BusinessMirror January 20, 2015

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MESSAGES LEFT BY POPE ON CORRUPTION, SOCIAL JUSTICE SHOW CHALLENGES FOR PHL

‘Pope visit should rekindle reforms’

Pope Francis boards his Philippine Airlines chartered plane on Monday, following a pastoral visit to Manila and typhoon-ravaged Tacloban City. Francis flew out of this Catholic bastion in Asia after a weeklong trip that included a visit to Sri Lanka and drew what Filipino officials say was a record crowd of 6 million faithful at the Rizal Park in Manila, where he celebrated Mass. AP/Bullit Marquez

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ope Francis has left the Philippines, but his message of compassion for the poor and the need to end the corruption that sustains their suffering will continue to resonate in a country where a quarter of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day.

The 78-year-old pontiff took his message from the halls of the presidential palace to the streets of stormbattered Tacloban and Palo in Leyte, and again to an estimated 6 million people who joined his Mass in downtown Manila on Sunday. The Argentine pope flew back to Rome on Monday, after spending four days in Asia’s most-Catholic nation.

“Reforming the social structures, which perpetuate poverty and the exclusion of the poor, first requires a conversion of mind and heart,” Francis told an audience, including

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By VG Cabuag

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President Aquino, on January 16, his first public address in the country.

He urged the people “to reject every form of corruption which diverts resources from the poor, and to make concerted efforts to ensure the inclusion of every man and woman and child in the community.” On Sunday he made a similar call.

Poverty remains a critical issue in the Philippines, where about 24 million people, more than 24 percent of the population, live below the poverty line, even with economic Continued on A2

Oil producers could be in for prolonged agony il producers, reluctant to curb output even as prices tumble to five-and-a-halfyear lows, don’t need to guess what the future holds. They can ask a miner. In coal to iron-ore markets, suppliers have raised volumes even as prices slumped, boosting global gluts and jeopardizing profits as the most dominant players seek to maintain revenue and squeeze out higher cost rivals.

Prices of thermal coal, which is used to generate electricity, and metallurgical coal, a key ingredient in steel, have tumbled more than half

Filipinos‘well-behaved’during Pope Francis’s 5-day phl visit

since 2011 on supply additions and slowing demand in China, the biggest commodities consumer. With the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) insistent that it won’t curb crude output, and US production rising to its fastest weekly pace in more than 30 years, oil markets may be in line for similar prolonged pain.

“If Opec, every now and again, looks over [its] shoulder at what is happening in other commodities you’d think it would be a warning,” said David Lennox, a Sydney-based

PESO exchange rates n US 44.8320

See “Oil,” A8

Jollibee still hesitant to enter Indian food market

A FATHER raises his son amid a throng of well-wishers, who turned up to send Pope Francis off at the end of his fiveday visit to the country. NONIE REYES

By Rene Acosta

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he Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Department of National Defense (DND) expressed their gratitude to Filipinos for behaving well during the five-day visit of Pope Francis.

“We would like to thank the Filipino people for their invaluable cooperation and excellent conduct during the pastoral visit of His Holiness Pope Francis,” said the DNDAFP statement issued by AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. “We truly have every reason to be proud of the fact that we came together as one nation in warmly hosting

the beloved pontiff. Thank you again to everyone who participated in this historic event,” the statement read.

Catapang also cited the “commendable” coordination among government agencies during the pontiff’s visit.

The military will recognize all its troops that took part in providing security to the pope.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said there were fewer crime incidents in Metro Manila during the first three days of the papal visit. The police recorded only 14 separate incidents involving criminal offenses and violations of law resulting in the arrest of three offenders.

Continued on A8

ong Kong—The chairman of fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. on Monday said the company will focus its expansion efforts on the Philippines, China and the US, as expanding to other populous nations such as India will take “a lot of effort.”

Tony Tan-Caktiong told delegates of the Asian Financial Forum that Jollibee has explored expanding to India years ago, but acknowledged that it cannot operate in places where local food tastes vastly different from Filipino food.

“We didn’t understand the culture, and Indian food is very different. If we really want to do it, there will be a lot of effort, and we would need a local partner,” he said.

He admitted that there are a lot of opportunities in India, the world’s second-most populous country, as surveys showed that locals who eat out identified Chinese food as their second-most favorite after the local dishes. He said the taste of the food of Jollibee is closer to Chinese food.

Tan-Caktiong, who founded Jollibee, which the family developed from a simple ice-cream house in Manila, said the expansion efforts of the company will still be devoted to the Philippines, China and the US. Jollibee’s Philippine market, he said, continues to grow, partly helped by the growing economy, as it maintained a 50-50 rate of See “Jollibee,” A8

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)

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‘Pope visit should rekindle reforms’ Continued from A1

growth averaging more than 5 percent a year since 2012. Successive governments have made limited progress in the fight on poverty, which stood at 22.6 percent in 2003, with corruption as one of the biggest impediments to government action.

“The visit of Pope Francis is significant to the over 80 million Catholic Filipinos, but more important, to those from the 30 percent of the population who live below the poverty line and rely only on faith to get by,” Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said in a mobile-phone message in reply to questions.

Pope’s touch

Some of the faithful looked to the pope for a miracle to end their suffering and took to the streets in hope of a chance encounter and a blessing.

Delia Santos brought her 4-yearold son, who waited outside the pontiff’s temporary home in Manila the whole day of January 17, hoping that even the fleeting touch of Francis could cure her child’s hydrocephalus.

“I wanted Pope Francis to touch him so he might get healed,” the 35-year-old mother said.

In Tacloban, the city hardesthit by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan), in November 2013, the first-ever visit by a pontiff meant the world to the suffering people of the region, Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin said. The strongest typhoon to hit

3-DAY EXTENDED FORECAST JANUARY 20, 2015 | TUESDAY

TODAY’S WEATHER

LOW PRESSURE AREA (LPA) WAS LOCATED AT 160 KM EAST SOUTHEAST OF TUGUEGARAO CITY, CAGAYAN. NORTHEAST MONSOON AFFECTING NORTHERN LUZON. (AS OF JANUARY 19, 5:00 PM)

Low Pressure Area (LPA) develops when warm and moist air rises from the Earth’s surface. Northeast Monsoon locally known as “Amihan”. It affects the eastern portions of the country. It is cold and dry; characterized by widespread cloudiness with rain showers.

TAGAYTAY CITY 18 – 28°C

Under Mr. Aquino, there has been some improvement with the country’s score on the Transparency International corruption index, rising

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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

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

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“We know how difficult it is for our democracies today to preserve and defend such basic human values as respect for the inviolable dignity of each human person, respect for the rights of conscience and religious freedom, and respect for the inalienable right to life, beginning with that of the unborn and extending to that of the elderly and infirm,” the pope told Mr. Aquino and his audience on January 16.

The pope also made a pitch for increased inclusion of women on Monday before an audience of more than 20,000, after noticing that only one of the four young people chosen to ask him a question was female. Bloomberg News

Economic solution

LEGAZPI CITY 23 – 29°C

ILOILO/ BACOLOD 24 – 30°C

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METRO MANILA 22 – 30°C

“The pope obviously has made a huge impression on the country, especially with his tough language against corruption, his unequivocal statements on the need for social justice and care for the poor among our political elite, and the need to address man-made climate change,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political-science professor at De La Salle University. The pontiff’s remarks could “rekindle efforts at political reform in the country.”

Mr. Aquino, 54, won the presidency in 2010 after a campaign in which he pledged to fight corruption rampant among officials since dictator Ferdinand Marcos ruled the country from 1965 to 1986.

Mr. Aquino’s predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was arrested on charges of electoral fraud. Arroyo’s predecessor Estrada, who is now Manila’s mayor, was detained for six-and-a-half years on corruption charges and later pardoned by Arroyo in 2007.

