malacañan Palace for a general audience to meet His Holiness Pope Francis, on the occasion of his state visit and apostolic journey to the Philippines.

The Pope’s handwritten message in the Malacañan Palace guestbook was a blessing for the nation: “On the President and people of this beloved land of the Philippines, I ask Almighty God abundant blessings of wisdom, discernment, prosperity, and peace.”

We are grateful for the grace of having been able to see the Holy Father, hear his message and receiving his apostolic blessing at the event.

Many shed tears of joy; and the Pope’s smile was so sincere and infectious that those who saw it could not help but feel uplifted.

The message he delivered was focused on caring for the poor.

There is a “moral imperative,” the Pope said, “of ensuring social justice and respect for human dignity. The great biblical tradition enjoins on all peoples the duty to hear the voice of the poor.

“It bids us break the bonds of

HOM

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injustice and oppression which give rise to glaring, and indeed scandalous, social inequalities. Reforming the social structures which perpetuate poverty and the exclusion of the poor first requires a conversion of mind and heart.”

May the Pope’s message inspire public servants to undergo this same conversion, and fully commit themselves to implementing social reforms that will reduce the incidence of poverty and assure the poor of their human rights and dignity under the law and moral code.

It is heartening also to know, as public servants, that Pope Francis is on the side of reforms that will transform Philippine society for the good of its citizenry.

As President Benigno Aquino III said in his message to the Pope at the general audience, “When we tread this path with people such as

The Swiss just made Japan’s job harder William Pesek

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RISING SUN

yourself, along with the millions you have inspired, we gain the courage to do what needs doing, the optimism to dream about what we can achieve in unity with one another, and the opportunity to turn that dream into a shared reality, with the grace of Almighty God.” The Holy Father’s humility and love for others shone in his smile and in even the littlest of his actions.

He went out of his way to reach out to people to give hugs and bestow blessings, often breaking protocol to do so.

In “Ten Things Pope Francis Wants You to Know” (Claretian Publications, 2013), John L. Allen Jr., senior Vatican analyst for CNN, says that Francis’s “modesty and simple tastes” are “part of an evangelical strategy,” in that people “listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers,” as Pope Paul VI said.

Allen adds that “Francis knows that if Christianity is going to preach love, concern for the poor, and a passion for justice to the world, its leaders must be seen to embrace those values in their own styles of life – beginning, of course, with the most visible leader of all, the Pope.”

May the Pope’s example in these and all other things inspire us to change our own lives for the better by being mindful of our Christian values and letting them be our guide in our interactions with one another.

Thank you, Holy Father, for visiting the Philippines, and may we

BLOOMBERG VIEW

H

ARUHIKO Kuroda’s monetary “bazooka” just got outgunned by the Swiss. Since April 2013, Japan’s central banker has been pumping trillions of dollars into the economy in an attempt to generate 2 percent inflation. But in a mature, aging economy like Japan’s, the effort is 95 percent about confidence. In order to “drastically convert the deflationary mindset,” as Kuroda puts it, the Bank of Japan must transform sentiment among households and businesses. Kuroda’s massive bond purchases mean little if the Japanese don’t trust that better days lay ahead.

The Swiss National Bank’s move to abandon the franc’s cap against the euro may have blown a hole in Kuroda’s strategy. By reneging on a promise made time and time again that he wouldn’t ditch the policy, SNB President Thomas Jordan “has undermined the credibility of central banks,” says Simon GroseHodge of LGT Group in Singapore. Now, at central banks around the globe, he adds, “the unthinkable is entirely possible. You can’t rule anything out.”

Even if the BOJ issues another blast of quantitative-easing after its two-day

policy meeting next week, the question is how effective the move would be.

Kuroda’s October 31 shock-and-awe stimulus announcement worked for a time by bolstering perceptions that steady inflation was within reach. But this time, with even Economy Minister Akira Amari admitting “it will probably be difficult” for the BOJ to succeed, markets are likely to be more skeptical of the bank’s staying power.

Even aside from the Swiss decision, Kuroda has had trouble with signaling–what bankers call “open-mouth

operations.” Understanding how minutely markets scrutinize their every word and deed, officials in Washington and Frankfurt have learned to use that obsessive attention to their advantage. In an April 2013 study, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco economists Michael Bauer and Glenn Rudebusch found “signaling effects are larger in magnitude and statistical significance” than investors appreciate.

Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s skillful use of verbal winks, nods and innuendo to lead expectations helps explain why QE worked better in the US than Japan.

Part of Kuroda’s problem is simply his soft-spoken, professorial personality. Cleverer speech-writing might help.

So might dropping market-moving hints in the media. The real challenge, though, is the credibility of the institution Kuroda runs. Before he took over in March 2013, predecessor Masaaki Shirakawa had spent five years pledging an end to deflation. Before Shirakawa, Toshihiko Fukui and Masaru Hayami also assured the world higher prices were on the way.

Because the supply side of Japan’s economy is so rigid, Kuroda’s ability to sway the demand side is limited. His job would be easier if the government were adding more fuel to the BOJ’s efforts.

The fact that it’s not means “further

see you again on our shores soon! nnn THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Board of Directors recently turned over to the Tindog Comval Foundation Inc. its share from last month’s PCSO MiniSweepstakes draw.

I and my fellow directors–Betty Nantes, Bem Noel, and lawyers Mabel Mamba and Francisco Joaquin III–were pleased to meet Compostela Valley Gov. Arturo T. Uy last Jan 13 at the PCSO head office in Mandaluyong City.

We presented him with two checks–one worth P578,400.00 was payment of the 80 percent share of the 30 percent charity fund allocation from the draw, while the other for P56,818.18 was the 10-percent sellers prize.

The funds were raised for the foundation from the December 8, 2014 draw of the PCSO “Partner Tayo” Mini-Sweepstakes project, where PCSO teams up with a beneficiary organization in the selling of Sweepstakes tickets, with the proceeds given to the beneficiary.

Parties interested in participating in the Partner Tayo project may check pcso.gov.ph for our contact information.

Atty. Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II is the vice chairman and general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

BOJ actions may be treated with a good deal of skepticism on the part of the household,” says Jonathan Cavenagh, a currency strategist at Westpac. “Structural reform is still the missing ingredient, but meaningful efforts on this front still seem some distance away.”

As much as Kuroda needs to find better ways to guide markets, he also needs to turn his open-mouth operations on Tokyo’s bureaucracy.

Why not, for example, use the BOJ’s honest-broker role to prod the government to offer tax cuts to companies that increase wages, in order to spur spending? As I’ve written before, the BOJ should champion the idea of taxing banks that hoard bonds and households with excessive savings. It could offer central-bank-backed debit cards that put money into consumers’ pockets, rather than continuing to buy government securities. Kuroda could begin buying up distressed assets around the nation, including property in rural areas.

Getting people to borrow and banks to lend is a confidence game. Everyone must trust that the institutions promising to keep things safe and raise living standards can make good on those promises. That has posed a gargantuan challenge to Kuroda from the start.

Swiss surprises or no, the task isn’t getting any easier.

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

China learns airline Real royalty etiquette, the hard way Adam Minter

O

BLOOMBERG VIEW

N January 12 West Air flight PN6272 was taxiing to the gate at Jiangbei Airport in Chongqing, China, when a passenger decided, for no discernible reason, to open an emergency exit door, thereby deploying the evacuation slide. His impulsiveness had precedent.

Two days earlier, members of a tour group on a China Eastern flight in Kunming, furious over flight delays, pulled open emergency exits on their plane just as it was about to take-off for Beijing. And their madness was preceded, in turn, by a Xiamen air passenger who on December 14 opened an emergency exit during taxi so that he might “get some fresh air,” and on December 12 by a China Eastern passenger who opened–yes–an emergency exit on a parked, just-arrived aircraft so that he could “get off the plane faster.”

Taken alone, none of these incidents would rise to the level of news. Taken collectively (and in combination with a lengthy history of similar incidents), they suggest that China is facing a crisis of airborne sanity and civility. The Chinese government itself seems to have embraced that framing: the China’s National Tourism Administration has created a “National Uncivilized Traveler Record” that it now distributes to travel-related businesses around the country. (The group who opened emergency exits on January 10 has already been placed on it.)

The most straightforward explanation for the crisis is that the Chinese public is simply inexperienced at flying. Unlike, say, their American counterparts, they can’t recite pre-flight safety announcements by heart and they don’t understand the gravity of opening a plane’s emergency exits.