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to 38 out of 100 in 2014 from 34 in 2012. Still, the country ranks 85 on the index of the 175 nations surveyed, where a No. 1 ranking signals the least corruption.

Sustaining economic growth may be the best way to improve conditions for the poor, and the Southeast Asian nation could end poverty within a generation if growth is sustained at 6 percent a year, World Bank economist Rogier van den Brink said on January 14.

The Aquino administration embarked on one program to fight poverty that wasn’t welcomed by the Catholic Church in the Philippines—the distribution of birth control to the poor. The pope didn’t directly criticize the effort, while defending the right to life.

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land killed more than 6,200 people, mostly in Tacloban, and damaged more than a million homes. “It’s like God sent him as a medicine to heal the festering spiritual wound in our hearts caused by Supertyphoon Yolanda,” the vice mayor said.

@PanahonTV

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The Nation BusinessMirror

Editor: Dionisio L. Pelayo • Tuesday, January 20, 2015 A3

Supreme Court ready to tackle disqualification case against Estrada; Aquino DAP/PDAF

Govt resumes ops vs NPA as cease-fire ends

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HE Supreme Court (SC) announced on Monday it is set to tackle the petition filed before the High Tribunal seeking the disqualification of former President Joseph Estrada as mayor of Manila City, filed by his rival former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and his lawyer.

The disqualification case, according to a Court insider, was included in the Court’s agenda for its en banc session scheduled on Wednesday.

Estrada, who has barely one and a half year left in office, won against Lim in the 2013 mayoralty race with 343,993 votes. Lim got 308,544 votes, according to Commission on Elections (Comelec) documents.

However, Estrada’s candidacy was questioned by Lim’s lawyer Alicia Risos-Vidal before the Comelec.

Vidal asked the Comelec to declare Estrada disqualified to run for mayor of Manila in the May 13, 2013, elections.

She insisted that Estrada’s conviction for plunder and being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007 rendered him disqualified to run for public office.

She added that the executive pardon granted to him by former President Gloria Arroyo did not restore his right to seek or hold public office.

When the Comelec junked her petition, Vidal elevated the matter before the Court, which gave due course to the petition only in April last year.

Lim filed his petition-in-intervention to Vidal’s petition after.

The magistrates were supposed to tackle the petition before going into a monthlong holiday recess last month but announced later they were

not ready to vote on the draft ruling.

Estrada already submitted his comment to the petitions in June last year.

In his reply, the former President insisted his pardon granted by Arroyo was absolute and not hinged on the condition he would no longer seek elective office as supposedly stated in the “whereas clause” of the clemency, contrary to petitioners’ claim.

Estrada argued the pardon “effectively obliterated all the penalties attached to the conviction, and restored Estrada to his full and civil political rights.”

On the technical aspect, he argued that Lim lacked the legal standing to intervene in the case “because he [Lim] does not stand to sustain any direct injury, or is denied a right or privilege he is entitled to,” with Estrada sitting as Mayor of Manila.

Estrada also pointed to Section 44 of the Local Government Code, which cited the vice mayor occupies the position vacated by the winning candidate for mayor if the latter is disqualified and not the candidate who got the second most number of votes for the position in question.

The SC is also expected to tackle the motions seeking reconsideration of the magistrates’ July 1, 2014 ruling striking down as unconstitutional the Disbursement Acceleration Program of President Benigno S. Aquino III and the petitions of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada involving the Priority Development Assistance Fund plunder cases in the Sandiganbayan. Joel R. San Juan

By Rene Acosta

HE military and police said they will resume security and law-enforcement operations against the New People’s Army (NPA) as the 30-day cease-fire that both the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) had observed with the rebels ends January 20.

The suspension of offensive police operations and suspension of offensive military operations (Somo), which Deputy Director Gen. Leon-

ardo Espina and Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. ended at 12 midnight on Monday.

Military Spokesman Col. Resituto

Padilla said the end of the cease-fire means the resumption of the military operations against rebels around the country. The NPA had also declared its own cease-fire up to the end of the visit of Pope Francis on Monday.

“The full range of military operations will be back,” said Padilla, as he challenged the rebels to show proof the government violated its own declared cease-fire.

“They should show proof. All soldiers who were deployed in areas since the declaration of the Somo, they did not move. They were there; they did not operate,” he said.

“We will continue to enforce lawenforcement operations and then go after criminals and then implement our target objective for the year in line with Oplan Bayanihan,” Padilla said.

Meanwhile, the military chided

the rebels for suspending their planned release of three policemen who were captured in November last year in Surigao del Norte.

“By suspending the release of the kidnap victims, they have lost their golden opportunity to show the Filipino people that they are supporting the message of mercy and compassion brought by Pope Francis during his visit here in the Philippines,” a statement from the AFP said.

But the rebels blamed the government over their scuttling of the plan to release the captives citing the military’s violation of the cease-fire, particularly in the province and other parts of Mindanao.

“There is no truth to the allegations the military has launched offensive operations against the NPA,” Armed Forces Public Affairs Office Chief Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc said.

Truckloads of garbage collected after Quirino Grandstand Mass

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HE Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has collected at least 23 truckloads of garbage after the concluding Eucharistic celebration of Pope Francis at the Quirino Grandstand on Sunday afternoon.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolen-

tino said 600 street sweepers worked during the five-day papal visit to maintain the cleanliness of areas where Francis held various events.

Tolentino said based on their estimate, more or less 6 million people flocked at the Rizal Park to hear Mass and along the route of

the papal convoy.

Francis Martinez, head of MMDA’s Metro Parkway Clearing Group, said the crowd gathered at Luneta Park in Manila left 138 tons of garbage on Sunday.

As of 3 p.m.on Monday, we have already collected trash from the route of

the papal convoy and from Rizal Park, Martinez said.

Martinez said the garbage collected was composed mainly of plastic food wrappers, empty mineral water bottles and barbecue sticks.

He said the garbage was hauled to Pier 18 in Manila. Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco

Economy

A4 Tuesday, January 20, 2015 • Editors: Vittorio V. Vitug and Max V. de Leon

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Ilijan plant power generation now at 900-MW, says DOE exec

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By Lenie Lectura

he 1,200-megawatt (MW) Ilijan combined-cycle power plant, which accounts for about 15 percent of the Luzon power-grid requirement, is now running at 900 MW after repairs were done by Kepco Ilijan Corp.

“Ilijan’s capability now is at 900 MW,” said Mylene Capongcol, director for Electric Power Industry Management Bureau of the Department of Energy (DOE), in a text message on Monday.

The power plant is composed of two units with a capacity of 600 MW each. Block A, or the first unit, was put on a maintenance shutdown on January 12 due to “damaged compressor turbine and casing.”

“Ilijan GT1-1 was synchronized

to the grid on January 15, while the steam synchronization happened [on January 19]. The current capability of Ilijan Block A is 300 MW,” Capongcol said.

The remaining 300 MW of Ilijan Block A could be made available after repairs are completed. “Full repair of Block A unit is targeted [in] early March,” the DOE official added, who earlier said that repairs could last until March 3.

Ilijan Block B was put on forced

outage on January 13 due to “condenser tube leak.” This was later repaired and restored on January 16.

“Block B is fully restored. It is now at 600 MW,” Capongcol said.

Based on the power-situation outlook provided by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, power remains stable for January 20 as capacity is estimated at 8,278 MW, with a system peak demand of 6,971 MW and reserves hitting at 1,307 MW. Meanwhile, Ilijan Block B is scheduled to undergo a maintenance outage during the very same time that the Malampaya naturalgas facility goes offline from March 15 to April 15. The Malampaya gas field in offshore Palawan supplies natural gas to two more natural-gas power plants in Luzon, the 1,000MW Santa Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo power plants, both owned by the Lopez Group.

Several power plants, with a total capacity of 4,162.6 MW will either go on scheduled maintenance shutdown, or forced outage, until July of this year.

Senate sets focus on laws that ensure sustainable growth PHL eyes 4

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air-service negotiations in Q1–CAB

By Recto Mercene

enate President Franklin M. Drilon on Monday said that economic measures aiming to improve the nation’s business climate and fine-tune its fiscal and economic policies top the Senate’s to-do list for 2015.

“In 2014 the Senate passed important legislation on social and health services, and education, such as the law on automatic PhilHealth coverage for senior citizens, the Graphic Health Warning Act, and the Iskolar ng Bayan Act. This year we are directing our efforts to the economic sector to ensure that the nation’s progress will not be hindered by events in the local and global markets,” Drilon pointed out, a day before the resumption of congressional sessions.

He said that, as part of their list of economic reforms, the upper chamber will “harmonize numerous fiscal and nonfiscal incentives and subsidies to foreign and domestic investors, so that the government can avoid redundancies and revenue loss.”

He said they will also look into the proposed amendments of the build-operatetransfer law, to address policy gaps identified in the present law.

“We need to create a better enabling policy environment for public-private partnerships [PPP]. We need to invite more investments from the private sector through the most appropriate incentives, and, at the same time, our policies need to ensure that the buying public will get fair and reasonable prices and efficient services from such PPP projects or ventures.”

Drilon also pointed out that the Senate will study and review options for a new mining fiscal regime for the country in order to implement “responsible mining policies, with emphasis on improving environmental mining standards and protecting the rights of affected communities, while promoting economic growth.”

“Our view is that we need to increase the government’s share from mining revenues, since it is imperative that the Filipino people must have their fair share in an economic activity, such as mining, which involves the extraction of natural, nonrenewable resources,” he said.

“The minerals are owned by the Filipino people, and not by those who have mining licenses,” Drilon added.

By Lorenz S. Marasigan

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Fresh and bountiful A winsome lady vendor puts up an attractive display of fresh fish in her stall at a local wet market in the city. The Department of Agriculture recently said that it is set to expand research and development on how to combine rice growing with fishery to maximize the output of both food commodities. Stephanie Tumampos

He said the Senate will also work on proposed bills seeking to streamline the operations of government agencies to improve their ability to deal with and manage the various sectors, which greatly contribute to the nation’s economic condition.

“The Senate will work on the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, which aims to

institute electronic process of import and export, simplify the Customs procedure for ordinary citizens, and increase the operating flexibility of the Bureau of Customs, as well as on the proposed bill on amendments to the Charter of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas,” Drilon said.

“We will also act on the bill creating a Department of Information and

Communications Technology that will be tasked to develop ICT systems and further enhance communication services vital to the country’s development,” he added.

Drilon assured that there is a shared awareness between the Legislative and Executive branches of government of the need to pass these laws in time for the Asean market integration.

Drilon said that in 2014, the Senate has already approved its version of the Fair Competition Act and the Sugar Cane Industry Development Act, and that both houses of Congress have allowed the full entry of foreign banks in the country.

He added that the Senate will prioritize the passage of the Bangsamoro basic law, which is currently undergoing public hearings.

HE commercial airline regulator in the Philippines will hold air-service negotiations with four nations this quarter, a government official said.

Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Executive Director Carmelo L. Arcilla said the Philippine air panel will meet this quarter with its counterparts from Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and Mexico to modernize their existing air-services agreements.

“Those are our current markets.

Australia, Singapore and Taiwan are big markets. Mexico, on the other hand, is a potential market,” he said in a phone interview.

He could not, however, provide specific dates for the air talks.

“We are still working on the dates. But we will hold air talks with them,” Arcilla said. “This is an opportunity to update the agreements.

It will pave the way for potential services, especially between Manila and Mexico.”

In 2014 the Philippine air panel was able to yield additional flight entitlements from the following countries, namely Malaysia, Hong Kong, Ethiopia, South Africa, Macau, Canada, Myanmar, New Zealand, Singapore and France.

CAB aims to improve the situation of passenger traffic by increasing seat entitlements as part of its drive to expand air-traffic rights.

The government aims to generate $4.6 billion in tourism revenues by the end of the Aquino administration.

It also aims to attract 6 million tourists and create 3 million jobs by 2016. This would allow the sector to contribute 6.35 percent to the gross domestic product.

Pope’s plea to aid poor, address corruption issues not meant for me, Aquino insists

By Butch Fernandez

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resident Aquino maintained on Monday that the plea for aid on behalf of millions of poor Filipinos repeatedly aired by Pope Francis during his five-day state and pastoral visit to the Philippines was not meant for him.

“Palagay ko hindi nakatukoy sa atin ’yan, ano,” Mr. Aquino told reporters after attending the send-off rites for the visiting pope, who was flying back to the Vatican from Villamor

Air Base on Monday.

President Aquino also assured Filipinos that his administration is doing its best to address corruption, another point raised by the pope in some of his homilies. “That’s what we are doing since day one,” he told reporters during an ambush interview.

Mr. Aquino cited that even the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) has been directed to address corruption issues.

The BuCor is currently in limelight after a visit by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima confirmed that some inmates

are given special privileges as proven by their air-conditioned quarters that are also equipped with jacuzzi and a music room, among others.

President Aquino said the fight against corruption will not stop but also stressed that everything has to be done through the right processes. “As a saying goes, the measure of democracy is not how you defend your friend’s rights but the right of your enemy,” he said.

Mr. Aquino asserted that his administration had already uprooted at least “two and a half million peo-

ple” from the poverty level since it launched various pro-poor projects, including education, livelihood and employment programs, soon after he came to power in 2010.

“Meron parang 1 million to 1.6 million na mga bagong trabahong nalikha.

Ito ’yung pinakabagong mga figures mula 2013, kung hindi ako nagkakamali,” President Aquino said. “Tuluy-tuloy pa rin ’yung ginagawa natin diyan.”

Mr. Aquino also cited the benefits from the government’s poverty-reduction scheme, also known as the

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which extends grants to poor household beneficiaries to ensure they remain healthy by providing nutrition and medical assistance, as well as education for their school-aged children.

“At lalo ng mararamdaman iyan kapag natamasa na natin ’yung biyaya ’nung lahat ng mga proyekto tulad ’nung 4Ps na siyempre [sa aspeto ng] pag-aaral [ng mga estudyante] na nag-umpisa na. So medyo hindi madadama overnight ’yung resulta ’non pero patungo tayo doon,” he added.

Asked if Francis conveyed any part-

ing message before boarding his flight back to Rome, President Aquino said the pontiff simply repeated expressing his gratitude to the Filipino people for the overwhelming reception accorded to him and the papal delegation thorughout their stay here.

“Well, inulit-ulit niya ’yung pasasalamat sa sambayanan na talagang ikinatuwa niya talaga iyong init ng pagsalubong sa kanya,” Mr. Aquino said. “So, tuwang-tuwa siya doon sa hospitality na ipinakita. Damang-dama daw niya ’yung warmth.” With PNA

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Tuesday, January 20, 2015 A5

‘Pope’s visit an act of communion, solidarity and a miracle’

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By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

OPE Francis on Monday concluded his historic five-day visit to the Philippines, leaving the faith of Filipinos to Jesus Christ much stronger, a Church official said.

Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle said millions of Catholic Filipinos have been united by Pope Francis’s words during his first trip to Asia’s predominantly Roman Catholic nation, the Philippines.

“This event is really an act of communion, an act of solidarity. It [was] a miracle,” said Tagle, adding, “thanks to God and to everyone that we were able to show to the world that it is possible…the communication, cooperation, collaboration...and these are not just ideas but can be put into actions [by Filipinos].”

Tagle said that Pope Francis dedicated his five-day visit to the poor, the youth and families.

The theme of the recent apostolic and state visit of the 78-year-old pontiff was “Mercy and Compassion.”

Tagle noted the role Francis plays in the lives of Filipinos, saying, “He is the rock that strengthens us amid all the natural and man-made calamities we face.”