Not only that, but the population of Chinese travelers has grown rapidly in recent years. Data assembled by Boeing shows that China’s total available seat kilometers–that is, the number of kilometers available to be flown by individual passengers–increased from 3.51 million to 8.7 billion between 1992 and 2012. And that’s just the start. The International Air Transport Association projects that China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest passenger market by 2030.

Though no data exists on how many first time fliers are responsible for China’s unruly passenger incidents, they are the unerring stars in many accounts in the Chinese press. (For example, the hapless man who opened an emergency exit for fresh air on December 14.)

Making matters worse, China’s millions of new fliers are walking into airports at a time when civil aviation authorities and airlines are struggling to handle their numbers (while sharing limited airspace with a jealous Chinese air force), resulting in miserable delays that are consistently among the world’s most chronic. In December, for example, China’s two biggest airlines–China Southern and China Eastern, and Air China–had the world’s 47th,

51st and 43rd worst performers on the FlightStats Airline On-Time Report. And that was at a low traffic period. Last year, during the typically high traffic month of August, China Eastern was on-time an abysmal 36.39 percent of the time.

Sooner or later, passengers get where they’re going. But in the meantime, the airlines are notoriously stingy in paying out compensation (and government standards for compensation are laughably low) and, in their quest to avoid paying out, have a tendency to be less than forthcoming about causes and expected durations of delays. Such circumstances can test the patience and good will of experienced travelers; for inexperienced travelers, it can feel like they’ve been conned into buying tickets for a luxury version of the evasive bureaucracy that their vacation was supposed to help them escape.

That doesn’t excuse the tantrums, but when stateowned airlines act like state-run airlines–as they oftendoinChina–itcertainlyexplainsmanyofthem.

All that said, part of the reason there seems to be a crisis with unruly Chinese travelers is that the Chinese government prefers it that way. Beijing has clearly decided to treat these sorts of incidents as teaching moments for the broader public on basic questions of decorum, the better to improve the country’s reputation elsewhere in the world. This pedagogical campaign has support from the very top: in September 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping, while visiting the Maldives, famously urged Chinese tourists to stop littering, eat fewer instant noodles, and quit damaging coral reefs.

China’s state-owned media has followed his lead, diligently reporting on even minor unruly passenger incidents. (Last week Chinese media covered the totally un-newsworthy cigarette smoked by an illiterate Chinese farmer in a Cathay Pacific lavatory on Christmas Day. Such an incident, if it happened in the United States, wouldn’t make the police blotter.) It’s not that these incidents aren’t embarrassing for image-conscious officials and citizens. But the hope is that publicizing copious examples of how not to behave when flying will accelerate the improvement of China’s etiquette–and its image abroad.

Fortunately, time, more airports, and more experienced Chinese travelers will solve most of these problems. Others can be addressed by a simple commitment to treating passengers as long-term partners in China’s new aviation journey and educating them. No doubt there will still be occasional trouble in the air, but perhaps in time nobody will feel it’s worth covering.

Teddy Locsin Jr.

Free fire

B

ECAUSE Pope Francis deplores privilege it is not off tangent to talk about a recent so-called royal wedding over here. Indeed, there is nothing more privileged than monarchy; royals don’t earn but automatically get a royal wedding.

So how did our royal wedding measure up to the papal standard? Quite well I think, because in a democracy the resplendence must be earned.

Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera were wed in the biggest, most fabulous yet quite fitting ceremony in memory. It was pretty close, if you ask an astute observer, to the one of Charles and Diana except it was not at the public expense and the couple are far likelier to live happily ever after–together.

There was a 12-foot tall wedding cake, compliments of Goldilocks.

There 5,000 orchids and papal white roses and a cathedral dripping with filaments of light. The wedding car was vintage and harked to a time when weddings were taken seriously for better or worse. And the wedding gown had, for a train, a cirrus

Islamic reformation, the antidote to terrorism

By Emile Nakhleh

W

Inter Press Service

ASHINGTON—The horrific terrorist attack on the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo has once again raised the question about violence and Islam. Why is it, some ask, that so much terrorism has been committed in the name of Islam, and why do violent jihadists seek justification of their actions in their religion?