The archbishop also thanked Francis for his visit to the Philippines, saying all Filipinos would be praying for the Pontiff.

“The people who worked tirelessly for your pastoral visit, and the Filipinos whom you have been strengthened in faith these past days, I once again say ‘Thank you.’

I say thank you very much 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 non-Christian religions, the promoters of peace, especially in Mindanao, and creation that groans,” Tagle said.

“Wherever the light of Jesus shines, Pope Francis and the Filipino people will always be united,” he said.

Tagle also said that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has invited the pontiff to attend the 51st International Eucharistic Congress, which is set to be held in Cebu in January 2016.

“We already sent the invitation to him. It is the decision of the Holy Father [to come again to the Philippines after his recently concluded visit]. The event is there but the Holy Father will have to decide,” Tagle said.

Onboard Philippine Airlines (PAL) Flight PR8010, Francis left Manila for Rome at around 10:12 a.m. at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.

Francis was sent off by President Aquino, Tagle, several bishops and government officials.

Francis’s visit to the Philippines was the second leg of his Asian tour after Sri Lanka.

During his first trip in the country, Pope Francis met President Aquino, members of the diplomatic corps, government officials, Church leaders, as well as Filipino youth and families in Manila.

His visit, however, was highlighted by a trip to typhoon-weary Tacloban City and Palo, both in Leyte, on Saturday, and a Mass at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park on Sunday, which drew a re-

AP

UNTIL YOUR NEXT VISIT, HOLY FATHER

Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Filipinos lined the streets leading to the Villamor Air Base on Monday to get a last glimpse of the 78-year-old Pope Francis, who concluded his five-day state and pastoral visit to the Philippines. The pontiff smiled and waved aboard an open-sided, white popemobile. As he passed, many shrieked, jumped in joy, called his name and wept in joy. AP

cord crowd of 6 million despite inclement weather.

Supertyphoon Yolanda was recorded as the strongest typhoon that made landfall in the world in history.

The main focus of the pope’s visit to the Philippines was his trip to Leyte to console and meet with survivors of Yolanda, but the visit was cut short by strong winds and heavy rains stirred by Tropical Storm Amang. The pope braved Amang to meet and hold a Mass for residents there.

But during his visit in Leyte, Francis assured victims of Yolanda

Pontiff leaves Manila after drawing record crowd of over 6 million

P

OPE Francis flew home on Monday after a weeklong trip to Asia, where he called for unity in Sri Lanka after a civil war then asked Filipinos to be “missionaries of the faith” in the world's most populous continent after a record crowd turned up in his final Mass in the Philippine capital.

President Aquino, Catholic Church leaders and about 400 street children yelling “Pope Francis we love you,” saw him off at a Manila air base, where the pontiff, carrying a black travel bag, boarded a plane for Rome. Standing at the top of the stairs, the pope waved, slightly bowed his head and then walked into the plane.

Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Filipinos lined Manila’s streets to get a final glimpse of

PHOTOS BY NONIE REYES

the 78-year-old Francis, who smiled and waved aboard an open-sided, white popemobile. As he passed, many shrieked, jumped in joy, called his name and wept in joy.

“He’s my No. 1 world leader,” said Rita Fernandez, a 63-year-old mother of four, who stood on a street near the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila where Francis stayed during his five-day visit.

“He rides on a bus. He flew to Tacloban to visit the typhoon survivors despite the storm and he stops to talk to the poor. He’s a living saint,” said Fernandez, who held a cell phone with a camera and wore a yellow shirt showing a smiling Francis.

Unable to squeeze himself to the front of the thick crowd, a man brought a tall ladder, where

he climbed and unfurled a poster with the pope’s smiling image and carried a handwritten farewell message: “Dear Pope Francis, We love you! We pray for you. Please pray for us all.”

Such passion and devotion visibly energized the leader of a 1.2 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church confronted by secularism, clergy sex-abuse scandals and other daunting problems.

Francis dedicated his five-day trip to the Philippines to the poor, marginalized and victims of injustice. He denounced the corruption that has robbed them of a dignified life, visited with street children and traveled to the eastern city of Tacloban to offer prayers for survivors of Supertyphoon Yolanda, the deadly 2013 storm that devastated one of the Philippines’s poorest regions. AP

that they are not alone in their sufferings for Jesus Christ—who has walked before them and experienced all forms of calamities—will never leave them alone in their agony.

Yolanda battered Central Philippines on November 8, 2013, leaving approximately 6,300 people dead; 2,000 others still missing; and nearly 4 million people homeless.

The pontiff apologized to the people of Leyte, noting that his hurried visit to the province was something that “truly saddened” him.

Also, amid rainfall, the pontiff pushed through with the traditional

papal visit to the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas on Sunday and his final Mass at the Luneta Park in the afternoon attended by millions of people.

During the time when access to information is just at the touch of one’s fingertips and everything is accessible, the pope, whose name was inspired by Francis of Assisi, called on young Filipinos who trooped to the UST to “learn how to love” so they may use the advantages of technological innovations to touch the lives of those who are poor and suffering.

The Holy Father said the almost unlimited information at the fingertips of the present generation could only make sense through love – the kind that uses knowledge for the benefit of others.

“This is the challenge that life offers you—to learn how to love.

Not just to accumulate information without knowing what to do with it, but to let that information bear fruit through love,” he said.

Francis arrived in the country late Thursday, kicking off his fiveday pastoral visit to the Philippines from January 15 to 19.

Opinion BusinessMirror

A6 Tuesday, January 20, 2015

editorial

Business year 2015 officially begins

Y

ESTERDAY culminated a unique month in the life of the Philippines. We had an extended holiday season as the financial system was open only three days from December 19 until January 5.

Then we moved to the preparations for the visit of Pope Francis and three more non-working holidays.

While we also have questioned the need for so many non-working holidays, it gave millions of Filipinos the opportunity to have more time for the Christmas season and for the activities of the Papal visit.

But now we are officially in to the 2015 and what a year it is already shaping up to be.

There are perhaps two significant themes that are going to determine the business and economic climate for the next few months. The first is that price inflation should average significantly lower than it has in the last year.

If you look at the trend of the increase in economic activity, there is a strong correlation with the inflation rate. While this is not to say that there is a direct causation, price inflation does negatively impact both consumer and company spending. We have seen the price of gasoline drop dramatically in the last 30 days and inflation forecasts keep being lowered. However, a large price change, either lower or higher, with a core commodity like fuel does not have the greatest economic impact until weeks if not months after the price has changed.

It would be dangerous and even foolish to assume the crude oil prices are going to remain at these low levels for an extended period. But if pries remain low for a few more months, it will have a positive and significant impact on economic growth through the rest of 2015.

The other economic variable we will continue to closely watch is government fiscal policy. While there have been those that are worried about the level of government spending, when you look at the actually numbers, it is not the amount that has decreased much but the amount of growth of spending on a year to year basis.

There are those that contend that government spending is the core and anchor of economic growth. We disagree. However, there are two way to look at it.

Economic growth has continued without a large increase and government spending and therefore government borrowings are now low. That means more money in the local system for consumers and businesses.

On the other hand, how much more growth might be achieved if and when government spending growth increases?

Low price inflation combined with increased government spending—with only a reasonable increase in government borrowings—could make 2015 a big economic year.

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HE Philippines is one of the countries on earth most exposed to storms—including Supertyphoon Yolanda, the most destructive in recent history—visited by an average of 18 to 20 typhoons a year.

This archipelago of over 7,000 islands is also located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, together with Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Russia. These countries account for most of the earthquakes that shook the world, including the 2011 earthquake that triggered a tsunami, caused a nuclear meltdown and killed nearly 16,000 people in Japan.

The Philippines also has more than 30 volcanoes, of which more than 20 are considered active, and a few, like Mayon and Taal, are permanently monitored. Mount Pinatubo, which for many centuries was just a part of the mountainous forests of Zambales, erupted in 1991, and its effects were felt worldwide: the massive amount of gas and ash caused a temporary half-degree Centigrade

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drop in global temperatures.

These are natural circumstances that we cannot change. Worse, climate change is believed to be behind the increase in the intensity and destructive strength of typhoons. Super typhoon Yolanda in 2013 was the strongest typhoon that ever made landfall in the world, killing more than 6,000, but weaker typhoons were by no means less destructive.

I listed these circumstances and described our country’s geographical situation to drive a point: while we cannot prevent typhoons or stop volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, we can prepare for them to minimize destruction and loss of lives.

The good news is that weather forecasting technology and equipment have gone a long way, allowing some countries, for example, to pre-

Watch the money flow

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BusinessMirror is published daily by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror

HOM

Why we should lead in weather forecasting

John Mangun

OUTSIDE THE BOX

T

HE global financial and asset markets are in turmoil and there is little reason to believe that condition is going to change any time soon.

Currencies are in upheaval by the decision of the Swiss National Bank to let market forces determine the Swiss franc exchange rate while other central banks are holding firm to a manipulative policy. The price of crude oil is very volatile with the bottom not yet confirmed even as prices have rebounded almost 10 percent for its recent low.

Gold is up $100 and over 8 percent from recent lows even as food commodity prices drop and contrarily, US retail food prices hit historic highs.

The question as to how this all is going to affect the Philippine economy and the Philippine Stock Exchange is difficult to predict not unlike the weather. But as with the weather, all you have to look for are the signs.

You cannot have rain if there are not any clouds. You cannot have a strongly growing economy and stock market without inbound money flows.

If money flows into the Philippines from all foreign sources, the stock market will go much higher.

If local companies stick to their 2015 capital expenditure spending plans, the economy will grow at a faster rate than the recent lowered expectations.

All the brilliant forecasts for 2015, including mine, have been challenged by the events in the last two weeks.

The fall of the euro and the potential for a potentially massive money printing policy by the European Central Bank (ECB) throws the forecasts about the European Union economy in grave doubt. The current overhang in Europe is the Greece question. The ECB and Germany are downplaying the potential of Greece leaving the euro and the impact of what would happen if Greece did go back to its own currency. But that is all propaganda because no one has any clue what

dict accurately when rains are coming, and how much water they bring.

Unfortunately, we are still lagging behind our neighbors, including those less exposed to natural disasters, when it comes to technology and equipment that are vital to weather forecasting as well as monitoring of volcanoes and hazard areas. It is imperative that as a country most prone to disasters, we should have the most advanced technology and equipment.

We may lag in the fields of defense or agriculture, but we should lead in disaster forecasting technology and equipment, keeping in mind the billions of losses in property, infrastructure and agriculture and the loss of thousands of lives as a result of typhoons and other calamities.

We congratulated ourselves when typhoon Ruby, which was expected to become a super typhoon, caused a substantially amount of damage when it hit in the middle part of December last year: P5.09 billion worth of infrastructure and agriculture damages and 18 dead. Timely preparations, including weather forecasts, were cited, but I believe we could further reduce the disastrous impact with more advanced technology and equipment.

Ironically, typhoon Seniang, the last typhoon to hit the country last year, was considered a weak typhoon, but it brought heavy rains

and triggered floods, leaving 66 people dead and displacing more than 100,000 families.

Apparently, we could and we should, continue to improve disaster forecasting technology and equipment. We should be like Singapore, which continues to advance in the medicine field by buying the latest equipment in health care.

We should have the same attitude when it comes to weather forecasting technology and equipment, as well as for monitoring other hazard areas like volcanoes and earthquakes.

Our advantage right now is that the government is in good financial health. It has the resources to propel the Philippines to the top position in forecasting rains, storms and other natural disasters and monitoring potential disaster areas. Let us keep in mind, one life lost because of a typhoon is one death too many.

In closing, I hope the visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines, including Tacloban, will encourage the government and the private sector to speed up the rehabilitation and recovery work in the areas destroyed by typhoon Yolanda, so that they may be better prepared for the next disaster.

would happen if Greece does leave.

While as much as I would like to see even lower oil prices and local gasoline at P25 a liter, there are several cross-currents that could change the trend. Low oil prices have lowered inflation so much for the US economy that it puts a huge question mark on whether the US Federal Reserve can realistically raise interest rates in the near future. US consumer confidence is higher than it has been in years because of low gasoline prices. Maybe they will really start spending again.

So the Federal Reserve wants to raise interest rates to raise the inflation rate. But doing that could reduce economic activity even more. That is the classic rock and a hard place.

Money is looking for a safe haven and a reasonable return on investment for the next few months but where is that going to be found?

The Japanese yen has been fairly strong in the last month but do you genuinely want to put your money into a nation whose economy is in recession? Which way is China going to go: more stimulus or a pullback on government economic support? China has been sending signals both ways.

As mentioned, both Europe and the US have their own financial and economic contradictions right now and while these two may be ‘safe’, it is hard to get a safe return. The stock markets are strong albeit with extreme volatility, but who is willing

to place a big bet on any of those stock markets for months in the future.

Of course, I am going to recommend the Philippines for economic growth, currency stability and possible strength, and a trending stock market backed by increasing corporate earnings. But the whole thing is a circular argument.

The local stock market probably has enough momentum combined with excess cash in the system from lower inflation to keep going higher for at least a few of months to keep pace with the lowest corporate earnings growth estimates. But after that is a big question mark.

Local companies will spend if they can make a profit from their increased spending but can pull back at any time. Foreign money will come in only if they see the market strong and local corporate spending stay on target.

The key as I have said before is to watch the Philippine peso. A stable peso means money is coming in. A weak peso means money is not coming in. It’s that simple to predict the future.

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

E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com.

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

Opinion BusinessMirror

opinion@businessmirror.com.ph

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Greenpeace propaganda a failure The Palestinians’ decision to join the ICC deserves support

By Kenneth Roth

Ernesto M. Hilario

Los Angeles Times/TNS

T

HE Israel exception to Western governments’ human rights principles has been starkly on display in the reaction to the Palestinian Authority’s decision to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). In Washington, Ottawa, Paris and London, as well as Tel Aviv, the response has ranged from discouraging to condemnatory. The Palestinian move has been seen as “counterproductive,” “deeply troubling,” “a concerning and dangerous development” that could make a “return to negotiations impossible.” Before accepting these howls of protest, we should ask why, exactly, the Palestinian move is supposed to be bad.

Given the outcry, one would think this move targets only Israel, but the ICC doesn’t work that way. Rather, the court will be empowered to prosecute war crimes committed in or from Palestinian territory–that is, crimes committed by Israelis or Palestinians.

The court’s prosecutor is not dependent on formal complaints by ICC members but can now initiate cases on her own.

Many of the Western objections are based on the argument that having the Palestinians in the ICC will somehow undermine Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations–moribund as they have been. The US State Department opined that it would “damage the atmosphere” for peace.

But the broad parameters for peace have been known for years. What has been lacking is the trust between the two sides to make the painful decisions necessary for a peace accord.

Nothing undermines that trust more than impunity for the war crimes that Human Rights Watch has found continue to characterize the conflict, whether settlement expansion, Hamas rocket strikes or Israel’s lax attitude toward civilian casualties in Gaza. By helping to deter these crimes, the ICC could discourage these major impediments to peace.

Moreover, the Palestinians’ willingness to embrace the ICC should be applauded for what it says about their tactics. Hamas is rightfully condemned for its rocket attacks on Israeli population centers. Yet Hamas signed off on joining the ICC, even though its leaders could now face prosecution. Indeed, because these war crimes are factually and legally among the easiest to prove, they may stand the greatest chance of ICC prosecution.