Regardless of whether or not Said and Cherif Kouachi, the two brothers who attacked Charlie Hebdo, were pious or engaged in un-Islamic behavior in their personal lives, the fact remains they used Islamic idioms, such as “Allahu Akbar” or “God is Great,” to celebrate their bloody violence. Other Islamic terrorists have invoked similar idioms during previous terrorist operations.

Although many Muslim leaders and theologians worldwide have denounced the assault on the Parisbased magazine, many Muslim autocrats continue to exploit Islam for selfish reasons. For example, during the same week of the attacks in France, Saudi Arabia convicted one of its citizen bloggers and sentenced him to a lengthy jail term, a huge fine, and one thousand floggings. His “crime:” calling for liberal reforms of the Saudi regime.

Since September 11, 2001, scholars of Islam have explored the factors that drive Islamic radicalism and the reasons why radical activists have “hijacked” or “stolen” mainstream Islam. Based on public opinion polls and expert analysis, most observers assess that two key factors have contributed to radicalisation and terrorism: a regime’s domestic and foreign policy, and the conservative, intolerant Salafi-Wahhabi Islamic ideology coming mostly out of Saudi Arabia.

For the past decade and half, reasoned analy-

sis has suggested that Arab Islamic states, Muslim scholars, and Western countries could take specific steps in order to neutralise these factors. This analysis concedes, however, that the desired results would require time, resources, courage, and above all, vision and commitment.

What drives domestic terrorism?

IN the domestic policy arena, economic, political, and social issues have framed the radical narrative and empowered extremist activists. These include: dictatorship, repression, corruption, unemployment, inadequate education, poverty, scarcity of clean water, food, and electricity, and poor sanitary conditions.

High unemployment, which ranges from 25 to 50 percent among the 15 to 29 cohort in most Arab and Muslim countries, has created a poor, alienated, angry, and inadequately educated youthful generation that does not identify with the state. Many turn to violence and terrorism and end up serving as foot soldier “jihadists” in terrorist organisations, including the Islamic State, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and others.

Autocratic regimes in several Arab and Islamic countries have ignored these conditions and the ensuing grievances for years while maintaining their hold on power. “Modern Pharaohs” and dynastic po-

tentates continue to practice their repressive policies across the Middle East, totally oblivious to the pain and suffering of their people and the hopelessness of their youth. In the foreign policy arena, public opinion polls in Arab and Muslim countries have shown that specific American policies toward Arabs and Muslims have created a serious rift between the United States and the Islamic world. These include a perceived US war on Islam, the continued detention of Muslims at Guantanamo Bay, unwavering support for the continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, on-going violations of Muslims’ human rights in the name of the war on terrorism, and the coddling of Arab Muslim dictators. Islamic radicals have propagated the claim, which has resonated with many Muslims, that their rulers, or the “near enemy,” are propped up, financed, and armed by the United States and other Western powers or the “far enemy.” Therefore, “jihad” becomes a “duty” against both of these “enemies.”

Although many mainstream Muslims saw some validity in the radicals’ argument that domestic and foreign policy often underpin and justify jihad, they attribute much of the violence and terrorism to radical, intolerant ideological interpretations of Sunni Islam, mostly found in the teachings of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence adhered to by Saudi state and religious establishment. Some contemporary Islamic thinkers have accordingly argued that Islam must undergo a process of reformation. The basic premise of such reformation is to transport Islam from 7th Century Arabia, where the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, to a globalised 21st century world that transcends Arabia and the traditional “abode of Islam.”

Calls for Islamic Reformation REFORMIST Islamic thinkers—including Syrian

Muhammad Shahrur, Iranians Abdul Karim Soroush and Mohsen Kadivar, Swiss-Egyptian Tariq Ramadan, Egyptian-American Khaled Abu El Fadl, SudaneseAmerican Abdullahi Ahmad An-Naim, Egyptian Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, and Malaysians Anwar Ibrahim and Farish Noor—have advocated taking a new look at Islam.

Although their work is based on different religious and cultural narratives, these thinkers generally agree on four key fundamental points: 1. Islam was revealed at a specific time in a specific place and in a response to specific conditions and situations. For example, certain chapters or suras were revealed to Muhammad in Medina while he was fighting several battles and struggling to create his umma-based “Islamic State.”