The ICC is no guarantee that such attacks will cease, but it provides a disincentive, as well as an avenue of redress for victims. Why is it bad for the Palestinians to pursue such legal avenues rather than more rocket attacks?

But isn’t the ICC another UN institution that will focus excessively on Israel? No. Unlike political bodies composed of governments, such as the UN General Assembly or Human Rights Council, the court’s investigations and prosecutions are led by an independent, professional prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda of Gambia. She has earned a reputation as a sober, dispassionate, no-nonsense lawyer with no evidence

of anti-Israel animus. In decisions she has made about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she declined a Palestinian request to assume jurisdiction made before statehood was recognized and, in a case brought by another government, decided against opening a formal investigation because the alleged crime in question was not serious enough.

Given Palestinian vulnerability to prosecution, the West’s reaction suggests an interest not in seeing impartial justice done but in keeping Israelis out of the dock in The Hague.

Yet the ICC is a court of last resort. It is empowered to act only when national authorities have not. So the easiest way for any government to avoid ICC prosecution of its citizens is to conscientiously and credibly investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes by its forces.

Both the Israeli and Palestinian governments have an abysmal record in this regard. The Palestinian Authority is not known to have initiated any such investigations.

The Israeli military prosecutor occasionally conducts investigations but hardly ever prosecutes anyone. The most serious punishment imposed in recent years for abuse against Palestinians was a 7-month prison term for an Israeli soldier who stole a credit card. The ICC provides a strong reason for both sides to break this pattern of impunity. Again, what is wrong with that?

But what if Israel does not change?

If it continues to expand settlements and to use methods of warfare that impose an unacceptably high civilian toll while refusing to prosecute offenders, that is not a path that Western governments should endorse.

Keeping the ICC out at all costs may be good for the Israeli leaders who fear ICC prosecution, but it is hardly good for Israelis, Palestinians, peace in the region or global justice.

It is not too late for Western governments to change course. Obligatory condemnations are one thing, but Israel is pushing to punish the Palestinian Authority. It already is threatening to withhold tax revenues collected in the West Bank on the Palestinians’ behalf. Western governments should refuse to follow suit with their own sanctions.

The Palestinians’ landmark decision to face down misguided threats and embrace the ICC should be bolstered, not undermined.

ABOUT TOWN

D

ID the multimillion-dollar investment in propaganda operations against agriculture biotechnology by Greenpeace fail to deliver results?

The answer appears to be “yes” given the sustained rise in the global demand for genetically modified seeds. According to recent media reports, the global market for seeds is forecast to exceed $112 billion by 2020, with the growth being driven by “rising focus on food security and robust demand for GM seeds”.

According to the same report, “the need for increased productivity against the backdrop of decreasing arable land, and the growing number of people to feed” is fuelling the market growth for biotech seeds.

This development must really be alarming to the Amsterdam-based executives of Greenpeace. The powerful pressure group has poured a lot of financial and political resources into its decade-old propaganda campaign designed to scare farmers out of shifting to biotech seeds.

The propaganda campaign, it will be recalled, spread allegations that biotech crops will cause cancer, deformities and deaths. Anti-biotech propagandists, at some point, also reportedly told farmers that ingesting food derived from biotech plants may lead to homosexuality.

Greenpeace operatives in the country also reportedly led organized action, allegedly including

Bloomberg News

T

HE precipitous drop in oil prices poses a big question for the US economy: Which force will prove more powerful, the potential end of the oil boom in some US states, or the boost to consumers as lower energy prices free up spending money?

Although most economists assume the positives will outweigh the negatives, the early evidence is mixed.

The ascendance of the shale oil industry has had a significant impact. From the beginning of the US recovery in mid-2009 through September 2014, just two shale-rich states–Texas and North Dakota– contributed more than 12 percent of all growth in personal income, increasing the national annual total by more than $67 billion in the last year alone. This, in turn, has helped

fuel the consumer spending needed to get the US out of the doldrums.

Now the effect on income appears to be waning. The most recent data from the Labor Department suggest that the decline in oil prices, which began in earnest in October of last year, is already having an effect on wages in the energy sector. Over the three months through December, the average hourly wage in mining and logging, a category that consists largely of oil extraction and related services, declined at an annualized rate of 5.8 percent, from $31.07 to

Some time ago, Greenpeace managed to get an order from the Court of Appeals stopping our scientists from completing field trials for a biotech eggplant variety.

Our scientists have appealed the order before the Supreme Court.

Greenpeace has vowed to defeat our scientists in this legal battle. This is understandable. If Greenpeace cannot stop biotechnology here by convincing our farmers to reject it, the group can only resort to blocking it through our courts.

Greenpeace has been waging war against the adoption of these chemical pesticide-free crop varieties in the country based on an agenda that the local science and food production sectors are still trying to decipher.

Our scientists have been bludgeoned by local Greenpeace operatives in their efforts to help our farmers shift to biotech crop varieties which are naturally resistant to pests.

Greenpeace’s goal is obvious: farmers must not see the safety and advantages of biotech crops with their own eyes. Depriving our farmers the access to these crop varieties is crucial.

This is because the biotech crops themselves are perhaps the best weapon against Greenpeace’s propaganda campaigns.

After all, our farmers are not the kind who can be convinced merely by hysterical propaganda.

They require evidence. Greenpeace is now using our courts to make sure our farmers do not get their hands on the best evidence that would prove the group’s propaganda lines do not stand on solid ground.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.

Life with less oil will end dependence on bad guys

By Noah Smith Bloomberg View

S

AUDI Arabia isn’t the nicest ally to have. The desert kingdom just handed out a sentence of 1,000 lashes to a blogger for running a website devoted to freedom of speech. Not exactly the kind of regime we want to have in our circle of friends, especially once you figure in their financial support for Islamic State and other radical Islamist groups.

But you go to war with the allies you have, not the allies you wish you had. And in the global oil price war against Russia and Iran, Saudi Arabia is the US’s indispensable ally. By continuing to pump the black stuff at an undiminished rate, the Saudis are repeating the trick they pulled in the mid-’80s, allowing oil prices to plunge in response to Western supply increases, thus depriving their rival (Iran) and ours (Russia) of revenue–and, in the process, temporarily tanking the US shale industry.

It would be nice if we could escape this cycle–to say nothing of limiting global carbon emissions. But oil remains the indispensable commodity, without which industrial civilization will be thrown back to the coal age–or worse. So we’re

Where’s the cheap oil dividend?

By Mark Whitehouse

raids and destruction of government-operated research farms planted with biotech crops.

In fact, several Greenpeace operatives, including a few from foreign countries, are reportedly facing criminal charges in a Philippine court in connection with these activities.

Greenpeace, of course, seems to remain unfazed in the face of such legal moves on the part of its victims.

Maybe, its huge coffers have given its operatives the courage to defy local laws. Such financial muscle has enabled the group to hire the most expensive lawyers, anyway.

Despite these, the demand for biotech seeds has sustained its growth.

This shows two things. First, Greenpeace’s scare campaign did not work. Second, farmers trust agriculture scientists more than they do so-called activists.

This also means the efforts of our own agriculture scientists to correct the misrepresentations made

by Greenpeace propagandists about biotechnology have paid off.

In the face of allegations regarding the safety of biotech crops, Filipino scientists led by a former University of the Philippines president rose to the challenge and demolished

the myths planted by Greenpeace propagandists.

It was Dr. Emil Javier who assured Filipinos farmers that biotech crops approved for commercialization are as safe, if not safer, than the traditional varieties. This point was expounded by former Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) head Dr. Kenneth Go. The latter explained that biotech crops go through a long and tedious screening process before they are allowed to be commercially distributed.

The same cannot be said of the traditional varieties. In fact, the traditional crop types are the ones that are sprayed with chemical pesticides. In contrast, biotech crops do not require such spraying because they have built-in abilities to fight insects and pests on their own. This emphasizes the safety aspect of biotech crops.

It looks like the rest of the world also did not take the hysterical propaganda campaign of Greenpeace against biotechnology seriously.

This must be why the size of arable land in the world planted to biotech crops has continued to grow. Based on another media report, the Philippines alone has already planted some 800,000 hectares to the pesticidefree biotech corn variety.

This is an encouraging development since the bigger the size of biotech crop farms become, the size of farms being sprayed with chemical pesticides contracts proportionately.

With the apparent failure of Greenpeace’s propaganda campaign in the Philippines and elsewhere, it looks like the group has is now shifting its political and financial resources to battling our scientists in the courts.

A7

$30.61 (see chart below).

In principle, declining income from the oil sector should be more than offset by the huge “tax break” of lower energy costs. A one-dollarper-gallon decline in the price of

stuck with the Saudis, stuck with Russia and Iran, and stuck with our dependence on a single nonrenewable pollution-generating resource.

But what if we had a real-life Iron Man, to build us magical “arc reactors” and solve our energy needs forever.

Well, we do have the man who inspired the movie version of Tony Stark–Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Musk and Tesla haven’t invented the arc reactor, but they are making rapid incremental improvements to a more down-to- earth technology–the lithiumion battery. Tesla’s planned “gigafactories” in Nevada and (possibly) New York will harness economies of scale to an unprecedented degree, building on improvements that have slashed batterybased energy storage costs during the past two decades.

Just to give you an idea of how fast battery costs have declined, here is a chart (via futurist Ramez Naam) showing how the amount of energy that can be stored in lithium-ion batteries per $100 rose from 1991 to 2005: That data is from a 2009 study by Duke University. Nor did storage efficiency stop after 2005; according to Naam, the cost of electric-car batteries declined by 40 percent from 2010 to 2013. The Tesla

gigafactories are projected to drive costs down at an even faster rate.

These declines, unlike the recent 50-percent drop in oil prices, are not temporary. They are driven by increasing demand, which spurs technological progress–not by reduced demand, which lowers the oil price. In the case of oil, new technologies such as fracking allow us to get more oil, but always at a higher cost than before–in the case of batteries, technology just keeps getting better and better.

A 2011 McKinsey & Co. analysis reported that battery prices would have to drop by about three-quarters to make electric cars cost-competitive at gas prices of $2.50 per gallon. But that was four years ago, and battery prices have continued falling. We could see costcompetitive electric cars taking over the road in as little as a decade. That’s how fast the cost trend is moving.

Of course, that will require extensive modifications to our transportationenergy infrastructure–we’ll need to replace gas stations with charging stations.

That’s why Iron Man – er, Elon Musk – has decided to allow other companies to use Tesla’s patented technology free of charge. When other car companies get in on the electric-car game–such as

General Motors, which just announced a new electric car, the Chevy Bolt–the incentive increases to build more electric-charging infrastructure. The more charging infrastructure gets built, the more incentive there is for consumers to buy electric cars, and so forth–a classic case of a network effect.

Electric cars won’t free humanity from the need for oil. We also use oil for making plastics and other products, and for heating. Heating oil will eventually be supplanted by solar power, of course, for which Musk’s batteries will also come in handy (bye bye, utility industry!). And we use oil for jet fuel, which can’t easily be replaced with batteries.

But ground transportation still makes up the bulk of our oil use. So when batteries advance to the point where oil is no longer used for cars and trucks, the Saudis, Russians and Iranians will find themselves selling what is suddenly a niche product. And simultaneously, the US, Japan, Europe and other energy importers will find themselves free from the yo-yo of global oil prices.

In other words, it’s less than two decades until we are free from the yoke of the petrostates and their nasty, backward regimes. Go Iron Man!…Um, I mean, Elon Musk.

gasoline, for example, gives US consumers about an added $130 billion per year to spend on other stuff. So far, though, there isn’t much evidence that they’re taking the money to the mall. Over the three months through

December, retail sales excluding gas stations rose at an annualized rate of 4.3 percent, slower than the 5-year average of 5.4 percent (see chart below).

To be sure, it’s early days, and

saving rather than spending the oil windfall can improve consumers’ financial health in the longer term. Still, there’s no guarantee cheaper oil will help the US achieve economic liftoff.

2nd Front Page BusinessMirror

A8 Tuesday, January 20, 2015

LGUs want ₧9.7-B farm roads funded

by PRDP

By Cai U. Ordinario

L

ocal government units (LGUs) are pushing for the approval of P9.7billion farm-to-market roads, with the funding from the World Bank-assisted Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

The DA said these farm-to-market roads are part of the 195 projects worth P11.02 billion proposed under the I-BUILD, or the PRDP’s infrastructure development component.

The P9.7-billion funding will go to the construction and rehabilitation of 1,121 kilometers of farm-to-market roads being pushed by different LGUs. The DA has also received a number of proposals for other PRDP subprojects, called the I-PLAN, which is the planning component of the project, and I-Reap, the enterprise component in the first year of the PRDP’s implementation from July 2014 to June 2015.

For the I-PLAN, the DA has already engaged 66 provinces, out of the total 80 in the country as of December 2014. Of the 66 provinces, around 29 have Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) approved by the Provincial Development Council of each LGU involved.

As for the I-REAP, the subproject has a current portfolio of 31 projects worth P361.84 million. These projects include market assistance, capability-building, technology development, and production and post-harvest support, among others.

The PRDP subcomponents, I-Build, I-PLAN and I-Reap have received a total of P11.382 billion worth of proposals from LGUs. “The amount covers rural infrastructure projects, and marketing and technical assistance for rural agriproducers, processors and traders proposed by LGUs during DAPRDP’s Year 1 implementation, which can still increase in the coming months,” the DA said.

The Philippine government and the World Bank signed the PRDP’s P27.5-billion loan-and-grant agreement on September 8, 2014. The agreement was declared effective and ready for loan drawdowns in December 2014.

Cheaper oil giving central banks room to lower rates

S

By Bianca Cuaresma

harply, lower oil prices have flipped the outlook on monetary policy across Asian central banks, including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), as regulators now favor a more accommodative bias rather than a tighter stance this year, an international banking giant said.

But the BSP said that, while it was true that significantly lower oil prices have given them room to ease the monetary levers, policy planners must be careful in weighing a rate cut on account of such other critical factors, such as the expect-

ed normalization of monetary policy in the US. “Falling inflation is pressuring some central banks to cut rates and giving others the headroom to do so,” DBS Bank said.

DBS said most of Asia’s falling inflation appears to be due to

lower fuel prices resulting from the 60-percent drop in crude-oil prices since June 2014.

“For the region overall, headline inflation has fallen by roughly one-third over the past six months to a high 2-percent rate from the high 3-percent pace that it ran at for most of the past three years,” the bank said, noting that the Philippines’s inflation was down 30 percent to 35 percent from last year’s rate, similar to that of South Korea’s.

Overall, DBS Bank sees policy rates dropping in the region by a net 63 basis points by end-2015.

However, for the Philippines, the monetary board seems to be looking at only maintaining policy rates, instead of cutting them this year.

In a separate interview, BSP Deputy Governor for the Monetary Stability Sector Diwa Guinigundo said the monetary

board must exercise caution in considering a rate cut this year.

“Well, we have to be very careful. We have to be very careful in terms of monetarypolicy stance. While it is true that inflation can trend downwards. You have to weigh this relative to the expected tightening of US monetary policy,” Guinigundo said.

“Once there is a severe reaction to the US tightening, some cross-border outflows can ensue and that will influence the demand for dollars—that is the issue there. One can argue that has gone down. Still, you have to be very circumspect in looking at the future direction of volatile policy,” he added.

“But, admittedly, the decline in oil prices gives us more room for flexibility,” Guinigundo said.

The monetary board will meet for the first time this year on February 12.