2. If Islam desires to be accepted as a global religion with universal principles, Muslim theologians should adapt Islam to the modern world where millions of Muslims live as minorities in non-Muslim countries—from India and China to the Americas and Europe. The communal theological concept of the umma that was central to Muhammad’s Islamic State in Medina is no longer valid in a complex, multicultural and multi-religious world.

3. If the millions of Muslims living outside the “heartland” of Islam aspire to become productive citizens in their adopted countries, they would need to view their religion as a personal connection between them and their God, not a communal body of belief that dictates their social interaction with non-Muslims or with their status as a minority. If they want to live in peace with fellow citizens in secular Western countries, they must abide by the principles of tolerance of the “other,” compromise, and peaceful co-existence with other religions.

4. Radical and intolerant Islamic ideology does

Monday, January 19, 2015 A11

cloud that lightly carried the bride to her beloved. At the wedding 8 bishops and 7 priests officiated with a Franciscan regard for popular devotion in a Catholic ceremony and the president of the republic stood as witness.

Yet none of it was over the top. The beautiful couple contributed: their happy faces that showed a deep regard for common folks’ expectations yet also a sense of playing a part in their dreams. While media will try, at any turn, to impart a royal look to quite common and tawdry lives, this was different. Media hardly strained to create a royal effect. In a country where the only thing Royal has been a brand of spaghetti this was the genuine article.

A royal event in a democracy can be more authentic than in a monarchy because it is earned. In this case where, each respectively have made people in every walk of life happy, this couple gave everything to make

the culmination of their affection as royal as the public expected it.

With personal lives unblemished by scandal and careers consistently tasteful, this couple bespoke a royal commitment like that which historic royals are meant to make.

They are role models albeit in resplendent surroundings though earned by their exertions facing down temptations to which others quickly succumb. They are royalty in the true sense of the word; whose living examples raise them in the common esteem above those who are pretenders.

In a democracy you don’t get a royal wedding just because you want it but because it is what you deserve to have and the public morally expects it. What made it royal was not the expense but the fact, that after the event, no one but the mean-spirited thought any of it in least degree out of place. Congratulations to the bride and groom.

not represent the mainstream body of Muslim theology. Whereas radicals and terrorists, from Osama Bin Ladin to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have often quoted the war-like Medina Koranic suras, Islamic reformation should focus on the suras revealed to Muhammad in Mecca, which advocate universalist principles akin to those of Christianity and Judaism. These suras also recognise Moses and Jesus as prophets and messengers of God. Reformist thinkers also agree that Muslim theologians and scholars all over the world should preach to radicals in particular that Islam does not condone terrorism and should not be invoked to justify violence. Although in recent years would-be terrorists invariably sought a religious justification or a fatwa from a religious cleric to justify their terrorist operation, a “reformed” Islam would ban the issuance of such fatwas.

new doctrinal thinking and would readily brand any such thought or thinkers as seditious.

An important reason why the calls for reformation have fallen on deaf ears is because in the past two decades, many of the reformist thinkers have lived outside the Muslim heartland, taught in Western universities, and wrote in foreign languages. Their academic arguments were rarely translated into Arabic and other “Islamic” languages.

Even if some of the articles advocating reformation were translated, the average Muslim in Muslim countries with a high school or college education barely understood or comprehended the reformists’ theological arguments renouncing violence and terrorism.

Failed reformation attempts REGIMES have yet to address the domestic policies that have fueled radicalism and terrorism.

In terms of the Salafi-Wahhabi ideology, Saudi Arabia continues to teach the Hanbali driven doctrine in its schools and export it to other countries. It’s not therefore surprising that the Islamic State (ISIS or IS) bases its government and social “philosophy” on the Saudi religious ideology. According to media reports, some Saudi textbooks are currently being taught in schools in Iraqi and Syrian territory controlled by IS. Calls for reformation have not taken root in the Sunni Muslim world because once the four schools jurisprudence—Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanafi—were accepted in the 10th century as representing the complete doctrine of Sunni Islam, the door of reasoning or ijtihad was closed shut.

Muslim theologians and leaders would not allow any

How to defeat Islamic terrorism IF Arab Islamic rulers are sincere in their fight against terrorism, they need to implement drastically different economic, political, and social policies. They must reform their educational systems, fund massive entrepreneurial projects that aim at job creation, institute transitions to democracy, and empower their people to become creative citizens.