Filipinos ‘well-behaved’ during Pope Francis’s visit Continued from A1

Among those arrested include Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Agent Sonnyboy Annonat, who violated the outstanding prohibition on the carrying of firearms in papal-visit venues and travel routes. Police found a 9-mm handgun in Annonat’s possession when he was frisked along President Quirino Avenue in Paco, Manila, on Saturday.

Anonnat reportedly tried to cross a traffic barricade onboard a motorcycle when he was stopped. He also failed to present a Permit to Carry Firearms Outside Residence (PTCFOR) for the gun.

In a separate incident in Manila on Saturday morning, a photographer was arrested for violating the no-fly-zone policy by flying an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in airspace over Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

Police arrested Michael Sy Yu of Snap Creative Inc. for flying a UAV without a Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines operator’s certificate. Yu was accosted while flying the

UAV in the vicinity of Diamond Hotel, where 85 Vatican-accredited journalists and 36 Vatican bishops were billeted. Also on Saturday, security personnel of SM Araneta Center apprehended Liu Allen Tiensung Cheng for allegedly shoplifting assorted candies worth P450.53.

From 4 a.m. on Saturday to 4 a.m. on Sunday, the National Capital Region Police Office recorded two injured victims in separate incidents of hit and run in Quezon City; a grenade explosion in Navotas City; six separate cases of stolen motorcycles; a shooting incident and a stabbing incident. Pope Francis left the Philippines on Monday morning.

Thousands of Filipinos lined Manila’s roads to bid farewell to Francis at the end of a five-day trip, in which he denounced corruption and pleaded for compassion and aid for the poor and needy.

The pope stood in an Isuzu D-Max popemobile waving at the crowds en route to the Villamor air base, where he boarded a plane for Rome. The visit to Asia’s most Catholic country was his second trip to the region, considered a growth area

for a faith in the decline on its Europe heartland.

He drew about 6 million people on Sunday to a mass in central Manila’s Rizal Park, topping the crowd that turned out for Pope John Paul II 20 years ago. Many people wore plastic raincoats, spilling onto main roads and chanting “Papa Francisco, we love you.”

The Argentine pontiff used the trip to preach a message of compassion and justice, while upholding the conservative doctrines of the Church.

From the halls of the presidential palace to the streets of storm-battered Tacloban and Palo in Leyte province, Francis also pitched for a wider participation of women in society, care of the environment and the shunning of corruption.

Filipinos are called to be outstanding missionaries of the faith in Asia,” Francis said during the two-hour mass. He called on people in the Philippines to “work together, protecting one another, beginning with your families and communities, in building a world of justice, integrity and peace.”

With a report from Bloomberg News

Oil. . . Continued from A1 resource analyst at Fat Prophets.

The Opec, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil, agreed to maintain its production target at 30 million barrels a day at a November 27 meeting in Vienna. The group is wagering that US shale drillers will be the first to curb output as prices drop, echoing a strategy played out by the largest miners.

“The current prices are not sustainable,” Suhail Al Mazrouei, energy minister of Opecmember the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on January 14 in Abu Dhabi. “Not for us, but for the others.”

Iron-ore pain

Iron-ore producers, who predicted a swift exit by higher cost suppliers as their commodity entered a bear market last March, were caught

Jollibee. . . Continued from A1

franchised-owned and company-owned stores. Jollibee is also exploring ways to grow its business in the US, which will have to go beyond the traditional market of serving for the taste of overseas Filipinos.

On the other hand, its Chinese efforts will be devoted to the expansion of Dunkin’ Donuts. The company recently bagged the master franchise for the brand.

As part of its agreement with Dunkin’, a unit of the company will develop the American doughnut brand in territories, such as Hong Kong, Macau, Fujian, Hunan, Jianxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Guanxi, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shangxi, Chongqing, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Heilongjiang and Jilin.

The company said the joint-venture

out as curbs to global output proved slower than anticipated, Nev Power, the CEO of Australian iron-ore producer Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., said in October.

Coal exporters, too, kept increasing supply as prices slid. Global output rose about 3 percent between 2011 and 2013 as prices declined, according to World Coal Association data. In Australia, the biggest exporter of metallurgical coal, production is forecast to rise again in the year to July, according to the nation’s government.

“Oil will have more similarities to both thermal and metallurgical coal,” Melbourne-based Morgan Stanley analyst Joel Crane said over the phone. “Those prices have been weakening for more than three years now, yet, we’ve seen very little in terms of shutdowns.”

Slow implementation of cuts to production

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Drilon moves to speed up Nlex-SCTEx integration

By Recto Mercene

T

he Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) and the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) have until February 12 to come to terms on the integration of the North Luzon and SubicClark-Tarlac expressways (Nlex and SCTEx) to prevent the inconveniences being experienced by commuters from happening again, especially during peak seasons.

Senate President Franklin M. Drilon set the deadline when he met with the officials of the Department of Transportation and Communications, BCDA, MPTC, Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) and Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) early this week to address the issues concerning the implementation of the integration plan for Nlex and SCTEx, which has been pending for years.

Present at the meeting were Transportation Undersecretary Jose Lotilla, Ramoncito Fernandez of MPTC, Rodrigo Franco of MNTC, Arnel Casanova of BCDA and Robert Suansing of TRB. Drilon said he directed the officials to fasttrack the implementation of the integration plan, starting with the signing of the integration agreement scheduled on February 12 at the Office of the Senate President.

“To expedite the process, the TRB will simultaneously monitor and review the tollcollection systems integration agreement to make sure it will be in conformity with the policy of the government,” Drilon said.

The integration, Drilon explained, will simplify the toll-collection system and lessen the number of toll-collection plazas. “ The integration of the Nlex and SCTEx toll systems will benefit commuters, especially in saving travel time and fuel, and increasing convenience for those driving through the tollways,” the Senate chief said.

“The current setup is too complex and stands improvement. We cannot understand why we have to make five stops going to Subic and four stops going to Tarlac only to pay toll, when we can make things better and simpler by simply allowing commuters to pay their fares in full in only one toll plaza,” he said.

means coal prices probably won’t recover until 2016, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The price of iron ore, down 47 percent last year, will remain low through 2016, amid supply additions from Australia and Brazil. UBS AG expects the global iron-ore surplus to jump about sixfold to more than 200 million tons by 2018.

For the oil sector, “The lesson is that there’s more oversupply to come,” Crane said. “People are going to crank out more to sell for a lower price and keep that revenue up.”

US crude output surged to 9.19 million barrels a day in the week to January 9, the fastest pace in weekly records dating back to January 1983. That’s amid a global-supply surplus estimated by the UAE and Qatar at 2 million barrels a day. Bloomberg News

company it set up to operate the chain has committed to invest up to $300 million, some $180 million of which will be spent by Jollibee in proportion to its 60-percent ownership, while the rest will come from its partner Jasmine Asset Holding Ltd. This is not the first time that the fastfood giant entered the doughnut market.

Jollibee previously had a doughnut business in the Philippines, under Donut Magic Phils. Inc., but the brand did not take off.

Incidentally, the brand is famous in the Indian subcontinent.

Jollibee’s net income rose in the third quarter of 2014 to P1.2 billion, a 15-percent increase from the previous year, as both its domestic and international operations con-

tinued to grow.

The company said its operating income grew 16 percent to P1.41 billion, as revenues increased by 11 percent to P22.05 billion.

Its third-quarter figures bring its income for the three quarters of the year to P3.71 billion, some 18 percent higher than last year’s P3.14 billion.

As of September Jollibee has 2,849 stores, the bulk of which are still in the Philippines, and the rest are in several countries.

In China it has a total of 399 stores of different brands that cater to local tastes, such as Yonghe King, Hongzuangyuan and San Pin Wang, while, in the US, it has 83 stores, most of which cater to the Filipino community and using brands, such as Jollibee, Chowking and Red Ribbon.