Dictatorship, autocracy, and family rule without popular support or legitimacy will not survive for long in the 21st century. Arab and Muslim youth are connected to the outside world and wired into massive global networks of social media. Many of them believe that their regimes are anachronistic and ossified. To gain their rights and freedoms, these youth, men and women have come to believe their political systems must be replaced and their 7th century religion must be reformed.

Until this happens, terrorism in the name of Islam, whether in Paris or Baghdad, will remain a menace for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A12 Monday, January 19, 2015

PSE TO HOLD ROAD SHOW FOR JAPANESE INVESTORS

By VG Cabuag

T

he Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) said it will invite Japanese investors to tap the local equities market for their funding requirements.

PSE President and CEO Hans Sicat said the operator of the local equities market will hold a seminar in Tokyo, Japan, this week to provide executives of around 150 Japanese firms with an overview of the condition and outlook of the Philippine economy and business sector.

It will also serve as a venue to discuss the listing structure and rules of the PSE to encourage Japanese firms with Philippine subsidiaries to list at the PSE, Sicat said.

“Quite a number of Japanese companies have offices and facilities in the Philippines, and we would like to apprise them of the developments in our capital markets, as well as urge them to tap the [Philippine Stock] Exchange for funding requirements,” Sicat said.

Aside from the Philippine Business Environment Seminar on January 21, the PSE will also host a Philippine Corporate Day on January 22 and 23, in partnership with DBP-Daiwa Capital Markets Philippines Inc. The road show will highlight the performance and prospects of the Philippine stock

SICAT: “Quite a number of Japanese companies have offices and facilities in the Philippines, and we would like to apprise them of the developments in our capital markets, as well as urge them to tap the [Philippine Stock] Exchange for funding requirements.”

market and some of its listed firms.

Some listed companies that will take part in the corporate day include Alliance Global Group Inc.; Ayala Corp. and its property development unit; BDO Unibank Inc.; Energy Development Corp.; JG Summit Holdings Inc., also with its real-estate arm and food unit; Metro Pacific Investments Corp.; San Miguel Corp.; and Petron Corp.

The representatives of the participating listed companies will meet with 25 investment firms in Japan.

“This is the third year that we are holding a road show in Japan with DBP-Daiwa. We hope that, by personally meeting with fund managers, the PSE and the listed companies can encourage them to invest or further increase their exposure in our market,” Sicat said.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Cement industry sees 7% sales hike this year

T

By Catherine N. Pillas

he cement industry is upbeat on its prospects this year, expecting strong demand to hike sales by up to 7 percent on the back of the continued robust infrastructure spending.

Cement Manufacturers’ Association of the Philippines President Ernesto M. Ordoñez said given the expansion of the government’s capital outlay for infrastructure by 25 percent, or at P506 billion, and the private sector’s increased spending, cement sales growth experienced in 2013 and 2014 will again be seen this year.

Official figures for full-year 2014 were not disclosed yet.

However, third-quarter sales saw a growth of 11.9 percent, translating to 5.374 million metric tons (MMT), versus last year’s

4.805 MMT for the same quarter.

This brought the Januaryto-September sales volume to 16.093 MMT, a 7.7-percent improvement over last year’s ninemonth sales of only 14.941 MMT. In 2013 total cement sales reached 19.445 MMT, which— assuming a 6-percent growth in 2014—would translate to total sales of 20.6 MMT for last year.

“We expect 2015 to be a strong year, as we expect the business environment to stay positive, and demand for cement to be, likewise, strong,” Ordoñez said.

Filipinos’ adoration for Pope Francis ‘super-overwhelming’–Malacañang Continued from A1

Mass at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.

Millions of Filipinos trooped to these events despite the rain brought about by Tropical Storm Amang.

In his meeting with young Filipinos on Sunday morning, Francis urged students and representatives of various youth groups “to think, to feel and to do.”

The pontiff said the youth is now inundated with so much information due to the access they enjoy through the Internet.

However, the pontiff said the Church does not need “youth museums” who only store information, but “holy young people” who use their knowledge for the greater good.

During the pope’s meeting with young Filipinos, some representatives of the youth, including two former street children from

Tulay ng Kabataan, with whom the pope met in secret before attending the meeting with families at the Mall of Asia Arena last Friday.

The children recounted their experience as street children and one child cried when she asked the pope why some children are abandoned by their parents.

Francis hugged the child then later on told young Filipinos that they should not hold back their tears. “Certain realities in life, we see only through eyes that are cleansed through our tears.”

The pontiff then lamented the fact that there were too few women representatives among the youth at the event.

“Women have much to tell us in today’s society. Sometimes we’re too ‘machistas’ and we don’t allow room for a woman. Women are capable of seeing things from [a] different angle, Continued on A2

millennial catholics Thousands of well-wishers take pictures of Pope Francis at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, where the pope had an interfaith dialogue with religious leaders and an encounter with the youth. From cell phones to tablets and digital cameras, Filipinos documented the pope’s historic visit to the country wherever he went. KEVIN DE LA CRUZ

Underspending cuts net borrowings by 75%

By David Cagahastian

U

nderspending has trimmed the government’s net borrowings from January to November 2014 to only P143.23 billion.

The P143.23-billion net borrowings made as of November 2014 is P420.32 billion, or 75 percent, lower than the P563.55 billion in net borrowings made by the government for the same period in 2013.

The lower net borrowings is due to repayments and the underspending made by the government last year.

From January to November 2014, total

expenditures made by the government amounted to P1.76 trillion, only slightly higher than the P1.68 trillion in expenditures made by the government during the same 11-month period in 2013, despite the high growth in the government’s revenue collection.

Revenue collection as of November already totaled P1.73 trillion, much higher than the revenue collection for the comparable periods in 2013, which only amounted to P1.57 trillion.

This underspending in 2014 was one of the factors identified by the government’s economic managers which contributed to the slower growth in the gross domestic product, expected to settle at around 6 per-

cent to 7 percent in 2014, lower than the growth target set by the government for last year, which was at the range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent.

Net external borrowings amounted only to P10.48 billion as of November due to net repayments and the lower dependence on foreign creditors in financing the government’s budgetary needs.

Net domestic borrowings, on the other hand, amounted to P132.74 billion, as the government shifts its dependence to domestic creditors to avoid foreign-exchange risks and other costs that come with borrowing money from abroad.

‘GLOBAL WOES TO DELAY FED’S RATE ADJUSTMENT’ Continued from A1

same time, we want to make sure that we appropriately act in a way that we don’t get behind the curve.”

He said it would be appropriate for the Fed to start considering raising interest rates in midyear, based on his forecast for US growth of between 2.5 percent and 3 percent, with inflation rising toward the Fed’s 2-percent goal.

Prices decline

Consumer prices declined by 0.4 percent in December compared with the month before, a Labor Department report showed. From a year earlier, prices rose 0.8 percent.

As measured by the Fed’s preferred gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, prices rose 1.2 percent from a year earlier last November. The index hasn’t exceeded the

Fed’s goal since March 2012. The core measure, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, increased 1.4 percent last November.

Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, in a speech in Minnesota, repeated that markets show “troubling signs” the Fed is losing credibility on its inflation goal, and that officials shouldn’t lift rates this year.

Treasury yields

The benchmark US 10-year note yield rose 12 basis points, or 0.12 percentage point, to 1.84 percent as of 5 p.m. New York time, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader data. The yield declined 11 basis points this week and touched 1.70 percent, the lowest since May 2013.

Policy-makers next meet on January 27 and 28. The FOMC said last month it will be “patient” in raising rates, with Yellen explaining that meant a move was unlikely until at least the end of April.

“Maybe the data will push us a little bit further one way or the other,” Williams said. “I’m not making a prediction of what the Fed will do. But I think the good news here is the economy has improved a lot, we’re in a pretty good place.”

Williams, 52, said the outlook for inflation was more important to him than the impact on growth of weaker global demand, and he played down the decline in December US consumer prices.

“Real incomes are growing faster. Your paycheck is worth more. You can buy more gas,” he told reporters, saying that a large part of the drop was a result of lower energy prices, which would act like a tax cut for US households.

Williams said lower oil prices and the stronger dollar were damping the cost of US imports and this would subdue near-term inflation, while arguing the impact wouldn’t linger.

Bloomberg News